Linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic Timoshenko nanobeams considering surface energy effects

In this paper, the linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic Timoshenko nanobeams are studied based on the Gurtin–Murdoch surface stress theory. Firstly, the constitutive equations of fractional viscoelasticity theory are considered, and based on the Gurtin–Murdoch model, stress components on the surface of the nanobeam are incorporated into the axial stress tensor. Afterward, using Hamilton's principle, equations governing the two-dimensional vibrations of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams are derived. Finally, two solution procedures are utilized to describe the time responses of nanobeams. In the first method, which is fully numerical, the generalized differential quadrature and finite difference methods are used to discretize the linear part of the governing equations in spatial and time domains. In the second method, which is semi-analytical, the Galerkin approach is first used to discretize nonlinear partial differential governing equations in the spatial domain, and the obtained set of fractional-order ordinary differential equations are then solved by the predictor–corrector method. The accuracy of the results for the linear and nonlinear vibrations of fractional viscoelastic nanobeams with different boundary conditions is shown. Also, by comparing obtained results for different values of some parameters such as viscoelasticity coefficient, order of fractional derivative and parameters of surface stress model, their effects on the frequency and damping of vibrations of the fractional viscoelastic nanobeams are investigated.     

Numerical solution of transient heat conduction equation with variable thermophysical properties by the Tau method

In this article, we proposed the operational approach to the Tau method for solving linear and nonlinear one‐dimensional transient heat conduction equations with variable thermophysical properties which can involve heat generation term. To solve heat conduction equation, first we recall the Tau method to obtain a matrix form of the governing differential equation. Then boundary and initial conditions are transformed into a matrix form. Finally the resulting systems of linear or nonlinear algebraic equations are given. Afterwards, efficient error estimation is also introduced for this method. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency and high accuracy of the proposed method and also results are compared with solutions obtained by other methods. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 964–977, 2014     

On the practical use of the spectral homotopy analysis method and local linearisation method for unsteady boundary-layer flows caused by an impulsively stretching plate

This paper expands the ideas of the spectral homotopy analysis method to apply them, for the first time, on non-linear partial differential equations. The spectral homotopy analysis method (SHAM) is a numerical version of the homotopy analysis method (HAM) which has only been previously used to solve non-linear ordinary differential equations. In this work, the modified version of the SHAM is used to solve a partial differential equation (PDE) that models the problem of unsteady boundary layer flow caused by an impulsively stretching plate. The robustness of the SHAM approach is demonstrated by its flexibility to allow linear operators that are partial derivatives with variable coefficients. This is seen to significantly improve the convergence and accuracy of the method. To validate accuracy of the the present SHAM results, the governing PDEs are also solved using a novel local linearisation technique coupled with an implicit finite difference approach. The two approaches are compared in terms of accuracy, speed of convergence and computational efficiency.     

DQM large amplitude vibration of composite beams on nonlinear elastic foundations with restrained edges

This paper presents an efficient and accurate differential quadrature (DQ) large amplitude free vibration analysis of laminated composite thin beams on nonlinear elastic foundation. Beams under consideration have elastically restrained against rotation and in-plane immovable edges. Elastic foundation has cubic nonlinearity with shearing layer. We impose the boundary conditions directly into the governing equations in spite of the conventional DQ method and without any extra efforts. A direct iterative method is used to solve the nonlinear eigenvalue system of equations after transforming the governing equations into the frequency domain. The fast rate of convergence of the method is shown and their accuracy is demonstrated by comparing the results with those for limit cases, i.e. beams with classical boundary conditions, available in the literature. Besides, we develop a finite element program to verify the results of the presented DQ approach and to show its high computational efficiency. The effects of different parameters on the ratio of nonlinear to linear natural frequency of beams are studied.     

