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THIS was the subject of an article by Mr B. Saravanos, A.F.R.Ae.S., in AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING, January 1950, pp. 24 and 25. The writer has worked out equations which differ from the article. These differences are discussed below.

WHILE the introduction of statistical methods into the analysis of aeronautical experimental data, whether for quality control in production, for the interpretation of the results of structural and aerodynamic laboratory experiments, or for airline operation, has been brought about only in recent years, it may by now be fair to assert that their advantages and even their indispensability are no longer in dispute. Hitherto, investigations on these lines have usually involved, explicitly or implicitly, only the ‘normal curve of error’ and allied considerations; owing, it may be thought, to the controllability of the various manufacturing or laboratory techniques, but also perhaps to the scarcity of data hitherto available. It may well be, however, that with the accumulation of information arising out of investigations planned with particular reference to the statistical analysis of their results the whole range of the apparatus for statistical analysis, usually confined to such fields as those of biology or economics, will be called into full play.

THE analysis by the Hardy‐Cross moment distribution method of structures consisting of curved members of variable section involves modifications to certain processes of the method as used for straight, uniform‐section members. These modifications are considered in the present work.

A theoretical approach is presented with the object of determining the natural frequencies and hub characteristics of a single‐rotor helicopter in free ground vibration for use in the analysis of self‐excited mechanical oscillations of hinged rotor blades. The method is intended to obviate the experimental determination of these parameters, a technique which necessitates the construction of the helicopter before its vibrational features can be explored.

PROBABILITY paper was originally used to represent the summation curve of a Gaussian distribution as a straight line. Gibrat, Divisia in France and Daeves and Beckel in Germany have shown, that the summation curve of most skew distributions may also be represented as a straight line, if the argument x is traced as log (±x±a), where a is an arbitrarily chosen constant, which may, but need not, represent a physical condition.

This study aims to develop an innovative actuator for improving the performance of future aircraft, by adapting the airfoil shape according to the flight conditions. The flap’s camber of a civil regional transportation aircraft’s trailing edge actuated and morphed with the use of shape memory alloys (SMA) actuator technology, instead of the conventional split flap mechanism is studied.

For the flap’s members sizing an efficient methodology is utilised based on finite element (FE) stress analysis combined to analytically formulated design criteria. A mechanical simulation within an FE approach simulated the performance of the moving rib, integrating both aerodynamic loads and SMA phenomenology, implementing Lagouda’s constitutive model. Aim of this numerical simulation is to provide guidelines for further development of the flap. A three-dimensional assembly of the flap is constructed to produce manufacturing drawing and to ensure that during its morphing no interference between the members occurrs. Eventually, the manufactured flap is integrated on a test rig and the experimental characterisations under no and static loads, and dynamic excitation are performed.

Experimental results showed that the rib’s SMA mechanism can adequate function under load providing satisfactory morphing capabilities.

The investigated approach is an internal into the flap mechanism based on the shape memory effect of thin wires. In the developed mechanism, SMA wires are attached to the wing structure, where they function as actuating elements.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

Piezoelectric extension mode smart beams are vital part of modern control technology and their numerical analysis is an important step in the design process. Finite elements based on First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) are widely used for their structural analysis. The performance of the conventional FSDT-based two-noded piezoelectric beam formulations with assumed independent linear field interpolations is not impressive due to shear and material locking phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient locking-free FSDT piezoelectric beam element, while maintaining the same number of nodal degrees of freedom.

The governing equations are derived using a variational formulation to establish coupled polynomial field representation for the field variables. Shape functions based on these coupled polynomials are employed here. The proposed formulation eliminates all locking effects by accommodating strain and material couplings into the field interpolation, in a variationally consistent manner.

The present formulation shows improved convergence characteristics over the conventional formulations and proves to be the most efficient way to model extension mode piezoelectric smart beams, as demonstrated by the results obtained for numerical test problems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such FSDT-based finite element with coupled polynomial shape function exists in the literature, which incorporates electromechanical coupling along with bending-extension and bending-shear couplings at the field interpolation level itself. The proposed formulation proves to be the fastest converging FSDT-based extension mode smart beam formulation.

Piezoelectric ceramics are often combined with other materials to fabricate composites, which are used for constructions of intelligent systems. This paper is concerned with the fracture of a piezoelectric fiber embedded in an elastic matrix of finite radius. The fiber composite medium is subjected to the axially symmetric mechanical and electrical loads. Fourier and Hankel transforms are used to reduce the problem to the solution of a system of integral equations. Numerical solutions for the crack tip fields are obtained for various crack sizes and different piezoelectric fiber volume fractions. Both impermeable and permeable crack‐face electrical boundary conditions are considered. Applicability and effect of the crack‐face electrical boundary conditions are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present several two‐dimensional plate elements for the analysis of shear actuated laminate.

The limitations of the classical formulations based on the principle of virtual displacements in depicting the peculiar behavior of the transverse and normal stresses of multilayered structures have been easily overcome by using the mixed variational theorem proposed by Reissner (Reissner mixed variational theorem). In the framework of a unified formulation (UF), the assumptions of the unknowns is made through a common expansion leading both to global and layerwise description of the assumed unknowns. In addition, the possibility to choose the order of the expansion between one and four allows to be derived and compared 22 different plate models. The performances of the proposed elements have tested on application for whom an exact solution is available in open literature.

The obtained results complain quite well with the exact ones even if the need of advanced plate models come to evidence.

This paper describes how the capabilities of the UF to accurately analyze multilayered structures exploiting the shear mode actuation have been tested and states that in order to extend the capabilities of the UF, further efforts should be made toward the assumptions of discontinuous electric fields (potential and normal displacement). The paper confirms the need for advanced higher order plate models in modeling of adaptive laminate.