Small Elements Research Articles

Effect of self-compacting concrete placement technology on the load-bearing capacity of the concrete-concrete and steel-concrete bond in layered elements

The article presents a study on the technology of layered execution in self-compacting concrete structures. The research focused on 800×480×160 mm panel elements, cast in two layers from a single mix casting point. Three different delay times for delivering the second layer of mix were considered: 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Two technological variants of mix application were analysed: from the top and from the bottom of the mould. The study investigated the influence of the placement technology on the load bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint and the rebar-to-concrete joint. The load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint was determined through a splitting tensile strength test on core specimens extracted from panel elements. Notably, existing literature has primarily explored the load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint on smaller elements and has not accounted for mix placing technologies diverging from the traditional one. A test of the rebar-to-concrete bond at the layer interface was conducted using the pull-out method. Substantial differences were identified in the mixing pattern of concrete layers, contingent on the placing technology employed. Top-down casting led to a reduction in the load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer interface, coupled with decreased stiffness and bond strength of the rebar-to-concrete connection as the delay time of the second layer increased. Conversely, bottom-up concreting maintained the load-bearing capacity of the combined concrete layers at 90% of the strength of the monolithic specimen throughout the entire test range. The article recommends the utilization of bottom-up placing technology for executing elements in the multilayer casting of self-compacting concrete.

Late Cretaceous coprolite from the Opole area (southern Poland) as evidence for a variable diet in shell-crushing shark Ptychodus (Elasmobranchii: Ptychodontidae).

Coprolites, i.e., fossilized faeces, are an important source of knowledge on the diet and food processing mechanisms in the fossil record. Direct and indirect evidences for the dietary preferences of extinct sharks are rare in the fossil record. The first coprolite attributable to Ptychodus containing prey remains from the European Cretaceous is documented here. A coprolite from the Late Cretaceous of Opole (southern Poland) was scanned using micro-computed tomography to show the arrangement of the inclusions. In addition, the cross-section was examined under the SEM/EDS to analyse the microstructure and chemical composition of the inclusions. Brachiopod shell fragments and foraminiferan shells are recognized and identified among the variously shaped inclusions detected through the performed analysis. The extinct shell-crushing shark Ptychodus has been identified as the likely producer of the examined coprolite. The presence of brachiopod shell fragments indicates that at least some species of this durophagous predatory shark may have preyed on small benthic elements on the sea bottom.

A conformal multi-port MIMO patch antenna for 5G wireless devices

This paper presents a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array with low-profile and flexible characteristics. Multiple microstrip patches are arranged in the E-plane configuration and decoupled by shorted quarter-wavelength stubs. The antenna has a small element spacing of 0.032 λ, where λ is a free-space wavelength at the center frequency. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept, a 1 × 4 MIMO array prototype is fabricated. The measured results on the fabricated prototype demonstrate that the MIMO antenna has good operation features at 4.8 GHz with a reflection coefficient of less than –10 dB and an isolation of better than 20 dB. Besides, good radiation patterns and broadside gain of around 4.5 dBi are also attained. The antenna also works in the bending mode and has the capability of extending to large-scale MIMO arrays. Such attractive features prove the utility of the proposed antenna in various modern electronic devices.

Preliminary Studies on a Lightweight Porous Cement-Based Composite – Gel Concrete

This paper presents some preliminary results of research on light, highly porous cement composites – gel concretes. A material based on Portland cement was tested, the very high porosity of which (over 60%) was obtained by direct gelatinization of starch in a liquid cement slurry. A composite based solely on cement and concretes produced with the addition of metakaolin or zeolite was tested. The basic properties of the concretes obtained in this way were determined, i.e., the volume density in a dry state, the thermal properties, and the compressive strength. In the case of the thermal properties, tests were performed on specimens dried to constant mass, while the test itself was carried out at an average temperature of 10°C. The tests employed an Isomet 2114 apparatus, which uses a non-stationary heat flow technique. The thermal conductivity coefficients and the volumetric specific heat were determined. The compressive strength tests were carried out on cubic specimens with a side of 4 cm after 28 days of curing by air-drying. Four specimens of each type of composite were tested. For composites based solely on Portland cement, the sorption properties of the material were also tested. For this purpose, the method of dynamic water vapor sorption (DVS) was used. As a result, graphs of the sorption and desorption of individual composites of different densities were obtained. Preliminary qualitative tests were also carried out using an electron microscope. The use of the starch gelatinization process directly in the cement slurry made it possible to obtain a very homogeneous material, in which the initial, temporary structure was starch gel, around which, after exceeding the setting time of the cement, the target cement-based structure was formed – gel concrete. The tested materials are innovative, having excellent thermal properties, comparable mechanical properties to lightweight concretes of the same densities, and is formed using an easily available, relatively cheap admixture in the form of starch. They can be used to produce small masonry elements, such as blocks for external walls or other typical prefabricated lightweight concrete elements.

