Colloquium

Scheduled Talk - October 5, 2009 - [ 3:00PM in DH 1064 ]

Ilinca Stanciulescu
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rice University

"Stability Boundaries of Thermo-Mechanically Coupled Thin Curved Structures"

Abstract:
A nonlinear finite element formulation appropriate for the analysis of systems under combined mechanical and thermal loads is presented and used for the study of the dynamic snap-through of thin curved structures. We determine a non trivial (non-flat) configuration of a curved beam at a lowered critical temperature value below which the beam will no longer experience snap-through under any magnitude of applied quasi static point loads. We argue that such a limit can be obtained for a variety of static loads and that it also reduces the amplitude of the oscillations when loads are applied at dynamic rates.