Analisam-se a variação de parâmetros obtidos da curva tensão-deformação dos solos, interpretada como uma hipérbole, em função dos parâmetros de compactação obtidos da curva de compactação Proctor Normal. Esta análise é feita em três solos típicos. / The variation of the parameters obtained by the stress-strain curve of the soils, understood as a hyperbola is analysed in function of the compactation parameters obtained from the Proctor Compactation Curve. This analysis is made with three typical soils.

Analisam-se a variação de parâmetros obtidos da curva tensão-deformação dos solos, interpretada como uma hipérbole, em função dos parâmetros de compactação obtidos da curva de compactação Proctor Normal. Esta análise é feita em três solos típicos. / The variation of the parameters obtained by the stress-strain curve of the soils, understood as a hyperbola is analysed in function of the compactation parameters obtained from the Proctor Compactation Curve. This analysis is made with three typical soils.

Development of new scientific disciplines such as bioengineering and micro-nano engineering adopting nonconventional materials requests innovative methodologies that can accurately measure the mechanical properties of soft biological materials and characterize surface energy and adhesion properties of them, independent of measurement conditions. One of emerging methods to measure the deformation of materials under stress is digital image correlation (DIC) technique. As a noncontact strain measurement method, DIC has the advantages of prevention of experimental errors caused by the use of contact type sensors and of flexibility in its application to soft materials that are hard to be tested by conventional method. In the first part of the thesis, 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional DIC codes were developed and optimized, and then applied to two critical applications: 1) determining the stress-strain behaviour of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sample, as a model soft material, using the optical images across large deformation region, and 2) detecting the stiffness variation within the gel mimicking the breast tumour using ultrasound images. The results of this study showed the capability of DIC as a strain sensor and suggested its potential as a diagnosing tool for the malignant lesion causing local stiffness variation. In the characterization of surface energy and adhesion properties of materials, two most common methods are contact angle measurement and JKR-type indentation test. In the second part of the thesis, the experimental set-up for these methods were developed and verified by using the PDMS in static (quasi equilibrium) state. From the dynamic tests, it showed its possible usage in studying adhesion hysteresis with respect to speed. The adhesion hysteresis was observed at high speed condition in both contact angle measurement and JKR-type indentation tests.

Development of new scientific disciplines such as bioengineering and micro-nano engineering adopting nonconventional materials requests innovative methodologies that can accurately measure the mechanical properties of soft biological materials and characterize surface energy and adhesion properties of them, independent of measurement conditions. One of emerging methods to measure the deformation of materials under stress is digital image correlation (DIC) technique. As a noncontact strain measurement method, DIC has the advantages of prevention of experimental errors caused by the use of contact type sensors and of flexibility in its application to soft materials that are hard to be tested by conventional method. In the first part of the thesis, 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional DIC codes were developed and optimized, and then applied to two critical applications: 1) determining the stress-strain behaviour of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sample, as a model soft material, using the optical images across large deformation region, and 2) detecting the stiffness variation within the gel mimicking the breast tumour using ultrasound images. The results of this study showed the capability of DIC as a strain sensor and suggested its potential as a diagnosing tool for the malignant lesion causing local stiffness variation. In the characterization of surface energy and adhesion properties of materials, two most common methods are contact angle measurement and JKR-type indentation test. In the second part of the thesis, the experimental set-up for these methods were developed and verified by using the PDMS in static (quasi equilibrium) state. From the dynamic tests, it showed its possible usage in studying adhesion hysteresis with respect to speed. The adhesion hysteresis was observed at high speed condition in both contact angle measurement and JKR-type indentation tests.

No description available.

The application of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) is one of the effective retrofitting and strengthening methods that is used worldwide and is starting to be used in Turkey as well because they have high strength and high modulus in the fiber direction, have very low coefficient of thermal expansion when compared to concrete and steel and are known not to corrode. Since FRPs are lightweight, their mass can be neglected when compared to concrete and steel. However, before proposing this material as an alternative for strengthening and retrofitting applications their long-term behavior should be understood because they are applied on to concrete by several layers of epoxy-based adhesives, which can be affected by change in humidity, temperature and load. Therefore, behavior of CFRP-strengthened structures in varying temperature and humidity conditions must be investigated. In this dissertation, behavior of CFRP confined cylindrical and prismatic concrete specimens having square cross-section were investigated under sustained compressive loads, dry and wet heating-cooling cycles, and outdoor exposures under direct sunlight, to determine the possible changes in their mechanical properties. Sustained loads were applied as the 40% and 50% of their confined axial load capacity. In addition to the sustained loads, specimens were subjected to 200 heating-cooling cycles between -10&deg / C to 50&deg / C. In order to understand the change in behavior of CFRP confined concrete specimens better, they were divided in six groups. A single effect was investigated in each group. After aging tests mechanical properties of the specimens were recorded via monotonic uniaxial loading. It was observed that temperature cycles had little effect on behavior but sustained loads changed the shape of the axial stress-strain diagram and resulted in a dramatic decrease in ultimate strain. Based on the test results and also using the data of similar studies available in the literature, strength and strain models considering the exposures as independent parameters were established and finally axial stress-strain curve was tried to be predicted.

No description available.

No description available.

