The aim of this thesis is a method selection and design of measuring device for experimental identification of directional tire characteristics for passenger cars. The first part analyse directional characteristic and method of measurement. The next part focuses on the design of the measuring trailer and selecting measuring equipment with description.

The wheel-rail contact mechanics and dynamics that are of great importance to the railroad industry are evaluated by applying statistical methods to the large volume of data that is collected on the VT-FRA state-of-the-art roller rig. The intent is to use the statistical principles to highlight the relative importance of various factors that exist in practice to longitudinal and lateral tractions and to develop parametric models that can be used for predicting traction in conditions beyond those tested on the rig. The experiment-based models are intended to be an alternative to the classical traction-creepage models that have been available for decades. Various experiments are conducted in different settings on the VT-FRA Roller Rig at the Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety at Virginia Tech to study the relationship between the traction forces and the wheel-rail contact variables. The experimental data is used to entertain parametric and non-parametric statistical models that efficiently capture this relationship. The study starts with single regression models and investigates the main effects of wheel load, creepage, and the angle of attack on the longitudinal and lateral traction forces. The assumptions of the classical linear regression model are carefully assessed and, in the case of non-linearities, different transformations are applied to the explanatory variables to find the closest functional form that captures the relationship between the response and the explanatory variables. The analysis is then extended to multiple models in which interaction among the explanatory variables is evaluated using model selection approaches. The developed models are then compared with their non-parametric counterparts, such as support vector regression, in terms of "goodness of fit," out-of-sample performance, and the distribution of predictions. / Master of Science / The interaction between the wheel and rail plays an important role in the dynamic behavior of railway vehicles. The wheel-rail contact has been extensively studied through analytical models, and measuring the contact forces is among the most important outcomes of such models. However, these models typically fall short when it comes to addressing the practical problems at hand. With the development of a high-precision test rig—called the VT-FRA Roller Rig, at the Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety (CVeSS)—there is an increased opportunity to tackle the same problems from an entirely different perspective, i.e. through statistical modeling of experimental data. Various experiments are conducted in different settings that represent railroad operating conditions on the VT-FRA Roller Rig, in order to study the relationship between wheel-rail traction and the variables affecting such forces. The experimental data is used to develop parametric and non-parametric statistical models that efficiently capture this relationship. The study starts with single regression models and investigates the main effects of wheel load, creepage, and the angle of attack on the longitudinal and lateral traction forces. The analysis is then extended to multiple models, and the existence of interactions among the explanatory variables is examined using model selection approaches. The developed models are then compared with their non-parametric counterparts, such as support vector regression, in terms of "goodness of fit," out-of-sample performance, and the distribution of the predictions. The study develops regression models that are able to accurately explain the relationship between traction forces, wheel load, creepage, and the angle of attack.

[pt] Folhelhos desempenham tanto a função de rocha capeadora, camada de rocha de baixa permeabilidade que contém os hidrocarbonetos no reservatório , quanto de rocha geradora de petróleo em sistemas petrolíferos convencionais. Mais recentemente passaram a ser exploradas como reservatórios não convencionais. As suas propriedades mecânicas são importantes na determinação da estabilidade estrutural de poços e na avaliação da fraturabilidade de reservatórios não convencionais. Além disso, permitem a conexão entre os dados de prospecção de petróleo e as características geoquímicas da rocha geradora. Nesta tese, as propriedades nanomecânicas de amostras de folhelho Irati, provenientes da Bacia do Paraná, foram caracterizadas por microscopia de força atômica e nanoindentação em conjunto com microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Procedimentos de processamento de imagens foram desenvolvidos para construir imagens de propriedades tribomecânicas dos minerais e da matéria orgânica presentes na superfície. A identificação mineralógica realizada no microscópio eletrônico permitiu associar o contraste verificado nas imagens obtidas no microscópio de força atômica às propriedades tribomecânicas dos minerais e matéria orgânica. Esses constituintes do folhelho também foram caracterizados por nanoindentação para permitir a medida de duas propriedades mecânicas por um método independente. Por fim, um conjunto de nanoindentações aleatoriamente distribuídas na superfície foi executada em uma amostra da mesma região, sendo o resultado estatisticamente analisado para permitir a comparação com as propriedades macroscópicas. / [en] Shales perform both the cap rock, low permeability rock layer that restrain hydrocarbons in the reservoir, and petroleum source rock in conventional petroleum systems. More recently they have been exploited as unconventional reservoirs. Their mechanical properties are important in determining the structural stability of wells and in evaluating the fracability of unconventional reservoirs. In addition, they allow the connection between oil prospecting data and the geochemical characteristics of the source rock. In this thesis, the nanomechanical properties of Irati shale samples from the Paraná Basin were characterized by atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation together with scanning electron microscopy. Image processing procedures were developed to construct images of tribomechanical properties of minerals and organic matter present on the surface. The mineralogical identification performed by electron microscopes allowed to associate the contrast found in the images obtained with the atomic force microscope to the tribomechanical properties of minerals and organic matter. These shale constituents were also characterized by nanoindentation to allow the measurement of two mechanical properties by an independent method. Finally, a set of randomly distributed nanoindentations on the surface was performed on a sample from the same region, and the result was statistically analyzed to allow comparison with macroscopic properties.

Organic semiconductors show promise to yield a novel class of bendable electronic devices, and much research efforts have focused on the optimization of these films for device performance. It is well known that the structure of organic films has a large influence over the electronic properties. In particular, the carrier mobility is often highly anisotropic, and domain boundaries have a detrimental effect on charge transport. Therefore the domain structure and lattice orientation are of particular interest. However, little is known about the domain structure of organic films, and techniques to study these properties have only begun to emerge in recent years. In this thesis, we apply two experimental techniques, Grazing-Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXD) and Lateral Force Microscopy (LFM), toward studying the lattice and domain structure of tetracene films grown on the silicon(001)-monohydride surface. We describe the necessary steps toward optimizing the sensitivity of these techniques to the domain structure. Results show that the crystalline tetracene films form a layered morphology in which the a-b plane lies parallel to the substrate surface. The film lattice structure is similar to bulk tetracene, and the lattice is confined to two orthogonal orientations, forming a partially-commensurate relationship with the substrate surface lattice along the film 'a' axis. LFM images reveal two types of polycrystalline domains. The first type ("major domains") are tens of microns in size, and are classified by their lattice orientation. They are subdivided into the second type ("sub-domains"), which range from 0.1 to 5um in size, and are argued to represent regions of uniform molecular tilt direction. The GIXD data show that the single-crystal domains which comprise these two larger domain types are anisotropic in size, being up to two times longer along the film 'b' axis than along 'a'. The single-crystal domains range from 0.05 to 0.2um in size, depending on lattice orientation and film thickness. The mathematical basis for these single-crystal domain size calculations is presented. The single-crystal domain sizes are thickness-dependent, and are two orders of magnitude smaller than a typical surface island observed in atomic-force microscopy (AFM) topographs. Substrate steps can also significantly influence the film structure by inducing boundaries in the single-crystal domains and sub-domains, but not in the major domains. This detailed knowledge of the domain structure of organic thin-films may assist in our understanding of the factors which affect charge transport in thin films, and may help to direct research efforts in optimizing the film structure for device performance. / Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT).