This thesis presents the results of experimental and numerical investigations carried out to assess the effects of tube bending and hydroforming on the crash performance of s-rail structures manufactured from three different advanced high strength steels, namely DDQ, HSLA350, and DP600. The main impetus for this project is to reduce vehicle weight through material substitution and, in order to do so, the effects of material strength on crashworthiness, as well as the interaction between forming processes and crash response must be well understood. To this end, in the current research, s-rails were fabricated through tube bending and hydroforming experiments conducted on DDQ, HSLA350, and DP600 steels with a nominal wall thickness of 1. 8mm, as well as HSLA350 steel with a nominal wall thickness of 1. 5mm. Impact experiments were subsequently performed on non-hydroformed and hydroformed s-rails to examine the effects of the forming processes and material substitution on the crushing loads and levels of absorbed energy. All forming and crash experiments were simulated using numerical finite element methods which provide additional insight into various aspects of the crash response of these structures. In particular, crash simulations were used to show the effects of work-hardening, material thickness changes, and residual stresses incurred during the forming operations. <br /><br /> The numerical tube bending simulations accurately predict the results of the tube bending and hydroforming processes for all materials, particularly for the DP600; the predictions for the DDQ material are the least accurate. Both simulations and experiments show that material thinning occurs on the tensile side of the bend, and material thickening on the compressive side of the bend; the level of thickness change is unaffected by material strength or initial material thickness. The low-pressure hydroforming process does not greatly affect the thickness and strain distributions of s-rails. <br /><br /> The crash simulations provide predictions that are in excellent accord with the measured results, with a maximum error of ±10% in the peak loads and energies; simulations of DP600 s-rails are the most accurate, while simulations of DDQ s-rails are the least accurate. Through simulations and experiments, it is shown that material thickness has the greatest effect on the crash performance of s-rail structures, while material strength plays a secondary role. A 20% increase in the wall thickness of HSLA350 s-rails amounts to a 47% increase in energy absorption. Substituting HSLA350 and DP600 steels in place of DDQ steel leads to increases in energy absorption of 31% and 64%, respectively, for corresponding increases in strength of 30% and 76%. Neglecting material strain-rate effects in the numerical models lowers the predicted peak loads and energies by roughly 15%. By performing a numerical parametric study, it is determined that a weight reduction of 22% is possible by substituting thinner-gauge DP600 s-rails in place of DDQ s-rails while maintaining the energy absorption of the structures.

Streptococcus agalactiae CAMP factor is a protein exotoxin that contains 226 amino acid residues and forms oligomeric pores on susceptible cell membranes and liposomes. In this study, fragments of CAMP factor were created and recombinantly expressed to identify functional domains that are involved in membrane binding, oligomerization, and membrane insertion. Altogether, six truncated forms of CAMP factor were created and assayed. CAMP1-113, CAMP1-170, CAMP57-226, and CAMP171-226 showed different levels of hemolytic activity. CAMP1-56 and CAMP114-226 did not show hemolytic activity or oligomerization ability, but showed binding ability. CAMP114-226 inhibited the hemolytic activity of wild-type CAMP factor, most likely through ‘one-sided’ oligomerization. From the comparison of these fragments, it emerges that the region between residues 57 and 113 plays a crucial role in oligomerization and membrane insertion. The high binding efficiency of CAMP114-226 suggests this region has great responsibility on membrane binding. The hemolytically inactive fragments showed higher binding efficiency than some of the active fragments. For the hemolytic fragments, higher binding efficiency gave stronger hemolysis. These findings support that CAMP factor has different functional regions for pore-formation.

The design of new forming tools get more problemtic as the geometries get more complicated and the materials less formable. The idea with this project is to evaluate if an implementation of a simulation software in the designing process, to simulate the forming process before actually building the tools, could help Duroc Tooling avoid expensive mistakes. To evaluate this, the commercial FEM simulation software LS-DYNA was used in a complicated project, where the design of the forming tools for forming a girder was considered. The main objective was to avoid cracking and severe wrinkling which may result in the forming process. With help of simulations a stable forming process which did not yield cracks or severe wrinkling, was eventually found. The girder was almost impossible to form without cracking, but the breakthrough came when we tried to simulate a preforming step which solved the problem. Without a simulation software this would never have been tested since it would be to risky and expensive to try an idea which could turn out to be of no use. The simulations also showed that the springback - shape deformation occuring after pressing - was large and hard to predict without simulations. Therefore, the tools were also finally springback compensated. We concluded that simulations are very effective to quickly test new ideas which may be necessary when designing the tools for forming complicated parts. Simulation also provided detailed quantitative information about the expected cracks, wrinkles, and weaknesses of the resulting pieces. Even though there is cost associated with simulations, it is obvious from this project that a simulation software is a must if Duroc Tooling wants to be a leading company in sheet metal forming tools, and stand ready for the higher demands on the products in the future.

