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This study aims to address the issues of limited pipe diameter adaptability and low inspection efficiency of current pipeline inspection robots, a new type of pipeline inspection robot capable of adapting to various pipe diameters was designed.

The diameter-changing mechanism uses a multilink elastic telescopic structure consisting of telescopic rods, connecting rods and wheel frames, driven by a single motor with a helical drive scheme. A geometric model of the position relationships of the hinge points was established based on the two extreme positions of the diameter-changing mechanism.

A pipeline inspection robot was designed using a simple linkage agency, which significantly reduced the weight of the robot and enhanced its adaptive pipe diameter ability. The analysis determined that the robot could accommodate pipe diameters ranging from 332 mm to 438 mm. A static equilibrium equation was established for the robot in the hovering state, and the minimum pressing force of the wheels against the pipe wall was determined to be 36.68 N. After experimental testing, the robots could successfully pass a height of 15 mm, demonstrating the good obstacle capacity of the robot.

This paper explores and proposes a new type of multilink elastic telescopic variable diameter pipeline inspection robot, which has the characteristics of strong adaptability and flexible operation, which makes it more competitive in the field of pipeline inspection robots and has great potential market value.

The robot is characterized by the innovative design of a multilink elastic telescopic structure and the use of a single motor to drive the wheel for spiral motion. On the basis of reducing the weight of the robot, it has good pipeline adaptability, climbing ability and obstacle-crossing ability.

Although crowdsourcing has gained significant attention and is being used by numerous companies to develop new products and solve practical issues, the performance of crowdsourcing is not optimistic. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated risk profile of crowdsourcing and investigate the relationships among different types of risks and those between risks and performance in crowdsourcing.

Based on the quantitative data collected from 136 crowdsourcing participants in China, two dimensions (i.e. social system and technical system risks) and five sub-dimensions (i.e. crowdsourcer, relationship, crowdsourcee, complexity, and requirement) of crowdsourcing risks are developed and validated. A theoretical model that integrates crowdsourcing risks and performance is developed. The technique of partial least squares is employed to assess the measurement model and test the hypotheses.

The empirical evidence determines the positive association of social system risks with technical system risks, which in turn negatively affect crowdsourcing performance. Specifically, relationship risk is positively affected by crowdsourcer and crowdsourcee risks, and these risks positively affect requirement and complexity risks. However, requirement and complexity risks negatively affect crowdsourcing performance.

This study explores the interrelationship between various risks and the relationship between risk and performance in the context of crowdsourcing by integrating risk-based view with socio-technical theory. Systematic but different risk mitigation strategies should be designed in crowdsourcing to manage risks and enhance performance.

The traction behaviours of lubricating oil significantly affect the stability and lubrication regime of aviation high-speed ball bearings. Rolling elements will slide at a low traction force (TF). Therefore, traction behaviours need to be studied, and a fitting expression for traction curves to rapidly calculate the traction coefficient (TC) should be developed.

The traction behaviours of an aviation lubricating oil were studied in severe operating conditions with a self-designed two-disc testing rig. Based on the least squares method and the Levenberg–Marquardt theory, a rapid calculation expression was developed by fitting the obtained traction curves. The correction of this expression was experimentally verified by comparing the TCs under different operating conditions. This expression was also used to modify the commonly accepted quasi-dynamic model of rolling bearings.

An increase of the load led to an increase in the TC. In comparison, the temperature and entrainment speed showed inverse effects. The proposed expression exactly predicted the trend of the experimentally acquired traction curve. The calculation with the modified dynamic model showed that the action of the TF on a single rolling element varied and that the temperature increase of the outer raceway is higher than the inner raceway, which is caused by the TF and relative sliding speed between the elements and raceways.

The proposed fitting expression is able to simplify the TC calculation of synthetic aviation lubricating oil in practical engineering applications. This paper can provide an important reference for the traction behaviour of synthetic aviation lubricating oil under severe conditions and assist with its rapid calculation and practical application in engineering.

Continuous annealing (CA) units usually lack a physical shapemeter; consequently, real-time display and closed-loop control of the strip shape are impossible to achieve.

