Transmission loss of periodically stiffened laminate composite panels: shear deformation and in-plane interaction effects

This paper investigates the transmission loss of symmetric and asymmetric laminate composite panels periodically reinforced by composite stiffeners. A comprehensive model based on periodic structure theory is developed. First order shear deformation theory is used and the coupling of the in-plane motion of the panel with its out-of-plane motion is taken into account. Stiffeners interact with the panel through three forces (two in-plane, one out-of-plane) and a torsion moment. Three types of cross sections are investigated for the composite stiffeners: I-shaped, C-shaped, and omega-shaped cross-sections. The model is validated numerically by comparison with the finite element/boundary element method. Experimental validations are also conducted. In both cases, excellent agreement is obtained. Numerical results show that the in-plane coupling effect is increased by increasing the panel thickness and the stiffener's eccentricity. The in-plane coupling effect is also found to increase with frequency.     

The vibration and post-buckling of geometrically imperfect,simply supported,rectangular plates under uni-axial loading,part I: Theoretical approach

The work described in this paper constitutes the theoretical part of a theoretical and experimental study of the post-buckling and vibration of simply supported rectangular plates having slight initial curvature (geometrical imperfection) and subject to uni-axially applied, in-plane, compressive loads. The experimental part, and the comparison with theoretical predictions, is given in a second paper. The Rayleigh-Ritz approach, with a deflection function formulation for both the in- and out-of-plane behaviour of the plates, is used since this permits the convenient modelling of various types of in-plane boundary conditions, including those encountered in the experimental study. A concept of connection coefficients, introduced to reduce the computational effort involved, is described. In order to illustrate the applicability of the theoretical approach, a number of square plates having various sets of in-plane boundary conditions and degrees of initial imperfection are treated. Graphical results are presented showing the variation of the lateral central deflection and the fundamental natural frequency of vibration with applied in-plate loads varying from zero to several times the lowest critical buckling load. Where possible, comparison is made with values available in the literature and excellent agreement is achieved. The results presented appear to suggest that an approximately linear relationship exists between a load-frequency parameter and the central deflection of the plates considered, for a substantial in-plane loading range.     

Dynamic time responses of a flexible spinning disk misaligned with the axis of rotation

Using the finite element method, this study investigates the dynamic time responses of a flexible spinning disk of which axis of rotation is misaligned with the axis of symmetry. The misalignment between the axes of symmetry and rotation is one of major vibration sources in optical disk drives such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW and DVD drives. Based upon the Kirchhoff plate theory and the von Karman strain theory, three coupled equations of motion for the misaligned disk are obtained: two of the equations are for the in-plane motion while the other is for the out-of-plane motion. After transforming these equations into two weak forms for the in-plane and out-of-plane motions, the weak forms are discretized by using newly defined annular sector finite elements. Applying the generalized-α time integration method to the discretized equations, the time responses and the displacement distributions are computed and then the effects of misalignment on the responses and the distributions are analyzed. The computation results show that the misalignment has an influence on the magnitudes of the in-plane displacements. It is also found that the misalignment results in the amplitude modulation or the beat phenomenon in the time responses of the out-of-plane displacement.     

The bond force constants and elastic properties of boron nitride nanosheets and nanoribbons using a hierarchical modeling approach

A hierarchical approach bridging the atomistic and nanometric scales is used to compute the elastic properties of boron nitride nanosheets and nanoribbons, examining the effect of sheet size, aspect ratio and anisotropy. The approach consists in obtaining the bond force (force field) constants by dedicated computations based on density functional theory (DFT) and using such constants as input for larger scale structural models solved by finite element analysis (FEA). The bond force constants calculated by DFT are 616.9 N/m for stretching, 6.27×10⁻¹⁹ Nm/rad² for in-plane rotation and 1.32×10⁻¹⁹ Nm/rad² for dihedral rotation. Using these constants, the elastic properties of boron nitride nanosheets and nanoribbons predicted by FEA are almost independent of the sheet size, but strongly dependent on their aspect ratio. The sheet anisotropy increases with increased aspect ratio, with nanoribbons of aspect ratios of 10 exhibiting a ratio of elastic moduli along both in-plane directions of 1.7.     

Large amplitude flexural vibration of eccentrically stiffened plates

The large amplitude free flexural vibrations of thin, orthotropic, eccentrically and lightly stiffened elastic rectangular plates are investigated. Clamped boundary conditions with movable in-plane edge conditions are assumed. A simple modal form of one-term transverse displacement is used and in-plane displacements are made to satisfy the in-plane equilibrium equations. By using Lagrange's equation, the modal equations for the nonlinear free vibration of stiffened plates are obtained for the cases when the stiffeners are assumed to be smeared out over the entire surface of the plate, and when the stiffeners are located at finite intervals. Numerical results are obtained for various possibilities of stiffening and for different aspect ratios of the plate. By particularizing the problem to different known cases, the results obtained here are compared with available analytical and experimental results, and the agreement is good.     

