Durability tests are important to ensure the safety and reliability of a ground vehicle and involve frequently driving a vehicle through a series of events that simulate different road conditions or obstacles encountered during actual driving. Since durability tests are costly in-terms of time and money, accelerated durability lab tests can be used to spot failures before actual road tests. Signals of different events of the actual durability road tests generate three continuous time series data, that can be used to conduct accelerated durability lab tests. The actual analysis of these time series is very challenging because they are (i) of high frequency (ii) very noisy and (iii) inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to identify the patterns of signals from the noisy and inconsistent time series data collected from the field tests. The Box-Jenkins methodology was used to identify models corresponding to different events. Due to complex structures of the real data, ARMA modelling was considered after testing stationarity of the given time series. While the time series data in vertical direction was used to identify the first three events, the time series in vertical, longitudinal and lateral directions were used to identify other four events.

Since new product designs have little field data available a correlation between field and accelerated test life cannot be made. However, a step partially accelerated life test approach where samples are tested under normal conditions for a time and then run to failure on an accelerated test can be used to estimate the statistical model parameters. This thesis developed the maximum likelihood parameter estimates for a step partially accelerated life test based on a Weibull distribution model for a hypothetical automotive component. Using a Monte Carlo approach with type-II censoring, the effect of sample size and length of sampling period used on the variability of the estimated parameters was examined. A smaller sampling period and small sizes lead to significant variability, which decreased as the sampling period and sample size increased. Use of a partitioned sample did not lead to an improvement in the variability of the estimates. / Department of Mathematical Sciences

Presently in ground vehicle industries, conducting durability tests with a high acceleration factor have become increasingly demanding for the less time and cost involvement. In the previous work, to accelerate the field test, the standard ‘test tailoring’ approach has been modified due to the requirement of high acceleration factors and the limitations of testing implementation. In this study, a computer-aided testing method is developed for the validation of this modified approach. Hence, a new test-piece has been designed by a conjugative approach involving the finite element technique and fatigue analysis. Afterwards, the accelerated durability loading profiles synthesized via the modified approach have been applied on the designed test-piece and the fatigue life has been simulated to verify the effectiveness of those loading profiles. Simulation results show that loading profiles with an acceleration factor up to 330 can be successfully generated with an accuracy of 95% by this modified approach.

Durability tests are important to ensure the safety and reliability of a ground vehicle and involve frequently driving a vehicle through a series of events that simulate different road conditions or obstacles encountered during actual driving. Since durability tests are costly in-terms of time and money, accelerated durability lab tests can be used to spot failures before actual road tests. Signals of different events of the actual durability road tests generate three continuous time series data, that can be used to conduct accelerated durability lab tests. The actual analysis of these time series is very challenging because they are (i) of high frequency (ii) very noisy and (iii) inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to identify the patterns of signals from the noisy and inconsistent time series data collected from the field tests. The Box-Jenkins methodology was used to identify models corresponding to different events. Due to complex structures of the real data, ARMA modelling was considered after testing stationarity of the given time series. While the time series data in vertical direction was used to identify the first three events, the time series in vertical, longitudinal and lateral directions were used to identify other four events.

NACE international East Asia & Pacific Rim Area Conference & Expo 2013 (Kyoto Japan, November 19-21, 2013)

The NIST miniature paste prism test was developed to assess sulphate resistance of cements faster than the commonly used ASTM C 1012 test. The goal of this research is to address the current limitations regarding the NIST procedure to determine the optimum testing parameters and to establish appropriate expansion limits. A range of variables including details of specimen design, curing regime, water-to-cementitious materials ratio, and prism length were tested on the materials with a wide range of sulphate performance. The findings of the study demonstrate that even though it can yield results in only three months, the NIST test can provide an erroneous differentiation between certain cementitious materials. Reliability and repeatability of the test results can be improved by using longer specimens and longer curing times. The NIST test can be used as a preliminary screening test, but users need to be aware of its limitations.

The NIST miniature paste prism test was developed to assess sulphate resistance of cements faster than the commonly used ASTM C 1012 test. The goal of this research is to address the current limitations regarding the NIST procedure to determine the optimum testing parameters and to establish appropriate expansion limits. A range of variables including details of specimen design, curing regime, water-to-cementitious materials ratio, and prism length were tested on the materials with a wide range of sulphate performance. The findings of the study demonstrate that even though it can yield results in only three months, the NIST test can provide an erroneous differentiation between certain cementitious materials. Reliability and repeatability of the test results can be improved by using longer specimens and longer curing times. The NIST test can be used as a preliminary screening test, but users need to be aware of its limitations.

