Trauma caused by grasping during laparoscopic surgery is something which will never be fully eradicated however efforts should be taken to reduce the potential to cause trauma by grasping. Tissue is often grasped with excessive forces for long periods of time during surgeries such as cholecystectomies and colectomies. This along with failed grasping actions and the occurrence of slip has been shown to damage the tissue. Design features often employed within graspers such as profiling and the occlusion mechanism of the instrument cause areas of high, uneven distribution of pressures on the tissue which can result in perforation or tissue tearing. By investigating these contributing factors, development of graspers with a low risk to cause damage this combined with actuating the grasping force should reduce the incidence of grasping trauma, currently at estimated at one incidence per procedure. These trauma events can lead to conversion to open surgery, peritonitis and even death. Development of an autonomous grasping instrument to detect and prevent slip by actuating the grasping force is reported. Piezoelectric sensors are used to detect incipient slip and slip events. A closed loop control system then reacts to these perceived slip events to prevent slip occurring by actuating the applied force by small increments to increase or decrease grasping force. This leads to a system in which only the required amount of force necessary to overcome pull force is applied to the tissue. Other areas of investigation to reduce tissue trauma are presented. In chapter 3 design features such as surface profiling and fenestrations are evaluated to determine the potential to cause damage. A variety of profiles and fenestrations are studied and each is reported by representing the applied force to retention force ratio which indicates how good the profile is at retaining tissue against a pull force. The aim of this study was to develop surface profiling which had a high retention force but a reduced number of high stress areas which can lead to tissue damage. Three new parallel action grasping designs are presented and evaluated using finite element analysis. Parallel action grasping is important in reducing tissue trauma as it distributes pressure evenly across the active grasping area as opposed to more conventional pivot style graspers which have high stress concentration areas in the proximal opening. Each area of study within the thesis addresses areas of concern which have been shown to cause tissue trauma and postulates viable solutions to reduce the incidences of tissue trauma during laparoscopic surgery with the ultimate aim of developing a deployable and autonomous grasping device which will detect and prevent slip.

ABSTRACT This research uses Taguchi Method, combined with Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, processing the work piece into the saddle type. Next, diverse sampling methods are applied to measure the profile of surface with Coordinate Measuring Machine, with an aim to analyzing the main factors that influence cutting and seeking the last conditions for cutting out the curved surface; in addition, I will probe into the contribution rate of each factor which influences the precision during the process of measurement. The following results of this research are expected to be offered to the circles of vocational education as a basis of processing and measuring instruction. In this way, it will not take too much time to try and error and therefore, the practice course can be more efficient. 1. With reference to the documents that are focused on the factors affecting the cutting, this thesis, by means of Taguchi Method, shows that during the process of cutting saddle-type curved surface, the rotating speed of the axle is the most influential, whose contribution rate is 59.38%. 2. Since most documents are on circles, balls or cone objects, this thesis will aim at the measurement of saddle-type curved surface, with an intention to further the measuring technique. 3. It is found that as to the saddle-type curved surface, random sampling can get the profile of surface with minimal errors, and has no such trouble as using HSS or LHS, which can reduce time and cost. 4. In the experiment of Taguchi Method, according to analysis of variance, the influence of the sampling area is the greatest while the choice of sampling method only contributes to 3.46%.

An impermeable weir constructed across a stream prevents the longitudinal movement of aquatic life and transportation of physical and chemical substances in water, eventually having a negative impact on river environment. However, a rubble mound weir is considered environmentally friendly, since its permeability allows the streamwise migration of aquatic life. This thesis investigates the performance of this type of weir as a water use facility. The particular objective of the investigation is to study the flow mechanism in terms of water surface profile and discharge through the weir. In the study, flow through the rubble mound weir is considered non-Darcian, steady, and one-dimensional. In the analysis, gradually varied open channel flow algorithm is applied to porous medium flow through the rubble mound weir in which laminar and turbulent components of flow are taken into consideration. Unlike previous studies where Stephenson and Wilkins relations were used, in this thesis Forchheimer equation is used. To verify the validity of numerical solution of governing equation based on Forchheimer relation, an experimental investigation is conducted in the laboratory. The experimentally obtained water surface profiles are compared with the numerical results. It is observed that there is a satisfactory agreement between numerical and experimental results. The water surface profiles obtained by numerical solution are further compared with those based on Stephenson and Wilkins relations. It is concluded that the proposed numerical solution technique for the Forchheimer based governing equation may be used in the analysis of flow through, and design of rockfill weirs.

