Elastic Deformation (elastic + deformation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Engineering


Selected Abstracts


ChemInform Abstract: Solid-Phase Oxidation of 2,4-Di-tert-butylphenol and 3,6-Di-tert-butylpyrocatechol in the Presence of Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Halides under Elastic Deformation.

CHEMINFORM, Issue 16 2001
V. B. Vol'eva
Abstract ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a "Full Text" option. The original article is trackable via the "References" option. [source]


Elastic deformations in a perfect bulk Si crystal studied by high-energy X-rays

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2009
Alexander Gröschel
Long-range strain fields induced in highly perfect bulk crystals during the manufacturing process significantly affect the quality and may even lead to spontaneous fracturing. Obviously a quantitative assessment of these deformations is crucial. A possible means is to examine the diffraction of X-rays by strained crystals, as the deformations bear on the diffraction characteristics of such crystals. In this report a quantitative examination of the diffraction characteristics of a perfect silicon bulk crystal with long-range strain fields in a well defined geometry is presented. The experiments were carried out using a high-energy X-ray laboratory source. By simulating the elastic deformation of the crystal by a finite element program the strain fields of the diffracting crystal are accessed. From these, simulated data values for integrated intensities can be derived on the basis of the dynamical diffraction theory for slightly distorted crystals. The theoretical calculations show good agreement with the experimental measured values. The smallest deformation yielding a noticeable change of the integrated intensity can be associated with a bending radius of the diffracting lattice planes of 16,km. [source]


Physics-based GPS data inversion to estimate three-dimensional elastic and inelastic strain fields

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2010
Akemi Noda
SUMMARY The Earth's crust is macroscopically treated as a linear elastic body, but it includes a number of defects. The occurrence of inelastic deformation such as brittle fracture at the defects brings about elastic deformation in the surrounding regions. The crustal deformation observed through geodetic measurements is the sum of the inelastic deformation as source and the elastic deformation as effect. On such a basic idea, we created a theory of physics-based strain analysis with general source representation by moment tensor, and developed an inversion method to separately estimate 3-D elastic and inelastic strain fields from GPS data. In this method, first, the optimum distribution of moment density tensor is determined from observed GPS data by using Akaike's information criterion. Then, the elastic and inelastic strain fields are obtained from the optimum moment tensor distribution by theoretical computation and direct conversion with elastic compliance tensor, respectively. We applied the inversion method to GPS horizontal velocity data, and succeeded in separately estimating 3-D elastic and inelastic strain rate fields in the Niigata,Kobe transformation zone, central Japan. As for the surface patterns of total strain, the present results of 3-D physics-based inversion analysis accord with the previous results of 2-D geometric inversion analysis. From the 3-D patterns of the inverted elastic and inelastic strain fields, we revealed that the remarkable horizontal contraction in the Niigata,Kobe transformation zone is elastic and restricted near the surface, but the remarkable shear deformation is inelastic and extends over the upper crust. [source]


The cycle of instability: stress release and fissure flow as controls on gully head retreat

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2001
A. J. C. Collison
Abstract Gully head and wall retreat has commonly been attributed to fluvial scour and head collapse as a result of soil saturation, sapping or piping. The empirical evidence to substantiate these conceptual models is sparse, however, and often contradictory. This paper explores the hydrological and mechanical controls on gully head and wall stability by modelling the hydrology, stability and elastic deformation of a marl gully complex in Granada Province, south-east Spain. The hydrological and slope-stability simulations show that saturated conditions can be reached only where preferential fissure flow channels water from tension cracks into the base of the gully head, and that vertical or subvertical heads will be stable unless saturation is achieved. Owing to the high unsaturated strengths of marl measured in this research, failure in unsaturated conditions is possible only where the gully head wall is significantly undercut. Head retreat thus requires the formation of either a tension crack or an undercut hollow. Finite-element stress analysis of eroding slopes reveals a build up of shear stress at the gully head base, and a second stress anomaly just upslope of the head wall. Although tension cracks on gully heads have often been attributed to slope unloading, this research provides strong evidence that the so called ,sapping hollow' commonly found in the gully headwall base is also a function of stress release. Although further research is needed, it seems possible that ,pop out' failures in river channels may be caused by the same process. The hydrological analysis shows that, once a tension crack has developed, throughflow velocity in the gully headwall will increase by an order of magnitude, promoting piping and enlargement of this weakened area. It is, therefore, possible to envisage a cycle of gully expansion in which erosion, channel incision or human action unloads the slope below a gully head, leading to stress patterns that account for the tension crack and a stress-release hollow. The tension crack promotes faster throughflow, encouraging hollow enlargement and piping, which undercut the gully head. The tension crack permits the development of positive pore-water pressures behind the gully head, leading either to failure or contributing to toppling. Finally the debris may be eroded by fluvial action, unloading a new section of slope and completing the cycle of gully head retreat. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