Increasing the Q-factor of Fabry-Perot etalons using focused Bessel beam illumination.

Sensing and filtering applications often require Fabry-Perot (FP) etalons with an Interferometer Transfer Function (ITF) having high visibility, narrow Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), and high sensitivity. For the ITF to have these characteristics, the illumination beam must be matched to the modes of the FP cavity. This is challenging when a small illumination element size is needed, as typical focused beams are not matched to the FP cavity modes. Bessel beams are a potential alternative as their structure resembles the FP cavity modes while possessing a focused core. To study the feasibility of using Bessel beam illumination, in this Letter, ITFs of an FP etalon were measured using Bessel and Gaussian illumination beams. A Bessel beam with core size of 28 µm provided an ITF with visibility 3.0 times higher, a FWHM 0.3 times narrower, and a sensitivity 2.2 times higher than a Gaussian beam with waist 32 µm. The results show that Bessel beam illumination can provide ITFs similar to that of collimated beam illumination while also having with a focused core.

Smart Composite Booms for Solar Sails

Composite booms for solar sails have been prototyped by using innovative smart materials. Shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) have been manufactured by interposing SMP layers between carbon-fiber-reinforced (CFR) plies. A polyimide membrane has been embedded into the CFR-SMPC frame of the sail during lamination. The sail’s size has been limited to 250 × 250 mm2 to allow its testing on Earth. The feasibility of large sail deployments has been shown by prototyping small CFR-SMPC elements to insert only in the folding zones. Numerical simulation by finite element modeling allowed for predicting the presence of wrinkles close to the frame’s vertexes in the cases of large sails under solar radiation pressures. Nevertheless, the frame’s configuration, with SMPC booms at all the edges of the sail membrane, seems to be suitable for drag sails instead of propulsion. On-Earth recovery tests have been performed on 180° folded sails by using flexible heaters. After an initial induction time, the maximum rate was reached with a following drop. In the case of two heaters per folding zone, the angular recovery rate reached the maximum value of about 30 deg/s at the power of 34 W, and full recovery was made in 20 s.

A hybrid semi-Lagrangian DG and ADER-DG solver on a moving mesh for Liouville's equation of geometrical optics

Liouville's equation describes light propagation through an optical system. It governs the evolution of an energy distribution, the basic luminance, on phase space. The basic luminance is discontinuous across optical interfaces, as is described by non-local boundary conditions at each optical interface. Curved optical interfaces manifest themselves as moving boundaries on phase space. A common situation is that an optical system is described by a piecewise constant refractive index field. Away from optical interfaces, the characteristics of Liouville's equation reduce to straight lines. This property is exploited in the novel solver developed in this paper by employing a semi-Lagrangian discontinuous Galerkin (SLDG) scheme away from optical interfaces. Close to optical interfaces we apply an ADER discontinuous Galerkin (ADER-DG) method on a moving mesh. The ADER-DG method is a fully discrete explicit scheme which must obey a CFL condition that restricts the stepsize, whereas the SLDG scheme can be CFL-free. A moving mesh is used to align optical interfaces with the mesh. Very small elements cannot always be avoided, even when applying mesh refinement. Local time stepping is introduced in the solver to ensure these very small elements only have a local impact on the stepsize. By construction we allow elements of SLDG type to run at a stepsize independent of these small elements. The proposed SLDG scheme uses the exact evolution of the solution, as is described by the characteristics, to update the numerical solution. We impose the condition that no characteristic emanating from an SLDG element can cross an optical interface. In the novel hybrid SLDG and ADER-DG solver this condition is used to naturally divide the spatio-temporal domain into different regions, describing where the SLDG scheme and where the ADER-DG scheme need to be used. An intermediate element is introduced to efficiently couple an SLDG region with an ADER-DG region. Numerical experiments validate that the hybrid solver obeys energy conservation up to machine precision and numerical convergence results show the expected order of convergence. The performance of the hybrid solver is compared to a pure ADER-DG scheme with global time stepping to show the efficiency of the hybrid solver. In particular, a speed-up of 1.6 to 10, in favour of the hybrid solver, for computation times up to 4 minutes was seen in an example. Finally, the hybrid solver and the pure ADER-DG scheme are compared to quasi-Monte Carlo ray tracing. In the examples considered, amongst the three methods the hybrid solver is shown to converge the fastest to high accuracies.

