A Comparison of Two Macroinvertebrate Multi-Plate Sampling Methods to Inform Great Lakes Monitoring and Remediation Efforts

Hester-Dendy (HD) multi-plate samplers have been widely used by state and federal government agencies for bioassessment of water quality through use of macroinvertebrate community data. To help guide remediation and restoration efforts at the Niagara River Great Lakes Area of Concern site, a multi-agency study was conducted in 2014 to assess the contribution of seven major urban tributaries on the US side of the river toward the impairment of the Niagara River. As part of this study, macroinvertebrate communities were sampled using two co-located versions of HD samplers: one version used by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and another by the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. Samplers were deployed in tributaries in highly developed watersheds with high percent impervious surface. The two sampling methods varied in terms of number and size of plates, between-plate spacing, and deployment method. Comparison of the similarity/grouping of communities with multivariate ordination techniques, Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling and Multi-Response Permutation Procedure, showed that both methods were able to detect differences in communities at stations, despite some grouping by month and method. The indices and metrics derived from the two HD methods were found to give comparable but not identical assessments of water quality. Despite their differences, the methods were robust with respect to water quality categories derived from indices used nationally (HBI) and by NY state (BAP). For the common richness metrics, total taxa and EPT richness, there was no statistical difference between means from 3 samplings. Some metrics, especially percent tolerant collector-gatherer individuals, did show significant differences at certain stations. Indicator Species Analysis showed some taxa associated with each method. The observed community differences were thought mostly due to the difference in sampler deployment position. .

Enhancing Stress Intensity Factor Reduction in Cracks Originating from a Circular Hole in a Rectangular Plate under Uniaxial Stress through Piezoelectric Actuation

Circular holes are commonly employed in engineering designs;however, they often serve as locations where cracks initiate and propagate. This paper explores a novel approach to structural repair by utilizing piezoelectric actuators. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the influence of an adhesively bonded piezoelectric actuator patch placed above a circular hole on the stress intensity factor (SIF) in an aluminium plate. The plate is subjected to uniaxial tensile stress, while the piezoelectric actuator is excited with varying voltage levels. The analysis is conducted using the finite element method (FEM), a powerful numerical technique for simulating complex structures. The study assesses the stress distribution and employs the SIF as an adequate criterion for evaluating the impact of different patch configurations. The results indicate a strong correlation between the applied voltage and the SIF. Whether the SIF increases or decreases depends on the polarization of the piezoelectric actuator. Particularly noteworthy is the finding that rectangular patches in a horizontal orientation significantly reduce the SIF compared to other patch geometries. Moreover, double-sided patches exhibit a pronounced decrease in the SIF compared to single-sided patches. In summary, this research underscores the potential of piezoelectric actuators in mitigating stress intensity in structures with circular hole with crack initiation. It offers valuable insights into the influence of applied voltage, patch geometry, and patch placement on the SIF, thereby contributing to developing effective strategies for enhancing structural integrity.

Effect of size on biaxial flexural strength for cement-based materials by using a triangular plate method

The effect of size on the biaxial flexural strength(BFS)of Portland cement mortar was investigated by using the recently proposed triangular plate method(TPM).An experimental program was conceived to study the size effect by keeping a constant water-cement ratio of 0.485,cement-sand ratio of 1:2.75,and using unreinforced triangular mortar plates of five different thicknesses and seven different side lengths.The BFS of the produced specimens was tested,and variations of BFS depending on specimen thickness and side length were determined.The results indicated that increases in triangular plate specimen side length and specimen thickness led to a decrease in the BFS of Portland cement mortar.The effect of specimen length increase on BFS was more significant than on the effect of the specimen thickness.The variations in specimens’thickness indicated a deterministic Type I size effect,while the variations in specimens’length showed an energetic-statistical Type I size effect.

