• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.481-493
• /
• 2020

The negative stiffness spring and inerter are both characterized by the negative stiffness effect in the force-displacement relationship, potentially yielding an amplifying mechanism for dashpot deformation by being incorporated with a series tuning spring. However, resisting forces of the two mechanical elements are dominant in different frequency domains, thus leading to necessary complementarity in terms of vibration control and the amplifying benefit. Inspired by this, this study proposes a Negative Stiffness Inerter System (NSIS) as an earthquake protection system and developed analytical design formulae by fully utilizing its advantageous features. The NSIS is composed of a sub-configuration of a negative stiffness spring and an inerter in parallel, connected to a tuning spring in series. First, closed-form displacement responses are derived for the NSIS structure, and a stability analysis is conducted to limit the feasible domains of NSIS parameters. Then, the dual advantageous features of displacement reduction and the dashpot deformation amplification effect are revealed and clarified in a parametric analysis, stimulating the establishment of a displacement-based optimal design framework, correspondingly yielding the design formulae in analytical form. Finally, a series of examples are illustrated to validate the derived formulae. In this study, it is confirmed that the synergistic incorporation of the negative stiffness spring and the inerter has significant energy dissipation efficiency in a wide frequency band and an enhanced control effect in terms of the displacement and shear force responses. The developed displacement-based design strategy is suitable to utilize the dual benefits of the NSIS, which can be accurately implemented by the analytical design formulae to satisfy the target vibration control with increased energy dissipation efficiency.

• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.2272-2278
• /
• 2021

Background: Vibration stimulation has emerged as a treatment tool to help reduce spasticity during physical therapy. Spasticity includes problems of reduced range of motion (ROM) and stiffness. However, the benefits of vibration rolling (VR) on interventions for stroke patients are unclear. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of VR intervention on the ankle ROM and ankle stiffness in stroke patients. Design: A randomized crossover study. Methods: Seven stroke patients completed two test sessions (one VR and one non-VR [NVR]) in a randomized order, with 48 hours of rest between each session. Participants completed intervention and its measurements on the same day. The measurements included ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion ROM and stiffness of ankle muscles, including the tibialis anterior, medial, and lateral gastrocnemius muscle. Results: After VR, ankle dorsiflexion ROM, lateral gastrocnemius stiffness, and medial gastrocnemius stiffness improved significantly (all P<.05). After NVR, only the lateral gastrocnemius stiffness improved significantly (P<.05). Furthermore, in the cases of changed values for ankle dorsiflexion ROM and lateral gastrocnemius stiffness were compared within groups, VR showed a more significant difference than NVR (P<.05) Conclusion: VR improved ankle ROM and muscle stiffness. Therefore, we suggest that practitioners need to consider VR as an intervention to improve dorsiflexion ROM and gastrocnemius stiffness in stroke patients.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.337-342
• /
• 2007

A multi-objective optimization technique was implemented to obtain optimal topologies of the inner reinforcement for a vehicle's hood simultaneously considering the static stiffness of bending and torsion and natural frequency. In addition, a smoothing scheme was used to suppress the checkerboard patterns in the ESO method. Two models with different curvature were chosen in order to investigate the effect of curvature on the static stiffness and natural frequency of the inner reinforcement. A scale factor was employed to properly reflect the effect of each objective function. From several combinations of weighting factors, a Pareto-optimal topology solution was obtained. As the weighting factor for the elastic strain efficiency went from 1 to 0, the optimal topologies transmitted from the optimal topology of a static stiffness problem to that of a natural frequency problem. It was also found that the higher curvature model had a larger static stiffness and natural frequency than the lower curvature model. From the results, it is concluded that the ESO method with a smoothing scheme was effectively applied to topology optimization of the inner reinforcement of a vehicle's hood.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
• /
• v.37 no.2 s.110
• /
• pp.64-69
• /
• 2005

Suitability of corrugating medium for microflute shape formation was analyzed in terms of fiber bonding strength and paper stiffness. Cationic starch and oxidized starch were applied to corrugating medium's surface by bar coater in order to compare the relative importance of stiffness and fiber bonding on microflute formation. It was found that cationic starch was beneficial for better stiffness and oxidized starch was beneficial for better fiber bonding. The results of the decreasing ratio of length by flute formation, the calculated conditioning effect, and the flute height before and after conditioning treatment were obtained. For better microflute shape formation and its preservation it was found that fiber bonding strength should be increased, proper stiffness was required, and resistance to water absorption from surroundings should be increased.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.127-136
• /
• 2003

