This paper proposes the refined first order shear deformation theory to investigate the free vibration behavior of bidirectional functionally graded porous plates. This theory satisfies the transverse shear stress free conditions at the top and bottom of the plate, thus avoids the need of a shear correction factor. The rule of mixtures is employed to compute the effective material properties an...

Ligament viscoelasticity controls viscous dissipation of energy and thus the potential for injury or catastrophic failure. Viscoelasticity under different loading conditions is likely related to the organization and anisotropy of the tissue. The objective of this study was to quantify the strain- and frequency-dependent viscoelastic behavior of the human medial collateral ligament (MCL) in tens...

Web of plate girders in bridges are usually reinforced by welded transverse stiffeners inorder to improve their shear capacity. Due to problems associated with field welding and fatigue,welded stiffeners are not suitable for retrofitting existing bridges. Bolted stiffeners are a practicalalternative for strengthening girders that are expected to experience shear stresses in excess of theirdesig...

In a recent paper of Arnold et al. [D.N. Arnold, F. Brezzi, L.D. Marini, A family of discontinuous Galerkin finite elements for the Reissner–Mindlin plate, J. Sci. Comput. 22 (2005) 25–45], the ideas of discontinuous Galerkin methods were used to obtain and analyze two new families of locking free finite element methods for the approximation of the Reissner–Mindlin plate problem. By following t...

In a recent paper of Arnold, Brezzi, and Marini [4], the ideas of discontinuous Galerkin methods were used to obtain and analyze two new families of locking free finite element methods for the approximation of the Reissner–Mindlin plate problem. By following their basic approach, but making different choices of finite element spaces, we develop and analyze other families of locking free finite ...

An advantage of functionally graded materials (FGMs) over laminated composites is that material properties vary continuously in an FGM but are discontinuous across adjoining layers in laminated composites. Furthermore, in an FGM material, properties can be graded in all three directions which is more difficult to achieve in laminated composites. FGMs have been used for structural optimization, ...

A three-dimensional mixed variational principle is used to derive a Kth-order two-dimensional linear theory for an anisotropic homogeneous piezoelectric (PZT) plate. Themechanical displacements, the electric potential, the inplane components of the stress tensor, and the in-plane components of the electric displacement are expressed as a Ž nite series of orderK in the thickness coordinate by ta...

A new method for the Reissner-Mindlin plate has been proposed. The nonconform-ing Wilson element is used for transverse displacement, rotation is approximated by the usual bilinear element, and an orthogonal projection is applied to the shear stress term. The uniform convergence with respect to the plate thickness is established. Numerical results are provided. The new method is simple in imple...

We use the three-dimensional Hellinger}Reissner mixed variational principle to derive a Kth order (K"0, 1, 2,2) shear and normal deformable plate theory. The balance laws, the constitutive relations and the boundary conditions for the plate theory are deduced. The constitutive relations incorporate the shear and the normal tractions applied on the top and the bottom surfaces of the plate. For a...