A TIME DOMAIN METHOD FOR QUASI-STATIC ANALYSIS OF VISCOELASTIC THIN PLATES

Based on the Boltzmann’s superposition principles of linear viscoelastic materials and the von K*-rm*-n’s hypotheses of thin plates with large deflections, a mathematical model for quasi-static problems of viscoelastic thin plates was given. By the Galerkin method in spatial domain, the original integro-partial-differential system could be transformed into an integral system. The latter further was reduced to a differential system by using the new method for temporal domain presented in this paper. Numerical results show that compared with the ordinary finite difference method, the new method in this paper is simpler to operate and has some advantages, such as, no storage and quicker computational speed etc.

Mixed finite element and differential quadrature method for free and forced vibration and buckling analysis of rectangular plates

This paper presents a combined application of the finite element method （FEM） and the differential quadrature method （DQM） to vibration and buckling problems of rectangular plates. The proposed scheme combines the geometry flexibility of the FEM and the high accuracy and efficiency of the DQM. The accuracy of the present method is demonstrated by comparing the obtained results with those available in the literature. It is shown that highly accurate results can be obtained by using a small number of finite elements and DQM sample points. The proposed method is suitable for the problems considered due to its simplicity and potential for further development.

THE 3-D BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD OF ROLLER BEARING BY PLATE ELEMENT ANALOGUE

The mill roller bearing is made up of an internal ring, middlerolls and an external ring, the analysis of which is a multi-bodiescontact problem. In this paper, based on the three-dimensionalelastic contact BEM without friction, and using the structuralcharacteristics of roller bearings, middle rolls are de- scribed byelastic plate units of different shapes, which is placed on theinternal ring.

Development of quadrilateral spline thin plate elements using the B-net method

The quadrilateral discrete Kirchhoff thin plate bending element DKQ is based on the isoparametric element Q8, however, the accuracy of the isoparametric quadrilateral elements will drop significantly due to mesh distortions. In a previous work, we constructed an 8-node quadrilateral spline element L8 using the triangular area coordinates and the B- net method, which can be insensitive to mesh distortions and possess the second order completeness in the Cartesian co- ordinates. In this paper, a thin plate spline element is devel- oped based on the spline element L8 and the refined tech- nique. Numerical examples show that the present element indeed possesses higher accuracy than the DKQ element for distorted meshes.

THEORETIC SOLUTION OF RECTANGULAR THIN PLATE ON FOUNDATION WITH FOUR EDGES FREE BY SYMPLECTIC GEOMETRY METHOD

The theoretic solution for rectangular thin plate on foundation with four edges free is derived by symplectic geometry method. In the analysis proceeding, the elastic foundation is presented by the Winkler model. Firstly, the basic equations for elastic thin plate are transferred into Hamilton canonical equations. The symplectic geometry method is used to separate the whole variables and eigenvalues are obtained simultaneously. Finally, according to the method of eigen function expansion, the explicit solution for rectangular thin plate on foundation with the boundary conditions of four edges frees are developed. Since the basic elasticity equations of thin plate are only used and it is not need to select the deformation function arbitrarily. Therefore, the solution is theoretical and reasonable. In order to show the correction of formulations derived, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the accuracy and convergence of the current solution.

Research on Vibration Suppression of the Finite Plate with Square Steel Beams Using Traveling Wave Method

The vibration suppression of the finite plate with square steel beams is studied using traveling wave method. The finite plate with square beams is modeled as the coupling systems between the plate flexural motion and the flexural and torsional motions for the square beams. The vibration response at any position of the coupling structure can be obtained by wave method. Numerical results show that comparing to finite element method (FEM), not only the low frequency but also the medium-high frequency vibration response of the finite plate with square beam can be effectively calculated by wave method. The suppression effect can be increased as the square beam is located at one-third of the length of plate or increasing the height of the beam. The study provides reference for arranged square beams applying to vibration suppression of ship and train structures.