The flexural vibration of welded rectangular plates

A theoretical and experimental study of the effect of weld runs on the flexural vibrational characteristics of the common structural element, the rectangular plate, is described. A finite difference technique is utilized for the determination of the in-plane residual stress pattern due to the weld(s) and the Rayleigh-Ritz method, with beam characteristic functions, is used for the out-of-plane vibration analysis. The theoretical approach presented is applicable to rectangular plates of any practical aspect ratio, having any combination of out-of-plane boundary conditions for which beam functions may reasonably be used and subject to one or more weld runs parallel to any edge. Theoretical and experimental results for a number of specific plates are presented, demonstrating the effects of welding on the plate vibration and the capability and accuracy of the analytical approach in predicting these effects. Included is a study of the effect of using the full residual stress pattern as derived from the finite difference analysis, the effect of neglecting certain stress components and the effect of using simplified stress patterns developed primarily for the stress and buckling analysis of long plates.     

Gel phase vesicles buckle into specific shapes

Osmotic deflation of giant vesicles in the rippled gel phase P(β') gives rise to a large variety of novel faceted shapes. These shapes are also found from a numerical approach by using an elastic surface model. A shape diagram is proposed based on the model that accounts for the vesicle size and ratios of three mechanical constants: in-plane shear elasticity and compressibility (usually neglected) and out-of-plane bending of the membrane. The comparison between experimental and simulated vesicle morphologies reveals that they are governed by a typical elasticity length, of the order of 1 μm, and must be described with a large Poisson's ratio.     

Non-linear vibrations of cables in three dimensions,part I: Non-linear free vibrations

Analysis and results for non-linear free vibrations of both horizontal and inclined cables in three dimensions are presented. Sag-to-span ratios of the cables are not limited to being small. Computed results are presented for various geometrical and material parameters. The major findings are that the geometrical non-linearity may be of the stiffening type or the softening type, depending on the sag-to-span ratio, and the stiffness of out-of-plane vibrations is affected by the corresponding in-plane vibration near a resonant frequency due to non-linear coupling between out-of-plane and in-plane vibrations.     

Rotational motion in sensorless freehand three-dimensional ultrasound

Freehand three-dimensional ultrasound is usually acquired with a position sensor attached to the ultrasound probe. However, position sensors can be expensive, obtrusive and difficult to calibrate. For this reason, there has been much research on alternative, image-based techniques, with in-plane motion tracked using conventional image registration methods, and out-of-plane motion inferred from the decorrelation between nearby B-scans. However, since out-of-plane motion is not the only source of decorrelation, image-based positions determined in this way suffer from cumulative drift errors. In this paper, we consider the effect of probe rotation on correlation and how this affects the position estimates. We then present a novel technique to compensate for out-of-plane rotations, by making use of orientation measurements from an unobtrusive sensor. Using simulations and in vitro experiments, we demonstrate that the technique is able to reduce the drift error in elevational positioning by 57% on average.     

Natural frequencies and mode shapes of flexural vibration of plates: laser-interferometry detection and solutions by Ritz's method

This paper presents an experimental and theoretical study of flexural symmetric vibration modes of a linear elastic plate. A laser interferometer is used as detector of the free vibration of a rectangular parallelepiped-shaped aluminium plate. The vibration spectrum gives the lowest natural frequencies of the sample. Assumption that the vibration of the plates may be described by some approximate theories is proven to be inconsistent. The Ritz method, with products of powers of the co-ordinates as basis functions, is applied to obtain the lowest flexural natural frequencies. Three-dimensional solutions are obtained, unlike those provided by simpler theories. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions and a good agreement is obtained. Finally, forced motion is applied to the centre of the plate and the out-of-plane and in-plane displacement components for the first symmetric mode are measured. A good fit of the calculated values to the experimental values is found.     

Measurement of three-dimensional rigid body motion by multiple exposure speckle photography: use of uncollimated beam illumination in free space geometry

A theoretical and experimental analysis is carried out showing the effect of multiple exposures on fringes in the case of three-dimensional motion of a diffuse object illuminated by a diverging beam from a laser point source. Experimental conditions are such that the speckle patterns remain fully correlated in spite of the object moving in three-dimensional space in a direction that makes an angle with the optical axis. Owing to the in-plane component of the three-dimensional displacement the point of null-speckle displacement shifts either in the direction of the in-plane component of the motion or in the opposite direction depending upon the direction of the out-of-plane displacement component. This modifies the fringe profile as compared with the case of pure out-of-plane motion. The intensity distribution at the Fresnel plane of a specklegram is investigated after filtering by a converging beam for double exposure and multiple exposures. Good agreement is found between the theoretical and experimental results.     

