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PurposeThe goal of the study was to create a nomogram based on clinical risk factors to forecast the rate of locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRFS) in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who underwent radiotherapy (RT).MethodsIn this study, 574 ESCC patients were selected as participants. Following radiotherapy, subjects were divided into training and validation groups at a 7:3 ratio. The nomogram was established in the training group using Cox regression. Performance validation was conducted in the validation group, assessing predictability through the C-index and AUC curve, calibration via the Hosmer-Lemeshow (H-L) test, and evaluating clinical applicability using decision curve analysis (DCA).ResultsT stage, N stage, gross tumor volume (GTV) dose, location, maximal wall thickness (MWT) after RT, node size (NS) after RT, Δ computer tomography (CT) value, and chemotherapy were found to be independent risk factors that impacted LRFS by multivariate cox analysis, and the findings could be utilized to create a nomogram and forecast LRFS. the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve and C-index show that for training and validation groups, the prediction result of LRFS using nomogram was more accurate than that of TNM. The LRFS in both groups was consistent with the nomogram according to the H-L test. The DCA curve demonstrated that the nomogram had a good prediction effect both in the groups for training and validation. The nomogram was used to assign ESCC patients to three risk levels: low, medium, or high. There were substantial variations in LRFS between risk categories in both the training and validation groups (p

A circular capacitive rainfall sensor can operate from non-touch mode to touch mode; that is, under the action of enough rainwater, its movable electrode plate can form a circular contact area with its fixed electrode plate. Therefore, the weight of rainwater is borne by only its movable electrode plate in non-touch mode operation but by both its movable and fixed electrode plates in touch mode operation, and the total capacitance of its touch mode operation is much larger than that of its non-touch mode operation. Essential to its numerical design and calibration is the ability to predict the deflection shape of its moveable electrode plate to determine its total capacitance. This requires the analytical solution to the fluid–structure interaction problem of its movable electrode plate under rainwater. In our previous work, only the analytical solution for the fluid–structure interaction problem before its movable electrode plate touches its fixed electrode plate was obtained, and how to numerically design and calibrate a circular non-touch mode capacitive rainfall sensor was illustrated. In this paper, the analytical solution for the fluid–structure interaction problem after its movable electrode plate touches its fixed electrode plate is obtained, and how to numerically design and calibrate a circular touch mode capacitive rainfall sensor is illustrated for the first time. The numerical results show that the total capacitance and rainwater volume when the circular capacitive rainfall sensor operates in touch mode is indeed much larger than that when the same circular capacitive rainfall sensor operates in non-touch mode, and that the average increase in the maximum membrane stress per unit rainwater volume when the circular capacitive rainfall sensor operates in touch mode can be about 20 times smaller than that when the same circular capacitive rainfall sensor operates in non-touch mode. This is where the circular touch mode capacitive rainfall sensor excels.

A circular non-touch mode capacitive pressure sensor can operate in both transverse and normal uniform loading modes, but the elastic behavior of its movable electrode plate is different under the two different loading modes, making its input–output analytical relationships between pressure and capacitance different. This suggests that when such a sensor operates, respectively, in transverse and normal uniform loading modes, the theory of its numerical design and calibration is different, in other words, the theory for the transverse uniform loading mode (available in the literature) cannot be used as the theory for the normal uniform loading mode (not yet available in the literature). In this paper, a circular non-touch mode capacitive pressure sensor operating in normal uniform loading mode is considered. The elastic behavior of the movable electrode plate of the sensor under normal uniform loading is analytically solved with the improved governing equations, and the improved analytical solution obtained can be used to mathematically describe the movable electrode plate with larger elastic deflections, in comparison with the existing two analytical solutions in the literature. This provides a larger technical space for developing the circular non-touch mode capacitive pressure sensors used for measuring the static gas pressure (belonging to normal uniform loading).

