Search results for "Elasticity"

Advances in liver US, CT, and MRI: moving toward the future

2021

AbstractOver the past two decades, the epidemiology of chronic liver disease has changed with an increase in the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in parallel to the advent of curative treatments for hepatitis C. Recent developments provided new tools for diagnosis and monitoring of liver diseases based on ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as applied for assessing steatosis, fibrosis, and focal lesions. This narrative review aims to discuss the emerging approaches for qualitative and quantitative liver imaging, focusing on those expected to become adopted in clinical practice in the next 5 to 10 years. While radiomics is an emergin…

Left ventricular hypertrophy or storage disease? the incremental value of speckle tracking strain bull's-eye

2017

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) develops in response to a variety of physical, genetic, and biochemical stimuli and represents the early stage of ventricular remodeling. In patients with LVH, subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction despite normal ejection fraction (EF) may be present before the onset of symptoms, which portends a dismal prognosis. Strain measurement with two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) represents a highly reproducible and accurate alternative to LVEF determination. The present review focuses on current available evidence that supports the incremental value of STE in the diagnostic and prognostic workup of LVH. When assessing the components o…

Mechanical characterisation and 3D fractional viscoelastic modelling of railway sub-ballast rubberised asphalt

Mixed finite elements for nonlocal elastic multilayered composite plate refined theories

2020

Abstract A novel mixed finite element formulation for the layerwise analysis of nonlocal multilayered composite plates is presented. The finite elements are formulated starting from the weak form of a set of governing equations for the laminate layers that were deduced via the Reissner Mixed Variational Theorem. The primary variables, namely displacements and out-of-plane stresses, are expressed at layer level as through-the-thickness expansions of suitable selected functions with coefficients approximated by the finite element scheme. The through-the-thickness expansion order is considered as a free parameter. This way, finite elements for different refined higher order plate theories can …

Waves propagation in a fractional viscoelastic continuum

2009

In this paper the analysis of waves scattering in a fractional-type viscoelastic material is analyzed. Such a material involves, in the constitutive equation, the presence of noninteger order derivatives of the strain filed yielding a memory-type behavior of the material model. The presence of such a term has been also justified experimentally reporting the relaxation modulus of polymeric materials, obtained from experimental test, that are well-fitted by a powerlaw of fractional order. Some numerical applications reporting the standing-waves condition of an 1D solid varying the fractional differentiation order has also been reported in the paper.

The finite element implementation of 3D fractional viscoelastic constitutive models

2018

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the implementation of 3D fractional viscoelastic constitutive theory presented in Alotta et al., 2016 [1]. Fractional viscoelastic models exactly reproduce the time dependent behaviour of real viscoelastic materials which exhibit a long “fading memory”. From an implementation point of view, this feature implies storing the stress/strain history throughout the simulations which may require a large amount of memory. We propose here a number of strategies to effectively limit the memory required. The form of the constitutive equations are summarized and the finite element implementation in a Newton-Raphson integration scheme is described in detail. …

Fractional model of concrete hereditary viscoelastic behaviour

2016

The evaluation of creep effects in concrete structures is addressed in the literature using different predictive models, supplied by specific codes, and applying the concepts of linear viscoelastic theory with ageing. The expressions used in the literature are mainly based on exponential laws, which are introduced in the integral expression of the Boltzmann principle; this approach leads to the need of finding approximated numerical solutions of the viscoelastic response. In this study, the hereditary fractional viscoelastic model is applied to concrete elements, underlining the convenience of using creep or relaxation functions expressed by power laws. The full reciprocal character of cree…

Acyclovir Delivery Matrices Based on Poly(Ethylene Glycol)/Chitosan Semi-Interpenetrating Networks

2007

Abstract Chitosan matrix systems have been studied as potential vehicles for the prolonged release of acyclovir (ACV). The influence of chitosan concentration (from 0.83% to 1.67%) on viscoelastic properties of formulations with and without glyoxal was analyzed. For chitosan‐poly(ethylene glycol) 400 formulations loss modulus ( G ″) are greater than storage modulus ( G ′). This corresponds to the characteristic behavior of nonstructured systems. When glyoxal was added to the chitosan‐poly(ethylene glycol) 400 formulations, gelled matrix was obtained (i.e., G ′ is higher than G ″), except for the lowest chitosan concentration. ACV release rates for the both types of systems, with and without…

On the moving load problem in beam structures equipped with tuned mass dampers

2017

This paper proposes an original and efficient approach to the moving load problem on Euler–Bernoulli beams, with Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic translational supports and rotational joints, and in addition, equipped with Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic tuned mass dampers (TMDs). While supports are taken as representative of external devices such as grounded dampers or in-span supports with flexibility and damping, the rotational joints may model rotational dampers or connections with flexibility and damping arising from imperfections or damage. The theory of generalised functions is used to treat the discontinuities of the response variables, which involves deriving exact complex eigenvalues and eigen…

Release of isoamyl acetate from starch pastes of various structures : thermodynamic and kinetic parameters

2004

The release of isoamyl acetate from starch-based matrices was studied on the basis of a cumulative dynamic headspace analysis. Two corn starches were compared, which are known to yield pastes and gels differing in their structures and properties. These properties were assessed by viscometry and viscoelastic measurements. Aroma release was discussed as a function of the structure and texture parameters of the matrix. The release curves obtained from water and from the various starch-based matrices at 25 degrees C showed similar patterns but differed in their initial slopes and in the final plateau values. The lowest initial slopes were obtained for the normal starch dispersions that formed g…