To examine the acousto-structural behavior of a sandwich cylindrical shell benefiting from hexagonal honeycomb structures in its core and functionally graded porous (FGP) layers on its outer and inner surfaces, a comprehensive study based on an analytical model which also considers the effect of an external flow is conducted. A homogenous orthotropic model is used for the honeycomb core while its corresponding material features are found from the modified Gibson’s equation. The distribution pattern of FGP parts is either even or logarithmic-uneven, and a special rule-of-mixture relation governs their properties. Based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), Hamilton’s principle is exploited to derive the final coupled vibro-acoustic equations, which are then solved analytically to allow us to calculate the amount of sound transmission loss (STL) through the whole structure. This acoustic property is further investigated in the frequency domain by changing a set of parameters, i.e., Mach number, wave approach angle, structure’s radius, volume fraction, index of functionally graded material (FGM), and different honeycomb properties. Overall, good agreement is observed between the result of the present study and previous findings.

The multidisciplinary nature of piezoelectric (PZ) structures necessitates precise and efficient methods to express their behavior under different conditions. This article extends the general usage of PZ materials by introducing acoustic and fluid loading effects in a way that an unfilled multilayer cylindrical nanoshell with a functionally graded (FG) material core and PZ layers is subjected to preliminary external electric load, acoustic waves and external flow motion. As the properties of a functionally graded material changes along the shell thickness, a power law model is assumed to be governing such variations of desired characteristics. Evidently, this system includes different types of couplings and a comprehensive approach is required to describe the structural response. To this aim, the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is used to define different displacement components. Next, the coupled size-dependent vibroacoustic equations are derived based on in conjunction with nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) with the aid of Hamilton’s variational principle and fluid/structure compatibility conditions. NSGT is complemented with hardening and softening material effects which can greatly enhance the precision of results. It is expected to use the findings of this paper in the optimization of similar systems by selecting suitable FG index, incident angle of sound waves, flow Mach number, nonlocal and strain gradient parameters, starting electric potential and geometric features. One of the important findings of this study is that increasing the electric voltage can obtain better sound insulation at small frequencies, specially prior to the ring frequency.

This study aims to explore the tensile and impact properties (tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and impact strength) of polypropylene (PP)-based nanocomposites reinforced with graphene nanosheets, nanoclay, and basalt fibers. The response surface methodology (RSM) with Box–Behnken design (BBD) was adopted as the experimental design. An internal mixer was used to prepare compounds consisting of 0, 0.75 and 1.5 wt% graphene nanosheets, 0, 10 and 20 wt% basalt fibers, and 0, 3 and 6 wt% nanoclay. The samples were prepared by a hot press machine for mechanical testing. The tensile tests were run to determine the tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity, and the Charpy impact tests were performed to assess the impact strength. It was found that the addition of basalt increased the tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and impact strength by 32%, 64% and 18%, respectively. Also, the incorporation of the low-weight graphene nanosheets increased the tensile and impact strength by 15% and 20%, respectively, Adding graphene nanosheets generally improved the modulus of elasticity by 66%. Similarly, the addition of nanoclay improved the tensile strength by 17% and increased the modulus of elasticity by 59%, but further addition of it decreased the impact strength by 19%. The values obtained by this experiment for the mechanical property were roughly close to the data yielded from desirability optimization.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the mechanical behaviors of steel‒concrete composite decks with different shear span-to-depth ratios. Herein, four composite decks categorized into two types with shear span-to-depth ratios of 2.5 and 4.6 are designed for an experimental program. The decks then undergo the four-point bending tests until failure to investigate the structural responses, such as the load, displacement, crack mechanism, and failure mode. Conventional section analysis is used to derive the flexural strength of composite decks in comparison with the test results. Additionally, the ductility of the composite decks is assessed based on the displacement indices. The analysis results demonstrate that the stiffness and capacity of the composite deck increase with the decrease in the shear span length. However, the ductility of the composite slabs increases with the shear span length. The flexural strengths predicted by section analysis overestimate the actual test results. The shear span-to-depth ratio affects the crack mechanism of the composite decks.

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