FRACTURE CALCULATION OF BENDING PLATES BY BOUNDARY COLLOCATION METHOD

Fracture of Kirchhoff plates is analyzed by the theory of complex variables and boundary collocation method. The deflections, moments and shearing forces of the plates are assumed to be the functions of complex variables. The functions can satisfy a series of basic equations and governing conditions, such as the equilibrium equations in the domain, the boundary conditions on the crack surfaces and stress singularity at the crack tips. Thus, it is only necessary to consider the boundary conditions on the external boundaries of the plate, which can be approximately satisfied by the collocation method and least square technique. Different boundary conditions and loading cases of the cracked plates are analyzed and calculated. Compared to other methods, the numerical examples show that the present method has many advantages such as good accuracy and less computer time. This is an effective semi_analytical and semi_numerical method.

ANALYSIS OF THE LARGE DEFLECTION DYNAMIC PLASTIC RESPONSE OF SIMPLY-SUPPORTED CIRCULAR PLATES BY THE“MEMBRANE FACTOR METHOD”

Based on energy equilibrium,a new procedure called the Membrane Factor Method is devel- oped to analyze the dynamic plastic response of plates with deflections in the range where both bending mo- ments and membrane forces are important.The final deflection of a simply -supported circular rigid-plastic plate loaded by a uniformly distributed impulse is obtained.In comparison with other approximate solutions, the present results are found to be simpler and in better agreement with the corresponding experimental values reoorded by Florence.

Numerical Method Based on Compatible Manifold Element for Thin Plate Bending

The typical quadrangular and triangular elements for thin plate bending based on Kirchhoff assumptions are the non- conforming elements with low computational accuracy and limitative application range in fmite element method（FEM）. Some compatible elements can be developed by the means of supplementing correction functions, increasing nodes in element or on the boundaries, expanding nodal degrees of freedom（DOF）, etc, but these elements are inconvenient to apply in practice for the high calculation complexity. In this paper, in order to overcome the defects of thin plate bending finite element, numerical manifold method（NMM） was introduced to solve thin plate bending deformation problem. Rectangular mesh was adopted as mathematical mesh to form f＇mite element cover system, and then 16-cover manifold element was proposed. Numerical manifold formulas were constructed on the basis of minimum potential energy principle, displacement boundary conditions are implemented by penalty function method, and all the element matrixes were derived in details. The 16-cover element has a simple calculation process for employing only the transverse displacement cover DOFs as the basic unknown variables, and has been proved to meet the requirements of completeness and full compatibility. As an application, the presented 16-cover element has been used to analyze bending deformation of square thin plate under different loads and boundary conditions, and the results show that numerical manifold method with compatible element, compared with finite element method, can improve computational accuracy and convergence greatly.

New exact solutions for free vibrations of rectangular thin plates by symplectic dual method

The separation of variables is employed to solve Hamiltonian dual form of eigenvalue problem for transverse free vibrations of thin plates, and formulation of the natural mode in closed form is performed. The closed-form natural mode satisfies the governing equation of the eigenvalue problem of thin plate exactly and is applicable for any types of boundary conditions. With all combinations of simplysupported （S） and clamped （C） boundary conditions applied to the natural mode, the mode shapes are obtained uniquely and two eigenvalue equations are derived with respect to two spatial coordinates, with the aid of which the normal modes and frequencies are solved exactly. It was believed that the exact eigensolutions for cases SSCC, SCCC and CCCC were unable to be obtained, however, they are successfully found in this paper. Comparisons between the present results and the FEM results validate the present exact solutions, which can thus be taken as the benchmark for verifying different approximate approaches.

Design Method of Curved-bar Refining Plates for Disc Refiner

Straight-and curved-bar refining plates are two important types of plates commonly used in disc refiners in the papermaking industry.Theoretically,the curved-bar refining plate has a relatively uniform bar interaction angle,which indicates uniform refining effects.The bar angle of the curved bar was proposed and two typical curved-bar plates,the three-stage radial curved-bar plate and isometric curved-bar plate,were designed in this paper.The arc equations of the curved-bar center line and curved-bar edges were established and finally,the specific edge load(SEL)of the curved-bar plate was derived.The determination of bar parameters was discussed,which provides a theoretical basis for the design of curved-bar plates.

THE VIBRATION AND STABILITY ANALYSIS OF MODERATE THICK PLATES BY THE METHOD OF LINES

The method of lines based on Hu Hai-chang 's theory for the vibration and stability of moderate thick plates is developed. The standard nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) system for natural frequencies and critical load is given by use of ODE techniques, and then any indicated eigenvalue could be obtained directly from ODE solver by employing the so-called initial eigenfunction technique instead of the mode orthogonality condition. Numerical examples show that the present method is very effective and reliable.

Numerical method for optimum motion of undulatory swimmingplate in fluid flow

A numerical method for the optimum motion of an undulatory swimming plate is presented. The optimum problem is stated as minimizing the power input under the condition of fixed thrust. The problem is singular for the invisible modes, and therefore the commonly used Lagrange multiplier method cannot predict an optimum solution but just a saddle point. To eliminate the singularity, an additional amplitude inequality constraint is added to the problem. A numerical optimization code with a sequential quadratic programming method is used to solve the problem. The method is applied to several cases of the motion of two-dimensional and three-dimensional undulatory plates, and the optimum results are obtained.

A TIME DOMAIN METHOD FOR QUASI-STATIC ANALYSIS OF VISCOELASTIC THIN PLATES

Based on the Boltzmann's superposition principles of linear viscoelastic materials and the von Karman's hypotheses of thin plates with large deflections, a mathematical model for quasi-static problems of viscoelastic thin plates was given. By the Galerkin method in spatial domain, the original integro-partial-differential system could be transformed into an integral system. The latter further was reduced to a differential system by using the new method for temporal domain presented in this paper. Numerical results show that compared with the ordinary finite difference method, the new method in this paper is simpler to operate and has some advantages, such as, no storage and quicker computational speed etc.

ANALYSIS OF BENDING, VIBRATION AND STABILITY FOR THIN PLATE ON ELASTIC FOUNDATION BY THE MULTIVARIABLE SPLINE ELEMENT METHOD

In this paper, the bicubic splines in product form are used to construct the multi-field functions for bending moments, twisting moment and transverse displacement of the plate on elastic foundation. The multivariable spline element equations are derived, based on the mixed variational principle. The analysis and calculations of bending, vibration and stability of the plates on elastic foundation are presented in the paper. Because the field functions of plate on elastic foundation are assumed independently, the precision of the field variables of bending moments and displacement is high.

ON THE METHOD OF ORTHOGONALITY CONDITIONS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF LARGE DEFLECTION OF CIRCULAR PLATE

In this paper, we reexamine the method of successive approximation presented by Prof. Chien Wei-zangfor solving the problem of large deflection of a circular plate, and find that the method could be regarded as the method of strained parameters in the singular perturbation theory. In terms of the parameter representing the ratio of the center deflection to the thickness of the plate, we make the asymptotic expansions of the deflection, membrane stress and the parameter of load as in Ref. [1], and then give the orthogonality conditions (i.e. the solvability conditions) for the resulting equations, by which the stiffness characteristics of the plate could be determined. It is pointed out that with the solutions for the small deflection problem of the circular plate and the orthogonality conditions, we can derive the third order approximate relations between the parameter of load and the center deflection and the first-term approximation of membrane stresses at the center and edge of the plate without solving the differential equations. For some special cases (i.e. under uniform load, under compound toad, with different boundary conditiors), we deduce the specific expressions and obtain the results in agreement with the previous ones given by Chien Wei-zang, Yeh kai-yuan and Hwang Chien in Refs. [1 - 4J.

AN EXACT ELEMENT METHOD FOR BENDING OF NONHOMOGENEOUS THIN PLATES

In this paper, based on the step reduction method, a new method, the exact element method for constructing finite element, is presented. Since the new method doesn 't need the variational principle, it can be applied to solve non-positive and positive definite partial differential equations with arbitrary variable coefficient. By this method, a triangle noncompatible element with 6 degrees of freedom is derived to solve the bending of nonhomogeneous plate. The convergence of displacements and stress resultants which have satisfactory numerical precision is proved. Numerical examples are given at the end of this paper, which indicate satisfactory results of stress resultants and displacements can be obtained by the present method.