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Advances in Materials Mechanics and

Manufacturing II Proceedings of the


Third International Conference on
Advanced Materials Mechanics and 1st
Edition Mounir Ben Amar
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Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Mounir Ben Amar ·


Anas Bouguecha · Elhem Ghorbel ·
Aberrahim El Mahi · Fakher Chaari ·
Mohamed Haddar Editors

Advances in
Materials,
Mechanics and
Manufacturing II
Proceedings of the Third International
Conference on Advanced Materials,
Mechanics and Manufacturing
(A3M’2021), March 25–27, 2021
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering

Series Editors
Francisco Cavas-Martínez, Departamento de Estructuras, Universidad Politécnica
de Cartagena, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain
Fakher Chaari, National School of Engineers, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
Francesca di Mare, Institute of Energy Technology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum,
Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Francesco Gherardini, Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università di Modena e Reggio
Emilia, Modena, Italy
Mohamed Haddar, National School of Engineers of Sfax (ENIS), Sfax, Tunisia
Vitalii Ivanov, Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Machines and Tools,
Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine
Young W. Kwon, Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Aerospace
Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science, Monterey, CA,
USA
Justyna Trojanowska, Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, Poland
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering (LNME) publishes the latest develop-
ments in Mechanical Engineering—quickly, informally and with high quality.
Original research reported in proceedings and post-proceedings represents the core of
LNME. Volumes published in LNME embrace all aspects, subfields and new
challenges of mechanical engineering. Topics in the series include:
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To submit a proposal or request further information, please contact the Springer
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11236


Mounir Ben Amar Anas Bouguecha
• •

Elhem Ghorbel Aberrahim El Mahi


• •

Fakher Chaari Mohamed Haddar


Editors

Advances in Materials,
Mechanics
and Manufacturing II
Proceedings of the Third International
Conference on Advanced Materials,
Mechanics and Manufacturing (A3M’2021),
March 25–27, 2021

123
Editors
Mounir Ben Amar Anas Bouguecha
Université Paris 13 National Engineering School of Gafsa
Laboratoire LSPM-CNRS Gafsa, Tunisia
VILLETANEUSE, France
Aberrahim El Mahi
Elhem Ghorbel Acoustics Laboratory of Mans University
Voie Mail Gay-Lussac le Mans cedex, France
Laboratoire L2MGC, Cergy-Pontoise Univer
Paris, France Mohamed Haddar
National School of Engineers of Sfax
Fakher Chaari Sfax, Tunisia
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National School of Engineers of Sfax
Sfax, Tunisia

ISSN 2195-4356 ISSN 2195-4364 (electronic)


Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering
ISBN 978-3-030-84957-3 ISBN 978-3-030-84958-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84958-0
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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Preface

The International Conference on Advanced Materials Mechanics and


Manufacturing, A3M, is a scientific event series organized by the Laboratory of
Mechanics, Modeling and Manufacturing (LA2MP) within the National School of
Engineers of Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax (Tunisia).
The main aim of this international conference is indeed to bring together aca-
demic and industrial researchers acting in the field of mechanical engineering
through the world to share their knowledge, to build new relationships and col-
laborations and also to offer new opportunities susceptible to create new innovative
research projects.
This event took place in its third edition, March 25 and 26, 2021, and firstly in
digital-online format, because of the difficult current circumstances due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The A3M brings out a large round-up of different topics in the field of
mechanical engineering, among others, such as:
– Material behavior: modeling and characterization
– Numerical Simulation
– Contact mechanics and tribology
– Metal forming technologies
– New Materials
The A3M offers a timely snapshot on the presented current research works that
have seen a considerable evolution and brought a lot of new scientific knowledge in
the last years. This book gathers 44 chapters that was presented during the con-
ference which passed rigorous peer-reviewed process.
The organizers would like to express our gratitude to the researchers and sci-
entists who take part in this international event as scientific committee members,
keynote lecturers and oral session speakers, as well as to everybody who has

v
vi Preface

contributed to the success of this conference with special mention to Springer for
his continuous support.

Mounir Ben Amar


March 2021 Anas Bouguecha
Elhem Ghorbel
Aberrahim El Mahi
Fakher Chaari
Mohamed Haddar
About the Conference

The Third International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration (ICAV’2020) was


organized by the Tunisian Association of Industrial Acoustics and Vibration
(ATAVI), March 15 and 16, 2021. This conference was initially scheduled in
March 2020 and postponed to 2021 due COVID-19 pandemic situation. After two
successful editions in 2016 and 2018 with proceedings published under Applied
Condition Monitoring (ACM) book series, ICAV conference series continue to
promote high-level contributions in the fields of acoustics and vibrations in order to
promote communication and collaboration between international and local com-
munities. Plenary sessions were presented by eminent scientists who kindly agreed
to share their knowledge in the field of acoustics and vibration. The organizers
of the conference were honored by their presences with very interesting keynotes.
Namely:
– Prof. Weidong Zhu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
Maryland, USA.
– Prof. Philippus Heyns, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Department,
University of Pretoria, South Africa.
– Prof. Pierre-Olivier Mattei, Deputy Director of Mechanical and Acoustics
Laboratory (LMA), CNRS,Marseille, France.
– Prof. Abdelkhalek Elhami, Mechanical Engineering Department, National
Institute of Applied Sciences in Rouen (INSA de Rouen), France.
– Prof. Mabrouk Bentahar, Roberval Laboratory, University of Technology of
Compiegne, France.
– Professor Abderahim Elmahi, Laboratory of Acoustics, University of Lemans,
France.
– Prof. Jean Yves Choley, Research Director at Supmeca, Groupe ISAE, Paris,
France.
This book contains 31 chapters selected from the presented papers by eminent
scientists which were rigorously peer reviewed. During the two days of the con-
gress, about 80 attendees discussed several topics such as:

vii
viii About the Conference

– Structural and machines dynamics and vibrations,


– Fault diagnosis and prognosis,
– Nonlinear dynamics,
– Vibration control of mechatronic systems,
– Fluid-structure interaction and computational vibro-acoustics,
– Vibration field measurements,
– Material behavior in dynamics.
A lot of thanks are addressed to the organizing committee, program committee
and all participants from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, France, China
and Saudi Arabia. We would like to also thank Springer for continuous support of
ICAV conference series.

Nabih Feki
March 2021 Mohamed Slim Abbes
Mohamed Taktak
Mohamed Amine Ben Souf
Fakher Chaari
Mohamed Haddar
Contents

Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread


with Insufficient Engagement Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Hela Soussi, Anis Swissi, and Abdelkader Krichen
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional
Mortars by Utilization of Dried Waste Marble Slurry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Mohammad Rafi Rafi, Safiullah Omary, Elhem Ghorbel,
and Amanullah Faqiri
Experimental Analysis of the Crushing of Auxetic Structure
Under Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Khawla Essassi, Jean-luc Rebiere, Abderrahim El Mahi,
Mohamed Amine Ben Souf, Anas Bouguecha, and Mohamed Haddar
System Level Specification and Multi-agent Simulation of
Manufacturing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Khalil Aloui, Amir Guizani, Moncef Hammadi, Thierry Soriano,
and Mohamed Haddar
On the Visco-Hyperelasticity Relationship in Modeling Styrene
Butadiene Rubber Under Uniaxial Cyclic Loadings: Experiments
and Parameter Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Amina Dinari, Hamza A. Ghulman, and Tarek BenAmeur
Analysis of the Wells Turbine Structure of an Oscillating Water
Column Wave Energy System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Mohamed Ali Jemni, Hamdi Hentati, Sawsan Elmbarki,
and Mohamed Salah Abid
A Two-Stage Approach to Solve Structural Damage Detection
Problem in Plate Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Kamel Belhadj, Najeh Ben Guedria, Ali Helali, and Chokri Bouraoui

ix
x Contents

Experimental Analysis of the Dynamic Behavior of a Sandwich


with a Bio-Based Auxetic Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
A. Hamrouni, J. L. Rebiere, A. El Mahi, M. Beyaoui, and M. Haddar
Numerical Analysis of Entropy Generation Inside the Diesel Injector . . 83
Fraj Echouchene and Hafedh Belmabrouk
Assessment of Surface Integrity and Dust While Drilling
of GLARE® FMLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Imed Boughdiri, Tarek Mabrouki, Redouane Zitoune, and Khaled Giasin
An Adaptative Differential Evolution Algorithm for Vibration Level
Reduction in Rotordynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Ibrahim Mlaouhi, Najeh Ben Guedria, and Chokri Bouraoui
Nano-heat Transfer in GAAFET Transistor Using Single-Phase-
Lag Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Maissa Belkhiria, Fraj Echouchene, and Nejeh Jaba
Hydrodynamics Flow in an Exocentric Input Dome T-Mixer (DTM) . . . 123
Fatma Ben Baha Spiridigliozzi, Slim Bouaziz, Mohamed Haddar,
Mounir Ben Amar, and Jean-Philippe Passarello
3D Simulation of Two Stages Solar Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Ons Ghriss, Abdallah Bouabidi, Zied Driss, and Mohamed Salah Abid
A New Approach to Evaluate and Predict System Obsolescence:
Mathematical Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Imen Trabelsi, Maher Barkallah, Marc Zolghadri, Besma Zeddini,
and Mohamed Haddar
Transient Response of Functionally Graded Porous Plate . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Souhir Zghal, Sourour Trabelsi, and Fakhreddine Dammak
Water Aging Effect on the Vibration Behavior of the Bio-Based
Flax/PLA Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Zeineb Kesentini, Abderrahim El Mahi, Jean Luc Rebiere,
Rachid El Guerjouma, Moez Beyaoui, and Mohamed Haddar
An Anisotropic Model with Linear Perturbation Technique to Predict
HCP Sheet Metal Ductility Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Mohamed Yassine Jedidi, Mohamed Ben Bettaieb, Farid Abed-Meraim,
Mohamed Taoufik Khabou, Anas Bouguecha, and Mohamed Haddar
Effect of Air-Gas Blend and Compression Ratio on Piston Behavior
for Hydrogen-Enriched LPG Engine; Numerical Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Sahar Hadjkacem, Mohamed Ali Jemni, Hamdi Hentati, Zied Driss,
and Mohamed Salah Abid
Contents xi

Dynamic Modeling of Differential Bevel Gear with


Uncertain-but-Bounded Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Wassim Lafi, Fathi Djmal, Ali Akrout, Lassad Walha,
and Mohamed Haddar
Analysis of Geometrically Nonlinear Responses of Smart FG
Cylindrical Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
H. Mallek, H. Mellouli, and F. Dammak
Finite Rotation RPIM Formulation for Geometrically Nonlinear
Analysis of FG-CNTRC Shell Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
H. Mellouli, H. Mallek, M. Wali, and F. Dammak
Numerical Investigation on Incremental Forming Process
of an Elastoplastic Functionally Graded Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
A. Bouhamed, J. Mars, H. Jrad, M. Wali, and F. Dammak
Simulation of the Effects of Heat Introduced During Combustion
on SI Engine Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Mohamed Brayek, Mohamed Ali Jemni, Amara Ibraim, Ali Damak,
Zied Driss, and Mohamed Salah Abid
Fracture Toughness Resistance and Mechanical Tensile Properties
of Cold Rolled CuZn30 Brass Alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Wafa Taktak and Raidh Elleuch
Manufacturing of Sandwich Structure with Recycled Flax/Elium
Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Sami Allagui, Abderrahim El Mahi, Jean-luc Rebiere, Moez Beyaoui,
Anas Bouguecha, and Mohamed Haddar
Thermal Performance Comparison of Various Concentrating Solar
Water Heating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Monia Chaabane, Hatem Mhiri, and Philippe Bournot
The Pre-strain Impact on Tensile Properties and Fracture Toughness
of AA5754-H111 Aluminum Alloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Wafa Taktak and Riadh Elleuch
Disassembly Sequence Optimization for Profit and Energy
Consumption Using Petri Nets and Particle Swarm Optimization . . . . . 267
Syrine Bouazza, Hichem Hassine, Maher Barkallah, Saïd Amari,
and Mohamed Haddar
Numerical Model for Intake System in SI Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Mohamed Brayek, Mohamed Ali Jemni, Ali Damak, Amara Ibraim,
Zied Driss, and Mohamed Salah Abid
xii Contents

Optimization of the Electrical Energy Consumed by a Machine Tool


for a Coupled and Uncoupled Cutting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Anoire Ben Jdidia, Taissir Hentati, Hichem Hassine,
Mohamed Taoufik Khabou, and Mohamed Haddar
Quasi-static Study of Gear Mesh Stiffness of a Polymer-Metallic Spur
Gear System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Ala Eddin Chakroun, Chaima Hammami, Ahmed Hammami,
Ana De-Juan, Fakher Chaari, Alfonso Fernandez, Fernando Viadero,
and Mohamed Haddar
Combined Approach for Modeling Progressive Damage
in Unidirectional CFRP Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
B. Salem, A. Mkaddem, S. Rubaiee, A. S. Bin Mahfouz, A. Al-Zahrani,
and A. Jarraya
Impact of Venturi Shape on Performance of Solar Chimney
Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Haythem Nasraoui, Abdallah Bouabidi, Zied Driss, and Hedi Kchaou
Parametric Analysis of Steel Cutting Using Johnson
and Cook Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Nouha Kamoun, Nabih Feki, Hamdi Hentati, and Mohamed Haddar
Experimental Study and Measurement of Vehicle Interior Vibration . . . 333
Hichem Hassine, Hadil Chaeib, Maher Barkallah, Jamel Louati,
and Mohamed Haddar
Design Discussion of a Mobile and Intelligent Infrared Detector for the
Measurement of the Air Quality Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Mohamed Abdessamia Chakchouk, Abdelkhalek El Hami, Wajih Gafsi,
and Mohammed Haddar
Electro-Thermomechanical Modelling of a BGA Assembly Subjected
to a Damaging Displacement and to Random Vibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Sinda Ghenam, Abdelkhalak Elhami, Ali Akrout, Wajih Gafsi,
and Mohamed Haddar
Predicting of Particle Exhaust-Emissions from Urban Road Traffic
Using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Ines Belkacem, Ali Helali, Salah Khardi, and Khalifa Slimi
Thermo-hydraulic Study of an Air/R22 Tubular Evaporator:
Application of the Superposition Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Lazhar Ayed
Aluminum Alloy Chips Regeneration by Sintering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Ameny Ketata, Awatef Guidara, Anas Bouguecha, Jamel Bouaziz,
and Mohamed Haddar
Contents xiii

Numerical Study of Elastic Properties of Porosity Controlled Flax/PP


Nonwoven Composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Hajer Hadiji, Wajdi Zouari, Mustapha Assarar, Bassem Zouari,
Floran Pierre, Karim Behlouli, and Rezak Ayad
Analysis of Geometrically Necessary Dislocations Density
in the Vicinity of Grain Boundaries by Atomic Force Microscope
Topography for 316L Austenetic Stainless Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Ayda Majoul, Ghiath Monnet, and Charlie Kahloun
Studies on Elastic Properties of Recycled Concrete by
Micromechanical Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
D. Fellah, S. Barboura, T. Tilmatine, J. Li, M. S. Kachi, and Y. Bouafia

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435


Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate
Load Capacity of Nut Thread
with Insufficient Engagement Length

Hela Soussi(B) , Anis Swissi, and Abdelkader Krichen

Unit of Mechanical and Materials Production Engineering (UGPMM), UR17ES43,


National Engineering School of Sfax, University of Sfax, B.P. 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract. The objective of this work is to present an evaluation of


the ultimate load prediction of nut thread with insufficient engagement
length. It is focused on the case of nut with material’s stiffness and
strength lower than that of the screw. Seven available predictions of ulti-
mate load were considered from literature. A pull-out test was carried out
on a threaded connection between a nut thread and a steel screw grade
8.8. The A1050-H14 aluminum alloy sheet with 2 mm thickness was cho-
sen. During the test, the screw was animated with a progressive axial
displacement until the complete destruction of the screw-nut assembly.
The pull-out of the nut thread is generated by transverse shear stress
without interfacial shear stress. The load-displacement relationship was
investigated. The tapped hole morphology after the complete destruc-
tion of the screw-nut assembly was also inspected. The available predic-
tions and the average experimental value of the ultimate load capacity
of threaded connection were compared. This comparison supported the
need for theoretical development that must be specific to the studied
assembly i.e. a screw that is fastened to a nut having lower stiffness and
strength as well as an insufficient engagement length.

