Thesis (MEng) - Swinburne University of Technology, Industrial Research Institute Swinburne - 2007. / A thesis submitted for fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Engineering, Industrial Research Institute, Swinburne University of Technology - 2007. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-193).

Thesis (MTech (Mechanical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], iv, 59 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Graphite bricks make up a significant part of the core of an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR). The graphite moderates the neutrons vital to the continuation of the fission chain reaction and provides support and stability for the entire core. During operation, the graphite can be oxidised due to the extreme conditions inside the core and so undergo weight loss. Differential shrinkage caused by neutron interaction throughout the brick can also cause radial cracking to occur. The effects of the oxidation, weight loss and cracking reduce the ability of the graphite to function as a moderator. The effects also have the potential of reducing the structural integrity of the brick, causing movement and structural instability of the entire core. It is, therefore, vital to monitor the condition of the graphite bricks and to understand how the changes in the graphite's properties and structure may affect the safe operation of the reactor. This report firstly looks briefly at the effect of irradiation on the graphite brick; the mechanisms leading to weight loss and cracking. The report then considers various methods which can be used to inspect the deterioration of graphite blocks within the cores of AGRs deriving quantitative and qualitative information on density and crack profiling. These methods will be considered for use both on small samples trepanned from the core and in-situ blocks within the reactor core, requiring non-destructive techniques. The inspection methods considered in this report are: Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT); Four point probes; Eddy Current Tomography; and Electromagnetic Inductance Tomography (EMT).There are two main contributions of this thesis. First, the development an EIT methodology using outward facing probes, which were best suited to the geometry of the graphite bricks within the AGR. Proof of principle was established using both modelling and laboratory testing. The second contribution is the development of commercial grade EMT equipment, which can be used on-site to determine the conductivity of trepanned samples. The method was successfully demonstrated in the laboratory; however, further development will be required for use on-site, due to the sampling speed required.

Terahertz source technology has been an active area of research for a number of years. This has helped develop continuous wave solid-state sources that are highly desirable in a wide range of applications spanning from Earth science to medical science. However, even with advances in terahertz technology, the generation of fundamental source power at these frequencies is still challenging. Promising electronic solid-state devices fall short in overcoming source power shortage due to electronic breakdown mechanism and fabrication limits at terahertz frequencies. The fundamental physical limitation of photonic devices, such as low photon energy, force cryogenic operation which at times is impractical. Schottky diode frequency multipliers often offer a very practical solution for generating continuous wave radiation based on solid-state technology. This harmonic source technology is today a most certain candidate for many applications where compactness and room temperature operation is desired. However, despite of all the advances in Schottky diode fabrication and their use in frequency multiplication, output power falls rapidly with increasing frequency. Thermal constrains, fabrication limits, assembly errors and parasitic losses all constitute changes that affect the performance of these devices and make it difficult to reproduce experimental data. To overcome these problems and progress towards the generation of milliwatts of power at terahertz frequencies, the study of existing methods to generate and handle high power is necessary. In the first part of the thesis, the design, fabrication and development of two Schottky diode-based frequency doublers is discussed. The work focuses on the generation of high-power sources that are capable of handling higher input powers while maintaining good thermal efficiencies. A detailed study into the machining tolerances, assembly errors and temperature effects are evaluated for the frequency doublers. High frequency effect such as velocity saturation is also addressed. Depending on the design frequency and power handling, two different circuit configurations are employed for the frequency doublers. While the high-power 80/160 GHz frequency doubler used a discrete flip-chip diode configuration, the 160/320 GHz frequency doubler employed an integrated diode membrane to mitigate sensitivity issues encountered during assembly and enable correlation between simulated and measured data. The second part proposes the use of millimeter-wave Schottky diode-based radiometers for imaging of composites samples. The focus of this experiment is the introduction of an alternate EM inspection method with the use of broadband Schottky diode components. This technique combines two different fields {--} non-destructive testing and radiometry, which presents a potentially new and interesting area for research. Since no single method can qualify to be the most accurate for all inspections, and with the future integration bringing down manufacturing costs of high frequency components, this demonstration presents a new approach to consider for future material imaging and evaluation experiments.

