The object of this study was to investigate the recent developments in the use of precast prestressed concrete members for buildings in the United States and Iran. In the United States, the study was concerned with developments in the usage of members such as slabs, wall panels, beams and columns. The latest technical and engineering reports, along with personal interviews, were used, and a number of case studies were conducted on recently built structures. The author also studied the newest developments in the precast concrete industry in Iran. A questionnaire was formulated in both Persian (native language of Iran) and English, and was sent to twelve of the largest precast concrete manufacturers in Iran. This study was extended to include the use of precast concrete members in alleviating Iran's housing shortage, which is one of the greatest problems facing the country today. From these studies the following observations have been made with respect to the United States: There is a vast variety of precast concrete units designed and manufactured in the country. The majority of precast concrete units in buildings are assembled by using simple connections. There has been great improvement in the quality of sealant materials. In the case studies conducted, it was evident that proper planning in design, production, transportation and erection of members were the major reasons in lowering the cost of precast concrete structures as compared to cast-in-place structures. The rapid increase in the use of precast concrete members is due to repetition of similar members, increase in strength and serviceability by prestressing, rapid construction, better quality control, improvement in handling and fire resistance qualities. In the case of Iran, the following observations have been made: The use of precast concrete members has increased rapidly in the last decade. Precast concrete construction, with proper sheer design, appears suitable in areas where there is stronger and more frequent earthquake occurrence. Precast concrete members are considered to be suitable for low-cost housing projects because of the availability of cement and steel reinforcement, an inadequate supply of wood and also because of the advantages of precast concrete mentioned above.

Insulated concrete forms (ICFs) are green building components that are primarily used for residential wall construction. Unlike most polystyrene based ICF variants, the Faswall ICFs used in these experiments were significantly denser because they were made from recycled wood particles and cement. The current design approach for structures constructed with this type of wall form only allows the designer to consider the contribution of the reinforced concrete cores. Previous research has shown that this approach may be conservative. This project experimentally evaluated the lateral structural response of these types of grid ICF walls under increasing amplitude of in-plane cyclic loading. Two different height-to-length (aspect) ratios (approximately 2:1 and 1:1) were investigated, as was the effect of simultaneous gravity load. Furthermore, the reinforced concrete grid was exposed for each aspect ratio in order to examine the contribution of the ICF blocks to the lateral response. Analyses of hysteretic behaviors and failure modes indicated conservatism in the current design approach for estimating lateral strength and ignoring the beneficial contribution of the ICF blocks to overall performance. The presence of the wall forms increased the lateral shear capacity of the walls by an average of 42% (compared to the walls with forms removed), while also increasing the deformation capacity by an average of 102%. Furthermore, by considering an additional gravity load of 10 kips-per-lineal-foot (klf), the shear resistance of the walls increased by 32% (versus walls only subjected to self-weight), on average, and the deformation capacity of the walls increased by an average of 19%. Comparisons of the experimental results to several design equations led to the recommendation of a design equation that was previously accepted for another type of ICF system.

The natural variation of strength properties within brittle materials leads to size effect, a well-known phenomenon whereby the mean strength of a material is observed to decrease as the stressed volume increases. An important implication of size effect is that size adjustment parameters must be incorporated into multi-axial constitutive and failure models used in numerical simulations to predict material response to loading. This experimental study seeks to verify and quantify the presence of depth effect under shear failure in the orthotropic principal material directions of parallel strand lumber (PSL) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL). Torsion tests have been performed on specimens of fixed length and differing cross section to get a pure shear failure, by using a Universal Test Machine. The experimental results indicate that there is no depth effect for LVL from torsional shear stresses. PSL testing was limited to one size, and depth effect was not evaluated. A finite element model was built to simulate the torsional test for the 44x140mm LVL specimen. Comparing the experimental test results and the simulation results, the model provided an accurate prediction of the torsional test for Structural Composite Lumber.

High hardness steels can be affected by delayed brittle cracking often attributed to hydrogen embrittlement. Improved resistance to hydrogen embrittlement would be beneficial to many industries including military, automotive, and high-rise construction. While other prevention methods include coating, trapping, and barriers, design efforts in this study were focused on improving intrinsic properties to be more resistant to hydrogen embrittlement. Four alloys targeting 477 – 534 HB were designed and produced in-house and compared against a commercial grade 500 HB alloy. Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact toughness and tensile specimens were made according to ASTM E23 and ASTM E8 to characterize mechanical properties. Hydrogen embrittlement testing was performed using ASTM E8 test samples electro-chemically charged in either sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid with thiourea in solution. Results suggested that alloying for lower strength and better toughness by reducing C and Mn results in lower hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility.

