In this dissertation, a novel fast modeling technique called peri-ultrasound that can model both linear and nonlinear ultrasonic behavior of materials is developed and implemented. Nonlinear ultrasonic response can detect even very small material non- linearity. Quantification of the material nonlinearity at the early stages of damage is important to avoid catastrophic failure and reduce repair costs. The developed model uses the nonlocal continuum-based peridynamic theory which was found to be a good simulation tool for handling crack propagation modeling, in particular when multiple cracks grow simultaneously. The developed peri-ultrasound modeling tool has been used to model the ultrasonic response at the interface of two materials in presence of an interface crack. Also, the stress wave propagation in a half-space (or half-plane for a 2-dimensional problem) with boundary loading is investigated using peri-ultrasound modeling. In another simulation, well-established two-dimensional Lamb's problem is investigated where the results are verified against available analytical solution. Also, the interaction between the surface wave and a surface breaking crack is studied.

This thesis presents an update to the ionospheric propagation factor, M(3000)F2, global empirical model developed by Oyeyemi et al. (2007) (NNO). An additional aim of this research was to produce the updated model in a form that could be used within the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) global model without adding to the complexity of the IRI. M(3000)F2 is the highest frequency at which a radio signal can be received over a distance of 3000 km after reflection in the ionosphere. The study employed the artificial neural network (ANN) technique using relevant geophysical input parameters which are known to influence the M(3000)F2 parameter. Ionosonde data from 135 ionospheric stations globally, including a number of equatorial stations, were available for this work. M(3000)F2 hourly values from 1976 to 2008, spanning all periods of low and high solar activity were used for model development and verification. A preliminary investigation was first carried out using a relatively small dataset to determine the appropriate input parameters for global M(3000)F2 parameter modelling. Inputs representing diurnal variation, seasonal variation, solar variation, modified dip latitude, longitude and latitude were found to be the optimum parameters for modelling the diurnal and seasonal variations of the M(3000)F2 parameter both on a temporal and spatial basis. The outcome of the preliminary study was applied to the overall dataset to develop a comprehensive ANN M(3000)F2 model which displays a remarkable improvement over the NNO model as well as the IRI version. The model shows 7.11% and 3.85% improvement over the NNO model as well as 13.04% and 10.05% over the IRI M(3000)F2 model, around high and low solar activity periods respectively. A comparison of the diurnal structure of the ANN and the IRI predicted values reveal that the ANN model is more effective in representing the diurnal structure of the M(3000)F2 values than the IRI M(3000)F2 model. The capability of the ANN model in reproducing the seasonal variation pattern of the M(3000)F2 values at 00h00UT, 06h00UT, 12h00UT, and l8h00UT more appropriately than the IRI version is illustrated in this work. A significant result obtained in this study is the ability of the ANN model in improving the post-sunset predicted values of the M(3000)F2 parameter which is known to be problematic to the IRI M(3000)F2 model in the low-latitude and the equatorial regions. The final M(3000)F2 model provides for an improved equatorial prediction and a simplified input space that allows for easy incorporation into the IRI model.

The use of ray tracing in the analysis of certain daytime ionograms recorded at Grahamstown is discussed in this thesis. A computer program has been modified and used to trace rays in the frequency range 1 - 30 MHz. Vertical, short distance oblique, and long distance oblique ionograms have been synthesized from the results and compared with experimental ionograms for Grahamstown, the Alice - Grahamstown transmission path (64 km), and the SANAE - Grahamstown transmission path (4470 km) respectively. Ray paths have been calculated and related in detail to the models of the ionosphere and geomagnetic field. The main features of the vertical and short distance oblique ionograms can, in general, be reproduced using spherically stratified ionosphere models with electron density profiles derived from vertical ionograms. A suitable model for the geomagnetic field is a tilted dipole equivalent to the actual field at Grahamstown. The two-hop mode is shown to be, usually, the lowest on the long distance oblique records. The ionosphere model is the principal limiting factor in reproducing such ionograms, and the most satisfactory results have been those obtained with a model in which electron density is assumed to vary linearly with latitude between the profiles at SANAE and Grahamstown. The promising results obtained by ray tracing with normal ionospheric conditions indicate that the method has further possibilities which could usefully be explored. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Indoor use of wireless systems poses one of the biggest design challenges. It is difficult to predict the propagation of a radio frequency wave in an indoor environment. To assist in deploying the above systems, characterization of the indoor radio propagation channel is essential. The contributions of this work are two-folds. First, in order to build a model, extensive field strength measurements are carried out inside two different buildings. Then, path loss exponents from log-distance path loss model and standard deviations from log-normal shadowing, which statistically describe the path loss models for a different transmitter receiver separations and scenarios, are determined. The purpose of this study is to characterize the indoor channel for 802.11 wireless local area networks at 2.4 GHz frequency. This thesis presents a channel model based on measurements conducted in commonly found scenarios in buildings. These scenarios include closed corridor, open corridor, classroom, and computer lab. Path loss equations are determined using log-distance path loss model and log-normal shadowing. The chi-square test statistic values for each access point are calculated to prove that the observed fading is a normal distribution at 5% significance level. Finally, the propagation models from the two buildings are compared to validate the generated equations.

