This body of work examines the process involved in researching a mobile explosive containment unit for use on board a commercial aircraft. If a device with unknown origin were discovered on board a commercial aircraft an explosive containment unit could be used to dispose of it thereby preventing the passengers and the hardware from incurring any harm. A methodology was developed to help understand and effectively capture the properties of nominal explosives, the detonation pulse, ensuing shock and pressure waves. This methodology was developed with the purpose of mitigating these explosive effects. The information concerning the material properties, shape and sizes of an explosive containment unit were all analyzed to identify one optimal containment unit. This containment unit was utilized extensively in modeling to determine a range of possible materials and reinforcement methods, for reducing the total weight of the unit. Upon optimizing the containment unit numerical analysis was performed on a fuselage section of a narrow body commercial aircraft with the containment unit. The containment unit was successful in arresting the explosion before it was able to cause harm to its surroundings. The success of these containment units proves that the methodology discussed and developed here is capable of rabidly developing and analyzing explosive containment units to fit a wide variety of needs. / Master of Science

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A new point-projection method was developed to transfer loads and displacements in a two-way coupled fluid-structure interaction problem. The existing method involved projecting the load at each computational fluid dynamics (CFD) node onto a corresponding computation structural dynamics (CSD) element. The load is distributed to the CSD nodes on that element. However, the solution is not unique and will vary the projection. In the new method, a rigid pyramid element is built upon the CSD element and that encompasses the CFD node. Thus, the CFD load will be uniquely distributed to the CSD nodes. After the CSD code updates the CSD node location, the pyramid element can also be used to update the location of the CFD node. This work describes a FORTRAN routine that coupled LS-DYNA to Loci/BLAST and tests conducted to test the validation, work conservation, and robustness of the routine.

Master of Science / Department of Plant Pathology / Erick D. DeWolf / Wheat blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum, has emerged as a serious problem for wheat production in South America and recently emerged as a threat to wheat production in Bangladesh. To prepare for the possible introduction of wheat blast in to the United States, it would be helpful to identify areas of the country most at risk for blast epidemics. Because wheat blast occurs primarily in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, cold winter temperatures may restrict the establishment of the blast pathogen in the United States. Therefore, the first objective of this research was to quantify the freeze-thaw tolerance of the wheat blast pathogen in naturally infected wheat rachises from Bolivia and to measure the viability of the conidia after exposure to various treatments. The results indicate that exposing the fungus in moist residue to multiple freeze-thaw cycles is more damaging than exposing the fungus in moist residue to longer, single freezes. When in dry residue, the fungus was not harmed by the freeze-thaw cycles. Freezing and thawing of the wheat blast fungus in moist residue significantly affected its ability to produce viable conidia. The second objective of this research was to identify environmental conditions that could be conducive for wheat blast epidemics by examining historical epidemics of rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype oryza. The dataset used in this analysis consisted of 60 site-years of historical observations of rice blast levels from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. These observations were coupled with monthly and weekly summaries of hourly weather variables based on temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and regional moisture indices. Classification trees and logistic regression were used to identify variables associated with rice blast epidemics. The results indicate that rice blast epidemics are favored by cooler April temperatures and higher levels of precipitation in June. Preliminary models for rice blast based on these variables were able to correctly classify epidemic years with >75% accuracy. In the future, the results of this project will be used as part of a risk assessment for a wheat blast introduction and establishment in the United States.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-105).

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Rice blast disease is caused by the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and is the most destructive disease of cultivated rice. It was the first plant pathogenic fungus to have its genome sequence published which opened up the opportunities to discern the principal genetic components that confer pathogenicity on the fungus. The availability of the genome sequence has also presented fresh challenges in terms of converting sequence data into meaningful biological information. Functional genomics studies involve the generation of genome-wide mutant collections and comprehensive screens with potential to identify novel pathogenicity determinants. In this study I utilized Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated random insertional mutagenesis to study the infection mechanism of M. oryzae. A collection 10,200 M. oryzae T-DNA insertion mutants were generated as part of this study and pathogenicity was assayed by high-throughput disease screening. From the primary qualitative screening I obtained 200 mutants that were reduced or lacking in pathogenicity. Quantitative re-screening allowed selection of 71 T-DNA mutants, including 9 non-pathogenic and 63 reduced virulence mutants exhibiting at least a 50% reduction in disease symptoms. Finally, we selected 8 non-pathogenic mutants for detailed phenotypic and gene functional analysis. A novel approach was used to retrieve T-DNA tagged genes from mutants of interest. Next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) was used to retrieve T-DNA flanking sequences in a high-throughput manner. The efficiency of NGS to facilitate the high-throughput large scale insertional mutagenesis was therefore demonstrated. Out of 8 selected mutants, I identified three novel genes that putatively encode a transcription factor, a PH domain containing signalling protein and a MAP kinase. I also provided evidence that, MGG_05343 is a functional C6 zinc finger transcription factor involved in conidiogenesis. The PH domain containing protein MGG_12956 is involved in vegetative growth, condiogenesis and virulence. The novel kinase MGG_15325 is a S. cerevisiae IME2 homolog that belongs to the Ime2 class of non-classical MAP kinase subfamily. Intriguingly, M. oryzae IME2 seems to have an essential role in growth in planta because the mutant was able to penetrate and colonize plant tissue but failed to cause necrotic rice blast lesions. Identification of these novel genes will allow us greater insight into the processes required for condiogenesis, vegetative and invasive growth and a more integrated understanding of the post-penetration phases of plant tissue colonization. Interestingly, I identified two mutants tagged with T-DNA insertion in the autophagy genes ATG2 and ATG3, reaffirming the importance of infection-associated autophagy in plant infection by M. oryzae and we characterized the ATG3 gene. In addition, I generated a resource of 63 unidentified T-DNA mutants which can potentially lead to identification of more novel determinants of pathogenicity in rice blast disease.