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At least 91 records · Page 5

Stiffness and damping of elastomeric O-ring bearing mounts

A test rig to measure the dynamic stiffness and damping of elastomer O rings was described. Test results for stiffness and loss coefficient in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 1000 Hz are presented. Results are given for three different materials, for five temperatures, for three amplitudes, for five values of squeeze for three values of stretch for three values of cross-section diameter and for three values of groove width. All test data points were plotted. In addition, trend summary plots were presented which compare the effect of material, temperature, amplitude, squeeze, stretch, cross-section diameter, and groove width. O ring deflections under a static load for different material were presented; and effective static stiffness values were compared with dynamic values.

Smalley, A. J.

The viscoelastic stiffness model of seismicity

A viscoelastic stiffness model of seismicity is developed by introducing a viscoelastic element into the stiffness model for fault dynamics. The introduction of this element permits modeling of transient anelastic deformations in response to stress loading and relaxation and provides a mechanism for partial stress recovery following an earthquake. As a consequence, several phenomena not present in elastic stiffness theory emerge. These include postseismic creep, foreshocks, and aftershocks. Numerical simulations of fault motion also reveal episodes of stable sliding, tertiary creep preceeding earthquakes, and long-term aseismic creep.

Cohen, S. C.

Extensional, bending and twisting stiffness of Titanium Multiwall Thermal Protection System (TPS)

A test program which determines the extensional, bending and torsional stiffness of various titanium multiwall sandwich configurations is described. It is shown that unlike honeycomb core, the dimpled core is a significant contributor to the stiffness and strength of the sandwich. the extensional stiffness test shows irregularities which are attributed to foil thickness variations and to the difficulty to determine linear values from nonlinear tests.

Meaney, J. E.

A study of stiffness, residual strength and fatigue life relationships for composite laminates

Qualitative and quantitative exploration of the relationship between stiffness, strength, fatigue life, residual strength, and damage of unnotched, graphite/epoxy laminates subjected to tension loading. Clarification of the mechanics of the tension loading is intended to explain previous contradictory observations and hypotheses; to develop a simple procedure to anticipate strength, fatigue life, and stiffness changes; and to provide reasons for the study of more complex cases of compression, notches, and spectrum fatigue loading. Mathematical models are developed based upon analysis of the damage states. Mathematical models were based on laminate analysis, free body type modeling or a strain energy release rate. Enough understanding of the tension loaded case is developed to allow development of a proposed, simple procedure for calculating strain to failure, stiffness, strength, data scatter, and shape of the stress-life curve for unnotched laminates subjected to tension load.

Ryder, J. T.

Application of a peak-valley detector for secant stiffness measurements

A technique for monitoring the change in secant stiffness of composite specimens during cyclic-fatigue loading computes the secant modulus every five seconds. A resettable peak-valley detector, which captures and holds the maximum and minimum values of an input analog signal, is used in conjunction with a multichannel data acquisition unit. This detector is also used in conjunction with an analog switch to halt the cycling of the specimen after a certain degradation of stiffness develops for the application of NDE techniques. Results for a T300/5208 graphite-epoxy specimen are presented in the form of a stiffness vs number of cycles curve.

Stiffler, R.

Experimental stiffness of tapered bore seals

The stiffness of tapered-bore ring seals was measured with air as the sealed fluid. Static stiffness agreed fairly well with results of a previous analysis. Cross-coupled stiffness due to shaft rotation was much less than predicted. It is suggested that part of the disparity may be due to simplifying assumptions in the analysis; however, these do not appear to account for the entire difference observed.

Fleming, D. P.

