5,255 research outputs found
Impact of elasticity on the piezoresponse of adjacent ferroelectric domains investigated by scanning force microscopy
As a consequence of elasticity, mechanical deformations of crystals occur on
a length scale comparable to their thickness. This is exemplified by applying a
homogeneous electric field to a multi-domain ferroelectric crystal: as one
domain is expanding the adjacent ones are contracting, leading to clamping at
the domain boundaries. The piezomechanically driven surface corrugation of
micron-sized domain patterns in thick crystals using large-area top electrodes
is thus drastically suppressed, barely accessible by means of piezoresponse
force microscopy
A node-based smoothed conforming point interpolation method (NS-CPIM) for elasticity problems
This paper formulates a node-based smoothed conforming point interpolation method (NS-CPIM) for solid mechanics. In the proposed NS-CPIM, the higher order conforming PIM shape functions (CPIM) have been constructed to produce a continuous and piecewise quadratic displacement field over the whole problem domain, whereby the smoothed strain field was obtained through smoothing operation over each smoothing domain associated with domain nodes. The smoothed Galerkin weak form was then developed to create the discretized system equations. Numerical studies have demonstrated the following good properties: NS-CPIM (1) can pass both standard and quadratic patch test; (2) provides an upper bound of strain energy; (3) avoid the volumetric locking; (4) provides the higher accuracy than those in the node-based smoothed schemes of the original PIMs
Diverse corrugation pattern in radially shrinking carbon nanotubes
Stable cross-sections of multi-walled carbon nanotubes subjected to
electron-beam irradiation are investigated in the realm of the continuum
mechanics approximation. The self-healing nature of sp graphitic sheets
implies that selective irradiation of the outermost walls causes their radial
shrinkage with the remaining inner walls undamaged. The shrinking walls exert
high pressure on the interior part of nanotubes, yielding a wide variety of
radial corrugation patterns ({\it i.e.,} circumferentially wrinkling
structures) in the cross section. All corrugation patterns can be classified
into two deformation phases for which the corrugation amplitudes of the
innermost wall differ significantly.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Curvature-induced stiffening of a fish fin
How fish modulate their fin stiffness during locomotive manoeuvres remains
unknown. We show that changing the fin's curvature modulates its stiffness.
Modelling the fin as bendable bony rays held together by a membrane, we deduce
that fin curvature is manifested as a misalignment of the principal bending
axes between neighbouring rays. An external force causes neighbouring rays to
bend and splay apart, and thus stretches the membrane. This coupling between
bending the rays and stretching the membrane underlies the increase in
stiffness. Using analysis of a 3D reconstruction of a Mackerel (Scomber
japonicus) pectoral fin, we calculate the range of stiffnesses this fin is
expected to span by changing curvature. The 3D reconstruction shows that, even
in its geometrically flat state, a functional curvature is embedded within the
fin microstructure owing to the morphology of individual rays. Since the
ability of a propulsive surface to transmit force to the surrounding fluid is
limited by its stiffness, the fin curvature controls the coupling between the
fish and its surrounding fluid. Thereby, our results provide mechanical
underpinnings and morphological predictions for the hypothesis that the spanned
range of fin stiffnesses correlates with the behaviour and the ecological niche
of the fish
Is it possible to assign physical meaning to field theory with higher derivatives?
To overcome the difficulties with the energy indefiniteness in field theories
with higher derivatives, it is supposed to use the mechanical analogy, the
Timoshenko theory of the transverse flexural vibrations of beams or rods well
known in mechanical engineering. It enables one to introduce the notion of a
"mechanical" energy in such field models that is wittingly positive definite.
