This paper addresses the vibratory mechanics associated with frequency discrimination of basilar membrane within the cochlear of the inner ear. Periodic excitation is provided to the oval window, which results in generation of waves within the fluid-filled cochlear traveling towards the apex. These waves interact with the compliant basilar membrane structure causing its vibratory motion. Solution procedure of the fluid/structure model consists of a two-step process. First, a finite element calculation (ANSYS) solves for the membrane vibration with an initial harmonic pressure distribution. Second, a control volume analysis links the resultant vibratory motion with the fluid pressure acting on the basilar membrane, thus a pressure feedback loop is accomplished. Results show that dominant factors affecting vibratory characteristics of the basilar membrane are its structural geometry and attenuation of pressure wave as it travels away from the oval window. Calculations clearly capture the designed function of the basilar membrane, principally its frequency discrimination behavior.

The thermally enhanced ball grid array (TEBGA) electronic packaging under thermal cycling and thermal loading was investigated numerically. Two-dimensional finite element analysis by ANSYS was used for calculating the temperature distribution and thermal stress on the symmetric and diagonal cross sections of TEBGA. The thermal failure based on the peel and shear stresses at interfaces of TEBGA took place at the interface between the heat sink and epoxy moulding compound. The Tasi-Hill failure criterion was modified to predict the failure at various interfaces in TEBGA package. The TEBGA geometric parameters, including the thickness of the heat sink, the thickness of the adhesive layer between the heat sink and the die, and the thickness of the reinforcing copper ring, were varied to assess their effects on the failure mode of TEBGA. The results showed that for a TEBGA under thermal cycling, the stress values were reduced for thicker adhesive layers and thinner heat sinks; for a TEBGA under thermal loading, the die-to-ambient thermal resistance of TEBGA decreased for thinner adhesive layers and thicker heat sinks. The slimmer heat sink of extruded plate type can dissipate more heat and can reduce the stress values. Proper choice of geometric parameters of TEBGA package can prevent its failure at interfaces and furthermore, improve the reliability of electronic packaging.

In this paper, a modified numerical integration scheme is presented that improves the accuracy of the numerical integration of the Galerkin weak form, within the integration cells of the analyzed domain in the element-free methods. A geometrical interpretation of the Gaussian quadrature rule is introduced to map the effective weighting territory of each quadrature point in an integration cell. Then, the conventional quadrature rule is extended to cover the overlapping area between the weighting territory of each quadrature point and the physical domain. This modified numerical integration scheme can lessen the errors due to misalignment between the integration cell and the boundary or interface of the physical domain. Some numerical examples illustrate that this newly proposed integration scheme for element-free methods does effectively improve the accuracy when solving solid mechanics problems.

This paper reports the development of a point-focused PVDF transducer with a large aperture surface and its application on measuring Lamb wave dispersion curves. The point-focused transducer is constructed by forcing a piezoelectric PVDF film into a concave spherical shape. The acoustic waves radiated from the PVDF film are then focused into a point without using any acoustic lens. Similar to its line-focused counterpart, the point-focused transducer is capable of measuring dispersion curves of lamb waves provided its aperture angle is large enough. To verify this, experimental testing is carried out on several thin metal plates and good measurement results are observed. Future improvements and applications on the transducer will be addressed.

This study elucidated the complicated phenomena of wave refraction and diffraction around a circular island due to random incident waves traveling with a current. Various combinations of random incident wave and current conditions were used to investigate the wave height distributions around a circular island numerically and experimentally. Numerical calculations were carried out based on the theory derived by Lin & Hsu [1]. According to the results, it shows that numerical calculations can predict experimental data quantitatively well.

To investigate the flame stability in a solid-fuel ramjet combustor, time-accurate calculations using a compressible flow solver with a modified Godunov flux-splitting scheme have been performed on high Reynolds number turbulent non-premixed reacting flows over a backward-facing step with mass bleed on one wall. The combustion process considered was a one-step, irreversible, and finite rate chemical reaction. The numerical results for reacting flows show that the two-dimensional (2-D) simulations can provide reasonable predictions on the dimensionless particle number decay rate and residence time in the flame holding recirculation zone, evolutions of both axial and transverse mean velocity profiles, and critical characteristic exhaust velocity separating the sustained combustion from the non-sustained combustion. In addition to the validation of 2-D reacting flow calculations, two- and three-dimensionally computed mean-velocity profiles are compared with existing experimental data for isothermal flows to check the suitability of 2-D simulations on capturing the large-scale mean flows.