A computational model for impact failure with shear-induced dilatancy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 14 2003
Z. Chen
Abstract It has been observed in plate impact experiments that some brittle solids may undergo elastic deformation at the shock wave front, and fail catastrophically at a later time when they are shocked near but below the apparent Hugoniot elastic limit. Because this phenomenon appears to have features different from those of usual inelastic waves, it has been interpreted as the failure wave. To design an effective numerical procedure for simulating impact failure responses, a three-dimensional computational damage model is developed in this paper. The propagation of the failure wave behind the elastic shock wave is described by a non-linear diffusion equation. Macroscopic shear-induced dilatancy is assumed and treated as a one-to-one measure of the mean intensity of microcracking. The damage evolution in time is determined based on the assumption that the deviatoric strain energy in the elastically compressed material (undamaged) is converted, through the damaging process, into the volumetric potential energy in the comminuted and dilated material. For the ease in large-scale simulations, the coupled damage diffusion equation and the stress wave equation are solved via a staggered manner in a single computational domain. Numerical solutions by using both the finite element method and the material point method, i.e. with and without a rigid mesh connectivity, are presented and compared with the experimental data available. It is shown that the model simulations capture the essential features of the failure wave phenomenon observed in shock glasses, and that the numerical solutions for localized failure are not mesh-dependent. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Flow simulation on moving boundary-fitted grids and application to fluid,structure interaction problems

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 4 2006
Martin Engel
Abstract We present a method for the parallel numerical simulation of transient three-dimensional fluid,structure interaction problems. Here, we consider the interaction of incompressible flow in the fluid domain and linear elastic deformation in the solid domain. The coupled problem is tackled by an approach based on the classical alternating Schwarz method with non-overlapping subdomains, the subproblems are solved alternatingly and the coupling conditions are realized via the exchange of boundary conditions. The elasticity problem is solved by a standard linear finite element method. A main issue is that the flow solver has to be able to handle time-dependent domains. To this end, we present a technique to solve the incompressible Navier,Stokes equation in three-dimensional domains with moving boundaries. This numerical method is a generalization of a finite volume discretization using curvilinear coordinates to time-dependent coordinate transformations. It corresponds to a discretization of the arbitrary Lagrangian,Eulerian formulation of the Navier,Stokes equations. Here the grid velocity is treated in such a way that the so-called Geometric Conservation Law is implicitly satisfied. Altogether, our approach results in a scheme which is an extension of the well-known MAC-method to a staggered mesh in moving boundary-fitted coordinates which uses grid-dependent velocity components as the primary variables. To validate our method, we present some numerical results which show that second-order convergence in space is obtained on moving grids. Finally, we give the results of a fully coupled fluid,structure interaction problem. It turns out that already a simple explicit coupling with one iteration of the Schwarz method, i.e. one solution of the fluid problem and one solution of the elasticity problem per time step, yields a convergent, simple, yet efficient overall method for fluid,structure interaction problems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Matching of uncalibrated stereo images by elastic deformation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IMAGING SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2004
Wan-Chiu Li
Abstract We propose a method for uncalibrated stereo matching. The method applies gradual elastic deformation to the line segments in a pair of images until they match with each other. By using an energy function and a neighborhood function, matching is performed in a coarse-to-fine manner. Our method gives point correspondences with a low proportion of outliers and is robust in the uncalibrated case (with no need to estimate the epipolar geometry). The computation complexity is proportional to the square of the number of line segments in the images, which is relatively efficient compared with other elaborate methods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 14, 198,205, 2004; Published online in Wiley Inter-Science (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20024 [source]


