The focus of this dissertation is on constant displacment rate experiments on asphalt concrete and on developing continuum models in a general thermo-mechanical setting which will corroborate with the experimental results. Modeling asphalt concrete and predicting its response is of great importance to the pavement industry. More than 90 percent of the US Highways uses asphalt concrete as a pavement material. Asphalt concrete exhibits nonlinear response even at small strains and the response of asphalt concrete to different types of loading is quite different. The properties of asphalt concrete are highly influenced by the type and amount of the aggregates and the asphalt used. The internal structure of asphalt concrete keeps on evolving during the loading process. This is due to the influence of different kinds of activities at the microlevel and also due to the interaction with the environment. The properties of asphalt concrete depend on its internal structure. Hence we need to take the evolution of the internal structure in modeling the response of asphalt concrete. Experiments were carried out at different confinement pressures and displacement rates on cylindrical samples of asphalt concrete. Two different aggregates were used to make the sample -limestone and granite. The samples were tested at a constant displacement rate at a given confinement pressure. The force required to maintain this constant displacement rate is measured and recorded. The frame-work has been developed using the idea of multiple natural configurations that was introduced recently to study a variety of non-linear dissipative response of materials. By specifying the forms of the stored energy and rate of dissipation function of the material, specific models were developed using this frame work. In this work both a compressible and an incompressible model were developed by choosing appropriate forms of stored energy and rate of dissipation function. Finally the veracity of the models were tested by corroborating with the experimental results. It is anticipated that the present work will aid in the development of better constitutive equations which in turn will accurately model asphalt concrete in laboratory and in field.

During the water treatment process, each processing unit releases the sludge from the sedimentation process, and the wastewater from the rapid sand wash and filtration process, to the wastewater pond followed by the wastewater sedimentation pond. The sediment sludge is allowed to enter the sludge thickening pond while the supernatant is recycled for further treatment. The sludge is released to the sludge pond where it is treated with certain chemicals and squeezed to form the sludge cake. The sludge cake is removed and transported by a legitimate cleaning service company to an authorized location. The present study is focused on the investigation of the feasibility of recycling the wastewater and the dewatering of the sludge from the water treatment plant. The analysis of the samples collected from the wastewater treatment plant showed that the recycled supernatant had a pH of 7.16~8.21, a conductivity of 371.1~769.1 £gmho/cm, a total dissolved solid (TDS) of 193.3~399.9 mg/L, and a turbidity of 0.901~54.3 NTU. The suspended solids (SS) of the recycled supernatant was found to be 0.4~45.6 mg/L, lower than the standard value in the Effluent Standards (50 mg/L). The ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) of the recycled supernatant were found to be 0.06~1.5 mg/L and 1.533~17.437 mg/L, respectively. The analysis of the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the wastewater treatment plant showed a concentration of 12.1~128.5 mg/L in the sample of the recycled supernatant. The COD in the Effluent Standards is required to be no more than 100 mg/L. For sludge conditioning and dewatering, a sludge conditioning experiment was conducted in the laboratory to plot the curve of the experimental result. The curve was used for the actual sludge conditioning and dewatering in the Fongshan Water Treatment Plant to verify the feasibility of the application for the actual process in the water treatment plant.

The population of the villages and towns in Chi Mei District in Kaohsiung county has been agriculture-based from the early days and has been their primary source of income ever since. However, the town has been suffering from the impact of the modernization created by the joining of WTO and the introduction of newer technologies in farming, and environmental deterioration caused by industrialization and urbanization. The intended changes did not provide the necessary platform in the areas of product improvement, new marketing methodology and sadly it did not improve the present overall lifestyle of the town as we see the trend of moving towards modern industrial economy. Recently with the introduction of organic products, the benefits and increasing demands has initiated more openings of organic farms which double up as a retreat for interested individuals looking for a short stay away from their usual fast paced urban areas. Realizing the attraction of the trend, traditional agriculture-based the villages and towns in Chi Mei District can make full use of its favorable locations and with suitable business coupled with marketing strategies. These proposals can provide and open up discussions on the viable options to adopt including the potential of grooming the town as tourist attractions on their modernize farms as a retreat hot spot in the future.

For an offshore platform structure applied to wave-energy conversion system, in order to catch the maximum waves to generate more powers, similar to wind-energy power generators, a range of angles for the devices normal to the propagating direction of incident waves is required, particularly when the power converting system has directional preference. That is one essential reason why a single mooring offshore platform system is so important in the development of an offshore wave-energy conversion system. The single mooring-system would allow the offshore wave-energy conversion system to turn freely in accordance to the action of strong directions of propagating waves and in this way, most energy induced from the incident waves can be caught and converted into reusable powers. The aims of this study are firstly, based on previous studies to further modify a single moored offshore platform system that may subject to less wave forces in the sea and, secondly, to verify the efficiency of single-moored system by carrying out an experimental testing on a simple single-moored floating platform system in the water tank.