In-plane electronic speckle pattern shearing interferometry

An analysis of the out-of-plane shearing interferometer has been performed which shows that production of in-plane strain partial derivatives is possible, which are not affected by out-of-plane displacement function components. The in-plane data are represented as subtraction correlation fringes. This interferometer employs a single diverging illumination beam and is applicable to object plane stress and plane strain loading conditions. The interferometer was tested and compared using a compact tension crack specimen and the results are correlated with finite element software predictions of strain distributions across modelled specimens. This experimental validation was chosen because we had an existing test rig and finite element models which had been independently verified.     

Effect of out-of-plane misfit strain on phase diagrams and ferroelectric properties of ferroelectric films in vertical nanocomposite structures

A phenomenological thermodynamic Landau–Devonshire theory is developed to investigate phase diagrams of epitaxial ferroelectric films with out-of-plane misfit strain induced by vertical nanocomposites. The thermodynamic potential of ferroelectric films is obtained based on the boundary conditions of three-dimensional clamping induced by the vertical nanocomposites. Our calculated results indicate that the out-of-plane misfit strain modulates the transition temperature and spontaneous polarization of ferroelectric films in a wide range even the substrate does not provide an effective in-plane misfit strain control. An enhanced critical transition temperature up to 803 °C in BaTiO₃ films under a tensile out-of-plane misfit strain is predicted, which is consistent with the experimental result very well. The polarization properties of BaTiO₃ films can also be effectively modulated by the out-of-plane misfit strain which is controlled by the volume fraction of nanopillars in the vertical nanocomposites. Our method provides a theoretical guide for the out-of-plane strain engineering of ferroelectric films.     

Measuring in-plane and out-of-plane coupled motions of microstructures by stroboscopic microscopic interferometry

A stroboscopic Mirau microscopic interferometer system for measuring in-plane and out-of-plane periodic motions of microstructures is demonstrated. One full cycle of a periodic motion is divided into a number of motion phases. One sequence of interferograms with different phase shifting steps is collected at every motion phase by using stroboscopic imaging. A bright-field image can be extracted from one sequence of interferograms with the same motion phase. In-plane displacements are measured by applying an image matching method to all bright-field images, followed by a compensation for the relative positions of interferograms at the different motion phases, before calculating the phase distribution related to out-of-plane deformation. We demonstrate its capability for measuring a combination of out-of-plane deformation and in-plane displacement in a microresonator.     

Multiple modes in the vibration of cantilevered shells

The term multiple modes describes pairs of modes which are similar in shape but occur at different frequencies. This phenomenon has been observed in holographic vibration test results for a turbine blade. Pairs of modes were found, such as two modes which both resembled first torsional modes. In this investigation holographic interferometry was used to verify the earlier results for the turbine blade and to investigate three shell segments simulating blades. The shells ranged in size from moderately to very thick with length to thickness ratios of 16, 8 and 5·6. The blade geometry is characterized by a circumferential angle of 142° and a ratio of length to inner radii arc length near 1·0. In addition, a NASTRAN finite element analysis was performed on these simulated blades. Both mode shapes and frequencies were found to be in good agreement with the results from the experiment. The multiple mode phenomenon was found to be an artifact of the holographic experiment. Pairs of modes were found in the NASTRAN results for the simulated blades in which the out-of-plane displacements (those seen in the hologram) were very similar, but for which the displacements in the plane of the hologram differed significantly. Thus, the two modes which appeared in the experimental results as first torsional modes were seen to include quite different in-plane displacements. The two modes are therefore quite different and do not contradict the normal result, which may be justified from such elementary considerations as a Rayleigh quotient, that similar modes must produce similar frequencies.     

