Compliant Mechanisms (CMs) have been a hot research spot in recent years due to their distinguished mechanism concept from conventional rigid-body mechanisms: CMs can transfer motion, force, and energy only through the deflection of flexible components. Therefore, accurate efficient kinetostatic modeling for these elementary components plays rather important role regarding conducting synthesis ...

In this paper, nonlinear static analysis of moderately thick plate made of functionally graded materials subjected to mechanical transverse loading is carried out using dynamic relaxation method. Mindlin first order shear deformation theory is employed to consider thick plate. Discretized equations are extracted for geometrically nonlinear behavior analysis.Loading Conditions and boundary condi...

This paper describes a new class of flight control actuators using Post-Buckled Precompressed (PBP) piezoelectric elements. These actuators are designed to produce significantly higher deflection and force levels than conventional piezoelectric actuator elements. Classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) models are shown to work very well in capturing the behavior of the free, unloaded elements. A...

The paper presents a series of repeated static loading tests on a prestressed concrete beam, which was originally part of a real bridge and then subjected to stepwise artificial damage. The tests were done during a one-month period that four levels of damage were introduced by cutting tendons until visible cracking occurred. The deflection line was measured by means of several displacement sens...

In this article, element free Galerkin method is used for static analysis of thin micro/nanoscale plates based on the nonlocal plate theory. The problem is solved for the plates with arbitrary boundary conditions. Since shape functions of the element free Galerkin method do not satisfy the Kronecker’s delta property, the penalty method is used to impose the essential boundary conditions. Discre...

A wide body of existing research on cellular injury has been conducted using cell cultures grown on flexible elastomer membranes deformed by a transient pressure pulse. However, there has been little published information on the material properties of these elastic membranes. In order to facilitate the development of a finite element model of cellular injury, the material properties of the unde...

The static deflection profile of a large spin-stabilized space reflector because of solar radiation pressure acting on its surface is investigated. Such a spacecraft consists of a thin reflective circular film, which is deployed from a supporting hoop structure in an untensioned, slack manner. This paper investigates the use of a variable reflectivity distribution across the surface to control ...

The safety of metallic spinal implants in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed using ultrahigh fields has not been established. Hence, we examined whether the displacement forces caused by a static magnetic field and the heating induced by radiofrequency radiation are substantial for spinal implants in a 7 T field. We investigated spinal rods of various lengths and materials, a screw, and...

For more than two decades, the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has provided valuable insights in nanoscale phenomena, and it is now widely employed by scientists from various disciplines. AFMs use a cantilever beam with a sharp tip to scan the surface of a sample both to image it and to perform mechanical testing. The AFM measures the deflection of the probe beam so one must first find the spring...

The Falling weight deflectometer test (FWD) is a commonly used method for the evaluation of the structural performance of pavement systems. In the FWD test, a large weight is raised off the ground and dropped onto a rubber loading pad creating an impulse load representative of the real loading imposed by heavy traffic on the pavement. The excitation produced by the loading sets off waves in the...