Parkinson’s disease is a severe neurodegenerative disorder. Currently, deep brain electrical stimulation (DBS) is the first line of surgical treatment. However, serious neurological impairments such as speech disorders, disturbances of consciousness, and depression after surgery limit the efficacy of treatment. In this review, we summarize the recent experimental and clinical studies that have explored the possible causes of neurological deficits after DBS. Furthermore, we tried to identify clues from oxidative stress and pathological changes in patients that could lead to the activation of microglia and astrocytes in DBS surgical injury. Notably, reliable evidence supports the idea that neuroinflammation is caused by microglia and astrocytes, which may contribute to caspase-1 pathway-mediated neuronal pyroptosis. Finally, existing drugs and treatments may partially ameliorate the loss of neurological function in patients following DBS surgery by exerting neuroprotective effects.

The design, especially the numerical calibration, of a circular touch mode capacitive pressure sensor is highly dependent on the accuracy of the analytical solution of the contact problem between the circular conductive membrane and the rigid plate of the sensor. In this paper, the plate/membrane contact problem is reformulated using a more accurate in-plane equilibrium equation, and a new and more accurate analytical solution is presented. On this basis, the design and numerical calibration theory for circular touch mode capacitive pressure sensors has been greatly improved and perfected. The analytical relationships of pressure and capacitance are numerically calculated using the new and previous analytical solutions, and the gradually increasing difference between the two numerical calculation results with the gradual increase in the applied pressure is graphically shown. How to use analytical solutions and analytical relationships to design and numerically calibrate a circular touch mode capacitive pressure sensor with a specified pressure detecting range is illustrated in detail. The effect of changing design parameters on capacitance–pressure analytical relationships is comprehensively investigated; thus, the direction of changing design parameters to meet the required or desired range of pressure or capacitance is clarified.

Abstract Background Undergraduate medical (UM) students faced the difficulties inherent in medical careers due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Thus, imperative containment measures might affect UM students’ career intentions. Information on the factors that may be associated with these students’ career change intentions is limited. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey in August 2020 to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on career intention and the associated factors in UM students. Univariate analyses and logistic regression analysis were performed to identify said factors. Results A total of 2040 medical students from the Hubei University of Medicine were surveyed. Univariate analyses showed that grade, attitude towards healthcare, and the degree of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the students’ lives were associated with changes in career choice (P

The ability to accurately predict the shape of a transversely loaded hollow annular membrane is essential to the design of bending-free hollow annular shells of revolution, which requires a further improvement in the hollow annular membrane solution to meet the needs of this accurate prediction. In this paper, the large deflection problem of a transversely loaded hollow annular membrane is reformulated by simultaneously modifying the out-of-plane equilibrium equation and radial geometric equation, and a newer and more refined power series solution is derived. The reason why the classical radial geometry equation induces errors is revealed. The convergence and asymptotic behavior of the power series solution obtained is analyzed numerically. The newly derived solution is compared with the two previously derived solutions graphically, showing that the newly derived solution performs basically as well as expected. In addition, the anticipated use of the hollow and not-hollow annular membrane solutions for the design application of bending-free annular shells of revolution is discussed.

This paper is devoted to developing a more refined mathematical theory for designing the previously proposed membrane deflection-based rain gauges. The differential-integral equations governing the large deflection behavior of the membrane are improved by modifying the geometric equations, and more accurate power-series solutions of the large deflection problem are provided, resulting in a new and more refined mathematical theory for designing such rain gauges. Examples are presented to illustrate how to analyze the convergence of the power-series solutions and how to numerically calibrate membrane deflection-based linear rain gauges. In addition, some important issues are demonstrated, analyzed, and discussed, such as the superiority of the new mathematical theory over the old one, the reason why the classical geometric equations cause errors, and the influence of changing design parameters on the input–output relationships of rain gauges.