Elastic deformations in a perfect bulk Si crystal studied by high-energy X-rays

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2009
Alexander Gröschel
Long-range strain fields induced in highly perfect bulk crystals during the manufacturing process significantly affect the quality and may even lead to spontaneous fracturing. Obviously a quantitative assessment of these deformations is crucial. A possible means is to examine the diffraction of X-rays by strained crystals, as the deformations bear on the diffraction characteristics of such crystals. In this report a quantitative examination of the diffraction characteristics of a perfect silicon bulk crystal with long-range strain fields in a well defined geometry is presented. The experiments were carried out using a high-energy X-ray laboratory source. By simulating the elastic deformation of the crystal by a finite element program the strain fields of the diffracting crystal are accessed. From these, simulated data values for integrated intensities can be derived on the basis of the dynamical diffraction theory for slightly distorted crystals. The theoretical calculations show good agreement with the experimental measured values. The smallest deformation yielding a noticeable change of the integrated intensity can be associated with a bending radius of the diffracting lattice planes of 16,km. [source]


Effects of diatomite on extrudate swell behavior of polypropylene composite melts

JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010
J. Z. Liang
Abstract Extrudate swell (i.e., die swell) is an important parameter for characterization of melt elasticity during extrusion of polymeric melts, and die swell ratio (B) is usually used to describe quantitatively the melt swell degree. The B of the polypropylene (PP) composites filled with diatomite particles was measured by means of a melt flow rate instrument to investigate the effects of the filler content and size on the die swell behavior of the composite system melts under the experimental conditions with temperature from 210 to 230°C and load varying from 1.2 to 7.5 kg. The particle diameters were 5, 7, and 13 ,m, and the filler volume fractions were 5, 10, and 15%, respectively. The results showed that the B of the composites decreased nonlinearly with an increase of the filler volume fraction, whereas it increased as a quadratic function with an increase of the particle diameter when the load and temperature were fixed. It might be attributed to the interaction between the inclusions and the matrix, leading to blocking the recovery of the elastic deformation as the composite melts left from the die exit. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010 [source]


Compliant grasping with passive forces

JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 5 2005
Cai-Hua Xiong
Because friction is central to robotic grasp, developing an accurate and tractable model of contact compliance, particularly in the tangential direction, and predicting the passive force closure are crucial to robotic grasping and contact analysis. This paper analyzes the existence of the uncontrollable grasping forces (i.e., passive contact forces) in enveloping grasp or fixturing, and formulates a physical model of compliant enveloping grasp. First, we develop a locally elastic contact model to describe the nonlinear coupling between the contact force with friction and elastic deformation at the individual contact. Further, a set of "compatibility" equations is given so that the elastic deformations among all contacts in the grasping system result in a consistent set of displacements of the object. Then, combining the force equilibrium, the locally elastic contact model, and the "compatibility" conditions, we formulate the natural compliant model of the enveloping grasp system where the passive compliance in joints of fingers is considered, and investigate the stability of the compliant grasp system. The crux of judging passive force closure is to predict the passive contact forces in the grasping system, which is formulated into a nonlinear least square in this paper. Using the globally convergent Levenberg-Marquardt method, we predict contact forces and estimate the passive force closure in the enveloping grasps. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the proposed compliant enveloping grasp model and the prediction method of passive force closure. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


In vivo mandibular elastic deformation during clenching on pivots

JOURNAL OF ORAL REHABILITATION, Issue 2 2002
Ting Jiang
Lower rigidly connected long span bridges supported by natural abutments or implants sometimes become loose, come off, or fracture after a period of usage. Many reasons have been discussed for these failures. However, few researchers have shown the influence of mandibular elastic deformation on the abutments, although this influence is likely to produce a distortion force between the abutment and prosthesis. Therefore, this study measured the elastic deformation of the human mandibular arch during clenching on pivots by using charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras and an image analysing system. When the subjects clenched on the canines (unilaterally or bilaterally) or bilateral second molars, no mandibular deformation was found; whereas when the subjects clenched on the unilateral second molars, the mandibular arch on the non-pivot side moved upward and inward and the straight line distances between the right and left measurement points decreased by 0·2 mm. The magnitude of deformation is smaller than the depressible limit of periodontal membrane. This suggests that the influence of mandibular deformation on the connected prosthesis is negligible in the case of the natural root supported long span bridge but should probably be considered in the case of the implant supported bridge. [source]


