Load and resistance factor design (LRFD) (often called limit states design (LSD)) has been mandated in the AASHTO Bridge Design Specifications and will be adopted in future editions of Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code for all transportation-related structures including reinforced soil retaining walls. The ultimate objective of this thesis work was to carry out reliability-based analysis for load and resistance factor design calibration for rupture and pullout limit states for steel and geosynthetic reinforced soil walls under self-weight and permanent surcharge loading conditions. In order to meet this objective it was necessary to generate large databases of measured load and resistance data from many sources and in some cases to propose new design models that improve the accuracy of underlying deterministic load and resistance models. Numerical models were also developed to model reinforced soil wall performance. These models were used to investigate load prediction accuracy of current analytical reinforcement load models. An important feature of the calibration method adopted in this study is the use of bias statistics to account for prediction accuracy of the underlying deterministic models for load and resistance calculations, random variability in input parameter values, spatial variation and quality of data. In this thesis, bias is defined as the ratio of measured to predicted value. The most important end product of the work described in this thesis is tabulated resistance factors for rupture and pullout limit states for the internal stability of steel and geosynthetic reinforced soil walls. These factors are developed for geosynthetic reinforced soil wall design using the current AASHTO Simplified Method, a new modified Simplified Method, and the recently proposed K-Stiffness Method. Useful quantitative comparisons are made between these three methods by introducing the concept of computed operational factors of safety. This allows designers to quantify the actual margin of safety using different design approaches. The thesis format is paper-based. Ten of the chapters are comprised of journal papers that have been published (2), are in press (2), in review (3) and the remaining (3) to be submitted once the earlier background papers are accepted. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-28 18:07:22.284

A series of experiments and finite-element simulations were performed in order to assess existing void coalescence criteria and propose a new model for the coalescence of cylindrical holes in a pure metal matrix during uniaxial stretching. The finite-element simulations were performed so that various plastic limit-load models could be evaluated at each strain increment during deformation, rendering predictions concerning the farfield strains required for coalescence. The experiments were performed in order to identify the actual far-field strain at the moment of incipient coalescence for the specimen geometries considered. The cylindrical-void models of Thomason (1990) and McClintock (1966) outperformed all of the other considered models in their original states. A modified form of the Ragab (2004) plastic limit-load model is proposed in the present work and is shown to have good agreement with the experimental results. The present model accounts for ligament work-hardening and ligament orientation.

No description available.

Partial exchangeability is the fundamental building block in the subjective approach to the probability of multi-type sequences which replaces the independence concept of the objective theory. The aim of this thesis is to present some theory for partially exchangeable sequences of random variables based on well-known results for exchangeable sequences. The reader is introduced to the concepts of partially exchangeable events, partially exchangeable sequences of random variables and partially exchangeable o-fields, followed by some properties of partially exchangeable sequences of random variables. Extending de Finetti's representation theorem for exchangeable random variables to hold for multi-type sequences, we obtain the following result to be used throughout the thesis: There exists a o-field, conditional upon which, an infinite partially exchangeable sequence of random variables behaves like an independent sequence of random variables, identically distributed within types. Posing (i) a stronger requirement (spherical symmetry) and (ii) a weaker requirement (the selection property) than partial exchangeability on the infinite multi-type sequence of random variables, we obtain results related to de Finetti's representation theorem for partially exchangeable sequences of random variables. Regarding partially exchangeable sequences as mixtures of independent and identically distributed (within types) sequences, we (i) give three possible expressions for the directed random measures of the partially exchangeable sequence and (ii) look at three possible expressions for the o-field mentioned in de Finetti's representation theorem. By manipulating random measures and using de Finetti's representation theorem, we point out some concrete ways of constructing partially exchangeable sequences. The main result of this thesis follows by extending de Finetti's represen. tation theorem in conjunction with the Chatterji principle to obtain the following result: Given any a.s. limit theorem for multi-type sequences of independent random variables, identically distributed within types, there exists an analogous theorem satisfied by all partially exchangeable sequences and by all sub-subsequences of some subsequence of an arbitrary dependent infinite multi-type sequence of random variables, tightly distributed within types. We finally give some limit theorems for partially exchangeable sequences of random variables, some of which follow from the above mentioned result. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

No description available.