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to obtain the friction coefficient of lubricants in tube hydroforming of guiding zone. Lubricants, universal testing machine, and friction test machine in tube hydroforming of guiding zone are used to carry out the experiments of aluminum alloy tubes. Lubricants are categorized according to their performance as follows: (1) oils, (2) emulsions, and (3) slide lacquer. Different lubricants tests, it is known that the best lubrication is derived from slide lacquer, while oils showed the poorest behavior. Different internal pressure tests, it is known that greater internal pressure causes the coefficient of friction decreasing. Different sliding velocity, it is known that sliding velocity does not affect the coefficient of friction at 100mm/min. And using CCD which is an optical instrument obtains the surface of tubes after experiments.

Because magnesium alloy tube has good formability at elevated temperature, uniaxial tensile tests were employed to evaluate the warm properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy. After that, this paper has designed and manufactured a hydraulic bulge warm forming machine which can be used to experiment with fixed tube length. Using this testing machine, the experiments of hydraulic bulge forming of AZ31 magnesium alloy and 6061 aluminum alloy tube at elevated temperatures were carried out. According to experimental results, the hydraulic bulge forming properties of tubes at different temperatures are discussed.

In this dissertation, the ternary Mg-based amorphous ribbons are characterized and analyzed first. Among the three Mg65Cu25Y10, Mg65Cu25Gd10 and Mg65Ni25Gd10 amorphous ribbons, the Mg65Cu25Gd10 amorphous ribbon exhibits the best thermal properties in terms of the glass forming ability (GFA) indexes, such as 68 K of the supercooled liquid region (£GTx), 29 K of the liquidus region (£GTl), 0.582 of the reduced glass transition temperature (Trg), 0.427 of the £^ value and 0.768 of the £^m value. In spite that the Mg65Cu25Gd10 amorphous ribbons do not show the best performance in mechanical properties, such as micro-hardness value of 231 Hv (2.26 GPa), nano-hardness value is 3.24 GPa (300 Hv) and modulus from nano-indentation of 62.4 GPa, this composition is close to the two prediction compositions of Mg62Cu27Gd11 (the e/a-variant criterion) and Mg67Cu23Gd10 (the binary eutectic clusters criterion). However, among a series of ternary of Mg-Cu-Gd amorphous ribbons, the better overall thermal properties are seen in the Mg54Cu32Gd14 and Mg54Cu31Gd15 amorphous ribbons. In terms of the bulk Mg65Cu25Gd10 amorphous alloys, the 6 mm bulk metallic glass (BMG) rod can be fabricated successfully with minimum porosity. In order to improve the brittle properties of the Mg65Cu25Gd10 BMG rod, there are two methods applied in this study, namely, the intrinsic toughening method by heat treatment and the extrinsic toughening method of adding reinforcements. For the heat treated Mg65Cu25Gd10 BMG rod, both of the one-step and two-steps BMG rods show no distinct plastic deformation in the engineering stress-strain curves, while the micro-hardness and compressive stress are increased from 270 Hv to higher than 300 Hv and from 804 to 830 MPa. But, for the ductile metal-reinforced Mg-based BMG rods, the brittle properties are improved. For the Nb-reinforced Mg65Cu25Gd10 BMG rods, the compressive stress decreases from 804 to 595 MPa and the plastic strain increases from 0 to 0.48% with increasing volume fraction from 0 to 17.3%. But, for Mg65Cu25Gd10 BMG rod reinforced by 21.6% porous Mo, the compressive stress and plastic strain are 821 MPa and 1.63%, respectively. Moreover, for the porous Mo-reinforced Mg58Cu28.5Gd11Ag2.5 BMG rods, the compressive stress increases from 827 to 1111 MPa and the plastic strain increases from 0 to 7.84% with increasing volume fraction from 0 to 25.4%.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xviii, 218 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Jean Michael Guldmann, City and Regional Planning Graduate Program. Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-133).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1978.

