This study was performed to investigate how pressure, glue amount, dowel penetration depth and wood grain orientation affect direct withdrawal resistances of dowel pin joints both experimentally and numerically, and develop FE (finite element) models to simulate tensile strength, contact pressure, and shear stress occurred in dowel pin joints. Results indicated that the direct withdrawal resistance load of a dowel pin joints can be predicted based on knowing the glue bonding shear strength between dowel and joint member materials and the pressure between the contact surfaces of the dowel and hole of a connected joint member. The FE contact element model developed in this study was verified as an effective tool to analyze and predict the pressure between the contact surface of dowel and hole of a dowel-pin joint.

The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment has become a matter of concern during the last decade. Increased production of PPCPs along with their increased use has led to release of these compounds in the environment via various routes. PPCPs includes large group of compounds including veterinary and human antibiotics, analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, psychiatric drugs, β-blockers, X-ray contrasts, and steroid hormones, etc. Many of the compounds used in PPCPs have been shown to possess adverse effects to living organisms and act as endocrine disrupting agents (ECDs). This dissertation includes the investigation of the occurrence of antibiotic compounds added to personal care product and the transformation of hormones used in pharmaceuticals such as contraceptives. The results obtained in this study can provide information on the fate and transformation of the studied compounds once released in the environment. An analytical method employing sonication extraction and HPLC-ESI-MS detection was developed. The developed method was used to detect antibiotic compounds triclosan (TCS) and triclocarban (TCC) in biosolids-applied soil and biosolids. Both TCS and TCC were detected at high concentrations in biosolids and at lower concentrations in biosolids-applied soil. TCS and TCC concentrations decreased in biosolids composts and in biosolids-applied soil collected at deeper depths. The developed method was able to provide efficient detection limits and reliable quantification of target compounds. A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesized to achieve efficient clean-up of TCS and TCC from biosolids-applied soil and biosolids samples using 4,4’- DBP-4-vp-EGDMA. The motivation behind this project was to be able to eliminate the use of expensive instruments such as LC-MS and employ easily available instruments such as LC-UV. The synthesized MIP was able to achieve efficient clean-up and allowed quantification and identification of TCS and TCC in a complex matrix. Transformation of hormones such as 17β-estradiol, estriol, ethynlestradiol, estrone and testosterone was studied by employing Fe (III)-saturated montmorillonite catalysts. The use of Fe (III) – saturated montmorillonite as a catalyst proved be to very efficient in transformation of the studied hormones. Complete removal of hormones was observed in aqueous environment. LC-UV was used for detection and quantification of hormones.

Ice hockey, one of the most popular sports in the world, is a contact sport that is always associated with huge risks of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) resulting from high-velocity impacts. Although technology in player protection equipment has advanced over the years, mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) like concussion remain prevalent. Finite Element (FE) analysis presents a methodology to recreate accidents in an effort to study the effects of protective helmets and predict brain injuries. This study aimed at improving the response of an existing ice hockey helmet FE model during different impact conditions and reconstructing an ice hockey collision using FE simulations. First, the shear response of the Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) material for the helmet liner was improved by means of a single element simulation to replicate the experiments. Simulations of helmet drop tests were then performed to validate the helmet FE model. Two different designs of the helmet model were implemented, one with normal properties of the foam and the other with a softer foam. Actual cases of ice hockey accidents were then reconstructed using positioning and impact velocities as input from video analysis. As player to player collisions had not been reconstructed for ice hockey using two player models, it was decided to use two full body Human Body Models (HBMs) for the reconstruction. The biomechanical injury parameters for the accident reconstruction were plotted and compared with injury thresholds for concussion. The kinematic results achieved from the drop test simulations showed a considerable decrease in peak values for resultant accelerations, resultant rotational accelerations, and resultant rotational velocities. These results also exhibited better CORrelation and Analysis (CORA) scores than previously achieved. The biomechanical analysis of the accident reconstruction showed the strains in the brain for the concussed player to be more than the threshold for concussion, which confirms the validity of the reconstruction approach. The results of this study show an improved response of the helmet FE model under different impact conditions. They also present a methodology for ice hockey accident reconstruction using two full body HBMs.

