Laboratory experiments were conducted to observe, document and evaluate the mechanical behavior of Fiber Reinforced Concrete after being submitted to five different environments for 8 months. The specimens were molded and reinforced with synthetic fibers with a composition similar to that used for dry-cast concrete. Four different types of fibers with different composition were used. The fibers were mixed with the concrete to create the samples and the samples were exposed to different environmental conditions. Some of these environments were meant to increase degradation of the interface fiber-concrete to simulate longevity and imitate harsh environments or marine conditions. The environments consisted of: a high humidity locker (laboratory conditions), submerged in the Intracoastal Waterway in a barge (SeaTech), a wet/dry cycle in seawater immersion simulating a splash/tidal zone, low pH wet/dry seawater immersion cycle and samples submerged in calcium hydroxide solution. The latter three were in an elevated temperature tank (87-95°F) to increase degradation process. The specimens were monitored weekly and the environments were controlled. Then, specimens were evaluated using different mechanical testing as the Indirect Tensile (IDT) test method, compressive strength according to ASTM standards. Results of testing were documented and observed in this study for further understanding of mechanical properties of Fiber Reinforced concrete. Forensic observation of fiber distribution after the IDT tests were also performed. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Today’s state of the art additive manufacturing (AM) systems have the ability to fabricate multi-material devices with novel capabilities that were previously constrained by traditional manufacturing. AM machines fuse or deposit material in an additive fashion only where necessary, thus unlocking advantages of mass customization, no part-specific tooling, near arbitrary geometric complexity, and reduced lead times and cost. The combination of conductive ink micro-dispensing AM process with hybrid manufacturing processes including: laser machining, CNC machining, and pick & place enables the fabrication of printed electronics. Printed electronics exploit the integration of AM with hybrid processes and allow embedded and/or conformal electronics systems to be fabricated, which overcomes previously limited multi-functionality, decreases the form factor, and enhances performance. However, AM processes are still emerging technologies and lack qualification and standardization, which limits widespread application, especially in harsh environments (i.e. defense and industrial sectors). This dissertation explores three topics of electronics integration into AM that address the path toward qualification and standardization to evaluate the performance and repeatable fabrication of printed electronics for resilience when subjected to harsh environments. These topics include: (1) the effect of smoothing processes to improve the as-printed surface finish of AM components with mechanical and electrical characterization—which highlights the lack of qualification and standardization within AM printed electronics and paves the way for the remaining topics of the dissertation, (2) harsh environmental testing (i.e. mechanical shock, thermal cycling, die shear strength) and initiation of a foundation for qualification of printed electronic components to demonstrate survivability in harsh environments, and (3) the development of standardized methods to evaluate the adhesion of conductive inks while also analyzing the effect of surface treatments on the adhesive failure mode of conductive inks. The first topic of this dissertation addresses the as-printed surface roughness from individually fusing lines in AM extrusion processes that create semi-continuous components. In this work, the impact of surface smoothing on mechanical properties and electrical performance was measured. For the mechanical study, surface roughness was decreased with vapor smoothing by 70% while maintaining dimensional accuracy and increasing the hermetic seal to overcome the inherent porosity. However, there was little impact on the mechanical properties. For the electrical study, a vapor smoothing and a thermal smoothing process reduced the surface roughness of the surfaces of extruded substrates by 90% and 80% while also reducing measured dissipative losses up to 24% and 40% at 7 GHz, respectively. The second topic of this dissertation addresses the survivability of printed electronic components under harsh environmental conditions by adapting test methods and conducting preliminary evaluation of multi-material AM components for initializing qualification procedures. A few of the material sets show resilience to high G impacts up to 20,000 G’s and thermal cycling in extreme temperatures (-55 to 125ºC). It was also found that coefficient of thermal expansion matching is an important consideration for multi-material printed electronics and adhesion of the conductive ink is a prerequisite for antenna survivability in harsh environments. The final topic of this dissertation addresses the development of semi-quantitative and quantitative measurements for standardizing adhesion testing of conductive inks while also evaluating the effect of surface treatments. Without standard adhesion measurements of conductive inks, comparisons between materials or references to application requirements cannot be determined and limit the adoption of printed electronics. The semi-quantitative method evolved from manual cross-hatch scratch testing by designing, printing, and testing a semi-automated tool, which was coined scratch adhesion tester (SAT). By cross-hatch scratch testing with a semi-automated device, the SAT bypasses the operator-to-operator variance and allows more repeatable and finer analysis/comparison across labs. Alternatively, single lap shear testing permits quantitative adhesion measurements by providing a numerical value of the nominal interfacial shear strength of a coating upon testing while also showing surface treatments can improve adhesion and alter the adhesive (i.e. the delamination) failure mode of conductive inks.

