An Investigation of the Mechanics of Tactile Sense Using Two-Dimensional Models of the Primate Fingertip

1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Srinivasan ◽  
K. Dandekar

Tactile information about an object in contact with the skin surface is contained in the spatiotemporal load distribution on the skin, the corresponding stresses and strains at mechanosensitive receptor locations within the skin, and the associated pattern of electrical impulses produced by the receptor population. At present, although the responses of the receptors to known stimuli can be recorded, no experimental techniques exist to observe either the load distribution on the skin or the corresponding stress-state at the receptor locations. In this paper, the role of mechanics in the neural coding of tactile information is investigated using simple models of the primate fingertip. Four models that range in geometry from a semi-infinite medium to a cylindrical finger with a rigid bone, and composed of linear elastic media, are analyzed under plane strain conditions using the finite element method. The results show that the model geometry has a significant influence on the surface load distribution as well as the subsurface stress and strain fields for a given mechanical stimulus. The elastic medium acts like a spatial low pass filter with the property that deeper the receptor location, the more blurred the tactile information. None of the models predicted the experimentally observed surface deflection profiles under line loads as closely as a simple heterogeneous waterbed model that treated the fingerpad as a membrane enclosing an incompressible fluid (Srinivasan, 1989). This waterbed model, however, predicted a uniform state of stress inside the fingertip and thus failed to explain the spatial variations observed in the neural response. For the cylindrical model indented by rectangular gratings, the maximum compressive strain and strain energy density at typical receptor locations emerged as the two strain measures that were directly related to the electrophysiologically recorded response rate of slowly adapting type I (SAI) mechanoreceptors. Strain energy density is a better candidate to be the relevant stimulus for SAIs, since it is a scalar that is invariant with respect to receptor orientations and is a direct measure of the distortion of the receptor caused by the loads imposed on the skin.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. T423-T435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Yin ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
Jingzhou Zhao ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Weitao Wu ◽  
...  

Microfractures represent an important rupture type, but current studies on the construction of microscale rupture parameters and their impacts on oil and gas production capacity are relatively weak. Therefore, we constructed the strain energy density ([Formula: see text]) based on 3D finite-element method (FEM) for the tight sandstone reservoir of the Permian He8 segment in the western region of the Sulige gas field, Ordos Basin. It indicated that the [Formula: see text] values of the major production layers are mainly distributed between 0.12 and [Formula: see text]. High-[Formula: see text]-value regions ([Formula: see text]) are mainly distributed in local areas of the western, central, and eastern regions. The [Formula: see text] values are small in the northwestern part of the study area and are usually less than [Formula: see text]. There is a very good exponential correlation between the [Formula: see text] values and gas well productivity (the main controlling factor for the production capacity of the He8 tight sandstone is the gas content, and fracturing, as an engineering factor affecting capacity, has not been taken into account). The distribution of the strain energy densities also matches the low-amplitude tectonic zone well. We have developed the criterion for the discrimination of gas well productivity using the strain energy density. According to this criterion, the conformity rates of type I, type II, and type III wells are 92.3%, 73.0%, and 83.3%, respectively. The areas with [Formula: see text] values greater than [Formula: see text], especially for areas with [Formula: see text] values exceeding [Formula: see text], which should serve as the core exploration targets. The research results can effectively guide tight gas sandstone exploration in low-amplitude tectonic zones and reduce the risk of drilling.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Chin Wu ◽  
Yung-Chuan Chiou

