• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.249-265
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• 2016

A bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is developed for harvesting energy under the vortex induced vibration and it is integrated to a host structure of a trapezoidal plate without changing its passive dynamic properties. It is aimed to select trapezoidal plate as similar to a vertical fin-like structure which could be a part of an air vehicle. The designed energy harvester consists of an aluminum beam and two identical multi fiber composite (MFC) piezoelectric patches. In order to understand the dynamic characteristic of the trapezoidal plate, finite element analysis is performed and it is validated through an experimental study. The bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester is then integrated to the trapezoidal plate at the most convenient location with minimal structural displacement. The finite element model is constructed for the new combined structure in ANSYS Workbench 14.0 and the analyses performed on this particular model are then validated via experimental techniques. Finally, the energy harvesting performance of the bimorph piezoelectric energy harvester attached to the trapezoidal plate is also investigated through wind tunnel tests under the air load and the obtained results indicate that the system is a viable one for harvesting reasonable amount of energy.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.275-302
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• 2015

Theoretical and numerical assessments of approximate evaluations and simplified analyses of piezoelectric structures transverse shear modal effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (EMCC) are presented. Therefore, the latter is first introduced theoretically and its approximate evaluations are reviewed; then, three-dimensional (3D) and simplified two-dimensional (2D) plane-strain (PStrain) and plane-stress (PStress) piezoelectric constitutive behaviors of electroded shear piezoceramic patches are derived and corresponding expected short-circuit (SC) and open-circuit (OC) frequencies and resulting EMCC are discussed; next, using a piezoceramic shear sandwich beam cantilever typical benchmark, a 3D finite element (FE) assessment of different evaluation techniques of the shear modal effective EMCC is conducted, including the equipotential (EP) constraints effect; finally, 2D PStrain and PStress FE modal analyses under SC and OC electric conditions, are conducted and corresponding results (SC/OC frequencies and resulting effective EMCC) are compared to 3D ones. It is found that: (i) physical EP constraints reduce drastically the shear modal effective EMCC; (ii) PStress and PStrain results depend strongly on the filling foam stiffness, rendering inadequate the use of popular equivalent single layer models for the transverse shear-mode sandwich configuration; (iii) in contrary to results of piezoelectric shunted damping and energy harvesting popular single-degree-of-freedom-based models, transverse shear modal effective EMCC values are very small in particular for the first mode which is the common target of these applications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.727-741
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• 2014

The functionally graded beam (FGB) is investigated in this study on both dynamic and static loading in case of resting on a soil medium rather than on the usual Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation. The powerful ABAQUS software was used to model the problem applying finite element method. In the present study, two different soil models are taken into account. In the first model, the soil is assumed to be an elastic plane stress medium. In the second soil model, the Drucker-Prager yield criterion, which is one of the most well-known elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive models, is used for modelling the soil medium. The results are shown to evaluate the effects of the different soil models, stiffness values of the elastic soil medium on the normal and shear stress and free vibration properties. A comparison was made to those from the existing literature. Numerical results show that considering real soil as a continuum space affects the results of the bending and the modal properties significantly.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2007

Study on the electron transport coefficient in mixtures of CF4 and Ar, have been analyzed over a range of the reduced electric field strength between 0.1 and 350[Td] by the two-term approximation of the Boltzmann equation (BEq.) method and the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The calculations of electron swarm parameters require the knowledge of several collision cross-sections of electron beam. Thus, published momentum transfer, ionization, vibration, attachment, electronic excitation, and dissociation cross-sections of electrons for $CF_4$ and Ar, were used. The differences of the transport coefficients of electrons in $CF_4$ mixtures of Ar, have been explained by the deduced energy distribution functions for electrons and the complete collision cross-sections for electrons. The results of the Boltzmann equation and the Monte Carlo simulation have been compared with the data presented by several workers. The deduced transport coefficients for electrons agree reasonably well with the experimental and simulation data obtained by Nakamura and Hayashi. The energy distribution function of electrons in $CF_4-Ar$ mixtures shows the Maxwellian distribution for energy. That is, $f({\varepsilon})$ has the symmetrical shape whose axis of symmetry is a most probably energy. The proposed theoretical simulation techniques in this work will be useful to predict the fundamental process of charged particles and the breakdown properties of gas mixtures. A two-term approximation of the Boltzmann equation analysis and Monte Carlo simulation have been used to study electron transport coefficients.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.57-61
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• 2006

This paper calculates and gives the analysis of mean energy in pure $SiH_4,\;Ar-SiH_4$ mixture gases ($SiH_4-0.5[%],\;5[%]$) over the range of $E/N =0.01{\sim}300[Td]$, p = 0.1, 1, 5.0 [Torr] by Monte Carlo the Backward prolongation method of the Boltzmann equation using computer simulation without using expensive equipment. The results have been obtained by using the electron collision cross sections by TOF, PT, SST sampling, compared with the experimental data determined by the other author. It also proved the reliability of the electron collision cross sections and shows the practical values of computer simulation. The calculations of electron swarm parameters require the knowledge of several collision cross-sections of electron beam. Thus, published momentum transfer, ionization, vibration, attachment, electronic excitation, and dissociation cross-sections of electrons for $SiH_4$ and Ar, were used. The differences of the transport coefficients of electrons in $SiH_4$, mixtures of $SiH_4$ and Ar, have been explained by the deduced energy distribution functions for electrons and the complete collision cross-sections for electrons. A two-term approximation of the Boltzmann equation analysis and Monte Carlo simulation have been used to study electron transport coefficients.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.77-81
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• 2008

