• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.5
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• pp.437-452
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• 2024

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) have gained substantial attention from researchers due to their exceptional strength and thermal resistance. Their utilization in the aviation and automobile industries has significantly improved the efficiency of various structural components. Moreover, stiffened panels find wide applications in aerospace and automobile structures and these panels are frequently exposed to extreme environments. It is from this perspective that our research is focused on analysing the vibroacoustic response of stiffened functionally graded panels subjected to external dynamic excitations in a thermal environment. In the present research work, a finite element model is developed to conduct the dynamic analysis of functionally graded stiffened panels using the first-order shear deformation theory. Subsequently, a boundary element based model is also developed and coupled with the finite element model to investigate the sound radiation behaviour of those panels in a thermal environment. The material properties of FG stiffened panels are considered as temperature dependent, while the thermal environment is assumed to be acting as linearly varying through the panel's thickness. The present investigation aim to compare the vibroacoustic responses of different panels due to stiffener orientations, material compositions, power law indices and plate thicknesses at various temperatures. The research findings highlight the significant impact of addition of stiffeners, its orientation and material compositions on the sound radiation characteristics of these panels under thermal environments. The present numerical model can easily be employed for analysing the sound radiation behaviour of other types of flat or curved stiffened panels having arbitrary geometry and boundary conditions.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2004

Hydraulic conductivity along rock fracture is mainly dependent on fracture geometries such as orientation, aperture, roughness and connectivity. Therefore, it needs to consider fracture geometries sufficiently on a fracture model for a numerical analysis to calculate permeability coefficient in a fracture. This study performed new type of numerical analysis using a homogenization analysis method to calculate permeability coefficient accurately along single fractures with several fracture models that were considered fracture geometries as much as possible. First of all, fracture roughness and aperture variation due to normal stress applied on a fracture were directly measured under a confocal laser scaning microscope (CLSM). The acquired geometric data were used as input data to construct fracture models for the homogenization analysis (HA). Using the constructed fracture models, the homogenization analysis method can compute permeability coefficient with consideration of material properties both in microscale and in macroscale. The HA is a new type of perturbation theory developed to characterize the behavior of a micro inhomogeneous material with a periodic microstructure. It calculates micro scale permeability coefficient at homogeneous microscale, and then, computes a homogenized permeability coefficient (C-permeability coefficient) at macro scale. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurate characteristics of permeability reflected with local effect of facture geometry. Several computations of the HA were conducted to prove validity of the HA results compared with the empirical equations of permeability in the previous studies using the constructed 2-D fracture models. The model can be classified into a parallel plate model that has fracture roughness and identical aperture along a fracture. According to the computation results, the conventional C-permeability coefficients have values in the range of the same order or difference of one order from the permeability coefficients calculated by an empirical equation. It means that the HA result is valid to calculate permeability coefficient along a fracture. However, it should be noted that C-permeability coefficient is more accurate result than the preexisting equations of permeability calculation, because the HA considers permeability characteristics of locally inhomogeneous fracture geometries and material properties both in microscale and macroscale.