Structural reinforcement layout optimization can be a very useful tool in the preliminary stages of design. In this research, sizing optimization techniques are used to generate results very similar to traditional layout optimization techniques with advantages in composite modeling and available strength and stability responses. Both linear and nonlinear sizing-to-design variable relationships are applied to a composite advanced sail design problem with high and low-complexity finite element models. An alternate methodology based on fractionalactorial-design and response surface modeling is also presented with promising results for finding the globally optimum reinforcement layout design. The stiffener layouts obtained from the different approaches are used to define an improved stiffener layout for sizing optimization for minimum weight. A weight savings of more than 19% is obtained over a baseline model using these methodologies.

No / In this paper, the seasonal variations of vertical refractivity gradients and statistics of anomalous Refractive Conditions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been analyzed. Nine years of local radiosonde meteorological data, from 1997 to 2005, for the lowest atmospheric layer above the ground surface have been used. Monthly variations and cumulative distributions of refractivity gradients in the first 100 meters of the atmosphere are presented.

<p> The last major episode of deformation occurred in the area studied during the Grenville orogeny (~1000 Ma ago). Deformation of this zone is characterized by a northeast trending penetrative foliation and southeast plunging mineral lineation which increase in intensity and decrease in inclination from northwest to southeast. The deformation was imposed during reverse fault movement in which the southeastern block (the Grenville province) was vertically displaced on the order of 20 kilometers above the adjacent block (the Southern province). The Killarney belt of granites, which separate the Grenville province from the Southern province in this area, are intrusive into the Huronian metasediments and predate the Grenville orogeny. These granites also show evidence of Grenvillian deformation. </p> <p> Paleopiezometry has shown that the differential stress during deformation increases from less than 1 Kbar to more than 6 Kbar from southeast to northwest. The microstructural strain features in quartz and felspar and the mineralogy indicate that a temperature change o£ 400 C is associated with this change in differential stress. Kinematic analysis of mylonites supports the reverse fault model o£ the Grenville Front. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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