<p>Rapporten redovisar utredning, skisser och det slutliga förslaget för en ombyggnation av en skollokal till ett science center.</p><p>Bakgrund</p><p>Framtidsmuseet i Dalarna har under en längre tid varit i behov av en större lokal för att kunna expandera. En lämplig lokal i närheten av köpcentret Kupolen finns, då den har använts för undervisning och inte har genomgått någon större förändring sedan den byggdes i slutet av 70-talet, behövs en omfattande exteriör och interiör ombyggnation för att passa Framtidsmuseets behov.</p><p>Genomförande</p><p>Lokal- och byggprogram har framtagits genom att sammanställa beställarens krav och ambitioner med egen införskaffad information om lämplig innemiljö, med tanke på barns inlärning och gällande praxis för att göra byggnader tillgängliga och användbara för alla. Dessa har sedan omvandlats via olika skisser och utkast till ett färdigt förslag på ombyggnation av byggnaden till Framtidsmuseets nya lokaler.</p><p>Resultat</p><p>Förslaget innefattar Framtidsmuseets alla olika verksamheter, men även en sammanslagning med Kulturcentrum Asken inryms i förslaget. Förslaget är anpassat efter barns behov av att ha ett ljust och stillsamt inneklimat för att lättare kunna lära sig de kunskaper som Framtidsmuseet och Kulturcentrum Asken förmedlar. Museet har även utformats med tillräckliga passagebredder och minimala nivåskillnader etcetera för att kunna användas till fullo av alla besökare. Det slutgiltiga förslaget resulterar i relativt stora förändringar på den befintliga byggnaden för att ge en spektakulär och uppseendeväckande byggnad som ska locka fler besökare och göra Framtidsmuseet till ett självklart besöksmål för Dalarnas samtliga skolungdomar.</p><p>Diskussion</p><p>Slutligen har förslaget jämförts med en yrkesverksam arkitekts förslag, för att kunna studera olika infallsvinklar och lösningar på samma problem.</p> / <p>This report shows the inquiry, sketches and the final result of our suggestion for a reconstruction of an existing school building to a science center.</p><p>Background</p><p>The science center, Framtidsmuseet i Dalarna, has during a long period of time been in the need of a bigger local, in order to expand. A suitable local not far from the mall Kupolen is available. The local is in present day used as a school for higher education, and has not seen any major changes since it was built in the late seventies. Therefore the house needs a great exterior and interior reconstruction to suite the museums needs.</p><p>Implementation</p><p>By compiling the future proprietors demands and ambitions, with the information we gathered about suitable interior environment to stimulate children’s learning and how to make buildings accessible and usable to everyone regardless of there physical limitations, has a building- and a local program been completed. These programs have then been transformed via sketches into a complete proposal for the new local.</p><p>Results</p><p>The proposal includes all of the museums activities, but also a union with Kulturcentrum Asken and room for The University of Dalarna. The proposal is adjusted to fit children’s needs for a light and tranquil indoor climate, which makes it easier for them to learn the knowledges that the different activates offer. The museum has also been designed with proper passages and minimal level differences etcetera to suit all visitors. In order to make a sensational and spectacular building, the final proposal includes relatively big changes of the existing building, which will draw more visitors and at the same time make the museum an obvious target for all pupils in Dalarna.</p><p>Discussions</p><p>Finally to be able to study different angles of approach and solutions, the proposal has been compared with an architects proposal.</p>

Die vorliegende Ausgabe beschäftigt sich mit der Entschleunigung von Konsum- und Unternehmens-prozessen. Entschleunigung ist ein aktuelles Thema in der Wissenschaft, dem immer mehr Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wird. Umwelt und Bevölkerung können einer stetigen Beschleunigung nicht unbegrenzt standhalten, so dass eine gegenläufige Entwicklung auf Dauer unvermeidlich ist. Doch in welcher Form haben sich Aspekte der Entschleunigung bisher sowohl in Unternehmen als auch bei Individuen etablieren können? Um diese Frage zu beantworten, kommen in dieser Arbeit unterschiedliche empirische Methoden zur Anwendung. Mit Hilfe eines Experiments, durchgeführt mit Studenten der Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der TU Dresden, wird dabei die Zahlungsbereitschaft für Entschleunigung innerhalb der Bevölkerung untersucht. Zur weiteren empirischen Überprüfung des Kenntnisstan-des und Verbreitungsgrades des Themas Entschleunigung werden zwei Fragebögen, welche sich zum Zeitpunkt des Entstehens dieser Arbeit im Stadium des Pre-Tests befinden, entwickelt und im Rahmen dieser Arbeit vorgestellt und ausgewertet. Die Abfrage des Themas Entschleunigung erfolgt dabei über die Betrachtung verschiedener Sichtweisen (Unternehmens-, Kunden-, Mitarbeiter- und Gesundheitssicht), zu denen einleitend theoretische Grundlagen gelegt werden. Als konkretes Beispiel für eine mögliche Umsetzung von Entschleunigung wird für die IT-Branche das Extreme Programming vorgestellt, welches versucht, neue Wege in der Softwareentwicklung zu gehen. Innerhalb einer Fallstudie werden abschließend Netzwerke in der freien Marktwirtschaft und ihre möglichen Beiträge zur Entschleunigung untersucht.

