This study investigates the global stiffness of a timer frame structure under wind loading using the finite element method by creating parameterized script files. Of key interest was the accuracy of the global stiffness determined from an adaptive 3D beam model in comparison to a 2D beam model and, the stiffness of a 3D beam model when subjected to different types of bracing in the presence of internal bracing provided by a lift shaft structure. Investigation of contact forces on the surfaces between the fastener and the timber at the connection was carried out and a design check for the specified bolts shear capacity done with respect to Eurocode 5. A 3D adaptive connection was created for a 2D frame model and the stiffness of the structure was studied. A comparison of the maximum displacement of the structure in the x direction, under the same wind loading, spring stiffness and boundary conditions, with a 2D beam structure without the adaptive connection initially showed a difference in the displacement. This implied that the rotational stiffness in the beam model was greater than that of the adaptive connection created. Therefore after altering the rotational stiffness of the beam model to achieve similar displacement as in the adaptive model, the rotational stiffness of the created connection was found to be 33.4 · 106Nm. The study also determined the contact forces generated at the surfaces between the fasteners and the timber using the finite element method to integrate over the surfaces and calculate the forces. The results were generated using the History Output in the step module. The only disadvantage of acquiring the contact forces was that, the contact surface simulation caused larger run times for the model to complete the time step. For the adaptive model it took 18 hours to complete each step. Further investigation into the stiffness of a 3D frame structure was conducted. The model of the 3D structure was created by a parameterized script which makes it easy to change input variables such as number of internal walls, geometry in x-z-plane, number of storeys, cross-sectional dimensions, material properties number of diagonals and location of diagonals. A variety of models with different conditions was analyzed. This showed that stiffness has a major impact on the magnitude of reaction forces and displacements.

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With the acceleration of global urbanization trends, more and more intentions are put on multi-storey buildings. As the world leading area of wood construction, European countries started the construction of multi-storey timber building for a decade ago. However, unlike the traditional buildings made of reinforced concrete, the design of wooden high-rise timber buildings would face a substantial amount of new challenges because such high-rise timber buildings are touching the limitations of the timber engineering field. In this thesis, a parameterized three-dimensional FE-model (in ABAQUS) of a multi-storey timber frame building is created. Variable geometrical parameters, connection stiffness as well as boundary connections and applied wind and gravity loads are defined in a Python script to make it possible to analyze the influence of these parameters on the global structural behavior of the studied multi-storey timber frame building. The results and analysis implied that the script successfully worked and was capable to create different complex building geometries in an wasy way for the finite element analysis.

This research developed an ArcGIS Python model that extracts polygons from aerial imagery and assigns each polygon a vegetation type based on a modified set of landcover classes from the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project. The model showed an ability to generate polygons that accurately represent vegetation community boundaries across a large landscape. The model is for use by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands to assist in the preparation of forest management plans. The model was judged useful because it was easy to use, it met a designated 50% threshold of useable polygons, and it met a designated 50% threshold of vegetation class assignment accuracy.

The trend of structural engineering in the recent years is toward the use of lighter and moreeconomical structural elements. In steel construction, peculiarly, thin-walled structural elements arebecoming more popular and have a growing importance. Improved techniques in a manufacturing ofthin-walled elements have led to increased competitiveness of such products in the buildingapplications. Some examples of such structural element can be found in everyday life in form ofcolumns, studs, roofing trusses, and light-weight frames. However, the use of slender profiles and acomplex cross sections shape lead to requirements to study instability phenomenon in a form of local,distortional, flexural, torsional and coupled instability. Such complex structural behavior is inevitablyaccompanied by demand to improve calculation methods and design provisions. In this thesis, aninnovative solution of structural element composed of thin-walled plates is proposed for theapplication on lattice support structure of wind turbine.Thin-walled cold-formed profiles are steel products usually made from cold rolled coils and folded inthe second step. In this way, only open profiles can be produced. The predominant problem of theopen cross-section is the excessive torsional effect caused by the non-coincidence between the shearcenter and mass center, and a poor torsional resistance. A better response is possible with closed crosssections, but such profiles could not be produced by the folding. The solution is to make semi-closedsection by assembling them into polygonal profiles with mechanical fasteners, as presented in thisthesis.Objective of this work is to study the proposed structural sections in design situation and toinvestigate possible design models. The expected structural behavior of the column is a mixturebetween the open and closed cross-section. These cases will be investigated through numerical study.In this thesis presented a comprehensive parametric study on the ultimate strength of proposed coldformedsteel columns using the Finite Element package ABAQUS. FE models were first developedfor columns by using automation that was made through MATLAB and Python script. The bucklingand non-linear FE study was done for the investigation of local (L), distortional (D) and global (G)possible buckling failures and ultimate resistance, respectively. Modelling issues such as boundaryconditions, meshing, initial imperfections, material models, and non-linear solution controls in FEAwere also addressed.The parametric study involved series of profiles of built-up polygonal cross-section types with variedthickness (t), number of corners (n), diameter (d), slenderness (slend), yield strength (fy), number ofpoints along corner radii (np), extension lip length (lext), gusset plate thickness (tg), member length (l),and density of fasteners (s/d ratio), loaded in compression and bending moment. The bending momentoccurs as the effect of forces acting on the connection. The purpose of this analysis is to study thecritical load, cross-sectional behavior, influence of the amplitude of initial imperfections on theultimate load, and influence of each parameter used in the analysis through Full Factorial Design.

This is a Masters student Final Dissertation / In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network / The University of South Africa The University of Johannesburg / College of Engineering, Science and Technology

In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network. / Electrical and Mining Engineering

In this project, two tests were performed. On the first test, Mininet-WiFi was used to simulate a Software Defined Network to demonstrate Mininet-WiFi’ s ability to be used as the Software Defined Network emulator which can also be integrated to the existing network using a Network Virtualized Function (NVF). A typical organization’s computer network was simulated which consisted of a website hosted on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) virtual machine, and an F5 application delivery controller (ADC) which provided load balancing of requests sent to the web applications. A website page request was sent from the virtual stations inside Mininet-WiFi. The request was received by the application delivery controller, which then used round robin technique to send the request to one of the web servers on the LAMP virtual machine. The web server then returned the requested website to the requesting virtual stations using the simulated virtual network. The significance of these results is that it presents Mininet-WiFi as an emulator, which can be integrated into a real programmable networking environment offering a portable, cost effective and easily deployable testing network, which can be run on a single computer. These results are also beneficial to modern network deployments as the live network devices can also communicate with the testing environment for the data center, cloud and mobile provides. On the second test, a Software Defined Network was created in Mininet using python script. An external interface was added to enable communication with the network outside of Mininet. The amazon web services elastic computing cloud was used to host an OpenDaylight controller. This controller is used as a control plane device for the virtual switch within Mininet. In order to test the network, a webserver hosted on the Emulated Virtual Environment – Next Generation (EVENG) software is connected to Mininet. EVE-NG is the Emulated Virtual Environment for networking. It provides tools to be able to model virtual devices and interconnect them with other virtual or physical devices. The OpenDaylight controller was able to create the flows to facilitate communication between the hosts in Mininet and the webserver in the real-life network. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)