There is a critical need for inspection and condition monitoring of high temperature critical components such as pipelines and welds in electrical power generation and other plants operating at temperatures as high as 580°C. The high temperatures and pressures experienced in these pipelines, particularly for ageing plants lead to creep, fatigue and corrosion type defects. Safety of these plants is of paramount importance, and regular maintenance is carried out during planned outages at ambient temperatures. Ultrasonic non-destructive testing can be used to detect defects in the weld at ambient temperatures. However, at high operational temperatures, this technique cannot be applied due to the lack of high temperature transducers. This research has achieved significant advances towards enabling ultrasonic inspection and condition monitoring of high temperature critical points, by developing an ultrasonic transducer around an advanced piezoelectric single crystal material, called Gallium Orthophosphate (GaPO4), which can operate at the required temperature of 580°C. Based on its reported piezoelectric and other properties, and its commercial availability, GaPO4 was chosen as a candidate active material for application in a prototype high temperature transducer. In a series of confidence building tests with the selected piezoelectric material (electrical characterisation via the impedance method), it has been demonstrated that the GaPO4 piezoelectric elements are stable when subjected to 580°C for more than 600 hours. Ultrasonic thickness gauging has shown that GaPO4 works as a functional transducer generating and receiving ultrasound waves at 580°C for at least 360 hours. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the GaPO4 transducer to detect defects with simple geometry was successfully tested through measurements on steel blocks containing artificial defects (side-drilled holes) up to the same high temperatures. Based on the characterisation results from the impedance and ultrasonic measurements, a prototype ultrasonic transducer for operation at high temperatures has been designed and manufactured. The new ultrasonic transducer was tested in a laboratory environment using a steel calibration block, high temperature couplant, SONO 1100, and an electric furnace. In the range from ambient temperatures up to the target of 580°C, the ultrasonic transducer kept a signal-to-noise (SNR) level sufficiently high, above the threshold of 6 dB, which is high enough for practical non-destructive testing and condition monitoring.

Desde o final da década de 1980 até os dias atuais a utilização de materiais inteligentes em sistemas de controle de vibrações e em problemas de conversão de energia mecânica em energia elétrica tem sido amplamente investigada. Entre os materiais inteligentes destacamos os piezelétricos, apresentando acoplamento entre os domínios elétrico e mecânico. Em casos de controle passivo de vibrações utiliza-se o efeito piezelétrico direto e a energia de vibração é dissipada em um circuito elétrico passivo. Apesar de não utilizarem uma fonte externa de energia, a faixa de frequências onde o controlador passivo tem bom desempenho é limitada em relação aos controladores ativos. Em problemas de controle ativo de vibrações o efeito piezelétrico inverso é utilizado. Neste caso, uma tensão elétrica de controle é aplicada aos piezelétricos para a atenuação de vibrações. Os sistemas híbridos de controle (ativo-passivo) associam circuitos passivos e uma fonte de tensão elétrica. Nesse caso, os efeitos piezelétricos direto e inverso são utilizados simultaneamente. Espera-se que a parte ativa do sistema híbrido necessite de menor potência elétrica de atuação (se comparado com um controlador ativo) além do sistema híbrido proporcionar melhor resposta estrutural que o sistema passivo isoladamente. Entretanto, os controladores ativos e híbridos apresentam desvantagens relacionadas com complexidades de uma lei de controle, necessidade de equipamentos externos e podem exigir elevada potência de atuação. Os controladores semi-passivos surgiram como uma alternativa aos pontos negativos dos controladores passivos, ativos e híbridos. Uma técnica semi-passiva chamada SSD (synchronized switch damping) consiste no chaveamento do material piezelétrico entre a condição de circuito aberto e a condição de curto-circuito (SSDS) ou a uma indutância (SSDI), em momentos específicos da vibração da estrutura. Em geral, a conversão eletromecânica de energia é amplificada assim como o efeito shunt damping. Dessa forma, os circuitos semi-passivos, assim como os passivos, têm sido utilizados tanto como controladores de vibração quanto em problemas de coleta piezelétrica de energia. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar o desempenho de controladores piezelétricos passivos, semi-passivos, ativos e híbridos na atenuação de vibrações e também em problemas aeroelásticos. O modelo piezoaeroelástico é obtido com um modelo por elementos finitos (placa de Kirchhoff) eletromecanicamente acoplado que associado a um modelo aerodinâmico não-estacionário (método de malha de dipolos) resulta um modelo piezoaeroelástico. Casos de excitação harmônica de base, entrada impulsiva e também condição de flutter são estudados. / From the late 1980s until the present date, the use of smart materials as actuators in vibration control systems and as conversers of mechanical energy into electricity has been widely investigated. Among these smart materials, the piezoelectric ones stand out, presenting a coupling between the electrical and mechanical domain. In passive vibration control, the direct piezoelectric effect is used and vibration energy is dissipated (or harvested) in a passive circuit. Although no external power source is required, the frequency bandwidth in which passive controllers have good performance is limited when compared to active controllers. In active vibration control problems, the inverse piezoelectric effect is used. In this work, a voltage source is applied on the piezoceramic patches in order to attenuate vibration. Hybrid (active-passive) vibration controllers combine passive shunt circuits with the voltage source. In this case, the direct and inverse piezoelectric effects are used simultaneously. It is expected that the active part of the hybrid system will require less energy (when compared to an active controller) and a better structural response will be obtained than the purely passive system. Nevertheless, the active and hybrid controllers present disadvantages such as complexity of a control law, require external equipment and potentially require large amounts of energy. The semi-passive controllers are a recent alternative to the drawbacks of passive, active and hybrid controllers. A semi-passive technique called SSD (synchronized switch damping) consists of using an electronic switch that the piezoelectric element is briefly switched to an electrical shunt-circuit that can be a simple short-circuit (SSDS), or a small inductance (SSDI) at specific times in the structure\'s vibration cycle (Mohammadi, 2008). In general, the electromechanical energy conversion is enhanced as well as the shunt effect damping. Therefore, the switching techniques, as well as the passive circuits, have been used both in vibration control problems and in piezoelectric energy harvesting problems. The goal of this work is to assess the performance of passive, semi-passive, active and hybrid piezoelectric controllers to attenuate vibration in aeroelastic problems. The aeroelastic model is obtained by combining an electromechanically coupled finite element model (Kirchhoff\'s plate) with an unsteady aerodynamic models (the doublet-lattice method and Roger\'s model). The case studies are carried out on an elastic wing response to a base excitation, impulse force, and the flutter condition.