A new theory for multistep discretizations of stiff ordinary differential equations: Stability with large step sizes

A large set of variable coefficient linear systems of ordinary differential equations which possess two different time scales, a slow one and a fast one is considered. A small parameter epsilon characterizes the stiffness of these systems. A system of o.d.e.s. in this set is approximated by a general class of multistep discretizations which includes both one-leg and linear multistep methods. Sufficient conditions are determined under which each solution of a multistep method is uniformly bounded, with a bound which is independent of the stiffness of the system of o.d.e.s., when the step size resolves the slow time scale, but not the fast one. This property is called stability with large step sizes. The theory presented lets one compare properties of one-leg methods and linear multistep methods when they approximate variable coefficient systems of stiff o.d.e.s. In particular, it is shown that one-leg methods have better stability properties with large step sizes than their linear multistep counter parts. The theory also allows one to relate the concept of D-stability to the usual notions of stability and stability domains and to the propagation of errors for multistep methods which use large step sizes.

Majda, G.

Experimental stiffness of tapered bore seals

The stiffness of tapered-bore ring seals was measured with air as the sealed fluid. Static stiffness agreed fairly well with results of a previous analysis. Cross-coupled stiffness due to shaft rotation was much less than predicted. It is suggested that part of the disparity may be due to simplifying assumptions in the analysis; however, these do not appear to account for the entire difference observed.

Fleming, D. P.

Experiments on dynamic stiffness and damping of tapered bore seals

Stiffness and damping were measured in tapered bore ring seals with air as the sealed fluid. Excitation was provided by a known unbalance in the shaft which rotated in the test seals. Results were obtained for various seal supply pressures, clearances, unbalance amounts, and shaft speeds. Stiffness and damping varied little with unbalance level, indicating linearity of the seal. Greater variation was observed with speed and particularly supply pressure. A one-dimensional analysis predicted stiffness fairly well, but considerably overestimated damping.

Fleming, David P.

Experiments on dynamic stiffness and damping of tapered bore seals

Stiffness and damping were measured in tapered bore ring seals with air as the sealed fluid. Excitation was provided by a known unbalance in the shaft which rotated in the test seals. Results were obtained for various seal supply pressures, clearances, unbalance amounts, and shaft speeds. Stiffness and damping varied little with unbalance level, indicating linearity of the seal. Greater variation was observed with speed and particularly supply pressure. A one-dimensional analysis predicted stiffness fairly well, but considerably overestimated damping.

Fleming, D. P.

Strain energy release rate, interlaminar stresses, and 3-D transformation of stiffnesses

In this analysis, a delamination between the belt and core sections is assumed to grow parallel to the belt direction in the tapered and uniform sections. These delaminations in each section are denoted by a and b respectively. The core section in the taper portion is modeled by two equivalent sublaminates. The stiffness properties are smeared to obtain effective cracked and uncracked stiffnesses which are designated A (u) and A (c). These stiffnesses change from one ply drop group to another with crack growth a by experiencing a sudden change at discrete locations. Therefore, A (u) and A (c) can be represented in three consecutive regions.

Source record

Stiffness change of a graphite epoxy laminate under reverse fatigue loading

The stiffness of a flat specimen, made of graphite epoxy (T300/934), was measured during reverse fatigue loading. Laminates of basic layup, unidirectional cross-ply and angle-ply, as well as multidirectional (isotropic) layup, were tested. It was found that all the laminates exhibit rapid stiffness degradation on the last (third) fatigue stage. Except for the 0-deg unidirectional laminate, the last stage starts at about 70 to 80 percent of the fatigue life, regardless of the load level and the final mode of failure (tension or compression). It is shown that, for this material, stiffness degradation is a result of crack accumulation, mainly along the fibers, even for the fiber dominated laminates. This general phenomenon can serve to predict usable safe life of laminates under fatigue loading.

Rotem, Assa

On the application of subcell resolution to conservation laws with stiff source terms

LeVeque and Yee recently investigated a one-dimensional scalar conservation law with stiff source terms modeling the reacting flow problems and discovered that for the very stiff case most of the current finite difference methods developed for non-reacting flows would produce wrong solutions when there is a propagating discontinuity. A numerical scheme, essentially nonoscillatory/subcell resolution - characteristic direction (ENO/SRCD), is proposed for solving conservation laws with stiff source terms. This scheme is a modification of Harten's ENO scheme with subcell resolution, ENO/SR. The locations of the discontinuities and the characteristic directions are essential in the design. Strang's time-splitting method is used and time evolutions are done by advancing along the characteristics. Numerical experiment using this scheme shows excellent results on the model problem of LeVeque and Yee. Comparisons of the results of ENO, ENO/SR, and ENO/SRCD are also presented.

Chang, Shih-Hung

Composite laminates with spatially varying fiber orientations - 'Variable stiffness panel concept'

A solution has been obtained to the plane elasticity problem for a symmetrically laminated composite panel with spatially varying fiber orientations. Since variation of the fiber angles along the length of a composite laminate results in stiffness properties that change as a function of location, the laminates are called variable stiffness panels. An analysis of the stiffness variation and its effect on the elastic response of the panel is presented here. A numerical solution has been obtained using an iterative collocation technique. Corresponding closed-form solutions are given for three different sets of boundary conditions. Two of the cases considered have exact solutions and thus serve to validate the numerical model.

Guerdal, Zafer

X-Ray And Acoustic Measurements Yield Stiffnesses

Analytical technique combines ultrasonic scanning measurements of local velocity of sound in specimen of material with x-ray computed tomographic measurements of local mass density to compute local stiffness of material. Stiffnesses at various locations in specimen then used in finite-element mathematical model of elastic behavior of specimen to compute local stresses, local strains, and overall deformations. Technique enhances value of quantitative nondestructive x-ray and ultrasonic measurements. Especially useful in characterization of carbon/carbon composites and other advanced materials not homogeneous and for which customary simplifying assumption of constant density and/or constant stiffness not valid.

Madaras, Eric Irvine

Stiffness of magnetic bearings subjected to combined static and dynamic loads

This paper investigates the stiffness of a magnetic bearing that is subjected to the combined action of static and dynamic loads. Since their sum cannot exceed the saturation load, a large static load will imply that the bearing can carry only a small dynamic load. This smaller dynamic load together with the practical vibration amplitude define a practical upper bound to the dynamic stiffness. This paper also presents approximate design formulas and curves for this stiffness capacity as a function of the ratio of dynamic and static loads. In addition, it indicates that vibrations larger than a certain gap fraction can destabilize the magnetic bearing. This gap fraction, called the critical gap fraction, depends on the dynamic and static load ratio. For example, if the dynamic load is half of the static load, the use of more than 25 percent of gap can destabilize the bearing.

Rao, D. K.

Improved compression buckling for rectangular composite plates by stiffness tailoring

Buckling resistance is often a controlling criterion in the design of structural elements. Design concepts that lead to increased buckling loads (or strains) can directly lower the structural cost and/or weight by a number of means. This study quantifies the improvements that can be achieved in compression buckling loads of rectangular composite plates by using a simple stiffness tailoring concept. The approach is to position the unidirectional lamina through the thickness and over the planform of the plate so that the buckling load is increased with no loss in in-plane stiffness or increase in weight. Finite element analyses have been used to determine the effects of tailoring on the buckling load of plates with various boundary conditions, aspect ratios, thicknesses, and membrane stiffnesses. Increases in buckling loads (or strains) of nearly 200 percent over the uniform plate buckling loads are shown possible with this tailoring concept.

Biggers, Sherrill B.

An inverse method for computation of structural stiffness distributions of aeroelastically optimized wings

An inverse method has been developed to compute the structural stiffness properties of wings given a specified wing loading and aeroelastic twist distribution. The method directly solves for the bending and torsional stiffness distribution of the wing using a modal representation of these properties. An aeroelastic design problem involving the use of a computational aerodynamics method to optimize the aeroelastic twist distribution of a tighter wing operating at maneuver flight conditions is used to demonstrate the application of the method. This exercise verifies the ability of the inverse scheme to accurately compute the structural stiffness distribution required to generate a specific aeroelastic twist under a specified aeroelastic load.

Schuster, David M.