Darbe pateikta funkcijų tyrimo apžvalga, svarbiausi žinomi rezultatai, suformuluota problema. Pagrindinė ribinė teorema įrodoma, taikant tikimybinius metodus, analizinių funkcijų savybes, aproksimavimo absoliučiai konvertuojančiu integralu principą. / The main limit theorem is proved using probabilistic methods, the analytical functions of the properties.

The increasing demand for powerful miniaturized products for all industrial applications has prompted the industry to develop new and innovative manufacturing processes to fabricate miniature parts. One of the major challenges facing the industry is the dynamic market which requires continuous improvements in design and fabrication techniques. This means providing products with complex features while sustaining high functionality. As a result, microfabrication has gained a wide interest as the technology of the future, where tabletop machine systems exist. Microforming processes have the capability of achieving mass production while minimizing material waste. Microforming techniques can produce net-shape products with intricacy in fewer steps than most conventional microfabrication processes. Despite the potential advantages, the industrial utilization of microforming technology is limited. The deformation and failure modes of materials during microforming is not yet well understood and varies significantly from the behavior of materials in conventional forming operations. In order to advance the microforming technology and enable the effective fabrication of microparts, more studies on the deformation and failure of materials during microforming are needed. In this research work, an effort to advance the current status of microforming processes for technologies of modern day essentials, is presented. The main contribution from this research is the development of a novel method for characterizing thin sheet formability by introducing a micro-mechanical bulge-forming setup. Various aspects of analyzing microscale formability, in the form of limiting strains and applied forces, along with addressing the well known size effects on miniaturization, were considered through the newly developed method. A high temperature testing method of microformed thin sheets was also developed. The aim of high temperature microforming is to study the material behavior of microformed thin sheets at elevated temperatures and to explore the capability of the known enhancement in formability at the macroscale level. The focus of this work was to develop a better understanding of tool-sheet metal interactions in microforming applications. This new knowledge would provide a predictive capability that will eliminate the current time-consuming and empirical techniques that, and this in turn would be expected to significantly lower the overall manufacturing cost and improve product quality.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors are advantageous to other techniques of sensing chemical binding, offering quantitative, real-time, label-free results. Previous work has demonstrated the effectiveness of using dual-mode SPR sensors to differentiate between surface and background effects, making the sensors more robust to dynamic environments. This work demonstrates a technique that improves upon a previously optimized planar film dual-mode SPR sensor’s LOD by introducing a periodic array of subwavelength nano-gaps throughout the plasmon supporting material. First, general figures of merit for a sensor having an arbitrary number of modes are studied. Next, the mode effective index dispersion and magnetic field profiles of the two strongly bound modes found using a gap width of 20nm are analyzed. Qualitative analysis of the results demonstrates how such a design can enable better LODs in terms of each figure of merit. By optimizing a nano-gap enhanced sensor containing 20nm gaps, it is quantitatively demonstrated that the resulting modes improve upon almost every figure of merit, especially with respect to the orthogonality and magnitude of the sensitivity vectors, resulting in LODs approximately a factor of five less than the optimal planar design.

Surface plasmons are bound TM polarized electromagnetic waves that propagate along the interface of two materials with real dielectric constants of opposite signs. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors make use of the surface plasmon waves to detect refractive index changes occurring near this interface. For sensing purposes, this interface typically consists of a metal layer, usually gold or silver, and a liquid dielectric. SPR sensors usually measure the shift in resonance wavelength or resonance angle due to index changes adjacent to the metal layer. However this restricts the limit of detection (LOD), as the regions of low slope (intensity vs. wavelength or angle) in the SPR curve contain little information about the resonance. This work presents the technique of tunable laser interrogation of SPR sensors. A semiconductor laser with a typical lasing wavelength of 650nm was used. A 45nm gold layer sputtered on a BK7 glass substrate served as the sensor. The laser wavelength is tuned to always operate in the region of highest slope by using a custom-designed LabVIEW program. It is shown that the sensitivity is maximized and LOD is minimized by operating around the region of high slope on the SPR curve.

We take a Student process that is based on independent copies of a random variable X and has trajectories in the function space D[0,1]. As a consequence of a functional central limit theorem for this process, with X in the domain of attraction of the normal law, we consider convergence in distribution of several functionals of this process and derive respective asymptotic confidence intervals for the mean of X. We explore the expected lengths and finite-sample coverage probabilities of these confidence intervals and the one obtained from the asymptotic normality of the Student t-statistic, thus concluding some alternatives to the latter confidence interval that are shorter and/or have at least as high coverage probabilities.