Keywords: Nut thread · Ultimate load capacity · Rupture · Pull-out


test

1 Introduction
The ultimate load capacity of threaded connections depends on the strength of
the screw core, the screw thread and the nut thread. As a general design rule for
threaded connections, it is required that the screw will fail before the nut. The
respect of this design rule needs the check of the thread length which is engaged
between the screw and the nut. It is often called thread engagement length and
noted in this paper Le .
In ordinary design, the recommended minimum value of Le is often propor-
tional to the thread pitch. When both screw and nut are made from the same
material, the minimum value of Le is recommended to be equal to 5 (Sacquepey
and Spenlé 1993) or 8 (Duan and Joshi 2011) times the thread pitch. Respecting
c The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
M. Ben Amar et al. (Eds.): A3M 2021, LNME, pp. 1–10, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84958-0_1
2 H. Soussi et al.

this geometrical condition, the part with the internal thread is manufactured
with sufficient Le and the rupture is so appeared in the screw. Therefore, this
involves designed parts with relatively large thicknesses. However, nowadays the
requirement of lightness is more rigorously imposed in the design practice. The
wall of the part is getting thinner and thinner. This thinning trend makes dif-
ficult the satisfaction of the geometrical condition of thread. Therefore, it is
even impossible to satisfy both optimum lightness and recommended minimum
value of Le . Consequently, it is accepted, in some industrial sectors, that parts
could be designed with insufficient thread engagement length, provided that the
requested capacity is respected in complete safety. In the case of insufficient Le
and if both screw and nut are made from the same material, the rupture will
occur in the screw thread. If the material’s strength of the nut is lower than
that of the screw, such as some aluminum structures that are connected with
high-grade steel screws, the rupture will particularly locate at the nut thread.
Thus, it is needed a good control of loading on the nut thread. This later is
often subjected to non-uniform combined loading. The heterogeneity of loading
in the nut thread requires the consideration of an approach to evaluate the max-
imum value of stress. This allows localizing the most stressed point to determine
the location of an eventual rupture at the nut thread. The most stressed point
at the nut thread is characterized by the presence of a transverse shear stress,
which is sometimes assumed predominantly pure and in some cases is considered
as a consequence of thread bending and of a torsional stress generated by the
thread friction torque. By considering various approaches, several relationships
have been proposed to describe the capacity safely or the ultimate load capac-
ity of nut thread. Some approaches are based on a detailed description of the
stress states through the consideration of a volume element in the most stressed
zone of the nut thread (Collins et al. 2009). Others approaches are based on
simplifying assumptions. They frequently introduce a multiplicative correction
coefficient in the expressions used to evaluate the capacity safely and/or the
ultimate load capacity of thread. Generally, the value of this coefficient is empir-
ically proposed as a constant or as a function of thread geometry. A review of
some expressions is presented in the Sect. 2.3 for the case of nut thread. They
were provided from the literature or also from technical documents. For exam-
ple, the approach of Sacquepey and Spenlé (1993) assumes a pure transverse
shear while neglecting the effects of both thread bending and interfacial shear
stress generated at the thread flanks. Either for this approach, or for others pro-
posed for example by Oberg and Jones (1916) and Shigley (2011), the correction
coefficient is used to estimate an effective area of thread supporting transverse
shear stress. In some cases, this coefficient is given depending on the classes
of screw thread and nut thread (Barrett 1990). Its value depends on the qual-
ity of threads assembly, which can be perfectly mated or mismatched. In some
approaches, this coefficient is occasionally introduced to take into account the
non-uniform distribution of load along the thread. This has been highlighted
by the work of Yamamoto (1980). The author showed that the first portion of
the thread, starting from the interface of the assembled parts, alone supports of
Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread 3

about 34% of the total axial load. Other researchers have proposed to incorporate
some constants, which reflect the effect of several parameters. These parameters
are related to the thread surrounding and/or taken into account the degree of
dissimilarity between the intrinsic properties of the assembled materials (Barron
1998). However, the evaluation of these constants is restricted to the cases of
threaded connections specifically studied by the concerned investigations.
From a practical point of view, the variety of expressions available in the
literature can be considered as an enrichment for predicting the ultimate load
capacity of nut thread. Nevertheless, a significant difference is often noted in
the estimation procedure. Unfortunately, there appears to be no documented
information on the prediction of the ultimate load capacity of nut thread with
insufficient Le and dissimilar stiffness and strength of the nut and screw mate-
rials.
This paper proposes then the investigation of the rupture behavior of nut
thread with insufficient engagement length and material’s stiffness and strength
lower than that of the screw. The average experimental value of the ultimate
load capacity of nut thread was determined from a pull-out test performed on a
threaded connection between A1050-H14 aluminum alloy and a steel screw grade
8.8. Several predictions were considered from different approaches available in
the literature and were compared with the experimental result.

2 Material and Techniques


2.1 Material

The A1050-H14 untreated aluminum alloy was chosen to carry out this study.
It was delivered in the form of a 2 mm sheet. The stress-strain behavior of the
aluminum alloy was characterized by uniaxial tensile test carried out on five
specimens. By taking into account the weak anisotropy of the used material
(Soussi et al. 2016), the tensile tests were limited to the rolling direction. The
two extreme curves of the true stress-true strain relationship are presented in
Fig. 1a. Note that, the portion of the curve after necking is presented in indicative
way. In order to characterize the shear behavior of the aluminum alloy, the shear
test was performed by using a specific device directly connected to a tensile test
machine. The shear direction is along the length of the specimen. The details
of the shear test is particularly described in the work of Thuillier et al. (2009).
A typical shear stress-shear strain curve is illustrated in Fig. 1b. The ultimate
shear strength τm was determined of about 68 MPa. All mechanical properties
of the used material are summarized in Table 1.
4 H. Soussi et al.

140 (a) 70 (b)


120 60

Shear stress (MPa)


True stress (MPa)

100 50
80 40
60 30
Specimen 1
40 Specimen 2 20
20 10
0 0
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
True strain Shear strain

Fig. 1. (a) True stress-true strain and (b) shear stress-shear strain curves of the 2 mm
A1050-H14 aluminum alloy

Table 1. Mechanical properties of the A1050-H14 aluminum alloy

Young’s modulus (E) 68 GPa


Poisson’s ratio (ν) 0.28
Maximum strain at fracture f 0.105–0.144
0.2% proof stress (σy0.2 ) 105 MPa
Ultimate tensile strength (σm ) 120–122 MPa
Ultimate shear strength (τm ) 68 MPa

2.2 Experiments

Cut tapping process was performed on a washer with an external diameter of


20 mm. M8 tap with a pitch P of 1.25 mm was used to manufacture triangular
ISO thread. The thread engagement length Le is then equal to 1.6 times the
thread pitch P . The initial tap hole was utilized without chamfer. It was drilled
by means of a drill bit with a diameter equal to 6.8 mm. The principle scheme
of the thread manufacturing is illustrated in Fig. 2a. To conduct the pull-out
test, a steel screw grade 8.8 was mounted freely with the specimen. An axial
displacement was then applied to the screw using a tension-compression testing
machine (Fig. 2b). The test was carried out until the complete destruction of the
threaded connection. The preparation protocol of the specimens as well as the
details of the experiments were accurately described in the works of Swissi et al.
(2019).

2.3 Analytical Solutions

In order to predict the ultimate load capacity of the nut thread, the maximum
th
load Fmax that the thread can support was determined from various expressions.
The used expressions are summarized in Table 2. Note that, Eq. 1 is used to allow
mismatch between threads. Equation 2 is used when the threads were perfectly
mated. Equation 3 is used in the case of dissimilarity between material properties
Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread 5

(a) (b) Axial displacement


Tap

Screw 8.8

Washer
Specimen

Fig. 2. Device principle scheme of (a) the thread manufacturing and (b) the pull-out
test by applying an axial displacement

of threads. In Eq. 6, C1 describes the thread surrounding and C3 relates the


degree of materials dissimilarity. Equation 7 is developed with pure transverse
shear assumption. It is also noted that these expressions are proposed to respect
the general design rule that the screw will fail before the nut i.e. for the case of
sufficient engagement length. Compared to our study case, Eqs. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6
take into account the dissimilarity between the material properties of threads.

Table 2. Theoretical expressions for the maximum load of nut thread

th
References Expression of Fmax
1
Barrett (1990) τm πd2 Le (1)
3
1
Barrett (1990) τm πd2 Le (2)
2
3
Strang (1970) τm πd2 Le (3)
4
Shigley (2011) 0.88τm πdLe (4)
 
1 (d − D2 ) tan 30
Lee et al. (2011) + τm πdLe (5)
2 P
 
1 (d − D2 ) tan 30
Alexander (1977) C1 C3 + τm πdLe (6)
2 P
Sacquepey and Spenlé (1993) 0.757τm πdLe (7)
d: Basic major diameter, d2 and D2 : Pitch diameters of external and internal
threads, respectively.

3 Results and Discussion


3.1 Specimen After the Pull-Out Test
At the end of the pull-out test, the screw was extracted intact after the assembly
destruction. However, a portion of the nut thread was removed with the screw.
6 H. Soussi et al.

Because of the dissimilarity between the ultimate strength of the screw and the
ultimate strength of the specimen, the rupture was located in the nut thread.
The removed portion took the form of a helical element. Typical examples of the
specimen after the pull-out test and the helical element are presented in Fig. 3.
The same figure illustrates a radial section of the specimen after the pull-out
test. It was obtained by cutting operation, which was radially performed on the
specimen by wire-cut EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining).

A A

A
Helical element
A-A

Radial section of the specimen

Fig. 3. Specimen after the pull-out test

3.2 Load-Displacement Relationship


The practice of the pull-out test on a tension-compression testing machine
resulted to the evolution of the axial load versus the displacement. Typical curves
acquired from two different specimens are illustrated in Fig. 4.

2.5
I II III
2

1.5
Load (kN)

1
Specimen 1
Specimen 2
0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Displacement (mm)

Fig. 4. Typical examples of load-displacement curve

The comparison between both curves shows a good reproducibility. The anal-
ysis of the load-displacement relationship illustrates a shape that remains glob-
ally distinctive. Referring to Fransplass et al. (2013) and Grimsmo et al. (2016),
Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread 7

a similar shape was likewise observed when a rupture occurs at the screw thread.
Recently, Swissi et al. (2019) also found the same shape when testing a steel nut
thread by applying an axial displacement on the screw. These authors presented
an intuitive reading of the kinematics during the test. They were distinguished
three stages: the resistance stage (I), the destruction stage (II) and the extrac-
tion stage (III) of a helical element. These three stages are similarly observed
for our case as shown in Fig. 4. The resistance stage concerns the non-linear
evolution, which is considered as an engagement between the screw thread and
the nut thread. The destruction stage begins with the loss of linearity due to
the plastic strain initiation of nut thread. It involves two peaks of load followed
by two falls. The extraction stage of the helical element is characterized by an
almost regular plateau.

3.3 Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread


In order to analyze the ultimate load capacity of nut thread, the experimental
exp
values of the maximum load Fmax resulted from the pull-out test were considered.
The average value is presented in Fig. 5 in the form of a histogram. To verify the
presence or not of bending phenomenon during the pull-out test, the maximum
displacement δmax of the specimen due to bending was determined based on
the elasticity theory (Eq. 8) referring to Young (2002). It was evaluated equal to
0.0014 mm which is very low compared to the screw displacement. This shows
that the test was performed without bending.
exp
Kr2 Fmax
δ= (8)
Ee3
K: constant related to the specimen geometry (0.0242), r: radius of the initial
tap hole, e: sheet thickness, E: Young’s modulus.
The predicted values of the maximum load, which were determined from the
expressions cited in Table 2 are also superimposed in Fig. 5. These predictions
were evaluated based on the experimental value of the ultimate shear stress τm
determined in the Sect. 2.1. C1 and C3 were evaluated equal to 1 and 0.897,
respectively referring to Alexander (1977). The diameters values d, d2 and D2
were taken equal to 7.84, 7.188 and 7.188 mm, respectively. The comparison
between the experimental and predicted results shows a significant disagreement.
For the majority of cases (Eq. 3–7), the theoretical predictions overestimate the
maximum load and therefore the ultimate load capacity of the nut thread. In
order to quantify this disagreement, the attention was paid on the percentage
error E% between the experimental and predicted results. E% is expressed in
absolute value and given as a percent. It is defined as the difference between
exp
the experimental value of the maximum load Fmax and its theoretical prediction
th
Fmax divided to the experimental one (Eq. 9). The variation of E% is illustrated
in the form of a histogram in Fig. 6.
 exp 
th 
Fmax − Fmax
E% = exp × 100 (9)
Fmax
8 H. Soussi et al.

for the expressions: Eq. 4


3
Eq. 5 and Eq. 6
Eq. 7
2.5 Eq. 3

Maximum Load (kN)


2

Eq. 2
1.5

Eq. 1
1

0.5

0
1.5

Fig. 5. Average experimental value and theoretical predictions of maximum load

60

50
Percentage errort (E%)

40

30

20

10

0
Eq. 1 Eq. 2 Eq. 3 Eq. 4 Eq. 5 Eq. 6 Eq. 7

Fig. 6. Percentage error E% between the experimental and predicted results of maxi-
mum load

It is noted that the maximum value of the percentage error E% reaches


50% by using Eq. 1. If an indicative value of the maximum load is needed for
estimation, Eq. 3 leads to the best prediction with an overestimation of about
12.5%. From a safely aspect, the use of Eq. 2 leads to the best predicted value of
the ultimate load capacity with an underestimation of about 25%. It should be
noted that in the corresponding reference (Barrett 1990), the correction coeffi-
cient value is empirically related to the classes of threads or the dissimilarity of
their material properties.

