Narrow Results

Based on the variational differential quadrature (VDQ) method, the bending and buckling characteristics of circular plates made of functionally graded graphene origami-enabled auxetic metamaterials (FG-GOEAMs) are numerically studied in this paper. It is considered that the plate is composed of multiple GOEAM layers with graphene origami (GOri) content that changes in layer-wise patterns. The results from genetic programming-assisted micromechanical models are also employed in order to estimate the material properties. The plate is modeled according to the first-order shear deformation plate theory whose governing equations are obtained using an energy approach in the context of VDQ technique. The governing equations are given in a new vector-matrix form which can be easily utilized in coding process of numerical methods. By means of VDQ matrix differential and integral operators, the governing equations are discretized and solved to calculate the lateral deflection and critical buckling load of plates under various boundary conditions. Selected numerical results are presented to investigate the influences of boundary conditions, GOri content, folding degree and distribution pattern on the buckling and bending behaviors of FG-GOEAM plates.

Two alternating homogeneous materials are periodically introduced along the radial direction, forming a circular plate of radial phononic crystal (CPRPC). To illustrate the characteristics of the out-of-plane transverse wave and the in-plane longitudinal wave propagating along the radial direction, the transfer matrices are derived based on the basic wave equations of a thin circular plate in cylindrical coordinates. Localization factors are introduced to evaluate the average attenuation of the transverse and longitudinal waves in the structure, and corresponding bandgaps are obtained. Moreover, finite element method simulations, numerical analyses and the insertion loss method are combined to investigate the effects of the main parameters on these wave bandgaps. The results show that significant transverse and longitudinal wave bandgaps caused by the radial periodicity of the CPRPC exist, and the structural and material parameters have essential influences on them.

The high frequency asymptotic formulas for the acoustic impedance modal coefficients of a clamped circular plate located at the boundary of the three-wall corner region have been obtained. The method of contour integral analysis, the series for the Bessel and Neumann functions and the stationary phase method have been used. Some sample modal coefficients of the acoustic resistance and reactance together with the absolute approximation error have been illustrated as the functions of a parameter proportional to the vibration frequency. The computational efficiency of the presented asymptotic formulas has been compared with the computational efficiency of the integral formulas. The cases, in which the asymptotic formulas allow to reduce the calculation time in comparison with the integral formulas, have been determined. The presented formulas can be used to decrease the computation time of the acoustics power radiated by a clamped circular plate located at the boundary of the three-wall corner region. Moreover, the sound pressure calculations can be performed much faster by using these formulas when the acoustic attenuation is included.

In this paper, we analyze the transverse vibration of a circular plate loaded by uniform pressure along its edge. The plate is supported by an elastic ring support being coaxial with the plate. At its edge the plate is clamped but the radial displacement is allowed. Apart from this problem, the heated plate clamped at its edge, but without the possibility of radial displacement, is also analyzed. The analytical solution of governing equation is obtained in the form of Bessel's functions. Using the analytical solution, the frequencies of transverse vibrations depending on loads, elastic ring stiffness and the location of ring are obtained. The results show that the lowest frequencies vibrations can be either symmetric or asymmetric having one or two nodal diameters. It is also shown that multiple vibration frequencies can occur for special values of load and ring stiffness.

The paper addresses the problem of asymmetric buckling of geometrically imperfect circular plates undergoing large axisymmetric deflections under thermal loading. The plate edge is assumed to be immovable in the radial direction and elastically restrained against bending rotation. The plate material is graded in the thickness direction and dependence of the material properties on temperature is taken into account. The governing equations are derived using the von Karman nonlinear plate theory and the concept of physically neutral surface. It is shown that, when subjected to increasing temperature, the plate initially bends into a figure of revolution and then buckles into asymmetric mode with local circumferential waves. To determine the critical temperature rise, a nonlinear eigenvalue problem is formulated by linearizing the governing equations about the axisymmetric state of equilibrium and solved using power-series expansions. The effect of temperature-dependent material properties, rotational spring stiffness and initial geometric imperfection on the critical temperature rise and buckling mode shapes is studied.

