Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1975.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1984.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1979.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 93 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-81).

Master of Science / Civil Engineering / Dunja Peric / The conventional triaxial test is the primary laboratory test for determining the shear strength of soils. Geotechnical field conditions such as long earth dams, long embankments, long retaining walls, strip foundations, tunnels, and buried pipelines often experience plane strain states of stress. However, stress strain and load deformation responses in plane strain loading differ considerably from responses observed in the conventional triaxial test. Research has shown that soils loaded in a plane strain state are far more sensitive to imperfections than soils tested in a conventional triaxial device. Plane strain loading leads to material instability manifested as sudden localized failure, resulting in decreased load-carrying capacity of the soil and compromised geotechnical and civil infrastructures. Although previous studies have mostly focused on granular materials, this research investigated the plane strain response of clay. An undrained plane strain compression test program was devised to investigate the effects of past stress history and strain rates on strain localization in kaolin clay. Experiments were carried out in a plane strain (or biaxial) device at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Because the device was heavily internally instrumented, strain localization progress was closely monitored throughout each biaxial test. Clay response in the biaxial test demonstrated three phases: (1) a homogenous response, (2) the onset and propagation of strain localization, and (3) the evolution of strain localization as a shear band. The duration of each phase was determined for each test, and a Lagrange strain tensor was used to obtain the evolution of volumetric and shear strains at the level of a shear band for three tests. Results revealed the development of large strains in these mesoscale structures. Furthermore, evolution of Mohr-Coulomb effective shear strength parameters was traced throughout the propagation and evolution phases by using two different methods. It showed that in clay samples, unlike in granular materials, the post-peak plateau, which is reached by deviatoric stress, corresponds to friction values that are significantly lower than the critical state values. Other researchers who used scanning electron microscope and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility detected a significant reorientation of clay particles inside shear bands. Their findings combined with findings in this study lead to the conclusion that the sub-meso scale mechanism responsible for large shear strains and a severe reduction in effective friction is a significant reorientation of clay particles inside shear band.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / A group of lesser used analog control system design techniques, generally termed parameter plane methods, is examined through the use of an IBM compatible microcomputer program developed as part of this thesis. The coefficients of a system's characteristic polynomial are determined by the plant and any added compensators. As these coefficients are varied , so too are the roots of the characteristic equation and therefore the system response in terms of bandwidth, settling time, etc. In the parameter plane method, a designer selects two parameters of a system's compensator(s) . The parameters commonly represent such attributes as a compensator gain, pole, or zero but can be any linear system function. One or more system characteristics dictating desired system performance, such as relative damping or undamped natural frequency, are computer model inputs. The associated parameter values to achieve the input characteristics are output in graphical and/or tabular form. / http://archive.org/details/parameterplanean00kran / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

This thesis presents a theory of multi-scale, curvature and torsion based shape representation for planar and space curves. The theory presented has been developed to satisfy various criteria considered useful for evaluating shape representation methods in computer vision. The criteria are: invariance, uniqueness, stability, efficiency, ease of implementation and computation of shape properties. The regular representation for planar curves is referred to as the curvature scale space image and the regular representation for space curves is referred to as the torsion scale space image. Two variants of the regular representations, referred to as the renormalized and resampled curvature and torsion scale space images, have also been proposed. A number of experiments have been carried out on the representations which show that they are very stable under severe noise conditions and very useful for tasks which call for recognition of a noisy curve of arbitrary shape at an arbitrary scale or orientation. Planar or space curves are described at varying levels of detail by convolving their parametric representations with Gaussian functions of varying standard deviations. The curvature or torsion of each such curve is then computed using mathematical equations which express curvature and torsion in terms of the convolutions of derivatives of Gaussian functions and parametric representations of the input curves. Curvature or torsion zero-crossing points of those curves are then located and combined to form one of the representations mentioned above. The process of describing a curve at increasing levels of abstraction is referred to as the evolution or arc length evolution of that curve. This thesis contains a number of theorems about evolution and arc length evolution of planar and space curves along with their proofs. Some of these theorems demonstrate that evolution and arc length evolution do not change the physical interpretation of curves as object boundaries and others are in fact statements on the global properties of planar and space curves during evolution and arc length evolution and their representations. Other theoretical results shed light on the local behavior of planar and space curves just before and just after the formation of a cusp point during evolution and arc length evolution. Together these results provide a sound theoretical foundation for the representation methods proposed in this thesis. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

The thesis begins with a review of the literature dealing with the incentives and disincentives for pursuing defence co-production policies in Western Europe. Political, economic and military aspects are each dealt with in turn, and their relative importance assessed. Following this section is a case study of the Panavia Multi-Role Combat Aircraft - the 'Tornado' - now in service with the air forces of West Germany, Britain and Italy. The study traces the progress of the MRCA programme from its initial conception through to production. The main theme of the case study is how the concerns of military-operational performance, cost-saving benefits, and programme efficiency were all secondary to government pursuit of wider political objectives. While the general literature was found to focus upon cost-savings in collaborative procurement, such savings are seen to be constrained or even determined by the outcome of frequently unrelated political decisions. Although set within the broad framework of national economic performance and the demands of social needs upon limited public expenditure budgets, these decisions are based upon government preferences rather than industrial or other lobby-group pressures. A cursory evaluation of the MRCA programme and the aircraft itself is included in the conclusion. The project is seen to have achieved mixed success, but with significant problems. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to present a definition and some properties of a curved arc in a plane and to present a definition and some properties of the Jordan curve.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some of the properties of convex sets in the plane through synthetic geometry.