Detecting microscopic defects in aged thermoplastic using thermoelastic technique
An experimental investigation into the thermoelastic technique applied on a thermoplastic material is presented. The TSA response in PEEK polymer after it has been exposed to methane at elevated temperatures was used to establish whether microscopic defects in the PEEK material can be detected using thermoelastic measurement. Utilising a combination of high resolution lenses and sensitivity of the detectors, the TSA method was able to detect and sizing of surface damage. The size of the defect was approximately 300 μm. However the subsurface damage was untraceable by the technique.
Detecting sub-surface cracking in laminated membranes using infrared imaging
This paper presents a new experimental method that utilizes the thermoelastic effect to detect sub-surface cracks in a laminated polymer membrane. A highly accurate infrared camera is used to measure the thermoelastic and dissipational heat signatures associated with bi-axial fatigue loading of membranes. Changes in these thermal signatures arise whenever cracks form in any layer of the laminate, including fully embedded layers, thereby providing a novel method for experimentally measuring the initiation and growth of damage in sub-surface layers. The proposed method is illustrated using a model 3-layer system of EVOH sandwiched between two polyurethane layers. Bi-axial fatigue loading was used to initiate cracking in the central EVOH layer without damaging the outer polyurethane layers. Cracking in the central layer resulted in a distinct thermal signature that was plainly visible using the proposed method.
Letting Women in? Gender Mainstreaming in Regional Policies
Gender mainstreaming has over the last ten years become the dominant strategy of integrating gender issues in public policy. This article presents regional policy as a broad and increasingly important policy field to study, and analyses gender mainstreaming in this policy field in the Norwegian and the Swedish contexts. How do problem representations surrounding “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” produce meanings of gender as well as construct possibilities for change? The article shows that, despite some differences between the two countries, gender mainstreaming in regional policy can to a large extent be read as meaning “women”. Women are in this context given a narrow subject position and are constructed as lacking what it takes to produce sustainable regional growth. The concluding discussion highlights the relations between the implementation of gender mainstreaming and neo‐liberal political trends.