Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important aspect in all facets of engineering. It is in particular an important consideration in the structural engineering industry, due to the prominence of the negative impact this industry has on the environment, both on a national and international scale. The problem, however, is that sustainability is a mostly unknown and highly debated topic. It is not only difficult to quantify, but even difficult just to define. In the field of structural engineering it is an especially difficult task to consider sustainability. It is still a very new field of research and difficult to apply. It is therefore important that continued research be done in order for there to be a better understanding of how sustainability should be considered and applied in the context of structures. In an attempt to assess the environmental impact of building structures, there are two basic approaches that are followed. The first, the application-oriented method, is a simple, points-based system. The second, the analysis-oriented method, makes use of detailed indices and factors to quantify the impact. This study aims to develop an analysis-oriented method, specifically designed for the complete life cycle of buildings in the South African environment. This is accomplished by continuing the work that was started by Brewis (2011), and continued by Brits (2012). Brewis developed the approach for the pre-use phase, while Brits developed the approach for the end-of-life phase. Both focussed their application on low-cost housing development. However, the approach is defined for the use of the analysis of a building envelope. The details of developing the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), as well as the approaches for the pre-use phase and the end-of life phase are discussed in Chapter 3. The study develops the use phase of the proposed environmental life cycle assessment for buildings in Chapter 4. It discusses in detail the two main components of the use phase, namely maintenance and operation. While maintenance is concerned with the replacement of building materials in the structure, the operation component is concerned with the energy needs during the use phase. It is determined that the energy use that is directly related to the building envelope is the energy required for the space heating and cooling of the building. This is due to the fact that the thermal properties of the building envelope influence the thermal environment within the building, and thereby impact the use of energy to regulate that thermal environment. In order to make the most use of both of these components within the application of the proposed LCA, it was decided to model a residential building structure that uses consistent energy to regulate the thermal environment within the structure. However, it is not only the objective to use the proposed LCA as an assessment tool, but also as a comparative and optimisation tool. Therefore one component, the external walls, was selected as a variable component. This component was varied to form a total of nine different buildings. These nine buildings were then used in a comparative study in order to try to determine an optimum choice of external walling system, based on the results of the environmental impacts determined in the LCA. It is also used to try to explain exactly how and to what extent the external walling system contributes to the environmental impact, and what useful application value we can gain from this knowledge. The results showed that a minor increase in the materials impact (due to attempts to improve the thermal capacity of the external walls) were in most cases countered by a decrease in the energy impact, which in seven of the eight alternative external walling systems led to a net decrease in environmental impact (EI) categories one to four. It was also found that with the increase of the R-value of the external walling systems, the environmental impact of the building steadily decreased, in terms of four of the five impact categories. The only exception to these trends was found in the fifth impact category: waste generation. The reason for this is the fact that energy impact in this environmental impact category is negligible, and therefore does not contribute much to the net change in environmental impact. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die belangrikheid van volhoubaarheid neem al hoe meer toe in alle aspekte van ingenieurswese. In die industrie van struktuuringenieurswese is dit van besonderse belang as gevolg van die prominente negatiewe impak van hierdie industrie op die omgewing, op beide ’n nasionale en internasionale skaal. Die probleem is egter dat volhoubaarheid nog meestal gesien word as ʼn onderwerp wat onbekend en hoogs debatteerbaar is. Dit is nie net moeilik om te kwantifiseer nie, maar selfs moeilik om dit net te definieer. In struktuuringenieurswese is dit veral ʼn moeilike taak om volhoubaarheid in ag te neem. Dit is nog ʼn baie jong studieveld wat moeilik is om toe te pas. Dit is dus van uiterse belang dat verdere navorsing gedoen word sodat daar ʼn beter begrip kan wees van hoe volhoubaarheid op die lewensiklus van strukture toegepas kan word. In 'n poging om die omgewingsimpak van die geboustrukture te evalueer, is daar twee basiese benaderings wat gevolg kan word. Die eerste, die toepassingsgeoriënteerde metode, is 'n eenvoudige, punte-gebaseerde stelsel. Die tweede, die analise-georiënteerde metode maak gebruik van gedetailleerde indekse en faktore om die omgewingsimpak te kwantifiseer. Hierdie studie beoog om 'n analise-georiënteerde metode te ontwikkel, wat spesifiek ontwerp is vir die analise van die volledige lewensiklus van geboue in die Suid-Afrikaanse omgewing. Dit word gedoen deur die voortsetting van die werk wat begin is deur Brewis (2011), en voortgesit is deur Brits (2012). Brewis het die benadering vir die eerste fase (voor-gebruik) ontwikkel, terwyl Brits die benadering vir die finale fase (einde-van-lewe) ontwikkel het. Beide het die fokus van hul toepassings geplaas op lae-koste behuising. Die benaderings is egter gedefinieer vir die algemene analise van ʼn gebou se raamwerk. Die besonderhede van die ontwikkeling van die omgewingslewensiklus analise (OLA), asook die benaderings vir die eerste en finale fases, word in Hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Die studie ontwikkel die gebruiksfase van die voorgestelde omgewingslewensiklus analise vir geboue in Hoofstuk 4. Dit bespreek die twee hoofkomponente van die gebruiksfase, naamlik die instandhouding en bedryf. Terwyl instandhouding gemoeid is met die vervanging van boumateriale in die struktuur, is die bedryfskomponent gemoeid met die energie behoeftes tydens die gebruiksfase. Dit word bepaal dat die energie verbruik wat ʼn direkte verband het met die gebou se raamwerk, die energie is wat nodig is vir die verhitting en verkoeling van die gebou. Dit is te danke aan die feit dat die termiese eienskappe van die gebou se raamwerk die termiese omgewing binne die gebou beïnvloed, en sodoende 'n impak het op die energie wat benodig word om die temperatuur te reguleer. In ʼn poging om die spektrum van die voorgestelde OLA ten volle te benut, is dit besluit om die toepassing daarvan te illustreer op 'n residensiële gebou wat van konsekwente energieverbruik gebruik maak om die termiese omgewing binne die gebou te reguleer. Dit is egter nie net die doel om die voorgestelde OLA te gebruik as 'n assesseringsinstrument nie, maar ook om die OLA se funksie as ’n vergelykende en optimaliseringshulpmiddel te illustreer. Dus is een komponent, die eksterne mure, gekies as 'n veranderlike komponent. Hierdie komponent is gewissel om 'n totaal van nege verskillende geboue te vorm. Hierdie nege geboue is gebruik in 'n vergelykende studie in 'n poging om 'n optimale keuse van eksterne mure te bepaal, gebaseer op die resultate van die omgewingsimpak wat in die OLA te bepaal is. Dit word ook gebruik om te probeer om te verduidelik presies hoe en tot watter mate die eksterne mure bydra by tot die omgewingsimpak, en watter nuttige toepassingswaarde geput kan word uit hierdie kennis. Die resultate het getoon dat 'n toename in die materiaal impak (weens pogings om die termiese kapasiteit van die eksterne mure te verbeter) in die meeste gevalle teengewerk is deur 'n afname in die energie impak. In sewe van die agt alternatiewe eksterne muurstelsels het dit gelei tot 'n netto afname in omgewingsimpak vir kategorieë een tot vier. Dit is ook gevind dat die omgewingsimpak van die gebou stelselmatig gedaal het met die toename van die Rwaarde van die eksterne muurstelsels, ook in terme van kategorieë een tot vier. Die enigste uitsondering op hierdie tendense is gevind in die vyfde impak kategorie: die afval wat gegenereer word. Die feit dat die effek van energie verbruik gering is in hierdie omgewingsimpak kategorie, lei tot die feit dat dit nie veel bydra tot die netto verandering in die omgewingsimpak nie.

