Injuries to the neck, or cervical region, are very importantsince there is a potential risk of damage to the spinal cord.Any neck injury can have devastating if not life threateningconsequences. High-speed transportation as well as leisure-timeadventures have increased the number of serious neck injuriesand made us increasingly aware of its consequences.Surveillance systems and epidemiological studies are importantprerequisites in defining the scope of the problem. Thedevelopment of mechanical and clinical tools is important forprimary prevention of neck injuries. Thus, the main objectives of the present doctoral thesisare:- To illustrate the dimension of cervical injuries inSweden,- To develop a Finite Element (FE) model of the uppercervical spine, and- To study spinal stability for cervical injuries. The incidence studies were undertaken with data from theinjury surveillance program at the Swedish National Board ofHealth and Welfare. All in-patient data from Swedish hospitals,ranging over thirteen years from 1987 to 1999, were analyzed.During this period 14,310 nonfatal and 782 fatal cervicalinjuries occurred. The lower cervical spine is the mostfrequent location for spinal trauma, although, this changeswith age so that the upper cervical spine is the most frequentlocation for the population over 65 years of age. The incidencefor cervical fractures for the Swedish population decreased forall age groups, except for those older than 65 years of age.The male population, in all age groups, has a higher incidencefor neck fractures than females. Transportation relatedcervical fractures have dropped since 1991, leaving fallaccidents as the sole largest cause of cervical trauma. An anatomically detailed FE model of the human uppercervical spine was developed. The model was validated to ensurerealistic motions of the joints, with significant correlationfor flexion, extension, lateral bending, axial rotation, andtension. It was shown that an FE-model could simulate thecomplex anatomy and mechanism of the upper cervical spine withgood correlation to experimental data. Three studies wereconducted with the FE model. Firstly, the model of the uppercervical spine was combined with an FE model of the lowercervical spine and a head model. The complete model was used toinvestigate a new car roof structure. Secondly, the FE modelwas used for a parameter study of the ligament materialcharacteristics. The kinematics of the upper cervical spine iscontrolled by the ligamentous structures. The ligaments have tomaintain spinal stability while enabling for large rotations ofthe joints. Thirdly, the FE-model was used to study spinalinjuries and their effect on cervical spinal stability inflexion, extension, and lateral bending. To do this, the intactupper cervical spine FE model was modified to implementruptures of the various spinal ligaments. Transection of theposterior atlantooccipital membrane, the ligametum flavum andthe capsular ligament had the most impact on flexion, while theanterior longitudinal ligament and the apical ligamentinfluenced extension. It is concluded that neck injuries in Sweden is a problemthat needs to be address with new preventive strategies. It isespecially important that results from the research on fallaccidents among the elderly are implemented in preventiveprograms. Secondly, it is concluded that an FE model of thecervical region is a powerful tool for development andevaluation of preventive systems. Such models will be importantin defining preventive strategies for the future. Lastly, it isconcluded that the FE model of the cervical spine can increasethe biomechanical understanding of the spine and contribute inanalyses of spinal stability.

When studying the structure formation and fragmentation of complex atomic and nuclear systems it is preferable to start with simple systems where all details can be explored. Some of the knowledge gained from studies of atomic dimers can be generalised to more complex systems. Adding a third atom to an atomic dimer gives a first chance to study how the binding between two atoms is affected by a third. Few-body physics is an intermediate area which helps us to understand some but not all phenomena in many-body physics. Very weakly bound, spatially very extended quantum systems with a wave function reaching far beyond the classical forbidden region and with low angular momentum are characterized as halo systems. These unusual quantum systems, first discovered in nuclear physics may also exist in systems of neutral atoms. Since the first clear theoretical prediction in 1977, of a halo system possessing an Efimov state, manifested in the excited state of the bosonic van der Waals helium trimer 42He3, small helium and different spin-polarised halo hydrogen clusters and their corresponding isotopologues have been intensively studied the last three decades. In the work presented here, the existence of the spin-polarized tritium trimer ground state, 31H3, is demonstrated, verifying earlier predictions, and the system's properties elucidated. Detailed analysis has found no found evidence for other bound states and shape resonances in this system. The properties of the halo helium trimers, 42He3 and 42He2-32He have been investigated. Earlier predictions concerning the ground state energies and structural properties of these systems are validated using our three-dimensional finite element method. In the last part of this work we present results on the bound states and structural properties of the van der Waals bosonic atomic trimers Ne3 and Ar3. We believe to be the first to find evidence of a possible shape resonance just above the three-body dissociation limit of the neon trimer.

This work develops a methodology for full engine FEA simulation of the fan blade off containment test for a jet engine using LS-Dyna. The fan blade off containment test is a safety requirement involving the intentional release of a fan blade when the engine is running at full power. The released blade must not pierce or fracture the engine cases during the impact or rotating unbalance. The novel feature of the LS-Dyna simulation is the extensive full engine geometry as well as the widespread use of nonlinearities (mainly plasticity and friction) to absorb the large kinetic energies of the engine rotors. The methodology is simple to use, runs quickly and is being recognized by industry as a contender for widespread implementation. Future applications look promising enough that the methodology warrants further development and refinement.

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This work develops a methodology for full engine FEA simulation of the fan blade off containment test for a jet engine using LS-Dyna. The fan blade off containment test is a safety requirement involving the intentional release of a fan blade when the engine is running at full power. The released blade must not pierce or fracture the engine cases during the impact or rotating unbalance. The novel feature of the LS-Dyna simulation is the extensive full engine geometry as well as the widespread use of nonlinearities (mainly plasticity and friction) to absorb the large kinetic energies of the engine rotors. The methodology is simple to use, runs quickly and is being recognized by industry as a contender for widespread implementation. Future applications look promising enough that the methodology warrants further development and refinement.

The interaction between the operating speed and the creep behavior of mini plastic fan has investigated in this study. The thermal-elastic-creep coupling model in Marc finite element method package are employed to simulate the stress distribution and creep deformation of a plastic fan operated in different operating temperature are simulated in this study. Results indicate that operating temperature affect the creep deformation significantly for a plastic fan or impeller. A comparison between the simulated data and measured data of PA66+ GF30 plastic fan was provided. A good agreement has been observed in this study. A comparison between the creep deformation of PET+GF30 and PBT+GF30 fan sets has also presented. Results indicate that PA66+GF30 plastic fan has a much better creep resistance a high temperature operating.

In one of the non-destructive testing techniques, Lamb waves, because of its ability to propagate a long distance and being hard to attenuate, can detect a wide range of area. However, due to its multimodal and dispersive characteristics, identifying the signals of defects during the test is often difficult. Time reversal method, a self-focusing technique, can offset the dispersion of Lamb waves and effectively focus on the spatial and temporal domain. This study applies the finite element method to stimulate the propagation of Lamb waves on an aluminum plate, selecting four sets of frequency-thickness products and two excitation types to excite the single-mode or multimode Lamb waves. This study aims to discuss the effects of modal and dispersion on the focus of the time reversal methods. The results show that 2 MHz-mm and in-plane excitation can produce numerous, more dispersive modals with the best focus effect. If we applied the time reversal method to testing the defects of Lamb waves, and the defects are circular and longitudinal notches, then, according to the results, the reflection signal amplitude of the circular defects can be highly increased. According to the test results of small-sized notches, the time reversal method cannot effectively improve the detecting ability of this defect.

A volumetric heat source finite element model is proposed to simulate the key hole effect during the Nd:YAG pulse laser welding. The measured data has been used to correlate the volumetric model parameters and the laser parameters. The laser power distributed in the beam cross area is in a Gaussian type. Two heat transfer models are employed in the fusion area, i.e the surface absorption heat transfer model in the low power intensity region and the keyhole heat transfer model in the high power intensity region. An experimentally measured critical power intensity is introduced to identify the occurrence of keyhole effect. The value of critical power intensity is dependent on the welding material. A series of MARC finite element simulations based on the proposed single pulse model are performed to investigate the feasibility and accuracy of this proposed pulse laser welding model. Different power and welding duration pulse laser have used to weld the S304L specimens. The results indicate a good agreement between the simulated and measured shape and size of the weld pool with different laser energy intensities. The validity of the proposed model is confirmed for the S304L steel. The temperature and residual stress distributions around the welding pool in a continuous pulse welding and two sheet overlap welding have also been studied by using the proposal model. The numerical results indicate that the pulse energy, duration and dwell period may affect the residual stress distribution and post-weld deformation significantly. All these results reveal that the proposed volumetric heat source finite element model is a feasible model to analyze the welding phenomena during the pulse laser welding. The results indicate that the pulse dwell period increase in dual pulse laser welding the residual stress decrease on the top of the weld spot surface. The results also show the lower residual stress in multi spots pulse laser welding with smaller weld spots center pitch and weld spot dwell period.

Wire bonding has been used in integrated circuit packaging for many decades because of its high reliability and performance. The most common metal used has been gold, but with the surge in commodity prices of gold in recent years, copper wire is now used to altered gold wire for cost saving. Many challenges have to be solved to meet its application requirement; coating is one of the applications. In this study, a 3D coated copper wire and coated Al pad is built by finite element method to simulate ultrasonic bonding and thermosonic bonding. To consider the effect of coated material to stress and strain field on ultrasonic bonding and the effect of coated material to temperature field on thermosonic bonding. Then use the Taguchi experiment method to discuss the effect on Cu-Ball and Al pad under different coated material and thickness combination. The results show that with coated material on Al pad or copper wire could reduce more than 48% of effective plastic strain after the bonding process, it obviously reduce the Al splash phenomenon in copper wire bonding. But the coated material such like palladium and nickel which have lower thermal conductivity would resist the heat transfer. And the Taguchi experiment method shows that the most effective way to reduce the effective stress during impact stage and ultrasonic vibration stage is to increase the thickness of palladium and nickel respectively, and when the thickness of coated material Au reached 0.01£gm could increase the temperature of Cu-Ball and Al pad mostly.

When an aluminum alloy plate after rolling, non-uniform residual stress distributions existed inside the plate and defects, such as edge wave, middle wave, of the plate will be induced. Usually, a levelling process will be adopted to modify the plate flatness. By numerically simulating the tension levelling process, the purpose of this thesis is to understand the final dimensions and the residual stress distribution of the aluminum plate subjected to the tension levelling process. This study used the finite element method as the basic theory of the numerical simulation. A 3-D model of a cold-rolled plate with a side wave, subjected to tension levelling process was constructed. Then, the effects of the variations of the tensile ratio and residual stress distribution after rolled on the residual stress distribution after levelling and the improvement of flatness were studied. The simulation results showed that in the wave region, the tension levelling process could eliminate more than 90% of the residual stress, in the flat region was up to 80%.Also, after leveling, the residual stress distribution in the flat region was more uniform than the wave region. After-rolled residual stresses at the wave region affected the final peak position of the wave and the stress eliminated ratio of the wave region, but showed no significant effect on the final plate width and the residual strains. After-rolled residual stresses at the flat region affected the stress elimination ratio of the flat region only. The tensile ratio would affect the plate flatness, the plate width, stress elimination ratio, and the maximum residual stress. The higher of the tensile ratio, the more flatness of the plate would be obtained, but the higher residual strain would be induced and caused the lesser range of available plate.