3.4 Tapped Hole Morphology After the Screw Extraction


In a attempt to perceive the tapped hole morphology after the screw extraction,
the radial section of the specimen was visualized by means of optical macro
photography implemented in 3D measuring machine. The result is illustrated in
Fig. 7. It is observed that a portion of nut thread with partial section is flanged
without rupture. It is also observed that an unbroken portion of nut thread is
slanted in the sense of the screw displacement. The observed slant proves that
an excessive thread bending was occurred during the pull-out test. This means
Prediction Efficiency of the Ultimate Load Capacity of Nut Thread 9

that a portion of thread material remains attached to the tapped hole after the
test. This also indicates that the rupture was located in a zone relatively distant
from the thread root. Therefore, the thread rupture was occurred with a reduced
effective area. In addition, the unbroken portion of the nut thread also exhibited
a non-regular edge. This aspect can be attributed to a non-regular rupture which
combines alternately the propagation of local rupture and crushing the sheared
edge.

Displacement
direcon

Thread root

Slant of the
unbrocken
poron of thread

Flanging of poron
1mm of thread without
rupture

Fig. 7. Tapped hole morphology after the thread destruction showing trace of thread
bending

4 Conclusion
The main context of this work is the investigation of the rupture behavior of
nut thread with insufficient thread engagement length and material’s stiffness
and strength lower than that of the screw. A pull-out test was carried out on
A1050-H14 aluminum nut thread connected with a steel screw grade 8.8 by
applying axial displacement to the screw. The analysis of the load-displacement
relationship permits the identification of three stages of thread rupture behav-
ior: resistance, destruction and helical element extraction. The inspection of the
tapped hole morphology after the assembly destruction exhibits that the thread
rupture is located in a zone relatively distant from the thread root. This rupture
combines alternately the propagation of local rupture and crushing the edge.
Through the quantification of the percentage error E% between the average
experimental value and the theoretical predictions of the maximum load, it is
noted that the use of Eq. 2 leads to the best predicted value of the ultimate load
capacity below which no rupture occurs in the nut thread. In perspective, it
would be better to further develop theoretical expressions or numerical models
to describe the specific cases of threaded connections with dissimilar stiffness
and strength and insufficient engagement length of nut thread.

Acknowledgement. This work is carried out thanks to the support and fund-
ing allocated to the Unit of Mechanical and Materials Production Engineering
(UGPMM/UR17ES43) by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Research. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and sugges-
tions of the reviewers, which have improved the presentation.
10 H. Soussi et al.

References
Alexander, E.M.: Analysis and design of threaded assemblies. SAE Trans. 86, 1838–
1852 (1977)
Barrett, R.T.: Fastener design manual, vol. 1228. NASA, Scientific and Technical Infor-
mation Division (1990)
Barron, J.: Computing the Strength of a Fastener. Marcel Dekker, New York (1998)
Collins, J.A., Busby, H.R., Staab, G.H.: Mechanical Design of Machine Elements and
Machines: A Failure Prevention Perspective. Wiley, New York (2009)
Duan, W., Joshi, S.: Failure analysis of threaded connections in large-scale steel tie rods.
Eng. Fail. Anal. 18(8), 2008–2018 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.
2011.06.002
Fransplass, H., Langseth, M., Hopperstad, O.: Numerical study of the tensile behaviour
of threaded steel fasteners at elevated rates of strain. Int. J. Impact Eng. 54, 19–30
(2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2012.10.009
Grimsmo, E.L., Aalberg, A., Langseth, M., Clausen, A.H.: Failure modes of bolt and
nut assemblies under tensile loading. J. Constr. Steel Res. 126, 15–25 (2016). https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2016.06.023
Lee, Y.L., Barkey, M.E., Kang, H.T.: Metal Fatigue Analysis Handbook: Practical
Problem-Solving Techniques for Computer-Aided Engineering. Elsevier, Amsterdam
(2011)
Oberg, E., Jones, F.D.: Machinery’s Handbook, vol. 1916. Industrial Press, New York
(1916)
Sacquepey, D., Spenlé, D.: Précis de construction mécanique: 3. Calculs, technologie
et normalisation. Nathan (1993)
Shigley, J.E.: Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design. Tata McGraw-Hill Education,
New York (2011)
Soussi, H., Masmoudi, N., Krichen, A.: Analysis of geometrical parameters and occur-
rence of defects in the hole-flanging process on thin sheet metal. J. Mater. Process.
Technol. 234, 228–242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2016.03.027
Strang, A.G.: Handbook H28 1969 screw standards for federal services. PT. 1 Unified
UNJ Unified Miniature Screw Threads. U.S. Government Printing Office (1970)
Swissi, A., Soussi, H., Abid, M., Krichen, A.: Internal and interface shear behaviors of
cut and form tapping thread. Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 105, 3463–3475 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-019-04519-y
Thuillier, S., Manach, P.Y.: Comparison of the work-hardening of metallic sheets using
tensile and shear strain paths. Int. J. Plast. 25(5), 733–751 (2009). https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ijplas.2008.07.002
Yamamoto, A.: The Theory and Computation of Threads Connection, pp. 39–54. Youk-
endo, Tokyo (1980)
Young, W.C., Budynas, R.G., Sadegh, A.M.: Roark’s Formulas for Stress and Strain,
vol. 7. McGraw-Hill, New York (2002)
Cement Reduction and Strength Development
of Conventional Mortars by Utilization of Dried
Waste Marble Slurry

Mohammad Rafi Rafi1,3(B) , Safiullah Omary2 , Elhem Ghorbel1 ,


and Amanullah Faqiri3
1 Department of Civil Engineering, University de Cergy-Pontoise, L2MGC,
95000 Cergy-Pontoise, France
mohammad-rafi.rafi@etu.u-cergy.fr, Elhem.ghorbel@cyu.fr
2 ICube, Department of Civil Engineering, INSA Strasbourg,
University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Safiullah.omary@insa-strasbourg.fr
3 Department of Civil and Industrial Construction, Kabul Polytechnic
University, Kabul, Afghanistan
a.faqiri@Kpu.edu.af

Abstract. Industrial waste, especially the mining sector’s waste, has been nega-
tively treating human life and the ecosystem. This experimental work aims to keep
the environment safe out of waste, produce high - strength mortars and support the
national economy by utilizing dried waste marble slurry (DWMS) collected from
the marble shaping industry in Kabul- Afghanistan. Marble slurry was dried and
grind to very fine powder shape with 90% partials passing through 0,063mm sieve.
Mortars were prepared as a reference and partially cement replacement by DWMS
with (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%) by cement weight. The specific surface area
of DWMS was 3957 cm2 /gr with a density of 3.12 gr/cm2 , while the mentioned
parameters for Afghan ordinary Portland cement named (Ghori) was 3051 cm2 /gr
and 2.997 gr/cm2 , respectively. Mortars’ mixes were tested against workability,
porosity and water absorption, compressive and flexure strengths. The obtained
results indicate that with the use of 15% DWMS dosage instead of cement, the
compressive strength gets increased up to 15.5% compared to reference mortars.
Also, porosity of the mortars’ specimens gradually decreased. The reduction in
the amount of cement for the mortars’ production derive to support the national
economy and protect the environment from waste.

Keywords: Marble slurry · Mortar · Consistency · Compressive strength ·


Flexure strength

1 Introduction
Afghanistan’s mountainous country is located in an area with different geological zones
that consist of various precious rocks. Afghanistan has 60 marble mining of 40 differ-
ent colors and 30 spices. According to the USA survey and geology department, the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022


M. Ben Amar et al. (Eds.): A3M 2021, LNME, pp. 11–21, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84958-0_2
12 M. R. Rafi et al.

worth of Afghanistan’s marble sources is estimated at around 2 billion dollars Min-


istry of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan (2018). The marble mining is running
unprofessionally by unskilled laborers. Beyond that, the lack of advanced machinery and
unprofessional extraction is very regrettable. As a result of producing marble quarries, a
tremendous amount of marble waste generates which is not comparable to international
mining practices. Nearly 70 % of marble stone resource gets wasted due to mining and
polishing processing, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (2008). Leaving
the waste storages to the surroundings or landfills of marble waste due to its highly alka-
line property imposes a high risk of human health and ecosystem challenges Hamza et al.
(2011). Recently many researches have been conducted worldwide on the utilization of
waste marble in the mortars and concrete industry to reduce the overall cost of cementi-
tious structures and manage the waste in scientific manners. Hence the overall quantity
of C2S and C3S, the two crucial components to construct binder in the marble cement,
is 56.23% Khan et al. (2020); therefore, it can be used as the binder. Due to high fine-
ness, marble powder can prove sufficient cohesiveness in mortar and concrete Guneyisi
et al. (2009). The effect of partially cement replacement by marble waste powder with
different dosages (from 0% to 20%) by cement weight on various properties of concrete
was studied by Hafiz et al. (2019), the optimum percentage for replacement of marble
powder with cement, that can increase the concrete strength and play sufficient rule in
concrete was pointed 10% . Similarly, waste marble was utilized as cement replacement
in cement mortars by Vardhan et al. (2015) to explore the mechanical properties and
microstructural analysis of cement mortar; the results indicate that up to 10% of marble
powder can be used as cement replacement with no negative impact on the mechanical
behaviors.
Therefore, this study targeted to improve mortars’ strengths by replacing cement
with marble waste partially, to support Afghanistan’s national economy and contribute
to a lovely and safe environment.

2 Materials

2.1 Cement

Afghan ordinary Portland cement with strength of 250 kg/cm2 is used for all mortar’s
specimens. The particle size distribution by laser granulometry method is illustrated in
Fig. 1 as well as the physical properties and chemical compositions are given in Table 1
and Table 2.

2.2 Marble Powder


Marble industry zone, waste marble slurry (WMS) was collected with 53% water content
and then dried in the oven for 24 h in 100 ± 10 C0 and then grained as a very fine powder.
See Table 1 for the physical properties and Table 2 for chemical compositions.
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional Mortars 13

2.3 Sand
Standard sand 0/2 mm according to the standard NF EN 196-1 (2016), siliceous sand
consisting of rounded particles and has a silica content of at least 98% with relative
density of 2.55 gr/cm3 is used for the mortars’ mixes.

Ghori Cement Waste Marble


100
90
80
70
Passing (%)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Partial Size (μm)
Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of Ghori cement and waste marble

Table 1. Physical properties of cements and Table 2. The chemical composition


marble
Components Chemical
Properties Ghori cement Marble waste composition (%)
Specific gravity 2.984 3.12 Ghori Marble
cement waste
Specific surface 3051 3957
Area (cm2 /gr) SiO2 17.63 2.18
Consistency (%) 24.3 - Al2 O3 4.892 0.53
Initial and final 97 min - Fe2 O3 2.016 0.04
sitting time 180 min - MgO 1.327 3.394
Particle’s size 55 90.5 CaO 63.44 51.21
(%) < 0.063 mm
Na2 O 1.374 0.536
SO3 4.215 0.054

3 Experimental Methodology
Specimens of (40 × 40 × 160) mm with prismatic shape were prepared and caste in
standard molds in line with ASTM C348 and European standard NF P18-427. DWMS
14 M. R. Rafi et al.

as cement replacement by weight with the dosage of (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and
25%) also a ratio of cement to sand 1:3 was prepared, W/B ratio was kept 0.5 for all
specimens.
Conforming to the reference mortar used worldwide in the cement industry EN 197-
1, a conventional mortar is formulated as a reference and incorporating DWMS. The
mortars’ composition proportion is reported in Table 3. Furthermore, a robust device
automatic programmable mortar mixer as shown in Fig. 2 was used to prepare cement
paste and mortars.

Table 3. Mortars’ proportion

Constituents Cement DWMS Sand Water W/B


(g) (g) (g) (g)
0% DWMS 450 0 1350 225 0.5
5% DWMS 427.5 22.5 1350 225 0.5
10% DWMS 405 45 1350 225 0.5
15% DWMS 382.5 67.5 1350 225 0.5
20% DWMS 360 90 1350 225 0.5
25% DWMS 337.5 112.5 1350 225 0.5

Fig. 2. Robust device automatic mixer 65-L0512 model

4 Results and Discussions


To evaluate the effects of DWMP on mortar specimens, various type of tests were per-
formed on both fresh and hardened state of samples. Setting times, flow table tests were
carried out on fresh state of paste and mortars. Moreover, mechanical tests such as com-
pressive and flexure strength also, water absorption, porosity tests were conducted on
all mortar specimen in the hardened state.
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional Mortars 15

4.1 Fresh State

4.1.1 Setting Times


According to the chemistry of cement and concrete Hewlett (2004) the process in which
a ‘fresh’ cement paste of freely flowing or plastic consistency is surrounded into a
set material by losing its unlimited deformation and fall under the reaction of enough
considerable external force. It is accompanied by the ‘hardening’ of the paste in which
the hardness, strength and modulus of elasticity improve until an ultimate value of these
parameters is attained. Initial and final setting times were determined according to NF
EN 196-3 (2009) both initial and final setting get increased as much as the DWMS dosage
increased. This was due to the lack of Si2 O3 in marble waste that plays an essential role
in cement paste hardening. Furthermore, the reason for increment in setting time was to
draw attention as the partial engagement of waste marble that influences the hydration
process Vardhan et al. (2015). The hydration process slows down with increasing content
of WMP leading to increased setting time. With 5% DWMP the setting time did not
change remarkably but as much the dosage goes up the setting times increased rapidly;
for instance, the amount of 25% DWMS instead of cement increase both initial setting
time 84.6% and final setting time 65% see Fig. 3. Similar trend was obtained by Munir
et al. (2017) in setting times when cement was replaced with dried waste marble slurry
as 10, 20, 30, and 40% by cement weight.

