In this study, heparin-mimicking hydrogel thin films are covalently attached onto poly(ether sulfone) membrane surfaces to improve anticoagulant property. The hydrogel films display honeycomb-like porous structure with well controlled thickness and show long-term stability. After immobilizing the hydrogel films, the membranes show excellent anticoagulant property confirmed by the activated partial thromboplastin time values exceeding 600 s. Meanwhile, the thrombin time values increase from 20 to 61 s as the sodium allysulfonate proportions increase from 0 to 80 mol%. In vitro investigations of protein adsorption and blood-related complement activation also confirm that the membranes exhibit super-anticoagulant property. Furthermore, gentamycin sulfate is loaded into the hydrogel films, and the released drug shows significant inhibition toward E. coli bacteria. It is believed that the surface attached heparin-mimicking hydrogel thin films may show high potential for the applications in various biological fields, such as blood contacting materials and drug loading materials.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the mechanical responses and critical failure mechanisms of notched composite laminates with the aid of numerical and experimental approaches, considering the effect of notch geometry, notch size and off-axis angle. Quasi-static tensile tests are implemented to study the influence of design variables on the mechanical response, during which the relationship of force vs displacement and strain distributions are collected by means of digital image correlation technique. Subsequently, the numerical simulation is implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit through a progressive damage model integrated with a VUMAT subroutine. Meanwhile, the initiation and propagation of damage are explored through the damage morphologies, combining with the logarithmic strain components from numerical predictions. Results show that notch strength and failure strain are more closely associated with off-axis angle and notch size compared with notch geometry. In addition, with the increase of off-axis angle, the contribution of fiber is increasingly weakened, the damage mode gradually varies from fiber fracture to pull out accompanied with the damage near the notch changing from fiber fracture to delamination. Meanwhile, the critical failure mechanism varies from tension dominated to tension-shear/ shear dominated as the off-axis angle grows larger. K E Y W O R D S composite laminates, digital image correlation, failure mechanism, notch strength 1 | INTRODUCTION Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminate has been increasingly applied in light of its outstanding performance and superior damage tolerance. Compared with traditional materials, it has many typical advantages, such as high specific strength and stiffness, [1-3] improved impact and fatigue resistance, [4-6] perfect corrosion resistance and moistureproof ability, [7] and so forth. During the application, in addition to the complicated loading conditions, the unavoidable notches for mechanical connections also pose a risk to the load-bearing capacity and service life. In addition, notch geometry and notch size are usually diversified to facilitate the connection of structural components, which significantly diminishes the mechanical properties and further complicates the exploration of mechanical behaviors. Furthermore, due to the anisotropy, brittleness, heterogeneity, and obvious difference between the interlaminar and intralaminar property, damage patterns, and failure mechanisms of composites also present complexity and diversity. [8]

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Purpose Carbon fibre-reinforced composite materials offer superior mechanical properties and lower weight than conventional metal products. However, relatively, little is known about the environmental impacts and economic costs associated with composite products displacing conventional metal products. The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated life cycle assessment and life cycle costing framework for composite materials in the aviation industry. Methods An integrated life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) framework has been developed. The displacement of a conventional aluminium door for an aircraft by a composite door is presented as an example of the use of this framework. A graphical visualisation tool is proposed to model the integrated environmental and economic performances of this displacement. LCA and LCC models for composite applications are developed accordingly. The environmental hotspots are identified, and the sensitivity of the environmental impact results to the different composite waste treatment routes is performed. Subsequently, the research suggests a learning curve to analyse the unit price for competitive mass production. Sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation have been applied to demonstrate the cost result changes caused by data uncertainty. Results Energy consumption was the hotspot, and the choice of composite waste treatment routes had a negligible effect on the LCA outcomes. Concerning the costs, the most significant cost contribution for the unit door production was labour. The future door production cost was decreased by about 29% based on the learning curve theory. The uncertainties associated with the variables could lead to variations in the production cost of up to about 16%. The comparison between the two doors shows that the composite door had higher potential environmental impacts and cost compared to the conventional aluminium door during the production stage. However, the composite door would have better environmental and financial performance if a weight reduction of 47% was achieved in future designs. Conclusions The proposed framework and relevant analysis models were applied through a case study in the aerospace industry, creating a site-specific database for the community to support material selection and product development. The graphical tool was proved to be useful in representing a graphical visualisation comparison based on the integration of the LCA and LCC results of potential modifications to the composite door against the reference door, providing understandable information to the decision-makers.

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History matching of million-cell reservoir models still remains an outstanding challenge for the industry. This paper presents a hierarchical multi-scale approach to history matching high resolution dual porosity reservoir models using a combination of evolutionary algorithm and streamline method. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated through application to a high pressure high temperature (HPHT) fractured gas reservoir in the Tarim basin, China with wells located at an average depth of 7500 meters. Our proposed multi-scale history matching approach consists of two-stages: global and local. For the global stage, we calibrate coarse-scale static and dynamic parameters using an evolutionary algorithm. The global calibration uses coarse-scale simulations and applies regional multipliers to match RFT data, well bottom hole pressures, and field average pressure. For the local stage, we calibrate fracture permeability using streamline based sensitivities to further match well bottom-hole pressures. The streamlines are derived from the fracture cell fluxes and the sensitivities are analytically computed for highly compressible flow. The sensitivities are validated by comparison with the pertubation method. The proposed hierarchical multiscale history matching workflow is applied to a faulted and highly fractured deep gas reservoir in the Tarim basin, China. The excessive well cost arising from the large well depth (7500 meters) and high pressure (18000 psi) necessitates optimal field development with limited number of wells. The fracture properties of dual porosity model are upscaled from a highly dense discrete fracture network model generated based on well data and seismic attributes. The history matching includes RFT data, static pressure data and flowing bottom-hole pressure data in producing wells. Field average pressure and RFT (static pressure) data were well matched during the global stage using coarse scale models while flowing bottom-hole pressure is further matched during the local stage calibration using fine scale models. Streamline method has been applied previously mainly to incompressible or slightly compressible flow. However in this application, the results show that the modified streamline-based sensitivity can also significantly reduce data misfit for highly compressible flow. The history matched models are used to visualize well drainage volumes using streamlines. The well drainage volumes in conjunction with static reservoir properties are used to define a ‘depletion capacity map’ which is then used for optimal infill well placement. The novelty of our approach lies in the application of streamlines derived from dual porosity finite-difference simulation to facilitate history matching and well placement optimization in a tight gas reservoir. The newly developed streamline-based analytical sensitivities are suitable for highly compressible flow. To our knowledge, this is the first time streamlines have been used to facilitate history matching and optimal well placement for gas reservoirs.