Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Healthcare costs for treating back pain have risen to 50 billion dollars a year in the past decade. In attempt reduce the risk of back pain; ergonomists use digital human modeling to assess the risks involved in functional tasks. However, current models are limited to analyzing the strength in static position. The overall goal of this study is to provide three-dimensional strength surfaces incorporating both static and dynamic strength for digital human models. Fifteen male and twenty-one female subjects were recruited. The study required two visits, were hip strength testing was performed in one visit and trunk strength testing was performed in the other visit. Hip strength was tested by completing flexion and extension isometric tests and isokinetic tests. Trunk flexion and extension strength was also measured by isometric and isokinetic tests. Isometric and Isokinetic tests were completed for trunk left and right rotation too. The data was analyzed using custom made MATLAB (Mathworks, Inc) programs and the three-dimensional strength surfaces were generated using SigmaPlot (SYSTAT Software, INC). The maximum peak torques were as followed: Hip flexion male 183Nm(57), hip flexion female 106 Nm (38), hip extension male 181 Nm (71), hip extension female 130 Nm (52), trunk flexion male 182 Nm (40.3), trunk flexion female 111.8 Nm (32), trunk extension male 328.5 Nm (52), trunk extension female 197.5 Nm (58), trunk right rotation male 71.6 Nm (20), trunk right rotation female 43 Nm (14), trunk left rotation male 71 Nm (24), and trunk left rotation female (43 Nm (17). Correlations were found between the hip and trunk joints, and the flexion and extension motion. Implementing this data into digital human models will provide realistic static and dynamic human strength parameters. Ultimately, this will help ergonomists predict and reduce high risk back injuries.

No description available.

The effective shear strength of artificially overconsolidated clays with continuous fissures, or with discontinuous or partial fissuring, has been discussed from both the experimental and numerical points of view.Direct shear and triaxial tests have been conducted on a range of unfissured, partially and fully fissured specimens of artificially overconsolidated clay samples in the laboratory. Specimens subjected to direct shear tests have been prepared in three different preconsolidation pressures and two or three different Overconsolidation ratios (OCR) for unfissured, partially and fully fissured specimens. Specimens subjected to triaxial tests also were prepared for three different preconsolidation pressures and overconsolidation ratios. In order to investigate the effect of orientation of fissures, artificially overconsolidated fissured triaxial specimens were prepared in three different orientations at 30 degrees, 45 degrees and 60 degrees to the direction of minimum principal stress (sigma[subscript]3).For both direct shear and triaxial tests, special tools and devices were designed and constructed to prepare unfissured, partially and fully fissured specimens.Taking into account the number of parameters which influence the effective shear strength of overconsolidated clays, and the time which is needed to artificially prepare the overconsolidated specimens and to run drained tests, as well as the impossibility or impracticality of the laboratory simulations for some specific cases, numerical methods were used to complement the experimental component of the investigation.Numerical modelling of direct shear and triaxial specimens utilised the FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua, Itasca, 1993) program for two dimensional simulation of the direct shear tests and the ANSYS (1996) program for three dimensional simulation of triaxial tests. The experimental ++ / results have been used to calibrate the coefficients of the numerical models and to verify the results obtained from numerical models.Strain softening behaviour was simulated numerically for unfissured and fully fissured specimens subjected to direct shear tests. Using the obtained experimental and numerical results of the study of direct shear tests with respect to the effects of different parameters on the effective shear strength of the spacing subjected to direct shear tests and also FLAC programming, FLACish (FISH), a model was written designated as the Homogenised Strain Softening Model (HSSM). In this model the effects of different parameters discussed in this thesis, are applied to the Mohr Coulomb parameters (c'[subscript]u and phi'[subscript]u) of unfissured specimens. This model was used to predict the effective shear strength of cases in which laboratory simulation was impractical or not feasible.The advantage of this model (HSSM) is that it relates the effective shear strength of the fissured mass to the corresponding Coulomb parameters (c'[subscript]u and phi'[subscript]u) of the intact or unfissured overconsolidated clay specimen with reduction functions relating to the parameters discussed in this thesis.The numerical models developed by ANSYS were calibrated and verified by the experimental results, and then used to predict or estimate the effects of confining pressure, orientation of fissures on the three dimensional modelling of the partially and fully fissured overconsolidated triaxial specimens.In this thesis the effects of the type of clay, preconsolidation (P'[subscript]c) pressure, Overconsolidation ratio (OCR), size of sample, rate of shearing and fissure parameters, such as spacing, width and orientation of fissure were discussed and identified or quantified to estimate the effective shear strength of the artificially overconsolidated ++ / fissured samples. These results are applicable for the estimation of the effective shear strength of the naturally overconsolidated fissured mass by homogenising the effects of the parameters on the Mohr Coulomb parameters (c'[subscript]u and phi'[subscript]u) of the intact or unfissured clay mass.