Fig. 3. Dried waste marble powder effects on setting times

4.1.2 Flow Table


The flow test of mortars containing different marble waste dosages to modify fresh mortar
consistency, was conducted according to NF EN 1051-3 (1999) standard. Automatic
mortar flow table with 300 mm diameter and conical brass mold with dimensions: top
ø 70 mm × base ø 100 mm × height 60 mm was used and each test was repeated three
16 M. R. Rafi et al.

times and the average of three tests were taken as the flow diameter after 15 table drops
for each test.
Based on the results, it can be set out that with the increase of DWMS content, the
mortar flow decreased as seen in Fig. 4 the flow diameter gradually changes up to 15%,
but after 15% replacement dosage the flow promptly reduced as the maximum reduction
was noticed for 25% DWMS about 14%. This reduction tendency in flow diameter was
stated in research by Ergün (2011) due to the high specific surface area of waste marble
powder. Similarly, the reduction in flow diameter was observed by Seghir et al. (2019),
Munir et al. (2017).

Fig. 4. Fresh mortar’s flow

4.2 Hardened State

4.2.1 Water Absorption and Porosity


Water absorption and porosity tests were carried out based on NF P 18-459 (2010) for all
mortars’ specimens at 24 h of curing and graphically illustrated in Fig. 5, incorporating
waste marble as a function of porosity represents a linear relation. Porosity and water
absorption have decreased gradually with the increase in marble waste incorporation.
For instance, with 25% DWMS the porosity reduced by 39.8%; this performance will be
led to increase packing efficiency that eventually resulted in changing the large form of
pores to a smaller number Silva et al. (2014). Furthermore, due to the smaller particle of
marble powder filler effect stated by Demirel (2010), the porosity decreased effectively;
this positive trend will develop the mortars’ strength and reduce drying shrinkage.

4.2.2 Compressive Strength


The compressive strength of designed mortars was measured through the automatic 3R
(Recherches Realisations Remy) machine. Compressive strength of mortars prepared
with and without (DWMS) was studied at curing ages of 3, 7, 14, and 28 days. Obtained
results are reported in Fig. 6. It was observed that usage of (DWMS) as cement replace-
ment could be used up to 20%, which in this dosage, the compressive strength shows
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional Mortars 17

Fig. 5. Effects of dried waste marble slurry on mortars’ porosity

the same value demonstrated by the reference. The maximum strength was observed
at 15% which the strength increased by 15.5% at 28 days; meanwhile this amount can
be achieved as 12% from Fig. 7 which shows the relation porosity as a function of
compressive strength. Due to disturbance in hydration process in late ages indicated
by Munir et al. (2017), the compressive strength has a sudden drop off at 20% dosage
of marble powder. The variation of compressive strength as seen in Fig. 6; due to the
differences in the chemical composition of both cement and marble waste; there are not
remarkable changes in early ages of 3, 7 and 14 days but the only variation can be notice
in age of 28 days. In comparison, Vardhan et al. (2015) studied mechanical properties
and microstructural analysis of cement mortar incorporating marble powder as partial
replacement of cement. They observed that 10% of waste marble instead of cement can
maintain both good workability and compressive strength, exceeding 10% replacement;
the marble powder can only act as a micro filler which contributes to forming a denser
structure by filling the voids.

4.2.3 Flexural Strength


The flexure test was carried out at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days. The maximum strength was
achieved at 10% DWMS dosage as cement replacement, with an increment of 10.1%
compared to reference mortars. This increase is due to the reduction in porosity compare
to the reference specimen. The optimal dosage of marble waste that indicates the same
strength as the reference mortars was determined as 15% dosage. Beyond 15% dosage the
flexural strength increases gradually. The amount of 25% (WMS) as cement replacement
can reduce the flexure strength by 29.8% at 28 days. Considering the results in Fig. 9,
achieving the flexural strength of the mortars for the age of 3, 7, and 14 days are almost
in the same manner and this trend is very slow. The gradual strength development was
due to the lower amount of C3 A and C2 S (required for hydration process) Singh et al.
(2017). After replacing more than 15% cement with WMP, which requires plenty of time
to complete the hydration process.
Since the porosity is an essential parameter for maintaining concrete’s strength and
durability, Fig. 10 the flexural strength as a function of porosity finally demonstrates that;
18 M. R. Rafi et al.

Fig. 6. The compressive strength of mortars

Fig. 7. Compressive strength as function of porosity

the optimal dosage of waste marble as cement replacement to maintain all parameters
in acceptable manner is indicated as 12.6% by cement weight.

5 Environmental and Economic Aspects

Due to the fact, the cement industry is in charge of a remarkable amount of global carbon
dioxide emissions. To control this phenomenon, civil engineers are trying to reduce the
amount of cement in cementitious structures. Considering Fig. 8 the optimal amount of
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional Mortars 19

Fig. 8. Porosity as function of marble waste

Fig. 9. The flexure strength of mortars

12.6% waste marble as cement replacement in this study, addition to the development of
mortars strength, it can keep surrounding free of waste and reduce the amount of carbon
dioxide emissions. Furthermore, in each ten bags of cement one bag can be saved that
would be a significant achievement to support the national economy.
20 M. R. Rafi et al.

Fig. 10. Flexure strength as function of waste marble

6 Conclusion
Dried waste marble powder could be utilized as a partial alternative binder in cement-
based mortars. The optimal percentage of DWMS as cement replacement was obtained
12.6%, which can develop compressive strength, stabilized the flexure strength, maintain
good workability, and produce cheaper mortars. Moreover, the investigation discloses
that using (DWMS) as cement replacement for better utilization depends on two influ-
ential indicators; the particle size of the waste and the chemical composition. As much
as the particles are smaller and marble’s chemical composition is closer to cement; the
higher replacement dosage could be utilized substitution of cement.

References
Demirel, B.: The effect of the using waste marble dust as fine sand on the mechanical properties of
the concrete. Int. J. Phys. Sci. 5(9), 1372–1380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2006.
11.003
Ergün, A.: Effects of the usage of diatomite and waste marble powder as partial replacement of
cement on the mechanical properties of concrete. Constr. Build. Mater. 25(2), 806–812 (2011).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.07.002
Guneyisi, E., Gesoglu, M., Ozbay, E.: Effects of marble powder and slag on the properties of self
compacting mortars. Mater. Struct. 42, 813–826 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-008-
9426-2
Hafiz, S.S., Malhotra, S., Singh, T.: Experimental analysis of addition of marble waste dust powder
partially replacing cement. Int. Res. J. Eng. Technol. (IRJET) 06(10 Oct), 487–491 (2019)
Hamza, R.A., El-haggar, S., Khedr, S.: Marble and granite waste : characterization and utilization
in concrete bricks. Int. J. Biosci. Biochem. Bioinform. 1(4 Nov), 286–291 (2011). https://doi.
org/10.7763/IJBBB.2011.V1.54.
Hewlett, P.C. (ed.): Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete, 4 edn. Elsevier Ltd., Amsterdam
(2004)
Cement Reduction and Strength Development of Conventional Mortars 21

Khan, M.A., Khan, B., Shahzada, K., Khan, S.W., Wahab, N., Ahmad, M.I.: Conversion of Waste
Marble Powder into a Binding Material. Civil Engineering Journal 6(3), 431–445 (2020)
Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan. National Strategy of Afghanistan Exports:
Marble and Granite Section (2018). http://www.intracen.org/uploadedFiles/intracenorg/Con
tent/Redesign/Projects/AAT/AFG_MainNES_Dari.pdf.
Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Jaipur. Status Report on Commercial Utilization
of Marble Slurry in Rajasthan (2008)
Munir, M.J., Kazmi, S.M.S., Yu-Fei, W.: Efficiency of waste marble powder in controlling alkali –
silica reaction of concrete : a sustainable approach. Constr. Build. Mater. 154, 590–599 (2017).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.002
NF EN 1015-3. Determination of Consistence of Fresh Mortar (by Flow Table). AFNOR (1999)
NF EN 196-1. Méthodes d’essais Des Ciments-Partie1: Détermination Des Résistances. AFNOR
(2016)
NF EN 196-3. Méthodes d’essais Des Ciments - Partie 3 : Détermination Du Temps de Prise et
de La Stabilité. AFNOR (2009)
NF P 18-459. Concrete — Testing Hardened Concrete — Testing Porosity and Density. Cedex-
France: AFNOR (2010)
Seghir, N.T., Mellas, M., Sadowski, Ł, Krolicka, A., Zak, A.: The utilization of waste marble dust
as a cement replacement in air-cured mortar. Sustainability 11(2215), 1–14 (2019)
Silva, D., Gameiro, F., De Brito, J.: Mechanical properties of structural concrete containing fine
aggregates from waste generated by the marble quarrying industry. J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 26, 1–8
(2014). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT
Singh, M., Srivastava, A., Bhunia, D.: An investigation on effect of partial replacement of cement
by waste marble slurry. Constr. Build. Mater. 134, 471–488 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
conbuildmat.2016.12.155
Vardhan, K., Goyal, S., Siddique, R., Singh, M.: Mechanical properties and microstructural anal-
ysis of cement mortar incorporating marble powder as partial replacement of cement. Constr.
Build. Mater. 96, 615–621 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.08.071
Experimental Analysis of the Crushing
of Auxetic Structure Under Compression

Khawla Essassi1,2(B) , Jean-luc Rebiere1 , Abderrahim El Mahi1 ,


Mohamed Amine Ben Souf2 , Anas Bouguecha2 , and Mohamed Haddar2
1 Acoustics Laboratory of Mans University (LAUM), UMR CNRS 6613, Mans University, Av.
O. Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France
{Khawla.Essassi.Etu,Jean-Luc.Rebiere,
abderrahim.elmahi}@univ-lemans.fr
2 Laboratory of Mechanics Modeling and Production (LA2MP), National School of Engineers
of Sfax, University of Sfax, BP N° 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
mohamed.haddar@enis.rnu.tn

Abstract. Auxetic structures are increasingly used in all industrial fields due to
their high mechanical properties. They possess a negative Poisson’s ratio. They
contract laterally when they are subjected to compressive loads and extend when
they are subjected to tensile loads. In this research contribution, an experimental
study of the compression behavior of a re-entrant honeycomb structure is devel-
oped. The material used for the construction of the specimens is a poly-lactic acid
reinforced with flax fibers. It is a biodegradable material and made from renew-
able resources. The specimens were manufactured using 3D printing technique.
The influence of the number of cells and specimen’s height were measured and
discussed. The results present their effect on the compression behavior and the
energy absorption capacity. During compression tests, the cells deform elastically
and collapse under high stress. Then, the cells crush gradually, forming folds on
the cell walls. The densification phase begins when the folds consume the full
height of the structure. The results showed that the number of the cells as well as
specimen’s height play a major role on the mechanical behavior. The compression
modulus and the energy absorption are found to be higher for auxetic structure
with the high number of cells and height.

Keywords: Auxetic structure · Compression behavior · Energy absorption ·


3D-printing · Bio-based material

1 Introduction
Auxetic structures are applied in a wide range of fields, including automotive, marine
and aerospace. These structures present high stiffness-to-weight ratios and high abil-
ity to dissipate energy under compression loading (Ganilova and Low 2018; Mertani
et al. 2019). The re-entrant honeycomb structure enhances the compressive properties
when compared to their conventional counterpart. Hou et al. (2014) studied the flatwise
compression tests of the conventional and auxetic honeycomb sandwich structures. The

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022


M. Ben Amar et al. (Eds.): A3M 2021, LNME, pp. 22–29, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84958-0_3
Experimental Analysis of the Crushing 23

results show that the compressive modulus, the global and the peak compressive stresses
for the auxetic core are 27%, 19% and 16% higher than that with conventional ones,
respectively.
Under a uni-axial compression stress, the honeycomb structure response has a large
and flat constant phase. The energy absorption is high during this stage (Ivanez et al.
2017). Lu et al. (2005) studied the critical compression load of honeycomb structure
analytically using the deflection theory. The equation of compression densification strain
has also been evaluated adopting the relative density of the structure (Wang and Wang
2009). The absorbed energy property of honeycomb structure is determined using the
energy absorption diagram (Wang et al. 2018). Also, finite element methods are largely
used to study the deformation characteristics using computer simulations (Liang et al.
2015; Kadir et al. 2017). Honeycombs with negative Poisson’s ratio (auxetic) can be
made adopting different technique. The most commonly used is the 3D printing process
(Essassi et al. 2020).
Due to the environmental problems, the use of bio-based materials has become the
center of attention of many studies (Cheng et al. 2013). Bio-composites have proven their
ability to meet certain engineering challenges. They are biodegradable, recyclable and
have low cost. Natural fibers are widely used as reinforcement in composite materials
(Faruk et al. 2012). Flax fibers are the most used because of their ability to improve the
strength and stiffness of composite materials (Essassi et al. 2020).
In this context, an auxetic honeycomb has been manufactured using 3D printing
technique. The material is a tape of filament made with poly-lactic acid reinforced with
flax fibers (PFF). The compression properties have been investigated. The effect of the
number of auxetic cells as well as the specimen’s height were tested. The influence of
these parameters on the mechanical behavior and energy absorption capacity is discussed.

2 Materials and Method


2.1 Materials and Manufacturing
Auxetic structures are manufactured using a spool of filament of bio-based material. It is
a poly-lactic acid reinforced with flax fibers (PFF). It is a biodegradable material devoted
to 3D printing technique. The diameter of the filament is 1.75 mm and the volume fraction
of the fiber reinforcement is less than 20%. The density and the Poisson’s ratio of the
material are equal to 1000 kg.m−3 and 0.3, respectively. Figure 1 presents the design of
the unit cell of the auxetic structures. θ is the angle between the inclined walls of the
unit cell and the X direction, equal to −20°. t is the thickness of the unit cell wall, equal
to 0.6 mm. The specimens have a dimension of 50 mm × 25 mm × e. The effect of the
height of the auxetic structure under compression test were measured (e equal to 5, 10
and 15 mm). The width is divided to obtain different cell numbers in width: 1, 2, 3 and
4 cells. Therefore, the lengths of the inclined cell walls l are 13.3, 6.6, 4.4 and 3.3 mm,
respectively. And, the lengths of the vertical cell walls h are 17, 8.5, 5.7 and 4.3 mm,
respectively. The PFF properties are measured using a uni-axial tensile test performed
on 3D printed dog-bone following the ASTM D638 standard. The Young Modulus of
PFF is equal to 2000 MPa.
The cell geometry was created using CAD software. Afterward, 3D printing tech-
nique is used to manufacture the auxetic structures. A parametric study was elaborated
24 K. Essassi et al.