Structural components subjected to high frequency vibrations, such as those used in vibrating parts of gas turbine engines, are usually required to avoid resonance frequencies. Generally, the operating frequency is designed at more than resonance frequencies. When a vibrating structure starts or stops, the structure has to pass through a resonance frequency, which results in large stress concentration. This paper presents the transient thermoelastic stress analysis of vibrating cantilever beam using infrared thermography and finite element method (FEM). In FEM, stress concentration factor at the 2nd resonance vibration mode is calculated by the mode superposition method of ANSYS. In experiment, stress distributions are investigated with infrared thermography and dynamic stress concentration factor is estimated. Experimental result is agreed with FEM result within 10.6%. The advantage of this technique is a better immunity to contact problem and geometric limitation in stress analysis of small or micro structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.249-260
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• 2020

The main purpose of this research work is to investigate the free vibration of conical shell structures reinforced by graphene platelets (GPLs) and the elastic properties of the nanocomposite are obtained by employing Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model. To this end, a shell model is developed based on Donnell's theory. To solve the problem, the analytical Galerkin method is employed together with beam mode shapes as weighting functions. Due to importance of boundary conditions upon mechanical behavior of nanostructures, the analysis is carried out for different boundary conditions. The effects of boundary conditions, semi vertex angle, porosity distribution and graphene platelets on the response of conical shell structures are explored. The correctness of the obtained results is checked via comparing with existing data in the literature and good agreement is eventuated. The effectiveness and the accuracy of the present approach have been demonstrated and it is shown that the Donnell's shell theory is efficient, robust and accurate in terms of nanocomposite problems.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.365-378
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• 2011

Piezo-based active structural health monitoring (SHM) requires amplifiers specifically designed for capacitive loads. Moreover, with the increase in number of applications of wireless SHM systems, energy efficiency and cost reduction for this type of amplifiers is becoming a requirement. General lab grade amplifiers are big and costly, and not built for outdoor environments. Although some piezoceramic power amplifiers are available in the market, none of them are specifically targeting the wireless constraints and low power requirements. In this paper, a piezoceramic transducer amplifier for wireless active SHM systems has been designed. Power requirements are met by two digital On/Off switches that set the amplifier in a standby state when not in use. It provides a stable ${\pm}180$ Volts output with a bandwidth of 7k Hz using a single 12 V battery. Additionally, both voltage and current outputs are provided for feedback control, impedance check, or actuator damage verification. Vibration control tests of an aluminum beam were conducted in the University of Houston lab, while wireless active SHM tests of a wind turbine blade were performed in the Harbin Institute of Technology wind tunnel. The results showed that the developed amplifier provided equivalent results to commercial solutions in suppressing structural vibrations, and that it allows researchers to perform active wireless SHM on moving objects with no power wires from the grid.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.681-697
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• 2009

Limited, noisy data in vibration testing is a hindrance to the development of structural damage detection. This paper presents a method for optimizing sensor placement and performing damage detection using finite element model updating. Sensitivity analysis of the modal flexibility matrix determines the optimal sensor locations for collecting information on structural damage. The optimal sensor locations require the instrumentation of only a limited number of degrees of freedom. Using noisy modal data from only these limited sensor locations, a method based on model updating and changes in the flexibility matrix successfully determines the location and severity of the imposed damage in numerical simulations. In addition, a steel cantilever beam experiment performed in the laboratory that considered the effects of model error and noise tested the validity of the method. The results show that the proposed approach effectively and robustly detects structural damage using limited, optimal sensor information.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.263-274
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• 2013

A numerical technique for fluid-structure interaction, which is based on the finite element method (FEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), was developed for application to an industrial chimney equipped with a pendulum tuned mass damper (TMD). In order to solve the structural problem, a one-dimensional beam model (Navier-Bernoulli) was considered and, for the dynamical problem, the standard second-order Newmark method was used. Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow are solved in several horizontal planes to determine the pressure in the boundary of the corresponding cross-section of the chimney. Forces per unit length were obtained by integrating the pressure and are introduced in the structure using standard FEM interpolation techniques. For the fluid problem, a fractional step scheme based on a second order pressure splitting has been used. In each fluid plane, the displacements have been taken into account considering an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian approach. The stabilization of convection and diffusion terms is achieved by means of quasi-static orthogonal subscales. For each period of time, the fluid problem was solved and the geometry of the mesh of each fluid plane is updated according to the structure displacements. Using this technique, along-wind and across-wind effects have been properly explained. The method was applied to an industrial chimney in three scenarios (with or without TMD and for different damping values) and for two wind speeds, showing different responses.