The aim of this study is to develop a combined experimental and analytical framework for accelerated lifetime estimates of semi-crystalline plastic pipes which is sensitive to changes in structure, orientation, and morphology introduced by processing conditions. To accomplish this task, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is chosen as the exemplary base material. As a new accelerated test protocol, several characterization tests were planned and conducted on as-manufactured HDPE pipe segments. Custom fixtures are designed and developed to admit uniaxial characterization tests. The yield behavior of the material was modeled using two hydrostatic pressure modified Eyring equations in parallel to describe the characterization test data collected in axial tension and compression. Subsequently, creep rupture failure of the pipes under hydrostatic pressure is predicted using the model. The model predictions are validated using the experimental creep rupture failure data collected from internal pressurization of pipes using a custom-designed, fully automatic test system. The results indicate that the method allows the prediction of pipe service lifetimes in excess of 50 years using experiments conducted over approximately 10 days instead of the traditional 13 months. The analytical model is joined with a commercial finite element package to allow simulations including different thermal-mechanical loading conditions as well as complicated geometries. The numerical model is validated using the characterization test data at different temperatures and deformation rates. The results suggest that the long-term performance of the pipe is dominated by the plastic behavior of the material and its viscoelastic response is found to play an insignificant role in this manner. Because of the potential role of residual stresses on the long-term behavior, the residual stress across the wall thickness is measured for three geometrically different HDPE pipes. As expected, the magnitude of tensile and compressive residual stresses are found to be greater in pipes with thicker walls. The effect of the residual stress on the long-term performance of the pipes is investigated by including the residual stress measurements into the numerical simulations. The residual stress slightly accelerates the failure process; however, for the pipe geometries examined, this acceleration is insignificant. / Doctor of Philosophy / The use of plastic pipes to carry liquids and gases has greatly increased in recent decades, primarily because of their moderate costs, long service lifetimes, and corrosion resistance compared with materials such as corrugated steel and ductile iron. Before these pipes can be effectively used, however, designers need the capability to quickly predict the service lifetime so that they can choose the best plastic material and pipe design for a specific application. This capability also allows manufacturers to modify materials to improve performance. The aim of this study is to develop a combination of experiments and models to quickly predict the service lifetime of plastic pipes. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) was chosen as the plastic material on which the model was developed. Several characterization tests are planned and conducted on as-manufactured HDPE pipe segments. The yielding behavior of the material is modeled and the lifetime predictions are evaluated. The predictions are validated by experimental data captured during pipe burst tests conducted in the lab. The results indicate that the method allows the accurate prediction of pipe service lifetimes in excess of 50 years using experiments conducted over approximately 10 days instead of the traditional 13 months, resulting in significant savings in time (and consequently costs) and making it possible to introduce new materials into production more rapidly.

The terminal ligand in [(Ph₂phen)₂Ru(dpp)RhCl₂(TL)](PF₆)₃ (Ph2phen = 4,7-diphenyl1,10-phenanthroline; dpp = 2,3-bis(2-pyridyl)pyrazine; TL = terminal ligand – a 4,4′-disubstituted-2,2′-bipyridine where the substituent was carbomethoxy (dcmbpy), hydrogen (bpy) or methyl (Me₂bpy)). The electron-withdrawing ability of the substituent was shown to increase the rate of chloride loss upon electrochemical reduction, facilitating catalytic water reduction. The electronic properties of the terminal ligand also impact the photophysical properties of the molecule. The excited state lifetime of the complex with a dcmbpy terminal ligand was 93 ns while the excited state lifetimes of the complexes with a bpy or Me₂bpy terminal ligand were 44 ns and 47 ns, respectively. Ligand substitution was shown to influence the photocatalytic water reduction activity of these complexes with the dcmbpy complex producing approximately twice the amount of hydrogen (62 ± 7 turnovers in 20 h) as the other two complexes. / Master of Science