Fig. 1. Design of the unit cell of the auxetic structure

to select printing parameters that allow the stability of the specimens. The temperature
of the extrusion head and building platform is of 210 °C and 55 °C, respectively. The
movement speed of the X-Y motion mechanism was about 100 mm.s−1 . All specimens
are printed using the same direction to avoid the influence of the layer orientation on the
mechanical properties of the material.

2.2 Experimental Setup

Compression tests of the re-entrant honeycomb structure were performed using a stan-
dard INSTRON 8801 hydraulic machine, with a load cell of 100 kN. Figure 2 shows the
experimental setup. The compression tests were carried out according to ASTM C365
under displacement-control mode. The bottom plate is fixed and the top plate is moved
downwards at a constant velocity of 1 mm.min−1 . The displacement of the auxetic struc-
ture in the compression tests is that given by the machine. For each configuration, three
specimens were tested in order to take into account the variability of the experimental
results.

Fig. 2. Setup of the compression test


Experimental Analysis of the Crushing 25

3 Results and Discussion


3.1 Mechanical Responses

Compression tests were accomplished on different shapes of auxetic structure configu-


rations. Figure 3 introduces a typical stress/strain curve of the auxetic behavior under
compression loading. There are three zones which can be distinguished from the pre-
sented results. Initially, a linear elastic domain is noticed. The stress evolves linearly
according to the applied strain, which makes it possible to measure the compression
modulus. A threshold stress is observed at the end of this phase. It corresponds to the
initial stress at break followed by a short phase of load reduction. Later, a second zone is
observed. A constant stress plateau is defined during a significant applied strain interval.
Finally, a third zone at the end of the test is defined. It corresponds to the total crushing
of the structure. The stress increases rapidly in this area, allowing the definition of the
phase of densification.

Fig. 3. Compression behavior of a 5 mm height structure with 1 cell in width

According to the stress/strain curves, the compression modulus can be determined.


The result is shown in Fig. 4. For each configuration, three specimens were tested in order
to take into account the variability of the experimental results. The standard deviation
varies between 2 and 30 MPa. The influence of the number of cells is well noted. The
increase of the number of cells implies the increase of the density of these structures,
hence the improvement of the compression modulus. The increase in the number of cells
affects not only the compression modulus, but also the entire compression response.
Figure 5 shows the effect of the number of cells on the behavior of the auxetic
structure. The fracture stress, plateau stress and stiffness increase with the number of
cells. The effect of the auxetic structure height was also determined and shown in Fig. 6.
It is noticeable that the increase of the structure height increases the stress plate which
is expected. The stress at fracture decreases when the structure height increases. This
can be explained by the ways in which the structures are damaged by compression. By
increasing the length of the cell walls (increasing the height), the intra-cellular vacuum
increases, which induce a low load to ‘collapse’ the material.
26 K. Essassi et al.

Fig. 4. Compression modulus for different auxetic structure configurations

Fig. 5. Compression behavior of a 5 mm height structure with different number of cells in width

Fig. 6. Compression behavior of a structure with 1 cell in width and different height

3.2 Dissipated Energy


The energy absorption capacity of the materials is an important feature for their applica-
tions. From the point of view of energy absorption, the number of cells is an important
parameter. Experimental compression tests make it possible to calculate the quantity
Experimental Analysis of the Crushing 27

of the dissipated energy by the auxetic configurations (several number of cells as well
as heights). The results are presented in Fig. 7. It is clearly seen that the dissipated
energy increases with the number of cells and with the height of the structure. Indeed,
the increase in the number of cells includes the increase in the rigidity of the structure.
This improves its ability to support the crushing effort and thus improves its energy dis-
sipation. Also, increasing the height of the structure serves to increase the stress plateau,
which gives the structure more time before collapsing. Therefore, the choice of the num-
ber of cells as well as the height of the structure must be studied according to the desired
results.

Fig. 7. Evolution of the dissipated energy for different auxetic configurations

3.3 Discussion

In order to discuss the performance of the auxetic structures made with PFF, the experi-
mental results of the maximum applied load are determined and presented in Fig. 8. It is
noticeable that the core with a large number of cells and low height is the one who has the
maximum load. Indeed, for the same height, the increase in the number of printed cells
leads to a decrease in the intra-cellular voids of the structure. During the compression
test, the cells will be crushed. For the structures containing more voids, the crushed cell
walls will find more space to deform. On the other hand, the cells of the other structures
will collapse, which requires more load. Also, the increase of the structure height implies
a decrease in the applied load. This result can be explained by tracking damage in these
structures.
Figure 9 shows the damage process of the auxetic structure with 2 cells in width for
different height. Initially, an elastic buckling of the cell walls is observed until a maximum
stress from which the deformation of the walls becomes plastic. Subsequently, the cells
are gradually crushed by forming folds, this is the phase where the stress becomes
constant. In this phase, the crushed cell walls will be distributed in intra-cellular voids.
The material deforms without increasing the stress until the voids disappear. When the
height of the auxetic structure (length of the cell walls) is small, the intra-cellular voids
are also small. Here, the stress plateau will be low, and the third phase will appear when
28 K. Essassi et al.

Fig. 8. Evolution of the maximum load according to the number of cells for different height

the entire height of the cell walls is consumed by the folds. It is the densification phase.
Consequently, auxetic structures are largely able to deform which favors the dissipation
of the mechanical energy.

Fig. 9. Damage process of auxetic structures with different height: a) 5 mm; b) 10 mm and c)
15 mm

4 Conclusion

The compression properties of a bio-based auxetic structure are studied experimentally.


Structures were made using 3D printing technique. Four different number of cells and
three heights out of PFF were tested under quasi-static compression tests. The mechanical
behavior and the dissipated energy capacity were calculated. It is found that the number
of cells of the auxetic structure has a significant effect on the mechanical properties.
Structures with the high number of cells and the high height dissipates more energy.
Inter-cellular voids as well as the shape of auxetic cells are responsible for this result.
Experimental Analysis of the Crushing 29

References
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cores. Annual Book of ASTM Standards (2003)
Cheng, H.N., Smith, P.B., Gross, R.A.: Green polymer chemistry: a brief review. Greens Polym.
Chem.: Biocatal. Mater. II 1-12 (2013)
Essassi, K., Rebiere, J.L., El Mahi, A., Ben Souf, M.A., Bouguecha, A., Haddar, M.: Experimen-
tal and analytical investigation of the bending behaviour of 3D-printed bio-based sandwich
structures composites with auxetic core under cyclic fatigue tests. Compos. Part A: Appl. Sci.
Manuf. 131, 105775 (2020)
Essassi, K., Rebiere, J.L., El Mahi, A., Ben Souf, M.A., Bouguecha, A., Haddar, M.: Investigation
of the static behavior and failure mechanisms of a 3D printed bio-based sandwich with auxetic
core. Int. J. Appl. Mech. 12(05), 2050051 (2020)
Faruk, O., Bledzki, A.K., Fink, H.P., Sain, M.: Biocomposites reinforced with natural fibers:
2000–2010. Prog. Polym. Sci. 37(11), 1552–1596 (2012)
Ganilova, O.A., Low, J.J.: Application of smart honeycomb structures for automotive passive
safety. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part D: J. Automob. Eng. 232(6), 797–811 (2018)
Hou, Y., Neville, R., Scarpa, F., Remillat, C., Gu, B., Ruzzene, M.: Graded conventional-auxetic
Kirigami sandwich structures: Flatwise compression and edgewise loading. Compos. B Eng.
59, 33–42 (2014)
Ivanez, I., Fernandez-Cañadas, L.M., Sanchez-Saez, S.: Compressive deformation and energy-
absorption capability of aluminium honeycomb core. Compos. Struct. 174, 123–133 (2017)
Kadir, N.A., Aminanda, Y., Dawood, M.S.I.S., Mohktar, H.: Numerical analysis of kraft paper
honeycomb subjected to uniform compression loading. J. Phy.: Conf. Ser. 914, 012004 (2017)
Liang, X., Wang, Y.L., Ding, H.: Finite element analysis of static compression performance of
honeycomb paper-core. Packag. Eng. 36(19), 59–63 (2015)
Lu, L.X., Sun, Y.P., Wang, Z.W.: Critical buckling load of paper honeycomb under out-of-plane
pressure. Packag. Technol. Sci.: Int. J. 18(3), 141–150 (2005)
Mertani, B.M.B., Keskes, B., Tarfaoui, M.: Experimental analysis of the crushing of honeycomb
cores under compression. J. Mater. Eng. Perform. 28(3), 1628–1638 (2019). https://doi.org/10.
1007/s11665-018-3852-2
Wang, D., Bai, Z., Liao, Q.: 3D energy absorption diagram construction of paper honeycomb
sandwich panel. Shock. Vib. 2018, 4067062 (2018)
Wang, D.M., Wang, Z.W.: Evaluation of compressive densification strain of paper honeycombs.
J. Mech. Eng. 45(5), 285–289 (2009)
System Level Specification and Multi-agent
Simulation of Manufacturing Systems

Khalil Aloui1,2(B) , Amir Guizani2 , Moncef Hammadi1 , Thierry Soriano1 ,


and Mohamed Haddar2
1 QUARTZ Lab EA7393 - SUPMECA - 3 rue Fernand Hainaut, 93400 Saint-Ouen, France
{moncef.hammadi,thierry.soriano}@supmeca.fr
2 LA2MP, University of Sfax, Ecole National d’Ingénieurs, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia

mohamed.haddar@enis.rnu.tn

Abstract. Lately, multi-agent systems (MAS) are being exploited to solve emerg-
ing challenges in manufacturing processes that require adaptation, flexibility, and
reconfigurability, which are important advantages over traditional centralized sys-
tems. The understanding, design and testing of such complex systems manufac-
turing processes based on distributed agents, and especially those with personal
properties, is generally a difficult task. Multi-agent systems offer an alternative way
to design and improve manufacturing processes and control systems due to their
inherent abilities to adapt autonomously to emergence. Multi-agent simulation
assumes a crucial role to analyze and improve the manufacturing process during
the design phase. Indeed, it is well suited to simulate manufacturing processes that
present complex phenomena like emergent behaviour and self-organization. This
paper discusses the modeling and simulation of the steel converter process. The
Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is used to illustrate the benefits of such
tools in the manufacturing world on the specification of a steel converter process.
Requirements diagrams are used to present the main requirements of the system.
In addition, state machine diagrams are used to describe the activities of differ-
ent steel converting process machines. Finally, block definition diagrams are also
used to define the components of this process. A model of this process has been
developed using SysML diagrams; and the simulation results are used to validate
this model.

Keywords: Manufacturing systems · Multi-agent simulation · Systems


Modeling Language (SysML) · Simulation tool (Anylogic)

1 Introduction

Thanks to multi-agent systems (MAS), the design and manufacturing of control solu-
tions have become more flexible, adaptive, and reconfigurable compared to traditional
systems (Wooldridge 2009). These systems are used to solve emerging challenges in
the design and manufacture of industrial systems in terms of adaptation, flexibility and
reconfigurability (Barbosa and Leitão 2011).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022


M. Ben Amar et al. (Eds.): A3M 2021, LNME, pp. 30–40, 2022.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84958-0_4
System Level Specification and Multi-agent Simulation 31

(Marik and McFarlane 2005) have shown that MAS are characterized by the decen-
tralization of the control of its distributed structures which provide robustness, modular-
ity, and autonomy of the processes and solve at least 25% of manufacturing problems.
For example, (Guizani et al. 2014a) have developed a new approach based on multi-agent
technologies for the optimal design of mechatronic systems. The proposed approach is
further improved by the development of a coordination and negotiation process allowing
agents to facilitate the collaborative design of distributed systems (Guizani et al. 2014b).
They subsequently validated this work through a test case to optimize the preliminary
design of an electric vehicle (Guizani et al. 2017).
The multi-agent swarm framework can adequately represent characteristics of supply
chains, such as multiple levels of abstraction and separation of concerns. Through this
multi-agent model, individual agents are integrated with trust mechanisms to identify
trusted partners to fulfill customer orders (Lin et al. 2005). In addition, the study of swarm
robotic systems has been considered as a study of multi-agent systems. Developers of
swarm robot systems use realistic simulators to test and accelerate the development of
new design methods (Aloui et al. 2020). They use simulators to model the interactions
between robots and the interactions of robots with their environment (Schin et al. 2008).
The software required to develop agents is simpler and shorter than the software required
by centralized approaches (O’Hare and Jennings 1996). However, analyzing, testing, and
validating the behavior of multi-agent systems is generally difficult and time-consuming.
It is necessary to use tools that support the correction of errors during the design phase
before its deployment in the real operation; These are the tools of multi-agent simula-
tion that simplify the representation, the testing, and therefore the understanding of the
behavior of the system.
In manufacturing, developers reduce the time and cost of developing control systems
by using simulation which allows for the detection of errors, mistakes, and misunder-
standings during the design phase and before moving on to implementation (De Vin
and Jagstam 2001). In this article, we study the steel converter process with the aim of
developing a model that focuses on the crane management algorithm to minimize dis-
continuities in the operation of continuous casting machines. In the first part, we model
this process using Systems Modeling Language (Mhenni et al. 2014). In fact, several
SysML diagrams are used such as requirements diagram to specify system require-
ments, sequence diagram and state machine diagram to model system behavior, and
block definition diagrams to identify structural architecture. In the second part, we use
a multi-agent tool called “Anylogic” to simulate the modeled version and check the
performances through the results obtained.