Kevlar materials offer excellent tensile and thermal properties but can rapidly degrade under exposure to hot and humid environmental conditions. Currently Kevlar fiber's survival probability comes from a single filament test. Unfortunately, the single filament test is a tedious process and prone to operator bias, leading to inaccurate survival function that does not represent the actual survival function. This research aims to validate the fiber bundle test to replace the single filament test in extracting Kevlar’s survival function. Another important aspect is determining the factors that cause the fiber to lose its properties. This research also aims to determine the factors that degrade Kevlar fibers and those factors’ combined effects on degrading the KM2 fiber. This information is essential for safety factor design when exposure to these environmental factors would cause the Kevlar KM2 to fail prematurely. Results from experimental data and analysis indicate that the fiber bundle test is a good replacement for single filament tests and estimation techniques can determine the bundle Weibull parameters. Furthermore, the survival function for treated fibers is better if the bundle is lubricated. The accelerated aging experiments show that accelerated aging is possible with combined temperature and moisture. Kevlar KM2 bundle conditioned at 270 °C and 150 g water for 3 hours lost over 95% of its breaking strength. This is comparable to Kevlar bundles treated for over 500 hours in 250 °C or treated for over 100 days in 100% relative humidity environment at 80 °C found in literature.

Accelerated bridge construction methods are being progressively used to construct and replace bridges in North America. Unlike traditional bridge construction methods, accelerated bridge construction methods allow bridges to be built in a shortened period of time on the construction site. These methods reduce the road closure time and the traffic disruption that are associated with bridge construction. One of these methods is carried out by prefabricating the bridge elements offsite and then assembling them onsite in a time-efficient way to build the bridge. This construction method can be used to build steel-precast composite bridges, where steel plate girders are connected to full-depth precast concrete deck panels. For the expeditious construction of composite bridges, a proper shear connection detail is needed to develop composite action between the steel plate girders and the precast concrete deck panels. This research project investigated two types of shear connection that would accelerate the construction of steel-precast composite bridges. First, finite element analysis was used to study the behaviour of composite bridge girders with panel end connections. The girders were analyzed for their load-displacement behaviour, cross-sectional stress and strain profile, and connection force distributions. Secondly, experimental push tests were conducted to study the load-slip behaviour of bolted connections. The effects of steel-concrete interface condition, bolt diameter and bolt tension on the shear capacity of bolted connections were analyzed. Based on the finite element analysis results, it is concluded that the panel end connected girder exhibited strong composite action at service and ultimate load. The level of composite action decreased slightly when the panel end connection stiffness was reduced by a factor of ten. Based on the experimental results, it is concluded that the total shear capacity of the bolted connection is the sum of the friction resistance and the bolt dowel action resistance. The friction resistance of the connection depends on the interface condition and the bolt clamping force. An analytical model that can predict the ultimate shear capacity of bolted connections has been developed and recommended. The proposed model is shown to give reliable predictions of the experimental results. It should be noted that bolted connections exhibit good structural redundancy because the bolt fracture failures do not happen simultaneously.

Various solar energy technologies are being developed to harness the available environmentally friendly and sustainable solar radiation. New ways of utilizing this "free" power for different energy consuming processes continue to be created. In this thesis, a multi-stage solar energy concentrating system has been developed and its feasibility as a radiation source for polymer processing has been explored. The solar energy concentrator (SEC) facility comprises a modified Cassegrainian configuration combined with auxiliary imaging and non-imaging optics, serving as an alternative energy source for polymer joining, ageing and adhesive curing. Modeling and improvement of various aspects of the operation and performance of the SEC facility have been implemented. Optical ray tracing models of the Cassegrainian concentrator with various conventional imaging components and nonimaging concentrators have been created to optimize the optical layout and system efficiency. On their basis, combined 3D ray tracing computer models integrated with the mechanical components have been developed to simulate the entire SEC facility and predict the image size, location and orientation. Additionally, the energy transfer, radiation absorption and heat generation and transfer in the irradiated polymer have been modeled in order to study the radiation-polymer interaction. One novel contribution of this research is the enhancement of the image forming concentrator with non-imaging cone-like concentrators (conical and compound parabolic concentrator (CPC)), utilizing their inherent disadvantage of excessive length. Compared to the refractive type means of transmitting concentrated solar radiation, the truncated cone and CPC concentrators have been found more efficient enhancing further the concentration and widening the utilized spectral range. The experimental studies have demonstrated that transparent and colored, similar and dissimilar polymers can be successfully joined using the SEC facility. The especially developed through-transmission technique removes the need to use a special absorbing medium of the radiant energy required by current advanced welding techniques. The tensile strengths of the joints achieved are comparable to those achieved for similar polymers with other advanced plastic joining methods. The results from the polymer ageing experiments have shown that ultraaccelerated exposure to concentrated sunlight can be performed with the SEC facility without introducing spurious failure mechanisms. Based on the preliminary investigation on adhesive curing utilizing concentrated solar radiation, it has been concluded that with carefully chosen light-curing adhesives solar radiation can be a useful radiation source for adhesive curing.