An orthosis, or orthotic device is used to straighten or correct the posture of part of the body. A foot orthosis (FO) is the subject of study for this dissertation. A FO is situated between the foot and the midsole of the shoe and replaces the insole. Foot orthoses (FOs) are intended to prevent or aid in the recovery of injury by acting to redistribute pressure experienced by the plantar surface of the foot as well as cause adjustments to the relative positions of the foot's bones during standing and gait. Traditional methods for developing a FO require extensive skilled manual labour and are highly dependent on subjective input. Modern FO development methods have sought to address these issues through the use of computer driven technological advancements. Foot scanners record geometry, computer aided design (CAD) software is used to develop the FO geometry, and automated manufacturing tools are used to either fabricate the FO or fabricate a mould about which the FO can be formed. A variety of modern solutions have successfully automated the process, however, it remains highly subjective. Skilled manual labour has merely been replaced with equally subjective skilled computer labour. In particular, adjustments to the foot are made with basic deformation functions to the static surface foot models generated by modern digitizers. To improve upon this, a model that describes the mechanics and properties of the various tissues of the foot is required. Such a model will also be useful for validating and optimizing FO designs prior to fabrication through simulation of weight-bearing conditions. Given the deformable characteristics of the tissues of the foot, the finite element (FE) modeling method is appropriate. The FE foot model has become a common medical and engineering tool in recent years. Its application, however, has primarily been limited to research as few clinical applications warrant the development cost. High cost stems from the MRI or CT scan and the skilled labour required to assemble the model for FE analysis. Consequently, the FE modeling approach has previously been out of reach for the application of FO development. The solution proposed and implemented was to map a detailed generic FE foot model to an inexpensive surface scan obtained from a modern digitizer. The mapping accurately predicted anatomical geometry and resulted in simulation models that can be used in the FO development process first to carry out postural adjustments prescribed by a practitioner and second in a validation step where a FO design can be tested prior to fabrication. In addition to simulation tools, novel complementary tools were developed for designing and fabricating FOs. The simulation, design, and fabrication tools were incorporated into a novel, seven step FO development process. The proposed process is beneficial to FO development as it reduces the required subjective input from practitioners and lab technicians and allows for the validation of potential FO designs prior to fabrication. Future work is required to improve computational efficiency of the FE foot models and to fully automate the process to make it commercially viable. In addition to FOs, the proposed approach also presents opportunities for improving other orthoses and prostheses for the human body.

Solar road panels are a technology that have the ability to revolutionize the way that roads are built and how electricity is generated. Strong incentives towards sustainable solutions in both of these fields have led to the design of innovative, multifaceted solutions, of which solar road panels are one of the most recent entrants. This research presents some initial analysis into the design of solar road panels from the perspective of Canadian pavement engineering. The hypothesis of this research was as follows: A specially designed modular panel can be constructed to withstand the structural and environmental loads on Canadian pavement structures while simultaneously generating electricity through embedded photovoltaic cells. Through a process that covers the design, construction, and analysis of the structural elements of a solar road panel prototype, this research evaluated the impact that solar road panels can have for Canada???s pavement infrastructure. Specific elements researched include the material selection for such a panel, the flexural response of the composite structure, how the panel will interact with traditional pavement and geotechnical materials while in use, and the change in performance of transparent layer materials as they are subjected to freeze-thaw cycling and scaling. The research found that the initial prototype design included a two 10-mm tempered glass pane transparent layers with a 12.7-mm GPO-3 optical layer and 19.1-mm GPO-3 base layer. The concept being that the glass would provide the rigidity required to protect the fragile solar cells while the fiberglass laminate has demonstrated performance as a traffic-supporting material in adverse conditions. Testing of this structure found that the performance was easily duplicated through finite element analysis, given that the material properties were assumed to be more rigid than the averages for tempered glass and GPO-3. Further finite element analysis demonstrated that the prototype solar road panel would not fail through traditional fatiguing methods, and in all cases on concrete, asphalt, granular, and subgrade bases the panels improved the performance characteristics of the structural base. The environmental conditioning of acrylic, glass, and polycarbonate specimens demonstrated that glass is the ideal material choice for the transparent layer for Canadian solar road panels. It proved to have the greatest freeze-thaw and scaling resistance of the three materials, and while the friction characteristic of the flat glass samples would not be suitable for driving on, avenues of research were identified that could improve this characteristic. In summary, the research conducted clearly proved the hypothesis; it is possible to build a structure that can house a photovoltaic system while supporting the structural and environmental loads that Canadian pavement are exposed to. The ideal panel would be constructed with a tempered glass transparent layer, GPO-3 optical and base layers, and the structure would be installed on a concrete structural base. The refinement of this design will be the scope for future research.

