The exploitation of sandwich structures as a means toachieve high specific strength and stiffness is relatively new.Therefore, the knowledge of its damage tolerance is limitedcompared to other structural concepts such as truss bars andmonocoque plate solutions. Several aspects of the damage tolerance of sandwichstructures are investigated. The influence of impact velocityonresidual strength is investigated. Sandwich panels withfaces of glass fiber reinforced vinylester are impacted bothwith very high velocity and quasi static. The residual strengthafter impact is found to be similar for both cases of impactvelocity. Curved sandwich beams subjected to opening bending momentare studied. Faceñcore debonds of varying size areintroduced between the compressively loaded face sheet and thecore. Finite element analysis in combination with a pointstress criterion is utilized to predict the residual strengthof the beams. It is shown that it is possible to predict thefailure load of the beams with face-core debond. Using fractography the governing mode of failure ofcompressively NCF-carbon is characterized. Sandwich panelssubjected to compression after impact are shown to fail byplastic micro buckling. The residual compressive strength after impact of sandwichpanels is investigated. Sandwich panels with face sheets ofnon-crimp fabric (NCF) carbon are subjected to different typesof impact damages. Predictions of residual strength are madeusing the Budiansky, Soutis, Fleck (BSF) model. The residualstrength is tested, and the results are compared topredictions. Predictions and tests correlate well, and indicatethat the residual strength is dependent on damage size and notthe size of the damaged panel. A study of the properties of a selection of fiberreinforcements commonly used in sandwich panels is conducted.The reinforcements are combined with two types of core materialand three types of matrix. Also the influence of laminatethickness is tested. Each combination materials is tested inuni-axial compression, compressive strength after impact andenergy absorption during quasi static indentation. Thespecimens which are tested for residual strength are eithersubjected to quasi-static or dynamic impact of comparableenergy level. Prediction of the residual strength is made andcorrelates reasonably whith the test results. The tests showthat if weight is taken into account the preferred choice offiber reinforcement is carbon.

Impact waves are used in many different industries and are classified according to whether they cause plastic or elastic deformations. In the plastic deformation mode, these waves can be used to produce special electrical joints. In the elastic deformation mode, they can be used to detect leakage or to measure the thickness of pipes. Both modes have applications in offshore technology. In this thesis the application of impact waves in the plastic deformation mode and explosive welding are discussed. In the explosive welding (EXW) process a high velocity oblique impact produced by a carefully controlled explosion occurs between two or more metals. The high velocity impact causes the metals to behave like fluids temporarily and weld together. This process occurs in a short time with a high rate of energy. EXW is a well known method for joining different metals together. It is a multidisciplinary research area and covers a wide range of science and technology areas including wave theory, fluid dynamics, materials science, manufacturing and modeling. Many of the important results in EXW research are obtained from experimentation. This thesis is mainly based on experimental work. However, it begins with a review of the fundamental theory and mechanisms of explosive welding and the different steps of a successful welding operation. Many different EXW tests are done on horizontal and vertical surfaces with unequal surface areas, and on curved surfaces and pipes. The remainder of the thesis evaluates the results of these experiments, measures the main parameters, and shows the results of simulations to verify the experimental results. The thesis ends with a number of suggestions for improving and optimizing the EXW process. One of these improvements is a model for joining metallic plates with unequal surface areas. An Al-Cu joint based on this model is used in the ALMAHDI aluminum factory, a large company in southern Iran that produces more than 200,000 tons of aluminum per year. Improved methods are also suggested for joining curved surfaces. These methods may have extensive applications in pipelines in oil and gas industries, especially in underwater pipes. / Impact vågor används i många olika branscher och klassificeras enligt de deformationer de orsakat: elastiska och plastiska deformationer. I plastisk deformation mode, dessa vågor skulle kunna användas för att framställa särskild elektrisk lederna. I deformationen läge, de skulle kunna användas för att upptäcka läckage eller mäta tjockleken på rören. Båda har tillämpningar inom offshore-teknik. I denna avhandling tillämpningen av effekterna vågor i plastisk deformation mode och explosiva svetsning diskuteras. I den explosiva svetsning (EXW) process hög hastighet sned effekt som produceras av en noggrant kontrollerad explosion uppstår mellan två eller flera metaller. Den höga hastigheten effekt gör att metaller gå ihop samtidigt som beter sig som vätskor. Denna process sker i en kort tid med hög energi. EXW är en känd metod för att gå med olika metaller tillsammans. Det är ett tvärvetenskapligt forskningsområde och omfattar ett brett spektrum av naturvetenskap och teknik, inklusive våg teori, vätskor dynamik, materialvetenskap, tillverkning och modellering. Många av de viktiga resultat i EXW forskning har erhållits från experiment. Denna uppsats bygger främst på experimentella verk. Det kommer dock att börja med en genomgång av grundläggande teori och mekanism av explosiva svetsning och de olika stegen i en lyckad welding operation. Då många olika EXW tester göras på horisontella och vertikala ytor med icke lika ytor och på krökta ytor och ledningar. Utvärdering av resultaten, som mäter de viktigaste parametrarna, som utför vissa simuleringar för att verifiera experimentella resultat och några förslag för att förbättra och optimera EXW process utgör de andra delarna av uppsatsen. En av dessa förbättringar är en modell för att gå med metalliska plattor med icke-lika ytor. En Al-Cu gemensamt bygger på denna modell används i ALMAHDI aluminium fabrik, ett stort företag i södra Iran att produktionen är mer än 200000 ton per år. Dessutom en del andra förbättrade metoder föreslås för att gå med krökta ytor. Dessa metoder kan få omfattande tillämpningar inom olje-och gasindustrin som rörledningar, särskilt under rören.