Neste trabalho o comportamento sísmico das partes internas de um equipamento de proteção ambiental é estudado. O equipamento, um precipitador eletrostático, é composto basicamente de uma grande caixa de metal elevada, que contem eletrodos positivos e negativos responsáveis pela coleta de material particulado no fluxo de gases industriais. Esses componentes se comportam como pêndulos. No modelo foram considerados os deslocamentos sísmicos horizontais em duas direções ortogonais. De especial interesse está o fato de os eletrodos terem a liberdade de oscilar no plano de uma direção, mas não no seu plano perpendicular. Serão analisados quatro modelos com um, dois, três graus de liberdade, e um com três graus de liberdade linearizado. O modelo mais completo considera como graus de liberdade e coordenadas generalizadas os dois deslocamentos horizontais, e o deslocamento angular do pendulo. Foi adotada a formulação Lagrangeana para derivar as equações de movimento do modelo. As equações diferenciais do movimento de segunda ordem obtidas apresentam um comportamento não linear. Os movimentos sísmicos, que são estocásticos por natureza, serão simulados por meio de um registro sísmico existente, arbitrariamente escolhido. A obtenção dos parâmetros do modelo a ser estudado é de especial interesse para a melhor previsão do comportamento do equipamento quando solicitado a esforços sísmicos. A integração numérica do modelo matemático é efetuada, sendo posteriormente realizados comparativos entre as respostas dos modelos, quando submetidos tanto a vibração livre, como a um sismo real já registrado, arbitrário. / In this work, the seismic behavior of the internal parts of an environmental control equipment is studied. The equipment, an electrostatic precipitator, is basic composed of an elevated large steel box, containing positive and negative electrodes that capture powdered material of industrial effluent gases. These internal components behave essentially as pendula. In the mathematical model seismic motions in two orthogonal directions are considered. It is interesting to realize that the pendular electrodes are free to swing in one plane but not in the other plane. Four increasingly complex nonlinear models are analyzed, with one, two and three degrees of freedom, as well as one 3-degree-of-freedom linearized model. The generalized coordinates of the most complete model are the two horizontal displacements of the top mass and the angular motion of the pendulum. Lagranges formulation is used to derive the equations of motion of the models. These are second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The base seismic motions, that are stochastic in nature, are replaced by a arbitrarily chosen existing seismic record. The models parameters are carefully chosen to a good prediction of the equipment under seismic support excitation. Numerical integration of the mathematical model is performed, and comparisons are made of the several models response submitted to free vibrations and to an existing seismic record.

Em geral, os desenvolvimentos na literatura e em códigos de construção voltados para projeto sísmico tem grande ênfase em edifícios civis e seu respectivo comportamento dinâmico. Entretanto, em diversas ocasiões, faz-se necessário o projeto e dimensionamento de equipamentos ou estruturas de geometria e comportamento distintos dos de um edifício usual. Contudo, são encontradas em diferentes normas afirmações e advertências de que as informações lá contidas aplicam-se inteiramente a essas estruturas ou construções similares. Nesses documentos, emitidos por vários países para aplicação em seus respectivos territórios, são estabelecidos procedimentos e métodos. Ademais, opções para análise são propostas, com base em diversos fatores como o tipo de estrutura resistente, a função da edificação, os custos relacionados, a importância da obra e as características geológicas do local de construção. Nesse trabalho, foi realizado o estudo de estruturas para máquinas de fabricação de papel, de modo analítico e por meio do método dos elementos finitos, com respeito a projeto sísmico. Esses equipamentos consistem de pórticos metálicos suportados por estruturas civis, e que suportam rotores por cuja superfície passa o papel durante operação. Os métodos usualmente presentes em normas, força horizontal equivalente, análise espectral e análise transiente com históricos de acelerações no tempo foram aplicados, e suas respostas comparadas e comentadas. Buscou-se como resultado uma melhor compreensão das considerações e dos métodos mais adequados para essas estruturas, assim como das eventuais variações ocasionadas pela sua aplicação. / Usually, the progresses in codes and technical literature regarding seismic analyses are aimed at civil buildings and their dynamic behavior. Nevertheless, frequently, the dimensioning and construction of equipments or structures with distinct geometry and behavior are required. In numerous codes, though, statements that the comprised information should be fully applied solely to buildings and similar constructions are found. In these codes, issued by many countries for the application in their respective territories, there are procedures and criteria established for seismic design. Moreover, applicable analysis methods are presented, and the selection of which one to employ is based on details as type of resistant systems, intended occupation, rebuilding costs, significance and the geological features of the erection site. In this work, the study of structures for paper production machines is presented, regarding seismic analysis and employing analytical and the finite element methods. These machines consist of metallic frames supported by civil structures and supporting rotors, whose surfaces are in contact with the paper web. The methods usually found in codes, equivalent lateral force, spectrum analysis and transient with acceleration time history were considered, and their results compared and commented afterwards. A better understanding of the more appropriate methods and input parameters for these structures was intended, as well as of any eventual deviation caused by their use.

