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The design of nonlinear adaptive control systems for reducing vibration transmission in applications such as transportation systems is discussed. The systems studied include suspension systems, such as those used in vehicles, employing nonlinear magneto-rheological (MR) dampers that are controlled to provide improved vibration isolation. Magneto-rheological dampers use a novel class of smart fluid whose apparent viscosity changes as it is exposed to a magnetic field. The developed adaptive control scheme is designed to deal with the nonlinearities and uncertainties that commonly arise in most suspension applications. Some of the nonlinearities that are considered include time-varying characteristics, displacement-dependent effects, and hysterisis damping of magneto-rheological dampers. The uncertainties include mass and stiffness variations that can commonly occur in a suspension system. A number of nonlinear analytical models are developed and used in numerical simulation to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of the developed adaptive controllers. Further, the results of the numerical study are used in an experimental evaluation of the controllers on a seat suspension for heavy vehicles. The analytical and experimental evaluation both indicate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive control technique in controlling vibration transmission in the presence of both system nonlinearities and uncertainties. The manuscript will provide a detail account of the modeling, dynamic analysis, adaptive control development, and testing that was performed throughout this study. / Ph. D.

This study aims to better understand the behavior of magnetorheological (MR) fluids operated in the non-conventional squeeze mode through the use of a custom designed rheometer. Squeeze mode is the least understood of the three operational modes of MR fluid and thus its potential has yet to be realized in practical applications. By identifying the behavior of MR fluid in this mode, the foundation for future development of MR technology will be laid. Using the limited amount of literature available on squeeze-mode operation in conjunction with conventional principles associated with MR technology, a custom rheometer was designed and fabricated. A detailed account of the design considerations and background information on the fundamentals incorporated into the design are provided. The squeeze-mode rheometer was used to evaluate a variety of MR fluids to observe trends that may exist across fluids. Specifically, fluids of different ferrous particle volume fractions were considered. Through testing, common trends in fluid stiffness were observed for multiple fluids tested with the squeeze-mode rheometer. When operated in squeeze mode, activated MR fluid has shown to provide substantial resistance to compressive loading, possibly making it attractive for low-displacement high-load systems. The primary observation from the tests is that the activated fluid's stiffness progressively increases over the duration of fluid operation. This phenomenon is due to severe carrier-fluid separation coupled with the formation of ferrous particle aggregate clumps in the fluid. This effect is further explored in this research. / Master of Science

A Finite Element model was built to analyze and examine a 2-D axisymmetric MR damper. This model has been validated with the experimental data. The results obtained in this thesis will help designers to create more efficient and reliable MR dampers. We can create some design analysis to change the shape of the piston in the damper or other parameters in the model. The main benefit of this research is to show a 2-D MR damper and generate the magnetic flux density along the MR Fluid gap. We can detect saturation by looking at the nodal solution for the magnetic flux density. Increasing the current in the model, results in an increase in magnetic induction. We studied four different configurations of an MR damper piston in order to determine how changing the shape of the piston affects the maximum force that the damper can provide. In designing MR dampers, the designer always faces the challenge of providing the largest forces in the most compact and efficient envelope. Therefore, it is important to identify the configuration that gives more force in less space. In chapter 4, shows the magnetic flux density contour before and after reaching the rheological saturation. By increasing the current, the color spectrum of the magnetic flux density will shift from the MR fluid gap to the piston centerline. In chapter 5, we provided a reasonably good amount of force in model 4 at 1.4 Amps, but it reaches saturation before the other models. For cases with power constraint or heat build up limitations, this model could work the best among the four designs that we considered. For cases where higher electrical currents can be tolerated, model 3 would be the most advantageous design, since it provides the largest force among the four models. / Master of Science

Yes / The principal aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of sand grading, surface morphology, and content on the rheological properties—that is, yield stress and plastic viscosity—of fresh mortar. Mortars were produced from four different types of sand at two volumetric cement-sand ratios of 1/0.9 and 1/0.6. Each blend was prepared with five water-cement ratios of 0.60, 0.55, 0.50, 0.45, and 0.40. The rheometer was used to determine yield stress and plastic viscosity parameters of each cement paste and mortar. Test results show that the relative yield stress and plastic viscosity of mortar to cement paste is inversely proportional to the excess paste thickness up to low values, below which the surface texture of sand particles becomes significant.