2 Steel Converter Process

Today, we use steel to fabricate everything from sewing needles to oil tankers. It is
the most used material for building industries and the world’s infrastructure (Lukša
et al. 2020), (Tossavainen et al. 2007). In addition, all the tools required to build and
manufacture are made of steel. The process of converting steel is very complicated
(Kovalev et al. 2016). It can be simplified as follows: at first, the hot metal was treated
in a converter where all secondary metallurgical work is done. Secondly, the hot metal
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— Che sarà? — ella ridomandò, attonita, volgendosi al giovine.
— Forse un funerale.
— A quest’ora?
— Forse una funzione... Certo: è una funzione. Non vede? Si
muove.
Le fiammelle in fatti si movevano. Fu dapprima un’agitazione
disordinata, come un incrociarsi rapido e confuso di tutte quelle luci
in un piccolo spazio; poi alcune di esse si staccarono dal gruppo e
discesero fantasticamente, ondulando e sussultando, la scala del
tempio. Le altre seguirono a poco a poco, mentre quelle prime,
disposte in ischiera, s’allontanavano, e ben presto una lunga
processione di fiamme doppie si sviluppò serpeggiante per l’oscurità
del piazzale.
Allora Aurelio s’accorse che una campana rintoccava.
— Sente? — egli disse a Flavia. — Che squilli lenti, lugubri...
— È un’agonia, senza dubbio. Qualcuno muore laggiù, e quelle torce
seguono il Viatico!
Ella aggiunse dopo una pausa:
— Mio Dio, che tristezza! — e si lasciò ricadere su i cuscini come
morta di fatica.
«Che tristezza! Che tristezza!» ripeté l’anima del giovine, facendo
eco. E il ricordo della nonna, della sola persona ch’egli amava e
dalla quale era amato, risorse vivido, risplendette come una stella
solitaria sul cielo opaco della sua mestizia. Un’onda di tenerezza
impetuosa gli gonfiò il petto a quel ricordo sòrto per una secreta
associazion d’idee dopo la funebre visione; tutte le fibre del suo
cuore vibrarono concordemente al sacro nome di Madre. Oh, era
quello l’essere caro, l’essere indimenticabile, a cui egli era legato da
un’intera vita di solidarietà; era quella la creatura di consolazione, di
conforto, d’infinita benevolenza sul seno della quale avrebbe potuto
senza viltà e senza pericolo riposare il capo stanco.
Un desiderio ansioso lo prese: di correre a lei, di stringerla tra le
braccia, di coprirne di baci il povero volto cereo, vizzo, emaciato.
Tutta la sua affettuosità, sempre oppressa da un pertinace proposito
d’indifferenza, si slanciò in quel momento di debolezza sentimentale
verso colei ch’era stata la sua vera madre, verso colei ch’egli aveva
appreso ad amare ne’ suoi giorni più tenebrosi.
«Oh, mamma! mamma!...»
Come un bambino smarrito egli invocava l’assente, ripetendone il
nome nel pensiero. E i rintocchi, che udiva battere ostinati dietro le
spalle, gli infondevano una temenza oscura, quasi il presentimento
d’una notizia triste che l’aspettava insidiosa là su la spiaggia.
Disse Flavia, osservando sempre intenta il corteo delle fiaccole:
— Passano ora il ponte; vanno verso Ceresolo. Chi sa dove abita il
moribondo?
Soggiunse poi con la voce più fioca, come parlasse tra sè:
— La morte! Ecco ciò che tutti ci uguaglia!...
Aurelio, alzando gli occhi verso la fanciulla, ebbe un fremito
profondo. Quelle parole precisavano la causa del suo sgomento. Oh
sì, era la Morte ch’egli temeva; era il fantasma della Morte che
projettava una prolissa ombra nera nella sua mente. La Morte
poteva da un momento all’altro precipitarsi di nuovo nella sua casa,
cui aveva già tanto devastata, e annientare in un colpo tutto il suo
bene. Sua nonna era per essa una facile preda, una vittima pronta;
bastava un debole soffio perchè si spegnesse la fiamma di
quell’esistenza, che ogni giorno più si vedeva infievolire e attenuarsi,
consunta dall’età e dal male. Egli non avrebbe potuto far nulla per
contendere alla Distruzione la vita della sua cara; egli, quando fosse
scoccata l’ora fatale, avrebbe dovuto assistere impotente spettatore
al lugubre dramma, che gli toglieva senza colpa e senza ragione
l’ultimo conforto. — Ma che sarebbe poi stato di lui? E come, solo,
avrebbe vissuto nella casa squallida e severa, che le imagini de’ suoi
maggiori, appese alle pareti, rendevan simile a una critta foderata di
lapidi?
Gli occhi di Flavia parvero leggergli nel pensiero e rispondere alle
sue domande angosciose. Fissi su lui, intorbiditi come da un velo di
pietà e di tristezza, essi ricantavano ora più forte il poema della
seduzione, essi ripetevan con maggiore eloquenza il dolce invito alla
Gioja! «Perchè t’affliggi, giovine?» dicevano quegli occhi di donna:
«Perchè non domandi alla vita quel bene, quell’unico bene ch’essa
largisce liberalmente a tutti i nati? Guardami: io son colei che
potrebbe confortarti nella sventura; io son colei che potrebbe
prendere il posto di quella che sta per lasciarti. Amami, sacrificami il
tuo inutile orgoglio, ed io ti allieterò la casa squallida e severa con la
mia beltà e la mia giovinezza.»
Sotto quegli sguardi armoniosi come un canto, la confusione del
giovine crebbe, si trasformò, divenne un’ebrezza tenera e
imaginosa, una specie di spasimo spirituale, misto di temenza e di
gaudio. Egli sentiva il cuore gonfio e convulso, sentiva affluire a fiotti
il sangue al cervello, sentiva l’anima ammorbidirsi e sciogliersi come
fusa da un calore supremo. L’angosciosa mobilità del suo pensiero
s’acquetava; pareva che tutto il suo mondo interiore si dissolvesse in
guisa di nebbia e vanisse rapidamente, disperso da una raffica, nelle
profondità d’un cielo oscuro come quello che si schiudeva sopra il
suo capo. Alcune frasi liriche, inaspettate, si abbozzavano a intervalli
nella sua mente, illuminandola con la fugacità frenetica di lampi:
«Oh, dimenticare tutto, tutto, tutto... Fuggire lontano, molto lontano
dagli uomini in un paese vergine, selvaggio, primaverile... Esser
solo, forte e libero in cospetto della Bellezza... Amare, inebriarsi
d’amore, vivere e morire in un’estasi sublime senza pensieri, senza
rimpianti, senza dolore...» Era il gran Sogno che incominciava, il
Sogno dell’eterna passione umana. Era un desiderio fatale
d’integrazione, di struggimento, di creazione che lo accendeva,
ch’esaltava la sua anima per modo che ogni imagine vi si
riproduceva alterata sotto forma di poesia. E i frammenti del carme
immortale continuavano a succedersi dentro di lui, abbaglianti e
sonori, sempre più tenebrosi e sempre più incantevoli, spontanee
polle d’Arte scaturite dai più densi misteri della Vita.
Gli passava da presso la Felicità, ed egli udiva bene nel silenzio
della notte il rombo delle sue ali; egli sentiva l’aria scossa e turbata
dall’eterna Chimera proteiforme, dietro a cui gli uomini volan travolti,
come foglie nel vento d’un traino impetuoso.
— Rallenti, ci siamo, — disse Flavia con la voce spenta.
Quando ebber lasciata la barca, Aurelio, quasi dimentico di lei,
ascese solo in corsa la spiaggia verso il palazzo. Si vedevano
ancora tra i fusti sottili dei salici e dei gàttici tremolare sinistramente
le fiamme della processione, che s’allontanava salmodiando verso
Ceresolo.
Sul rialto eran sedute, in aspettazione di Flavia, la signora Boris e
Luisa.
— La mamma? — chiese Aurelio, trafelato dalla corsa, senza
lasciarle parlare.
— È rientrata, sarà una mezz’ora, — rispose la signora Boris: — non
si sentiva bene..
«Lo sapevo! Lo sapevo!» gridò una voce nel cuore del giovine. Ed
egli, senza salutare, si volse, attraversò velocemente il cortile, salì gli
scalini a due a due tra le tenebre, si trovò con il respiro strozzato
dall’affanno d’avanti alla porta della camera di sua nonna.
Aperse, dopo una breve pausa.
La stanza era avvolta in una penombra bronzea e oscillante. Il gran
letto pareva nel mezzo un catafalco funebre, alto com’era e senza
sporgenze nè a capo nè a piedi; e in torno era un vuoto di squallore.
Sul comodino una candela tutta consunta mandava fumigando gli
ultimi bagliori a scatti, come palpiti d’anima moribonda.
Su le prime Aurelio credette che donna Marta fosse già discesa,
dimenticando di spegnere il lume. Poi, d’improvviso, egli la vide là
distesa, supina sul letto, ancor tutta vestita e con gli occhi chiusi,
forse assopita, forse svenuta, forse forse...!
Gittò un’esclamazione rauca, congiungendo le mani in atto di
stupore e quasi di preghiera. Si precipitò verso di lei, mormorando
tra i singhiozzi:
— Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!
VII.
Al bivio.

Era l’ora più calda del giorno.


Aurelio aveva esplorato i sentieri che corrono su la collina tra Cerro
e Laveno, quei sentieri a pena praticabili che, già un tempo comodi e
spaziosi, servirono ai soldati d’Austria per salire al forte, piantato su
la vetta e ora interamente distrutto.
L’altura recava ancora le tracce del vandalismo militare, che per
lungo periodo vi aveva regnato: nessuna coltivazione su quel pendìo
dolce e terrigno dove sarebber potuti prosperare al bacio d’un sole
benefico le viti e i frumenti; allignavano in vece tra l’intrico delle
viottole sabbiose, l’erbe e gli arbusti selvatici, cespugli di ginepro e di
timo, ciuffi di ginestre, folti tappeti di muschio e di menta, spandendo
in torno l’odore aspro e aromatico delle altitudini alpestri. Non una
macchia d’alberi d’alto fusto sorgeva a perdita d’occhio su i fianchi
del colle arcigno, a romperne con l’ombra la radura solatìa: così gli
antichi dominatori lo avevan voluto nudo e libero, come una rocca,
contro le insidie nemiche. Solamente in alto, presso la sommità, una
novella vegetazione di castagni era da pochi anni cresciuta, e
ondeggiava docile al vento su i ruderi della trista tirannide straniera.
Dopo aver girovagato a lungo e senza scopo per la collina, Aurelio
Imberido, oppresso dalla caldura, s’era rifugiato al rezzo tenue di
quella selva adolescente, in un punto pittoresco di fronte al lago. Ora
immobile e distratto, con gli occhi smarriti nella luce, riposava il
corpo affaticato, steso su l’erba come sopra un giaciglio.
Da qualche giorno quella era la sua vita: i luoghi circostanti non
avevan più segreti per lui; egli aveva percorso ogni sentiere, era
penetrato nel più fitto delle boscaglie, aveva scoperto le vallucce più
nascoste, asceso i pendii più ripidi, superato i passi più ardui. Un
bisogno istintivo di moto, di distrazione, di stordimento lo spingeva
all’aperto appena si trovava solo, d’avanti al suo lavoro divenutogli
omai più che impossibile, intollerabile. Qualunque sforzo della
volontà, qualunque freno della ragione rimanevano irriti contro
l’inquietudine che ferveva nelle profondità del suo essere. Egli
doveva uscire di casa e camminare; egli doveva fuggire sè stesso
per ritrovarsi a ogni sosta, a ogni svolta della via e riprender da capo
disperatamente la sua inutile fuga.
In quei giorni le relazioni tra le due famiglie in palazzo eran divenute
più strette e più cordiali; omai si poteva dire che donna Marta e le
signore Boris vivessero in una specie di comunione familiare,
ritrovandosi sùbito dopo i pasti, facendo le medesime passeggiate,
trascorrendo insieme i pomeriggi più caldi nella frescura del cortile o
in giardino al rezzo della pineta, e le lunghe serate sul rialto in vista
del lago e del tramonto. Aurelio non era sempre in compagnia delle
donne. Pareva anzi che cercasse di sfuggirle, di sottrarsi ai loro
inviti, di tenersi estraneo più che poteva a qualunque maggiore
intrinsechezza con le vicine. Ogni sera però regolarmente compariva
sul rialto e rimaneva a conversare con esse fino al momento in cui
tutte si ritiravano nei loro appartamenti.
Le gite in barca s’eran ripetute soltanto per due volte, prendendovi
parte anche le madri, e poi, interrotte da una giornata piovosa, non
erano state più riprese; si eran fatte in vece alcune brevi passeggiate
a Ceresolo, verso il Fortino o verso Mombello, ma ben presto si era
dovuto rinunciare anche a queste per la salute di donna Marta,
afflitta in quei giorni da una recrudescenza oscura de’ suoi mali. Si
passavan dunque i lenti vesperi estivi invariabilmente d’avanti al
palazzo, come nei primi tempi, le giovini distese su l’erba dello
scalere e le madri sedute nelle loro poltroncine sul piano del rialto; e
l’abitudine di quel ritrovo e l’immobilità prolungata rendevan ciarliere
le quattro donne, favorivano il fluido e vano chiacchiericcio
femminile, lasciando il giovine muto e come dimenticato nel suo
angolo a contemplare con occhi spenti l’immutabile paesaggio e a
ruminare dentro di sè propositi vani di liberazione.
Egli sedeva di solito su la lastra di granito infissa nel muro, dietro le
due signore; qualche volta, per incitazione di donna Marta,
discendeva fin sul margine dello scalere, e si collocava sempre a
fianco di Luisa, deliberatamente. Tra lui e Flavia, dopo la loro gita in
barca, pareva che per ragioni occulte fosse scoppiato un sordo
contrasto, un dissidio profondo delle anime che li teneva lontani,
inconciliabili, sdegnosi o paurosi d’un avvicinamento. In quei
convegni crepuscolari, essi non si rivolgevan mai direttamente la
parola se non costretti dalla necessità; non si fissavan mai negli
occhi, o almeno ciascuno dei due cessava di guardar l’altro appena i
loro sguardi s’incontravano; non si stringevan mai la mano per saluto
nè all’arrivo nè alla separazione. Il contegno gelido e quasi ostile di
Flavia era certo per Aurelio una tortura senza nome; ma, nei
momenti di riflessione, egli lo sapeva intendere e giustificare con il
suo stesso contegno altrettanto freddo e sostenuto. Ciò che più
l’angustiava e l’irritava era in vece la loquacità spontanea di lei, la
facilità con la quale ella prendeva parte alla scipita conversazione
generale, la festività imperturbabile delle sue parole e de’ suoi
atteggiamenti. Questo egli non sapeva comprendere; questo non
sapeva scusare: questo offuscava costantemente la sua ragione,
come un’offesa brutale e ingiusta ch’ella ogni sera gli lanciasse in
viso.
Quando si trovava solo nella sua camera già occupata dalla notte, la
ribellione del suo spirito prorompeva alfine senza ritegno. Egli
sentiva crescere il suo dispetto contro Flavia e crescere la sua
umiliazione per la passività colpevole con cui si prestava a quel
martirio quotidiano; sentiva che un atto d’energia si richiedeva
senz’indugio per distruggere il fascino maligno che lo dominava e
riconquistare l’indipendenza e la serenità necessarie al suo lavoro.
Non gli pareva ormai più possibile di continuare una vita simile; ed
egli, come i giorni passavano senza rimedio, si rivoltava contro sè
medesimo, ricercava dentro, con una smania puerile, le cause di
quella sua nuova debolezza, i motivi d’un turbamento così grave
delle sue facoltà.
Una ripugnanza suprema gli si levava dalle radici dell’essere, al solo
pensiero ch’egli potesse amare quella creatura frivola e sdegnosa;
che dovesse un giorno invocare da lei la pace perduta, la forza di
sopportare un’esistenza affatto diversa dal suo sogno. — No, non
l’amava, non l’avrebbe mai amata. Volgendo ora a Flavia il fuoco
della sua mente, provava egli forse un movimento di simpatia
intellettuale o morale per lei, un fremito passaggero di tenerezza, il
più tenero desiderio di sensualità? No, non provava nulla di tutto ciò;
egli si sentiva il cuore arido e gelato come non mai. La sua inerzia
dolorosa doveva aver dunque ben altre origini; ma quali, quali? —
Nel più forte dell’incertezza, per allontanarsi vie più dall’ipotesi
temuta, egli s’indugiava allora a esaminare con maggior pacatezza
lo stato delle cose e dell’anima sua, a indagare dentro e fuori di sè
tutte le cause possibili del male ond’era afflitto; e a mano a mano
riusciva a illudersi con le più umili supposizioni, ora riversandone la
colpa su la nonna che insisteva per volerlo trascinare con sè, ora
imaginando un’infermità del suo sistema nervoso che l’assiduo
studio e l’intensità delle concezioni dovevano avere affranto e
debilitato.
Esaurita l’indagine, gli pareva d’esser calmo e libero d’ogni timore:
voleva coricarsi e dormire, ma un impulso cieco lo spingeva d’un
tratto verso il balcone, dov’egli rimaneva lungamente immobile e ritto
nell’oscurità, ad ascoltare commosso il gorgoglio delle acque nel
giardino o il grido querulo dei gufi nelle altitudini della pineta.
Oh, quelle notti tepide, senza luna, che abissi riflettevano nell’anima
del giovine, china per la prima volta su gli abissi sacri del Divenire! Il
cielo fecondo, scintillante d’astri, talvolta a pena attraversato da
un’ala di nebbie, spiegava sul suo capo un poema di gioja e di
passione; la campagna muta e nera spingeva verso di lui un
profumo inebriante di fiori e di resine, il vasto alito della vegetazione
in atto di crescere e di moltiplicarsi; il vento, che a tratti esagitava le
tenebre, gli accarezzava la fronte, gli mormorava all’orecchio parole
divine, rotti sospiri, gridi giubilanti, tutta la sublime sinfonia della
Voluttà che il mistero delle notti protegge e consacra. In quel viluppo
d’apparenze incantevoli egli a grado a grado s’obliava, si
semplificava, smarriva ogni facoltà di critica e d’analisi, ogni vanità e
ogni timore: si sarebbe detto che l’essere primordiale e selvatico si
risvegliasse in lui, uscisse libero, fresco, infantile dalla spoglia
artificiale che l’opprimeva. E questo essere si sentiva languire nella
solitudine, spasimava di desiderio, agognava febbrilmente a
utilizzare la sua fugace giovinezza, a crescere, a fiorire, a concedersi
e a possedere, in un immenso slancio verso la felicità che integra e
che crea. E l’imagine di Flavia, della Donna conosciuta e vicina, gli si
levava nel pensiero, sorgeva alta e fulgida come un sole nel cielo del
suo Destino.
Ma l’incanto dell’Ombra e del Silenzio finiva: sopraggiungevan la
stanchezza, lo snervamento, il bisogno fisico di mobilità e di luce. Il
giovine si scoteva, si ritirava dal balcone, rientrava nella camera a
passi incerti, con gli occhi umidi e tardi, con il cuore oppresso come
da un peso immane. E il noto ordine dei mobili, la rossastra fiamma
della candela, la tavola coperta di libri e di fogli dissipavan gli ultimi
residui del sogno inutile, richiamandolo tosto all’amara realità della
sua vita, alla consapevolezza del suo triste ideale, de’ suoi rimpianti,
de’ suoi vani propositi di liberazione e di lavoro. Egli, affranto e
disperato, si gittava sul letto e invocava dal sonno, dall’unico
consolatore dei deboli e degli inetti, il riposo d’un’ora, l’oblìo mortale
di sè stesso e del mondo.
Così i giorni succedevano ai giorni senza rimedio, senza novità,
senza mutamenti; e luglio in tanto era venuto e inoltrava, un luglio
torrido e polveroso, essiccato da un chiarore feroce, petrificato
dall’assidua bonaccia dell’aria e dell’acqua, immobili come cristalli.
A rompere la torbida monotonia di questo periodo, un dubbio nuovo
e inatteso era piombato d’improvviso la sera innanzi nell’anima
dell’inerte, scotendone la volontà, svegliandone la coscienza,
illuminandone la ragione. Non era stato che un attimo, un lampo,
uno di quei bagliori fuggevoli che incendiano per poco l’oscurità e si
spengono; ma in quell’attimo la latebra d’un’altra anima s’era svelata
a’ suoi sensi, e un dubbio era sòrto, il dubbio dolce e tremendo d’una
grande cosa ch’egli non aveva avuto il tempo di desiderare, prima di
conoscere e di temere. Aveva forse traveduto? Era stata
un’illusione? era stato un inganno o un giuoco? Non importava. La
cosa era possibile, se anche non certa. E la sola possibilità valeva
per lui, che non aveva saputo presupporla, quanto una rivelazione.
La sera innanzi donna Marta, assalita durante il pranzo da uno de’
suoi più fieri accessi d’asma, non s’era potuta presentare al solito
convegno vespertino d’avanti al palazzo. Dopo esser rimasto per
una lunga ora ad assisterla e a confortarla durante il parossismo
della crise, Aurelio l’aveva lasciata in custodia di Camilla ed era
disceso, per volontà della nonna stessa, a giustificare presso le
vicine l’assenza di lei. Le signore Boris, consigliate dall’insolita
caldura del tramonto o stanche forse d’aspettare, avevano
abbandonato il luogo di ritrovo per fare un breve giro in barca nelle
vicinanze; si vedeva in fatti, su lo specchio lucido delle acque a un
centinaio di metri dalla riva, la lancia dalla banderuola azzurra, che
volgendo la poppa s’allontanava sempre più.
Un po’ seccato dal contrattempo, egli stava già per rientrare in casa
quando d’un tratto una voce forte dalla parte dell’arsenale, la voce di
Flavia lo aveva chiamato.
— Come qui, signorina? — egli aveva chiesto, confuso e intimorito di
trovarsi solo con lei dopo tanti giorni.
— Ohimè! aspetto da dieci minuti Ferdinando, ch’è in baldoria
all’osteria della Pace. Ho mandato sua moglie a cercarlo, ma sembra
ch’egli non abbia intenzione di scomodarsi per me questa sera!...
Volevo seguir la mamma col mio nuovo sandalino, ch’è stato messo
in acqua jeri per la prima volta... Un capolavoro d’eleganza, vedrà!..
Ella aveva anche soggiunto sorridendo:
— Le confesso però che non mi sento totalmente sicura nella mia
nuova imbarcazione.... Se lei volesse avere la bontà
d’accompagnarmi, mi farebbe proprio un favore.... C’è sempre l’altro
sandolino a sua disposizione, quello di Luisa.
Il vecchio barcajuolo era apparso in quel punto, sbuffando e
barcollando, e Aurelio passivamente l’aveva seguita.
Erano usciti così dalla darsena, al fianco l’uno dell’altra su i due legni
minuscoli, oblunghi e puntuti come spole. Il vespero era inoltrato;
ogni rossore sopra le Alpi era spento; il lago, livido e vasto,
stagnava; in mezzo al lago, lontanissima in apparenza, la macchia
della lancia spiccava informe, nera, immota, simile a un piccolo
scoglio emergente dal lividore.
Poichè Flavia taceva, Aurelio, intenerito dalla mesta serenità del
paesaggio e dai residui delle ansie recenti, aveva incominciato a
parlare del male di donna Marta, delle sue apprensioni per la
frequenza di quei minacciosi accessi d’asma che avrebber potuto
una volta o l’altra soffocarla. Stimolato poi dall’atteggiamento
confortevole della compagna, egli aveva continuato a discorrere, con
un insolito abbandono, di sè stesso, della sua misantropia, del suo
attaccamento esclusivo alla nonna, ch’era stata per lui più che una
madre, tutto, tutto; aveva dato in fine libero sfogo al più recondito e
doloroso suo pensiero, descrivendo le conseguenze terribili della
sventura che gli sovrastava: la solitudine del domani, le incertezze
d’un avvenire irto di difficoltà e di privazioni, senza il conforto d’un
affetto, senza un appoggio, senza una casa. E a poco a poco s’era
commosso, i glauchi occhi velati gli eran divenuti lucidi e tremanti,
due lacrime improvvise erano apparse di tra le palpebre, gli avevan
rigato incontenibili le guance.
Flavia, ascoltandolo con un’attenzione intensa, fissava su lui uno
sguardo carico di maraviglia e di pietà, non senza una sottil punta
d’ironia. Due volte solamente aveva fatto un cenno di diniego col
capo, quand’egli le aveva espresso il dubbio che la nonna morisse;
poi era rimasta ferma e silenziosa ad assaporare il gusto delle sue
parole, come avesse temuto con un gesto, con un’interruzione di
risvegliare la sua diffidenza e di turbare l’inconscia sincerità della
confessione.
Quando in fine Aurelio s’era taciuto, sollevato dallo sfogo ma un po’
vergognoso della sua commozione, ella aveva parlato, lentamente,
con la voce grave, guardando il vuoto d’innanzi a sè, avendo su la
fronte una lunga ruga pensosa tra ciglio e ciglio.
— Come vuol bene a sua nonna! — aveva detto. — Io non avrei mai
supposto un sentimento così profondo in lei: l’avevo giudicato male,
e lo confesso. Io la credeva freddo, indifferente, incapace d’amare,
un po’ per egoismo e molto per orgoglio. Quei pochi discorsi che
abbiamo avuti insieme, mi avevano fatto supporre ch’ella fosse uno
di quegli uomini forti che sdegnano qualunque affetto, qualunque
legame, qualunque sacrificio, per meglio riuscire al proprio scopo.
Ella in vece è tutt’altro, ella è un uomo di cuore, di molto cuore...
Aveva soggiunto, dopo una pausa:
— Grazie; grazie, signor Aurelio, d’avermi creduta degna di
conoscerla e di poterla apprezzare.
Ed eran proceduti, senz’altre parole, verso le lontananze che
l’oscurità incominciava ad assorbire, ambedue diversamente turbati:
Aurelio sentendo piovere su l’anima il refrigerio di quell’elogio
impreveduto; Flavia assaporando ancora la dolcezza di quelle
imprevedute confidenze. E le due vite, disgiunte sempre da un
ostacolo immane, s’eran protese con tutte le forze loro una incontro
all’altra.
Ella d’un tratto aveva lasciato il remo, mormorando:
— Sono stanca!
Egli pure, nello stesso attimo, aveva cessato di vogare e s’era
fermato accanto a lei, come vinto da un accasciamento improvviso.
