In the past few years, extensive improvements have been accomplished in reinforcing the structures through using shape memory alloys (SMAs). These materials absorb or dissipate energy through establishing a reversible hysteresis loop during a cyclic mechanical loading. This unique characteristic of the SMAs has made them appropriate for sensing, actuation, absorbing the impact energy, and vibra...

composite steel concrete composite floor used mainly in the commercial and office building has lighter weight and is considered very economical. the light weight natures of this type of floor causes some vibration problems when it is subjected to loadings such as human footstep loading. the dynamic characteristics of these floors are dependent on several parameters such as joist span, girder sp...

Recent studies have shown that integrins act as mechanoreceptors in articular cartilage. In this study, we examined the effect of blocking RGD-dependent integrins on both ECM gene expression and ECM protein synthesis. Chondrocytes were isolated from full-depth porcine articular cartilage and seeded in 3% agarose constructs. These constructs were loaded in compression with 15% strain at 0.33 and...

OBJECTIVE A three-dimensional poroelastic finite element (FE) L2-L3 model was developed to study lumbar spinal instability and intrinsic parameters in the intervertebral disc (IVD). METHODS The FE model took into consideration poroelasticity of the IVD and viscoelasticity of the annulus fibers and ligaments to predict the time-dependent behavior. To simulate a holding task, the motion segment...

Two efficient methods for time-dependent fatigue reliability analysis are proposed in this paper based on a random process representation of material fatigue properties and a nonlinear damage accumulation rule. The first method is developed by matching the first two central moments of the accumulated damage to a well-known probability distribution, thus facilitating direct analytical solution o...

in this paper, a production inventory model is developed for the business enterprise which consists of three wings. the first wing is for manufacturing new items, the second wing is for collecting the returned items, while third wing is for remanufacturing the returned item. in this model we consider the fact that the storage item is deteriorated during storage periods and salvage value is inco...