Modulating lamb wave band gaps using an elastic metamaterial plate

Modulating band gaps (extending the bandwidths or shifting into a lower frequency range) is a challenging task in phononic crystals. In this paper, elastic metamaterial plates composed of a square array of “hard” stubs or “soft” stubs on both sides of a 2D binary locally resonant plate are proposed, and their band structures are studied. The dispersion relationships and the displacement fields of the eigenmodes are calculated using finite element methods. Numerical results show that the band gaps are shifted to lower frequencies and the bandwidths are enlarged compared to classic elastic metamaterial plates. A conceptual “analogousrigid mode” that includes an “out-of-plane analogous-rigid mode” and an “in-plane analogous-rigid mode” is developed to explain these phenomena. The “out-of-plane analogous-rigid mode” mainly adjusts the band gaps into the lower frequency range, and the “in-plane analogous-rigid mode” mainly enlarges the bandwidth. Furthermore, the band gap effects of composite “hard” stubs and “soft” stubs are investigated. The results show that the location of the band gaps can be modulated into a relatively lower frequency and the bandwidth can be extended by the use of different composite stubs. These elastic wave properties in the proposed structure can be used to optimize band gaps and possibly produce low-frequency filters and waveguides.     

The steady state out-of-plane response of an internally damped ring supported by springs in some bays

The steady state out-of-plane response of an internally damped ring supported by springs in some bays to a sinusoidally varying point force or moment is determined by use of the transfer matrix technique. For this purpose, the equations of out-of-plane vibration of a uniform circular ring based upon the Timoshenko beam theory are written as a coupled set of first order differential equations by using the transfer matrix of the ring. The matrix is obtained analytically and the steady state response of the ring is determined by the product of the matrices in free bays and those in supported bays. In this case, the elastic moduli of the ring and springs with internal damping are assumed to be complex quantities. The method is applied to rings supported against deflection and torsion in some bays of the same length located at equal angular intervals; the driving point impedance, transfer impedance and the distributions of the deflection, angular rotation, force and moment are calculated numerically, and the effects of the number, the stiffness and the length of supporting springs on them are studied.     

Sound transmission across orthotropic laminates with a 3D model

This investigation examines the propagation of elastic waves in orthotropic materials to explain the sound insulation of FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics). The mechanical characteristics of an orthotropic material generally require nine independent parameters: three Young’s moduli, three shear moduli and three Poisson’s ratios. Three-dimensional analysis is performed with the elastic wave equations of an orthotropic material. The transfer matrix method which expresses the relationship between stress and velocity is adopted to calculate the sound transmission loss across an orthotropic material. Further, the transfer matrix method can only be calculated under the continuous boundary condition in the interface of each FRP layer. The boundary conditions which are indicated above are velocity and stress. The numerical results are compared with the experimental results. Additionally, along with varying material properties such as Young’s modulus, the acoustical properties of the orthotropic material are explained and discussed later.     

Size-dependent dynamic pull-in analysis of geometric non-linear micro-plates based on the modified couple stress theory

This paper focuses on the size-dependent dynamic pull-in instability in rectangular micro-plates actuated by step-input DC voltage. The present model accounts for the effects of in-plane displacements and their non-classical higher-order boundary conditions, von Kármán geometric non-linearity, non-classical couple stress components and the inherent non-linearity of distributed electrostatic pressure on the micro-plate motion. The governing equations of motion, which are clearly derived using Hamilton's principle, are solved through a novel computationally very efficient Galerkin-based reduced order model (ROM) in which all higher-order non-classical boundary conditions are completely satisfied. The present findings are compared and successfully validated by available results in the literature as well as those obtained by three-dimensional finite element simulations carried out using COMSOL Multyphysics. A detailed parametric study is also conducted to illustrate the effects of in-plane displacements, plate aspect ratio, couple stress components and geometric non-linearity on the dynamic instability threshold of the system.     

The effect of out-of-plane motion on 2D and 3D digital image correlation measurements

The effect of out-of-plane motion (including out-of-plane translation and rotation) on two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation measurements is demonstrated using basic theoretical pinhole image equations and experimentally through synchronized, multi-system measurements. Full-field results obtained during rigid body, out-of-plane motion using a single-camera vision system with (a-1) a standard f55mm Nikon lens and (a-2) a single Schneider–Kreuznach Xenoplan telecentric lens are compared with data obtained using a two-camera stereovision system with standard f55mm Nikon lenses.Results confirm that the theoretical equations are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. Specifically, results show that (a) a single-camera, 2D imaging system is sensitive to out-of-plane motion, with in-plane strain errors (a-1) due to out-of-plane translation being proportional to ΔZ/Z, where Z is the distance from the object to the pin hole and ΔZ the out-of-plane translation displacement, and (a-2) due to out-of-plane rotation are shown to be a function of both rotation angle and the image distance Z; (b) the telecentric lens has an effective object distance, Z_eff, that is 50× larger than the 55 mm standard lens, with a corresponding reduction in strain errors from 1250 μs/mm of out-of-plane motion to 25 μs/mm; and (c) a stereovision system measures all components of displacement without introducing measurable, full-field, strain errors, even though an object may undergo appreciable out-of-plane translation and rotation.