In the existing literature, there are only two in-plane equilibrium equations for membrane problems; one does not take into account the contribution of deflection to in-plane equilibrium at all, and the other only partly takes it into account. In this paper, a new and exact in-plane equilibrium equation is established by fully taking into account the contribution of deflection to in-plane equilibrium, and it is used for the analytical solution to the well-known Föppl-Hencky membrane problem. The power series solutions of the problem are given, but in the form of the Taylor series, so as to overcome the difficulty in convergence. The superiority of using Taylor series expansion over using Maclaurin series expansion is numerically demonstrated. Under the same conditions, the newly established in-plane equilibrium equation is compared numerically with the existing two in-plane equilibrium equations, showing that the new in-plane equilibrium equation has obvious superiority over the existing two. A new finding is obtained from this study, namely, that the power series method of using Taylor series expansion is essentially different from that of using Maclaurin series expansion; therefore, the recurrence formulas for power series coefficients of using Maclaurin series expansion cannot be derived directly from that of using Taylor series expansion.

In this study, the variational method and numerical simulation technique were used to solve the problem of bimodular functionally graded thin plates under large deformation. During the application of the variational method, the functional was established on the elastic strain energy of the plate while the variation in the functional was realized by changing undetermined coefficients in the functional. As a result, the classical Ritz method was adopted to obtain the important relationship between load and maximum deflection that is of great concern in engineering design. At the same time, the numerical simulation technique was also utilized by applying the software ABAQUS6.14.4, in which the bimodular effect and functionally graded properties of the materials were simulated by subareas in tension and compression, as well as the layering along the direction of plate thickness, respectively. This study indicates that the numerical simulation results agree with those from the variational solution, by comparing the maximum deflection of the plate, which verifies the validity of the variational solution obtained. The results presented in this study are helpful for the refined analysis and optimization design of flexible structures, which are composed of bimodular functionally graded materials, while the structure is under large deformation.

The biparametric perturbation method is applied to solve the improved Föppl–von Kármán equation, in which the improvements of equations come from two different aspects: the first aspect concerns materials, and the other is from deformation. The material considered in this study has bimodular functionally graded properties in comparison with the traditional materials commonly used in classical Föppl–von Kármán equations. At the same time, the consideration for deformation deals with not only the large deflection as indicated in classical Föppl–von Kármán equations, but also the larger rotation angle, which is incorporated by adopting the precise curvature formulas but not the simple second-order derivative term of the deflection. To fully demonstrate the effectiveness of the biparametric perturbation method proposed, two sets of parameter combinations, one being a material parameter with central defection and the other being a material parameter with load, are used for the solution of the improved Föppl–von Kármán equations. Results indicate that not only the two sets of solutions from different parameter combinations are consistent, but also they may be reduced to the single-parameter perturbation solution obtained in our previous study. The successful application of the biparametric perturbation method provides new ideas for solving similar nonlinear differential equations.

In classical thermoelasticity, the bimodular effect of materials is rarely considered. However, all materials will present, in essence, different properties in tension and compression, more or less. The bimodular effect is generally ignored only for simple analysis. In this study, we theoretically analyze a two-dimensional curved beam with a bimodular effect and under mechanical and thermal loads. We first establish a simplified model on a subarea in tension and compression. On the basis of this model, we adopt the Duhamel similarity theorem to change the initial thermoelastic problem as an elasticity problem without the thermal effect. The superposition of the special solution and supplement solution of the Lamé displacement equation enables us to satisfy the boundary conditions and stress continuity conditions of the bimodular curved beam, thus obtaining a two-dimensional thermoelastic solution. The results indicate that the solution obtained can reduce to bimodular curved beam problems without thermal loads and to the classical Golovin solution. In addition, the bimodular effect on thermal stresses is discussed under linear and non-linear temperature rise modes. Specially, when the compressive modulus is far greater than the tensile modulus, a large compressive stress will occur at the inner edge of the curved beam, which should be paid with more attention in the design of the curved beams in a thermal environment.

Essential to the design and development of circular contact mode capacitive pressure sensors is the ability to accurately predict the contact radius, maximum stress, and shape of a laterally loaded circular membrane in frictionless contact with a concentric circular rigid flat plate. In this paper, this plate/membrane contact problem is solved analytically again by simultaneously improving both out-of-plane equilibrium equation and geometric equation, and a new and more refined closed-form solution is given to meet the need of accurate prediction. The new closed-form solution is numerically discussed in convergence and effectiveness and compared with the previous one, showing that it can greatly improve the prediction accuracy of the contact radius, maximum stress, and shape of the circular membrane in frictionless contact with the rigid flat plate.