Deterioration of concrete bridge decks has become a serious problem in the past few decades. Fortunately, non-corrosive, light-weight Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) material provides an excellent alternative. More than 117 bridges in the USA have been built or repaired with FRP. In Canada, no FRP bridge deck has been used in the field, yet. However, Wardrop Engineering Inc., Faroex Ltd., and ISIS Canada have successfully designed, manufactured, and patented the filament-wound Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bridge deck. Since there is no design code for FRP bridge decks, a finite element method, labeled “L&D”, is proposed in this thesis to help bridge engineers better understand the structural behavior of FRP bridge decks. The L&D method is validated by comparing the analysis results with the experimental results of three filament-wound GFRP bridge decks. This L&D method is also applicable for analyzing FRP bridge decks manufactured by other processes.

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is recognized as a pathomechanical process that leads to hip osteoarthritis (OA). It is hypothesized that mechanical stimuli are prominent at higher range of motions in hips with cam FAI (aspherical femoral head-neck deformity). Adverse loading conditions can impose elevated mechanical stimuli levels at the articulating surfaces and underlying subchondral bone, which plays a predominant mechanical role in early OA. The aim of this research was to determine the levels of mechanical stimuli within the hip, examining the effects of severe cam impingement on the onset of OA, using patient-specific biomechanics data, CT data, and finite element analysis (FEA). Patient-specific hip joint reaction forces were applied to two symptomatic patient models and two control-matched models, segmented from patient-specific CT data. The finite element models were simulated to compare the locations and magnitudes of mechanical stimuli during two quasi-static positions from standing to squatting. Maximum-shear stress (MSS) was analyzed to determine the adverse loading conditions within the joint and strain energy density (SED) was determined to examine its effect on the initiation of bone remodelling. The results revealed that peak mechanical stimuli concentrations were found on the antero-superior acetabulum during the squatting position, underlying to the cartilage. The MSS magnitudes were significantly higher and concentrated for the FAI patients (15.145 ± 1.715 MPa) in comparison with the MSS magnitudes for the control subjects (4.445 ± 0.085 MPa). The FAI group demonstrated a slight increase in peak SED values on the acetabulum from standing (1.005 ± 0.076 kPa) to squatting (1.018 ± 0.082 kPa). Insignificant changes in SED values were noticed for the control subjects. Squatting orients the femoral head into the antero-superior acetabulum, increasing the contact area with the cartilage and labral regions, thus resulting in higher peaks behind the cartilage on the acetabulum. The resultant location of the peak MSS and SED concentrations correspond well with the region of initial cartilage degradation and early OA observed during open surgical dislocation. Due to the relatively low elastic modulus of the articular cartilage, loads are transferred and amplified to the subchondral bone. This further suggests that elevated stimuli levels can provoke stiffening of the underlying subchondral plate, through bone remodelling, and consequently accelerating the onset of cartilage degradation. Since mechanical stimuli results are unique to their patient-specific loading parameters and conditions, it would be difficult to determine a patient-specific threshold to provoke bone remodeling at this stage.

Wind-induced damages on low-slope roofs are a major and common problem that many buildings located in high wind areas suffer from. Most of these damages are initiated when the metal roof edge fails first, leading to overall roof failure. This is because peak wind pressures occur at the edges and corners of low-slope roof buildings. Currently, there are not enough wind design guidelines for the Canadian roofing community to quantify the dynamic wind uplift resistance of the roof edge system. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effect of wind-induced loads on roof edges using a finite element model, verify the numerical results with those obtained from controlled experiments, and perform parametric investigations for various design variables. In this research, the overall roof edge system was modelled using the commercial finite element software package ABAQUS, by simulating the roof edge system with shell elements and applying a uniform static pressure against the face of the edge cleat or coping. Results of the modelling were compared to the experimental ones in terms of deflection of the coping under uniform pressure. The results of the numerical model and the experiments show a good agreement. Furthermore, a parametric analysis of the system was conducted under the effect of varying parameters. i.e., coping gauge, nail spacing, coping and cleat length and wind and thermal load application.

Structural steel design standards recognize lateral torsional buckling as a failure mode governing the capacity of long span unsupported beams with wide flange cross-sections. Standard solutions start with the closed form solution of the Vlasov thin-walled beam theory for the case of a simply supported beam under uniform moments, and modify the solution to accommodate various moment distributions through moment gradient expressions. The Vlasov theory solution is based on the assumption that cross-sectional distortional effects have a negligible effect on the predicted elastic critical moment. The present study systematically examines the validity of the Vlasov assumption related to cross-section distortion through a parametric study. A series of elastic shell finite element eigen-value buckling analyses is conducted on simply supported beams subject to uniform moments, linear moments and mid span point loads as well as cantilevers subject to top flange loading acting at the tip. Cross-sectional dimensions are selected to represent structural steel cross-section geometries used in practice. Particular attention is paid to model end connection details commonly used in practice involving moment connections with two pairs of stiffeners, simply supported ends with a pair of transverse stiffeners, simply supported ends with cleat angle details, and built in fixation at cantilever roots. The critical moments obtained from the FEA are compared to those based on conventional critical moment equations in various Standards and published solutions. The effects of web slenderness, flange slenderness, web height to flange width ratio, and span to height ratios on the critical moment ratio are systematically quantified. For some combinations of section geometries and connection details, it is shown that present solutions derived from the Vlasov theory can overestimate the lateral torsional buckling resistance for beams.

