This research investigates second harmonic generation in Rayleigh surface waves propagating in 9%Cr ferritic martensitic steel. Previous experimental results show that the nonlinearity parameter is sensitive to certain changes in a material's properties such as thermal embrittlement and hardness changes. Therefore, the nonlinearity parameter can be used as an indicator of thermal damage due to changes in dislocation density and precipitations. The specimens are isothermally aged for different holding times to create progressive changes in the microstructure and obtain different levels of thermal aging damage. As aging progresses the dislocation density decreases and precipitations are formed; these microstructural evolutions lead to changes in the nonlinearity parameter β. Nonlinear ultrasonic experiments are conducted for each specimen using a wedge transducer for generation and an air-coupled transducer for detection of Rayleigh surface waves. The amplitudes of the first and second order harmonics are measured at different propagation distances, and these amplitudes are used to obtain the relative nonlinearity parameter for each specimen at different aging stages. Conclusions about microstructural changes are drawn based on the nonlinear Rayleigh surface wave measurement and complementary measurements including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Rockwell HRC hardness. The results indicate that the nonlinearity parameter is very sensitive to the dislocation density and precipitate formation, and thus can be used to track the microstructural change in this material during the process of thermal aging.

The scattering of waves by a finite thin plate in a two-dimensional wave guide and an array of finite thin plates, in the presence of subsonic mean flow, are formulated using a mode matching technique. The influence of mean flow on trapped modes in the vicinity of a finite thin plate in a two-dimensional wave guide is then investigated by putting the amplitude of the forcing term to zero in the scattering problem. The conditions for complex resonances are found, and numerical results are computed. The influence of mean flow on Rayleigh-Bloch modes is investigated by using a similar methodology. The condition for embedded trapped modes to exist is introduced next, and then numerical results for embedded trapped modes without mean flow are presented. Complex resonances without mean flow are then found by fixing the geometry of the waveguide. The influence of mean flow on complex resonances and embedded trapped modes is investigated subsequently. In addition, the investigation of scattering coefficients is discussed when the frequency of an incident wave is near the real part of the frequency of complex resonances or embedded trapped modes. Embedded trapped modes near an indentation in a strip wave guide, which may correspond to a two-dimensional acoustic wave guide or a channel of uniform water depth in water waves, are also found. Modes are sought which are either symmetric or anti-symmetric about the centreline of the guide and the centre of the indentation. In each case, a simple approximate solution is found numerically. Full solutions are then found by using a Galerkin approach in which the singularity near the indentation edge is modelled by choosing proper special functions. The final part of the thesis is devoted to spinning modes (Rayleigh-Bloch modes) in a cylindrical waveguide in the presence of radial fins. A mode matching technique is used to obtain the potential, and the coefficients in the expansion are found numerically by using an efficient Galerkin procedure. In addition, an existence proof for modes symmetric about the centre of the guide and the centre of the section with radial fins is given by applying a variational approach. The connection between Rayleigh-Bloch modes and trapped modes is discussed thereafter, and numerical results for a number of geometric configurations are presented.

The evolution of column instabilities that lead to break up of a microscale liquid jet is studied experimentally using shadowgraph technique. The jet formation is investigated over a range of Reynolds number, Pressure Ratio, and Ohnesorge number which are varied by the driving pressure, observation chamber pressure, and the jet liquid. Over the range of these parameters, the jet experiences different break up mechanisms as a result of different dominant instabilities. The present investigation discusses both break up mechanisms that are similar to the break up of macroscale jets and some new microscale break up phenomena.

Zugl.: Darmstadt, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Jacobs, Laurence J.; Committee Co-Chair: Wang, Yang; Committee Member: Kim, Jin-Yeon. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Dissertação (Mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-17T03:39:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2016-01-08T23:04:45Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 140044.pdf: 28854372 bytes, checksum: 5a1cc766103148dda01e48fdc863c824 (MD5)

The use of energy methods and variational principles is widespread in many fields of engineering of which structural mechanics and curve and surface design are two prominent examples. In principle many different types of function can be used as possible trial solutions to a given variational problem but where piecewise polynomial behaviour and user controlled cross segment continuity is either required or desirable, B-splines serve as a natural choice. Although there are many examples of the use of B-splines in such situations there is no common thread running through existing formulations that generalises from the one dimensional case through to two and three dimensions. We develop a unified approach to the representation of the minimisation equations for B-spline based functionals in tensor product form and apply these results to solving specific problems in geometric smoothing and finite element analysis using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. We focus on the development of algorithms for the exact computation of the minimisation matrices generated by finding stationary values of functionals involving integrals of squares and products of derivatives, and then use these to seek new variational based solutions to problems in the above fields. By using tensor notation we are able to generalise the methods and the algorithms from curves through to surfaces and volumes. The algorithms developed can be applied to other fields where a variational form of the problem exists and where such tensor product B-spline functions can be specified as potential solutions.

abstract: In this thesis I model the thermal and structural evolution of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and explore their ability to retain undifferentiated crusts of rock and ice over geologic timescales. Previous calculations by Desch et al. (2009) predicted that initially homogenous KBOs comparable in size to Charon (R ~ 600 km) have surfaces too cold to permit the separation of rock and ice, and should always retain thick (~ 85 km) crusts, despite the partial differentiation of rock and ice inside the body. The retention of a thermally insulating, undifferentiated crust is favorable to the maintenance of subsurface liquid and potentially cryovolcanism on the KBO surface. A potential objection to these models is that the dense crust of rock and ice overlying an ice mantle represents a gravitationally unstable configuration that should overturn by Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities. I have calculated the growth rate of RT instabilities at the ice-crust interface, including the effect of rock on the viscosity. I have identified a critical ice viscosity for the instability to grow significantly over the age of the solar system. I have calculated the viscosity as a function of temperature for conditions relevant to marginal instability. I find that RT instabilities on a Charon-sized KBO require temperatures T > 143 K. Including this effect in thermal evolution models of KBOs, I find that the undifferentiated crust on KBOs is thinner than previously calculated, only ~ 50 km. While thinner, this crustal thickness is still significant, representing ~ 25% of the KBO mass, and helps to maintain subsurface liquid throughout most of the KBO's history. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Astrophysics 2013

Submitted by Eduarda Figueiredo (eduarda.ffigueiredo@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-06T15:33:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação de Mestrado - Análise de Códigos LDPC ... - Pedro Melo.pdf: 833849 bytes, checksum: da72453652b3de16d9c3b3abc49d270c (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-06T15:33:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação de Mestrado - Análise de Códigos LDPC ... - Pedro Melo.pdf: 833849 bytes, checksum: da72453652b3de16d9c3b3abc49d270c (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-03 / Um canal de comunicação discreto não binário e com memória é apresentado com o objetivo de capturar tanto a informação de decisão suave quanto a correlação temporal de um canal com desvanecimento (DFC) quantizado em 2q níveis de quantização. Mostra-se que o canal discreto pode ser descrito explicitamente em termos de seu processo de entrada binário e processo de ruído 2q-ário. Também é mostrado que o canal é simétrico e admite uma expressão simples para sua capacidade de canal. O processo de ruído é então modelado como um modelo baseado em fila (QB), produzindo uma fonte de ruído markoviano estacionário e ergódico de ordem M com 2q + 2 parâmetros. O DFC é aproximado pelo canal discreto com ruído QB, cujos parâmetros são estimados por um processo iterativo que minimiza a divergência de Kullback-Leibler entre as fontes de ruído do DFC e QB. Os modelos obtidos são usados em esquemas de decodificação LDPC desenvolvidos para o canal discreto com ruído QB, em que se observa um ganho de decodificação quando comparado ao caso sem memória.

Esta dissertação apresenta o método de análise espectral de ondas superficiais (SASW) para a obtenção das variações do módulo cisalhante (Gmáx) com a profundidade, no domínio das deformações muito pequenas (abaixo de 0,001%). O SASW é um método sísmico in situ, não destrutivo, baseado na geração e detecção de ondas Rayleigh e na natureza dispersiva desta onda. Pela aplicação de um impacto na superfície do solo e detecção da onda em vários pontos, através de dois receptores, é construída uma curva de dispersão (velocidade de fase versus comprimento de onda). Esta curva de dispersão é, então, invertida. A inversão é um processo analítico para a reconstrução do perfil de velocidade de onda de cisalhamento (VS), partindo-se da curva de dispersão experimental de campo. O módulo de cisalhamento máximo de cada camada é facilmente obtido a partir do perfil de VS. No conteúdo teórico da dissertação discutem-se propriedades dinâmicas dos solos e descrevem-se as equações que dominam a propagação das ondas elásticas, tanto em meios homogêneos como em meios estratificados. A metodologia desenvolvida para a obtenção das curvas de dispersão, através da realização de ensaios SASW, apresenta os resultados obtidos em ensaios realizados na Cidade Universitária em São Paulo, sendo esses resultados comparados com estimativas feitas a partir de correlações baseadas em ensaios SPT existentes. Essas comparações permitem concluir que a metodologia SASW é uma boa alternativa para a determinação do perfil de rigidez (Gmáx) do solo, concordando com o nível de deformação envolvido nos ensaios. São desenvolvidos estudos de sensibilidade do método para verificar a influência na mudança dos parâmetros assumidos (peso específico, coeficiente de Poisson e espessuras das camadas) no processo de redução de dados (inversão) sobre o perfil final de VS, concluindo-se que o parâmetro que apresenta maior influência é o coeficiente de Poisson. / This dissertation presents the spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves (SASW) method as a tool for obtaining the variations in the modulus shear (Gmax) with depth in the field of very small strains (below 0,001%). The SASW method is a nondestructive in situ seismic method, based on the generation and measurement of Rayleigh wave and on its dispersive characteristic nature. Throughout the implementation of an impact on the soil surface and the detection of the wave at various points by two receptors a dispersion curve is constructed (phase velocity versus wave-length). This dispersion curve is then inverted. Inversion is an analytical process for reconstructing the shear wave velocity profile from the experimental field. The shear modulus of each layer is readily obtained from the shear wave velocity profile. The theoretical content of the dissertation presents dynamic properties of the soils and is described in the equations that dominate the propagation of elastic waves, both in homogeneous media and in stratified media. The methodology developed to obtain the dispersion curves through the implementation of SASW test is defined, and results from tests carried out at the University Campus in São Paulo are presented and compared with values obtained from correlations based on SPT tests. These comparisons indicate that the SASW method is a good alternative to determine the profile of stiffness (Gmax) of the soil, agreeing with the level of deformation involved in the tests. Studies on the methods sensitivity are developed to verify the influence on the changing of the parameters given (natural unit weight, Poisson coefficient and thickness of layers) in reduction of data (inversion) on the final profile of VS. The conclusion is that the Poisson coefficient is the parameter with greater influence.