Recent findings regarding corrosion of post-tensioned bridges have highlighted the urgent need to develop reliable methods to predict the behavior of the structural system after damage has occurred and inspection techniques to assess the condition of the structure. Corrosion in strands is undesirable in that it often progresses without visual signs of distress, but may cause a brittle failure. To complicate the inspection, access to the strands for visual inspection is usually blocked by the concrete cross section. To date, significant efforts have been taken to improve the durability of the post-tensioned bridges. However, the behavior of the post-tensioned bridges with corrosion damage is not clearly understood and the currently available inspection techniques tend to provide only limited information about the nature and extent of the damage. The research project discussed in this dissertation was developed is to evaluate the feasibility of using the vibration technique to detect and estimate the extent of damage in an external tendon due to corrosion. To accomplish this goal, damage was induced in five specimens, which were monitored periodically to correlate the measured changes in the frequency response to the level of damage. The induced damage simulated the degradation of a post-tensioned structure from corrosion. This dissertation describes the experimental program and the numerical scheme used to estimate the condition of the specimens. Three types of specimens were tested during the experimental phase of the research: individual strands, cables specimens, and external tendons. A series of tension tests of individual strands were conducted to investigate changes in the uniaxial behavior after damage was induced. Simulated damage included uniform corrosion of the strand, mechanical wire cuts, and an initial defect in one wire. Three cable specimens and one tendon specimen were subjected to fatigue loading. The loading was selected to simulate the loss of cross-sectional area in the strands, and also caused grout damage. The frequency response of the specimens was recorded periodically during the fatigue tests and acoustic sensors were used to detect the occurrence of wire breaks. A second tendon specimen was exposed to an acid solution to simulate the hydrogen induced cracking in the strand at three different locations along the length of the specimen. A number of wires fractured during the exposure test and damage was inspected visually. Natural frequencies were also measured periodically. The residual prestressing force in of the specimens was extracted from the measured natural frequencies. The stiff string model was used to determine optimum values of tension and flexural stiffness from the frequency response. The numerical results from this optimization demonstrated the feasibility of using the vibration technique as a nondestructive testing method for external tendons.

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the 00front part of this document / Thesis (PhD (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

Content of this work is oriented on mechanical testing of PWB. Deals with standards related to mechanical testing and quality evaluation of PWB. This works is engaged into industry standards, for example IPC or JEDEC. Studies principle and methods of chosen vibration tests. Further aim of this work is vibration fundamentals of PWB assembly. This work describes some research studies, which were conducted in past years and dealt with vibration stress issues. Shows individual factors, which has effect on vibration response of DPS and its destruction, like component position, acceleration difference between component and substrate, around temperature or material constants. In practical part was chosen method of vibration test and experiment in Labview programming interface was performed to verify these findings from vibration theory.

The Point Sur Lighthouse is an unreinforced stone masonry building completed in 1889 on the central coast of California. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is still an active aid to navigation. The original first-order Fresnel lens was removed from the lantern room and placed in safekeeping due to its high risk of damage in the event of a strong earthquake. The lens has been approved to return to its original setting but the seismic performance of the building must first be assessed in order to ensure the safety of the lens and lighthouse, specifically the out-of-plane behavior of the unreinforced masonry walls, the implementation of possible seismic retrofit schemes, and the effects of the lens’s added weight. This research focuses on the dynamic behavior of the lighthouse in its current state and the changes in the dynamic behavior each of the proposed seismic retrofit schemes might cause. For the purposes of this research, dynamic behavior is considered as natural frequencies, mode shapes, and related structural properties. The dynamic behavior of the lighthouse was assessed using two main methods: forced vibration testing and finite element computer modeling. Forced vibration testing is a nondestructive testing method that can be used to directly characterize dynamic behavior of a structure, and finite element computer modeling is useful for the design and simulation of dynamic behavior of both new and existing structures. The combination of these two methods on the Point Sur Lighthouse will work to develop and prove state-of-the-art seismic retrofitting techniques.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(工学) / 乙第13008号 / 論工博第4133号 / 新制||工||1649(附属図書館) / 32936 / (主査)教授 北村 隆行, 教授 北條 正樹, 教授 琵琶 志朗 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Demands for sustainable energy have resulted in increased interest in wind turbines. Thus, despite widespread economic difficulties, global installed wind power increased by over 20% in 2011 alone. Recently, magnetic bearing technology has been proposed to improve wind turbine performance by mitigating vibration and reducing frictional losses. While magnetic bearing has been shown to reduce friction in other applications, little data has been presented to establish its effect on vibration and friction in wind turbines. Accordingly, this study provides a functional method for experimentally evaluating the effect of a magnetic bearing on the vibration and efficiency characteristics of a wind turbine, along with associated results and conclusions. The magnetic bearing under examination is a passive, concentric ring design. Vibration levels, dominant frequency components, and efficiency results are reported for the bearing as tested in two systems: a precision test fixture, and a small commercially available wind turbine. Data is also presented for a geometrically equivalent ball bearing, providing a benchmark for the magnetic bearing’s performance. The magnetic bearing is conclusively shown to reduce frictional losses as predicted by the original hypothesis. However, while reducing vibration in the precision test fixture, the magnetic bearing demonstrates increased vibration in the small wind turbine. This is explained in terms of the stiffness and damping of the passive test bearing. Thus, magnetic bearing technology promises to improve wind turbine performance, provided that application specific stiffness and damping characteristics are considered in the bearing design.

Yes / Structural walls of old historical structures are either blind or have openings for functional requirements. It is well known that in and out of plane responses of structural walls are affected by the size, locations, and arrangements of such openings. The purpose of this investigation is to study the window opening effects on static and seismic behaviors of historical masonry old mosques. Fatih Mosque, which was converted from a church, constructed in 914 in Trabzon, Turkey, is selected for this purpose. The mosque is being restored. Structural exterior walls of the mosque were made using stone and mortar materials. When the plaster on the walls was removed during the restoration, 12 window openings were found as blind on the exterior structural walls of the mosque. Within the scope of restoration works, it is aimed to open such blind windows. In order to investigate the effects of the window openings on the structural behavior of the mosque, 3D solid and finite elements models of the mosque with and without window openings are initially developed. The experimental dynamic characteristics such as frequency, damping ratio, and mode shapes of the current situation of the mosque, where some windows openings are blind, are determined using Ambient Vibration Testing. Then, the finite element model of the current situation of the mosque is updated using the experimental dynamic characteristics. The static and seismic time history analyses of the updated finite element model with and without window openings are carried out. Structural behaviors of the mosque with and without window openings are compared considering displacement and stress propagations.

Aeronautical structures, such as aircraft or missiles, are usually highly sophisticated systems often subjected to random vibration environment. Thus, in various design, development, and production stages, laboratory random vibration testing of sampled solid rocket motors on electromagnetic or hydraulic shakers are routinely performed as an important experiment-oriented quality control strategy. Nevertheless, it is crucial to understand the dynamic structural behavior of these layered viscoelastic cylinders such as solid rocket motors under random vibration tests analytically. In this study, a methodology has been developed to deal with the random vibration of a general class of composite structures with frequency-dependent viscoelastic material properties as represented by the example of solid rocket motors. The method combines the finite element method, structural dynamics, strain energy approach, and random vibration analysis concepts. The method is a more powerful technique capable of treating sophisticated random vibration problems with complicated geometry, nonhomogeneous materials, and frequency-dependent stiffness and damping properties. Before the random vibration analysis could proceed, a microcomputer-based dynamic mechanical analyzer system was used together with time-temperature superposition principle to obtain the frequency-dependent dynamic viscoelastic properties of the solid propellant. The strain energy approach has been used to calculate the frequency-dependent equivalent viscoelastic damping which is in turn judiciously represented by a combination of viscous damping and structural damping to accommodate this frequency dependent material property. Modal analysis data together with half power band width calculated at each natural frequency are highly useful guides in the harmonic analysis to achieve computational efficiency. On one hand, the technique used in this study has a hybrid taste in the sense that it makes use of best features and capabilities of both modal analysis and harmonic analysis to achieve the goal of random vibration analysis in addition to the power of finite element technique. The displacement, acceleration and stress power spectra have been obtained for significant points on the rocket model together with their root mean square values. These data can be used for various analyses, testing, design, and other purposes as discussed in later sections of this study. / Ph. D.

The increasing complexity with the decrease in size of EEE – components (Electronic, electric and electromagnetic) raises the question on how higher energy frequencies will affect the components and their continuous development. The most common vibration testing equipment currently in use within the automotive industry and SCANIA CV AB are the electrodynamic shaker (ED system). This thesis covers the characteristics of different vibration testing equipment while analysing their strengths and weaknesses, not only for the automotive industry but also including equipment more commonly handled within the aero and space industry. The project aims to find a complement for the ED system and study the possibility for its replacement in the automotive industry.In particular, experiments are carried out and documented on a so-called “Repeatable shaker system” (RS system) for the purpose to get a better understanding on the functions of the equipment and its overall differences compared to the electrodynamic system when it comes to random vibration testing.It became clear that complementing or replacing the ED system is difficult and that the RS system work fundamentally different in comparison. Accordingly, the RS system is not a potential replacement for our purpose and it cannot perform at the same level of precision but instead is able to achieve higher energy frequencies overall, making it still ideal for its intended purposes, but not as a replacement of the ED system.

Accelerated durability testing of automotive components has become a major interest as it may predict the life characteristics of the vehicle by testing fatigue failure at higher stress level within a shorter period of time. In this work, a specially designed sub-scaled experimental testing bed with the rigid and elastic supports of a simply supported beam was designed and built to compare the effects of the elastic foundation on the change of modal parameters of the tested structure which was later used to tune the FE model. Afterwards, the accelerated loading profiles of both sine sweep and random vibration were applied on the FE model to compare the deviation of the cumulative fatigue damage between the elastic and rigid supports. This work reveals a significant amount of inaccuracy in the current laboratory testing system where the dynamic properties of the tested structure are not maintained close to the real situation. / October 2016