The top-to-bottom compression strength of corrugated board box is the most important mode of loading during it's no, and it depends largely on the edgewise compression strength of the corrugated board in the cross-machine direction and to a considerable extent on the flexural stiffness in both principal directions (CD; cross-machine direction, MD; machine direction) of the corrugated board. Corrugated board is a sandwich structure with an orthotropic property. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the principal design parameters for board combination of corrugated board from the viewpoint of bending strength through the finite element analysis [FEA] fur the various corrugated board. In general, the flexural stiffness [FS] in the MD was 2-3 times larger than that in the CD, and the effect of liner for the FS of corrugated board was much bigger than that of corrugating medium. The flexural stiffness index [FSI] was high when the stiffness of liner was in the order of inner, outer, and middle liner in double-wall corrugated board [DW], and the effect of the stiffness arrangement or itself reinforcement of corrugating medium on the FSI was not high. In single-wall corrugated board [SW] with DW. the variation of FSI with itself stiffness reinforcement of liner was much bigger than that with stiffness arrangement of liner. The highest FSI was at the ratio of about 2:1:2 for basis weight distribution of outer, middle, and inner liner if the stiffness of liner and total basis weight of corrugated board were equal in DW Secondarily. basis weight was in the order of inner, outer, and middle liner. However, the variation of FSI with basis weight distribution between liner and corrugating medium was much bigger than that with itself basis weight distribution ratio of liner and corrugating medium respectively in both DW and SW. md the FSI was high as more total basis weight was divided into liner. These phenomena fur board combination of corrugated board based on the FEA were well verified by experimental investigation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.55 no.1
• /
• pp.161-189
• /
• 2015

Soil-pile raft-structure interaction is recognized as a significant phenomenon which influences the seismic behaviour of structures. Soil structure interaction (SSI) has been extensively used to analyze the response of superstructure and piled raft through various modelling and analysis techniques. Major drawback of previous study is that overall interaction among entire soil-pile raft-superstructure system considering highlighting the change in design forces of various components in structure has not been explicitly addressed. A recent study addressed this issue in a broad sense, exhibiting the possibility of increase in pile shear due to SSI. However, in this context, relative stiffness of raft and that of pile with respect to soil and length of pile plays an important role in regulating this effect. In this paper, effect of relative stiffness of piled raft and soil along with other parameters is studied using a simplified model incorporating pile-soil raft and superstructure interaction in very soft, soft and moderately stiff soil. It is observed that pile head shear may significantly increase if the relative stiffness of raft and pile increases and furthermore stiffer pile group has a stronger effect. Outcome of this study may provide insight towards the rational seismic design of piles.

• International journal of steel structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.1363-1372
• /
• 2018

Recently, there have been studies about the increasing effect on the local plate buckling strength of flat plates when longitudinally stiffened with closed-section ribs and an approximate solution to quantitatively estimate these effects were suggested for flat plates. Since there are few studies to utilize such increasing effect on curved panels and a proper design method is not proposed, thus, this study aims to numerically evaluate such effect due to the rotational stiffness of closed-section ribs on curved panels and to propose an approximate method for estimating the buckling strength. Three-dimensional finite element models were set up using a general structural analysis program ABAQUS and a series of parametric numerical analyses were conducted in order to examine the variation of buckling stresses along with the rotational stiffness of closed-section ribs. By using a methodology that combine the strength increment factor due to the restraining effect by closed-section ribs and the buckling coefficient of the panel curvature, the approximate solutions for the estimation of buckling strength were suggested. The validity of the proposed methods was verified through a comparative study with the numerical analysis results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.24 no.10
• /
• pp.749-755
• /
• 2014

The analytical-finite element(FE) squeal model is applied to investigate the squeal propensity associated with contact stiffness of the disc brake system. The system contact stiffness is incorporated into the perturbed equations of motion in the analytical manner where the brake components are modeled by FE method. The results show that the contact stiffness of the friction material and the contact stiffness between the pads and caliper are the influential factors on the squeal propensity. Particularly, the modal instability of the 3200 Hz squeal mode drastically changes with respect to the contact stiffness between the pads and caliper.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
• /
• 2000.05a
• /
• pp.598-605
• /
• 2000

The design of a current collection system of high speed train requires the fundamental understandings fer the dynamic characteristics of a catenary system and pantograph. The stiffness of the catenary system of high speed train has the varying characteristics for the change of the contact point with a pantograph, since the supporting pole and hanger make the different boundary conditions for the updown stiffness of a trolley wire. The variation of stiffness results in Mathiue equation, which characterizes the stability of the system. However, the two terms variation of the stiffness due to span length and hanger distance cannot be solved analytically. In this paper, the stiffness variations are calculated, and the physical reasoning of linear model and one term Mathieu equation are reviewed. And the numerical analysis for the two term variation of the stiffness is done for the several design parameters of the pantograph.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.57-65
• /
• 2024

Recently, several studies have been conducted to lower the cost of transport of human by adding external joint stiffness elements. However, it has not been clearly elucidated whether adaptation time is required for human subjects to adapt to the added external joint stiffness. In this study, carbon plates in the form of shoe midsoles were added to the metatarsophalangeal joint, and the lower limb joint torque and mechanical energy consumption were compared before and after a total of 5 sessions (2.5 weeks) of running. A total of 11 young healthy participants exhibited higher elastic energy storage in carbon plates in the fifth session compared to the first session, and lower power in the ankle joint. This suggests that a single training session may be insufficient to validate the efficiency effect of added joint stiffness, and the human body seems to increase the elastic energy stored in the assistive joint stiffness and its reutilization.