The Alekseev-type annular membranes here refer to annular membranes fixed at outer edges and connected with a movable, weightless, stiff, con-centric, circular thin plate at inner edges, which were proposed originally by Alekseev for bearing centrally concentrated loads. They are used to bear the pressure acting on both membranes and plates, which was proposed originally in our previous work for developing pressure sensors. The pressure is applied onto an Alekseev-type annular membrane, resulting in the parallel movement of the circular thin plate. Such a movement can be used to develop a capacitive pressure sensor using the circular thin plate as a movable electrode plate of a parallel plate capacitor. The pressure applied can be determined by measuring the change in capacitance of the parallel plate capacitor, based on the closed-form solution for the elastic behavior of Alekseev-type annular membranes. However, the previous closed-form solution is unsuitable for annular membranes with too large deflection, which limits the range of pressure operation of the developed sensors. A new and more refined closed-form solution is presented here by improving simultaneously the out-of-plane equilibrium equation and geometric equation, making it possible to develop capacitive pressure sensors with a wide range of pressure operations. The new closed-form solution is numerically discussed in its convergence and effectiveness and compared with the previous one. Additionally, its beneficial effect on developing the proposed capacitive pressure sensors is illustrated.

In this study, we analytically solved the thermal stress problem of a bimodular functionally graded bending beam under arbitrary temperature rise modes. First, based on the strain suppression method in a one-dimensional case, we obtained the thermal stress of a bimodular functionally graded beam subjected to bending moment under arbitrary temperature rise modes. Using the stress function method based on compatibility conditions, we also derived two-dimensional thermoelasticity solutions for the same problem under pure bending and lateral-force bending, respectively. During the solving, the number of unknown integration constants is doubled due to the introduction of bimodular effect; thus, the determination for these constants depends not only on the boundary conditions, but also on the continuity conditions at the neutral layer. The comparisons indicate that the one- and two-dimensional thermal stress solutions are consistent in essence, with a slight difference in the axial stress, which exactly reflects the distinctions of one- and two-dimensional problems. In addition, the temperature rise modes in this study are not explicitly indicated, which further expands the applicability of the solutions obtained. The originality of this work is that the one- and two-dimensional thermal stress solutions for bimodular functionally graded beams are derived for the first time. The results obtained in this study may serve as a theoretical reference for the analysis and design of beam-like structures with obvious bimodular functionally graded properties in a thermal environment.

In a previous work by the same authors, a hollow annular membrane structure loaded transversely and uniformly was proposed, and its closed-form solution was presented; its anticipated use is for designing elastic shells of revolution. Since the height–span ratio of shells of revolution is generally desired to be as large as possible, to meet the need for high interior space, especially for the as-small-as-possible horizontal thrust at the base of shells of revolution, the closed-form solution should be able to cover annular membranes with a large deflection–outer radius ratio. However, the previously presented closed-form solution cannot meet such an ability requirement, because the previous out-of-plane equilibrium equation used the assumption of a small deflection–outer radius ratio. In this study, the out-of-plane equilibrium equation is re-established without the assumption of a small deflection–outer radius ratio, and a new and more refined closed-form solution is presented. The new closed-form solution is numerically discussed regarding its convergence and effectiveness, and compared with the old one. The new and old closed-form solutions agree quite closely for lightly loaded cases but diverge as the load intensifies. Differences in deflections, especially in stresses, are very significant when the deflection–outer radius ratio exceeds 1/4, indicating that, in this case, the new closed-form solution should be adopted in preference to the old one.

The capacitive pressure sensor based on thin film elastic deflection and a parallel plate capacitor uses a non-conductive elastic annular thin film centrally connected to a conductive, rigid, flat, concentric-circular thin plate as a pressure sensing unit. On application of pressure, the non-conductive thin film deflects elastically, which in turn moves the conductive thin plate (as a movable upper electrode plate of the parallel plate capacitor) towards the lower electrode plate, resulting in a change in the capacitance of the capacitor. Therefore, the applied pressure can be determined by measuring the capacitance change, based on the closed-form solution for the elastic behavior of the annular thin film under pressure. Such capacitive pressure sensors are more suitable for large-sized sensors such as those used for building-facade wind pressure measurements, etc. In this paper, a further theoretical study of such capacitive pressure sensors is presented. The newly presented, more refined closed-form solution can greatly reduce the output pressure error under the same input capacitance, in comparison with the previously presented closed-form solution. A numerical example of how to use the resulting closed-form solution to numerically calibrate input–output characteristics is given for the first time. The variation trend of pressure operation ranges and input–output characteristics with important parametric variations, which can be used for guiding the design of such capacitive pressure sensors, is investigated.

Extensive studies have shown that engineering materials, including metals and their oxides, will present different mechanical properties in tension or compression; however, this difference is generally neglected due to the complexity of the analysis. In this study, we theoretically analyze the thermal stress of a metal bar with a bimodular effect. First, the common strain suppression method is used to obtain a one-dimensional thermal stress expression. As a contrast with the one-dimensional solution, a two-dimensional thermoelasticity solution is also derived, based on the classical Duhamel theorem concerning body force analogy. Results indicate an important phenomenon that the linear temperature rise mode will produce thermal stress in a bimodular metal bar, whereas there is no thermal stress in the case of singular modulus. If the equilibrium relation is needed to be satisfied, the variation trend between different moduli and different thermal expansion coefficients in tension and compression should be opposite. In addition, the amplitude of stress variation, from the maximum tensile stress to the maximum compressive stress, increases dramatically. There exists an inevitable link between one- and two-dimensional solutions. These results are helpful to the refined analysis and measurements of the thermophysical properties of metals and their oxides.

The closed-form solution of circular membranes subjected to gas pressure loading plays an extremely important role in technical applications such as characterization of mechanical properties for freestanding thin films or thin-film/substrate systems based on pressured bulge or blister tests. However, the only two relevant closed-form solutions available in the literature are suitable only for the case where the rotation angle of membrane is relatively small, because they are derived with the small-rotation-angle assumption of membrane, that is, the rotation angle θ of membrane is assumed to be small so that “sinθ = 1/(1 + 1/tan2θ)1/2” can be approximated by “sinθ = tanθ”. Therefore, the two closed-form solutions with small-rotation-angle assumption cannot meet the requirements of these technical applications. Such a bottleneck to these technical applications is solved in this study, and a new and more refined closed-form solution without small-rotation-angle assumption is given in power series form, which is derived with “sinθ = 1/(1 + 1/tan2θ)1/2”, rather than “sinθ = tanθ”, thus being suitable for the case where the rotation angle of membrane is relatively large. This closed-form solution without small-rotation-angle assumption can naturally satisfy the remaining unused boundary condition, and numerically shows satisfactory convergence, agrees well with the closed-form solution with small-rotation-angle assumption for lightly loaded membranes with small rotation angles, and diverges distinctly for heavily loaded membranes with large rotation angles. The confirmatory experiment conducted shows that the closed-form solution without small-rotation-angle assumption is reliable and has a satisfactory calculation accuracy in comparison with the closed-form solution with small-rotation-angle assumption, particularly for heavily loaded membranes with large rotation angles.

In this study, the large deformation problem of a functionally-graded thin circular plate subjected to transversely uniformly-distributed load and with different moduli in tension and compression (bimodular property) is theoretically analyzed, in which the small-rotation-angle assumption, commonly used in the classical Föppl–von Kármán equations of large deflection problems, is abandoned. First, based on the mechanical model on the neutral layer, the bimodular functionally-graded property of materials is modeled as two different exponential functions in the tensile and compressive zones. Thus, the governing equations of the large deformation problem are established and improved, in which the equation of equilibrium is derived without the common small-rotation-angle assumption. Taking the central deflection as a perturbation parameter, the perturbation method is used to solve the governing equations, thus the perturbation solutions of deflection and stress are obtained under different boundary constraints and the regression of the solution is satisfied. Results indicate that the perturbation solutions presented in this study have higher computational accuracy in comparison with the existing perturbation solutions with small-rotation-angle assumption. Specially, the computational accuracies of external load and yield stress are improved by 17.22% and 28.79% at most, respectively, by the numerical examples. In addition, the small-rotation-angle assumption has a great influence on the yield stress at the center of the bimodular functionally-graded circular plate.

