Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 308-322.

This thesis is focused on detecting air leakage in serial production of pneumatic linear actuators. Testing for air leakage is an important part of the production process in which the manufacturer ensures that the product satisfies quality requirements and works correctly. The thesis was created in collaboration with the Czech manufacturing plant of SMC Industrial Automation CZ s.r.o., which produces pneumatic actuators. Goal of the design part of the thesis is to select the most effective method for testing and finding universal principle for testing in specified conditions. The principle is then applied to design a testing device for the CQ2 cylinders. The testing device consists of three parts - pneumatic circuit, control circuit and electric circuit. Thesis conclusion contains comparison of the newly designed testing device with the device currently in use.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a basic conception of passenger car chassis part with pneumatic drive (next only pneumobil). The pneumobil was designed mainly from BoschRexroth serial parts. The layout of this vehicle was arranged as dual-track with pneumatic drives with O 80 mm bore and stroke 125 mm. These engines are placed crossways top-down. Next I provided stress-strain analysis of rear bottom vehicle part, where act forces from rear wheels and pneumatic motor. The crucial task of this thesis is to design the chassis frame, choose suitable material and pneumatic motor for most effective usage of compressed air. The final goal is to propose an ideal gear ratio.

This thesis covers the theoretical solution of the compressed air powered vehicle. The first section describes the competition of the compressed air powered vehicles, that is annually held in Hungary, where the idea for such a car design was created. There are also additional descriptions of the construction of the machines from the hungarian competition. In the second section there is a calculation of the chosen vehicle construction, where the main emphases is based on the calculation of the drive of the vehicle. The description of the manufacturing, tests and vehicle presentation follows.

No description available.

BACKGROUND:Sequential compression devices (SCDs) are commonly used for thromboprophylaxis in postoperative patients but compliance is often poor. We investigated causes for noncompliance, examining both hospital and patient related factors.METHODS:100 patients undergoing inpatient urologic surgery were enrolled. All patient had SCD sleeves placed preoperatively. Postoperative observations determined SCD compliance and reasons for non-compliance. Patient demographics, length of stay, inpatient unit type, and surgery type were recorded. At discharge, a patient survey gauged knowledge and attitudes regarding SCDs and bother with SCDs. Statistical analysis was performed to correlate SCD compliance with patient demographics / patient knowledge and attitudes regarding SCDs / and patient self-reported bother with SCDs.RESULTS:Observed overall compliance was 78.6%. The most commonly observed reasons for non-compliance were SCD machines not being initially available on the ward (71% of non-compliant observations on post-operative day 1) and SCD use not being restarted promptly after return to bed (50% of non-compliant observations for entire hospital stay). Mean self-reported bother scores related to SCDs were low, ranging from 1-3 out of 10 for all 12 categories of bother assessed. Patient demographics, knowledge, attitudes and bother with SCD devices were not significantly associated with non-compliance.CONCLUSIONS:Patient self-reported bother with SCD devices was low. Hospital factors, including SCD machine availability and timely restarting of devices by nursing staff when a patient returns to bed, played a greater role in SCD non-compliance than patient factors. Identifying and addressing hospital related causes for poor SCD compliance may improve postoperative urologic patient safety.

Today the selection of drive technology for realizing of moving tasks is made by comparing of investment and energy costs in general. Pneumatic drives are characterized by their low purchase price, but at the same time they show high energy consumption in a comparison with electric drives. This general evaluation leads to the point, that in many cases the optimum drive structure for a certain handling task can’t be found regarding functionality and efficiency. To reach that goal, the dynamic, energy and costs characteristics of the actuator have to be observed and summarized. In this paper the EXonomy analysis is presented as a base for the inter-domain comparison of electric and pneumatic drives. Developed EXonomy approach enables the objective analysis and comparison of electric and pneumatic systems within 3 steps.