We are living in a world of steel. Although there are a lot of other material in use, our most used material is steel. From building industry to transportation and even mother industries like mining, we use steel in different grades and amounts. There is always need for different grades of steel, and there is always interest in better properties and lower costs. Fe-Mn-Al-C steel group is one of the grades of steel is from the TWIP family. Beside its interesting mechanical properties, its corrosion resistance and cryogenic properties makes it very desirable to substitute more expensive current classes of the steel used in the industry. The automobile industry is also looking forward to implement this family of the steel in their products. This group of steel based on their chemical content can created a carbide ordered phase called κ which is one of the reasons of its interesting mechanical properties beside the TWIP properties. While κ may give more hardness due to precipitation hardening, it will make the steel brittle. Thus we need an understanding of the phase diagram of this group of the steels in order to choose our material and process accordingly. Phase diagrams are material engineers’ road maps for the processes and material choice as the initial steps, since we can predict the processes results and stable phases based on the equilibrium state from the diagrams. As the number of components gets more than three the phase diagram calculations and determination gets harder. For the ternary alloying systems we can only show sections of the phase diagrams as isothermal sections, or consider an element constant and depict the diagram as a “binary” system for the other two alloying elements at the other element concentration. In this work, we tried to experiment on the experimental data for equilibrium phases of Fe-Mn-Al-C alloying system based on the Equilibrated Alloys for alloys containing 20, 30 and 40 weight percent Manganese. The results were compared to the current database of the Thermo-Calc software for this family and we found some inconsistencies between the experimental data and the calculations which shows that the calculated results for this alloying system with its high Mn-content, is not reliable and that the thermodynamic descriptions must be adjusted. / PrecHiMn (RFSR-CT-2010-00018)

No description available.

Stable isotope analysis of iron and oxygen isotopes in magnetite of Kiruna-type from Sweden and Chile have been conducted to further the understanding of the formation, and advance the analysis methods of these deposits. For this, data from SIMS (secondary ion mass spectroscopy), EBSD (electron backscatter diffraction) and triple oxygen analysis (by laser fluorination) are used. Some researchers have found that crystal orientation can affect the oxygen and iron isotope ratios when analysing magnetite by SIMS, complicating the process. EBSD analysis therefore aided by finding the orientations of the crystals prior to SIMS analysis. Magnetite from Kiruna have been tested for use as SIMS reference material, but it did not prove to be suitable at present time. Further homoegeneity tests can be useful before declaring the sample as unsuitable. Preliminary iron isotope results from SIMS on magnetite from Kiirunavaara indicate an internal variation of δ 56 Fe between -0.72-0.70 per mil, with an uncertainty of 0.38 per mil (1σ). The variations could not be determined to match crystal orientations. Triple oxygen analyses show very low ∆'17 O on Kiruna samples, -357 to -171 ‰, indicating a strong MIF-O (mass-independently fractionated oxygen isotope composition) component. The MIF-O signal is also present in ∆'17 O records in evaporites from similar ages (1.7 - 1.9 Ga) (Crockford et al. 2019), which are known to partly contain oxygen derived from atmospheric O 2 . The MIF-O signal was not present in the Chilean magnetite samples, however, they are within the ∆'17 range of evaporites (Crockford et al.2019) from a similiar age (0 Ma vs 2 Ma). It is proposed that magmatic fluids interacted with evaporites, exchanging oxygen isotopes, before forming magnetite of Kiruna-type, thereby allowing the magnetite to contain part of the atmospheric isotopic record.

Cyano-bridged mixed valence compounds have been known since 1704, but a lot of interest in the bi- and tri-nuclear species has emerged only more recently. The growing interest in these complexes reflects their promise as useful applications in electrochromism, molecular magnetism, and molecular electronics. These properties are activated by the excitation of their metal-to-metal charge transfer (MMCT) transition. We have studied aqueous solutions of the FeHEDTA/Fe(CN)64- system that form intensely colored solutions that absorb strongly in the Vis/NIR region. Typically 1:1 dimeric and 2:1 trimeric complexes are formed. We have used optical spectroscopy and electrochemistry to provide information on reorganizational parameters, electronic coupling between metal centers, molar absorptivities, equilibrium constants, and delocalization factors and have compared results obtained for the binuclear and trinuclear species to results of similar systems either previously studied in our lab or found in the literature.