Neste trabalho o comportamento sísmico das partes internas de um equipamento de proteção ambiental é estudado. O equipamento, um precipitador eletrostático, é composto basicamente de uma grande caixa de metal elevada, que contem eletrodos positivos e negativos responsáveis pela coleta de material particulado no fluxo de gases industriais. Esses componentes se comportam como pêndulos. No modelo foram considerados os deslocamentos sísmicos horizontais em duas direções ortogonais. De especial interesse está o fato de os eletrodos terem a liberdade de oscilar no plano de uma direção, mas não no seu plano perpendicular. Serão analisados quatro modelos com um, dois, três graus de liberdade, e um com três graus de liberdade linearizado. O modelo mais completo considera como graus de liberdade e coordenadas generalizadas os dois deslocamentos horizontais, e o deslocamento angular do pendulo. Foi adotada a formulação Lagrangeana para derivar as equações de movimento do modelo. As equações diferenciais do movimento de segunda ordem obtidas apresentam um comportamento não linear. Os movimentos sísmicos, que são estocásticos por natureza, serão simulados por meio de um registro sísmico existente, arbitrariamente escolhido. A obtenção dos parâmetros do modelo a ser estudado é de especial interesse para a melhor previsão do comportamento do equipamento quando solicitado a esforços sísmicos. A integração numérica do modelo matemático é efetuada, sendo posteriormente realizados comparativos entre as respostas dos modelos, quando submetidos tanto a vibração livre, como a um sismo real já registrado, arbitrário. / In this work, the seismic behavior of the internal parts of an environmental control equipment is studied. The equipment, an electrostatic precipitator, is basic composed of an elevated large steel box, containing positive and negative electrodes that capture powdered material of industrial effluent gases. These internal components behave essentially as pendula. In the mathematical model seismic motions in two orthogonal directions are considered. It is interesting to realize that the pendular electrodes are free to swing in one plane but not in the other plane. Four increasingly complex nonlinear models are analyzed, with one, two and three degrees of freedom, as well as one 3-degree-of-freedom linearized model. The generalized coordinates of the most complete model are the two horizontal displacements of the top mass and the angular motion of the pendulum. Lagranges formulation is used to derive the equations of motion of the models. These are second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The base seismic motions, that are stochastic in nature, are replaced by a arbitrarily chosen existing seismic record. The models parameters are carefully chosen to a good prediction of the equipment under seismic support excitation. Numerical integration of the mathematical model is performed, and comparisons are made of the several models response submitted to free vibrations and to an existing seismic record.

