The effect of wing flexibility on aerodynamic force production has emerged as a central question in insect flight research. However, physical and computational models have yielded conflicting results regarding whether wing deformations enhance or diminish flight forces. By experimentally stiffening the wings of live bumblebees, we demonstrate that wing flexibility affects aerodynamic force prod...

Tumors are characterized by extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and stiffening. The importance of ECM remodeling to cancer is appreciated; the relevance of stiffening is less clear. We found that breast tumorigenesis is accompanied by collagen crosslinking, ECM stiffening, and increased focal adhesions. Induction of collagen crosslinking stiffened the ECM, promoted focal adhesions, enhanced P...

The paper presents the static, free vibration and buckling analyses of eccentrically stiffened plates by the cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-FEM-DSG3) using triangular elements. In this method, the original plate element CS-DSG3 is combined with a membrane element and stiffened by a thick beam element. The eccentricity between the plate and the beam is included in the formulat...

The high efficiency of monocoque cylindrical shells in carrying axial loads is curtailed by their extreme sensitivity to imperfections. For practical applications, this issue has been alleviated by introducing closely stiffened shells which, however, require expensive manufacturing. Here we present an alternative approach that provides a fundamentally different solution. We design symmetry-brea...

In this paper the energy absorption capacity of stiffened circular composite tube is considered. The governing equations and dynamic equilibrium are first derived and then solved. Additionally, a finite element model of reinforced circular composite tube structure is modeled. At the following, the effects of various parameters such as structural geometry, number of rings and stingers on mechani...

In this study, non-linear behavior of diagonally stiffened steel plate shear walls as a seismic resisting system has been investigated, and theoretical formulas for estimating shear strength capacity of the system have been proposed. Several validated analytical finite element models of steel shear walls with various stiffener dimensions are generated to verify and compare the analytical and th...

An optimal design of internal pressurized stiffened conical shell is investigated using the genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize the structural weight and to prevent various types of stress and buckling failures. Axial compressive load is applied to the shell. Five stress and buckling failures as constraints are taken into account. Using the discrete elements method as well as the energy method, ...

The free flexural vibration of a stiffened rectangular plate is investigated by using the finite element method (FEM). In the present model, the plate can have arbitrary elastic boundary conditions and arbitrarily located stiffeners. Numerical studies are conducted to analyze the natural frequencies of concentrically/eccentrically stiffened plates with different boundary conditions and the resu...

The present paper treats the problem of finding the asymptotic bounds for the globally optimal locations of orthogonal stiffeners minimizing the compliance of a rectangular plate in elastostatic bending. The essence of the paper is the utilization of a method of analysis of orthogonally stiffened rectangular plates first presented by Mazurkiewicz in 1962, and obtained herein in a closed form fo...