During ice voyages, level ice and iceberg with huge inertia force can cause large deformation and even damage on the ship hull structure. Hence the hull structure for ice voyage requires higher strength than it for open water voyages. A container ship will be re-designed for ice voyages in the thesis. Generally, the ice strength is evaluated in ice class rules. IACS polar class and FSICR are adopted in this thesis. Ice class rules are based on experience and experiment data, but there has been no exact formula or parameters to described the ice properties so far. In other words, the results from ice class rules include uncertainties. In order to improve physical understanding, non-linear FE simulations will be processed after the re-design. In the simulations, the ship has a collision with different ice scenarios. The simulations are carried on ANSYS Workbench Explicit Dynamic using the solver of Auto-dyna. Afterwards, the results from the two designs schemes are compared and analysed.

Finite element (FE) models serve as the base of many different types of analysis as e.g. dynamic analysis. Hence, obtaining FE models that represent the actual behaviour of real structures with great accuracy is of great importance. However, more often than not, there are differences between FE models and the structures being modelled, which can depend on numerous factors. These factors can consist of uncertainties in material behaviour, geometrical properties and boundary- and continuity conditions. Model validation is therefore an important aspect in obtaining FE models that represents reality to some degree. Furthermore, model verification is also important in terms of verifying theoretical models, other than FE models, in fields such as fatigue-, fracture- and dynamic analysis. In this thesis, two pedestrian steel bridges, the Kallhäll bridge and the Smista bridge, have been modelled in a FE software based on engineering drawings and validated against experimental results with regard to their natural frequencies. Furthermore, in this thesis, a model has been developed in MATLAB based on modal analysis that accounts for pedestrian-induced torsional vibrations, the 3D SDOF model. This model has been verified against the previously mentioned FE models. The aim of this thesis is hence two parted where the first part is to develop three-dimensional FE models of two pedestrian bridges and validate them against measured data regarding the natural frequencies. The second part is to further develop a model for analysing the effect of pedestrian-induced torsional vibrations and to investigate whether the model captures the actual dynamic response of such loading. The results showed that the natural frequencies for the first bending- and torsional mode from the FE models corresponded well to the measured ones with the largest difference of 5 \% obtained for the natural frequency of the first bending mode for the Smista bridge. Furthermore, the 3D SDOF model was able to capture the dynamic response of torsional vibrations with an overall difference of less than 2 \% in comparison to the FE models. The model can be improved by further studying the pedestrian-structure interaction as well as studying the effect of using approximative functions describing the mode shapes. / Finita elementmodeller (FE-modeller) utgör en bas för många olika typer av analyser som exempelvis dynamiska analyser. Därmed är det av stor betydelse att FE-modeller representerar det faktiska beteendet av verkliga strukturer med stor noggrannhet. Ofta är det emellertid skillnader mellan FE-modeller och de verkliga strukturer man modellerar. Dessa skillnader kan bero på en rad faktorer såsom exempelvis osäkerheter i materialbeteende, geometriska egenskaper samt upplag- och randvillkor. Modellvalidering är därför en viktig aspekt i att erhålla FE-modeller som representerar verkligheten i olika omfattningar. Utöver modellvalidering är även modellverifiering viktigt, inte endast för verifiering av FE-modeller utan även för verifiering av andra teoretiska modeller inom områden såsom utmaning-, fraktur- och dynamiska analyser. I detta arbete har två GC-broar, Kallhäll- och Smistabron modellerats i ett FE-program baserat på konstruktionsritningar och validerats mot experimentella resultat med avseende på de naturliga frekvenserna. Vidare har det i detta arbete utvecklats en modell i MATLAB som tar hänsyn till människo-inducerade torsionsvibrationer baserat på modalanalys, benämnd 3D SDOF modellen. Modellen har även verifierats mot de tidigare nämnda FE-modellerna. Målet med detta arbete är således uppdelat i två delar, där den första delen består av att utveckla tredimensionella FE-modeller av två GC-broar samt validera dessa mot mätdata vad gäller de naturliga frekvenserna. Den andra delen består av att utveckla en modell för att analysera effekten av människo-inducerade torsionsvibrationer och undersöka huruvida modellen fångar den dynamiska responsen. Resultaten visade att de naturliga frekvenserna för den första böj- och vridmoden från FE-modellerna motsvarade de uppmätta frekvenserna med en största relativ skillnad på 5 \% för den fösta böjmoden för Smistabron. Vidare visade resultaten att den utvecklade 3D SDOF modellen kunde fånga den dynamiska responsen av torsionsvibrationer med en skillnad på mindre än 2 \% i jämförelse med resultat från de FE-modellerna. Modellen kan förbättras genom att vidare studera interaktionen mellan fotgängare och gångbro samt studera effekten av att använda approximativa funktioner som beskriver modformen.

