The presented work depicts results of a two-scale approach to the problem of damage and failure prediction on laminated composite structures. Modeling on the micro-level has enabled insight into the underlying physical processes which lead to homogenized properties of the macro-scale material. In this work, micromechanical analysis has been performed by application of the High Fidelity Generali...

Criteria had been proposed for assessing the severity of possible test security violations for computerized tests with high-stakes outcomes. However, these criteria resulted from theoretical derivations that assumed uniformly randomized item selection. This study investigated potential damage caused by organized item theft in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for two realistic item selection ...

Disease activity assessment is one of the most pivotal aspects in the care of RA patients. Composite measures of disease activity are superior to individual measures, since they capture the multiple facets of the disease. Since swollen joint counts correlate with joint damage progression and tender joint counts with physical function, composite scores that include joint counts are preferable. T...

We consider an energy minimization problem for a two-component composite with fixed volume fractions. We study two questions. The first is the dependence of the minimum energy on the constraints and parameters. The second is the rigorous justification of the method of Lagrange multipliers for this problem. We are able to treat only cases with periodic or affine boundary condition. We show that ...

Concentrated suspensions of inclusions occur in asphalt and dental composite resins. Concentrated suspensions are also of use in achieving a combination of high stiffness and loss (the product E tan d ), desirable in damping layer and structural damping applications. For realizable particulate microstructures, analytical solutions for monodisperse inclusion morphologies such as spherical, rando...

We present a new method of deriving microstructure-dependent bounds on the effective properties of general heterogeneous media. The microstructure is specified by the average Eshelby tensors. In the small contrast limit, we introduce and calculate the expansion coefficient tensors. We then show that the effective tensor satisfies a differential inequality with the initial condition given by the...

The single-crystal elastic moduli of San Carlos olivine, (Mg0.9Fe0.1)2SiO4, were determined at seven pressures between 2.5 and 32.5 GPa by Brillouin spectroscopy in a diamond anvil cell. The unit cell volume was also determined at each pressure (and ambient pressure) by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The shear elastic moduli exhibit non-linear pressure dependencies. In particular, a non-line...

Rigorous upper and lower bounds for the e€ective moduli are obtained for heterogeneous piezoelectric materials, by generalizing the Hashin±Shtrikman variational principle to the coupled problems of piezoelectricity. The key in obtaining these bounds is the choice of the ®eld variables used in the variational principles, i.e., the strain tensor and the electric displacement vector or the stress ...

Almond is one of the most important nut crops in Iran. Due to the suitable climatic conditions, Iran is one of the most important growing centers for wild and domesticated species of almond in world. Native genotypes typically are early flowering, due to late spring frost, often; they have been damaged. So frost damage to the flowers and early developing fruits is one of the most limiting facto...

1. Abstract Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) possess continuously graded material properties and are characterized by spatially varying microstructures. Such materials are studied in conjunction with the concept of topology optimization design which determines holes and connectivities of the structure by adding and removing material in the extended fixed design domain. The objective is to d...