The porous material is an emerging lightweight material, which is able to reduce structural weight and also keeps the superiority of the structure. Therefore, this work is devoted to the investigation of the functionally graded porous (FGP) annular and circular plates with general boundary conditions. The unified modeling method is proposed by combining the first-order shear deformation theory, the virtual spring technology, the multi-segment partition method, and the semi-analysis Rayleigh–Ritz approach. Afterwards, the convergency and correctness of the proposed method are verified, respectively. The frequency parameters, modal shapes, and forced vibration responses are uniformly calculated based on the proposed method. Finally, the dynamic analyses of the FGP annular and circular plates with different parameters, such as the porosity distribution types, porosity ratios, boundary condition types, geometry parameters, and load types, are conducted in detail. It is found that the reasonable porous design is able to keep the dynamic stability of the structure under different parameter variations.

Buckling of a circular graphene-platelet-reinforced composite plate resting on an elastic foundation is investigated in this research for the first time. The equations governing the thermal buckling of the circular plate were derived based on Hamilton’s principle, classical theory, and the von Kármán strain field. The effective material properties were determined by the Halpin-Tsai model and the rule of mixture. The plate is divided into two sections where solution of stability equation for each section is determined exactly. Applying the boundary and continuity conditions, a transcendental equation is established which may be used to obtain the critical buckling temperature and number of nodal diameters at the onset of buckling. In the end, and after validating the results, the effects of the laminated graphene-platelet-reinforced plate configuration, elastic foundation properties and dimensions, and the graphene platelet weight fraction on the critical thermal buckling temperature were investigated.

The buckling and postbuckling behaviors of functionally graded graphene platelets-reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) circular plates are studied based on the classical nonlinear von Karman plate theory. The effective Young’s modulus of the composite is estimated using the modified Halpin–Tsai micromechanical model, and the effective Poisson’s ratio is estimated by the rule of mixtures. Governing equations of the problem are derived based on the Hamilton principle and the numerical solutions of critical loads and postbuckling deflection–load relationships are calculated using the shooting method. Different from the existing linear buckling analysis based on the Terriftz criterion, the study with considering the global deformation of the plates, we analyze the influencing factors of the critical buckling loads and postbuckling paths of the FG-GPLRC circular plates subjected to uniformly distributed radial pressure. The results show that the content, geometric parameters and distribution pattern of GPL have great influences on the critical buckling loads and the post-buckling bearing capacities of the circular FG-GPLRC plates.

A dimensionless discrete state-space mathematical model is proposed for stress analysis of an axially-symmetric saturated poroelastic circular plate being loaded by temperature rise of one of the flat faces. Computation of stress by means of this model is free from a need for differentiation. The curves of thermal postbuckling, thermal nonlinear bending, radial stress, circumferential stress and resultant radial force have been achieved by means of six state-space variables and differential quadrature procedure. The effects of loading temperature, boundary conditions, porosity, pore distribution and fluid pore pressure on the thermal post buckling and nonlinear bending phenomena have been investigated. The critical postbuckling thermal load has been determined by means of a numerical algorithm that does not converge to trivial solution because it starts from a relatively great numerical thermal load. Contrary to the governing equation in usual form, the governing equations in state space together with the state equations equalize the number of the governing assembled difference equations and that of the unknowns, and eventually do not require to apply the so-called auxiliary extra boundary conditions at the nodes adjacent to the boundary nodes. As another advantage, in state-spatial viewpoint, there is not any necessity for computing the coefficients of derivatives with order higher than unity.

When a structure vibrates immersed in a fluid it is known that the dynamic properties of the system are modified. The surrounding fluid will, in general, contribute to the inertia, the rigidity and the damping coefficient of the coupled fluid-structure system. For light structures, like spacecraft antennas, even when the fluid is air the contribution to the dynamic properties can be important. For not so light structures the ratio of the equivalent fluid/structure mass and rigidity can be very small and the fluid contribution could be neglected. For the ratio of equivalent fluid/structure damping both terms are of the same order and therefore the fluid contribution must be studied. The working life of the spacecraft structure would be on space and so without any surrounding fluid. The response of a spacecraft structure on its operational life would be attenuated by the structural damping alone but when the structure is dynamically tested on the earth the dynamic modal test is performed with the fluid surrounding it. The results thus are contaminated by the effects of the fluid. If the damping added by the fluid is of the same order as the structural damping the response of the structure in space can be quite different to the response predicted on earth. It is therefore desirable to have a method able to determine the amount of damping induced by the fluid and that should be subtracted of the total damping measured on the modal vibration test. In this work, a method for the determination of the effect of the surrounding fluid on the dynamic characteristics of a circular plate has been developed. The plate is assumed to vibrate harmonically with the vacuum modes and the generalized forces matrix due to the fluid is thus computed. For a compressible fluid this matrix is formed by complex numbers including terms of inertia, rigidity and damping. The matrix due to the fluid loading is determined by a boundary element method (BEM). The BEM used is of circular rings on the plate surface so the number of elements to obtain an accurate result is very low. The natural frequencies of the system are computed by an iteration procedure one by one and also the damping fluid contribution. Comparisons of the present method with various experimental data and other theories show the efficiency and accuracy of the method for any support condition of the plate.