Em geral, os desenvolvimentos na literatura e em códigos de construção voltados para projeto sísmico tem grande ênfase em edifícios civis e seu respectivo comportamento dinâmico. Entretanto, em diversas ocasiões, faz-se necessário o projeto e dimensionamento de equipamentos ou estruturas de geometria e comportamento distintos dos de um edifício usual. Contudo, são encontradas em diferentes normas afirmações e advertências de que as informações lá contidas aplicam-se inteiramente a essas estruturas ou construções similares. Nesses documentos, emitidos por vários países para aplicação em seus respectivos territórios, são estabelecidos procedimentos e métodos. Ademais, opções para análise são propostas, com base em diversos fatores como o tipo de estrutura resistente, a função da edificação, os custos relacionados, a importância da obra e as características geológicas do local de construção. Nesse trabalho, foi realizado o estudo de estruturas para máquinas de fabricação de papel, de modo analítico e por meio do método dos elementos finitos, com respeito a projeto sísmico. Esses equipamentos consistem de pórticos metálicos suportados por estruturas civis, e que suportam rotores por cuja superfície passa o papel durante operação. Os métodos usualmente presentes em normas, força horizontal equivalente, análise espectral e análise transiente com históricos de acelerações no tempo foram aplicados, e suas respostas comparadas e comentadas. Buscou-se como resultado uma melhor compreensão das considerações e dos métodos mais adequados para essas estruturas, assim como das eventuais variações ocasionadas pela sua aplicação. / Usually, the progresses in codes and technical literature regarding seismic analyses are aimed at civil buildings and their dynamic behavior. Nevertheless, frequently, the dimensioning and construction of equipments or structures with distinct geometry and behavior are required. In numerous codes, though, statements that the comprised information should be fully applied solely to buildings and similar constructions are found. In these codes, issued by many countries for the application in their respective territories, there are procedures and criteria established for seismic design. Moreover, applicable analysis methods are presented, and the selection of which one to employ is based on details as type of resistant systems, intended occupation, rebuilding costs, significance and the geological features of the erection site. In this work, the study of structures for paper production machines is presented, regarding seismic analysis and employing analytical and the finite element methods. These machines consist of metallic frames supported by civil structures and supporting rotors, whose surfaces are in contact with the paper web. The methods usually found in codes, equivalent lateral force, spectrum analysis and transient with acceleration time history were considered, and their results compared and commented afterwards. A better understanding of the more appropriate methods and input parameters for these structures was intended, as well as of any eventual deviation caused by their use.

This masters thesis deals with analysis of tree structure data. The aim of this thesis is to design and implement a tool for automated detection of relation among samples of read data considering their three structure and node values. Output of the tool is a prescription for automated synthesis of data for testing purposes. The tool is a part of Testos platform developed at FIT BUT.

Through continued innovation and growth, traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) remains the microwave power amplifiers of choice in a wide range of high power microwave and millimeter-wave applications specifically for aerospace applications with the volume, weight, bandwidth and power constraints. These advances can be credited to device innovation, improved modeling and design and development of advanced materials and construction techniques. This thesis aims at advancing the present technology of TWTs with coupled resonator slow-wave structures (SWSs) by a combination of device innovation, development of enhanced analytical and field analysis codes and understanding gained through improved modeling, simulation and experimentation. In a TWT, the SWS that slows the RF wave velocity down to near the electron beam velocity for interaction with the electron beam primarily determines the microwave performances of the tube. As compared to helix SWS, the coupled resonator SWS is capable of handling high peak and average powers with higher efficiency and TWTs based on these SWS are well suited for air-borne or space-borne radar systems and the major focus of this thesis is on the analysis and design of coupled resonator SWSs. As a part of this thesis, improved analytical codes based on quasi-TEM analysis and equivalent circuit analysis have been developed. The technical formulation is explained and the improvements made for enhanced accuracy and for incorporation of different types of coupled resonator SWSs detailed. Using these models new variants of coupled resonator SWSs have been investigated. The SWSs proposed are the ladder-core inverted slot mode SWS and the inductively loaded inter digital SWS (ILID-SWS). The possibility of achieving both coalesced mode design that gives wide bandwidth and multi beam design that improves the peak power and gain using rectangular ILID-SWS is presented. The properties of these proposed SWSs have been compared with the existing SWSs and found to give superior performance. Also an improved modeling and simulation technique using 3-D electromagnetic codes has been proposed and the conventional cold test measurement procedure has been modified for more accurate results. Numerous illustrative examples are presented throughout the thesis highlighting the analytical model and simulation code validation with experimental results. The experimentations have been carried out on the real SWS model that have been fabricated and assembled. Further, the contribution of the thesis is towards the development of a field analysis model for analysis of a corrugated waveguide SWS, based on the coupled integral equation technique (CIET), which is a combination of mode matching technique (MMT) and method of moments. The technical formulation and computational methodology employed in the model are explained and some of the most important aspects of implementation like the handling of singularities and choice of parameters controlling the accuracy is discussed. The accuracy and speed of the code is demonstrated by comparing CIET with MMT and 3-D electro magnetic simulators based on finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and finite element method (FEM). The CIET code developed is quite faster than the existing numerical methods and helps in solving the convergence problem associated with the MMT.