This study seeks to develop smart hydrogel formulations for injectable controlled drug delivery from Pluronics to enhance patients compliance, decrease side effects, reduce dose and frequency. A biocompatible copolymer, Pluronic F127 was probed as the main ingredient for the injectable systems owing its low gelation concentration and ease of modification the system properties through excipients addition. The matrix properties were studied through a series of thermal, rheological and structural (SAXS/SANS) experiments as a function of concentration and shear rate, covering both static and dynamic environments. It has shown that gelled viscosity (and structure) can be critically controlled by shear rate and the structures recorded do not match those predicted for sheared colloids. Two further Pluronics F68 and F108, were studied showing similar but shifted gelation properties to F127. Effects of additives were studied by introducing different Mw PEGs and a model hydrophobic drug ‘ibuprofen’ to a F127 20% formulation. PEGs addition effects on the system properties and gelation transition were largely dependent on the Mw used in the blend, which became more prominent with increasing chain length. Ibuprofen’s addition has resulted in reduced gelation temperature and smaller hard spheres without having a great effect on the system rheological properties compared to neat gels. Blends containing both additives PEG and ibuprofen exhibited a synergistic effect, where comparisons show that Ibuprofen had the largest effect on the blends lowering gelation boundaries and slightly increasing the size of the hard spheres indicating the necessity of full characterisation of the formulation with any API.

Fenômenos aeroelásticos podem levar à drástica redução na vida útil de uma aeronave ou ainda resultam em danos severos à estrutura. Para manter as respostas dinâmicas em níveis aceitáveis técnicas como as estruturas adaptativas têm sido aplicadas. Este conceito explora a integração entre os elementos ativos (atuadores e sensores) e o controlador à estrutura. Dentre os materiais próprios para uso em estruturas adaptativas estão os fluidos eletro-reológicos e magneto-reológicos que tem se mostrado como um dos mais promissores materiais ativos. Estes materiais apresentam rápidas mudanças nas suas propriedades reológicas devido à ação de um campo elétrico ou magnético. Para sua incorporação em uma estrutura é utilizada uma viga sanduíche que tem seu comportamento dinâmico modelado através do método GHM para incorporar a dependência da freqüência dos fluidos ER/MR em um modelo estrutural no domínio do tempo. Através do acoplamento deste modelo com o método da malha de vórtices, é possível estudar a resposta aeroelástica temporal. Também é analisada a eficiência dos fluidos ER/MR no atraso da ocorrência de flutter. Isto é feito com o auxílio do método PK que determina a velocidade crítica de flutter. / Aeroelastic phenomena can lead to a drastic reduction in the fatigue life of aircraft or result in severe structural damage. To keep the dynamical responses at acceptable levels techniques such as the so-called adaptive structures have been adopted. This approach integrates active elements and controllers (actuators and sensors) to the structure. Among the materials suitable for adaptive structures are the electro-rheological (ER) and magneto-rheological fluids which are some of the most promising active materials. This kind of materials presents change in their rheological properties due to action of an external field, such as electrical or magnetic. In order to integrate these kind of fluids in the structure a sandwich beam with ER/MR fluids core is studied. The dynamical behaviour is modelled through a GHM method to incorporate the frequency dependence of the ER/MR fluids in a structural time domain model. By coupling this model to a vortex lattice model, it is possible to study the aeroelastic response in time domain. The ER/MR fluids efficiency to delay the flutter occurrence is also studied by using a PK-method that determines a critical velocity of flutter.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T18:53:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Stiegler Ribeiro.pdf: 498760 bytes, checksum: 74d931442efdc4e3e5b729a86d5c6b76 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-02 / The "Pinhão" bagasse, a residue from the starch extraction, has similar rheological characteristics to the main product. Many sources of starch modifications are investigated for various botanical sources, and worth mentioning, the enzymes modifications have been extensively studied due to their potential to form products with minimal waste. The study aims to characterize and modify the "Pinhão" bagasse, obtained after the starch extraction, using enzymatic treatment at different times. The centesimal composition results were very similar between the treated and untreated samples. Through the TG-DTA curves, it was observed the three characteristic steps of starch samples and confirmed their degradation complexity by the appearance of an asymmetric deformation ("shoulder") in some samples. DSC had an increase in the To and a decrease of Tp, Tc and ΔHgel for the modified samples. In RVA it was observed an increase of retrogradation after the modification. Most of the X-ray diffractograms of the ‘’pinhão’’ bagasse samples have shown starch A-type pattern. The SEM was confirmed an isolation of the starch granules of other compounds as fibre and protein, which were present in the native sample.The enzymatic treatment approached the properties of the bagasse to ones of the ‘’pinhão’’ starch, with similarities among the studied properties.With the obtained results , it can be affirmed that this treatment technique of the ‘’pinhão’’ bagasse may aggregate value to this biomass, which will increase the efficiency of the starch extracted from the Araucaria seed. / O bagaço de pinhão, resíduo decorrente da extração do amido desta semente, tem características reológicas similares ao produto principal. Muitas modificações em amidos foram investigadas de várias origens botânicas. As modificações enzimáticas têm sido extensivamente estudadas devido ao seu potencial de formar produtos com o mínimo de desperdício. Esse estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar e modificar o bagaço de Pinhão obtido após a extração do amido, usando tratamento enzimático por 12, 24 e 36h. Os resultados da composição centesimal foram muito similares entre as amostras tratadas e não tratadas. Por meio das curvas TG-DTA foram observadas as três etapas características da perda de massa para amostras de amido, confirmando a complexidade da degradação pela aparência de uma deformação assimétrica (ombro) nessas amostras. No DSC foi observado um aumento no valor de To e uma diminuição de Tp, Tc e ΔHgel para as amostras modificadas. Na análise RVA foi observado um aumento na retrogradação depois da modificação. A maioria dos difratogramas das amostras de bagaço de pinhão foram semelhantes aos padrões de amido do tipo ‘A’, característico de cereais, como milho e trigo. As micro-imagens MEV confirmaram o isolamento dos grânulos de amido dos outros compostos, como fibra e proteína, que estão presentes na amostra nativa. O tratamento enzimático possibilitou a aproximação das propriedades do bagaço às do amido de pinhão, com semelhança entre as propriedades estudadas. Com os resultados apresentados pode-se afirmar que esta técnica de tratamento do bagaço do pinhão pode agregar valor a essa biomassa, o que poderá aumentar o rendimento de amido extraído da semente da Araucária.

Fenômenos aeroelásticos podem levar à drástica redução na vida útil de uma aeronave ou ainda resultam em danos severos à estrutura. Para manter as respostas dinâmicas em níveis aceitáveis técnicas como as estruturas adaptativas têm sido aplicadas. Este conceito explora a integração entre os elementos ativos (atuadores e sensores) e o controlador à estrutura. Dentre os materiais próprios para uso em estruturas adaptativas estão os fluidos eletro-reológicos e magneto-reológicos que tem se mostrado como um dos mais promissores materiais ativos. Estes materiais apresentam rápidas mudanças nas suas propriedades reológicas devido à ação de um campo elétrico ou magnético. Para sua incorporação em uma estrutura é utilizada uma viga sanduíche que tem seu comportamento dinâmico modelado através do método GHM para incorporar a dependência da freqüência dos fluidos ER/MR em um modelo estrutural no domínio do tempo. Através do acoplamento deste modelo com o método da malha de vórtices, é possível estudar a resposta aeroelástica temporal. Também é analisada a eficiência dos fluidos ER/MR no atraso da ocorrência de flutter. Isto é feito com o auxílio do método PK que determina a velocidade crítica de flutter. / Aeroelastic phenomena can lead to a drastic reduction in the fatigue life of aircraft or result in severe structural damage. To keep the dynamical responses at acceptable levels techniques such as the so-called adaptive structures have been adopted. This approach integrates active elements and controllers (actuators and sensors) to the structure. Among the materials suitable for adaptive structures are the electro-rheological (ER) and magneto-rheological fluids which are some of the most promising active materials. This kind of materials presents change in their rheological properties due to action of an external field, such as electrical or magnetic. In order to integrate these kind of fluids in the structure a sandwich beam with ER/MR fluids core is studied. The dynamical behaviour is modelled through a GHM method to incorporate the frequency dependence of the ER/MR fluids in a structural time domain model. By coupling this model to a vortex lattice model, it is possible to study the aeroelastic response in time domain. The ER/MR fluids efficiency to delay the flutter occurrence is also studied by using a PK-method that determines a critical velocity of flutter.

Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) gum (FG) is a material with many potential food and non-food applications. Consistent performance is critical for FG utilization and this is possible through selection of genotype, characterization and optimization of constituents, and chemical modification. Physico-chemical and functional properties of FG aqueous solutions from six Canadian flaxseed cultivars were investigated. FG yield, carbohydrate composition, protein content, and zeta potential (ζ) varied among these cultivars. FG solution properties were also affected by temperature, solution pH, NaCl concentration, and sucrose concentration. Detailed studies were conducted on CDC Bethune FG (FGB) proteins that were separated by 2D-gel electrophoresis. Conlinin was identified as the major protein. Protease treatment decreased FGB solution emulsification properties suggesting that conlinin might enhance emulsification. Formation of BSA-FGB coacervates was monitored by turbidimetric analysis as a function of solution pH, biopolymer mixing ratio, NaCl and urea. Coacervates were stabilized primarily by attractive electrostatic forces and secondarily by hydrogen bonds. Further, anionic carboxymethyl ether moieties were introduced to FGB structure through ether forming reactions using monochloroacetic acid (MCA) to produce products with uniform properties. The highest degree of substitution (DS) was obtained at 70 °C, 7.0 M NaOH, and a molar ratio of MCA to FGB of 10:1 over 3 h. Carboxymethylated FGB (CMFG) exhibited both modified surface morphology and thermal behaviour. Solutions of CMFG demonstrated shear-thinning behaviour and apparent viscosity decreased with increased DS. A more liquid-like flow behaviour was observed for CMFG as DS increased. Findings here will introduce and expand FG applications in food or related fields with targeted performance.