Recrystallised alumina is used as a high performance crucible material. Its thermal shock resistance is known to be affected by component shape, and also by processing variables, since the defects and internal stress at both the microscale (i.e. between grains due to anisotropic crystal properties) and macroscale (i.e. due to differential shrinkage during sintering) influence the fracture strength. The aim of this thesis is to study the nucleation and growth of defects in pure alumina and Cr-doped alumina, and to investigate how their behavior is affected by residual stresses, such those introduce by thermal expansion of the crystal grains. In this thesis, digital image correlation is applied to polycrystalline aluminas (i.e. Cr-doped alumina and pure alumina with average grain 3.6 µm and 1.5 µm respectively) that are stressed in an optical microscope. The defect size and the surface crack opening displacement were measured using digital image correlation. The distribution and population of crack nucleating defects were obtained by in-situ observation of the stressed surface and by analysis with digital image correlation. These data are then compared with independent measurements of the defect population using Hertzian indentation, from which defect populations are derived for the pure and Cr-doped alumina samples. Grain boundary plane and grain orientations in the vicinity of crack nuclei were characterised by electron microscopy. Crack nuclei were shown to develop at boundaries predicted to have high tensile thermal strains, caused by the orientation of the grain boundary plane relative to the adjacent grains, such as basal plane grain facets. The techniques of focused ion beam (FIB) milling and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) characterization of the crystallographic orientations and structure of cracked grain boundaries were used to provide data for a model to explain the cracking of these boundaries as a result of the thermal strains and the anisotropic thermal expansion behaviour of alumina.

Bibliography: pages 106-109. / This thesis describes techniques for the correction of spatial noise artifacts in a mercury cadmium telluride infrared camera system. The spatial noise artifacts are a result of nonuniformities within the infrared focal plane detector array. The techniques presented dispense with the need for traditional temperature references, and provide nonuniformity compensation by using only the statistics of the moving infrared scene and motion of the camera assembly for calibration. Frame averaging is employed, assuming that all of the detector pixels will eventually be irradiated with the same levels of incident flux after some extended period of time. Using a statistical analysis of the camera image data, the correction coefficients are re-calculated and updated. These techniques also ensure that the calculated coefficients continually track the variations in the dark currents as well as temperature changes within the dewar sensor cooling vessel. These scene-based reference free approaches to the calculation of compensation coefficients in the infrared camera are shown to be successful in compensating for the effects of fixed pattern spatial noise.

There has been great interest in recent times in the use of elastography for the characterization of human tissue. Digital Image Elasto-Tomography is a novel breast cancer pre-screening technique under development at the University of Canterbury, which aims to identify and locate stiff areas within the breast that require further investigation using images of the surface motion alone. A calibrated array of five digital cameras is used to capture surface motion of the breast under harmonic actuation. The forward problem, that is the resulting motion for a given mechanical property distribution, is calculated using the Finite Element Method. The inverse problem is to find the mechanical properties which reproduce the measured surface motion through numerical simulation. A reconstruction algorithm is developed using a shape based description to reduce the number of parameters in the inverse problem. A parallel Genetic Algorithm is developed for parameter optimization. A geometric method termed Fitness Function Analysis is shown to improve the inclusion location optimization problem. The ensemble of solutions generated using the Genetic Algorithm is used to produce an optimal and a credible region for inclusion location. Successful single frequency phantom reconstructions are presented. An effective way of combining information from multi-frequency phantom data by examining the characteristics of the measured surface motion using data quality metrics is developed and used to produce improved reconstructions. Results from numerical simulation datasets and a two inclusion phantom used to test the optimization of multiple and ellipsoidal inclusions indicate that although two inclusions can be successfully reconstructed, the single inclusions assumption may suffice even in irregular, heterogeneous cases. This assumption was used to successfully locate the stiffest inclusion in a phantom containing multiple inclusions of differing stiffness based on three multi-frequency datasets. The methods developed in phantoms are applied to three in vivo cases for both single and multi-frequency data with limited success. This thesis builds on previous work undertaken at the University of Canterbury. The original contributions in this work are as follows. A new reconstruction algorithm combining a genetic algorithm with fitness function analysis is developed. The most realistic tissue mimicking phantoms to date are used. An ellipsoidal shape-based description is presented, and applied to the first multi-inclusion reconstructions in DIET. This work presents the first reconstruction using meshes created directly from data using a meshing algorithm developed by Jonas Biehler. A multi-frequency cost function is developed to produce the first multi-frequency and in vivo reconstructions using DIET data.

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On-line gap measurement techniques for steel mill non-contacting conveyance system, which can supply accurate, rapid and high-sampling rate gap measurements, have been proposed. To realize the entire process, by considering the operational environment in a steel mill and combining with those available system dimension measurement instruments, an image-based scheme with proper image processing and parameter calibration process has been developed. The possible sources that affect the air-gap detection accuracies have also been thoroughly investigated, and a comprehensive measurement database and a recursive modification technique have been successfully established. In order to achieve stable control for site implementation, an integrated optical inspection system which combined with the high-speed rate line-scan camera has been designed. From the experimental results, the proposed system can both provide accurate gap values at the static state, and offer stable control operations at the dynamic state. It is believed that the proposed scheme provide innovated guidance for the related conveyance applications in the steel mill.

ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / When developing a video compression system in black box for aircraft, it is necessary to consider the characteristic of the images and the surrounding environment. The images captured in and out of aircraft have excessive movement-related issues, which make the results difficult to analyze and interpret. Failure to remove the tremors in the video component inevitably leads to poor compression efficiency and degrades the video imaging performance in the airborne black box. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a Compression System which can stabilize the video-image and efficiently utilize high compression recording for aircraft without special hardware. Based on the current situation, we suggest a real-time electronic video stabilization algorithm for airborne recorder which recovers shaky images simply and efficiently to work beside a developed stabilization system based on the H.264 Encoder using DSP.