In the present study, a closed-form analytical solution for the steady-state creep stresses of rotating thick cylindrical pressure vessels made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) is carried out. Norton's law governs the creep response of the material. Exact solutions for stresses and strain rate are obtained under the plane strain condition. How different material parameters involved in Norton's law affect radial and circumferential stresses together with the equivalent strain rate in rotating thick-walled cylindrical vessels under internal pressure is investigated. The result obtained shows that the property of FGMs has a significant influence on the equivalent creep strain rate and stresses distributions along the radial direction.

A size-dependent dynamical model is suggested to investigate the vibrational characteristics of an Euler-Bernoulli micro/nanoscale beam. The strain gradient type of nonlocal elasticity is employed and a small intrinsic length scale parameter is considered in the theoretical model. A partial differential equation that governs transverse motion is derived and the corresponding ordinary differential equation and its dispersion relation are determined from the governing equation by the method of separation of variables. The problem is solved for several sets of strain gradient nonlocal boundary conditions by use of the eigenvalue method. These examples show that strain gradient nonlocality affects the natural frequencies of micro/nanoscale beams significantly. The initial axial force is also proved to play an important role in the vibrational behaviors of a micro/nanoscale beam. The critical compression and critical strain are derived and they are compared with some other approaches. The material constant in nonlocal elasticity theory can be determined by comparing the nonlocal theoretical results with molecular dynamic simulation and it is consistent with the estimation in previous work. Some further comments on the mechanisms of size dependence and physical meaning of micro/nanoscale parameter are presented. Comparisons of natural frequencies by nonlocal theory, classical theory, molecular dynamic simulation and surface effects are also constructed and they indicate the validity of the model developed in the present study.

Common materials, ranging from natural wood to modern composites, have been recognized as ortho-tropic materials. The elastic properties of such materials are governed by nine elastic constants. In this paper the complete set of Green's functions for an infinite medium and a half space is given, which were not reported completely before. Analytic expressions for the infinite Green's functions are derived through the explicit form of the sextic equation given explicitly. For an orthotopic half space, the Green's function is derived by a superposition method. The mathematical concept is based on the addition of a complementary term to the Green's function in an orthotropic infinite domain to fulfill the boundary condition on the free surface. Both solutions are illustrated in certain directions to demonstrate the nature of orthotropy.

This study examined the critical buckling characteristics of hydrostatically pressurized double-walled complete spherical shells. An analytical model based on small deflection thin shell theory is presented; the equations are solved in conjunction with variational principles. Axisymmetric and inextensional assumptions are not initially used in the exact formulation. This approach therefore avoids any discussion about the validity of the solution and allows the model to be extended to cover more generic nonaxisymmetric cases with relative ease. The analytical results are presented using illustrative buckling modes. Based on the developed formulation, only axisymmetric eigenmodes were found to occur despite the inclusion of the effect of interactions between outer and inner shells. Critical modes that are symmetric or antisymmetric about the equator may be determined depending on the combination of the stiffness connecting the outer and inner shells and the radius-to-wall thickness ratios.

This paper presents a mathematical model and a computational approach for the thermal post-buckling and free vibration in the vicinity of the buckled equilibrium position of microbeams based on the modified couple stress Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and geometrically accurate relation. The governing equations for the whole analysis are established with a intrinsic material length scale parameter to capture the size effect. These equations, in conjunction with the corresponding boundary conditions, are decomposed into two two-point boundary value problems, which are solved using the shooting method. For static deformation, the geometric nonlinearity is involved and the size dependent postbuckling configuration is obtained as a function of temperature rise. For dynamic one, the small amplitude free vibration about the prebuckled position is developed following an assumed harmonic time mode, and the length scale and temperature rise dependent fundamental natural frequency is presented. Numerical computations are executed to illustrate the size dependency in the thermal postbuckling behaviors and fundamental frequency of the vibration around the buckled configuration of microbeams.

In the present paper, the problem on normal low-velocity impact of a solid upon an isotropic spherical shell is studied without considering the changes in the geometrical dimensions of the contact domain. At the moment of impact, shock waves (surfaces of strong discontinuity) are generated in the target, which then propagate along the shell during the process of impact. Behind the wave fronts up to the boundary of the contact domain, the solution is constructed with the help of the theory of discontinuities and one-term ray expansions. The ray method is used outside the contact spot, but the Laplace transform method is applied within the contact region. As a result, the exact solution of the contact force is determined as a function of time. This model is intended to be used in simulating crash scenarios in frontal impacts, and to provide an effective tool to estimate the severity of effect on the human head and to estimate brain injury risks.