In the teoretical part of the master´s thesis, the master´s thesis deals with milling and surface profile describing. In the practical part, the master´s thesis deal with model of surface profile after milling operation with plain milling cetter. For evalution were used data obtained from the computer model of the surface profil and data obtained from measuring the actual surface profil, which was created by machining the material mills with a diameter of 45 mm.

The frictional behavior of soil-construction material interfaces is of significant importance in geotechnical engineering applications such as retaining structures, pile foundations, geosynthetic liners, and trenchless technologies. Since most failures initiate and develop on the interfaces, special attention is required to predict the capacity of these weak planes in the particular application. Pipe-jacking and microtunneling technologies are being more widely used over the past decade and there is significant interest to predict the jacking forces and jacking distances achievable in order to achieve more efficient design and construction. This study focuses on the evaluation of the frictional characteristics and factors affecting the shear strength of pipe-soil interfaces. Eight different pipes made from fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), polycrete, steel, concrete, and vitrified clay were tested in the experimental program. For this purpose, a new apparatus was designed to conduct conventional interface direct shear testing on pipes of different curvature. This device allows coupons cut from actual conduits and pipes to be tested in the laboratory under controlled conditions. The apparatus includes a double-wall shear box, the inner wall of which is interchangeable to allow for testing against surfaces of different curvatures. By considering a narrow width section, the circular interface of pipes was approximated with a surface along the axial direction and the boundary is defined by the inner box. Roughness tests were performed using a stylus profilometer to quantify the surface characteristics of the individual pipes and relate these to the interface shear behavior. The surface topography showed different degrees of variability for the different pipes. To extend the range of roughness values tested and force the failure to occur in the particulate media adjacent to the interface, two artificial pipe surfaces were created using rough sandpapers. Interface shear tests were performed using the new apparatus with air-pluviated dense specimens of Ottawa 20/30 sand. Additional tests were performed using Atlanta blasting sand to evaluate the effect of particle angularity. The effect of normal stress and relative density were also examined. The interface strength was shown to increase with surface roughness and finally reach a constant value above a certain critical roughness value, which corresponded to the internal strength of the soil itself. This represented the failure location moving from the interface into the soil adjacent to the interface. Both the strength and the shearing mechanism were thus affected by the surface topography. It was also shown that the interface shear strength was affected by particle angularity, relative density and normal stress.

The flow characteristics of the subcritical and supercritical flows over a free overfall in a rectangular channel are studied experimentally. A series of experiments were conducted in a tilting flume with a wide range of flow rate. Data collected by several researchers are also included. An empirical relationship, which gives the flow rate as a function of the brink depth, the channel bed slope and the bed roughness are confirmed by using data collected in present study. In addition, the behaviors of the ratio of the brink depth to the critical depth according to several flow parameters are examined. Further, the location of the critical depth in subcritical flows while flow is approaching to the fall is investigated. It is concluded that the location of the critical depth in subcritical flow is a function of the Froude number, channel bed slope and the Manning roughness coefficient. The resemblance or the difference in the occurrence of the profile in sub and supercritical flows examined.

Yes / A dam break wave caused by the discontinuity in depth and velocity of a flow is resulted from instantaneous release a body of water from a channel and classified naturally as a rapidly varied unsteady flow. Due to its nature, it is hard to be accurately represented by analytical models. The aim of this study is to establish the modelling differences and complexity echelons between analytically simulated explicit laminar and turbulent dry bed dam break wave free surface profiles. An in-depth solution to the free surface profile has been provided and evaluated by representing the reported dam break flow measurements at various locations. The methodology adopted utilizes the free surface profile formulations presented by Chanson 1,2, which are developed using the method of characteristics. In order to validate the results of the presented analytical models in illustrating the dam break wave under dry bed conditions, published experimental data provided by Schoklitsch 3, Debiane 4 and Dressler 5 are used to compare and analyze the performance of the dam break waves under laminar and turbulent flow conditions.

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This master’s thesis introduces a slide bearing analysis using the MBS software tool of FEV Virtual Engine, including real surface topography based on 3D roughness measurements. The first half of the thesis gives a brief overview about gasoline combustion engines, slide bearing usage in engines, slide bearing construction and about essential approaches for the characterization of elasto-hydrodynamic behavior. In the second half, the process of model building, rough surface measurement and preparation of analyses are described. At the end of this thesis, the results of the analyses are shown and discussed.