Background: Among young women vary the presence of urinary leakage between 28-80% depending on the study and the sport practiced. Poor support in the upper part of the urethra and urinary bladder base is considered the common cause of stress urinary incontinence. Supports are given by the pelvic floor muscles and the key muscles to prevent incontinence. Urinary leakage occurs more frequent in women who engaged in sports that provide a high abdominal pressure. Pelvic floor training is considered to be an effective and safe method to treat stress urinary incontinence and is recommended in the literature as the first treatment action. Aim: To examine young active women's experience of urinary incontinence affects their lives. Method: A qualitative design with tape-recorded interviews and semi-structured open questions were used as data collection method. A strategic selection was made. Six young active elite sportswomen interviewed. A qualitative content analysis was conducted. Results: Four categories were identified: manageable, social limitations, emotional and communication. Main findings shows that young women do not talk about urinary leakage as a problem, they have different ways to cope. Women experience a fear of urinary leakage shall be affected without prior notice and to lose control. The risk of urinary leakage gives concentration difficulties in training. The study shows a great lack of information. Weighted understanding: Among young women, there may be a risk that they are more affected by urinary leakage than middle-aged and older women, in terms of their experience of urinary leakage and leak impact on their lives. This in view of the ideals which today makes high demands and is difficult to live up to. Women get often their first information on the basin floor exercise to prevent urinary leakage at childbirth. This information should take place earlier. / Bakgrund: Hos unga elitidrottare varierar förekomsten av urinläckage mellan 28-80 % beroende på studie och vilken sport som utövas. Dåligt stöd i övre delen av urinröret och urinblåsans botten anses vara den valigaste orsaken till ansträngningsinkontinens. Stödet ges av bäckenbottenmuskulaturen och dess viktiga muskler för att förhindra inkontinens. Urinläckage förekommer oftare hos kvinnor som utövar sporter som ger ett högt buktryck. Bäckenbottenträning anses vara en effektiv och säker metod för att behandla ansträngningsinkontinens och rekommenderas i litteraturen som första behandlingsåtgärd. Syfte: Att undersöka yngre aktiva idrottande kvinnors upplevelse av om urininkontinens påverkar deras livssituation. Metod: En kvalitativ metod med bandade intervjuer och halvstrukturerade öppna frågor användes som datainsamlingsmetod. Ett strategiskt urval gjordes. Sex yngre kvinnliga aktiva elitidrottare intervjuades. En kvalitativ innehålls analys utfördes. Resultat: Fyra kategorier identifierades: Hanterbarhet, sociala begränsningar, Emotionellt och kommunikation. Huvudesultatet visar att yngre kvinnor inte pratar om urinläckage som ett problem, de hade olika sätt att hantera situationen. Kvinnorna upplevde en rädsla för att urinläckage skulle ske utan förvarning och för att tappa kontrollen. Risk för urinläckage gav koncentrationssvårigheter vid träning. Studien visar en stor informationsbrist.  Sammanvägd förståelse: Hos yngre kvinnor kan det finnas en risk för att de påverkas mer av urinläckage än medelålders och äldre kvinnor, när det gäller  upplevelsen av urinläckage och läckagets påverkan på  livssituationen. Detta med tanke på de ideal som idag ställer stora krav och är svåra att leva upp till. Kvinnor får oftast sin första information om bäcken botten träning för att förebygga urinläckage vid barnafödande. Denna information bör ske tidigare.

The impact of sport participation among youth is a widely discussed phenomenon. Researchers argue that sport participation can contribute to both positive and negative impact. The aim of this study is to find out how youth in a disadvantaged community in South Africa experience the social impact of sport. The data were collected through four group interviews with 24 youth (aged 16-20) who participated in three different teams; soccer, basketball and mountainbike. The result indicates that the respondents experienced an overall positive social impact from their sport participation. Six categories were identified as prominent in the result; acquire life skills, building friendship, emotional development, the importance of positive leadership, avoiding drugs and crime and support from the community.

This study concentrates on two questions – “Should banks take environmental concerns?”and “What is the attitude of Swedish banks towards sustainability?” The theory related to environmental concerns in the financial sector is presented and further on the empirical data describing the situation within the Swedish banking sector is discussed. The empirical data was collected with the aid of a semi-structured interview and offers a real-life example of actions and attitudes of two case banks in Sweden – SEB and Handelsbanken. The aim of this paper is not restricted to presenting and discussing the collected theoretical and empirical data but also to involve the reader in the environmental way of thinking. This text is based on the idea that banks are liable for the indirect impact on the environment and need to acknowledge that some borrowers involve in environmentally harmful businesses. The research method used for this study is of a qualitative nature, more precisely it is an exploratory research which aims to explain. The semi-structured interview used to study the attitudes of the chosen Swedish case banks, was composed of two types of questions – closed- and open-ended. Special characteristics of a semi-structured interview are the prompts and probes in its structure. These are the approaches to guide the respondent to reach broader coverage and greater depth in his/her answers. Through the interview results, it became evident that the environmental issues have gained certain visibility within the Swedish banking sector. The given answers pointed towards the impression that maintaining a sound corporate image is the prior concern of a bank and indicated that banking sector in Sweden undergoes external pressure to pursue environmentally friendly activities. It is clear that banks play a major role by financing the continuous damage to our planet, and it is comforting to know the banking sector is undergoing the pressure of becoming more involved in sustainable development. The conclusions and the empirical evidence presented in this study are hoped to give a simplified view on environmental concerns within banking sector.

This survey is a qualitative study about how teachers see on the concept student leverage and what they say about how they in practice work with it. We have chosen to examine the subject from a teacher’s perspective, because almost all investigations and literature, that we have found, discuss student influence from a student’s perspective. That’s why we are interested to examine what teachers think of the subject. We did three focus group interviews with teachers from preschool classes up to class 6. The teachers considered that student influence is when teachers listen to the students' interests and the lesson content then acts about that. Student influence is also that the students may influence the organization of social environment, evaluation and approaches. Evaluation was something the teachers regarded should be done, but they said that they didn’t have time to do it. All teachers expressed that when they work with student influence, it is through class - and pupil ' council. They considered that the students through this might have leverage in both classroom and school. We have come to a result that student effect means that the students should have leverage in both contents and approaches. Student effect is also that the student can have influence in his/hers situation in the school.

No description available.

Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridge piers, RC columns along exterior of buildings or those located in parking garages are designed to support large compressive axial loads but are vulnerable to transverse out-of-plane loadings, such as those arising from impacts or explosions. To address a lack of understanding regarding blast and impact response of RC members and the need for retrofit techniques to address deficiencies in existing structures, a multi-disciplinary team including various institutes of the National Research Council and the University of Ottawa has initiated work towards developing a fibre reinforced polymer composite protection system for RC columns subjected to extreme shocks. This thesis will focus on the impact program of the aforementioned project. An extensive literature review was conducted to gain a better understanding of: impact loading and associated dynamic effects; experimental testing of RC members subjected to impact; experimental testing of axially loaded members; and retrofit methods for the protection of RC under impact loading. Five half-scale RC columns were constructed and tested using a drop-weight impact machine and two additional specimens were tested under static loading. Deflections, strain distributions within the columns, impact loads and reaction loads were measured during the testing of the built RC members. Comparisons of experimental datum were established between members with differing levels of axial load and between a retrofitted and a non-retrofitted member. Single-degree-of-freedom analysis was used to obtain the predicted response of certain columns under impact loading allowing for comparisons with experimental data.

