A review of non-destructive testing techniques for the in-situ investigation of fretting fatigue cracks

© 2020 The Authors Fretting fatigue can significantly reduce the life of components, leading to unexpected in-service failures. This phenomenon has been studied for over a century, with significant progress being made during the past decade. There are various methods that have been used to study fretting fatigue cracks in order to gain a greater understanding of the effects of fretting fatigue. Destructive methods are traditionally used to observe fretting fatigue cracks. Although useful in determining crack location, crack length, crack propagation modes, crack path and shape, it is not efficient or reliable for time based measurements. Non-destructive testing has developed in recent years and now in-situ monitoring can be used during testing in order to increase the understanding of fretting fatigue. This paper presents a review of non-destructive testing techniques used in-situ during fretting fatigue testing, which are compared in order to conclude the suitability of each technique. Recent developments in non-destructive techniques that could be also applied for fretting fatigue tests are also discussed, as well as recommendations for future research made

Virtual actors that can perform scripts and improvise roles

This paper describes work in progress on the Humanoid 2 ESPRIT project, in which we are integrating the human figure animation software described in (Magnenat Thalmann & Thalmann 1995) with the agent technology described in (Wavish & Graham 1996) in order to produce virtual actors for films, games and virtual reality worlds. In this paper we focus on how the actors perform scripts and improvise role-related behaviour. Our approach to creating believable characters is modelled on how characters are portrayed by human actors during a theatrical performance. The character played by the actor is originally specified in the script. The actor’s purpose is to perform the script as skilfully as it can in order to portray the character. Our actors are constructed internally as societies of simple situated agents, where each agent corresponds to a skill or to a role. Skills are task oriented behaviours of an individual actor, whereas roles provide a means for the actor to engage in routine social interactions. 1

Trade opportunities beckon in Asia. by Ian Wavish

Japan's extraordinary performance since the war in creating a financially and industrially dynamic economy, second to none on the world scene, has provided a 'role' model for other Asian countries in setting their own ambitious growth targets