Doctor of philosophy (phd) / SYNOPSIS This thesis is concerned with the general and fundamental engineering characterisation of a geological formation within Wianamatta group, known as Bringelly shale. Bringelly shale is the neighbouring member of Ashfield shale; both are soft rocks of Triassic age within a geological structure known as the Sydney basin in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bringelly shale rock and its residual material cover an approximate area of 700km2. It is found inland, to the west of the city of Sydney, where most of the new residential, commercial and industrial development is taking place. There is a limited amount of existing experimental data in part due to the technological difficulties in obtaining specimens and this has contributed to the uncertainties surrounding the engineering behaviour of the rock. In this research, efforts have been made to identify index property tests useful for determining the engineering characteristics of the material. Further aims were to explore the reasons for the difficulty of obtaining core specimens using standard water flush drilling techniques and, to ascertain and explain why Bringelly and Ashfield shales behave differently in many aspects of their engineering performance, even though they are members of the same geological group. Qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis by the X-ray diffraction technique was used to evaluate the clay mineralogy of the Bringelly shale materials at different degrees of weathering. Thin sections were examined by optical microscopy to study the nature of cementation and bonding. Polished sections of natural and reconstituted specimens were examined by electron microscopy to investigate the internal structure of each material and its mineral composition. It has been found that the presence of a significant amount of swelling clay and microcracks in the plane of laminations are responsible for increasing the swelling potential of the Bringelly shale. There is little evidence of induration and only apparently weak bonding due to re-crystallisation of mica at particle contacts. Changes in particle alignment following failure were also observed. Because of the difficulty of obtaining specimens suitable for UCS testing, correlations were established between the point load strength index and the measured values of uniaxial compressive strength in the direction perpendicular to laminations. The strength anisotropy from the point load index was also determined. In this research, it was found that due to the limited number of specimens tested for UCS, the determined correlation factor could over-predict the strength of the shale. Durability and swelling of the shale were also investigated. The durability of Bringelly shale was found to vary from medium for fresh intact material to very low for extremely weathered material. To further investigate the mechanisms responsible for the durability of the shale, unconfined and confined swelling tests were performed. Volumetric strains of 6-8% were measured for cube specimens with a volume of 27000 mm3, however, the material has shown an inverse relationship between its volumetric swelling and specimen dimensions. The chemical composition of the fluid into which the specimen was immersed was found to have a major influence on volume changes in the intact material. The results of the investigation confirmed that potassium chloride solution can be used to reduce swelling potential, and further, to improve core recovery during drilling. An extensive experimental program to investigate the engineering performance of the shale has involved the use of conventional and specialised high pressure triaxial equipment. The program investigated the volumetric compression and shearing behaviour of three different forms of specimen. These were natural core specimens, and reconstituted specimens created from crushed shale by either pressing dry powder in a mould or by compression of a slurry. Isotropic consolidation tests over a wide range of stresses were performed. The program has also involved a series of drained and undrained triaxial strength tests on the three different forms. The series has covered a wide range of confining effective stresses from 20 to 60,000kPa, degree of saturation from 65-100%, and porosities from 10% to 60%. These tests have provided an extensive set of data to investigate the influence of stress, saturation, suction and internal structure on the compression behaviour of the reconstituted and natural rock. Analysis of these data has been conducted in terms of cementation, swelling, saturation, confining stresses, and frictional resistance. A series of standard direct and ring shear tests has been carried out on the reconstituted Bringelly shale at normal stresses in the range from 50 to 200 kPa, and a residual friction angle was determined. It was found that this value has not been affected by the reorientation of clay particle despite the high clay fraction content of the material. The results of this research indicate that the general pattern of behaviour for reconstituted material that has experienced a maximum effective stress of less than 6 MPa is consistent with the assumptions of critical state soil mechanics and similar to many other reconstituted materials. This pattern of behaviour shows a significant deviation from the framework of critical state when the same material (slurry or core form) is subjected to a maximum effective stress of 60MPa. The significance of bonding and structure of the intact shale could be detected from investigating the same material at reconstituted state. However, further development of the critical state framework is required to take into account the reduction in strength caused by the high degree of alignment of clay platelets. The OCR seems to have minor effect on the strength of the material.

Thesis (M.D.S.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-129) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1965. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-80). Also available on the World Wide Web.