Abstract When Eurocodes was introduced, there was a requirement where the calculations had to take into consideration whether it's a slab or beam bridge. This means that calculations had to be made with softwares including plate theory. The object of this study is a slab bridge with endshields. The bridge is 66.95 meters long with a 14.38-meter-wide deck made of concrete. The deck is mounted on abutments with bearings and intermediate supports where the columns are fixed to the deck. The purpose of this study is to investigate if bridges defined as plates can be calculated using beam theory, as well as examining different modeling techniques in an attempt to evaluate how this will affect the results. A model using shell elements is established in BRIGADE/Plus and compared to a model in Strip Step 3 made out of beam elements. A base-model is also created in BRIGADE/Plus and is compared to the following modeling changes: Couplings between supports and the plate, “point to surface” or “point to point”. The bridge is modeled without wings to study the impact of the wings. The bridge is modeled without columns to study the impact of the columns. When comparing the values obtained from the two different software’s regarding deadweight, the results were almost identical. This indicates that Strip Step 3 is a suitable tool for verifying models made in BRIGADE/Plus. When studying the results from load-combination 6.10.b (the combination used for dimensioning) small differences can be seen between the softwares. This concludes that it may be reasonable to use Strip Step 3 for this type of bridges. However, there are major differences between the software at the traffic load which should be considered. In order to simplify the modeling process ties between points (nodes) should be used. However, the results obtained over the supports must be ignored due to unrealistic values. When studying the impact of wings/columns it was confirmed that a difference of 10 % appeared. Modeling without wings/columns is not more time efficient either, with that in mind wings and columns should be used when modeling.   Keywords: Plate theory, Beam theory, Strip Step 3, BRIGADE/Plus, FE-modeling / Sammanfattning Vid införandet av Eurokoder ställdes det krav från Trafikverket där beräkningsmodellen var tvungen att ta hänsyn till verkningssättet i sin helhet dvs. om det är en platt- eller balkbro (E. Rosell, Trafikverket, personlig kommunikation, 3 Maj, 2018). Detta innebar att beräkningsmodeller för plattbroar behövdes utföras med program som kan hantera beräkningar enligt platteori. Studieobjektet för detta arbete är en plattbro med ändskärmar. Bron är 66.95 meter lång med en brobaneplatta av betong som har bredden 14.38 meter. Plattan är upplagd på ändstöd med rörliga lager samt mellanstöd där pelare är fast inspända till plattan. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka huruvida broar definierade som plattor går att beräkna enligt balkteori, samt att undersöka olika modelleringstekniker i ett försök att utvärdera hur det påverkar resultaten. En modell med skalelement har upprättats i BRIGADE/Plus som jämförs mot en modell i Strip Step 3 utförd av balkelement. En grundmodell skapas även i BRIGADE/Plus som jämförs mot följande modelleringsändringar: Stöd kopplade mellan två punkter jämförs mot koppling mellan pelare och yta i plattan. Bron modelleras utan vingar för att studera vingarnas inverkan. Bron modelleras utan pelare för att studera pelarnas inverkan. Kontrollen av egentyngd visade nästintill identiska resultat vilket tyder på att Strip Step 3 är ett lämpligt verktyg vid verifiering av Brigademodeller. Vid lastkombination 6.10.b (den dimensionerande lastkombinationen för denna bro) uppstår små skillnader. Detta indikerar att det kan vara rimligt att använda sig av Strip Step 3 vid dessa typer av broar. Dock uppstår det stora skillnader mellan programvarorna vid trafiklasten vilket bör beaktas. För att förenkla modelleringen bör kopplingar mellan punkter användas, dock måste resultat som erhålls över stöd bortses från då dessa ger orealistiska resultat. Vid modellering utan pelare/vingar kan det konstateras att värdena skiljer sig ca 10 %. Det är inte heller mycket mer tidseffektivt att ta bort pelare/vingar då dessa går relativt fort att modellera.   Nyckelord: Platteori, Balkteori, Strip Step 3, BRIGADE/Plus, FE-modellering