The anticipated use of a hollow linearly elastic annular membrane for designing elastic shells has provided an impetus for this paper to investigate the large deflection geometrically nonlinear phenomena of such a hollow linearly elastic annular membrane under transverse uniform loads. The so-called hollow annular membranes differ from the traditional annular membranes available in the literature only in that the former has the inner edge attached to a movable but weightless rigid concentric circular ring while the latter has the inner edge attached to a movable but weightless rigid concentric circular plate. The hollow annular membranes remove the transverse uniform loads distributed on “circular plate” due to the use of “circular ring” and result in a reduction in elastic response. In this paper, the large deflection geometrically nonlinear problem of an initially flat, peripherally fixed, linearly elastic, transversely uniformly loaded hollow annular membrane is formulated, the problem formulated is solved by using power series method, and its closed-form solution is presented for the first time. The convergence and effectiveness of the closed-form solution presented are investigated numerically. A comparison between closed-form solutions for hollow and traditional annular membranes under the same conditions is conducted, to reveal the difference in elastic response, as well as the influence of different closed-form solutions on the anticipated use for designing elastic shells.

A typical characteristic of bimodular material beams is that when bending, the neutral layer of the beam does not coincide with its geometric middle surface since the mechanical properties of materials in tension and compression are different. In the classical theory of elasticity, however, this characteristic has not been considered. In this study, a bimodular simply-supported beam under the combination action of thermal and mechanical loads is theoretically analyzed. First, a simplified mechanical model concerning the neutral layer is established. Based on this mechanical model, Duhamel’s theorem is used to transform the thermoelastical problem into a pure elasticity problem with imaginary body force and surface force. In solving the governing equation expressed in terms of displacement, a special solution of the displacement equation is found first, and then by utilizing the stress function method based on subarea in tension and compression, a supplement solution for the displacement governing equation without the thermal effect is derived. Lastly, the special solution and supplement solution are superimposed to satisfy boundary conditions, thus obtaining a two-dimensional thermoelasticity solution. In addition, the bimodular effect and temperature effect on the thermoelasticity solution are illustrated by computational examples.

In this paper, the problem of fluid–structure interaction of a circular membrane under liquid weight loading is formulated and is solved analytically. The circular membrane is initially flat and works as the bottom of a cylindrical cup or bucket. The initially flat circular membrane will undergo axisymmetric deformation and deflection after a certain amount of liquid is poured into the cylindrical cup. The amount of the liquid poured determines the deformation and deflection of the circular membrane, while in turn, the deformation and deflection of the circular membrane changes the shape and distribution of the liquid poured on the deformed and deflected circular membrane, resulting in the so-called fluid-structure interaction between liquid and membrane. For a given amount of liquid, the fluid-structure interaction will eventually reach a static equilibrium and the fluid-structure coupling interface is steady, resulting in a static problem of axisymmetric deformation and deflection of the circular membrane under the weight of given liquid. The established governing equations for the static problem contain both differential operation and integral operation and the power series method plays an irreplaceable role in solving the differential-integral equations. Finally, the closed-form solutions for stress and deflection are presented and are confirmed to be convergent by the numerical examples conducted.

The large deflection phenomenon of an initially flat circular membrane under out-of-plane gas pressure loading is usually involved in many technical applications, such as the pressure blister or bulge tests, where a uniform in-plane stress is often present in the initially flat circular membrane before deflection. However, there is still a lack of an effective closed-form solution for the large deflection problem with initial uniform in-plane stress. In this study, the problem is formulated and is solved analytically. The initial uniform in-plane stress is first modelled by stretching or compressing an initially flat, stress-free circular membrane radially in the plane in which the initially flat circular membrane is located, and based on this, the boundary conditions, under which the large deflection problem of an initially flat circular membrane under in-plane radial stretching or compressing and out-of-plane gas pressure loading can be solved, are determined. Therefore, the closed-form solution presented in this paper can be applied to the case where the initially flat circular membrane may, or may not, have a uniform in-plane stress before deflection, and the in-plane stress can be either tensile or compressive. The numerical example conducted shows that the closed-form solution presented has satisfactory convergence.

Piezoelectric materials have been found to have many electromechanical applications in intelligent devices, generally in the form of the flexible cantilever element; thus, the analysis to the corresponding cantilever is of importance, especially when advanced mechanical properties of piezoelectric materials should be taken into account. In this study, the vibration problem of a piezoelectric cantilever beam with bimodular functionally-graded properties is solved via analytical and numerical methods. First, based on the equivalent modulus of elasticity, the analytical solution for vibration of the cantilever beam is easily derived. By the simplified mechanical model based on subarea in tension and compression, as well as on the layer-wise theory, the bimodular functionally-graded materials are numerically simulated; thus, the numerical solution of the problem studied is obtained. The comparison between the theoretical solution and numerical study is carried out, showing that the result is reliable. This study shows that the bimodular functionally-graded properties may change, to some extent, the dynamic response of the piezoelectric cantilever beam; however, the influence could be relatively small and unobvious.

In this study, the problem of axisymmetric deformation of peripherally fixed and uniformly laterally loaded circular membranes with arbitrary initial stress is solved analytically. This problem could be called the generalized Föppl–Hencky membrane problem as the case where the initial stress in the membrane is equal to zero is the well-known Föppl–Hencky membrane problem. The problem can be mathematically modeled only in terms of radial coordinate owing to its axial symmetry, and in the present work, it is reformulated by considering an arbitrary initial stress (tensile, compressive, or zero) and by simultaneously improving the out-of-plane equilibrium equation and geometric equation, while the formulation was previously considered to fail to improve the geometric equation. The power-series method is used to solve the reformulated boundary value problem, and a new and more refined analytic solution of the problem is presented. This solution is actually observed to be able to regress into the well-known Hencky solution of zero initial stress, allowing the considered initial stress to be zero. Moreover, the numerical example conducted shows that the obtained power-series solutions for stress and deflection converge very well, and have higher computational accuracy in comparison with the existing solutions.

In this paper, the static problem of equilibrium of contact between an axisymmetric deflected circular membrane and a frictionless rigid plate was analytically solved, where an initially flat circular membrane is fixed on its periphery and pressurized on one side by gas such that it comes into contact with a frictionless rigid plate, resulting in a restriction on the maximum deflection of the deflected circular membrane. The power series method was employed to solve the boundary value problem of the resulting nonlinear differential equation, and a closed-form solution of the problem addressed here was presented. The difference between the axisymmetric deformation caused by gas pressure loading and that caused by gravity loading was investigated. In order to compare the presented solution applying to gas pressure loading with the existing solution applying to gravity loading, a numerical example was conducted. The result of the conducted numerical example shows that the two solutions agree basically closely for membranes lightly loaded and diverge as the external loads intensify.

In this paper, the well-known Hencky problem—that is, the problem of axisymmetric deformation of a peripherally fixed and initially flat circular membrane subjected to transverse uniformly distributed loads—is re-solved by simultaneously considering the improvement of the out-of-plane and in-plane equilibrium equations. In which, the so-called small rotation angle assumption of the membrane is given up when establishing the out-of-plane equilibrium equation, and the in-plane equilibrium equation is, for the first time, improved by considering the effect of the deflection on the equilibrium between the radial and circumferential stress. Furthermore, the resulting nonlinear differential equation is successfully solved by using the power series method, and a new closed-form solution of the problem is finally presented. The conducted numerical example indicates that the closed-form solution presented here has a higher computational accuracy in comparison with the existing solutions of the well-known Hencky problem, especially when the deflection of the membrane is relatively large.