This research effort explored the possibility of using interwoven conductive and nonconductive fibers in a composite laminate for structural health monitoring (SHM). Traditional SHM systems utilize fiber optics, piezoelectrics, or detect defects by nondestructive test methods by use of sonar graphs or x-rays. However, these approaches are often expensive, time consuming and complicated. The primary objective of this research was to apply a resistance based method of structural health monitoring to a composite structure to determine structural integrity and presence of defects. The conductive properties of fiber such as carbon, copper, or constantan - a copper-nickel alloy - can be utilized as sensors within the structure. This allows the structure to provide feedback via electrical signals to a user which are essential for evaluating the health of the structure. In this research, the conductive fiber was made from constantan wire which was embedded within a composite laminate; whereas prepreg fiberglass, a nonconductive material, serves as the main structural element of the laminate. A composite laminate was constructed from four layers of TenCate 7781 “E” fiberglass and BT250E-1 resin prepreg. Integrating the constantan within the composite laminate provides a sensory element which supplies measurements of structural behavior. Thus, with fiberglass, epoxy, and a constantan conductive element, a three-part composite laminate is developed. Test specimens used in this research were fabricated using a composite air press with the recommended manufacturer cure cycle. A TenCate BT250E-1 Resin System and 7781 "E" impregnated glass-fiber/epoxy weave was used. A constantan wire of 0.01” gauge diameter was integrated into the composite structure. The composite laminate specimen with the integrated SHM system was tested under tensile and flexural loads employing test standards specified by ASTM D3039 and D7264, respectively. These test methods were modified to determine the behavior of the laminate in the elastic range only. A tension and flexural delamination test case was also developed to investigate the sensitivity of the SHM system to inherent defects. Moreover, material characteristic tests were completed to validate manufacturer provided material characteristics. The specimens were tested while varying the constantan configurations, such as the sensor length and orientation. A variety of techniques to integrate the sensor were also investigated. Two different measurement methods were used to determine strain. Strain measurements were made with Instron Bluehill 2 software and correlated to strain obtained by the structural health monitoring system with the use of a data acquisition code written to interact with a micro-ohm-meter. The experimental results showed good agreement between measurements made by the two different methods of measurement. Observations discovered that varying the length of the sensor element improved sensitivity, but resulted in different prediction models when compared to cases with less sensor length. The predictions are based on the gauge factor, which was determined for the each test case. This value provides the essential relationship between resistance and strain. Experiments proved that the measured gauge factor depended greatly on the sensor length and orientation. The correlation was of sufficient accuracy to predict strain values in a composite laminate without the use of any added tools or equipment besides the ohm-meter. Analytical solutions to the loading cases were developed to validate results obtained during experiments. The solutions were in good agreement with the experimental results.

<p>Aging public infrastructure in North America continues to challenge engineers and scientists to develop repair and rehabilitation strategies that are practical, durable and cost effective. Of specific interest is the state of concrete and concrete repair in buildings and civil engineering infrastructures that are in deteriorating condition. In particular, cracks pose a threat to the durability and ultimately the structural integrity of concrete. Cracks in concrete may form for several reasons, e.g. plastic shrinkage, thermal contraction, mechanical loading or as a result of overloading. Once formed, cracks present a combination of problems to the service life and performance of the structure. Therefore cracks must be repaired for the following reasons: to prevent the ingress of deleterious agents such as water, other liquids, vapour, gas, chemicals and biological agents; to either restore or increase the structural load-bearing capacity of the cracked concrete member; to restore the aesthetic condition of the structure.</p> <p>The effectiveness of two different repair methods, crack injections and cementitious overlays, were examined. Two repair materials, a low viscosity epoxy and polyurethane were injected into the cracks, and a thin polymer-modified cementious overlay was applied on the cracked surface. Two types of cement were used, an ordinary Portland cement and a blended cement with 8% silica fume. The specimen properties were evaluated using non-destructive testing, prior to being subjected to a series of freeze-thaw conditioning regimes. From the experimental program, it was determined that the epoxy injection repair was more effective in restoring the air tightness than the thin overlay. The polyurethane material was unsuccessful. Following the freeze-thaw regimes, an overall improvement of conditions for all three repairs was observed, with the cementitious overlay seeing the greatest improvement in air tightness. These results indicate that the on-going cement hydration mechanism had a greater effect on the performance in comparison to the deleterious effects of the environmental loads.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>Void growth and coalescence in a single layer model material with holes were visualized by the environmental electron scanning microscope coupled with in situ tensile test. Single sheet model materials were manufactured with a line of laser drilled holes through thickness. In order to investigate the effect of shear localization, the line of holes were oriented with the misorientation angle <em>θ </em>= 0°, 15°, 30°, and 45°. The α-brass samples were studied to introduce the work hardening effect in comparison with the pure copper samples.</p> <p>By taking images at intervals with small strain increments, the void growth behaviors were visualized during the interrupted tensile testing. The void coalescence (defined consistent with Hosokawa et al (2011), as the point at which the voids stopped shrinking laterally) was successfully captured for the first time in the two dimensional studies. The evolutions of void shape change and void rotation during deformation were also studied quantitatively. The results showed that the higher work hardening behaviors can suppress the void coalescence. It also showed that the effect of local volume fraction dominated the coalescence event rather than the void spacing and shear localization. A comparison of the classic models with the experimental results were also made.</p> / Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering (MSMSE)