In order to mitigate the risk of global warming by reducing CO2 emissions, the co-firing technique, burning pulverized coal and granular biomass together in conventional pulverised fuel power station boilers, has been advocated to generate “greener” electricity to satisfy energy demand while continuing to utilize existing rich coal resources. A major problem is controllably distributing fuel mixtures of pulverized coal and granular biomass in a common pipeline, thus saving much investment. This is still under development in many co-firing studies. This research into particle dynamics in pipe flow was undertaken in order to address the problem of controllable distribution in co-firing techniques and gain an improved understanding of pneumatic conveying mechanisms. The objectives of this research were, firstly, to numerically evaluate the influence of various factors on the behaviour of particles of the different materials in a horizontal pipe gas-solid flow, secondly, to develop an extended technique of Laser Doppler Anemometry in order to determine cross-sectional characteristics of the solid phase flow in the horizontal and vertical legs of a pneumatic conveying system, and, thirdly, to develop a novel imaging system for visualizing particle trajectories by using a high definition camcorder on a cross-section illuminated by a white halogen light sheet. Finally, a comparison was made of cross-sectional flow characteristics established by experiments and those simulated by using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics code (Fluent) and the coupling calculations of Fluent & EDEM (a commercial code of Discrete Element Method) respectively. Particle dynamic behaviour of the solid phase in a dilute horizontal pipe flow was investigated numerically by using the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) in Fluent 6.2.16. The numerical results indicate that the Saffman force plays an important role in re-suspending particles at the lower pipe boundary and that three critical parameters of the critical air: conveying velocity, the critical particle size and the critical pipe roughness, exist in pneumatic conveying systems. The Stokes number can be used as a similarity criterion to classify the dimensionless mean particle velocity of the different materials in the fully developed region. An extended Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) technique has been developed to measure the distributions of particle velocities and particle number over a whole pipe cross section in a dilute pneumatic conveying system. The first extension concentrates on a transform matrix for predicting the refracted laser beams’ crossing point in a pipe according to the shift coordinate of the 3D computer-controlled traverse system on which the probes of the LDA system were mounted. Another part focussed on the proper sampling rate of LDA for measurements on the gas-solid pipe flow with polydispersing particles. A suitable LDA sampling rate should ensure that enough data is recorded in the measurement interval to precisely calculate the particle mean velocity or other statistical values at every sample point. The present study explores the methodology as well as fundamentals of measurements of the local instantaneous density of particles as a primary standard using a laser facility. The extended LDA technique has also been applied to quantitatively investigate particle dynamic behaviour in the horizontal and vertical pipes of a dilute pneumatic conveying system. Three kinds of glass beads were selected to simulate the pulverized coal and biomass pellets transported in a dilute pneumatic conveying system. Detailed information on the cross-sectional spatial distributions of the axial particle velocity and particle number rate is reported. In the horizontal pipe section, experimental data on a series of cross-sections clearly illustrate two uniform fluid patterns of solid phase: an annular structure describing the cross-sectional distribution of the axial particle velocity and a stratified configuration describing particle number rate. In the vertical pipe downstream of an elbow R/D=1.3, a horseshoe-shaped feature, which shows that the axial particle velocity is highest in wall regions of the pipe on the outside of the bend for all three types of glass beads on the section 0D close to the elbow outlet. The developments of cross-sectional distributions of particle number rate indicate that the horseshoe-shaped feature of particle flow pattern is rapidly dispersed for particles with high inertia. A video & image processing system has been built using a high definition camcorder and a light sheet from a source consisting of a halogen lamp. A set of video and image processing algorithms has been developed to extract particle information from each frame in a video. The experimental results suggest that the gas-solid flow in a dilute pneumatic conveying system is always heterogeneous and unsteady. The parameter of particle mass mean size is superior to particle number mean size for statistically describing the unsteady properties of gas-solid pipe flow. It is also demonstrated that the local data of particle number rate or concentration are represented by a stratified structure of the flow pattern over a horizontal pipe cross-section. Finally, comparisons of numerically predicated flow patterns and experimental ones show that there is reasonable agreement at pipe cross-sections located at horizontal positions less than half the product of particle mean velocity and mean free fall time in the pipe from the particle inlet. Further away from the inlet, the numerical results show flow patterns which are increasingly divergent from the experimental results along the pipe in the direction of flow. This discrepancy indicates that particles’ spatial distribution in the pipe is not accurately predicted by the Discrete Phase Model or Fluent coupled with EDEM.