Die vorliegende Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung eines bisher fehlenden rechnerischen Bemessungsverfahrens für die Sprengverdichtung von annähernd wassergesättigten, granularen Lockergesteinen. Gestützt auf experimentelle Erkenntnisse aus Modellversuchen mit Einzelsprengungen wird eine neue Hypothese zum Mechanismus von Verdichtungssprengungen aufgestellt. Ausgehend von den Erhaltungsgleichungen der mit dem Konzept der Volumenfraktionen erweiterten Theorie poröser Medien wird mit Hilfe einer deduktiven konstitutiven Analyse eine allgemeine, konsistente Theorie zum Verhalten von Lockergesteinen unter der Belastung von Sprengungen formuliert und durch Einbeziehen der Theorie der Hypoplastizität sowie weiterer induktiver konstitutiver Gleichungen in eine geschlossene, spezielle Theorie überführt. Die Anwendung der allgemeinen Theorie auf den Fall einer quasieindimensionalen Bewegung führt auf eine spezielle Nahfeldtheorie, deren numerische Lösung in guter Übereinstimmung mit den erzielten experimentellen Ergebnissen steht. Durch systematische Berechnungen wird der Einfluss von geotechnischen und sprengtechnischen Eingangsgrößen auf die Wirksamkeit von Einzelsprengungen in Böden untersucht und ein verbessertes Verfahren zur Dimensionierung von Verdichtungssprengungen wird vorgeschlagen.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the impact of a direct oxygen injection as a potential remediation strategy for contaminated aquifers on a bench scale. The mass transfer between a multi-component trapped gas phase and a mobile water phase was studied. Column experiments with dynamically compressed sediments and a direct gas injection of pure oxygen gas were performed. In addition, a new developed kinetic multi-component model was used to describe the experiments. The amount of gas that could be captured in the pore space during direct oxygen injection and the time needed for a complete dissolution of the trapped gas phase were determined. Varying influences of different gases already dissolved in the mobile water phase on the dissolution process of a trapped oxygen gas phase were described for different flow regimes and confirmed by the model results. Finally, on the basis of the experimental and model results obtained in this thesis, predictions for an application of a direct oxygen injection in the field were discussed.

An lehmigen Modelldeichen mit beliebig variierbaren Hochwasserbelastungen wurde ein Monitoring mit einer hochauflösenden Seismik durchgeführt. Der Vergleich von Deichmessungen während des ungefluteten Zustandes mit Messungen bei hohen Wasserständen und starker Durchfeuchtung der Deiche zeigt einen starken Einfluss auf das seismische Wellenfeld mittels deutlicher Dämpfung der Signale in Bereichen des Deichkörpers mit hoher Durchfeuchtung und einer Abnahme der P-Wellengeschwindigkeiten mit zunehmender Durchfeuchtung des Deiches. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass Dichte, Kompressions- und Schermodul einen Hauptteil der deutlichen Abnahme der P-Wellengeschwindigkeit mit zunehmendem Wassergehalt bewirken. Mit Laufzeit-Tomographien bei unterschiedlichen Hochwasserbelastungen lassen sich die verschiedenen Durchfeuchtungszustände der Modelldeiche nachvollziehen.

To get an improved understanding and knowledge of the processes and phenomena during the late phase of a core melt down accident the FOREVER-experiments (Failure of Reactor Vessel Retention) are currently underway. These experiments are simulating the lower head of a reactor pressure vessel under the load of a melt pool with internal heat sources. The geometrical scale of the experiments is 1:10 compared to a common Light Water Reactor. During the first series of experiments the Creep behaviour of the vessel is investigated. Due to the multi-axial creep deformation of the three-dimensional vessel with a non-uniform temperature field these experiments are on the one hand an excellent possibility to validate numerical creep models which are developed on the basis of uniaxial creep tests. On the other hand the results of pre-test calculations can be used for an optimized experimental procedure. Therefore a Finite Element model is developed on the basis of the multi-purpose commercial code ANSYS/Multiphysics®. Using the Computational Fluid Dynamic module the temperature field within the vessel wall is evaluated. The transient structural mechanical calculations are performed applying a creep model which is able to take into account great temperature, stress and strain variations within the model domain. The new numerical approach avoids the use of a single creep law with constants evaluated for a limited stress and temperature range. Instead of this a three-dimensional array is developed where the creep strain rate is evaluated according to the actual total strain, temperature and equivalent stress for each element. Performing post-test calculations for the FOREVER-C2 experiment it was found that the assessment of the experimental data and of the numerical results has to be done very carefully. A slight temperature increase during the creep deformation stage of the experiment for example could explain the creep behaviour which appears to be tertiary because of the accelerating creep strain rate. Taking into account both - experimental and numerical results - gives a good opportunity to improve the simulation and understanding of real accident scenarios.