Numerical analysis of the post-installation consolidated response of skirted foundations

The effect of the installation process on the subsequent foundation consolidation response requires assessment when the preload is initially applied. In the framework of effective stress, the influence of large soil deformations during penetration is analysed in this study using a comparison of results from large deformation finite element (LDFE) analysis based on periodic mesh regeneration (Ritss technique) and a 'wished-in-place' small strain finite element (SSFE) model. The LDFE results demonstrate that considerations of the skirt penetration and soil plug bulge lead to different soil excess pore pressure and void ratio change distributions from that of the SSFE analysis, thereby affecting the foundation settlement and consolidated bearing capacity. The normalised fully consolidated undrained bearing capacity grows linearly with the preload ratio for preloads higher than the penetration resistance, and the capacity obtained from the LDFE is higher. The settlement ratio and the proportion of partially consolidated to fully consolidated capacity gain can be represented as a hyperbolic function of a revised dimensionless time factor. The methods integrated in this study can be used to predict the increase in the vertical undrained capacity of skirted foundations after consolidation, accounting for installation effects in engineering practice.

Apéry Sets and the Ideal Class Monoid of a Numerical Semigroup

The aim of this article is to study the ideal class monoid {mathscr {C}}ell (S) of a numerical semigroup S introduced by V. Barucci and F. Khouja. We prove new bounds on the cardinality of {mathscr {C}}ell (S). We observe that {mathscr {C}}ell (S) is isomorphic to the monoid of ideals of S whose smallest element is 0, which helps to relate {mathscr {C}}ell (S) to the Apéry sets and the Kunz coordinates of S. We study some combinatorial and algebraic properties of {mathscr {C}}ell (S), including the reduction number of ideals, and the Hasse diagrams of {mathscr {C}}ell (S) with respect to inclusion and addition. From these diagrams, we can recover some notable invariants of the semigroup. Finally, we prove some results about irreducible elements, atoms, quarks, and primes of ({mathscr {C}}ell (S),+). Idempotent ideals coincide with over-semigroups and idempotent quarks correspond to unitary extensions of the semigroup. We show that a numerical semigroup is irreducible if and only if {mathscr {C}}ell (S) has at most two quarks.

Probabilistic investigations on the elastic stiffness coefficients for suction caisson considering spatially varying soils

The importance of accurate estimation of elastic stiffness coefficients of suction caisson has been already highlighted in previous works. Nonetheless, studies related to the spatial non-uniformity of the clayey seabed are somewhat limited, and current theoretical solutions are usually established using deterministic soil properties, overlooking the inherent uncertainty of the soil. This study focuses on the elastic performance of suction caisson in spatially random soils using three-dimensional (3D) small strain random finite element analyses within a Monte-Carlo framework. The non-uniformity of soil is mapped by modeling the shear modulus as a random field. The influences of soil profiles, embedment ratios and random field parameters on the elastic stiffness coefficients are comprehensively quantified. Results demonstrate that the spatially varying shear modulus notably alters the failure mechanism, which in turn significantly affects the elastic stiffness coefficients, ignoring soil variation will provide non-conservative predictions. To deal with the uncertainty of soil shear modulus, a series of expressions are developed by adding reliability-related parameters to the existing theoretical solutions, which can be adopted to calculate quantiles of stiffness coefficients corresponding to several given probabilities. The findings of this research may potentially facilitate the elastic performance assessment of suction caisson.

New Bone Formation in Axial Spondyloarthritis: A Review.

