Many bridges are damaged by collisions from over-height vehicles resulting in significant impact to the transportation network. To reduce the likelihood of impact from over-height vehicles, steel pedestals have been used as a cost-effective, efficient means to increase bridge clearance heights. However, these steel pedestals installed on more than 50 bridges in Georgia have been designed with no consideration of seismic loads and may behave in a similar fashion to high-type steel bearings. Past earthquakes have revealed the susceptibility of high-type bearings to damage, resulting in the collapse of several bridges. Although Georgia is located in a low-to-moderate region of seismicity, earthquake design loads for steel pedestals should not be ignored. In this study, the potential vulnerabilities of steel pedestals having limited strength and deformation capacity and lack of adequate connection details for anchor bolts is assessed experimentally and analytically. Full-scale reversed cyclic quasi-static experimental tests are conducted on a 40' bridge specimen rehabilitated with 19" and 33" steel pedestals to determine the modes of deformation and mechanisms that can lead to modes of failure. The inelastic force-deformation hysteretic behavior of the steel pedestals obtained from experimental test results is used to calibrate an analytical bridge model developed in OpenSees. The analytical bridge model is idealized based on a multi-span continuous bridge in Georgia that has been rehabilitated with steel pedestals. The analytical bridge model is subjected to a suite of ground motions to evaluate the performance of the steel pedestals and the overall bridge system. Recommendations are made to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) for the design and construction of steel pedestals. The results of this research are useful for Georgia and other states in low-to-moderate seismic zones considering the use of steel pedestals to elevate bridges and therefore reduce the likelihood of over-height vehicle collisions.

The unique ability of shape memory alloys (SMAs) to remember and recover their original shape after large deformation offers vast potential for their integration in advanced engineering applications. SMAs can generate recoverable shape changes of several percent strain even when opposed by large stresses owing to reversible deformation mechanisms such as twinning and stress-induced martensite. For the most part, these alloys have been largely used in the biomedical industry but with limited application in other fields. This limitation arises from the complexities of prevailing microstructural mechanisms that lead to dimensional instabilities during repeated thermomechanical cycling. Most of these mechanisms are still not fully understood, and for the most part unexplored. The objective of this work was to investigate these deformation and transformation mechanisms that operate within the low temperature martensite and high temperature austenite phases, and changes between these two states during thermomechanical cycling. This was accomplished by combined experimental and modeling efforts aided by an in situ neutron diffraction technique at stress and temperature. The primary focus was to investigate the thermomechanical response of a polycrystalline Ni49.9Ti50.1 (in at.%) shape memory alloy under uniaxial deformation conditions. Starting with the deformation of the cubic austenitic phase, the microstructural mechanisms responsible for the macroscopic inelastic strains during isothermal loading were investigated over a broad range of conditions. Stress-induced martensite, retained martensite, deformation twinning and slip processes were observed which helped in constructing a deformation map that contained the iv limits over which each of the identified mechanisms was dominant. Deformation of the monoclinic martensitic phase was also investigated where the microstructural changes (texture, lattice strains, and phase fractions) during room-temperature deformation and subsequent thermal cycling were captured and compared to the bulk macroscopic response of the alloy. This isothermal deformation was found to be a quick and efficient method for creating a strong and stable two-way shape memory effect. The evolution of inelastic strains with thermomechanical cycling of the same NiTi alloy, as it relates to the alloy stability, was also studied. The role of pre-loading the material in the austenite phase versus the martensite phase as a function of the active deformation modes (deformation processes as revealed in this work) were investigated from a macroscopic and microstructural perspective. The unique contribution from this work was the optimization of the transformation properties (e.g., actuation strain) as a function of deformation levels and pre-loading temperatures. Finally, the process used to set actuators, referred to as shape setting, was investigated while examining the bulk polycrystalline NiTi and the microstructure simultaneously through in situ neutron diffraction at stress and temperature. Knowledge gained from the binary NiTi study was extended to the investigation of a ternary Ni-rich Ni50.3Ti29.7Hf20 (in at.%) for use in high-temperature, high-force actuator applications. This alloy exhibited excellent dimensional stability and high work output that were attributed to a coherent, nanometer size precipitate phase that resulted from an aging treatment. Finally, work was initiated as part of this dissertation to develop sample environment equipment with multiaxial capabilities at elevated temperatures for the in situ neutron diffraction measurements of shape memory alloys on the VULCAN Diffractometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The developed capability will immediately aid in making rapid multiaxial v measurements on shape memory alloys wherein the texture, strain and phase fraction evolution are followed with changes in temperature and stress. This work was supported by funding from the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program, Supersonics Project including (Grant No. NNX08AB51A). This work has also benefited from the use of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at LANSCE, which is funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences DOE. LANL is operated by Los Alamos National Security LLC under DOE Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396.