A reverberation chamber is a highly conductive cavity in which it is possible to generatehigh electromagnetic elds that can be considered statistically homogeneous. Reverberationchambers have existed as a resource for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing formore than 30 years. Working to promote international co-operation on standardization, severalorganizations have published various EMC standards. At Combitech AB in Linkopinghave a chamber that is commercially used for dierent types of measurements. To makethe chamber more attractive and versatile it is within their interest to get a system whichis compatible with the latest standards. The project aimed to develop a control system forthe reverberation chamber at Combitech and to equip it with functionality enabling it tomake measurements according to current EMC standards. Using the programming softwareAgilent VEE a program was developed to communicate with the supporting equipment andmanage test routines. Within the program software lies functionality directly associate withmode stirring and mode tuning procedures for standards DO-160F and MIL-STD. Duringmeasurements the program has abilities for skipping frequencies, pause/continue the currentsweep, executing preset events and adding commented markers to the plot window. Someother usable functionality implemented is project save/load, help section, directory selectionand data export abilities. The system holds functionality enabling measurements accordingto the standards in question, though future work will be needed to be able to carry througha proper and correct measurement routine.

In order to study the mechanical performance of dry-cast synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (SynFRC), samples of varying geometry, fiber content, and environmental exposure were developed and tested using the modified indirect tensile test. The samples created consisted of three different thicknesses (with two different geometries), and six different fiber contents that differed in either type, or quantity, of fibers. Throughout the duration of this research, procedures for inflicting detrimental materials into the concrete samples were employed at a number of different environments by implementing accelerated rates of deterioration using geometric adjustments, increased temperature exposure, wetting/drying cycles, and preparation techniques. The SynFRC samples studied were immersed in a wide range of environments including: the exposure of samples to high humidity and calcium hydroxide environments, which served at the control group, while the sea water, low pH, and barge conditioning environments were used to depict the real world environments similar to what would be experienced in the Florida ecosystem. As a result of this conditioning regime, the concrete was able to imitate the real-world effects that the environments would have inflicted if exposed for long durations after an exposure period of only 20-24 months. Having adequately conditioned the samples in their respective environments, they were then tested (and forensically investigated) using the modified indirect tensile testing method to gather data regarding each sample’s toughness and load handling capability. By analyzing the results from each sample, the toughness was calculated by taking the area under the force displacement curve. From these toughness readings it was found that possible degradation occurred between the fiber-matrix interface of some of the concrete samples conditioned in the Barge environment. From these specimens that were immersed in the barge environment, a handful of them exhibited multiple episodes of strain softening characteristics within their force displacement curves. In regard to the fibers used within the samples, the PVA fibers tended to pull off more while the Tuff Strand SF fibers had the highest tendency to break (despite some of the fibers showing similar pull off and breaking failure characteristics). When it comes to the overall thickness of the sample, there was clear correlation between the increase in size and the increase in sample toughness, however the degree to which it correlates varies from sample to sample. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Environmental stress screening is used to enhance reliability by decreasing the number of failures experienced during customer use. It is suggested that added benefit can be gained by applying multiple stresses rather than a single stress, as is done presently. A further modification is to apply the stress at the assembly level, accelerating different types of components at the same time. Different component E A e acceleration effects must then be considered. The problem these modifications present is how to choose the appropriate stress levels and the time duration of the stress screen. A cost model is developed that trades off the cost of a field failure with the cost of applying a multiple stress, multiple component stress screen. The objective is to minimize this cost function in order to find an economical stress regimen. The problem is solved using the software package GINO. The interesting result is that if a stress is used at all during the stress screen, the maximum amount of stress is the economic choice. Either the cost of stressing is low enough to justify the use of a stress, in which case the maximum amount of stress is used, or the cost is too high and the stress is not used at all. / Master of Science

The research work is directed towards the investigation, optimization and application of some plant-based waste materials for the removal of some toxic trace metals (Cd, Pb and Mn) as well as selected oxyhalides (CIO3-,IO3- and BrO3-) in aqueous system. Waste materials from three plants; Athrixia philicoide, an indigenous bush tea; the outer covering peels of butternut Squash (Cucurbita Moschata) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) were evaluated for their sorption efficiency of the selected metals. batch and continuous experimental processes as well as conditions that might influence the sorption of the metals were investigated. These conditions include effects of pH sorption time, amount of adsorbent, volume of the aqueous medium, amount of metals etc. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of metal ions in solution was carried out using the ion chromatograph (IC) while the functional group identification present in waste materials was established using the Fourier Transform infr-red spectroscopy (FTIR), Quantitative biosorption equilibrium of 98.99% was reached within 6h at pH 6 and 100 ppm concentration of Pb metal with Athrixiaphilicoide under 30 min contact time. Applicability of the sorption process was tested on wastewater. Results revealed that > 99.93 %; 84.5 % and 64.3 % sorption efficiency was obtained for Mn, Cd and Pb respectively at pH 7 using Ananas Comosus adsorbent. For Athrixia philicoide, sorption efficiency from spiked wastewater ranged from 99.98 % for Cd; 99.96 % for Mn and 82.5 % adsorption for Pb at pH 7. For Juglans Cinerea, wastewater sorption efficiency varied between 78.76 %, 94.50 % and 96.50 % for Cd, Mn and Pb respectively at pH6. Results from the optimized method revealed the applicability of the method to environmental water samples. Possible large scale and industrial/commercial application of developed materials and methods would be explored. ) in aqueous system. Waste materials from three plants; Athrixia philicoide, an indigenous bush tea; the outer covering peels of butternut Squash (Cucurbita Moschata) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) were evaluated for their sorption efficiency of the selected metals. Batch and continuous experimental processes as well as conditions that might influence the sorption of the metals were investigated. These conditions include effects of pH, sorption time, amount of adsorbent, volume of the aqueous medium, amount of metals etc. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of metal ions in solution was carried out using the ion chromatograph (IC) while the functional group identification present in waste materials was established using the Fourier Transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR). Quantitative biosorption equilibrium of 96.99 % was reached within 6h at pH 6 and 100 ppm concentration of Pb metal with Athrixia philicoide under 30 min contact time. Cd and Mn adsorption by the same adsorbent under similar condition were less than 50 % for individual metal evaluation experiment. However, > 99 % adsorption was achieved with Cd in a mixture of the three (3) evaluated metals. Highest adsorption of 93 % of Pb was achieved with the Butternut Squash peel (Cucurbita moschata) at the optimal sorption pH of 6 followed by quantitative sorption of 99.2 % of Mn while Cd recorded a sorption level of 45 % all at 6 pH. The sorption efficiency of Pb, Cd and Mn using pineapple peels (Ananas comosus) also at the optimal sorption conditions of (pH 6, 30 min contact time and 100 ppm metal concentration) ranged from 98.7 %, 100 % and 99.90 % respectively. / Enviromental Science / M.Sc (Enviromental Science)