Background Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic inflammatory disease primarily affecting the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) and the spine. Imaging plays a crucial role in the diagnosis of axSpA, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and radiography being the primary modalities used in clinical practice. New bone formation occurs in both the spine (non-bridging and bridging syndesmophytes, transdiscal ankylosis, and ankylosis of small joints and posterior elements) and the SIJs (backfill and ankylosis). New bone formation indicates advanced axSpA. Method This review explores the role of imaging in the diagnosis and monitoring of axSpA, focusing on the significance of new bone formation, and provides an overview of the characteristic imaging findings of new bone formation in axSpA in each imaging modality. Conclusion Imaging methods, such as X-ray, MRI, and CT, have different diagnostic accuracies for detecting structural lesions and new bone formation. Each modality has its strengths and weaknesses, and the choice depends on the specific clinical context. Imaging is crucial for the diagnosis and monitoring of axSpA, particularly for the detection of new bone formation. Different imaging techniques provide valuable information about disease progression and treatment response. Understanding the significance of new bone formation and its detection using imaging modalities is essential for the accurate diagnosis and effective management of patients with axSpA. Key Points:

A nonconforming immersed virtual element method for elliptic interface problems

This paper presents the lowest-order nonconforming immersed virtual element method for solving elliptic interface problems on unfitted polygonal meshes. The local discrete space on each interface mesh element consists of the solutions of local interface problems with Neumann boundary conditions, and the elliptic projection is modified so that its range is the space of broken linear polynomials satisfying the interface conditions. We derive optimal error estimates in the broken H1-norm and L2-norm, under the piecewise H2-regulartiy assumption. In our scheme, the mesh assumptions for error analysis allow small cut elements. Several numerical experiments are provided to confirm the theoretical results.

A novel analytical model for fiber reinforced cementitious matrix FRCM coupons subjected to tensile tests

A much enhanced -with respect to existing literature- analytical model for FRCM coupons subjected to standard tensile tests is proposed. One fourth of the coupon is idealized considering two layers, matrix and fiber, subjected to a uniaxial stress state, mutually interacting at the interface through tangential stresses. The matrix is assumed elastic-perfectly fragile and the fiber linear elastic. The shear stress-slip relationship at the interface is tri-linear, with the first phase elastic, the second exhibiting linear softening followed by a third phase at possible non-null residual strength. The longitudinal equilibrium equations written for the two layers, suitably re-arranged, allow deducing a field problem governed in the three phases by a single second order linear differential equation where the independent variable is the interface slip, with solution retrievable analytically. Since the location of the points where the interface is in the different phases is not a-priori known, a discretization with small length elements is adopted. For each element the solution of the field problem is known in closed form and the only variables to determine are the integration constants coming from the solution of the differential equation. After a standard assemblage, all constants are derived imposing the boundary conditions at the extremes of the elements, which depend on the state of cracking of the matrix layer. The model is validated against two sets of experimental data on coupons tested in two different University laboratories in Italy. A satisfactory predictivity of both the global and local behavior is found.

Intra voxel analysis in magnetic resonance imaging via deep learning

AbstractMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a useful diagnostic method for producing anatomical images of the body. It differentiates tissues thanks to the measure of their proton density and relaxation times and . Since pathological tissues often present altered , and with respect to the physiological ones, MRI is largely used for the detection of large number of conditions. In addition, MRI scan presents an effective resolution able to detect very small anatomical elements, making the imaging system well suitable in contexts like prevention and early diagnosis. Nevertheless, system resolution imposes pathological volume to be larger than the voxel dimension. Since in some pathologies and conditions it could be very helpful to find tissues even smaller than the voxel dimension, this manuscript proposes an algorithm able to analyze voxel content and detect which one presents more than one tissue in its volume (i.e., which one is heterogeneous). More in detail, a machine learning algorithm is proposed, able to highlight, in the MR image, which pixel corresponds to an heterogeneous voxel. Method shows to be promising in combining good results and near real‐time processing in both simulated and real scenario.

Distinguished elements in semiring extensions

In this paper, we investigate zero-divisor, nilpotent, idempotent, unit, small, and irreducible elements in semiring extensions such as amount, content, and monoid semialgebras. We also introduce new concepts such as the prime avoidance property in semirings, entire-like semirings, semialgebras with Property (A), and also, Armendariz and McCoy semialgebras and we prove some results related to these concepts. For example, we prove that if [Formula: see text] is an [Formula: see text]-semialgebra, then under some conditions, the set of zero-divisors [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] is the union of the extended maximal primes of [Formula: see text]. Finally, we prove a generalization of Eisenstein’s irreducibility criterion.