INTRODUÇÃO: O tratamento da fibrose cística (FC) envolve o uso de medicamentos fornecidos através de nebulizadores e seu funcionamento adequado é essencial. OBJETIVOS: Avaliar o desempenho de nebulizadores a jato utilizados por pacientes com FC e comparar dois manômetros para avaliação dos compressores. MÉTODOS: Estudo descritivo, transversal, de avaliação dos nebulizadores usados pelos pacientes com FC da Associação Mineira de Assistência a Mucoviscidose. Os pacientes trouxeram compressores (Proneb Ultra®) e nebulizadores (Pari LC plus®) para avaliação. O desempenho do compressor foi avaliado por medidas de pressão operacional através dos manômetros PARI PG101® (PARI GmbH, Starnberg, Alemanha) e FSA analógico (Famabras, Itaquaquecetuba, Brasil).As variáveis de eficiência do nebulizador foram: O débito de volume nebulizado (DVN), taxa de oferta da medicação (TOR) e volume residual (VR) foram calculados por diferenças de peso de cada nebulizador após 10 minutos de nebulização de solução salina (2,5ml). O diâmetro médio de massa da partícula (DMM) foi calculado através da equação proposta por Standaert et al. A análise estatística incluiu o pacote R (v.2.15) e MINITAB, com alfa=0,05. O coeficiente Kappa foi calculado para avaliar concordância de valores entre os equipamentos, e curva ROC construída para calcular o valor aferido no manômetro FSA com melhor sensibilidade/especificidade, utilizando o manômetro PARI PG101® como referência. A associação entre valores de pressão, DVN, TOR e VR foi calculada pela correlação de Spearman. RESULTADOS: Avaliados 146 sistemas com tempo mediano de uso de 32(12-60) meses±36 meses. Cinquenta e sete (39%) não funcionaram adequadamente, com valores pressóricos inferiores à metade da referência. Os sistemas com funcionamento inadequado comprometeram as variáveis de eficiência dos nebulizadores A concordância entre os diferentes métodos de avaliação de acordo com a classificação; com funcionamento adequado e inadequado através do coeficiente Kappa foi 0,81(IC95%- 0,65-0,97), p<0,001. Na avaliação da sensibilidade e especificidade foi observado o ponto de corte de 23,5 PSI no manômetro FSA mostrou sensibilidade=99% e especificidade=79% (p<0,001). Houve associação significativa entre DVN, VR e pressões aferidas. CONCLUSÕES: Uma proporção significativa dos sistemas de nebulização não funcionou adequadamente. As variáveis de eficiência da nebulização estavam comprometidas indicando que a pressão gerada no compressor é um aspecto crítico na eficiência do tratamento. O método alternativo da avaliação dos compressores se apresentou adequado para ser utilizado nos compressores utilizados no tratamento da FC. / INTRODUCTION: Cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment of involves the use of medications supplied through nebulizers and their proper functioning is essential. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the performance of jet nebulizers used by CF patients and to compare two pressure gauges Compressors evaluation. METHODS: This was a descriptive, cross - sectional study of the nebulizers used by patients with CF of the Mucoviscidosis Care Association of Minas Gerais. The patients brought compressors (Proneb Ultra®) and nebulizers (Pari LC plus®) for evaluation. The performance of the compressor was evaluated by operating pressure measurements using PARI PG101® manometers (PARI GmbH, Starnberg, Germany) and analog FSA (Famabras, Itaquaquecetuba, Brazil). The variables of efficiency of nebulization under study were: nebulizer delivery volume (NDV), drug output rate (DOR), and residual volume (RV), which were calculated by weighing each nebulizer before nebulization and 10 minutes after nebulization using a saline solution (2.5 mL). The mass median diameter (MMD) was calculated using the equation proposed by Standaert et al. Statistical analysis included the package R (v.2.15) and MINITAB, with alpha = 0.05. The Kappa coefficient was calculated to evaluate agreement of values between the equipment\'s, and ROC curve constructed to calculate the value measured in the FSA manometer with better sensitivity / specificity, using the PARI PG101® manometer as reference. The association between pressure values, NDV, DOR and RV was calculated by the Spearman correlation. RESULTS: We evaluated 146 systems with a median time of use of 32 (12-60) months ± 36 months. Fifty-seven (39%) did not function properly, with pressure values lower than half the reference. The systems with inadequate functioning compromised the efficiency variables of the nebulizers. The agreement between the different evaluation methods according to the classification; with adequate and inadequate functioning through the Kappa coefficient was 0.81 (95% CI -0.65-0.97), p <0.001. In the evaluation of sensitivity and specificity, the cut-off point of 23.5 PSI on the FSA manometer showed sensitivity = 99% and specificity = 79% (p <0.001). There was a significant association between NDV, DOR, RV and measured pressures. CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of the nebulizer systems were ineffective. The variables of nebulization efficiency were compromised, which indicated that the pressure generated by the compressor was a critical aspect for treatment efficiency. The alternative method of compressors evaluation was suitable for use in CF treatment routine.

Traditional robots are made from hard materials like hard plastic or metal and consist of regular rigid mechanical parts. Using those parts has some limitations, like limited dexterity and lack of flexibility. Some of these limitations could be avoided through using a compliant material, because it has higher flexibility and dexterity. It is also safer to be in direct contact with humans. This thesis studies soft pneumatic manipulators (SPMs) that move in multi degrees of freedom (MDOF), which makes them able to perform various functions. The study will include designing, fabricating, and testing three different SPMs with different taper angles -- 0^0, 1^0, and 2^0 -- to measure the effect of varying this geometry on the achievable force by the end effector and the range of bending and elongation. Every single SPM consists of three soft pneumatic chambers to reach unlimited points on its workspace through implementing bending and elongating movements. There are a lot of applications for this kind of soft actuators, like rehabilitation, underwater utilizes, and robots for surgery and rescues. Most soft pneumatic actuators provide one kind of movement, for bending, twisting, or elongating. Combining more than one kind of movement in one soft pneumatic actuator provides considerable contributions to the body of research. The SPMs were controlled and tested to evaluate the achieved force and two kinds of movement, bending and elongating range. The results of each module has been compared with the others to determine which actuator has the best performance. Then a force controller was created to maintain the desired force that was achieved by the end effector. The results indicated that the optimal angle of the SPM was 2^0. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection