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Steel-coped beams are used in industrial structures to accommodate a cluster of water mains, fire hydrants, power cables and telecommunication wires. The coped regions restrict the ultimate capacity and cause unfavorable failure modes. The current study investigates the structural assessment of the coped section in offshore topsides while their use enhances operational safety for drilling and production. The structural evaluation is done through 2D digital image correlation (DIC) experiments to quantify the influence of various cope geometries. The DIC technique illustrated the strain and deformation measurements under different loading conditions for different coped geometry. The primary failure mode observed in local web buckling is characterized by noticeable lateral displacement and the development of buckling lines over the coped web. Studies showed the influence of the cope depth on the load-carrying capacity and buckling processes for different cope geometries. The results of the DIC analysis are strongly aligned with experimental data and finite element numerical results, suggesting this technique to the structural assessment of coped section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the vibration and buckling behavior of a functionally graded piezoelectric porous cylindrical microshell under thermo-electro-mechanical loads are explored on the basis of modified couple stress theory and higher-order shear deformation theory. First, the model of a functionally graded piezoelectric porous cylindrical microshell composed of piezoelectric materials with gradient change in the thickness direction was described. Second, the governing equations of the microshell were derived by Hamilton's principle and Maxwell equation. Third, the modal frequency and buckling equations of the microshell with simply supported ends were obtained on the basis of harmonic trigonometric functions. Finally, the effects of parameters on the modal frequency and buckling behavior were carried out by case studies. The results show that the modal frequency of the microshell can be adjusted by changing the porosity volume fraction, power index, applied voltage, axial load and geometric dimensions. It is also found that the vibration of the microshell is suppressed by positive voltage and axial compression but is strengthened by negative voltage and axial tension, and the material length scale parameter increases stiffness. In addition, the effects of applied voltage and axial load on the buckling behavior are larger than those of temperature. Results can be used to guide the design and application of piezoelectric devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summer, the high ambient air temperatures and increased solar radiation cause rises in rail temperatures, and rails can experience the buckling. In this study, a thermofluidic analysis was conducted to predict the temperature of a rail. Numerical simulations were performed by changing the orientation of the rails. The south-north rail and the east-west rail was named "0° rail" and "90° rail", respectively. The numerical results from the 0° and 90° rails were validated by comparing them with measured values. Based on this validation, the temperature distribution of a 45° rail was analyzed. The total amount of energies received by the rail were in the order of 0° > 45° > 90°. The results of this study showed that the temperature of a rail can be sufficiently predicted through numerical simulation, and this approach can be used in a forecast to predict a time when buckling might occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and effective approach based on refined plate theory (RPT) is proposed to study the static and free vibration characteristics of functionally graded CNT-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plates. Compared to traditional higher order shear deformation theories (HSDTs), the proposed method shows more efficient for FG-CNTRC plates analysis. To solve the C1-continuity requirement of the RPT, we used isogeometric analysis (IGA) to approximate the displacement field, which shows more advantages than the FEA, since it can construct higher-order elements without additional variables. This is an advantage for plate structural analysis because more variables make the calculation cumbersome. Finally, four types of FG-CNTRC plates were investigated and the results show the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the buckling responses of functionally graded material (FGM) plate subjected to uniform, linear, and non-linear in-plane loads. New nonlinear in-plane load models are proposed based on trigonometric and exponential function. Non-dimensional critical buckling loads are evaluated using non-polynomial based higher order shear deformation theory. Navier's method, which assures minimum numerical error, is employed to get an accurate explicit solution. The equilibrium conditions are determined utilizing the principle of virtual displacements and material property are graded in the thickness direction using simple Voigt model or exponential law. The present formulation is accurate and efficient in analyzing the behavior of thin, thick and moderately thick FGM plate for buckling analysis. It is found that with the help of displacement-buckling load curve, critical buckling load can be derived and maximum displacement due to the instability of inplane load can be obtained. Also, the randomness in the values of transverse displacement due to inplane load increases as the extent of uniformity of the load on the plate is disturbed. Furthermore, the parametric varying studies are performed to analyse the effect of span-to-thickness ratio, volume fraction exponent, aspect ratio, the shape parameter for non-uniform inplane load, and non-dimensional load parameter on the non-dimensional deflections, stresses, and critical buckling load for FGM plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an efficient bi-level optimization technique to obtain the optimal stacking sequence for symmetric composite structures. The proposed approach involves two levels of modeling and optimization. The first level of the optimization procedure is used to minimize the weight of the composite structure. At this level, lamination parameters and the number of plies of specified angles (0, ±45 and 90 degree) are design variables, buckling load factor is treated as a constraint, and the weight of the structure is to be minimized using continuous-discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm. Next, at the second level the location of each ply orientation through the thickness (i.e. the layup of the panel) is found. At the second level, optimum stacking sequence is sought to maximize the load bearing capacity of the structure with respect to the buckling. The proposed methodology is applied to two test cases. Results show that the approach improves the buckling load factor of the structure without any weight penalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the buckling behavior of simply-simply supported Single-walled Carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with and without defects. The buckling of carbon nanotubes without defects was investigated using the Finite element method (FEM) and analytical treatment and that of carbon nanotubes with defects was studied only by FEM. The carbon nanotubes were modeled as beams and shells. Computations showed that beam elements in the given form provided varying results as shells in their numerical or analytical manner for a small aspect ratio. The defects resulted from the removal of randomly determined carbon atoms and beam elements connected to the nodes. The increasing number of defects decreased the critical buckling force of SWCNTs. The decrease in the critical buckling force was almost the same for SWCNTs with the same diameter but with different chirality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using new approach proposed by Dynamic relaxation (DR) method, buckling analysis of moderately thick Functionally graded (FG) cylindrical panels subjected to axial compression is investigated for various boundary conditions. The mechanical properties of FG panel are assumed to vary continuously along the thickness direction by the simple rule of mixture and Mori-Tanaka model. The incremental form of nonlinear formulations are derived based on First-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and large deflection von Karman equations. The DR method combined with the finite difference discretization technique is employed to solve the incremental form of equilibrium equations. The critical mechanical buckling load is determined based on compressive load-displacement curve by adding the incremental displacements in each load step to the displacements obtained from the previous ones. A detailed parametric study is carried out to investigate the influences of the boundary conditions, rule of mixture, grading index, radius-to-thickness ratio, length-to-radius ratio and panel angle on the mechanical buckling load. The results reveal that with increase of grading index the effect of radius-to-thickness ratio on the buckling load decreases. It is also observed that effect of distribution rules on the buckling load is dependent to the type of boundary conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of thermal stress on the vibration characteristics, buckling limit and critical speed of a rotating pretwisted beam clamped to rigid hub at a stagger angle were investigated. By considering the work done by thermal stress, the thermal influence on stiffness matrix was introduced in the dynamic model. The motion equations were derived based on Lagrange equation by employing three pure Cartesian deformation variables combined with nonlinear von Karman strain formula. Numerical investigations studied the modal characteristics of the beam. Numerical results calculated from a commercial finite element code and obtained with the present modeling method were in good agreement with the previous results reported in the literature. The combined softening effects due to the thermal stress and the rotation motion were observed. Furthermore, it is shown that the inclusion of thermal stress is necessary for blades operating under a high temperature field. Buckling thermal loads and the critical rotating speed were calculated through solving the corresponding nonlinear equations numerically, and some pertinent conclusions are outlined. It is also found that the peak value position of the first mode shape approaches to the tip of blade with the increment of rotating speed and hub radius. However, the variation in the environment temperature causes only a slight alteration in the mode shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniformly stretched thin plates do not buckle unless they are in special boundary conditions. However, buckling commonly occurs around discontinuities, such as cracks, cuts, narrow slits, holes, and different openings, of such plates. This study aims to show that buckling can also occur in thin plates that contain no defect or singularity when the stretching is local. This specific stability problem is analyzed with the finite element method. A brief literature review on stretched plates is presented. Linear and nonlinear buckling stress analyses are conducted for a partially stretched rectangular plate, and various load cases are considered to investigate the influence of the partial loading expanse on the critical tensile buckling load. Results are summarized in iso-stress areas, tables and graphs. Local stretching on one end of the plate induces buckling in the thin plate even without geometrical imperfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extended Kantorovich method using multi-term displacement functions is applied to the buckling problem of laminated plates with various boundary conditions. The out-of-plane displacement of the buckled plate is written as a series of products of functions of parameter x and functions of parameter y. With known functions in parameter x or parameter y, a set of governing equations and a set of boundary conditions are obtained after applying the variational principle to the total potential energy of the system. The higher order differential equations are then transformed into a set of first-order differential equations and solved for the buckling load and mode. Since the governing equations are first-order differential equations, solutions can be obtained analytically with the out-of-plane displacement written in the form of an exponential function. The solutions from the proposed technique are verified with solutions from the literature and FEM solutions. The bucking loads correspond very well to other available solutions in most of the comparisons. The buckling modes also compare very well with the finite element solutions. The proposed solution technique transforms higher-order differential equations to first-order differential equations, and they are analytically solved for out-of-plane displacement in the form of an exponential function. Therefore, the proposed solution technique yields a solution which can be considered as an analytical solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]