Using lithography-based microfluidic technology, we produce monodisperse single-core microcapsules with UV-cured TPGDA (triprophylene glycol diacrylate) shells. We show that the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of the microcapsules can be predicted on a quantitative basis and tuned by varying the flow conditions. Shell thicknesses are varied by changing the flow rates of the inner or intermediate phases, according to mass conservation constraint. Off-centering of the core with respect to the shell is controlled by varying the shell phase viscosity. The mechanical properties of the capsules can be varied by changing the flow conditions and are quantitatively predicted by a numerical simulation. The simulation moreover provides a correct qualitative description of their rupture. As a whole, the work carried out in the present paper shows, on a quantitative basis, that microfluidic technology allows to finely control the geometrical and mechanical properties of microcapsules generated on chip. The level of control we reach here is not accessible, by far, to conventional technologies. Combined with parallelization, the present work opens routes toward the production of novel families of monodisperse microcapsules with tunable properties.

This paper is dedicated to the comparison of several numerical models for estimating the lifetime in a fatigue experiment. The models simulate the SPLASH experiment, which produces thermal fatigue by locally quenching stainless steel specimens. All models predict first a stabilized mechanical state (plastic shakedown) and then a lifetime prediction using several fatigue crack initiation criteria. The numerical methods are either completely nonlinear or combine approximate elastic solutions obtained from minimizing a potential energy or closed form solutions with a Neuber or Zarka technique to estimate directly the elastoplastic state. The fatigue criteria used are Manson, dissipated energy and dissipated energy combined with a hydrostatic pressure term. The latter had provided a best prediction over a series of anisothermal and isothermal LCF experiments in a classical fatigue analysis. The analysis shows that for fatigue criteria taking into account the triaxiality of the mechanical response we obtain a systematic and conservative error. As a consequence of this work, we show that simplified models can be used for lifetime prediction. Moreover the paper provides a general technique to asses from the point of view of the design engineer the combination between a numerical method and a fatigue criterion.

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