The research work focuses on implementing intelligent measurement and diagnostic techniques for the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of aircraft carbon composites. The outcome of this research work developed reliable and faster techniques to aid in the rapid assessment of defects in anisotropic carbon composites by applying ultrasonic and infrared thermography NDE methods. To fulfill the requirement of the intelligent non-destructive evaluation methods, this research is divided into four sub-researches: fuzzy logic based delamination detection, super-resolution image reconstruction for ultrasonic C-scan, ultrasonic 3D reconstruction, and polynomial fitting techniques for infrared thermography inspection. These researches focus on the improvement and optimization of current ultrasonic testing and infrared thermography inspection. They are independent but interrelated component, and they all serve the same goal which is to interpret data correctly and provide detailed information about the region of interests (ROI) for intelligent non-destructive measurement and evaluation. Details of these researches are presented in Chapter 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. For the ultrasonic testing, a fuzzy inference classifier will be used to generate the rule base and knowledge base for different kinds of defects in composites. It will automatically manage large amounts of signal data sets and extract the important information. Data features and NDE expert knowledge are seamlessly combined to provide the best possible diagnosis of the potential defects and problems. As a result, the outcome of this research work will help ensure the integrity and reliability of carbon composites. The C-scan image resolution of ultrasonic testing system was improved by applying super-resolution algorithms to overcome the inherent resolution limitations of the existing ultrasonic system. It greatly improves the image quality and allows for more detailed inspection of the ROI with high resolution, making defect evaluation easier and more accurate. The ultrasonic 3D reconstruction technique will be able to provide NDE inspectors with more detailed information on defect depth, volume, and 3D structure, as well as help them make quick, accurate, and reliable decisions. For the IR inspection, the thermography methods based on the thermal contrast are strongly affected by non-uniform heating which due to the heat source alignment and specimen thickness variation. The proposed polynomial curve fitting and surface fitting techniques were applied to eliminate the non-uniform heating effect by subtracting the estimated non-uniform heating pattern from the corrupted IR images. Mainly, aircraft composite material: carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) panels will be considered for this research work. Based on the preliminary study, delamination defects due to impact damage and foreign object inclusions artificially embedded in CFRP panels were successfully detected by immersion ultrasonic testing (UT) and IRT inspection. Therefore, the next step will be in improving the detection algorithm and developing an intelligent quality inspection technique for NDE testing. Powered with multiple image processing techniques and mathematical algorithms, the research result will provide high resolution images and detailed information about defect areas. In addition, it will also capable of identifying the type, shape, size, and the distribution of defect.

Nowadays, researchers are trying to shrink the memory cell in order to increase the capacity of the memory system and reduce the hardware costs. In recent years, there has been a revolution in electronics by using fundamentals of physics to build a new memory for computer application in order to increase the capacity and decrease the power consumption. Increasing the capacity of the memory causes a growth in the chip area. From 1971 to 2012 semiconductor manufacturing process improved from 6µm to 22 µm. In May 2008, S.Williams stated that "it is time to stop shrinking". In his paper, he declared that the process of shrinking memory element has recently become very slow and it is time to use another alternative in order to create memory elements [9]. In this project, we present a new design of a memory array using the new element named Memristor [3]. Memristor is a two-terminal passive electrical element that relates the charge and magnetic flux to each other. The device remained unknown since 1971 when it was discovered by Chua and introduced as the fourth fundamental passive element like capacitor, inductor and resistor [3]. Memristor has a dynamic resistance and it can retain its previous value even after disconnecting the power supply. Due to this interesting behavior of the Memristor, it can be a good replacement for all of the Non-Volatile Memories (NVMs) in the near future. Combination of this newly introduced element with the nanowire crossbar architecture would be a great structure which is called Crossbar Memristor. Some frameworks have recently been introduced in literature that utilized Memristor crossbar array, but there are many challenges to implement the Memristor crossbar array due to fabrication and device limitations. In this work, we proposed a simple design of Memristor crossbar array architecture which uses input feedback in order to preserve its data after each read operation

Visual inspection is the current method for determining if a wire rope needs to be removed from service. It can be time consuming and inaccurate. The point of this research is to prove that vibration testing could be used on rope to find damage. For this research, capacitive accelerometers were used. A program ran a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) as the main analysis. From the data produced, it was determined that a damaged rope's vibration signature was different from the vibration signature of the undamaged rope. There were four different types of vibrations used: an impulse while measuring the axial response, a harmonic excitation while measuring the axial response and both transverses directions. The impulse did not provide consistent results to adequately find damage with an acceptable degree of confidence. The harmonic excitations did provide results that showed a different signature. This was the case for all three directions measured. As a result, it was determined that vibrations can be used to find damage in a wire rope.

This thesis examines the feasibility of combining Digital Image Correlation (DIC) with laser speckle based methods to form a new hybrid deformation measurement method called Digital Laser Speckle Image Correlation (DilSIC). Consequently, this method does not require any sample preparation and allows for the measurement of displacement of micro structures in addition to large displacements. In this technique, a coherent 30mW-632nm laser beam is expanded with 40X lens and then illuminated on the target surface to produce a fine, homogenous laser speckle pattern. Images were captured before and after deformation due to external load and the whole field displacement and strain were determined by the DIC method. This technique could measure displacement less than 30-μm with high accuracy when a 120mm × 80mm area of the surface was inspected. Up to 10% strain was measured by this technique with high accuracy during the whole range. Eventually the sub-surface crack was located successfully, which is a revolutionary achievement in NDT optical methods. This method was tested in different material, with different roughness. Aluminum sheet and rubber material were used mostly. This method could broaden the capability of displacement measurement and subsurface crack detection in wide range of materials.