La loi de comportement est un élément essentiel de la caractérisation mécanique des matériaux. Pour pouvoir identifier le comportement d'un matériau, il existe plusieurs méthodes expérimentales (traction statique, barres d'Hopkinson) qui permettent d'obtenir des lois mécaniques applicables dans des conditions bien définies et le plus souvent sur des matériaux massifs homogènes. La plupart de ces essais sont de plus couteux et exigent le plus souvent des géométries d'échantillons spécifiques. L'utilisation de ces tests reste limitée et ne permet pas d'analyser tous les types de matériaux comme les revêtements ou les matériaux poreux... par exemple. Or ces matériaux eux aussi nécessitent aujourd'hui une connaissance fine de leurs propriétés afin de permettre une simulation au plus juste de leur comportement en service. Les lois de comportement établies à l'échelle d'un matériau massif ne répondent également que partiellement aux besoins de modélisation de certains procédés detraitement mécanique de surface comme par exemple le grenaillage, car elles ne prennent pas en compte les effets de la surface. L'objectif principal de cette étude est de développer une méthode à la fois rapide et facile pour pouvoir identifier le comportement local des matériaux sous condition dynamique, afin de pouvoir caractériser les surfaces soumises à des sollicitations de type chocs. Pour atteindre cet objectif, une méthode inverse a été développée pour identifier le comportement des matériaux à l'aide d'une combinaison d'approche expérimentale et numérique d'essais d'impacts répétés. Les lois decomportements obtenues à l'aide de cette méthode inverse restent sujettes à caution car difficile à comparer à des valeurs de référence par manque de données dans la littérature. Pour cette raison ces lois seront ensuite comparées avec une méthode analytique inspirée de la théorie de l'indentation. Afin de valider l'efficacité de la méthode inverse et de la méthode analytique, des essais numériques à l'aveugle ont été menés, ensuite des applications sur des matériaux modèles et industriels ont été réalisées pour déterminer les limites des méthodes. / The behavior law is an essential element of the mechanical characterization of materials. To identify the material behavior several experimental methods can be used such as (static traction, Hopkinson bars ...) that allow to obtain mechanical laws applied under well-defined conditions, i.e. on homogeneous and bulk materials. However, do to the rising cost of these tests and their specific sample geometry, their use is limited and does not allow to probe and measure all types of materials (like coatings or porous materials....). Moreover, a broad knowledge of their properties allows a more accurate simulation of their behavior in working process. Behavior laws appropriate for bulk material do not always fit to process modeling shot peening, due to surface deformation. The main objective of this study is to develop a simple, rapid method for identifying the local behavior of materials under dynamic conditions, in order to characterize surfaces under impact loading. An inverse method has been developed to identify the behavior of materials using a combination of numerical and experimental approaches of repeated impact tests. The behavior laws obtained by the inverse method must be further investigated due to missing comparison data in literature. A comparison with an analytical method based on the theory of indentation must be carried out for more accuracy. In order to validate the efficiency of the inverse method and the analytical method, numerical blind tests wereconducted, then applications on industrial and ideal materials have been carried out to determine the limits.

In this thesis, the effects of size and stress on permeability, deformability and strength of fractured rock masses are investigated. A comparison study was carried out to examine the effects of considering, or not considering, the correlation between distributions of fracture apertures and fracture trace lengths on the hydro-mechanical behavior of fractured rocks. The basic concepts used are the fundamental principles of the general theory of elasticity, Representative Elementary Volume (REV), the tensor of equivalent permeability, and the strength criteria of the fractured rocks. Due to the size and stress dependence of the hydro-mechanical properties of rock fractures, the overall effective (or equivalent) hydro-mechanical properties of the fractured rocks are also size and stress-dependent. However, such dependence cannot be readily investigated in laboratory using small samples, and so numerical modeling becomes a necessary tool for estimating their impacts. In this study, a closed-form relation is established for representing the correlation between a truncated lognormal distribution of fracture apertures and a truncated power law distribution of trace lengths, as obtained from field mapping. Furthermore, a new nonlinear algorithm is developed for predicting the relationship between normal stress and normal displacement of fractures, based on the Bandis model and the correlation between aperture and length. A large number of stochastic Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) models of varying sizes were extracted from some generated large-sized parent realizations based on a realistic fracture system description from a site investigation programme at Sellafield, UK, for calculating the REV of hydro-mechanical properties of fractured rocks. Rotated DFN models were also generated and used for evaluation of the distributions of directional permeabilities, such that tensors of equivalent permeability could be established based on stochastically established REVs. The stress-dependence of the permeability and the stress-displacement behaviour were then investigated using models of REV sizes. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) was used for numerical simulation of the fluid flow, deformability properties and mechanical strength behavior of fractured rocks. The results show significant scale-dependency of rock permeability, deformability and strength, and its variation when the correlation between aperture and trace length of fractures are concerned, with the overall permeability and deformability more controlled by dominating fractures with larger apertures and higher transmissivity and deformability, compared with fracture network models having uniform aperture. As the second moment of aperture distribution increases, a fractured rock mass shows more discrete behavior and an REV is established in smaller value of second moment with much larger model size, compared with the models with uniform fracture aperture. When the fracture aperture pattern is more scattered, the overall permeability, Young’s modulus and mechanical strength change significantly. The effect of stress on permeability and fluid flow patterns in fractured rock is significant and can lead to the existence or non-existence of a permeability tensor. Stress changes the fluid flow patterns and can cause significant channeling and the permeability tensor, and REV may be destroyed or re-established at different applied stress conditions. With an increase in the confining stress on the DEM models, the strength is increased. Compared with the Hoek-Brown criterion, the Mohr-Coulomb strength envelope provides a better fit to the results of numerical biaxial compression tests, with significant changes of the strength characteristic parameters occurring when the second moment of the aperture distribution is increased. / QC 20100702