Nonaxisymmetric Thermoviscoelastoplastic Deformation of Shells of Revolution

An analysis is made of the basic results obtained at the S. P. Timoshenko Institute of Mechanics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in developing a theory and methods for thermoviscoelastic stress—strain analysis of flexible laminated shells of revolution with a thickness variable in two directions under nonaxisymmetric nonisothermal deformation along rectilinear and slightly curved paths, with the loading history taken into account     

Application of the Newton Method for Calculating the Axisymmetric Thermoelastoplastic State of Flexible Laminar Branched Shells Using the Shear Model

A method for calculating the thermoelastoplastic geometrically nonlinear state of branched laminar shells is elaborated. The method is based on the shear kinematic model for the whole package of layers and on the theory of simple loading processes. The linearization of geometrically nonlinear equations is realized using the Newton method.     

Determination of the axisymmetric geometrically nonlinear thermoviscoelastoplastic stress-strain state of shells of revolution

A method is developed for determining the axisymmetric thermoviscoelastoplastic stress-strain state of shells subjected to bending and torsion. The problem is solved in a geometrically nonlinear formulation with allowance for transverse shear. The geometrically nonlinear deformation of an annular plate, the thermoviscoelastoplastic deformation of a cylindrical shell, and the limiting state of a corrugated shell are studied as examples. S. P. Timoshenko Institute of Mechanics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 35, No. 12, pp. 40–48, December, 1999.     

Frequency and temperature amplitude dependence of complex heat capacity in the melting region of polymers

Amplitude and frequency dependence of reversible melting of polycaprolactone (PCL) and an ethylene octene copolymer (EOM) were studied using temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) (2?10^?1 Hz <f < 0.05 Hz) and shear spectroscopy (dynamic mechanical analysis, DMA) (5?10^?4 Hz < f < 100 Hz). It was found that the excess heat capacity of PCL is constant for temperature amplitudes in the range 5 mK < A_T < 2 K. The excess heat capacity decreases with frequency of temperature perturbation and tends to zero at about 0.1 Hz and 100 Hz for PCL and EOM, respectively. The constant excess heat capacity and the frequency dependence support the idea that reversible melting is related to a relaxation process on the surface of the polymer crystals. The occurrence of such a relaxation process was shown by shear modulus measurements in the same frequency and temperature region. The relaxation process is, in the melting region, much slower than main relaxation (glass transition). At low temperatures, a crossover can be seen, indicating the independence of both processes because of spatial separation. The main relaxation is related to the melt, while the other is related to the crystal surface.     

Directed assembly of surface-supported bilayers with transmembrane helices

The lateral assembly of transmembrane (TM) helices gives rise to membrane proteins with complex folds, which play important roles in biochemical processes. Therefore, the assembly of surface-supported bilayers containing TM helices is the first step toward the development of functional biomembrane mimetics. Here we report novel directed assembly of surface-supported lipid bilayers with laterally mobile TM helices. The TM helices were incorporated into lipid monolayers at the air/water interface, and the monolayers were then transferred onto glass substrates using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition. Finally, bilayers were assembled using lipid vesicle fusion on top of the LB monolayers. The novelty is the incorporation of the peptides into the monolayer at the first step of bilayer assembly, which allows control over the peptide concentration and orientation. The transmembrane orientation of the peptides was confirmed using oriented circular dichroism (OCD), lateral mobility was assessed using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), and diffusion coefficients were determined using a novel boundary profile evolution (BPE) method. The described directed-assembly approach can be used to develop versatile bilayer platforms for studying membrane proteins interactions in native bilayer environments.