Provided are thermally insulating components that include sealed joints between the walls that define an insulating space therebetween. Also provided are related methods of forming and using the disclosed components.

A method for material lifetime evaluation includes: causing a stress to be applied to a material surface of a component based at least on a cycle of load properties over time; causing an image of the material surface to be captured as a captured image of a complete in-situ field; determining an area of a hysteresis of a stable surface strain region in a stress-strain curve of the material surface to determine a loss energy (first damage parameter) for low cycle fatigue modeling; determining a deformation energy (second damage parameter) for high cycle fatigue monitoring; determining a failure parameter based on at least one of the first damage parameter and the second damage parameter; comparing the failure parameter to a record in a database; and determining a remaining life of the component based on comparison of the failure parameter to the record in the database.

A rheometer has rotary rheometer and a linear DM(T)A analysis unit. A measuring shaft of the rotary rheometer carries a measuring part that faces a measuring part carried on an adjusting rod of the linear analysis unit. The sample under test is placed in a measuring gap between the measuring parts. The DM(T)A analysis unit has a linear motor, in particular magnetically operated, with a stator and a slider, and a magnetically-operated gravitational compensation unit, by way of which it is possible to compensate for the weight force of the adjusting rod, the measuring part on the adjusting rod, the slider, and any optional the components fastened to the slider.

An example flexible substrate testing system includes: a first substrate support structure configured to hold a first portion of a flexible substrate under test; a second substrate support structure configured to hold a second portion of the flexible substrate; one or more actuators configured to move the first and second substrate support structures at respective angles to fold the flexible substrate; and load cells configured to measure loads on the first substrate support structure and the second substrate support structure while the actuator moves the first substrate support structure and the second substrate support structure.

The present invention relates to a corrosion-fatigue-coupled test method and device for a steel bridge deck. The method includes: 1) installing an orthotropic steel bridge deck (OSBD) and pasting filter paper; 2) installing a sodium chloride solution delivery pipe; 3) installing an infrared (IR) lamp; 4) preparing a corrosive solution; 5) coupling corrosion and fatigue; and 6) acquiring test data. A device constructed by using the method includes a to-be-tested OSBD, a support device, a pressure pump, a water tank, a monitoring device, an IR lamp, a plastic water pipe, a thermostat and a rotary sprayer. The present invention solves the problem of laboratory accelerated corrosion of the OSBD. The present invention fully considers a coupling effect of a corrosive medium and an alternating stress, so that the created simulation environment is close to a service environment of the OSBD, and the test data are effective and reliable.

A device for measuring strength and strain softening parameters of a saturated clay sample based on full-flow penetration belongs to the technical field of geotechnical, geological and environmental research. The device mainly comprises two parts: an overlying pressure loading system and a full-flow penetration system. The present invention mainly aims at the problem of incomplete backflow of the soil in the measurement of soil strength and strain softening parameters with a full-flow penetrometer for saturated clay, and applies the working principle of a traditional consolidometer to vertically pressurize a soil sample to ensure the backflow of the soil, thereby improving the applicability of the full-flow penetrometer in the measurement aspect of the soil strength and the strain softening parameters and having important practical value for test research and marine engineering design.

An impact testing machine is configured. The impact testing machine includes: a testing machine body that applies a load having a prescribed speed to a test piece and conducts a test; a controller that controls the testing machine body; a video camera that photographs the test piece; and a pulse generator. The controller includes: a detection signal capturing unit that captures a detection signal of the load in a prescribed measurement sampling period; and a synchronizing signal output unit that outputs a sampling synchronizing signal that is synchronized with the measurement sampling period. The pulse generator includes: a photographing instruction signal generator that generates a photographing instruction signal by multiplying or dividing the sampling synchronizing signal, and outputs the photographing instruction signal to the video camera. The photographing instruction signal issues a photographing instruction to the video camera.

A method of performing an automated non-destructive examination of a composite structure includes identifying surface damage on the composite structure, coupling an automated tap tester device to a surface of the composite structure at a location of the surface damage, and performing, with the automated tap tester device, a plurality of tapping impacts on the surface within a testing area that encapsulates the surface damage. The method also includes receiving a plurality of acoustic signals associated with the plurality of tapping impacts, modeling sub-surface damage associated with the surface damage based on an analysis of the plurality of acoustic signals.

A device for measuring strength and strain softening parameters of a saturated clay sample based on full-flow penetration belongs to the technical field of geotechnical, geological and environmental research. The device mainly comprises two parts: an overlying pressure loading system and a full-flow penetration system. The present invention mainly aims at the problem of incomplete backflow of the soil in the measurement of soil strength and strain softening parameters with a full-flow penetrometer for saturated clay, and applies the working principle of a traditional consolidometer to vertically pressurize a soil sample to ensure the backflow of the soil, thereby improving the applicability of the full-flow penetrometer in the measurement aspect of the soil strength and the strain softening parameters and having important practical value for test research and marine engineering design.

A rotary fatigue tester with complex loads includes a pump, a first motor, a second motor, a circulatory loop, an experimental kettle body, and a holding device. The experimental kettle body is a cylindrical tank, the circulatory loop is located on the experimental kettle body, a pump is located within the circulatory loop and is connected with a corrosive gas pipeline; the holding device is located within the experimental kettle body for fixing a test piece, a force-bearing pole is located at one side of the experimental kettle body for applying a shear force to the test piece, the holding device and the force-bearing pole are connected with the first motor and the second motor respectively. The rotary fatigue tester is able to simultaneously apply the axial alternating load and tangential alternating load to the test piece, for simulating the force of the test piece under complex loads.