Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-198).

No description available.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-73).

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study was a follow up to P. C. Dams' (1996) unpublished University of North Texas masters thesis, The effect of defect probability during training on inspection accuracy in a quality control simulation. Graphics of computer circuit boards were presented in dyads with an error free sample on the left and a comparison on the right. Comparisons had either a rotation or transposition defect, or were error free. Subjects had 10-s to accept or reject the comparison as identical to the sample. They were trained using two different stimulus fading procedures (using descending defect probabilities) and immediate feedback. Defect probabilities for the Tens were 0.60, 0.50, 0.40, and 0.30 and for the Twenties were 1.00, 0.80, 0.60, and 0.40. The last 4 pretraining and posttraining sessions were compared and the posttraining performance of the Twenties, as compared to the Tens, demonstrated greater improvement over pretraining performance. No firm conclusions could be drawn as to the effectiveness of either training procedure. The significance of the current investigation and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A comparison is made between octrees, which are regular decompositions of volumes, and new, irregular decompositions called R-trees. This comparison is made within the context of the volume intersection problems that might be associated with an automatic inspection system. The results show that the irregular decomposition is independent of object position and can provide a more space efficient encoding for certain shapes. However, detecting intersections between R-trees requires an algorithm of greater complexity due to the irregularity of the decomposition. Algorithms are given for obtaining tree decompositions from a hierarchic relational model of a volume. Among these algorithms is a procedure for finding the minimal enclosing rectangular parallelepiped of a boundary representation, and a generalization of the point-in-polygon algorithm to boundaries on curved surfaces. Both of these algorithms have computation times that are proportional to the total number of components of the boundary's representation. / Master of Science

Orientador: Auteliano Antunes dos Santos Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T21:43:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leao_RodrigoJunqueira_M.pdf: 11585473 bytes, checksum: eb36aabbabd372414779881f910455a8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Materiais compósitos são cada vez mais utilizados na indústria aeroespacial, por apresentarem baixa relação entre massa específica e resistência mecânica. Para a realização de ensaios não destrutivos utilizando o ultrassom, faz-se necessário conhecer a velocidade com que o som se propaga através desses materiais. Nem sempre é possível desenvolver protótipos reais durante o desenvolvimento de um projeto, por limitações construtivas e de custo; modelos virtuais são, pois, necessários. O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver modelos virtuais para avaliar a propagação de ondas em compósitos e compará-los com resultados experimentais. Uma liga de alumínio é usada inicialmente, de forma a calibrar o modelo e configurar alguns parâmetros de simulação. O material composto analisado é um laminado unidirecional, fabricado a partir de 97 camadas de material pré-impregnado (AS4/8552) da Hexcel¿. Utiliza-se o método dos elementos finitos para simular a geração, propagação e recepção de ondas ultrassônicas no modelo. O foco do estudo são ondas longitudinais de volume, embora a geração de ondas longitudinais criticamente refratadas (Lcr) também seja demonstrada. A razão é que o estudo é parte de uma pesquisa sobre o desenvolvimento de técnicas ultrassônicas para a medição de tensões em compósitos, utilizando Acustoelasticidade. A fim de permitir a medição da velocidade da onda ultrassônica em diferentes orientações, foi fabricado um corpo de prova em formato de prisma de base poligonal de 24 lados. O modelo numérico desenvolvido considera o caso ideal, onde as lâminas são perfeitamente coladas umas nas outras e não há problemas como delaminação ou vazios. Um modelo simplificado de cada lâmina foi admitido, de modo a utilizar uma malha menos refinada nas simulações e reduzir o gasto computacional. A fração volumétrica de reforço e matriz foi mantida. Um pulso de 1 MHz foi inserido no modelo e as discretizações no tempo e no espaço foram escolhidas de forma coerente. Simulações para o caso de 0º e 90º foram feitas e um modelo para os outros ângulos de orientação foi proposto. Os resultados mostram-se satisfatórios e indicam que, no futuro, o modelo simplificado adotado poderá ser estendido, levando em conta não conformidades e uma distribuição mais heterogênea das fibras, permitindo o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de inspeção aperfeiçoadas / Abstract: The use of composite materials in the aerospace industry is increasing due to its low ratio between density and mechanical strength. To perform non-destructive testing using ultrasound, it is necessary to know the sound velocity in these materials. It is not always possible to manufacture physical prototypes during the development of a project because of time, construction limitation and cost; virtual models are therefore needed. The objective of this work is to develop virtual models to evaluate the wave propagation in composites and compare them with experimental results. Initially, an aluminum alloy is used in order to calibrate the model and configure some simulation parameters. The composite material analyzed is a unidirectional laminate, made from 97 layers of prepreg material (AS4/8552) from Hexcel¿. We use the finite element method to simulate the generation, propagation and reception of ultrasonic waves in the model. The focus of this study is the generation of longitudinal bulk waves, although the generation of Critically Refracted Longitudinal (Lcr) waves is also demonstrated. The reason is that the study is part of an ongoing research project on the development of ultrasonic techniques for measuring residual stress in composites, using acoustoelasticity. To enable the measurement of the ultrasonic wave velocity in different orientations, we manufactured a specimen in a prismatic shape (24-sided polygonal base). The numerical model consists of the ideal case, where the different materials are completely attached to each other and there are no problems such as delamination or voids. A simplified model of each layer was admitted, to use a less refined mesh in the simulations and reduce the computational cost. The volume fraction of reinforcement and matrix was maintained. A pulse of 1 MHz was inserted into the model and the discretization both in time and space was chosen consistently. Simulations for the case of 0° and 90° were made and a model for the other orientations was proposed. The results prove to be satisfactory and indicate that in the future, the simplified model adopted could be extended, taking into account nonconformities and a more heterogeneous distribution of the fibers, allowing the development of improved inspection tools / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Ces travaux de thèse traitent des problèmes de maintenance associés aux véhicules industriels. Ils se concentrent sur la planification des opérations de maintenance et sur le développement d'une méthodologie de conception pour la maintenance. Le but est de proposer une offre de maintenance personnalisée en fonction de chaque véhicule et capable de s'adapter aux contraintes des utilisateurs. Dans l'industrie du transport, ces contraintes se caractérisent par un nombre d'opportunités de maintenance limité et des immobilisations à fortes conséquences financières. Cette offre a vocation à garantir un niveau de disponibilité élevé tout en réduisant l'impact de la maintenance sur les coûts globaux d'exploitation. Dans ce cadre, la politique de maintenance développée vise à assurer, moyennant un certain risque, l'autonomie d'un système multi-composant sur des périodes d'opérations données. Pendant ces périodes, aucune opération de maintenance et aucune défaillance du système ne doivent venir perturber la réalisation des missions. A la fin de chaque période, la politique considérée évalue la nécessité d'une intervention de maintenance pour assurer la prochaine période avec un niveau de confiance spécifié. Lorsque la maintenance est jugée indispensable, des critères intégrant les coûts et l'efficacité de la maintenance sont introduits pour sélectionner les opérations à réaliser. Cette forme originale de regroupement dynamique s'appuie à la fois sur les modèles de fiabilité des composants, sur la structure fiabiliste du système et sur les informations de surveillance disponibles en ligne. Celles-ci se composent d'informations liées à l'état de santé des composants mais également à leurs conditions d'utilisation. La flexibilité du processus permet d'intégrer, dans la décision, des niveaux d'informations différents suivant les composants. Les paramètres de cette politique, à savoir la longueur de la période et le niveau de confiance, sont optimisés en fonction du coût total de maintenance. Ce coût, évalué sur un horizon fini, intègre les coûts directs associés aux opérations de maintenance et les coûts indirects engendrés par les immobilisations. Pour envisager une réduction significative des coûts d'exploitation du système, l'optimisation de la politique de maintenance seule ne suffit pas. Il est primordial de mener une réflexion plus large associant le système et sa maintenance dès la conception. Pour diriger cette réflexion, la méthodologie de conception proposée hiérarchise, à l'aide d'un facteur d'importance original, l'impact des composants sur les coûts d'exploitation. Différentes options de conceptions sont ensuite évaluées, par simulation, sur les composants jugés prioritaires. Les options retenues conduisent à réduire les coûts globaux d'exploitation. Des résultats de simulation permettent d'illustrer les méthodes développées. Une application sur un sous-système du véhicule industriel est également réalisée. / This thesis research work focuses on the maintenance operations scheduling and the development of a design methodology for maintenance. The aim is to suggest a customized maintenance service offer for each vehicle and able to adapt to user constraints. In the transport industry, these constraints are defined by a limited number of maintenance opportunities and vehicle unplanned stops with significant financial consequences. This service offer should enable both to improve the vehicle uptime and to reduce the maintenance impact on operating costs. In this framework, the developed maintenance policy ensures, with a given risk probability, maintenance free operating periods for a multi-component system. During these periods, the system should be able to carry out all its assigned missions without maintenance actions and system fault. And the end of each period, the considered policy evaluates if a maintenance action is required to ensure maintenance-free and fault-free operation on the next period with a specified confidence level. When a maintenance action is mandatory, decision criteria considering the maintenance costs and the maintenance efficiency are used to select the operations to be performed. This form of dynamic clustering, called time-driven clustering, integrates both the component reliability models, the system structure and the available monitoring information. In our case, the monitoring information refers to the component state information and information on the component operating conditions. The process flexibility makes possible to make a maintenance decision in using different information levels for system components. The policy parameters, namely the period length and the confidence level value, are optimized based on the total maintenance cost. This cost, evaluated on a finite horizon, is composed of directs costs related to maintenance operations and indirect costs generated by system immobilizations. In order to reach a significant operating costs reduction, the maintenance policy optimization alone is not sufficient. It is essential to have a broader approach to involve the system and its maintenance since the conception. In this context, the developed design methodology suggests to prioritize the components impact on the operating costs. This prioritization is performed thanks to a defined importance factor. Then, multiple design options are evaluated by simulation in priority component. The selected options lead to reduce the operating costs. This work contains simulation results that illustrate the methods mentioned above. Moreover, a heavy vehicle sub-system is used as a test-case.