The energy carrier hydrogen is expected to solve some energy challenges. Since its oxidation does not emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), its use does not contribute to climate change, provided that it is derived from clean energy sources. Thermochemical water splitting using a Cu-Cl cycle, linked with a nuclear super-critical water cooled reactor (SCWR), which is being considered as a Generation IV nuclear reactor, is a promising option for hydrogen production. In this thesis, a comparative environmental study is reported of the three-, four- and five-step Cu-Cl thermochemical water splitting cycles with various other hydrogen production methods. The investigation uses life cycle assessment (LCA), which is an analytical tool to identify and quantify environmentally critical phases during the life cycle of a system or a product and/or to evaluate and decrease the overall environmental impact of the system or product. The LCA results for the hydrogen production processes indicate that the four-step Cu-Cl cycle has lower environmental impacts than the three- and five-step Cu-Cl cycles due to its lower thermal energy requirement. Parametric studies show that acidification potentials (APs) and global warming potentials (GWPs) for the four-step Cu-Cl cycle can be reduced from 0.0031 to 0.0028 kg SO2-eq and from 0.63 to 0.55 kg CO2-eq, respectively, if the lifetime of the system increases from 10 to 100 years. Moreover, the comparative study shows that the nuclear-based S-I and the four-step Cu-Cl cycles are the most environmentally benign hydrogen production methods in terms of AP and GWP. GWPs of the S-I and the four-step Cu-Cl cycles are 0.412 and 0.559 kg CO2-eq for reference case which has a lifetime of 60 years. Also, the corresponding APs of these cycles are 0.00241 and 0.00284 kg SO2-eq. It is also found that an increase in hydrogen plant efficiency from 0.36 to 0.65 decreases the GWP from 0.902 to 0.412 kg CO2-eq and the AP from 0.00459 to 0.00209 kg SO2-eq for the four-step Cu-Cl cycle. / UOIT

In Canada, interest in regional strategic environmental assessment as a framework for assessing cumulative environmental effects is growing. Strategic environmental assessment, and in particular regional strategic environmental assessment, is generally regarded as the preferred assessment framework within which to address cumulative effects due to its broad scale of assessment and its focus on influencing future development. However, very little research has been done to confront the challenges, either conceptually or methodologically, in operationalizing strategic environmental assessment at a regional scale and in assessing cumulative environmental effects in this regional and strategic context. This dissertation advances work in this area by defining a conceptual framework and generic methodology for regional strategic environmental assessment that deliberately integrates cumulative effects considerations.<p> The research methodology includes a literature review, framework and case reviews, and three sets of interviews with Canadian and international practitioners, academics, and administrators knowledgeable on strategic environmental assessment and cumulative effects assessment issues. The research results are reported in four manuscripts. The first manuscript presents a typology of current approaches to regional cumulative effects assessment. The second manuscript reviews lessons from recent attempts at regional-scale, strategically-focused environmental analysis in Canada that include an impact assessment component and explicit attention to cumulative environmental effects. The third manuscript presents a structured framework for regional strategic environmental assessment in Canada, and the fourth manuscript discusses conceptual and methodological challenges that accompany the integration of strategic environmental assessment and cumulative effects assessment.<p> Significant findings include that cumulative effects assessment does indeed represent a significant conceptual and methodological challenge in a strategic assessment context and that cumulative effects assessment in this context requires more than simply adding up direct effects. Further, this research indicates that the seminal contribution of regional strategic environmental assessment is to determine the pace and nature of future development in a region, including significant regional environmental thresholds, targets, and limits; and to inform decision makers of the broader, the slower-moving, the farther-reaching, and perhaps the more insidious currents of environmental change. Moving forward, there is a need to further develop and demonstrate approaches to cumulative effects assessment in a strategic context, develop a supportive legislative and regulatory framework for regional strategic environmental assessment in Canada, and define the unique contribution of regional strategic assessment in relation to regional planning and management.