The research work is directed towards the investigation, optimization and application of some plant-based waste materials for the removal of some toxic trace metals (Cd, Pb and Mn) as well as selected oxyhalides (CIO3-,IO3- and BrO3-) in aqueous system. Waste materials from three plants; Athrixia philicoide, an indigenous bush tea; the outer covering peels of butternut Squash (Cucurbita Moschata) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) were evaluated for their sorption efficiency of the selected metals. batch and continuous experimental processes as well as conditions that might influence the sorption of the metals were investigated. These conditions include effects of pH sorption time, amount of adsorbent, volume of the aqueous medium, amount of metals etc. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of metal ions in solution was carried out using the ion chromatograph (IC) while the functional group identification present in waste materials was established using the Fourier Transform infr-red spectroscopy (FTIR), Quantitative biosorption equilibrium of 98.99% was reached within 6h at pH 6 and 100 ppm concentration of Pb metal with Athrixiaphilicoide under 30 min contact time. Applicability of the sorption process was tested on wastewater. Results revealed that > 99.93 %; 84.5 % and 64.3 % sorption efficiency was obtained for Mn, Cd and Pb respectively at pH 7 using Ananas Comosus adsorbent. For Athrixia philicoide, sorption efficiency from spiked wastewater ranged from 99.98 % for Cd; 99.96 % for Mn and 82.5 % adsorption for Pb at pH 7. For Juglans Cinerea, wastewater sorption efficiency varied between 78.76 %, 94.50 % and 96.50 % for Cd, Mn and Pb respectively at pH6. Results from the optimized method revealed the applicability of the method to environmental water samples. Possible large scale and industrial/commercial application of developed materials and methods would be explored. ) in aqueous system. Waste materials from three plants; Athrixia philicoide, an indigenous bush tea; the outer covering peels of butternut Squash (Cucurbita Moschata) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) were evaluated for their sorption efficiency of the selected metals. Batch and continuous experimental processes as well as conditions that might influence the sorption of the metals were investigated. These conditions include effects of pH, sorption time, amount of adsorbent, volume of the aqueous medium, amount of metals etc. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of metal ions in solution was carried out using the ion chromatograph (IC) while the functional group identification present in waste materials was established using the Fourier Transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR). Quantitative biosorption equilibrium of 96.99 % was reached within 6h at pH 6 and 100 ppm concentration of Pb metal with Athrixia philicoide under 30 min contact time. Cd and Mn adsorption by the same adsorbent under similar condition were less than 50 % for individual metal evaluation experiment. However, > 99 % adsorption was achieved with Cd in a mixture of the three (3) evaluated metals. Highest adsorption of 93 % of Pb was achieved with the Butternut Squash peel (Cucurbita moschata) at the optimal sorption pH of 6 followed by quantitative sorption of 99.2 % of Mn while Cd recorded a sorption level of 45 % all at 6 pH. The sorption efficiency of Pb, Cd and Mn using pineapple peels (Ananas comosus) also at the optimal sorption conditions of (pH 6, 30 min contact time and 100 ppm metal concentration) ranged from 98.7 %, 100 % and 99.90 % respectively. / Enviromental Science / M.Sc (Enviromental Science)

No description available.

This master thesis project was carried in collaboration with Keolis AB. One of the company’s goals is to seek for a possible replacement to expensive custom hardware units by cheap single board computers. As a test case, a simple application is proposed, which implements driver identification by scanning the barcode of driving license (personnummer). The main objective of this project is to find a suitable single board computer, to implement the proposed driver identification application, to send the driving license number along with the timestamp in a web page and test the functionality of the single board computer according to procedures specified in ISO and IEC standards for road vehicles. A parser that analyzes the input string of a barcode reader was implemented in C programming language. The barcode reader scans a barcode or a QR code and the parser returns the content of the barcode symbol in ASCII character format. The driver license number as well as the timestamp should be published to a web page. A webpage was created using the Django Web Framework, which is a database-driven website. Each time a driving license barcode is scanned, a POST Http request method is performed and both the driving license and timestamp are stored in a SQLite database. Each time a GET request method is performed the data stored in the SQLite database is