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Temperature-dependent
modulus of glass fiber/epoxy composite laminates were studied at temperatures
ranging from room temperature up to 120℃. The storage modulus, loss
modulus, loss factor, and glass transition temperature of two layer-up composite
laminates were investigated by dynamic mechanic analysis (DMA). Static flexural
modulus was also measured by control force mode in DMA. A new and simple temperature-dependent
model both for the dynamic storage modulus and static flexural modulus was developed.

2-year postdoc opening for a project in numerical analysis/molecular simulation. More details are available at

https://secure.admin.warwick.ac.uk/webjobs/jobs/research/job18618.html

I will be happy to discuss the job in more detail with anybody interested c.ortner [at] warwick.ac.uk>

Johnson Matthey CASE/EPSRC PhD Studentship Award

In this paper, the first-order shear deformation plate (FSDT) model is exploited to investigate the mechanical behavior of laminated composite and functional graded plates. Three approaches are developed to transform the laminated composite plate, with stepped material properties, to an equivalent functionally graded (FG) plate with a continuous property function across the plate thickness. Such transformations are used to determine the details of a functional graded plate equivalent to the original laminated one. In addition it may provide an easy and efficient way to investigate the behavior of multilayer composite plates, with direct and less computational efforts. A comparative study has been developed to compare the effectiveness of the three proposed transformation procedures.

In the theory of dislocations, the Burgers vector is usually defined by referring to a crystal structure. Using the notion of affine development of curves on a differential manifold with a connection, we give a differential geometric definition of the Burgers vector directly in the continuum setting, without making use of an underlying crystal structure.