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The magnetic properties of ultrathin magnetic films can be investigated in situ by the temperature dependent magnetic ac susceptibility x(T) using an optical technique - the surface magneto-optic Kerr effect (SMOKE). The performance of the ac susceptibility measurements depends primarily on the optical setup used to detect the Kerr effect and on the mechanical stability of the system. Modifications to the optical setup and the sample holder have significantly reduced the influence of noise due to mechanical vibrations. It has been found that the signal-to-noise ratio has been improved by at least a factor of 2.5 with respect to the previous setup, giving a detection limit of 15 nrad/Oe. This improvement makes measurements on antiferromagnetic ultrathin films feasible. Their susceptibility response has been estimated to be around 20-30 nrad/Oe. As a test study for the performance of the improved setup, transverse susceptibility measurements on 2 ML Fe/W(110) ferromagnetic ultrathin films are presented. These transverse susceptibility signals show interesting features. They have a narrow linewidth and are larger than expected from anisotropy considerations and other work. Also, it has been found that the in-plane and out-of-plane transverse susceptibilities arise from different mechanisms. Several scenarios that might explain the origin, size and shape of the observed signals are discussed. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Corrosion of reinforcing steel is a major cause of damage to bridges in the United States. A possible solution to the corrosion issue is carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) material. CFRP material has been implemented as flexural reinforcement in many cases, but not as transverse reinforcing. The CFRP material studied in this thesis was NEFMAC grid, which consists of vertical and horizontal CFRP tows that form an 8 in. by 10 in. grid. The use of NEFMAC grid as transverse reinforcing has not been previously investigated. First, the development length of NEFMAC grid was determined. Next, an 18 ft long 19 in. deep beam, modeled after prestressed Bulb-T beams, was created with NEFMAC grid reinforcement. The beam was loaded with a single point load near the support to induce shear failure. Beams were fitted with instrumentation to capture shear cracking data. Shear capacity calculations following four methods were compared to test results. Lastly, a parametric study with strut-and-tie modeling was performed on Precast Bulb-T (PCBT) girders to determine the amount of CFRP grid needed for reinforcement in the anchorage zone. This thesis concludes that NEFMAC grid is a viable shear design option and presents the initial recommendations for design methods. These methods provide a basis for the design of NEFMAC grid shear reinforcing that could be used as a starting point for future testing of full scale specimens. When designing with NEFMAC grid, the full manufacturer's guaranteed strength should be used as it is the average reduced by three standard deviations. AASHTO modified compression field theory provides the best prediction of shear capacity. For anchorage zone design, working stress limits for CFRP grids need to be increased to allow more of the strength to be implemented in design. / Master of Science

Composite laminates are increasingly being used as primary load bearing members in<br />structures.  However, because of the directional dependence of the properties of<br />composite materials, additional failure modes appear that are absent in<br />homogeneous, isotropic materials.  Therefore, a stress analysis of a composite<br />laminate is not complete without an accurate representation of the transverse<br />(out-of-plane) stresses.<br /><br />Stress recovery is a common method to estimate the transverse stresses from a<br />plate or shell analysis.  This dissertation extends stress recovery to problems<br />in which geometric nonlinearities, in the sense of von K\\\'rm\\\'{a}n,  are<br />important.  The current work presents a less complex formulation for the stress<br />recovery procedure for plate geometries, compared with other implementations,<br />and results in a post-processing procedure which can be applied to data from<br />any plate analyses; analytical or numerical methods, resulting in continuous or<br />discretized data.<br /><br />Recovered transverse stress results are presented for a variety of<br />geometrically nonlinear example problems: a semi-infinite plate subjected to<br />quasi-static transverse and shear loading, and a finite plate subjected to both<br />quasi-static and dynamic transverse loading.  For all cases, the corresponding<br />results from a fully three-dimensional stress analysis are shown alongside the<br />distributions from the stress recovery procedure.  Good agreement is observed<br />between the stresses obtained from each method for the cases considered.<br />Discussion is included regarding the applicability and accuracy of the<br />technique to varying plate geometries and varying degrees of nonlinearity, as<br />well as the viability of the procedure in replacing a three-dimensional<br />analysis in regard to the time required to obtain a solution.<br /><br />The proposed geometrically nonlinear stress recovery procedure results in<br />estimations for transverse stresses which show good correlation to the<br />three-dimensional finite element solutions.  The procedure is accurate for<br />quasi-static and dynamic loading cases and proves to be a viable replacement<br />for more computationally expensive analyses. / Ph. D.

Corrosion of reinforcing steel causes shorter life spans in bridges throughout the United States. The use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials as the flexural reinforcement in bridge girders has been extensively studied. However, CFRP transverse reinforcement has not been as rigorously investigated, and many studies have focused on CFCC stirrups. The use of C-Grid as an option for transverse reinforcing has not been previously investigated. This thesis concludes that C-Grid is a viable shear design option and presents the initial recommendations for design methods. These methods provide a basis for the design of C-Grid shear reinforcing that could be used as a starting point for future testing of full scale specimens. This testing program first determined the mechanical properties of C-Grid and its development length. Four 18 ft long 19 in. deep beams, modeled after prestressed Bulb-T beams, were created to test the C-Grid, as well as steel and CFCC stirrups. The beams were loaded with a single point load closer to one end to create a larger shear load for a given flexural moment. Overall beam displacement was measured to determine when flexural reinforcement yielding was reached, and beams were fitted with rosettes and instrumentation to capture initiation of shear cracking. Shear capacity calculations following four methods were compared to test results. The design method should follow the AASHTO modified compression field theory with equations for β and θ. The manufacturer's guaranteed strength should be used for design as long as that strength is the average reduced by three standard deviations. Shear crack widths are controlled to a similar size as steel stirrups when using at least two layers of grid. / Master of Science

Hot-rolled sheet piling has long-been believed to have a better flexural performance than cold-formed sheet piling based on a test conducted by Hartman Engineering twenty years ago. However, cold-formed steel can have similar strength to the hot-rolled steel This experimental program studied the flexural behavior of hot-rolled and cold-formed steel sheet pilings. This program quantified the influence of transverse stresses from soil pressures on the longitudinal flexural strength. Four cross-sections with two pairs of equivalent sectional modulus were investigated. Sheet-piling specimens were subjected to simulated soil pressure from an air bladder loaded transversely to their longitudinal axis. The span lengths were varied, while the loading area remains unchanged to examine the effect of different transverse stresses. Lateral bracings were provided at discrete locations to establish a sheet piling wall behavior and allow the development of transverse stresses. Load-pressure, load-deflection, load-strain, and moment-deflection responses were plotted to demonstrate the behavior of each specimen. The moment-deflection curves were then normalized to the corresponding yield stress from tensile coupon tests to make a meaningful comparison. The results indicate that transverse stresses influence the flexural capacity of the sheet pilings. The longer span length has less amount of transverse strains, resulting in a higher moment capacity. The hot-rolled sheet pilings have better flexural performance also because of less transverse strains. / Master of Science / Sheet piling wall is an essential structure used during the excavation process. Sheet piling can be hot-rolled and cold-formed. Hot-rolled sheet piling has long-been believed to have a better bending performance based on a test conducted by Hartman Engineering twenty years ago. However, cold-formed steel can have similar strength to hot-rolled steel. This experimental program studied the bending behavior of hot-rolled and cold-formed steel sheet pilings. This program quantified the influence of lateral loading from soil pressure on the moment capacity of the sheet piling. Four cross-sections with two pairs of equivalent bending properties were investigated. Sheet-piling specimens were set up as beam members and subjected to simulated soil pressure from an air bladder. The span lengths of the specimens were varied, while the loading area remains unchanged to examine the effect of different amounts of load. Lateral bracings were provided at discrete locations to establish a sheet piling wall behavior and allow local deflection of the cross-section. Load-pressure, load-deflection, load-strain, and moment-deflection responses were plotted to demonstrate the behavior of each specimen. The moment-deflection curves were then normalized to the corresponding material property of each specimen to make a meaningful comparison between different specimens. The results indicate that lateral loading of the soil pressure influences the bending capacity of the sheet pilings. The longer span length has less amount of transverse strains, resulting in a higher bending capacity. The hot-rolled sheet pilings have better bending performance also because of less transverse strains.

A low-speed, axisymmetric turbulent boundary layer under a strong adverse pressure gradient is experimentally studied for its relevance to marine applications, urban air-transportation and turbulence ingestion noise. The combined effect of lateral curvature and streamwise pressure gradient are examined on the mean flow, turbulence structure, velocity correlations and wall pressure fluctuations. Additionally, the upstream influence of a rotor operating in this flow is examined to improve the understanding of the turbulence necessary to develop advanced noise prediction tools. Measurements were made in Virginia Tech Stability tunnel documenting the flow over a 0.432-m diameter body-of-revolution comprised of a forward nose-cone, a constant diameter mid-body and a 20 degree tail-cone, at a length based Reynolds number of 1.2 million. The principal finding of this work is the resemblance of the boundary layer to a free-shear layer where the turbulence far from the wall plays a dominant role, unlike in the canonical case of the flat-plate boundary layer. The mean flow along the tail developed inflection points in the outer regions and the associated velocity and turbulence stress profiles were self-similar with a recently proposed embedded shear layer scaling. As the mean flow decelerates downstream, the large-scale motions energize and grow along with the boundary layer thickness; However, the structure is roughly self-similar with the shear-layer scaling, emphasizing the role of the shear-layer in the large-scale structure. Additionally, the correlation structure is discussed to provide information towards the development of turbulence models and aeroacoustic predictions. The associated wall pressure fluctuations, measured with a longitudinal array of microphones, evolved significantly downstream with the dimensional wall pressure spectra weakening by over 20-dB per Hz. However, the spectra collapsed to within 2-dB with the wall-wake scaling, where the pressure-scale is the wall shear stress, and the time-scale is derived from the boundary layer thickness and edge velocity. The success of this scaling, even in the viscous roll-off regions, suggests the increasing importance of the outer region on the near-wall turbulence and wall-pressure. Investigation of the space-time structure revealed the presence of a quasi-periodic feature with the conditional signature of a roller-eddy. The structure appeared to scale with the wall-wake scaling, and was found to convect downstream at speeds matching those at the inflection points (and outer turbulence peak). It is hypothesized that the outer region turbulence in strong adverse pressure gradient flow strongly drive the near-wall turbulence and therefore both the wall pressure and shear stress. Subsequent measurements made with the rotor operating at the tail, using high-speed particle image velocimetry, provided the space-time structure of the inflow turbulence as a function of the rotor thrust. The impact of the rotor on the mean flow, turbulence and correlation structure in the vicinity of the rotor is discussed to supply information towards validating numerical simulations and developing turbulence models that account for the distortion due to the rotor. This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, in particular Drs. Ki-Han Kim and John Muench under grants N00014-17-1-2698 and N00014-20-1-2650. / Doctor of Philosophy / Understanding turbulent flows adjacent to surfaces placed in fluid flows is necessary to develop efficient technologies to mitigate undesirable drag, vibrations and noise. Particularly, this is of an increased interest with the imminent abundance of urban short-haul air transportation. While several fundamental aspects of these flows have been clarified, certain specific areas still remain to be addressed, including the impact of curved surfaces, like those of submarine hulls and aircraft fuselage, and the impact of mean pressure gradients. This study seeks to fill some of these gaps by studying the flow over a body-of-revolution through wind tunnel experiments. The nature of the velocity and wall-pressure fluctuations are examined in detail. It was found that the boundary layer was significantly different from the canonical case of a flat-plate flow, with the mean velocity and turbulence structure developing the characteristics of a free-shear layer (flows unbounded by surfaces). Specifically, the velocity and turbulence intensity appeared self-similar with a recently proposed embedded shear layer scaling, which is based on the parameters at the inflection point in the mean velocity profile. The large-scale motions in the outer regions, despite energizing and growing as the flow decelerated downstream, appeared self-similar with the shear layer parameters, emphasizing the role of shear layer motions within in the boundary layer. This is important since the turbulence relatively further from the wall are now the important sources of pressure fluctuations and therefore drag, vibrations and noise. The associated wall-pressure fluctuation were studied with a focus on the wall-pressure spectrum and the space-time structure. A quasi-periodic feature was detected in the instantaneous fluctuations, which had a conditional structure reminiscent of a conditional roller, and appeared to convect downstream at speeds matching those at the inflection points in the velocity profile. Therefore it is hypothesized that the large-scale motions in the embedded shear layer play a dominant role on the near-wall turbulence and therefore on the wall pressure and shear-stress. This is different from the behavior of the wall-studied flow past a flat-plate. It is therefore important to factor this into technologies aiming to increase the efficiency and quieten the vehicles

The experiments discussed in this thesis exploit parity violation in elastic electron proton scattering in order to measure properties of the nucleon. Both experiments make use of the high quality, highly polarized electron beam available at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Q_weak will measure the weak mixing angle, sin²θ_W, via a measurement of the weak charge of the proton, at a four-momentum transfer, Q² ~ 0.026 GeV²/c². The precision of this measurement gives Q_weak access to new physics at the scale of 2.3 TeV, making it a test of the standard model. The G⁰ experimental program provides the fully separated contributions of the strange quark to the charge and magnetization distributions of the nucleon at two different values of four-momentum transfer, Q² ~ 0.22 and 0.63 GeV²/c². The measurement of the strange quark content of the proton in the G⁰ experimental program and other parity-violating electron scattering experiments provides a measurement of the hadronic contribution to the asymmetry in Q_weak. In addition, G⁰ was able to measure the parity-conserving beam normal single spin asymmetries that provide a measurement of the imaginary part of two photon exchange. The measurement of this asymmetry is necessary to understand the systematic contribution to measurements of parity-violating asymmetries, but it is also an important physics result. Recent theoretical work has shown that higher order radiative effects, such as two photon exchange, may be able to explain discrepancies between experiments which measure the ratio of the electric and magnetic form factors of the proton. The measurement of the transverse or beam normal single spin asymmetries provides a benchmark for theories that estimate the size of radiative corrections that are important for precision electroweak scattering experiments such as those described in this thesis. The results of the measurement of the transverse asymmetries at backward angles in G⁰ are presented at the two values of Q² ~ 0.22 and 0.63 GeV²/c² for hydrogen. Results for deuterium, which can provide the first measurements of the beam normal single spin asymmetries on the neutron, are also presented. / Ph. D.