Les modes de déformation des systèmes de rift hyper-étirés pauvres en magma évoluent dans le temps et dans l’espace. Ainsi les structures et architectures observées varient le long d’une section en profondeur ainsi que sur une carte. Cette étude vise à caractériser les modes de déformation des systèmes hyper-étirés et leur propagation en utilisant les exemples du sud de l’Atlantique Nord. L’architecture de la terminaison de la croûte continentale a été comparée à la théorie du prisme critique de Coulomb car sa forme est prismatique, la déformation finale est cassante/frictionnelle et ce prisme glisse sur un décollement basal. Cette théorie met en évidence le comportement distinct des deux marges conjuguées. De plus, elle contraint l’architecture crustale, permet l’intégration des failles contre-régionales et explique la formation des blocs allochtones dans un modèle de failles en séquence. L’intégration des modes de déformation dans un modèle évolutif 3D impose un contexte cinématique fiable, ce qui n’est pas le cas de l’ouverture océanique du sud de l’Atlantique Nord. Ceci est dû à l’interprétation de l’anomalie J comme un isochrone. L’investigation de cette anomalie indique une formation polygénique et polyphasée incohérente avec un isochrone ou une limite de domaine. Ainsi l’anomalie J est inutilisable pour les reconstructions cinématiques. L’évolution de la déformation de rift a été analysée grâce à une nouvelle reconstruction cinématique du sud de l’Atlantique Nord. Il apparait alors que la déformation de la croûte continentale est segmentée alors que la propagation de la croûte océanique forme un V. L’approche développée dans cette thèse pose également de nouvelles questions géodynamiques quant à l’influence de l’héritage et l’effet des points triple. / Deformation modes of magma-poor hyper-extended rift systems evolve through time and space. Hence the observed structures and architectures vary along a depth section as well as on a map. This study aims to characterize the deformation modes of hyper-extended systems and their propagation using the examples of the southern North Atlantic. The architecture of the continental crust termination has been compared to the critical Coulomb wedge theory because it has a wedge shape, the final deformation is brittle/frictional and this wedge is gliding over a basal detachment. This theory highlights the distinct behavior of the two conjugate margins. Moreover it constrains crustal architecture of the continental crust termination, integrates continentward dipping faults and explains the formation of extensional allochthons in a sequential faulting model. The integration of deformation modes in an evolving 3D model necessitates a reliable kinematic context, which is not the case for the opening of the southern North Atlantic Ocean. This is linked to the interpretation of the J-magnetic anomaly as an oceanic isochron. Re-investigations of this anomaly revealed its polygenic and polyphased formation, which is inconsistent for an oceanic isochrons or a domain boundary making it unusable for plate reconstruction. The evolution of rift deformation has been analyzed with a new plate reconstruction of the southern North Atlantic. It appears that the continental crust deformation is segmented whereas oceanic crust propagates in a V-shape. The approach developed in this thesis also asks new geodynamical questions on the influence of inheritance and the effect of triple junction.