A unified wall-boundary condition for the pressure-based lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is proposed. The present approach is developed from the direct-forcing technique in the immersed boundary method and is derived from the equilibrium pressure distribution function. The proposed method can handle many kinds of wall boundaries, such as fixed wall and moving wall boundaries, in the same way. It is found that the new method has the following advantages: (1) simple in concept and easy to implement, (2) higher-order accuracy, (3) mass conservation, and (4) a stable and good convergence rate. Based on this wall-boundary condition, if a solid wall is immersed in a fluid, then by applying Gauss's theorem, the formulas for computing the force and torque acting on the solid wall from fluid flow are derived from the volume integrals over the solid volume instead of from the surface integrals over the solid surface. Based on the pressure-based LBM, inlet and outlet boundary conditions are also proposed. The order of accuracy of the proposed boundary condition is demonstrated with the errors of the velocity field, wall stress, and gradients of velocity and pressure. The steady flow past a circular cylinder is simulated to demonstrate the efficiency and capabilities of the proposed unified method.

Two-dimensional flow of Jeffrey fluid by an inclined stretching cylinder with convective boundary condition is studied. In addition the combined effects of thermal radiation and viscous dissipation are taken into consideration. The developed nonlinear partial differential equations are reduced into the ordinary differential equations by suitable transformations. The governing equations are solved for the series solutions. The convergence of the series solutions for velocity and temperature fields is carefully analyzed. The effects of various physical parameters such as ratio of relaxation to retardation times, Deborah number, radiation parameter, Biot number, curvature parameter, local Grashof number, Prandtl number, Eckert number and angle of inclination are examined through graphical and numerical results of the velocity and temperature distributions.

Impulsively started external convection at microscale level is studied numerically in both planar and axisymmetric geometries. Using similarity transformation, the resulting coupled partial and non-linear ordinary differential equations are simultaneously solved by finite differences together with a well established ordinary differential equation solver, over a range of problem parameters. Rarefaction effects within the slip flow regime on the thermal boundary layer response, heat transfer rate and transition time when system experiences sudden changes in surface temperature are analyzed, and a comparison between sudden surface cooling and heating is presented. The results show that the thermal boundary layer thickness, heat transfer rate and the transition time is considerably influenced by the degree of rarefaction. The transition time tends to be less sensitive with increasing rarefaction. The velocity slip and temperature jump factors are found to have opposite effects on the transition time and the heat transfer rate, with the velocity slip factor having the most profound influence on these parameters.

An investigation of unsteady hydromagnetic natural convection heat and mass transfer flow of an electrically conducting, viscous, incompressible and optically thick radiating fluid past an impulsively moving infinite vertical plate embedded in a uniform porous medium in a rotating system with Hall effects in the presence of homogeneous first order chemical reaction is carried out when temperature of the plate has a temporarily ramped profile. Exact solution of the governing equations is obtained in closed form by Laplace transform technique. Expressions for skin friction due to primary and secondary flows and Nusselt number are derived for both ramped temperature and isothermal plates. Expression for Sherwood number is also derived. The numerical values of primary and secondary fluid velocities, fluid temperature and species concentration are displayed graphically whereas those of skin friction are presented in tabular form for various values of pertinent flow parameters. In order to highlight the influence of ramped temperature distribution within the plate on the flow-field, the fluid flow past a ramped temperature plate is compared with the one past an isothermal plate.

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) can be used to exploit the enormous wind energy present over deep waters. Numerous studies have examined the dynamics of FOWTs, but few have focused on validating numerical results with experimental results, particularly for a deep draught FOWT in regions with frequent tropical storms. For this study, we developed a computer code and conducted experiments with a scale model to validate the simulation results. The computer code was first verified by comparing the results with those of the International Energy Agency Wind Task 23. Numerical simulations were implemented in both the frequency domain and the time domain. A comparison of the numerical and experimental results of the scale model in high waves showed good agreement. The flexibility of blades and the tower did not observably affect the motion of the deep draft spar-type FOWT. Therefore, it can be ignored in the preliminary design. The pitch motion of the scale model was within 1°. Therefore, the spar-type FOWT may be an effective power source for regions with frequent tropical storms.

Solar radiation assisted mixed convection boundary layer flow of Newtonian fluid along a non- reflecting, non-absorbing and ideally transparent semi-infinite vertical plate is studied here. Beer's law is used to express the solar radiation term. It is convenient to transform the non-linear dimensionless parabolic partial differential equations into (i) primitive variable formulation (PVF) and (ii) stream function formulation (SFF) before applying the numerical schemes. Coupled equations thus obtained from PVF are integrated numerically through implicit finite difference method together with the Gaussian elimination technique whereas block tridiagonal Keller-box technique is adopted to simulate the system of equations obtained from SFF. Numerical results from these two methods are also compared graphically in order to test the validation of the two schemes. However, due to less computation time and accuracy numeric results of shear stress, local Nusselt number coefficient, velocity and temperature profiles are obtained via SFF. It is found that velocity as well as temperature of the non-absorbing fluid enhances owing to the increase in solar radiation parameter.