The ability to handle and process data for information extraction is getting more and more important. Using extracted data from the business to improve productivity is seen as an important part in developing the business processes. In this thesis, industrial robots and their survival times are analyzed. The work is about predicting the probability that a specific robot will fail during a specified time period. Also, survival analysis is conducted where the median lifetime and conditional median lifetime for industrial robots are estimated. Two approaches are used, logistic regression and survival analysis. A logistic regression model is made to predict the probability for different industrial robots to break during a specified time period. The logistic model achieves an accuracy of 0.694 with even higher accuracy regarding high – and low risk robots. The survival analysis uses a Cox PH model to check validity for proportional hazards and then a parametric model with Weibull distribution is fitted. The parametrical survival model is used to estimate the median lifetime and the remaining median lifetime for the robots. The estimated probabilities and lifetimes can be used as an indication of which robots are in risk of failure.

This work presents a summary of experimental data and theoretical models that characterize the temperature-dependent behavior of key carrier-transport parameters in silicon down to cryogenic temperatures. In extreme environment applications such as space-based electronics, accurate models of carrier recombination, carrier mobility, and incomplete ionization of dopants form a necessary foundation for the development of reliable high-performance devices and circuits. Not only do these models have a wide impact on the simulated DC and AC performance of devices, but they also play a critical role in predicting the behavior of important phenomena such as single event upset in digital logic circuits. With this motivation, an overview is given of SRH recombination theory, addressing in particular the dependence of recombination lifetime on temperature and injection level. Carrier lifetime measurement methods are reviewed, and experiments to study carrier lifetimes in the substrate of a commercial SiGe BiCMOS process are presented. The experimental data is analyzed and leveraged in order to develop calibrated TCAD-relevant models. Similarly, an overview of low-temperature resistivity in silicon is presented. Modeling of resistivity over temperature is discussed, addressing the prevailing theoretical models for both carrier mobility and incomplete ionization of dopants. Experimental measurements of the temperature dependence of resistivity in both p-type and n-type silicon are presented, and calibrated TCAD-relevant models for carrier mobility and incomplete ionization are developed. Finally, the ability to integrate these calibrated models within commercial TCAD software is demonstrated. In addition, applications for these accurate temperature-dependent models are discussed, and future directions are outlined for research into cryogenic modeling of fundamental physical parameters.

[pt] Perdendo em média mais de 20 por cento da base de alunos todo semestre, a evasão de alunos no ensino superior privado representa um desafio para a gestão dessas instituições. Diferentes abordagens são utilizadas para combater este problema. Para a gestão de marketing de retenção, a identificação dos alunos é o primeiro passo necessário para aplicar uma estratégia de interação personalizada. Nesse sentido, este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia quantitativa para classificação de risco de evasão de alunos ativos. Baseado em dados históricos de alunos que evadiram ou se formaram, modelos gerados por algoritmos de machine learning foram calculados e comparados e, na sequência, utilizados para classificar alunos ativos. Por fim, estimou-se o lifetime value desses alunos para auxiliar na definição de estratégias de retenção. / [en] Losing more than 20 percent of its students each semester, the student attrition in private graduation courses challenges its institutions management. Different approaches to address this problem have been used. To retention marketing management the identification of students is the first necessary step to apply a personalized interaction strategy. In this sense, this work uses a quantitative methodology to classify its students by risk of attrition. Based in historic data of former students of an institution, models were generated by machine learning algorithms and its results compared. Then they were used to classify active students in the educational institution. Afterwards, their lifetime value were estimated in order to help in the definition of retention strategies.

Theoretical part of this master thesis is focused on the theory of fatigue life. The second part deals with the assesment of static strength the closing flap in front of water turbine. Futher fatigue analysis of the closing flap is performed considering corrosive environment. The aim is to verify the required service lifetime of 50 years.