A shape model for the CA process is established in this study. Specifically, a virtual shapemeter and closed-loop control system based on the advanced parameter acquisition system and information transmission of CA units are developed in C++ programming language. This system realises real-time dynamic shape display, closed-loop control and shape prediction by collecting raw data of steel coils and parameters during CA.

Field test results show that the shape predicted by the virtual shapemeter coincides with the measured shape by over 90 per cent, which fully meets the precision requirement of industrial applications.

Moreover, shape quality is effectively improved without increasing hardware investments.

This study aims to improve the maneuverability and stability of four-wheel chassis in a small paddy field; a front axle swing steering four-wheel chassis with optimal steering is designed.

When turning, the front inner wheel stops and the rear inner wheel is in the following state. The hydraulic drive system of the walking wheel adopts a driving mode in which two front-wheel motors are connected in series and two rear wheel motors in parallel. The chassis uses a combination of a gasoline engine with a water cooling system, a CVT continuously variable transmission and a hydraulic drive system to increase the control capability. The front axle rotary chassis adopts a step-less variable speed engine and a hydraulic control system to solve the hydraulic stability of the chassis in uphill and downhill conditions so as to effectively control the over-speed of the wheel-side drive motors. Through the quadratic orthogonal rotation combination design test, the mathematical models of uphill and downhill front-wheel pressures and test factors are established.

The results show that the chassis stability is optimal when the back pressure is 0.5 MPa, and the rotating slope is 4°. The uphill and downhill pressures of the front wheels are 2.38 MPa and 1.5 MPa, respectively.

The influence of external changes on the pressure of hydraulic motors is studied through experiments, which lays the foundation for further research.

Laser cladding has been used in the field of repairing damaged parts of machine tools due to its advantages of less processing restrictions and easy formation of a good metallurgical bond with the base material. However, the mechanical properties of the coating sometimes cannot meet the process requirements. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to prepare coatings with high microhardness and flexural strength.

The YCF102 alloy powder was mixed with different contents of Co and tested for laser cladding on AISI 1045 substrate under the same process parameters. The main phase composition of the coating was revealed by the XRD results. The main chemical composition of the coating was determined by the SEM and EDS results. In addition, the effect of Co content on the microstructure, microhardness and flexural strength of the coatings was investigated.

The results show that when the Co content is 2 wt% and 4 wt%, Co does not form compounds with other elements, but is uniformly distributed in the coating. And when the Co content is 6 wt% and 8 wt%, the Co reacts with Fe in the coating and generates Co₃Fe₇ in situ. The increase in Co did not result in a monotonic change in microhardness, but significantly improved the flexural strength and the flatness of the microstructure of the coating. When the Co content of the mixed powder is 8 wt%, the coating has high microhardness and flexural strength.

Co/YCF102 composite coating with high microhardness and flexural strength was prepared. This paper provides a theoretical and practical basis for research in the area of repairing damaged parts of machine tools by laser cladding.

This paper aims to propose a method for finding the maximum rotational speed of an inclined turntable at which the stability of the bearing oil film is maintained.

The finite difference method was used to solve the Reynolds equation. Variation of bearing capacity of a tilted hydrostatic turret over time was determined. The combined effect of tilt and rotational speed of the turret on the oil film stability was also analyzed.

When the turntable is operated at low speeds with only small angle of tilt, stability of the oil film is maintained. At lower rotational speeds, a smaller angle of tilt improves the bearing capacity and ensures stability of the oil film. Whereas, higher rotational speeds can have a considerable influence on the bearing capacity.

The results demonstrate that the inclination or tilt of the turntable significantly affects the stability of the oil film.

The purpose of this study is to improve the surface electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance of AISI430 stainless steel (430 SS) as bipolar plates for direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC).

The niobium diffusion layers have been successfully synthesized on 430 SS substrate by the plasma surface diffusion alloying technique under different diffusion alloying time.