This approach can be applied at least to the higher derivative models which
effectively describe the extended localized solutions in usual first order
field theories (vortex solutions in Higgs models and so on). Any problems with
a negative norm ghost states and unitarity violation do not arise here.Comment: 16 pp, LaTeX, JINR E2-93-19
Stretching Instability of Helical Spring
We show that when a gradually increasing tensile force is applied to the ends
of a helical spring with sufficiently large ratios of radius to pitch and twist
to bending rigidity, the end-to-end distance undergoes a sequence of
discontinuous stretching transitions. Subsequent decrease of the force leads to
step-like contraction and hysteresis is observed. For finite helices, the
number of these transitions increases with the number of helical turns but only
one stretching and one contraction instability survive in the limit of an
infinite helix. We calculate the critical line that separates the region of
parameters in which the deformation is continuous from that in which stretching
instabilities occur, and propose experimental tests of our predictions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Energy dissipation in microfluidic beam resonators: Dependence on mode number
Energy dissipation experienced by vibrating microcantilever beams immersed in fluid is strongly dependent on the mode of vibration, with quality factors typically increasing with mode number. Recently, we examined energy dissipation in a new class of cantilever device that embeds a microfluidic channel in its interior—the fundamental mode of vibration only was considered. Due to its importance in practice, we examine the effect of mode number on energy dissipation in these microfluidic beam resonators. Interestingly, and in contrast to other cantilever devices, we find that the quality factor typically decreases with increasing mode number. We explore the underlying physical mechanisms leading to this counterintuitive behavior, and provide a detailed comparison to experimental measurements for which good agreement is found.United States. Army Research Office (Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies Contract No. W911NF-09-D-0001)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Cell Decision Process Center P50-GM68762)Australian Research Council (Grants Scheme
Frictional sliding without geometrical reflection symmetry
The dynamics of frictional interfaces play an important role in many physical
systems spanning a broad range of scales. It is well-known that frictional
interfaces separating two dissimilar materials couple interfacial slip and
normal stress variations, a coupling that has major implications on their
stability, failure mechanism and rupture directionality. In contrast,
interfaces separating identical materials are traditionally assumed not to
feature such a coupling due to symmetry considerations. We show, combining
theory and experiments, that interfaces which separate bodies made of
macroscopically identical materials, but lack geometrical reflection symmetry,
generically feature such a coupling. We discuss two applications of this novel
feature. First, we show that it accounts for a distinct, and previously
unexplained, experimentally observed weakening effect in frictional cracks.
Second, we demonstrate that it can destabilize frictional sliding which is
otherwise stable. The emerging framework is expected to find applications in a
broad range of systems.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures + Supplementary Material. Minor change in the
title, extended analysis in the second par
Nonlinearity in nanomechanical cantilevers
Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is widely used to successfully predict the linear dynamics of micro- and nanocantilever beams. However, its capacity to characterize the nonlinear dynamics of these devices has not yet been rigorously assessed, despite its use in nanoelectromechanical systems development. In this article, we report the first highly controlled measurements of the nonlinear response of nanomechanical cantilevers using an ultralinear detection system. This is performed for an extensive range of devices to probe the validity of Euler-Bernoulli theory in the nonlinear regime. We find that its predictions deviate strongly from our measurements for the nonlinearity of the fundamental flexural mode, which show a systematic dependence on aspect ratio (length/width) together with random scatter. This contrasts with the second mode, which is always found to be in good agreement with theory. These findings underscore the delicate balance between inertial and geometric nonlinear effects in the fundamental mode, and strongly motivate further work to develop theories beyond the Euler-Bernoulli approximation
A Measurement of Newton's Gravitational Constant
A precision measurement of the gravitational constant has been made using
a beam balance. Special attention has been given to determining the
calibration, the effect of a possible nonlinearity of the balance and the
zero-point variation of the balance. The equipment, the measurements and the
analysis are described in detail. The value obtained for G is 6.674252(109)(54)
10^{-11} m3 kg-1 s-2. The relative statistical and systematic uncertainties of
this result are 16.3 10^{-6} and 8.1 10^{-6}, respectively.Comment: 26 pages, 20 figures, Accepted for publication by Phys. Rev.
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