The study was devoted to the observation and modeling the mechanical behaviors of a hybrid SBR/NR (Styrene-Butadiene/Natural Rubber) hybrid vulcanized rubber fender under monotonic/cyclic compression. In experimental observations of the monotonic compression tests, it was found that lateral deformation occurred on the tested fender and was more significant with increasing the extent of the compressive strain. The relationship between the transmission stress S c and the compressive strain e c was nonlinear and the absorbed strain-energy-density was increased monotonically with the increment of the compressive strain. Among all cyclic compression tests with strain controlled, the reductions in both the stress range and the absorbed strain-energy-density up to the ten-thousandth cycle were found and then both of the cyclic properties remain approximately constant in the following compression cycles. Two new properties, the softening factor and the energy reduction factor, were introduced to quantify the effect of the strain range on the extent of the reduction in stress range and that on the absorbed strain-energy-density, respectively. It was found that both of the calculated values of the new properties increase with the increment of strain range. In mathematical modeling of the relationship between the transmission stress and the compressive strain, a new approach based on energy-polynomial-function E s ( e c ) was presented and was successfully used to simulate the monotonic curve and the stable hysteresis loop curves of the tested rubber fender in compression. Essentially, the energy-polynomial-function E s ( e c ) was obtained by performing a polynomial regression on a large amount of ( e c , E s ) data. Moreover, the least-square approach was applied to determine the corresponding regression coefficients in E s ( e c ) . Clearly, the stress-polynomial-function in modeling the S c − e c curve could be obtained from the differentiation of the energy-polynomial-function with respect to the compressive strain. In addition, to provide an adequate estimation of the mechanical properties of the cylindrical rubber fender under compression, the named cyclic stress-strain curve and cyclic energy-strain curve were developed and also modeled in this study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 734-742
Author(s):  
Pietro Foti ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Javad Razavi ◽  
Liviu Marsavina ◽  
Filippo Berto

2021 ◽  
Vol 230 ◽  
pp. 111716
Author(s):  
Pietro Foti ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Javad Razavi ◽  
Majid Reza Ayatollahi ◽  
Liviu Marsavina ◽  
Filippo Berto

Author(s):  
Mircea Bîrsan

AbstractIn this paper, we present a general method to derive the explicit constitutive relations for isotropic elastic 6-parameter shells made from a Cosserat material. The dimensional reduction procedure extends the methods of the classical shell theory to the case of Cosserat shells. Starting from the three-dimensional Cosserat parent model, we perform the integration over the thickness and obtain a consistent shell model of order $$ O(h^5) $$ O ( h 5 ) with respect to the shell thickness h. We derive the explicit form of the strain energy density for 6-parameter (Cosserat) shells, in which the constitutive coefficients are expressed in terms of the three-dimensional elasticity constants and depend on the initial curvature of the shell. The obtained form of the shell strain energy density is compared with other previous variants from the literature, and the advantages of our constitutive model are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1679 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.G. Súchil ◽  
G. Abadal ◽  
F. Torres

ABSTRACTSelf-powered microsystems as an alternative to standard systems powered by electrochemical batteries are taking a growing interest. In this work, we propose a different method to store the energy harvested from the ambient which is performed in the mechanical domain. Our mechanical storage concept is based on a spring which is loaded by the force associated to the energy source to be harvested [1]. The approach is based on pressing an array of fine wires (fws) grown vertically on a substrate surface. For the fine wires based battery, we have chosen ZnO fine wires due the fact that they could be grown using a simple and cheap process named hydrothermal method [2]. We have reported previous experiments changing temperature and initial pH of the solution in order to determine the best growth [3]. From new experiments done varying the compounds concentration the best results of fine wires were obtained. To characterize these fine wires we have considered that the maximum load we can apply to the system is limited by the linear buckling of the fine wires. From the best results we obtained a critical strain of εc = 3.72 % and a strain energy density of U = 11.26 MJ/m3, for a pinned-fixed configuration [4].


2010 ◽  
Vol 452-453 ◽  
pp. 441-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomáš Profant ◽  
Jan Klusák ◽  
Michal Kotoul

The bi-material notch composed of two orthotropic parts is considered. The radial and tangential stresses and strain energy density is expressed using the Stroh-Eshelby-Lekhnitskii formalism for the plane elasticity. The potential direction of the crack initiation is determined from the maximum mean value of the tangential stresses and local minimum of the mean value of the generalized strain energy density factor in both materials. Matched asymptotic procedure is used to derive the change of potential energy for the debonding crack and the crack initiated in the determined direction.


Author(s):  
Sergio Cicero ◽  
Francisco Ibáñez ◽  
Isabela Procopio ◽  
Virginia Madrazo

This paper presents the application of the Strain Energy Density (SED) criterion to the estimation of fracture loads on structural steel S355J2 operating at lower shelf temperatures (−196°C) and containing U-shaped notches. 24 fracture tests were performed on this material, combining 6 different notch radii: 0 mm (crack-like defect), 0.15 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.50 mm, 1.0 mm and 2.0 mm. The results obtained in cracked specimens (0 mm notch radius) were used to determine the material fracture toughness, which is an input parameter in the SED criterion, whereas the notched specimens were used to demonstrate the capacity and the limitations of the SED criterion to provide fracture load estimations in the analyzed conditions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document