A software program was written that implements a finite element analysis (FEA) solution as the basis of an optimization function used for guiding the inverse design problem of aligning fibres, minimizing displacements in a fibre-reinforced polymer composite part in response to a given loading condition, for various part geometries. The FEA solution makes use of the superlinear RGNTet4 element, which includes 3 displacement and 3 rotational degrees of freedom at 4 nodes. Convergence testing verified the accuracy of the solver versus symbolic results for simple cases. Multivariate optimization over fibre orientations and volume fractions was carried out for a simple test case using the NLOpt nonlinear optimization library. Both derivative-free and gradient-based algorithms were tested. Low-Storage Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shannon was the most effective algorithm. Four more complex cases were examined, and by varying fibre orientations, reductions of 48%, 66%, 58% and 32% were achieved in displacements at the loaded nodes.

Three-dimensional (3-D) medical imaging creates notable opportunities as input toward engineering analyses, whether for basic understanding of the normal function or patho-physiology of an organ, or for the simulation of virtual surgical procedures. These analyses most often require finite element (FE) models to be constructed from patient-specific 3-D medical images. However, creation of such models can be extremely labor-intensive; in addition, image processing and mesh generation are often operator-dependent, lack robustness and may be of suboptimal quality. Focusing on the human aorta, the goal of the present work is to create a fast and robust methodology for quadrilateral surface and hexahedral volume meshing from 3-D medical images with minimal user input. By making use of the segmentation capabilities of the 3-D gradient vector flow field combined with original ray-tracing and orientation control algorithms, we will demonstrate that it is possible to incrementally grow a structured quadrilateral surface mesh of the inner wall of the aorta. The process does not only require minimal input from the user, it is also robust and very fast compared to existing methods; it effectively combines segmentation and meshing into one single effort. After successfully testing the methodology and measuring the quality of the meshes produced by it from synthetic as well as real medical image datasets, we will make use of the surface mesh of the inner aortic wall to derive hexahedral meshes of the aortic wall thickness and of the fluid domain inside the aorta. We will finally outline a tentative approach to merge several structured meshes to process the main branches of the aorta.

A pipe consisting of Inconel 600 welded to grade 106-B Carbon-Steel using Inconel 182 weld filler is used to transport heavy water in nuclear reactors. A confidential report concluded that cracking is one of the problems these pipes are currently facing. Before cracking can be fully understood the mechanical properties of the weld must be determined. This thesis analyzed the pipe at various length-scales using optical microscopy, micro-hardness testing, small and large scale tensile testing and digital image correlation (DIC). This thesis successfully achieved it goals of determining the mechanical properties and creating a model of the Inconel dissimilar metal weld. It partially met the goal of observing fracture mechanisms as it was able to observe fracture in tensile samples but was not able to successfully track crack growth.

The non-corrodible nature of FRP bars along with their high strength, light weight and ease of installation made it attractive as reinforcement especially for structures exposed to aggressive environment. In addition, the transparency of FRP bars to magnetic and electrical fields makes them an ideal alternative to traditional steel reinforcement in applications sensitive to electromagnetic fields such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units. Continuous concrete beams are commonly-used elements in structures such as parking garages and overpasses, which might be exposed to extreme weather conditions and the application of de-icing salts. In such structures, using the non-corrodible FRP bars is a viable alternative to avoid steel-corrosion problems. However, the linear-elastic behaviour of FRP materials makes the ability of continuous beams to redistribute loads and moments questionable. The objective of this research project is to investigate the flexural behaviour of continuous concrete beams reinforced with FRP and their capability of moment redistribution. An experimental program was conducted at the University of Manitoba to realize the research objectives. Ten full-scale continuous concrete beams were constructed and tested to failure in the laboratory. The specimens had a rectangular cross-section of 200×300 mm and continuous over two spans of 2,800 mm each. The main investigated parameters were the amount and material of longitudinal reinforcement, the amount and material of transverse reinforcement and the spacing of used stirrups. The experimental results showed that moment redistribution in FRP-reinforced continuous concrete beams is possible if the reinforcement configuration is chosen properly, and is improved by increasing the amount of transverse reinforcement. A finite element investigation was conducted using ANSYS-software. A 3-D model was created to simulate the behaviour of continuous beams reinforced with FRP. The model was verified against the experimental results obtained from the present study. This verified model was used to investigate the effect of the concrete compressive strength, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, midspan-to-middle support reinforcement ratio and the amount of transverse reinforcement on the behaviour of FRP-reinforced beams. The analytical results of this parametric investigation along with the experimental results were used to propose an allowable limit for moment redistribution in FRP-reinforced continuous concrete beams.