Empirical Interscale Finite Element Method (EIFEM) for modeling heterogeneous structures via localized hyperreduction

This work proposes a special type of Finite Element (FE) technology – the Empirical Interscale FE method – for modeling heterogeneous structures in the small strain regime, for both dynamic and static analyses. The method combines a domain decomposition framework, where interface conditions are established through “fictitious” frames, with dimensional hyperreduction at subdomain level. Similar to other multiscale FE methods, the structure is assumed to be partitioned into coarse-scale elements, each of these elements is equipped with a fine-scale subgrid, and the displacements of the boundaries of the coarse-scale elements are described by standard polynomial FE shape functions. The distinguishing feature of the proposed method is the employed “interscale” variational formulation, which directly relates coarse-scale nodal internal forces with fine-scale stresses, thereby avoiding the typical nested local/global problems that appear, in the nonlinear regime, in other multiscale methods. This distinctive feature, along with hyperreduction schemes for nodal internal and external body forces , greatly facilitate the implementation of the proposed formulation in existing FE codes for solid elements. Indeed, one only has to change the location and weights of the integration points, and to replace a few polynomial-based FE matrices with “empirical” operators, i.e., derived from the information obtained in appropriately chosen computational experiments. We demonstrate that the elements resulting from this formulation are not afflicted by volumetric locking when dealing with nearly-incompressible materials, and that they can handle non-matching fine-scale grids as well as curved structures. Last but not least, we show that, for periodic structures, this method converges upon mesh refinement to the solution delivered by classical first-order computational homogenization. Thus, although the method does not presuppose scale separation, it can represent solutions in this limiting case by taking sufficiently small coarse-scale elements.

SHIP: identifying antimicrobial resistance gene transfer between plasmids.

Plasmids are carriers for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and can exchange genetic material with other structures, contributing to the spread of AMR. There is no reliable approach to identify the transfer of AMR genes across plasmids. This is mainly due to the absence of a method to assess the phylogenetic distance of plasmids, as they show large DNA sequence variability. Identifying and quantifying such transfer can provide novel insight into the role of small mobile elements and resistant plasmid regions in the spread of AMR. We developed SHIP, a novel method to quantify plasmid similarity based on the dynamics of plasmid evolution. This allowed us to find conserved fragments containing AMR genes in structurally different and phylogenetically distant plasmids, which is evidence for lateral transfer. Our results show that regions carrying AMR genes are highly mobilizable between plasmids through transposons, integrons, and recombination events, and contribute to the spread of AMR. Identified transferred fragments include a multi-resistant complex class 1 integron in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and a region encoding tetracycline resistance transferred through recombination in Enterococcus faecalis. The code developed in this work is available at https://github.com/AbeelLab/plasmidHGT.

Transient temperature and water distributions in compacted MX80 bentonite under high temperature gradients

