No abstract

Thermoplastics hold utmost importance in the day-to-day life of modern-day society, being widely employed in water transport and storage vessels commonly made from thermoplastics such as PVC, i.e., polyvinyl chloride, and PP, i.e., polypropylene. This urge for a joining technique is applicable even with water in the vessel or the submerged case. The present investigation explores ultrasonic welding as an option to weld thermoplastics in water-submerged conditions. We have performed FEM simulations and experimental validation to prove the viability of the proposed ultrasonic welding process used in welding PVC and PP in water-submerged conditions. The discussed results demonstrate a decrease in melting and degradation of adherend material at the weld interface while welding PVC and PP in water-submerged conditions and attaining 65.78% and 107% of weld strength, unlike their open-air counterparts, respectively.

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are specially designed composite materials that gradually change their material properties. This distinctive property of materials comes with new challenges in the design and manufacturing sector. For such challenges, the best options are material property computation and material modelling using different computational materials science (CMS) algorithms. This review paper provides enriched information on CMS with an overview of the available FGM production techniques with a detailed study of FGM use in biomedical applications based on the available literature over the past couple of decades.