• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.527-546
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• 2014

Portland cement concrete, which has higher strength and stiffness than asphalt concrete, has been widely applied on pavements. However, the brittle fracture characteristic of cement concrete restricts its application in highway pavement construction. Since the polypropylene fiber can improve the fracture toughness of cement concrete, Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (PFRC) is attracting more and more attention in civil engineering. In order to study the effect of polypropylene fiber on the generation and evolution process of the local deformation band in concrete, a series of three-point bending tests were performed using the new technology of the digital speckle correlation method for FRC notched beams with different volumetric contents of polypropylene fiber. The modified Double-K model was utilized for the first time to calculate the stress intensity factors of instability and crack initiation of fiber-reinforced concrete beams. The results indicate that the polypropylene fiber can enhance the fracture toughness. Based on the modified Double-K fracture theory, the maximum fracture energy of concrete with 3.2% fiber (in volume) is 47 times higher than the plain concrete. No effort of fiber content on the strength of the concrete was found. Meanwhile to balance the strength and resistant fracture toughness, concrete with 1.6% fiber is recommended to be applied in pavement construction.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.509-519
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• 2024

In this study, the static analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced composites (CNTRC) beams resting on a Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation is presented. The developed theories account for higher-order variation of transverse shear strain through the depth of the beam and satisfy the stress-free boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the beam. To study the effect of carbon nanotubes distribution in functionally graded (FG-CNT), we introduce in the equation of CNT volume fraction a new exponent equation. The SWCNTs are assumed to be aligned and distributed in the polymeric matrix with different patterns of reinforcement. The rule of mixture is used to describe the material properties of the CNTRC beams. The governing equations were derived by employing Hamilton's principle. The models presented in this work are numerically provided to verify the accuracy of the present theory. The analytical solutions are presented, and the obtained results are compared with the existing solutions to verify the validity of the developed theories. Many parameters are investigated, such as the Pasternak shear modulus parameter, the Winkler modulus parameter, the volume fraction, and the order of the exponent in the volume fraction equation. New results obtained from bending and stresses are presented and discussed in detail. From the obtained results, it became clear the influence of the exponential CNTs distribution and Winkler-Pasternak model improved the mechanical properties of the CNTRC beams.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2014

Piezoelectric fans are thin elastic beams whose vibratory motion is actuated by means of a piezoelectric material bonded to the beam. These fans have found use as a means to enhance convective heat transfer while requiring only small amounts of power. This study presents new types of models with heat sink having air passage and investigates experimentally their heat transfer characteristics. From the comparison results for four models, the heat transfer coefficients of model 1 are approximately 44~66% higher than those of the reference model 0. The model 1 show the best overall performance about heat transfer and cooling capability. As shown in above results, it is necessary to design the heat sink with air pass for cooling of electronic devices, in order to increase the convective heat transfer coefficient of a piezoelectric fan for electronic cooling.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1023-1042
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• 2016

Based on Hamilton's principle, the flexural vibration differential equations and boundary conditions of the steel-concrete composite beam (SCCB) with comprehensive consideration of the influences of the shear deformation, interface slip and longitudinal inertia of motion were derived. The analytical natural frequencies of flexural vibration were compared with available results previously observed by the experiments, the results calculated by the FE model and the other similar beam theories available in the open literatures. The comparison results showed that, the calculation results of the analytical and Timoshenko models had a good agreement with the results of the experimental test and FE model. Finally, the influences of shear deformation and interface slip on the flexural natural frequencies of the SCCB were discussed. The shear deformation effect increases with the increase of the mode orders of flexural natural vibration, and the flexural natural frequencies of the higher mode orders ignoring the influence of shear deformations effect would be overestimated. The interface slip effect decrease with the increase of the mode orders of flexural natural vibration, and the influence of the interface slip effect on flexural natural frequencies of the low mode orders is significant. The influence of the degree of shear connection on shear deformation effect is insignificant, and the low order modes of flexural natural vibration are mainly composed of the rotational displacement of cross sections.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.373-393
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• 2018

This paper is concerned with the wave propagation behavior of rotating functionally graded temperature-dependent nanoscale beams subjected to thermal loading based on nonlocal strain gradient stress field. Uniform, linear and nonlinear temperature distributions across the thickness are investigated. Thermo-elastic properties of FG beam change gradually according to the Mori-Tanaka distribution model in the spatial coordinate. The nanobeam is modeled via a higher-order shear deformable refined beam theory which has a trigonometric shear stress function. The governing equations are derived by Hamilton's principle as a function of axial force due to centrifugal stiffening and displacement. By applying an analytical solution and solving an eigenvalue problem, the dispersion relations of rotating FG nanobeam are obtained. Numerical results illustrate that various parameters including temperature change, angular velocity, nonlocality parameter, wave number and gradient index have significant effect on the wave dispersion characteristics of the understudy nanobeam. The outcome of this study can provide beneficial information for the next generation researches and exact design of nano-machines including nanoscale molecular bearings and nanogears, etc.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2013