A novel numerical solution strategy for solving nonlinear free and forced vibration problems of cylindrical shells

Nonlinear vibration analysis of circular cylindrical shells has received considerable attention from researchers for many decades. Analytical approaches developed to solve such problem, even not involved simplifying assumptions, are still far from sufficiency, and an efficient numerical scheme capable of solving the problem is worthy of development. The present article aims at devising a novel numerical solution strategy to describe the nonlinear free and forced vibrations of cylindrical shells. For this purpose, the energy functional of the structure is derived based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the von–Kármán geometric nonlinearity. The governing equations are discretized employing the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method and periodic differential operators along axial and circumferential directions, respectively. Then, based on Hamilton's principle and by the use of variational differential quadrature (VDQ) method, the discretized nonlinear governing equations are obtained. Finally, a time periodic discretization is performed and the frequency response of the cylindrical shell with different boundary conditions is determined by applying the pseudo-arc length continuation method. After revealing the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed numerical approach, comprehensive results are presented to study the influences of the model parameters such as thickness-to-radius, length-to-radius ratios and boundary conditions on the nonlinear vibration behavior of the cylindrical shells. The results indicate that variation of fundamental vibrational mode shape significantly affects frequency response curves of cylindrical shells.     

Study on asymptotic analytical solutions using HAM for strongly nonlinear vibrations of a restrained cantilever beam with an intermediate lumped mass

Presented herein is to establish the asymptotic analytical solutions for the fifth-order Duffing type temporal problem having strongly inertial and static nonlinearities. Such a problem corresponds to the strongly nonlinear vibrations of an elastically restrained beam with a lumped mass. Taking into consideration of the inextensibility condition and using an assumed single mode Lagrangian method, the single-degree-of-freedom ordinary differential equation can be derived from the governing equations of the beam model. Various parameters of the nonlinear unimodal temporal equation stand for different vibration modes of inextensible cantilever beam. By imposing the homotopy analysis method (HAM), we establish the asymptotic analytical approximations for solving the fifth-order nonlinear unimodal temporal problem. Within this research framework, both the frequencies and periodic solutions of the nonlinear unimodal temporal equation can be explicitly and analytically formulated. For verification, numerical comparisons are conducted between the results obtained by the homotopy analysis and numerical integration methods. Illustrative examples are selected to demonstrate the accuracy and correctness of this approach. Besides, the optimal HAM approach is introduced to accelerate the convergence of solutions.     

Double‐mode modeling of nonlinear flexural vibration analysis for a symmetric rectangular honeycomb sandwich thin panel by the homotopy analysis method

Nonlinear flexural vibration of a symmetric rectangular honeycomb sandwich thin panel with simply supported along all four edges is studied in this paper. The nonlinear governing equations of the symmetric rectangular honeycomb sandwich panel subjected to transverse excitations are simplified to a set of two ordinary differential equations by the Galerkin method. Based on the homotopy analysis method, the average equations of the primary resonance and harmonic resonance are obtained. The influence of structural parameters, the transverse exciting force amplitude, and transverse damping to the symmetric rectangular honeycomb sandwich panel are discussed by using the analytic approximation method. Compared with the results obtained by single‐mode modeling technique, the results obtained by double‐mode modeling technique change the softening and hardening nonlinear characteristics when Ω ≈ ω₁, ω₁/3, and ω₂/3.     

Calibration of estimator-weights via semismooth Newton method

Weighting is a common methodology in survey statistics to increase accuracy of estimates or to compensate for non-response. One standard approach for weighting is calibration estimation which represents a common numerical problem. There are various approaches in the literature available, but quite a number of distance-based approaches lack a mathematical justification or are numerically unstable. In this paper we reformulate the calibration problem as a system of nonlinear equations. Although the equations are lacking differentiability properties, one can show that they are semismooth and the corresponding extension of Newton’s method is applicable. This is a mathematically rigorous approach and the numerical results show the applicability of this method.     

Imposing boundary conditions in Sinc method using highest derivative approximation

Sinc approximate methods are often used to solve complex boundary value problems such as problems on unbounded domains or problems with endpoint singularities. A recent implementation of the Sinc method [Li, C. and Wu, X., Numerical solution of differential equations using Sinc method based on the interpolation of the highest derivatives, Applied Mathematical Modeling 31 (1) 2007 1–9] in which Sinc basis functions are used to approximate the highest derivative in the governing equation of the boundary value problem is evaluated for structural mechanics applications in which interlaminar stresses are desired. We suggest an alternative approach for specifying the boundary conditions, and we compare the numerical results for analysis of a laminated composite Timoshenko beam, implementing both Li and Wu’s approach and our alternative approach for applying the boundary conditions. For the Timoshenko beam problem, we obtain accurate results using both approaches, including transverse shear stress by integration of the 3D equilibrium equations of elasticity. The beam results indicate our approach is less dependent on the selection of the Sinc mesh size than Li and Wu’s SIHD. We also apply SIHD to analyze a classical laminated composite plate. For the plate example, we experience difficulty in obtaining a complete system of equations using Li and Wu’s approach. For our approach, we suggest that additional necessary information may be obtained by applying the derivatives of the boundary conditions on each edge. Using this technique, we obtain accurate results for deflection and stresses, including interlaminar stresses by integration of the 3D equilibrium equations of elasticity. Our results for both the beam and the plate problems indicate that this approach is easily implemented, has a high level of accuracy, and good convergence properties.     

