Modelling and optimization of laminated adaptive shells of revolution

In this paper two shell finite element models are presented for the structural analysis of composite laminated piezoelectric shells. One is an axisymmetric conical frustum with two nodal rings and the other is a conic shell panel with eight nodes. Both models are based in a mixed laminated theory that combines a higher order shear deformation theory for the mechanical displacement field with a layerwise representation with linear functions for the electric potential through each piezoelectric layer. In order to obtain the optimal design sensitivities analysis and optimization techniques based in the nonlinear mathematical programming are used. The design objectives can be the minimization of the deformed structure or the maximization of the natural fundamental frequency and the design variables are the electric potential difference applied to the actuators or the ply thicknesses among others.     

Active control of forced vibrations in adaptive structures using a higher order model

This paper deals with a finite element formulation for active control of forced vibrations, including resonance, of thin plate/shell laminated structures with integrated piezoelectric layers, acting as sensors and actuators, based on third-order shear deformation theory. The finite element model is a single layer triangular nonconforming plate/shell element with 24 degrees of freedom for the generalized displacements, and one electrical potential degree of freedom for each piezoelectric element layer, which are surface bonded or embedded in the laminate.

The Newmark method is considered to calculate the dynamic response of the laminated structures, forced to vibrate in the first natural frequency. To achieve a mechanism of active control of the structure dynamic response, a feedback control algorithm is used, coupling the sensor and active piezoelectric layers. The model is applied in the solution of illustrative cases, and the results are presented and discussed.     

基于多重绘制模型的艺术绘制

为了使得计算机能自动生成表达力丰富的三维场景的艺术绘制，提出了一种基于Shader的多重绘制模型，并采用了多重绘制的协调、参数空间的纹理铺陈、基于色调的表现控制等技术来进行模拟．引入多重绘制可以同时采用对象空间的绘制和图像空间的绘制，通过纹理铺陈描述语言Shader，用户可以定义自己的纹理和笔划来表现三维和二维场景．不同于传统的Shader，基于Shader的多重绘制模型采用光亮度、材质颜色等作为输入，由用户自行决定绘制结果的输入．这一用户可定制性的引入大大增强了艺术绘制的表现能力．该模型已经在一个建筑设计系统中得到实现，以钢笔画为表现媒介的图例表明该模型模拟效果令人满意．     

MODEL‐REFERENCE OUTPUT‐FEEDBACK SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER FOR A CLASS OF MULTIVARIABLE NONLINEAR SYSTEMS

This paper proposes an output‐feedback sliding mode control design for a class of uncertain multivariable plants with nonlinear disturbances. The approach used here is based on the control parameterization employed in model‐reference adaptive control. The disturbances are allowed to be unmatched and to depend not only on the plant output but also on its unmeas‐urable state. A less restrictive condition on the uncertainty of the high frequency gain matrix is also obtained.     

Frequency domain analysis of acoustic wave propagation in heterogeneous media considering iterative coupling procedures between the method of fundamental solutions and Kansa's method

Acoustic wave propagation in heterogeneous media is a topic of significant interest in many areas of science and engineering, including aeroacoustics and sound propagation in oceans. In the present work, numerical frequency domain models based on the joint use of the method of fundamental solutions and of the radial basis function collocation method (also known as Kansa's method) are discussed. In this context, the method of fundamental solutions is used to model the homogeneous part of the propagation domain, while Kansa's method is employed to model the presence of heterogeneities. The coupling between the two parts of the propagation domain is performed iteratively, allowing independent spatial discretization between the different subdomains of the model (i.e. matching collocation points at common surfaces are not necessary). Additionally, an optimised algorithm, based on the use of a varying relaxation parameter, is employed to speed up and/or to ensure the convergence of the iterative coupling process. At the end of the paper, numerical results illustrate the applicability and potentialities of the proposed formulations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discovering collaborative knowledge-intensive processes through e-mail mining

Knowledge Management aims to promote the growth, communication and preservation of knowledge within an organization, which includes managing the appropriate resources to facilitate knowledge sharing and reuse. Business Process-Oriented Knowledge Management focuses on discovering and representing the dynamic conversion of existing knowledge among participants involved in executing business processes. In this context, Knowledge-Intensive Processes are a very important and challenging specific subclass of processes, since they strongly involve socialization and informal exchanges of knowledge among participants. This paper describes in detail a method for semi-automatic discovery of relevant information characterizing Knowledge-Intensive Processes, as well as the results of further evaluation of the method. Our approach draws on the informal exchange of existing knowledge in collaborative tools such as e-mails. The output is a conceptual map that describes the main elements of a Knowledge-Intensive Process, as well as their relationships. The results from the case study conducted to evaluate the method in an organization underlined the prospects for using collaborative environments to discover the way agents perform their activities.     

Bending and free vibration analysis of isotropic and multilayered plates and shells by using a new accurate higher-order shear deformation theory

Bending and free vibration analysis of multilayered plates and shells by using a new accurate higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is presented. It is one of the most accurate HSDT available in the literature, mainly because new non-polynomial shear strain shape functions (combination of exponential and trigonometric) used in the present theory are richer than polynomial functions, and free surface boundary conditions can be guaranteed a priori. The present HSDT is able to reproduce Touratier’s HSDT as special case. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived by employing the principle of virtual work. These equations are then solved via Navier-type, closed form solutions. Bending and dynamic results are presented for cylindrical and spherical shells and plates for simply supported boundary conditions. Panels are subjected to sinusoidal, distributed and point loads. Results are provided for thick to thin as well as shallow and deep shells. The present results are compared with the exact three-dimensional elasticity theory and with several other well-known HSDT theories. The present HSDT is found to be more precise than other several existing ones for analyzing the bending and free vibration of isotropic and multilayered composite shell and plate structures.     

Effect of grain and secondary phase morphologies in the mechanical and damping behavior of Al7075 alloys

The present study evaluates the role of the microstructure in the static and dynamic mechanical behavior of as-cast Al7075 alloy promoted by ultrasonic treatment (US) during solidification. The characterization of samples revealed that US treatment promoted grain and intermetallics refinement, changed the shape of the intermetallic phases (equilibrium phases of soluble M and/or T (Al, Cu, Mg, Zn) and their insoluble Al-Cu-Fe compounds) and lead to their uniform distribution along the grain boundaries. Consequently, the mechanical properties and damping capacity above critical strain values were enhanced by comparison with values obtained for castings produced without US vibration. This results suggest that the grain and secondary phases refinement by US can be a promising solution to process materials to obtain high damping and high strength characteristics.     

Influence of Copper Layer Content in the Elastic and Damping Behavior of Glass-Fiber/Epoxy-Resin Composites

The impact in the elastic behavior and internal friction, caused by the introduction of Copper layers in Glass-Fiber/Epoxy Resin composites and temperature effects, were studied and evaluated recurring to Dynamic Mechanical Analysis. It is shown that the introduction of Copper layers increases the storage modulus of the composites and delays their glass transition temperature, however, it allows a faster transformation. Additionally, it is concluded that the introduction of Copper layers elevates the internal friction during the glass transition phase by the inversion of the deformation mechanism due to thermal expansion and increase in the Poisson’s ratio of the epoxy resin to a value near 0.5 where its deformation is approximately isochoric. This increase in damping capacity is relevant in application with cyclic fatigue and mechanical vibration.     

Response of Corn Seedlings (Zea mays L.) to Different Concentrations of Nitrogen in Absence and Presence of Silicon

Silicon - Corn plants are highly demanding of nitrogen and the application of silicon has been studied because it minimizes stress from different natures, and for the better utilization of some...