Single-phase flow in composite poroelastic media

MATHEMATICAL METHODS IN THE APPLIED SCIENCES, Issue 2 2002
R. E. Showalter
The mathematical formulation and analysis of the Barenblatt,Biot model of elastic deformation and laminar flow in a heterogeneous porous medium is discussed. This describes consolidation processes in a fluid-saturated double-diffusion model of fractured rock. The model includes various degenerate cases, such as incompressible constituents or totally fissured components, and it is extended to include boundary conditions arising from partially exposed pores. The quasi-static initial,boundary problem is shown to have a unique weak solution, and this solution is strong when the data are smoother. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Elastic properties of nanowires

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 10 2010
Claus-Christian Röhlig
Abstract The elastic properties of metallic and semiconducting nanowires were analyzed by different techniques employing static and dynamic loads. The reliability of the methods is verified by analyzing well defined microstructures and a good agreement for the values of the Young's modulus determined by the different methods was achieved. For the investigated materials systems (Au, W, Si, InN), basically no differences in the Young's moduli were observed between microstructures, bulk material, and nanowires with radii of 20,300,nm. Microstructure, morphological undulation, defects, and contaminations, however, can drastically change the apparent Young's moduli of nanowires. Examples are given, where an apparent increasing or decreasing of the Young's modulus with decreasing diameter is caused by such effects. The same effects have also influence on the fracture strength in nanowires. While perfect Au nanowires exhibit fracture strengths exceeding the bulk values up to two orders of magnitude, any anomaly causes earlier failure. In addition, failure mechanisms are observed to be dependent on the microstructure. While single crystalline Au nanowires have shown a pure elastic deformation upon load, polycrystalline nanowires show a remarkable plastic deformation before breaking. [source]


Microcellular model evaluation for the deformation of dynamically vulcanized EPDM/iPP blends

POLYMER ENGINEERING & SCIENCE, Issue 3 2003
Kathryn J. Wright
The origins of elasticity in thermoplastic vulcanizates have been debated for the past decade. Previous modeling attempts provide numerical solutions that make assessment of constituent concentration and interaction unclear. A microcellular modeling approach is proposed and evaluated herein to describe the steady-state behavior of dynamically vulcanized blends of ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP). This approach provides an analytic result including terms for composition and cure state. Three types of deformation are accounted for: elastic and plastic deformation of iPP, elastic deformation of EPDM, and localized elastic and plastic rotation about iPP junction points. The viability of the constitutive model is evaluated in terms of iPP concentration and EPDM cure state. [source]


Effects of 0.4 T rotating magnetic field exposure on density, strength, calcium and metabolism of rat thigh bones

BIOELECTROMAGNETICS, Issue 1 2006
Xiao-yun Zhang
Abstract The current study investigated the effects of 0.4 T rotary non-uniform magnetic field (RMF) exposure on bone density in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Results showed that many bone indexes are significantly elevated after RMF exposure compared to the control OVX group and confirmed mechanistic evidence that strong magnetic field (MF) exposure could effectively increase bone density and might be used to treat osteoporosis. Synergy of daily RMF exposure (30 min a day for 30 days using an 8 Hz rotary 0.4 T MF) with calcium supplement tended to increase the indexes of thigh bone density, energy absorption, maximum load, maximum flexibility, and elastic deformation as compared to those of untreated OVX control group. Results also revealed that the indexes of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), serum phosphate, and serum calcium were higher in rats exposed to RMF with calcium than in the untreated OVX control group. Changes in bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) were observed in rats for three months including the first month RMF exposure. Bone density in rats exposed each day for 60 min increased during 1-month exposure and continued to increase during the post-exposure period. Furthermore, bone density and calcium content in rats exposed for 90 min daily decreased initially in the exposure month; however, ratio of increase was well above the control values by the end of the post-exposure period suggesting possible window and delayed effects. The study indicated that RMF exposure to both male and OVX female rats for 120 min a day over 15 day period should effectively promote increase of bone calcium contents (BCC) and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) in rats thigh bone as well as a corresponding decrease in deoxypyridinoline crosslinks (DPD). Bioelectromagnetics 27:1,9, 2006. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Understanding the properties of aerobic sludge granules as hydrogels

BIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 5 2009
Thomas Seviour
Abstract Aerobic sludge granules are larger, denser microbial aggregates than activated sludge flocs with a smoother and more regular surface, which facilitates greater wastewater treatment intensity. Factors important in their growth are still poorly understood, which is an impediment to the construction and operation of full-scale aerobic sludge granule processes. Data in this article obtained with granules treating an abattoir wastewater provide evidence that aerobic sludge granules are hydrogels. The results also demonstrate a method for characterizing macromolecular associations. The rheological profile of these granules was found to be analogous with that of typical polymer gels. Water uptake or swelling reflects an equilibrium between granule elastic modulus and osmotic pressure, whereby uptake is increased by reducing solute concentration or the elastic modulus. A weakening of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix as demonstrated with mechanical spectroscopy was induced by several environmental factors including temperature, pH and ionic strength. Uniform and elastic deformation was observed at low strain. Enzymatic degradation studies indicate that proteins and ,-polysaccharides were the major granule structural materials. The aerobic sludge granules in the current study were therefore protein,polysaccharide composite physical hydrogels. While aerobic sludge granules treating an abattoir wastewater are used as a case study, many of the fundamental principles detailed here are relevant to other granulation processes. The paradigm established in this study can potentially be applied to better understand the formation of aerobic sludge granules and thus overcome a hurdle in the acceptance of aerobic sludge granulation as an alternative to more traditional wastewater treatment processes. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 1483,1493. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


The impact of loads on standard diameter, small diameter and mini implants: a comparative laboratory study

CLINICAL ORAL IMPLANTS RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008
Simon Rupert Allum
Abstract Objectives: While caution in the use of small-diameter (,3.5 mm) implants has been advocated in view of an increased risk of fatigue fracture under clinical loading conditions, a variety of implant designs with diameters <3 mm are currently offered in the market for reconstructions including fixed restorations. There is an absence of reported laboratory studies and randomized-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate clinical efficacy for implant designs with small diameters. This laboratory study aimed to provide comparative data on the mechanical performance of a number of narrow commercially marketed implants. Materials and methods: Implants of varying designs were investigated under a standardized test set-up similar to that recommended for standardized ISO laboratory testing. Implant assemblies were mounted in acrylic blocks supporting laboratory cast crowns and subjected to 30° off-axis loading on an LRX Tensometer. Continuous output data were collected using Nexygen software. Results: Load/displacement curves demonstrated good grouping of samples for each design with elastic deformation up to a point of failure approximating the maximum load value for each sample. The maximum loads for Straumann (control) implants were 989 N (±107 N) for the 4.1 mm RN design, and 619 N (±50 N) for the 3.3 mm RN implant (an implant known to have a risk of fracture in clinical use). Values for mini implants were recorded as 261 N (±31 N) for the HiTec 2.4 mm implant, 237 N (±37 N) for the Osteocare 2.8 mm mini and 147 N (±25 N) for the Osteocare mini design. Other implant designs were also tested. Conclusions: The diameters of the commercially available implants tested demonstrated a major impact on their ability to withstand load, with those below 3 mm diameter yielding results significantly below a value representing a risk of fracture in clinical practice. The results therefore advocate caution when considering the applicability of implants ,3 mm diameter. Standardized fatigue testing is recommended for all commercially available implants. [source]


Modeling and compensation for angular transmission error in harmonic drive gearings

IEEJ TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING, Issue 2 2009
Masafumi Yamamoto Student Member
Abstract This paper presents a novel modeling and compensation approach for the angular transmission error in harmonic drive gearings. In the modeling, physical phenomena of the transmission error due to nonlinear elastic deformations in micro-displacement region are especially dealt with, as well as the synchronous component which has been discussed in a variety of conventional studies. On the basis of the analyses of the phenomena, the nonlinear elastic component is mathematically modeled by applying a modeling framework for the rolling friction with hysteresis attributes. The proposed transmission error model has been adopted to the positioning system as a model-based feedforward compensation manner. Experimental results using a prototype show the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and compensation. Copyright © 2009 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]


Kinematic and dynamic analysis of open-loop mechanical systems using non-linear recursive formulation