retrieved and presented in the website. The communication between the single board computer Raspberry Pi and the Django framework is achieved using cURL, which is an open source command line tool and library for transferring data with URL syntax. The data of the website will be manipulated in the backend. Moreover, heat and humidity environmental testing were performed as described in ISO and IEC standards for road vehicles, to evaluate the functionality of the system under certain environmental conditions. These tests showed the working temperature range and the humidity range that the Raspberry Pi can tolerate. As a conclusion, it can be stated that Raspberry Pi can be used in the passenger compartment with expected temperatures to be below 100 Celsius, but not in the engine compartment where temperatures more than 100 Celsius can occur. In addition, Raspberry Pi can perform in all the levels of humidity that has been tested. If it is necessary to be employed in other bus compartment with increased temperature, a more expensive robust embedded single board Linux computer should be chosen. Future work should include vibrations and immunity testing, in order to fully qualify with the ISO and IEC standards. These types of tests are costly and should therefore be performed by automotive manufacturers or other parties who are expected to bear such a cost. / Detta examensarbete genomfördes i samarbete med Keolis Sverige AB. Ett av företagets mål är att söka efter möjliga system som ersättning till dyra, specialanpassade hårdvaruenheter och istället övergå till billiga enkortsdatorer. Som ett testfall föreslås ett enkelt program, som genomför identifiering av föraren genom att skanna streckkoden på körkortet (personnummer). Huvudsyftet med projektet är att hitta en lämplig enkortsdator, att implementera den föreslagna föraridentifieringsapplikationen, skicka körkortsnumret/personnumret med tidsstämpel till en webbsida och testa funktionaliteten hos enkortsdator enligt testrutiner som beskrivs av ISO- och IEC-standarder för vägfordon. En parser som analyserar indatasträngen av en streckkodsläsare implementerades i programmeringsspråket C. Streckkodsläsaren skannar en streckkod eller en QR-kod och parsern returnerar innehållet i streckkoden på ASCIIteckenformat. Körkortsnumret samt tidsstämpel publiceras på en webbsida. En webbsida har skapats med Django Web Framework, som är en databasdriven webbplats. Varje gång körkortets streckkod skannas, skickas en POST http-begäransmetod som utförs varvid både körkort och tidsstämpel lagras i en SQLite databas. Varje gång en GET-begäran skickas, lagras data i SQLite databasen och presenteras på webbplatsen. Kommunikationen mellan enkortsdatorn Raspberry Pi och ett Django-ramverk uppnås med hjälp av cURL, som är ett kommandoradsverktyg med öppen källkod, och ett bibliotek för att överföra data med URL-syntax. Uppgifterna på webbplatsen manipuleras i backend. Miljötålighetsprovning med avseende på värme- och fuktighet har utförts för att utvärdera systemets funktionalitet under specifika miljöförhållanden. Testerna specificeras i ISO- och IEC-standarder för vägfordon. Dessa tester visade vilka arbetstemperaturer och vilken luftfuktighet som Raspberry Pi klarar. Det kan konstateras att Raspberry Pi kan användas i passagerarutrymmet, där temperaturen förväntas ligga under 100 Celsius, men inte i motorrummet där temperaturer högre än 100 Celsius kan förekomma. Vidare har Raspberry Pi visat sig fungera vid de nivåer av luftfuktighet som har förkommit i testerna. I de fall där systemet skall användas i miljöer med högre temperaturer bör en dyrare och mer robust inbyggd (embedded) Linux-enkortsdator väljas. Det framtida arbetet bör omfatta vibrations- och elstörningstester för att fullt ut säkerställa att systemet klarar gällande ISO- och IEC-standarder. Dessa typer av test är kostsamma och bör därför genomföras av fordonstillverkare eller andra aktörer som förväntas kunna bära en sådan kostnad.

The Canadian Nanosatellite Advanced Propulsion System is a liquefied cold-gas thruster system that provides propulsive capabilities to CanX-4/-5, the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment 4 and 5. With a launch date of early 2014, CanX-4/-5's primary mission objective is to demonstrate precise autonomous formation flight of nanosatellites in low Earth orbit. The high-level CanX-4/-5 mission and system architecture is described. The final design and assembly of the propulsion system is presented along with the lessons learned. A high-level test plan provides a roadmap of the testing required to qualify the propulsion system for flight. The setup and execution of these tests, as well as the analyses of the results found therein, are discussed in detail.