Explosive, caldera forming "super-eruptions" (an eruption of VEI 8 or larger, resulting in 1000+ km³ of volcanic ejecta in ignimbrite sheets) are the single most destructive natural disaster native to Earth. Super-eruptions require three elements to occur: 1-crustal magmatic fluxes above background solidification rates, 2-growth of a batholith scale magma chamber, and 3-an eruption trigger. This study addresses these requirements with new petrographic and geochemical analyses and numerical simulations of crustal magma bodies. Crustal magmatic fluxes up to 10x steady-state arc rates are required to form volcanic provinces that host super-eruptions. Super-eruptions can occur in continental hot-spots or rift environments. Why arcs "flare-up" is the subject of active debate. Arcs may follow a regular cycle of lithospheric thickening, delamination, and asthenospheric upwelling (the Andean cycle); alternatively fertilized lithospheric mantle may undergo rapid melting. Targeted sampling (n = 165) of mapped but unsampled mafic and lamprophyric magmas in the San Juan magmatic locus of Colorado, an archetypical ignimbrite province, over three years identified both the lithospheric mantle reservoir and the most primitive San Juan magmas using optical petrography, whole rock geochemistry (n = 50) and Pb, Sr, and Nd isotope geochemistry (n = 32). These mafic magmas more closely resemble the continental lithosphere geochemically. Mixing models based on Energy Constrained Assimilation/Fractional-Crystallization (EC-AFC) indicate that the San Juan magmatism is the product of lithospheric melts and 30-40% crustal assimilation rather than asthenospheric upwelling. The Farallon flat-slab "pre-fluxed" and refrigerated the Colorado lithospheric mantle; removal of that slab at around 40 Ma triggered the SJVF "flare-up." Numerical simulations of crustal magma chamber growth indicate giant magma chambers form when high magma fluxes raise upper crustal temperatures to 300-400 °C at 5-10 km depth. These simulations focus on chamber growth, convection, and cooling at the expense of geometry or chamber mechanical failure with realistic sill-like geometry at the expense of thermal modeling. New 3D finite difference simulations emphasize the importance of geometry on chamber lifespan and crustal heating. A spherical chamber (i.e. model construct) requires 10x the cooling time of a 2km caldera footprint sill of same volume. Increasing sill thickness by 1km can double chamber longevity. Focused intrusions (i.e. 1D modeling) locally produce higher thermal gradients and preserve larger primary basalt volumes. Random intrusions in 3D yield basalt to crust ratios of 3-4:1 (required in the EC-AFC models). Random intrusion in 3D into the upper crust at "flare-up" fluxes ([greater than or equal to]10 km³ per k.y.) elevate average crustal geotherms by 10 °C / km, allowing for growth of batholithic scale magma chambers a wider footprint. Once situated in the upper crust, sub-caldera magma chambers cool inward forming moving crystallization and fluid saturation fronts. If the saturation front propagates faster than the crystallization front, nucleating fluid bubbles have the opportunity to grow, ascend, and collect at the chamber roof. New 2D finite difference models couple magma chamber cooling to fluid production to explore the conditions of fluid escape and collection. Less silicic magma composition, equant geometry, high ambient thermal gradient, and a stock all aid in fluid pocket growth by slowing the advance of the crystallization front (a fluid trap) and triggering saturation at lower fluid concentrations. Fluid pockets that grow to certain sizes ( > 500 m hemispherical bubble) have the potential to trigger an eruption by propagation of a fluid fracture to the surface. This mechanism possibly triggered the eruption of the 5000+ km³ Fish Canyon Tuff as well as smaller, recent eruptions (Pinatubo, El Chichón). Caldera forming super-eruptions occur in regions that meet these three requirements: 1-high magmatic flux, 2-rapid growth to batholithic size, and 3-a delayed eruption trigger. For the SJVF of Colorado melting of the "pre-fluxed" lithosphere provided the magmatic pulse which melted and heated the crust, forming a broad batholith. As magmatism peaked and began to wane, upper crustal magma chambers started to crystallize, exsolving fluids. These fluids ascended, collected, and fractured their way to the surface, triggering the Fish Canyon Tuff and other eruptions. / text

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy