KARINA M. MICHETTI^1,2, PATRICIA I. LEONARDI^1,3, EDUARDO J. CÁCERES^1,4

BIOCELL, Vol.30, No.3, pp. 491-496, 2006, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2006.30.491

Abstract Nonspecific acid phosphatases are a group of enzymes whose activity increases the availability of exogenous and endogenous orthophosphate either through extra- or intracellular hydrolysis of phosphate compounds. Our study demonstrates the activity of acid phosphatases in the filamentous freshwater alga Stigeoclonium tenue. These enzymes were detected following a cerium-based method in which cerium was used as an orthophosphate-capture reagent. In thalli from S. tenue from the natural environment, acid phosphatases were found in the longitudinal cell wall, plasmalemma, and vacuole. In thalli from Bold’s Basal Medium culture, these enzymes were found mainly in the plasmalemma; they were More >

V. Mallardo, C. Alessandri¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 165-176, 2006, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2006.002.165

Abstract The formation of cracks and their propagation in brittle materials has been intensively studied in the last years. The main difficulty is related to the theoretical and numerical possibility to follow the development of regions of highly localised strains. The nonlinear phenomenon is physically different from the one which occurs in ductile materials: it starts with a narrow fracture process zone containing a large number of distributed microcracks which could lead to the formation of macrocracks and eventually to rupture. In the present paper, a simple nonlocal damage model is coupled to the crack analysis More >

S. N. Atluri¹, H. T. Liu², Z. D. Han²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.15, No.1, pp. 1-16, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.015.001

Abstract The Finite Difference Method (FDM), within the framework of the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach, is proposed in this paper for solving solid mechanics problems. A "mixed'' interpolation scheme is adopted in the present implementation: the displacements, displacement gradients, and stresses are interpolated independently using identical MLS shape functions. The system of algebraic equations for the problem is obtained by enforcing the momentum balance laws at the nodal points. The divergence of the stress tensor is established through the generalized finite difference method, using the scattered nodal values and a truncated Taylor expansion. The traction More >

J. Sladek¹, V. Sladek¹, Ch. Zhang², C.L. Tan³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.16, No.1, pp. 57-68, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.016.057

Abstract The Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method for linear transient coupled thermoelastic analysis is presented. Orthotropic material properties are considered here. A Heaviside step function as the test functions is applied in the weak-form to derive local integral equations for solving two-dimensional (2-D) problems. In transient coupled thermoelasticity an inertial term appears in the equations of motion. The second governing equation derived from the energy balance in coupled thermoelasticity has a diffusive character. To eliminate the time-dependence in these equations, the Laplace-transform technique is applied to both of them. Local integral equations are written on small More >

G. Kakuba¹, R.M.M. Mattheij², M.J.H. Anthonissen³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.15, No.3, pp. 127-136, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.015.127

Abstract This paper presents an efficient way to implement the Boundary Element Method (BEM) to capture high activity regions in a boundary value problem. In boundary regions where accuracy is critical, like in adaptive surface meshes, the method of choice is Local Defect Correction (LDC). We formulate the method and demonstrate its applicability and reliability by means of an example. Numerical results show that LDC and BEM together provide accurate solutions with less computational requirements given that BEM systems usually consist of dense matrices. More >

S. N. Atluri¹, H. T. Liu², Z. D. Han²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 141-152, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.014.141

Abstract The Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) mixed collocation method is proposed in this paper, for solving elasticity problems. In the present MLPG approach, the mixed scheme is applied to interpolate the displacements and stresses independently, as in the MLPG finite volume method. To improve the efficiency, the local weak form is established at the nodal points, for the stresses, by using the collocation method. The traction boundary conditions are also imposed into the stress equations directly. It becomes very simple and straightforward to impose various boundary conditions, especially for the high-order PDEs. Numerical examples show that More >

Z. D. Han¹, H. T. Liu¹, A. M. Rajendran², S. N. Atluri³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 119-128, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.014.119

Abstract This paper presents the implementation of a three-dimensional dynamic code, for contact, impact, and penetration mechanics, based on the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach. In the current implementation, both velocities and velocity-gradients are interpolated independently, and their compatibility is enforced only at nodal points. As a result, the time consuming differentiations of the shape functions at all integration points is avoided, and therefore, the numerical process becomes more stable and efficient. The ability of the MLPG code for solving high-speed contact, impact and penetration problems with large deformations and rotations is demonstrated through several computational More >

Liu Jianfei^1,2, Sun Shuli^1,3, Wang Dachuan¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.14, No.1, pp. 31-44, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.014.031

Abstract Local transformation, or topological re-connection, is one of effective procedures of mesh improvement method, especially in three-dimensional situation. The commonly used local transformations for tetrahedral mesh involve changing in mesh topology (i.e. node-element connectivity relationship) within a relatively small region composed of several tetrahedra, such as 2-3 flip, 3-2 flip, 2-2 flip, 4-4 flip, etc. Although these local transformations are easy to implement and effective in removing poorly-shaped tetrahedra, it is still possible to improve the quality of mesh further by expanding the space of transformation region. In this paper, the concept of optimal tetrahedralization for… More >

V. Vavourakis¹, E. J. Sellountos², D. Polyzos³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.13, No.3, pp. 171-184, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.013.171

Abstract Comparison studies on the accuracy provided by five different elastostatic Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) type formulations, based on Local Boundary Integral Equation (LBIE) considerations, are made. The main differences of these MLPG(LBIE) formulations, as they compared to each other, are concentrated on the treatment of tractions on the local and global boundaries and the way of imposing the boundary conditions of the elastostatic problem. Both the Moving Least Square (MLS) approximation scheme and the Radial Basis Point Interpolation Functions (RBPIF) are exploited for the interpolation of the interior and boundary variables. Two representative elastostatic problems More >

J. Sladek¹, V. Sladek¹, P. H. Wen², M.H. Aliabadi³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.13, No.2, pp. 103-118, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.013.103

Abstract A meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method is applied to solve bending problems of shear deformable shallow shells described by the Reissner theory. Both static and dynamic loads are considered. For transient elastodynamic case the Laplace-transform is used to eliminate the time dependence of the field variables. A weak formulation with a unit test function transforms the set of governing equations into local integral equations on local subdomains in the mean surface of the shell. Nodal points are randomly spread on that surface and each node is surrounded by a circular subdomain to which local integral More >