Cross-linked liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) are smart materials for large light-activated variation or bend to transfer luminous energy into mechanical energy. We study the light-induced behavior of homeotropic nematic network polymer plates. The perturbation method is applied to find approximate solutions under uniform illumination and compared with finite element simulations. Moreover, situations of nonuniform laser illumination are investigated. Unlike single solution obtained from small displacement assumption, multiple solutions within Föppl–von Kármán nonlinear geometry framework are found in the post-buckling regime and the effect of various boundary conditions is discussed. The nonuniform bending moment generated by the inhomogeneous light-induced strain, membrane force and boundary effects lead to the unconventional nonsymmetric buckling behavior that is rarely observed under traditional mechanical or thermal loading.

The power generation efficiency of piezoelectric energy harvesters is dependent on the coupling of their resonant frequency with that of the source vibration. The mechanical design of the energy harvester plays an important role in defining the resonant frequency characteristics of the system and therefore in order to maximize power density, it is important for a designer to be able to model, simulate and optimize designs to match new target applications. This paper gives a detailed calculation of piezoelectric energy harvesters that is in the form of a bimorph-circular plate fixed in the contour in the device frame by finite element (FE) analysis using the commercially available software package ANSYS, ACELAN. The piezoelectric bimorph is assumed to be driven into flexural vibration by an ambient acoustic source to convert the mechanical energies into electric energies. The optimal design was based on matching the resonant frequency of the device with the environmental exciting frequency, and balancing the output voltage. The simplified models of the account of a proof mass are offered. On the basis of calculations, the most effective construction of the device is offered that exhibit the targeted resonant frequency response chosen by the designer.

In this study, a cubic NURBS-based isogeometric finite element method is developed to study the aeroelastic tailoring of variable stiffness composite laminated (VSCL) plates, including skew, skew-tapered, tapered, and circular shapes based on third-order shear deformation theory. Also, the first-order piston theory is employed to approximate aerodynamic loads with arbitrary yaw flow angles over the plate area to establish aeroelastic equations. The NURBS basis functions are then utilized to simulate exact geometries and estimate variable fields for discretizing governing equations by well-known isogeometric analysis. Finally, the free vibration and flutter analysis of a VSCL quadrilateral and circular plate will be presented via the obtained eigenvalue problem. The achieved results are compared with the available results in the literature to prove the accuracy and validity of the present method. The effect of different parameters such as the flow yaw angle, end and middle-length fiber orientation, longitudinal to transverse Young’s modulus ratio, geometric shape, boundary conditions, and turning symmetric layup to asymmetric layup is carried out on the critical flutter aerodynamic pressure and natural frequencies.

The purpose of this study is to determine the natural frequencies of functionally graded (FG) porous circular plates while taking into account the uniform and nonuniform porosity distribution in the thickness direction. The material properties of FG plates are assumed to be varying continuously in the thickness direction. The material properties are calculated based on Voigt’s micro-mechanical model taking power law distribution method with arbitrary power index. The mathematical model of the FG circular porous plate is based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). The motion of equations is derived using Hamilton’s energy principle and the Differential Quadrature Method (DQM) is applied to solve this equation. Convergence studies with respect to the number of nodes are used to validate the established solution methodology for nondimensional frequencies of FG circular plates. The nondimensional frequency for the FG circular plate is calculated and compared to the existing literature results. The effects of the thickness to radius ratio, material parameters, porosity distribution, and boundary conditions on the fundamental frequency for FG porous circular plates are also discussed in detail.