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 12 2006
Yunn-Lin Hwang
Abstract In this paper, a non-linear recursive formulation is developed for kinematic and dynamic analysis of open-loop mechanical systems. The non-linear equations of motion are developed for deformable links that undergo large translational and rotational displacements. These equations are formulated in terms of a set of time invariant scalars and matrices that depend on the spatial co-ordinates as well as the assumed displacement field, and these time invariant quantities represent the dynamic coupling between the rigid-body modes and elastic deformations. A new recursive formulation is presented for solving equations of motion for open-loop chains consisting of interconnected rigid and deformable open-loop mechanical systems. This formulation is expressed by the recursive relationships and the generalized non-linear equations for deformable mechanical systems to obtain a large system of loosely coupled equations of motion. The main processor program consists of three main modules: constraint module, mass module and force module. The constraint module is used to numerically evaluate the relationship between the absolute and joint accelerations. The mass module is used to numerically evaluate the system mass matrix as well as the non-linear Coriolis and centrifugal forces associated with the absolute, joint and elastic co-ordinates. Simultaneously, the force module is used to numerically evaluate the generalized external and elastic forces associated with the absolute, joint and elastic co-ordinates. Computational efficiency is achieved by taking advantage of the structure of the resulting system of loosely coupled equations. The solution techniques used in this investigation yield a much smaller operations count and can more efficiently implement in any computer. The algorithms and solutions presented in this paper are illustrated by using an industrial robotic manipulator system. The numerical results using this formulation are also presented and discussed in this paper. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Optimal design and optimal control of structures undergoing finite rotations and elastic deformations

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 14 2004
A. Ibrahimbegovic
Abstract In this work, we deal with the optimal design and optimal control of structures undergoing large rotations and large elastic deformations. In other words, we show how to find the corresponding initial configuration through optimal design or the corresponding set of multiple load parameters through optimal control, in order to recover a desired deformed configuration or some desirable features of the deformed configuration as specified more precisely by the objective or cost function. The model problem chosen to illustrate the proposed optimal design and optimal control methodologies is the one of geometrically exact beam. First, we present a non-standard formulation of the optimal design and optimal control problems, relying on the method of Lagrange multipliers in order to make the mechanics state variables independent from either design or control variables and thus provide the most general basis for developing the best possible solution procedure. Two different solution procedures are then explored, one based on the diffuse approximation of response function and gradient method and the other one based on genetic algorithm. A number of numerical examples are given in order to illustrate both the advantages and potential drawbacks of each of the presented procedures. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Compliant grasping with passive forces

JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 5 2005
Cai-Hua Xiong
Because friction is central to robotic grasp, developing an accurate and tractable model of contact compliance, particularly in the tangential direction, and predicting the passive force closure are crucial to robotic grasping and contact analysis. This paper analyzes the existence of the uncontrollable grasping forces (i.e., passive contact forces) in enveloping grasp or fixturing, and formulates a physical model of compliant enveloping grasp. First, we develop a locally elastic contact model to describe the nonlinear coupling between the contact force with friction and elastic deformation at the individual contact. Further, a set of "compatibility" equations is given so that the elastic deformations among all contacts in the grasping system result in a consistent set of displacements of the object. Then, combining the force equilibrium, the locally elastic contact model, and the "compatibility" conditions, we formulate the natural compliant model of the enveloping grasp system where the passive compliance in joints of fingers is considered, and investigate the stability of the compliant grasp system. The crux of judging passive force closure is to predict the passive contact forces in the grasping system, which is formulated into a nonlinear least square in this paper. Using the globally convergent Levenberg-Marquardt method, we predict contact forces and estimate the passive force closure in the enveloping grasps. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the proposed compliant enveloping grasp model and the prediction method of passive force closure. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Pressure-induced structural transitions in multi-walled carbon nanotubes

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 10 2009
Hiroyuki Shima
Abstract We demonstrate a novel cross-sectional deformation, called the radial corrugation, of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) under hydrostatic pressure. Theoretical analyses based on the continuum elastic approximation have revealed that MWNTs consisting of more than ten concentric walls undergo elastic deformations at critical pressure , above which the circular shape of the cross-section becomes radially corrugated. Various corrugation modes have been observed by tuning the innermost tube diameter and the number of constituent walls, which is a direct consequence of the core,shell structure of MWNTs. Cross-sectional views of MWNT under high hydrostatic pressure: elliptic deformation with the mode index n,=,2 (left), and radial corrugations with n,=,5 (center), and n,=,6 (right). The index n indicates the circumferential wave number of the deformed cross-section. [source]