Search results for " mechanics."
showing 10 items of 5002 documents
The interphase model applied to the analysis of masonry structures
2014
Abstract Masonry material presents a mechanical response strongly dependent on the static and kinematic phenomena occurring in the constituents and at their joints. At the mesoscopic level the interaction between the units is simulated by means of specific mechanical devices such as the zero thickness interface model where the contact tractions and the displacement discontinuities are the primary static and kinematic variables respectively. In many cases the joint response depends also on internal stresses and strains within the interface layer adjacent to the joint interfaces. The introduction of internal stresses and strains leads to the formulation of the interphase model, a sort of enha…
Manipulation of nanoparticles of different shapes inside a scanning electron microscope
2014
In this work polyhedron-like gold and sphere-like silver nanoparticles (NPs) were manipulated on an oxidized Si substrate to study the dependence of the static friction and the contact area on the particle geometry. Measurements were performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that was equipped with a high-precision XYZ-nanomanipulator. To register the occurring forces a quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a glued sharp probe was used. Contact areas and static friction forces were calculated by using different models and compared with the experimentally measured force. The effect of NP morphology on the nanoscale friction is discussed.
Phase separation of an asymmetric binary fluid mixture confined in a nanoscopic slit pore: Molecular-dynamics simulations
2008
As a generic model system of an asymmetric binary fluid mixture, hexadecane dissolved in carbon dioxide is considered, using a coarse-grained bead-spring model for the short polymer, and a simple spherical particle with Lennard-Jones interactions for the carbon dioxide molecules. In previous work, it has been shown that this model reproduces the real phase diagram reasonable well, and also the initial stages of spinodal decomposition in the bulk following a sudden expansion of the system could be studied. Using the parallelized simulation package ESPResSo on a multiprocessor supercomputer, phase separation of thin fluid films confined between parallel walls that are repulsive for both types…
The global cracking laws for a finite-element model of no-tension material
1992
Abstract For perfect no-tension materials (NRT) the validity of the local stability postulate of Drucker, well known in plasticity, has been assumed so far and utilized to derive the local cracking laws, which relate cracking strain states and stress states to each other. On this base a finite-element (FE) model with suitable constitutive behaviour for the single FE is presented. Classical FE approaches enforce the cracking laws at the Gauss points of the FEs. In this work it is shown that taking into account cracking strains, suitably modelled, over the whole domain of the FE and making use of an energy approach lead to general cracking laws describing the constitutive behaviour of the who…
A non-linear Ritz method for the analysis of low velocity impact induced dynamics in variable angle tow composite laminates
2021
Abstract Variable angle tow (VAT) laminates feature composite layers reinforced by fibres following continuous curved paths and offer a wide structural design space for the manufacturing of composite components. In this work, a formulation for the analysis of the impact-induced dynamics in VAT laminated plates is proposed, implemented and tested in this work. The method is based on the adoption of first order shear deformation kinematics and includes von Karman non-linear strains. The discrete system is obtained by employing a pb-2 Ritz series expansion into the Hamilton’s variational statement, while the impact loading is modelled through Hertzian contact law. The resulting non-linear gove…
The shakedown load boundary of an elastic-perfectly plastic structure
1995
In the hypothesis of small displacements and combined time-variable/steady loads, the geometrical-mechanical properties of the shakedown load boundary are investigated. It is shown that, in the load space, the shakedown load boundary plays the role of yield surface, and that a certain plastic strain accumulation vector—characterizing some impending inadaptation collapse mechanism—obeys the normality rule, whereas a specific form of the maximum plastic work theorem constitutes an effective tool for the evaluation of the shakedown limit load corresponding to a specified inadaptation collapse mode. The equations governing the state of the structure at the shakedown limit are provided and the r…
Zero-range model of traffic flow.
2005
A multi--cluster model of traffic flow is studied, in which the motion of cars is described by a stochastic master equation. Assuming that the escape rate from a cluster depends only on the cluster size, the dynamics of the model is directly mapped to the mathematically well-studied zero-range process. Knowledge of the asymptotic behaviour of the transition rates for large clusters allows us to apply an established criterion for phase separation in one-dimensional driven systems. The distribution over cluster sizes in our zero-range model is given by a one--step master equation in one dimension. It provides an approximate mean--field dynamics, which, however, leads to the exact stationary s…
Characteristics of the polymer transport in ratchet systems
2010
Molecules with complex internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials are studied by using short Rubinstein-Duke model polymers as an example. We extend our earlier work on transport in stochastically varying potentials to cover also deterministic potential switching mechanisms, energetic efficiency and non-uniform charge distributions. We also use currents in the non-equilibrium steady state to identify the dominating mechanisms that lead to polymer transportation and analyze the evolution of the macroscopic state (e.g., total and head-to-head lengths) of the polymers. Several numerical methods are used to solve the master equations and nonlinear optimization problems. The domina…
A study of Wigner functions for discrete-time quantum walks
2013
We perform a systematic study of the discrete time Quantum Walk on one dimension using Wigner functions, which are generalized to include the chirality (or coin) degree of freedom. In particular, we analyze the evolution of the negative volume in phase space, as a function of time, for different initial states. This negativity can be used to quantify the degree of departure of the system from a classical state. We also relate this quantity to the entanglement between the coin and walker subspaces.
Observable Streaming Potential in Membranes
2003
Theories describing the electrokinetic processes in membranes usually involve nonobservable variables. One of these phenomena is the streaming potential, i.e., the electric potential generated by a pressure difference imposed across the membrane system. In this work the streaming potential is successfully described by using observable variables in the framework of thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The observable electric potential is the central quantity of the transport equations. The relaxation with time of this electric potential difference is well explained by the solute flux in these transport equations. The fluxes and forces defined in the formulation permit one to analyze the…