<p>We explore the effect of size on the phase stability of nanosystems by comparing calculated trends with the annealing behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) initially in a core-shell configuration. The NPs are characterized using a variety of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques.</p> <p>We first theoretically consider the equilibrium within a Au-Pt NP of a given size. When considering the contribution of surface and interface energies, we note the appearance of a restricted composition range of the phase diagram over which the liquid and solid phases cannot coexist in a core-shell configuration. A critical radius of ",42 nm is identified below which the NP is single-phased for any composition. It is demonstrated that both branches of the miscibility gap of the Au-Pt phase diagram shift towards the Au-rich composition with increasing curvature. The magnitude of the shift is found to be strongly correlated with the coupling of nonlinear terms entering the Gibbs energy. The main contribution to the shift arises from the composition-dependent surface energy, calculated by considering the selective adsorption of Au to the surface, evaluated using the available thermodynamic properties of the Au-Pt system.</p> <p>An array of TEM-related analytical methods were developed or adapted for the characterization of individual NPs. In particular, chemical maps with quantitative information from a NP with a spatial resolution of '" 1.2 nm could be achieved, with their corresponding error analysis. We introduce an algorithm to retrieve the radial elemental composition from the projected chemical map of a NP if a spherical symmetry can be assumed and test it with NPs of known structures. We also present a technique to determine the composition of a NP having one of the elements depleting during analysis, and test it experimentally with 5-20 nm Au-Ag NPs. Typically, for every Ag characteristic X-ray detected, one Ag atom is lost to knock-on damage. We discuss the detection limit of the method as a function of NP size and composition.</p> <p>We follow the structural evolution of a ",20 nm Au(core) Pt(shell) NP during annealing at various temperatures between 300 and 800 °e. At low temperatures, interdiffusion occurs between the core and the shell, while at temperatures abovt: ",600 °e, the configuration evolves towards one composed of Au- and Pt-rich spherical caps, separated by a relatively fiat interface. We could measure a 5-10% shift in the composition of each phase with respect to the bulk phase diagram that we assigned to capillarity effect. The shift agrees qualitatively with the calculated trends. The ratio of the surface to the interface energy is measured directly from a TEM micrograph of a segregated NP and is in close agreement with the calculated ones.</p> <p>This work contributes to the understanding of the phase stability of binary NPs. The prospect of extending these studies to NPs of other bimetallic systems while probing their properties seems promising, especially in view of their catalytic, magnetic and optical potential.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Scaling tests aim to induce scaling behavior in concrete specimens similar to environmental conditions. The efficacy of laboratory tests’ ability to match environmental conditions is important to be able to evaluate the durability of concrete exposed to freeze-thaw cycles and de-icers. This study attempts to correlate results between two existing scaling test standards, ASTM C672 and the BNQ NQ 2621-900. The correlation is done via scaling evaluation including computer-based photogrammetric analysis, visual ratings, and cumulative mass loss measurements. Then a correlation between the laboratory testing and in-situ sidewalk panel specimens is made via visual ratings.

This dissertation is focus on the study of solid-electrolyte interphases (SEIs) on advanced lithium ion battery (LIB) anodes. The purposes of this dissertation are to a) develop a methodology to study the properties of SEIs; and b) provide guidelines for designing engineered SEIs. The general knowledge gained through this research will be beneficial for the entire battery research community.