A new scheme for solving nonlinear Stratonovich Volterra integral equations via Bernoulli’s approximation

In this paper, an efficient method for solving nonlinear Stratonovich Volterra integral equations is proposed. By using Bernoulli polynomials and their stochastic operational matrix of integration, these equations can be reduced to the system of nonlinear algebraic equations with unknown Bernoulli coefficient which can be solved by numerical methods such as Newton’s method. Also, an error analysis is valid under fairly restrictive conditions. Furthermore, in order to show the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method, the new approach is compared with the block pulse functions method by some examples. The obtained results reveal that the proposed method is more accurate and efficient than the block pulse functions method.     

基于AP法的一类非线性机械动力系统的求解

用渐近摄动法分别一类机械系统的非线性运动控制方程1∶1、1∶2内共振主参数共振-1/2亚谐共振情况进行摄动分析,得到系统的平均方程.结果发现用渐近摄动法求得1∶2内共振的平均方程中会漏掉某些非线性项,而且内共振比值越大漏掉的项越多,由此可以看出渐近摄动法不适用于求解多模态之间内共振比值大的非线性动力学系统.     

An approximate method for solving a class of weakly-singular Volterra integro-differential equations

In this paper, we present a new approach to resolve linear and nonlinear weakly-singular Volterra integro-differential equations of first- or second-order by first removing the singularity using Taylor’s approximation and then transforming the given first- or second-order integro-differential equations into an ordinary differential equation such as the well-known Legendre, degenerate hypergeometric, Euler or Abel equations in such a manner that Adomian’s asymptotic decomposition method can be applied, which permits convenient resolution of these equations. Some examples with closed-form solutions are studied in detail to further illustrate the proposed technique, and the results obtained demonstrate this approach is indeed practical and efficient.     

Existence of periodic solutions for first order differential equations

In this paper we study the periodic boundary value problem for first order differential equations by combining techniques of the theory of differential inequalities, namely the method of upper and lower solutions, and the alternative method for nonlinear problems at resonance. The results obtained are in terms of the behavior of the nonlinear part at infinity.     

Application of finite difference method of lines on the heat equation

In this article, we apply the method of lines (MOL) for solving the heat equation. The use of MOL yields a system of first–order differential equations with initial value. The solution of this system could be obtained in the form of exponential matrix function. Two approaches could be applied on this problem. The first approach is approximation of the exponential matrix by Taylor expansion, Padé and limit approximations. Using this approach leads to create various explicit and implicit finite difference methods with different stability region and order of accuracy up to six for space and superlinear convergence for time variables. Also, the second approach is a direct method which computes the exponential matrix by applying its eigenvalues and eigenvectors analytically. The direct approach has been applied on one, two and three‐dimensional heat equations with Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin and periodic boundary conditions.     

Optimal homotopy analysis method for nonlinear differential equations in the boundary layer

Optimal homotopy analysis method is a powerful tool for nonlinear differential equations. In this method, the convergence of the series solutions is controlled by one or more parameters which can be determined by minimizing a certain function. There are several approaches to determine the optimal values of these parameters, which can be divided into two categories, i.e. global optimization approach and step-by-step optimization approach. In the global optimization approach, all the parameters are optimized simultaneously at the last order of approximation. However, this process leads to a system of coupled, nonlinear algebraic equations in multiple variables which are very difficult to solve. In the step-by-step approach, the optimal values of these parameters are determined sequentially, that is, they are determined one by one at different orders of approximation. In this way, the computational efficiency is significantly improved, especially when high order of approximation is needed. In this paper, we provide extensive examples arising in similarity and non-similarity boundary layer theory to investigate the performance of these approaches. The results reveal that with the step-by-step approach, convergent solutions of high order of approximation can be obtained within much less CPU time, compared with the global approach and the traditional HAM.     