The surface morphology of Nb-modified 430 SS prepared under the diffusion alloying time of 2 h is more homogeneous, relatively sleek and compact without surface micropore and other common surface blemishes. The potentiostatic and potentiodynamic polarization measurements manifest that Nb-modified 430 SS prepared under the diffusion alloying time of 2 h enormously ameliorate the corrosion resistance of bare 430 SS compared with other Nb-modified 430 SS samples and its corrosion current density is maintained at −1.4 µA cm⁻² in simulated anodic environment of DFAFC (0.05 M H₂SO₄ + 2 ppm HF + 10 M formic acid at 50 °C).

The effect of diffusion alloying time on the corrosion resistance and surface conductivity of Nb-modified 430 SS has been carefully studied. The Nb-modified 430 SS samples prepared at the diffusion alloying time of 2 h have the best surface electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance in the simulated anodic environment of DFAFC.

Accurate presentation of the rock microstructure is critical to the grain-scale analysis of rock deformation and failure in numerical modelling. 3D granite microstructure modelling has only been used in limited studies with the mineral pattern often remaining poorly constructed. In this study, the authors developed a new approach for generating 2D and 3D granite microstructure models from a 2D image by combining a heterogeneous material reconstruction method (simulated annealing method) with Voronoi tessellation.

More specifically, the stochastic information in the 2D image is first extracted using the two-point correlation function (TPCF). Then an initial 2D or 3D Voronoi diagram with a random distribution of the minerals is generated and optimised using a simulated annealing method until the corresponding TPCF is consistent with that in the 2D image. The generated microstructure model accurately inherits the stochastic information (e.g. volume fraction and mineral pattern) from the 2D image. Lastly, the authors compared the topological characteristics and mechanical properties of the 2D and 3D reconstructed microstructure models with the model obtained by direct mapping from the 2D image of a real rock sample.

The good agreements between the mapped and reconstructed models indicate the accuracy of the reconstructed microstructure models on topological characteristics and mechanical properties.

The newly developed reconstruction method successfully transfers the mineral pattern from a granite sample into the 2D and 3D Voronoi-based microstructure models ready for use in grain-scale modelling.

Based on the error analysis, the authors proposed a new kind of high accuracy boundary element method (BEM) (HABEM), and for the large-scale problems, the fast algorithm, such as adaptive cross approximation (ACA) with generalized minimal residual (GMRES) is introduced to develop the high performance BEM (HPBEM). It is found that for slender beams, the stress analysis using iterative solver GMRES will difficult to converge. For the analysis of slender beams and thin structures, to enhance the efficiency of GMRES solver becomes a key problem in the development of the HPBEM. The purpose of this paper is study on the preconditioning method to solve this convergence problem, and it is started from the 2D BE analysis of slender beams.

The conventional sparse approximate inverse (SAI) based on adjacent nodes is modified to that based on adjacent nodes along the boundary line. In addition, the authors proposed a dual node variable merging (DNVM) preprocessing for slender thin-plate beams. As benchmark problems, the pure bending of thin-plate beam and the local stress analysis (LSA) of real thin-plate cantilever beam are applied to verify the effect of these two preconditioning method.

For the LSA of real thin-plate cantilever beams, as GMRES (m) without preconditioning applied, it is difficult to converge provided the length to height ratio greater than 50. Even with the preconditioner SAI or DNVM, it is also difficult to obtain the converged results. For the slender real beams, the iteration of GMRES (m) with SAI or DNVM stopped at wrong deformation state, and the computation failed. By changing zero initial solution to the analytical displacement solution of conventional beam theory, GMRES (m) with SAI or DNVM will not be stopped at wrong deformation state, but the stress error is still difficult to converge. However, by GMRES (m) combined with both SAI and DNVM preconditioning, the computation efficiency enhanced significantly.

This paper presents two preconditioners: DNVM and a modified SAI based on adjacent nodes along the boundary line of slender thin-plate beam. In the LSA, by using GMRES (m) combined with both DNVM and SAI, the computation efficiency enhanced significantly. It provides a reference for the further development of the 3D HPBEM in the LSA of real beam, plate and shell structures.