La notte era discesa: su le acque il chiarore del crepuscolo s’era
ristretto intorno ai due piccoli schifi come un cerchio cinerino; al di là
l’ombra aveva avvolto ogni cosa in una nebbia azzurra,
imperscrutabile. La lancia lontana, in quella nebbia, era scomparsa.
I due giovini s’eran trovati così, soli e come perduti in una immensità,
vicinissimi sebbene ancor divisi da una sottil lingua liquida, da un
abisso. Non si guardavano, non parlavano, non avevan cercato
d’accostarsi, immobili entrambi su i loro legni immobili. Ma una virtù
misteriosa li aveva sospinti dolcemente uno verso l’altra, li aveva
insensibilmente approssimati, aveva fatto sì che l’abisso tra loro si
chiudesse e le due spole natanti, attraendosi a vicenda e scivolando
silenziose su l’acqua, giungessero fino a combaciare. All’urto lieve
dei legni, essi s’erano scossi sorridendo, s’eran guardati negli occhi
con un’espressione infinitamente lusinghevole; e Flavia aveva levato
con atto pigro una mano dal grembo, aveva preso in pugno i due
bordi perchè di nuovo non si staccassero.
Qualche minuto d’oblio supremo era passato sopra di loro nel
crepuscolo deserto. — Esisteva una Umanità? Esistevano altri
esseri su la Terra? Non eran plaghe sconosciute e inospiti quelle che
si stendevano nell’ombra, oltre il cerchio ancor luminoso che
avvolgeva le barche come un cerchio di magìa? Non bastavan forse
le loro due vite per animare tutto il creato? — Certo, Aurelio aveva
avuto in quel breve lasso di tempo la ferma persuasione
d’un’assoluta solitudine intorno a loro, il sentimento netto e definitivo
della loro sufficienza in un’assoluta solitudine. E, inconscio e risoluto,
provando il bisogno imperioso d’unirsi all’altra creatura superstite
d’un mondo inutile e distrutto, di sentirla, di mescolarsi perdutamente
con lei, aveva posata la sua su la gracile mano femminile che,
spontanea al contatto, s’era rivolta, quasi per offerirsi tutta quanta al
suo desiderio.
Oh, quella lunga stretta concorde, che solco vivo di passione aveva
lasciato su le loro palme! E che grande rivelazione era stata più tardi
per il giovine, ingenuo e sensibile ancora come un adolescente!
Rientrando in casa, egli, dopo essere passato da donna Marta e
averla trovata calma e dormente, era corso nella sua camera, vi si
era richiuso a chiave, aveva spalancato i battenti del balcone per
esalare alfine liberamente in un gran sospiro la piena interna della
sua esaltazione, trattenuta fino a quel punto dal pensiero della
nonna sofferente. Che notte, quella! Che notte! Egli non ne ricordava
una simile in vita, nè credeva che fosse possibile di superarne una
più agitata e più folle! Egli aveva riso, aveva pianto, aveva percorso
volte infinite in su e in giù la vasta camera, era rimasto ore intere
immobile sul balcone, ascoltando il tumulto del suo cuore sul fremito
immenso della campagna tenebrosa. Da scoppii d’entusiasmo
indescrivibili, in cui tutta l’anima sua s’era lanciata a volo verso il
cielo, era piombato subitaneamente in prostrazioni supreme, in
mortali desolazioni, durante le quali la terra non gli era parsa a
bastanza profonda per nascondere la sua miseria. Aveva visto a
vicenda le più fulgide speranze dissolversi in paurose ansietà, i
dubbii più laceranti trasformarsi per prodigio in ebre, impazienti
aspettazioni di gioja. Mille volte egli s’era detto: «Bisogna fuggire,
non più avvicinarmi a lei, non più vederla, mai, mai!» Mille volte s’era
chiesto: «Perchè non vado ora a battere alla sua porta e non la
chiamo sùbito a me?» E tre parole, tre sole parole — un canto, un
poema — non avevan mai cessato di ripetersi nel suo cervello sopra
i timori, sopra le speranze, su i propositi di rinuncia, su i propositi di
conquista: «Ella m’ama! Ella m’ama! Ella m’ama!»
Che mutamento era dunque avvenuto in lui durante il breve letargo,
in cui era caduto ai primi chiarori dell’alba con il dolce nome ancora
impresso su le labbra? Per qual segreto processo il gran fuoco
divampato quella notte nella sua anima, s’era così rapidamente
consunto, ed egli, risvegliandosi, non aveva trovato se non un gran
cumulo di cenere arida e fredda?
Quella mattina, sorpreso dal sole, ch’era penetrato per l’aperto
balcone fino al suo letto, Aurelio non aveva avuto che un ricordo
confuso degli avvenimenti e delle commozioni della sera innanzi. Il
tremendo accesso d’asma della nonna sua, che l’aveva tenuto
un’eterna ora in cospetto della morte ad aspettare il rantolo estremo;
l’incontro fortuito con Flavia presso l’arsenale; le proprie spontanee
confidenze; le parole lusinghevoli di lei; la loro stretta di mano
eloquentissima nella solitudine del lago oscuro; l’ansietà che lo
aveva incalzato in vicinanza del palazzo al pensiero improvviso
dell’avola, dimenticata durante quel tempo; la sovreccitazione quasi
febbrile di gioja da cui era stato preso in vederla calma e assopita; e
poi le deliranti agitazioni nella sua camera, gli impeti alterni di
tenerezza e di rivolta, la vicenda vertiginosa delle risoluzioni e degli
scoraggiamenti, i magici sogni vissuti a occhi aperti d’avanti alla
maestà della notte, — tutto al risveglio gli era tornato in confuso alla
memoria dopo la prima stupefazione, trovandosi disteso sul letto, nel
sole mattutino, ancora interamente vestito e così stanco come dopo
una burrascosa notte di piaceri.
Un movimento brusco di dispetto contro sè medesimo lo aveva fatto
balzare a terra; lo aveva spinto con violenza a chiudere le imposte
del balcone, per ricacciare indietro quella luce invadente che gli dava
una specie di sbigottimento misto di rabbia e di molestia. Doveva
esser tardi: il giardino, visto come a traverso un cristallo leggermente
torbido, languiva già sotto un’afa opprimente; nella camera,
spalancata da parecchie ore al gran sole, si soffocava. Egli, dopo
avere immerso a più riprese il capo nell’acqua, era uscito
immediatamente su la loggia ancora in ombra, s’era trovato senza
volerlo d’innanzi alla porta di donna Marta, aveva aperto, era entrato.
La nonna, in un disordine fantastico, stava assisa alla specchiera, e
Camilla, in piedi dietro lei, era in atto di pettinarne le lunghe trecce
argentee. Ridevano entrambe così allegramente nell’ilare splendore
della mattina estiva, che il giovine, apparso su la soglia in aspetto
quasi funereo, aveva dovuto atteggiar sùbito il volto a un sorriso di
maraviglia e di simpatia.
Egli s’era seduto accanto alla vecchia, aveva ascoltato per la
centesima volta una delle molte barzellette tradizionali, ch’ella si
piaceva di raccontare nei momenti lieti e a seconda delle occasioni.
Era poi disceso al suo braccio in sala da pranzo, dove aveva atteso
pazientemente l’ora della colazione, temendo sempre di rimaner
solo, sperando di sottrarsi in compagnia di lei ai rimproveri e ai
sarcasmi che sentiva formicolare incessantemente in fondo al suo
pensiero. In fine, quando ella era salita di nuovo in camera per
riposarsi, s’era lanciato all’aperto, verso i boschi ombrosi della valle,
poi su su per la china aspra e solatìa finchè stanco, madido,
accecato dal bagliore, s’era lasciato cadere su l’erba al rezzo dei
giovini castagni, presso la sommità del colle arcigno.
Là, nella inerzia ristoratrice, udendo sopra il suo capo stormire le
fronde, contemplando con occhi piccoli la placida ridente distesa del
lago, egli rivisse, non più in confuso, lucidamente, pacatamente, l’ora
insidiosa delle confidenze, dei conforti e dei silenzii. All’eccitazione
enorme della notte era succeduta una languida apatia, uno stato
d’esaurimento sentimentale assai propizio alla riflessione serena dei
fatti e al giusto discernimento delle conseguenze e delle prossime
opportunità; le distrazioni della mattina avevan lasciato calmare la
rivolta morale, avevano estenuato negli inutili assalti i rimproveri e i
sarcasmi della sua coscienza irritata. Egli poteva dunque giudicare e
deliberare; egli poteva veder chiaro in sè e intorno a sè, illuminare
col fuoco della pura intelligenza l’errore del jeri e gli smarrimenti
possibili del domani; poteva discernere ancora nettamente la mèta
lontana, che s’era imposta, e rintracciare il cammino più diritto per
raggiungerla.
Egli si domandò freddamente: «Che avviene dunque in me? Che
vado facendo da un mese a questa parte? Come e perchè mi trovo
tanto mutato in poco tempo? Sono io infermo? E il mio male è un
male fisico, o non piuttosto un male della volontà, dell’intelligenza,
del sentimento?» Era inutile negarlo; egli si trovava veramente
mutato, così mutato che a stento riusciva a riconoscersi; si trovava
pieno d’inquietudini dianzi sconosciute, d’ansietà misteriose, di
desiderii inafferrabili, incerto, svogliato, indifferente a tutte le cose
che prima lo appassionavano, incapace d’uno sforzo mentale come
d’un qualunque atto d’energia. Da più d’un mese egli trascinava una
vita desolante, senza ordine, senza idee, senza occupazioni, che
simile non avrebbe mai supposto di poter tollerare; e, non ostante
l’immenso vuoto, i giorni volavano, si disperdevano nel nulla con una
rapidità portentosa. Pareva che fosse sopravvenuta in lui un’altra
personalità nel luogo della sua propria, una personalità primitiva,
elementare, che poteva pascersi di semplici sensazioni, svolgersi
naturalmente senza il sostegno d’un’idealità o d’un’ambizione,
accettare oscuramente l’umiltà della sua essenza, creata per uno
scopo a lei inconoscibile.
Malato di corpo egli certo non era. Al contrario, godeva una salute
nuova, non mai avuta, resistente a ogni fatica fisica, a ogni più grave
trambusto morale: il suo sangue fluiva libero e gagliardo nelle vene; i
suoi muscoli s’irrobustivano; il suo viso, di solito pallido e sfiorente,
sfoggiava vivacità di coloriti, freschezza di carni, limpidità di sguardi,
ch’egli sùbito dopo l’adolescenza aveva perdute. Assolutamente,
doveva riconoscerlo, non era mai stato così bene come in quel
tempo; non mai s’era sentito così sano, così forte, così leggero. E
l’aspetto esterno quanto l’interno benessere escludevano quei
disturbi al sistema nervoso, ch’egli tante volte aveva addotti,
illudendosi, a giustificazione della sua inerzia spirituale. «Ma
dunque, non poteva esserne questa stessa la causa?» egli si
domandò. «Il suo mutamento di carattere, d’abitudini, di tendenze
non dipendeva forse da quell’insperato ritorno della salute, da quel
soverchio rigoglio di giovinezza, da quella specie di tarda primavera
che gli fioriva di nuovo maravigliosa nelle fibre?»
Egli sorrise, scotendo malinconicamente il capo. — Ohimè, no, no,
non era più il tempo d’illudersi: colpevole è quell’illusione che può
per altri divenire un inganno! — Egli ben sapeva che la vita oziosa e
spensierata di quei giorni non conseguiva dalla salute, ma piuttosto
questa da quella. Egli sapeva che altra era la causa vera di tutte
quante le novità che l’occupavano: omai dopo le commozioni della
sera precedente, dopo gli strani turbamenti dell’ultima notte, essa gli
appariva più che possibile, necessaria, evidente, irrefutabile.
Bisognava però proferire la gran parola; bisognava riconoscere la
grande cosa; bisognava confessare coraggiosamente la propria
fragilità: «Egli amava; egli, al meno, stava per amare!»
Nessuna confessione sarebbe stata per Aurelio Imberido più grave e
più incresciosa di questa. Nelle sue teorie di filosofia pratica, l’Amore
rappresentava una degradazione, una vilificazione della personalità,
un’indegna rinuncia della propria superiorità di vita e di pensiero;
l’Amore era la funzione bruta e immonda, comune a tutti gli esseri
vivi, che indicava chiaramente l’ignominia delle nostre Origini, — che
rammentava il Passato bestiale, la lenta evoluzione della putredine
terrestre verso un progresso apparente, verso un perfezionamento
relativo e inutile delle Specie, legate pur sempre alle basse
necessità dell’esistenza, sempre sottoposte alle leggi incommutabili
che regolano il trasmutare della materia organica. Egli negava
risolutamente ogni elevazione morale nell’Amore: avendo a lungo
meditato su i libri di storia e su le opere d’arte, s’era convinto che
tutte le più celebrate passioni erotiche avevan distrutto e non mai
edificato, erano state la ruina d’uomini insigni e di stirpi gloriose,
avevano sparso in torno l’infelicità, la sventura, la morte. E,
osservando quotidianamente i casi comuni della vita, aveva appreso
che il sentimento dell’amore, cantato dai poeti, magnificato dalle
masse, non era in verità se non il desiderio tantalico dell’amplesso,
un impulso veemente verso l’atto finale, una fiamma selvaggia e
divoratrice che l’indugio rinfocava e il possesso come per incanto
spegneva, coprendone pietosamente con le ceneri l’ardore fittizio dei
sonanti vocaboli, delle vane promesse, dei propositi generosi e
sublimi.
Ma non ancora per queste considerazioni astratte Aurelio Imberido
temeva e respingeva l’Amore: era in vece per l’influenza malefica
ch’esso esercita su gli uomini d’intelletto, su i lottatori per l’Ideale, in
ispecial modo su quei Pochi capaci di belle imprese e di superbi
disegni. Caduti nel dominio della passione, sorpresi dal primo brivido
della sacra febbre, questi come gli altri tutti dimenticano facilmente la
loro missione, i loro doveri, i loro scopi; divengono indifferenti a ogni
lusinga gloriosa, ribelli a qualunque fatica e a qualunque arduo
tentativo; non vedon più con i loro occhi mortali che l’Oggetto unico
onde dipende omai la loro salvezza o la loro perdizione. Da quel
punto lo spettacolo del mondo s’eclissa; l’esistenza diventa per essi
un’azione continua e affannosa; i loro pensieri e i loro fatti non
tendon più se non al successo sessuale, all’egoistica conquista del
Piacere. E gli Eletti, dalle altitudini a cui s’eran levati, retrocedono
precipitando verso le bassure originarie, smarriscono ingegno e
volontà, vanno a confondersi fatalmente con gli infimi, occupati a
vivere, a godere, a conservare per proprio diletto la Specie che non
deve finire.
Quante ascensioni interrotte! quante carriere sviate o infrante!
quante energie disperse! quante primavere gelate! Quanti fiumi,
gonfii da fecondare immense contrade, s’inaridirono sul seno della
Donna, nudo, morbido, cocente come le sabbie d’un deserto!
Questa, l’eterna Sirena, non comprese e non ammirò mai gli esseri
superiori, o troppo forti o troppo belli: li umiliò, disamandoli, e,
amandoli, li distrusse. Così, inconscia, compì nei secoli la sua
terribile missione espiatrice, ridendo, scherzando, cercando per
giuoco la voluttà e la prole; e non ebbe pure un palpito di
riconoscenza o di pietà per le sue grandi Vittime, quando le vide, già
prossime a entrare nel paradiso conquistato, accontentarsi ancora
del misero destino comune e avviarsi, per amore di lei, verso le Terre
dell’Oscurità e della Morte!
Queste profonde cose il giovine ripensava in confuso, vagando con
gli sguardi sul calmo paesaggio lacustre, pieno di luce e di gajezza.
Alcune vele quadrate apparivano qua e là, dirette verso settentrione,
così tarde da sembrare immobili. Un piroscafo presso Intra lanciava
nell’aria un’enorme colonna di fumo nero, che si torceva in grosse
spire senza dissolversi. Le nevi del Sempione, in fondo alla valle
velata, erano pallidamente celesti e parevan fondersi nell’orizzonte.
«Ed io amo!» egli esclamò d’un tratto, interrompendo il corso delle
idee generali: «io, al meno, sto per amare!» Se pure la grande
passione, che inebria i sensi e offusca l’intelletto, non era peranco
scoppiata, i sintomi precursori, manifestatisi in lui, non eran dubbii e
l’annunziavano vicina; e alla stregua di quei sintomi il morbo doveva
esser fatale! — Occorreva dunque trovar sùbito un rimedio per
prevenirlo in tempo, per arrestare il progresso dell’infezione, per
riacquistare al più presto la sua salute morale e la sua incolumità.
Ma quale, quale rimedio?
Il più sicuro era ineffettuabile: egli non poteva lasciar la villa senza la
nonna sua, ed era certo che questa non l’avrebbe seguíto, anzi che
avrebbe contrastato il suo proposito con tutte le forze. E, rimanendo,
come avrebbe egli potuto evitare ogni occasione di ritrovo con le
signore Boris e specialmente con Flavia, che forse ora,

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