Deformations of a clamped–clamped elastica inside a circular channel with clearance

In this paper, we study the planar deformations of an elastica inside a circular channel with clearance. One end of the elastica is fully clamped, while the other end is partially clamped in the lateral direction and is subject to a pushing force longitudinally. In the experiment we first observe various deformation patterns after pushing the elastica through the partial clamp. Both symmetric and asymmetric deformations are recorded. Special attention is focused on the contact conditions between the elastica and the circular channel. In order to analyze the elastica deformation theoretically, we first divide the elastica into several elementary sub-domains depending on the contact condition between the elastica and the circular channel. In each sub-domain the elastica is either loaded only at the ends or in full contact with the outer wall. Armed with these basic equilibrium analyses, we proceed to calculate and classify the loaded elastica into several deformation patterns. Finally, we present the load-deflection curves, both theoretically and experimentally, which relate the longitudinal forces at both ends to the elastica length increase inside the channel. The branching phenomena predicted theoretically agree fairly well quantitatively with the experimental measurements.     

Nonlinear coupled vibration of electrostatically actuated clamped–clamped microbeams under higher-order modes excitation

Nonlinear modal interactions have recently become the focus of intense research in micro-resonators for their use to improve oscillator performance and probe the frontiers of fundamental physics. Understanding and controlling nonlinear coupling between vibrational modes is critical for the development of advanced micromechanical devices. This article aims to theoretically investigate the influence of antisymmetry mode on nonlinear dynamic characteristics of electrically actuated microbeam via considering nonlinear modal interactions. Under higher-order modes excitation, two nonlinear coupled flexural modes to describe microbeam-based resonators are obtained by using Hamilton’s principle and Galerkin method. Then, the Method of Multiple Scales is applied to determine the response and stability of the system for small amplitude vibration. Through Hopf bifurcation analysis, the bifurcation sets for antisymmetry mode vibration are theoretically derived, and the mechanism of energy transfer between antisymmetry mode and symmetry mode is detailed studied. The pseudo-trajectory processing method is introduced to investigate the influence of external drive on amplitude and bifurcation behavior. Results show that nonlinear modal interactions can transit vibration energy from one mode to nearby mode. In what follows, an effective way is proposed to suppress midpoint displacement of the microbeam and to reduce the possibility of large deflection. The quantitative relationship between vibrational modes is also obtained. The displacement of one mode can be predicted by detecting another mode, which shows great potential of developing parameter design in MEMS. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Simulating the fluid forces and fluid-elastic instabilities of a clamped–clamped cylinder in turbulent axial flow

In this paper, the fluid forces and the dynamics of a flexible clamped–clamped cylinder in turbulent axial flow are computed numerically. In the presented numerical model, there is no need to tune parameters for each specific case or to obtain coefficients from experiments. The results are compared with the dynamics measured in experiments available in the literature. The specific case studied here consists of a silicone cylinder mounted in axial water flow. Computationally it is found that the cylinder loses stability first by buckling. The threshold for buckling is in quantitative agreement with experimental results and weakly nonlinear theory. At higher flow speed a fluttering motion is predicted, in agreement with experimental results. It is also shown that even a small misalignment between the flow and the structure can have a significant impact on the dynamical behavior. To provide insight in the results of these fluid–structure interaction simulations, forces are computed on rigid inclined and curved cylinders, showing the existence of two different flow regimes. Furthermore it is shown that the inlet turbulence state has a non-negligible effect on these forces and thus on the dynamics of the cylinder.     

Quasi-Green’s function method for free vibration of clamped thin plates on Winkler foundation

The quasi-Green’s function method is used to solve the free vibration problem of clamped thin plates on the Winkler foundation. Quasi-Green’s function is established by the fundamental solution and the boundary equation of the problem. The function satisfies the homogeneous boundary condition of the problem. The mode-shape differential equation of the free vibration problem of clamped thin plates on the Winkler foundation is reduced to the Fredholm integral equation of the second kind by Green’s formula. The irregularity of the kernel of the integral equation is overcome by choosing a suitable form of the normalized boundary equation. The numerical results show the high accuracy of the proposed method.     

Study of the effect of thermal gradient on free vibration of clamped visco-elastic rectangular plates with linearly thickness variation in both directions

The effect of thermal gradient on the free vibration of clamped visco-elastic rectangular plate with linearly thickness variations in both the directions has been studied here. The governing differential equation has been solved using Rayleigh-Ritz technique. The frequency equation is derived for the clamped boundary condition on all the four edges. The effect of linear temperature variation has been considered. Deflection and time period corresponding to the first two modes of vibrations of a clamped plate have been computed for various values of aspect ratio, thermal constants, and taper constants.     

The method of the reciprocal theorem of forced vibration for the elastic thin rectangular plates (II)—Rectangular plates with two adjacent clamped edges

In this paper, applying the method of reciprocal theorem, we give the distributions of the amplitude of bending moments along clamped edges and the amplitude of deflections along free edges of rectangular plates with two adjacent clamped edges under harmonic distributed and concentrated loads.