Wire-grid polarizers (WGPs) offer superior extinction, durability, angle of incidence, and heat resistance when compared to traditional organic polarizers. WGPs are found in applications such as high lumen lighting, laser devices, high lumen digital cinema projectors, LED packaging, and other integrated optical applications and are driving the need for over-coatings. Over-coating a WGP has been found to increase lifetime and durability. This research provides lifetime data on coated and uncoated WGPs. WGPs over-coated with 100nm of SiO2, 300nm of MgF2, and with no over-coating were heated to temperatures of 450 ºC, 500 ºC, and 550 ºC and timed until they reached a predetermined optical failure point. The activation energies were calculated by applying the Arrhenius model to the failure data. WGPs with no over-coating were found to have an activation energy ≥ 1.5329 eV, with silicon dioxide an activation energy ≥ 1.7197 eV, and with magnesium fluoride an activation energy ≥ 2.4577 eV. It has been shown that coating a WGP with an over-coating of silicon dioxide or magnesium fluoride slows the oxidation process of the aluminum nano-wires, thus increasing the lifetime of the WGP by 208% and 27,904%, respectively. Parasitic chemical reactions were not found to exist with silicon dioxide or magnesium fluoride when used as an over-coating.

No description available.

The BEIR V preferred relative risk models and standard life-table techniques are used to project lifetime fatal cancer risk factors for average members of the Canadian population. Uncertainties associated with projections are evaluated for: (1) sampling variation (statistical error), (2) extrapolation of risks to low doses and low dose rates, (3) projection of excess lifetime cancer risks beyond the current periods of human observation in epidemiological studies, (4) the transfer of site-specific excess risk coefficients between populations with differing baseline cancer rates, and (5) the effect of differences in the age and sex distributions among occupations in the Canadian "radiation" workforce. Results are used to assess the applicability of the fatal cancer risk estimates recommended in ICRP publication 60 to the Canadian population. It was found that sampling variation, extrapolating to low doses and dose rates, projecting excess risks beyond current periods of observation, and the uncertainty in how to transfer site-specific excess risks between populations all cause substantial variations in lifetime cancer risk projections. Site-specific cancer risk projections may be expected to vary by factors of 2 to 5, depending on the source of uncertainty. Site-specific differences were found in the fatal cancer risk factors projected for "average" male and female workers among different occupations in the Canadian workforce. Site-specific worker averages differed by as much as a factor 3. Female average risk factors for digestive cancers were substantially higher than male workers, while male average risk factors tended to be higher for leukemia and respiratory cancer. Overall however, the majority of worker risk factors were within 2.5% of the site-specific projections for the workforce as a whole. The ICRP-60 nominal fatal cancer risk estimates, tissue weighting factors, and lifetime risk projections for prolonged radiation exposure were all in good agreement with equivalent values derived in this report for the Canadian population. In view of the uncertainties, the results suggest the ICRP estimated cancer risks are as good as any presently available and supports the use of the ICRP recommended values for the planning and regulation of radiation protection in Canada. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

The purpose of this thesis is to explore differences in lifetime excess cancer risk (LECR) for Canadians from intake of contaminants in food and beverages based on geographic location, gender and income levels. A probabilistic risk assessment approach (Monte Carlo simulation) was used to estimate the range and frequency of possible daily contaminant intakes for Canadians, and associate these intake levels with lifetime excess cancer risk. Monte Carlo risk simulation was applied to estimate probable contaminant intake and associated lifetime excess cancer risk from arsenic, benzene, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and tetrachloroethylene (PERC) in 60 whole foods from the dietary patterns of 34,944 Canadians from 10 provinces, as derived from Health Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.2, Nutrition (2004)1. These results were compared to the current Health Canada guideline that suggests that 10 extra cancers per one million people is a negligible risk. Of the 5 contaminants tested in my model arsenic showed the greatest difference between urban and rural estimated lifetime excess cancer risk, although extra cancers in both rural and urban Canada were predicted from exposure to PCB and benzene. Lifetime excess cancer risk is estimated to be higher for men in Canada for all five contaminants, with an emphasis on males in British Columbia compared to females from the dietary intake of arsenic. When based on income level, my model predicts extra cancers higher for low and middle incomes from dietary exposures to arsenic, benzene, lead and PERC, however, high income populations are more likely to have extra cancers from dietary intake of PCBs. / Graduate