Title

Dynamic and stability characteristics of structures: Cracked, buckled, and contacting systems

Date of Completion

January 2003

Keywords

Engineering, Mechanical

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

The imperfection and asymmetry of the structural systems make the systems behave quite differently from those perfect and symmetric systems. Some analytical solutions for perfect or symmetric systems are no longer available for the imperfect or asymmetric structural systems. The linear problems of perfect or symmetric systems become highly nonlinear problems for imperfect or asymmetric systems. In reality, imperfections and asymmetry are common in the structures due to the manufacturing, damage or material properties. This dissertation studies four topics of such imperfect or asymmetric systems. They are: vibration and stability of a cracked translating beam, crack propagation in structures subjected to periodic excitation, mode jumping and tertiary states of a beam on a foundation and tensionless contact of a finite plate with an elastic foundation. Some new features of these four imperfect or asymmetric structural systems are identified first time in this dissertation. The analytical solution for the tensionless contact problem of finite circular plate with nonzero gap size is also given first time in this dissertation. This dissertation focuses on comparing the difference between imperfect, asymmetric structural systems and perfect, symmetric systems. By comparing those differences, this dissertation offers more realistic study on the structures. ^

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