Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Robert J. Peterman / This thesis details findings from testing done to determine bond and time-dependent characteristics of two lightweight concrete mixes. The lightweight mixes were tested to possibly provide a more cost-effective solution to replacing some of Kansas’ older bridges. Testing included use of a conventional lightweight mix and a self-consolidating lightweight mix. Sixteen Inverted T-beams were cast at a prestress plant to determine prestress losses that had occurred in the two lightweight mixes. These losses were compared to ACI, PCI, and AASHTO code equations. Creep and shrinkage prisms were also cast and measured to accurately determine creep and shrinkage variables for the two lightweight mixes. Twelve flexural beams were also cast at the prestress plant and tested at Kansas State University’s Civil Engineering Structures Laboratory to experimentally test development lengths of the lightweight mixes and to compare results with ACI code equations. This study found compressive strengths of the lightweight concrete mixes varied greatly from laboratory testing. Low concrete strengths caused the prestress losses to be greater than the predicted code values. Flexure beam testing showed several of the beams were subject to strand slip, causing a sudden violent failure.

Concrete structures can prematurely deteriorate due to the corrosion of reinforcing steel. Corrosion can occur through chloride ingress due to exposure to aggressive media such as seawater and deicing salts. Corrosion causes over $100 billion in damage annually. There are many corrosion mitigation techniques on the market today; these techniques have limited effectiveness as demonstrated by the fact that billions of dollars are still being expended each year due to corrosion-related damage. Therefore, there is a need for innovative approaches to corrosion prevention. This research program used cinnamaldehyde (CA), a bioactive agent derived from cinnamon bark, as a method for corrosion mitigation. Although CA can prevent the corrosion of metals, its hydrophobicity has a negative effect on hydration when incorporated in cementitious systems. In order to avoid these negative consequences while harnessing the anti-corrosive properties, CA was incorporated in a cementitious mixture through the use of lightweight aggregate (LWA). Several tests were carried out to investigate the potential chemical and mechanical effects due to the addition of LWA pre-wet with CA. Promising results were observed, in which the time to corrosion was prolonged by 91 %.

A lightweight chassis for a battery electric vehicle being developed at the University of Waikato was required. The chassis was designed around a predetermined body shape and suspension setup. A chassis, built from 20mm thick aluminium honeycomb sandwich panel, was designed and built to LVVTA standards allowing the car to be driven on public roads. The chassis weighs a little over a third the mass of a mass production car chassis. The car has been driven over 1800km with only one minor problem, indicating the chassis is reliable and well suited to its purpose. Titanium aluminide properties were researched to identify where titanium aluminides could be used in an automobile. Titanium aluminides have a specific strength and stiffness near to steel yet only half the density making it an ideal replacement for steel components. Automotive applications identified that could benefit from the use of TiAl include valves, brake rotors and inside 'in-wheel' electric motors.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Satellite-based communication system can provide access to voice, data, video and internet transmission that is independent of terrestrial infrastructure. This is particularly important in disaster response situations and military maneuvers where mobile personnel need to maintain direct contact with each other and the central control. One of the factors that currently limits the effectiveness and practicality of these systems is portability. These systems require lightweight equipment that can be quickly and easily deployed and operated in a variety of environments. Parabolic dish antennas are the only antennas capable of providing the high gain required for direct satellite communication but their size and weight severely limit their portability and hence their use for portable direct satellite communication. Inflatable structures have been used in the space environment to overcome the limitations of launch vehicle size and weight restrictions. They are constru cted from thin film, or gossamer materials, and use internal pressure to maintain their shape. Inflatable structures are lightweight, have a low stowed volume and a high packing efficiency. It is proposed that this type of structure can be used to produce an inflatable parabolic dish antenna that can operate under terrestrial conditions to overcome the limits on portability for land-based communication. This thesis presents a design for a parabolic dish antenna and conical feed horn constructed entirely from polyester thin film. To further reduce the weight and stowed volume of the antenna the conical horn is fed by a microstrip patch. The performance of the components and their ability to operate under terrestrial conditions are assessed by comparing the results to those of an identical rigid system.

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Kahn, Lawrence; Committee Member: Castrodale, Reid; Committee Member: Kurtis, Kimberly.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-155).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-131).

Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.) / Guided airdrop systems lacking propulsion may be adversely affected by high winds. Strong winds encountered during Draper Laboratory flight testing prevented lightweight parafoil systems from landing accurately. This thesis introduces and compares multiple guidance strategies designed to address high wind scenarios in cases of differing wind knowledge fidelity. The algorithms presented significantly improve performance in high tailwind and shifting wind scenarios without compromising miss accuracy in standard wind conditions. This adds additional capability to parafoil guidance by substantially increasing the conditions under which accurate landings are possible.

This study critically investigates the material and structural behaviour of Aer-Tech material. Aer- Tech material is composed of 10% by volume of foam mechanically entrapped in a plastic mortar. The research study showed that the density of the material mix controls all other properties such as fresh state properties, mechanical properties, functional properties and acoustic properties. Appreciably, the research had confirmed that Aer-Tech material despite being classified as a light weight material had given high compressive strength of about 33.91N/mm2. The compressive strength characteristics of Aer-Tech material make the material a potential cost effective construction material, comparable to conventional concrete. The material also showed through this study that it is a structural effective material with its singly reinforced beam giving ultimate moment of about 38.7KN. In addition, the Aer-Tech material is seen as a very good ductile material since, the singly reinforced beam in tension showed visible signs of diagonal vertical cracks long before impending rapture. Consequently, the SEM test and the neural network model predictions, carried out had showed how billions of closely tight air cells are evenly distributed within the Aer-Tech void system as well as the close prediction of NN model for compressive strength and density are same with the experimental results of compressive strength and density. The result shows that the Aer-Tech NN-model can simulate inputs data and predicts their corresponding output data.