This paper analyses a particular structural assembly that has two independent inextensional mechanisms and two independent states of self-stress. It is shown that, for certain values of a variable bar length, this assembly is a first-order infinitesimal mechanism; and yet it cannot be stiffened by the imposition of a state of prestress.

An octopus brings food grasped by a tentacle to its mouth by bending the tentacle around a joint formed by stiffened distal and proximal tentacle muscles, and thus may use motor control strategies analogous to those in animals with articulated limbs.

curls and curves of a shell interweave its various strain modes and link them together. this interactional behavior has yet frustrated all attempts for the construction of shell templates, which needs for an individual element test in traditional approaches. such a test fails to work for shell elements and must be reconstructed. in this paper, it is tried to study shell interactional behavior a...

Conducting surface coatings are useful for antistatic applications, whereas surface hardening of materials is useful for improving the wear and abrasion resistance. 3] For polymer materials, surface conductivity and stiffness may be improved by applying coatings or adding fillers to the polymer matrix. For example, polymers can be made scratch resistant by the addition of hard fillers. However,...

A probability-based damage detection algorithm has been implemented in order to identify barely visible impact damages in two composite stiffened panels by means of Acousto Ultrasonics (AU). A modification of RAPID (reconstruction algorithm for probabilistic inspection of defects) has been implemented to adapt the algorithm to the current structures and transducer networks. An improvement of 40...