1:1内共振条件下矩形薄板的全局分叉和多脉冲混沌动力学

首次利用广义Melnikov方法研究了一个四边简支矩形薄板的全局分叉和多脉冲混沌动力学．矩形薄板受面外的横向激励和面内的参数激励．利用von Krmn模型和Galerkin方法得到一个二自由度非线性非自治系统用来描述矩形薄板的横向振动．在1∶1内共振条件下,利用多尺度方法得到一个四维的平均方程．通过坐标变换把平均方程化为标准形式,利用广义Melnikov方法研究该系统的多脉冲混沌动力学,并且解释了矩形薄板模态间的相互作用机理．在不求同宿轨道解析表达式的前提下,提供了一个计算Melnikov函数的方法．进一步得到了系统的阻尼、激励幅值和调谐参数在满足一定的限制条件下,矩形薄板系统会存在多脉冲混沌运动．数值模拟验证了该矩形薄板的确存在小振幅的多脉冲混沌响应．     

An effective treatment of nonlinear differential equations with linear boundary conditions using the homotopy analysis method

In this paper, we provide an effective technique to treat nonlinear differential equations with linear boundary conditions that are reduced from a nonlinear problem describing the steady-state boundary-layer flow of a micropolar fluid near the forward stagnation point of a two-dimensional plane surface. The analytical approximations with high accuracy are obtained using the homotopy analysis method, which agree well with the numerical results. This indicates the validity and great potential of the proposed method for solving nonlinear differential equations with linear boundary conditions.     

Exact solutions of some nonlinear systems of partial differential equations by using the first integral method

In recent years, many approaches have been utilized for finding the exact solutions of nonlinear systems of partial differential equations. In this paper, the first integral method introduced by Feng is adopted for solving some important nonlinear systems of partial differential equations, including, KdV, Kaup–Boussinesq and Wu–Zhang systems, analytically. By means of this method, some exact solutions for these systems of equations are formally obtained. The results obtained confirm that the proposed method is an efficient technique for analytic treatment of a wide variety of nonlinear systems of partial differential equations.     

Characterization of a nonlinear MEMS-based piezoelectric resonator for wideband micro power generation

Micro-scale piezoelectric unimorph beams with attached proof masses are the most prevalent structures in MEMS-based energy harvesters considering micro fabrication and natural frequency limitations. In doubly clamped beams a nonlinear stiffness is observed as a result of midplane stretching effect which leads to amplitude-stiffened Duffing resonance. In this study, a nonlinear model of a doubly clamped piezoelectric micro power generator, taking into account geometric nonlinearities including stretching and large curvatures, is investigated. The governing nonlinear coupled electromechanical partial differential equations of motion are determined by exploiting Hamilton's principle. A semi-analytical approach implementing the perturbation method of multiple scales is used to solve the nonlinear coupled differential equations and analyze the primary and superharmonic resonances. Results indicate that operational bandwidth of the nonlinear harvester is enhanced considerably with respect to linear models. Moreover considerable amount of power is generated due to occurrence of superharmonic resonances. This yields to extraction of energy at subharmonics of the natural frequency which is crucially important in MEMS-based harvesters.     

Symmetry analysis for uniaxial compression of a hypoplastic granular material

A variety of modelling approaches currently exist to describe and predict the diverse behaviours of granular materials. One of the more sophisticated theories is hypoplasticity, which is a stress-rate theory of rational continuum mechanics with a constitutive law expressed in a single tensorial equation. In this paper, a particular version of hypoplasticity, due to Wu [2], is employed to describe a class of one-dimensional granular deformations. By combining the constitutive law with the conservation laws of continuum mechanics, a system of four nonlinear partial differential equations is derived for the axial and lateral stress, the velocity and the void ratio. Under certain restrictions, three of the governing equations may be combined to yield ordinary differential equations, whose solutions can be calculated exactly. Several new analytical results are obtained which are applicable to oedometer testing. In general this approach is not possible, and analytic progress is sought via Lie symmetry analysis. A complete set or “optimal system” of group-invariant solutions is identified using the Olver method, which involves the adjoint representation of the symmetry group on its Lie algebra. Each element in the optimal system is governed by a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which in general must be solved numerically. Solutions previously considered in the literature are noted, and their relation to our optimal system identified. Two illustrative examples are examined and the variation of various functions occuring in the physical variables is shown graphically.