Numerous element-scale and full-scale tests have been carried out on compacted bentonite to investigate its coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior when used as a buffer material in high-level nuclear waste geological repositories, such as the Full-scale Engineered Barriers Experiment (FEBEX) and its forerunner laboratory mock-up test [5]. In these past studies the applied temperatures were below 100°C, while new repository conditions being explored in the recently started HotBENT project at the Grimsel Test Site involve waste canister temperatures up to 200°C [2]. Recently, Lu and McCartney [3] conducted a tank scale test where a temperature of 200°C was maintained by a cylindrical heating element having a diameter of 12.5 mm at the center of a compacted MX80 bentonite layer. A notable temperate drop in temperature was observed with distance from the small diameter heating element. A similar phenomenon was also reported by Gens et al. (2020) for heating tests on MX80 pellets during heating to 140°C. Measurements from the FEBEX project indicate a more distributed temperature decay away from the heater [3]. This discrepancy between laboratory and field tests provided the motivation for better understanding the temperature and water distribution near a heater under high temperature gradients to better guide the design of laboratory-scale experiments in the future.
 A one-dimensional heating test was performed in this study to investigate the coupled THM response of a MX80 bentonite layer in unconstrained conditions during basal heating. Measurements include the transient temperature and volumetric water content redistribution at different vertical distances from the flat plate heater under high-temperature gradients as well as global volumetric strains. Three dielectric sensors (Decagon 5TM) were placed into a compacted MX80 layer having an initial gravimetric water content of 12.2% and a dry density of 1.15 Mg/m3 within a PVC modified Proctor mold (inner diameter of 152 mm and height of 178 mm), as shown in Figure 1(a). Low-density polyethylene sheeting was stretched across the top and bottom of the soil layers to minimize any global loss of water from the compacted bentonite layer during heating. A temperature-controlled hot plate was used as the basal heat source, and a dial indicator was mounted on the top of the soil layer to measure volume changes. Fiberglass insulation was wrapped around the cell to minimize lateral heat loss from the side boundary. A basal temperature of 128°C was maintained during a heating stage lasting 4000 h to ensure THM equilibrium, after which three short-term (96 h for each) cooling-heating cycles were applied. Results indicate that soil temperatures increase rapidly in the first 20 h of heating then gradually stabilize (Figure 1(b)). The volumetric water content increases at the beginning of heating then slowly decreases (Figure 1(c)). This increasing-decreasing trend is due to the upward movement of a wetting front away from the heater due to coupled heat transfer and water flow. An initial increase in volumetric strain (swelling) was followed by a decrease (contraction) as heating progressed (Figure 1(d)). This is consistent with the observed thermal response of normally consolidated expansive soils (e.g., [4]). A sharp monotonic decrease in volumetric strain occurred during the three short-term cooling-heating cycles. The temperature and water content follow nearly identical trajectories in each cycle. The temperature distribution in the bentonite with distance from the heating element after 4000 h of heating is smoother than the sharp drop-off in temperature from the small-diameter heater observed by Lu and McCartney [3], as shown in (Figure 1(f)). The main implication of the results presented in this study is that the surface area of the heater in contact with the surrounding bentonite plays a major role in the temperature distribution and the associated coupled water flow. This is a critical finding that may help guide the geometric design of small-scale laboratory mock-up experiments used to study THM processes in controlled laboratory conditions.

Paradigm Of New Institutional Administrations in The Governance and Institutionalization of Marine Tourism in Payangan, Indonesia

Marine tourism management is not just a matter of governance per se, institutional factors also seem to have an influence, especially in traditional marine tourism management, such as in Payangan. To understand the relationship between governance and institutions in marine tourism management in Payangan, this study aims to analyze the problems in governance and institutions in Payangan, as well as to develop a conceptual model design. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with the Soft System Methodology (SSM) approach as a systemic approach to solve complex governance and institutional problems in Payangan through a series of stages. The research results indicate that the dominant problem situation in Payangan is not in its governance, but rather in its institutions, particularly in accommodating the values of the local community that have long been neglected, as they are monopolized by certain small community groups and elements of the Sumberejo Village Government who are only seeking economic gain. The monopolies of certain parties have caused the governance and institutionalization of marine tourism in Payangan to not function properly, requiring a new conceptual model of governance and institutions based on the construction of reality, social networks, and path-dependent development within the realm of the science of administration, or New Institutional Administrations (NIA), as a development and critique of the first-level institution or embeddedness proposed by Williamson, which has economic dimensions or New Institutional Economics (NIE).

Broadband low-frequency sound insulation of a metamaterial plate with inertial amplification

The recent development of Inertia Amplification (IA) acoustic metamaterial (AMM) opens a new venue for insulating low-frequency sound waves. This differs from conventional approaches that rely excessively on the structural density of the insulator and, therefore, lead to prohibitively heavy structures. The IA-AMM acquires a large effective density and a broad flexural bandgap by amplifying the inertia of many small mass elements periodically distributed in its unit cells, thus holding great promise as an effective yet lightweight solution for low-frequency sound insulation. This paper explores this possibility through numerical and experimental investigations. A semi-analytical model of an IA-AMM plate is developed by combining analytical equations characterizing the kinematics of an IA mechanism and FEM equations governing the vibration of the host plate. Based on this model, sound transmission characteristics of the plate under various sound incidences are analyzed with different amplification angles. By comparing with a locally resonant AMM plate, we found that the IA-AMM plate's sound transmission losses (STLs) are significantly and systematically improved over a wide frequency range of 116–544 Hz. To understand the underlying physics, the band diagram of the IA-AMM plate is calculated, which indicates the formation of a flexural bandgap covering the frequencies of the improved STL. The velocity contour of the plate at the center frequency of this bandgap also reveals much-suppressed vibration velocity amplitudes and a dipole-like sound radiation directivity, further explaining the observed enhancement of the sound insulation ability. Numerically predicted improvement of sound insulation is finally confirmed by experiments.