In this paper, the well-known Föppl–Hencky membrane problem—that is, the problem of axisymmetric deformation of a transversely uniformly loaded and peripherally fixed circular membrane—was resolved, and a more refined closed-form solution of the problem was presented, where the so-called small rotation angle assumption of the membrane was given up. In particular, a more effective geometric equation was, for the first time, established to replace the classic one, and finally the resulting new boundary value problem due to the improvement of geometric equation was successfully solved by the power series method. The conducted numerical example indicates that the closed-form solution presented in this study has higher computational accuracy in comparison with the existing solutions of the well-known Föppl–Hencky membrane problem. In addition, some important issues were discussed, such as the difference between membrane problems and thin plate problems, reasonable approximation or assumption during establishing geometric equations, and the contribution of reducing approximations or relaxing assumptions to the improvement of the computational accuracy and applicability of a solution. Finally, some opinions on the follow-up work for the well-known Föppl–Hencky membrane were presented.

In this paper, we analytically dealt with the usually so-called prestressed annular membrane problem, that is, the problem of axisymmetric deformation of the annular membrane with an initial in-plane tensile stress, in which the prestressed annular membrane is peripherally fixed, internally connected with a rigid circular plate, and loaded by a shaft at the center of this rigid circular plate. The prestress effect, that is, the influence of the initial stress in the undeformed membrane on the axisymmetric deformation of the membrane, was taken into account in this study by establishing the boundary condition with initial stress, while in the existing work by establishing the physical equation with initial stress. By creating an integral expression of elementary function, the governing equation of a second-order differential equation was reduced to a first-order differential equation with an undetermined integral constant. According to the three preconditions that the undetermined integral constant is less than, equal to, or greater than zero, the resulting first-order differential equation was further divided into three cases to solve, such that each case can be solved by creating a new integral expression of elementary function. Finally, a characteristic equation for determining the three preconditions was deduced in order to make the three preconditions correspond to the situation in practice. The solution presented here could be called the extended annular membrane solution since it can be regressed into the classic annular membrane solution when the initial stress is equal to zero.

In this study, a multi-parameter perturbation method is used for the solution of a functionally-graded, thin, circular piezoelectric plate. First, by assuming that elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric coefficients of the functionally-graded materials vary in the form of the same exponential function, the basic equation expressed in terms of two stress functions and one electrical potential function are established in cylindrical coordinate system. Three piezoelectric coefficients are selected as perturbation parameters, and the established equations are solved by the multi-parameter perturbation method, thus obtaining up to first-order perturbation solutions. The validity of the perturbation solution obtained is verified by numerical simulations, based on layer-wise theory. The perturbation process indicates that adopting three piezoelectric coefficients as perturbation parameters follows the basic idea of perturbation theory—i.e., if the piezoelectricity may be regarded as a kind of introduced disturbance, the zero-order solution of the disturbance system corresponds exactly to the solution of functionally-graded plates without piezoelectricity. The result also indicates that the deformation magnitude of piezoelectric plates is smaller than that of plates without piezoelectricity, due to the well-known piezoelectric stiffening effect.

As an intelligent material, piezoelectric materials have been widely used in many intelligent fields, especially in the analysis and design of sensors and actuators; however, the vibration problems of the corresponding structures made of the piezoelectric materials are often difficult to solve analytically, because of their force−electric coupling characteristics. In this paper, the biparametric perturbation method was used to solve the free damping vibration problem of piezoelectric cantilever beams, and the perturbation solution of the problem solved here was given. A numerical example was given to discuss the influence of the piezoelectric properties on the vibration of piezoelectric cantilever beams. In addition, related vibration experiments of the piezoelectric cantilever beams were carried out, and the experimental results were in good agreement with the theoretical results. The results indicated that the biparametric perturbation solution obtained in this study is effective, and it may serve as a theoretical reference for the design of sensors and actuators made of piezoelectric materials.