Composite materials are increasingly used in aerospace, underwater, and automotive structures. Their use in structural applications is dictated by the outstanding strength and stiffness while being lightweight in addition to their flexibility in tailoring the desired performance in the design of structures. The present study focuses on the failure analysis and shape control of smart composite laminates under coupled hygrothermal, electric and mechanical stimuli. A linear thermo-electro-elastic constitutive model for transversely isotropic materials is used for each ply in the composite laminates. The first-ply failure and ultimate laminate failure criteria of composite laminates are used to predict the failure stress and mode of the composite laminate where we incorporate various commonly known macroscopic failure criteria including Tsai-Hill, Tsai Wu, maximum stress and maximum strain for each lamina. We study the use of piezoelectric materials such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and piezoelectric fiber composites as actuators for controlling deformation in composite laminates; this study focuses on bending deformation. The purpose is to minimize unwanted deformation, such as the one due to hygrothermal effect, by applying counter deformation to avoid failure in such composite laminates. In addition, analysis based on the Classical Laminate Theory (CLT) is performed for Carbon/Epoxy (AS4/3501-6) thin laminate with stacking sequence [90/45/-45/0]s under uniaxial and biaxial in-plane loading. One of the major types of failure in smart structures is caused by debonding of the actuator from the host structure which is caused by the high stress discontinuity between the interface of the host structure and the active part. By using embedded actuators, such that the active part is incorporated into one of the layers of the composite beam during the manufacturing process, the stress concentration effect can be reduced while obtaining similar actuation values. Moreover, a control algorithm is proposed that enables the composite laminate to overcome the failure load by using piezoelectric materials where a counter electric voltage could be applied which prevents failure from occurring. Furthermore, computer software called “Hyper Composite” was developed using Action Script® and Adobe Flash® in order to perform stress and failure analysis for general composite laminates. Several carpet plots were also generated to show the interacting behavior of two independent variables such as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, shear modulus and the coefficient of thermal and moisture expansion at different percentile constitutions for the laminate different plies. This computer software is useful for estimating overall properties of smart composite laminates in designing smart composite structures.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / Berthelot, Committee Chair; Lynch, Committee Member; Jacobs, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-113).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Physics and Astronomy." Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-91).

Thesis (MTech (Mech. Eng.))--Peninsula Technikon, 1999. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75). Also available online.

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The contributions of this thesis are an implicit modelling method for the coupled constitutive relations and an energy-based method for material modelling. The two developed methods utilise implicit models to represent material constitutive relations without the requirement of physical parameters. The first method is developed to model coupled constitutive relations using state-space representation with neural networks. State-space representation is employed to express the desired relations in a compact fashion while simultaneously providing the capability of modelling rate- and/or path-dependent behaviour. The employment of neural networks with the generalised state-space representation results in a single implicit model that can be adapted for a broad range of constitutive behaviours. The performance and applicability of the method are highlighted through the applications for various constitutive behaviour of piezoelectric materials, including the effects of hysteresis and cyclic degradation. An energy-based method is subsequently developed for implicit constitutive modelling by utilising the energy principle on a deformed continuum. Two formulations of the proposed method are developed for the modelling of materials with varying nature in directional properties. The first formulation is based on an implicit strain energy density function, represented by a neural network with strain invariants as input, to derive the desired stress-strain relations. The second formulation consists of the derivation of an energy-based performance function for training a neural network that represents the stress-strain relations. The requirement of deriving stress is eliminated in both formulations and this facilitates the use of advanced experimental setup, such as multi-axial load tests or non-standard specimens, to produce the most information for constitutive modelling from a single experiment. A series of numerical studies -- including validation problems and practical cases with actual experimental setup -- have been conducted, the results of which demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method for constitutive modelling on a continuum basis.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Speyer, Robert; Committee Member: Gerhardt, Rosario; Committee Member: Liu, Meilin; Committee Member: Lynch, Christopher; Committee Member: Wilkinson, Angus

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-189). Also available in electronic version.