The thermal buckling properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) are studied using nonlocal Timoshenko beam model, including the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia. The DWCNTs are considered as two nanotube shells coupled through the van der Waals interaction between them. The geometric nonlinearity is taken into account, which arises from the mid-plane stretching. Considering the small-scale effects, the governing equilibrium equations are derived and the critical buckling temperatures under uniform temperature rise are obtained. The results show that the critical buckling temperature can be overestimated by the local beam model if the nonlocal effect is overlooked for long nanotubes. In addition, the effect of shear deformation and rotary inertia on the buckling temperature is more obvious for the higher-order modes. The investigation of the thermal buckling properties of DWCNTs may be used as a useful reference for the application and the design of nanostructures in which DWCNTs act as basic elements.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.179-202
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• 2023

This article presents a numerical analysis to investigate the natural frequencies and harmonic response of a perforated cantilever beam attached to two layers of piezoelectric materials by using the finite element method for the first time. The bimorph piezoelectric is composed of 3 layers; two of them at the outer are piezoelectric, and the inner isotropic material. A higher order 3-D 20-node solid element that exhibits quadratic displacement behavior is exploited to discretize the isotropic layer, and coupled piezoelectric 3D element with twenty nodes is used to mesh the top and bottom layers. CIRCU94 element is added to act as a resistor part of the model. The proposed model is validated with previous works. The numerical parametric studies are presented to illustrate the effects of perforation geometry, the number of rows, the resistance on the natural frequencies, frequency response, and power. It is found that the thickness has a positive relationship with the natural frequency. Perforations help in producing higher voltage, and the best shape is rectangular perforations, and to produce higher voltage, two rows of rectangular perforations should be applied.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.179-193
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• 2023

Physical activities enhance blood flow in the vessels, which may increase the quality of medicine delivery. The emergence of revolutionary technologies such as nanoscience, made it possible to treat the incurable illnesses such as cancer. This paper investigates the impact of sport and physical exercises on the quality and quantity of the drug-delivery based on the mathematical modeling of a nanomotor made by nanotubes carrying the nano-drug capsules. Accordingly, the mathematical equations of rotating nanomotor are generated by considering the both of higher-order beam model and nonlocal strain gradient model, as a comprehensive continuum theory. Next, through the generalized differential quadrature together with Newmark-beta methods, the differential relations are discretized and solved. Finally, the impact of varied parameters on the dynamical behavior of the nanomotor is examined in detail. The outcomes of this investigation can be useful to achieve an excellent design of nanomotors carrying nano-drugs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117-136
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• 2020

Curved steel-concrete composite box girder has been widely adopted in urban overpasses and ramp bridges. In order to investigate its mechanical behavior under complicated and combined bending, shear and torsion load, two large-curvature composite box girders with interior angles of 25° and 45° were tested under static hogging moment. Based on the strain and deflection measurement on critical cross-sections during the static loading test, the failure mode, cracking behavior, load-displacement relationship, and strain distribution in the steel plate and rebar were investigated in detail. The test result showed the large-curvature composite box girders exhibited notable shear lag in the concrete slab and steel girder. Also, the constraint torsion and distortion effect caused the stress measured at the inner side of the composite beam to be notably higher than that of the outer side. The strain distribution in the steel web was approximately linear; therefore, the assumption that the plane section remains plane was approximately validated based on strain measurement at steel web. Furthermore, the full-process non-linear elaborate finite element (FE) models of the two specimens were developed based on commercial FE software MSC.MARC. The modeling scheme and constitutive model were illustrated in detail. Based on the comparison between the FE model and test results, the FE model effectively simulated the failure mode, the load-displacement curve, and the strain development of longitudinal rebar and steel girder with sufficient accuracy. The comparison between the FE model and the test result validated the accuracy of the developed FE model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.3
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• pp.291-309
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• 2023

This paper addresses the finite element modeling of functionally graded porous (FGP) beams for free vibration and buckling behaviour cases. The formulated finite element is based on simple and efficient higher order shear deformation theory. The key feature of this formulation is that it deals with Euler-Bernoulli beam theory with only three unknowns without requiring any shear correction factor. In fact, the presented two-noded beam element has three degrees of freedom per node, and the discrete model guarantees the interelement continuity by using both C⁰ and C¹ continuities for the displacement field and its first derivative shape functions, respectively. The weak form of the governing equations is obtained from the Hamilton principle of FGP beams to generate the elementary stiffness, geometric, and mass matrices. By deploying the isoparametric coordinate system, the derived elementary matrices are computed using the Gauss quadrature rule. To overcome the shear-locking phenomenon, the reduced integration technique is used for the shear strain energy. Furthermore, the effect of porosity distribution patterns on the free vibration and buckling behaviours of porous functionally graded beams in various parameters is investigated. The obtained results extend and improve those predicted previously by alternative existing theories, in which significant parameters such as material distribution, geometrical configuration, boundary conditions, and porosity distributions are considered and discussed in detailed numerical comparisons. Determining the impacts of these parameters on natural frequencies and critical buckling loads play an essential role in the manufacturing process of such materials and their related mechanical modeling in aerospace, nuclear, civil, and other structures.