The purpose of this research was to determine which of the commonly used wireless telecommunication site concealment materials has the least effect on signal potency. The tested materials were Tuff Span® fiberglass panels manufactured by Enduro Composite Systems, Lexan® XL-1 polycarbonate plastic manufactured by GE Corporation and Styrofoam™ polystyrene board manufactured by The Dow Chemical Company. Testing was conducted in a double electrically isolated copper mesh screen room at the University of North Texas Engineering Technology Building in Denton, Texas. Analysis of the data found no differences exist between the radio frequency transmissiveness of these products at broadband personal communication service frequencies. However, differences in the signal do exist with regards to the angle of incidence between the material and the transmitting antenna.

The resin anchored rock bolt is used extensively in the mining industry to stabilize the roof and prevent it from collapsing. However, there are different defects associated with a resin anchored rock bolt. Examples are partially encapsulated bolts, over-spinned bolts and corroded bolts. These defects reduce the integrity of the roof, and thereby have an effect on the safety and productivity of the mines. The integrity of the rock bolts is a critical issue for the mining industry because of its influence on the safety of mining operations. Different research groups around the world have addressed the problem of determining rock bolt integrity. The most promising technique found in the literature study was based on guided ultrasonic waves (Beard and Lowe, 2003). This study extended the previous work by Beard and Lowe (2003) using guided ultrasonic waves, to investigate damage in more realistic embedded bolts which deviate from pure cylinders. The fundamental L(0,1) mode in its lower frequency range, as suggested by Beard and Lowe was utilized. This was done through the use of finite element model simulations of various defect scenarios, which were compared to experimental measurements on bolts. Defects like loss of resin encapsulation, voids and local corrosion cracks were addressed. The time traces of the different finite element defect scenarios could be directly compared to experimental time traces which distinguish this study from the analytical approach. Some finite element modelling issues were investigated and it was found that the time step is critical if an implicit solver is used, whereas for an explicit solver the element size is critical if accurate answers are needed. Furthermore it was also apparent that the boundary of the mortar has an influence on the results. The method used in the study was to move the boundaries far enough to prevent interference. This however increases the model size and thereby the computer resources required. Axisymmetric defects were modelled using axisymmetric finite elements to reduce the problem size. These models gave results comparable to the measured bolts. Three-dimensional finite element models seemed to be promising for simulating non-axisymmetric defects. It was found that it is not possible to solve large three-dimensional models without energy absorbing boundaries. Axisymmetrical and three dimensional finite element models of a partially encapsulated bolt and a bolt with a local corrosion crack were built. It was possible to detect simulated local corrosion cracks with the finite element models. Clear reflections for the crack in the bolt could be seen. If the bolt, resin and rock are cracked, different reflections will be detected. These different reflections complicated the interpretation of the results. Once the integrity of models such as these has been established, the models could in principle be used to train neural networks for use in commercial equipment. The present study was limited to lower frequencies because of computer resource limitations. Basic principles and modelling issues could however be addressed and it may be expected that these principles could soon be extended to higher frequencies with a new generation of computers. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

A adoção de materiais compósitos pela indústria de petróleo e gás vem ocorrendo de forma gradual, e ainda encontra certa resistência devido à novidade de sua aplicação em projetos mecânicos do setor, e da menor confiabilidade que possuem em relação a metais. A sua implementação em maiores escalas depende também do desenvolvimento de métodos de inspeção e monitoramento de integridade estrutural. Em paralelo a isso, sistemas de varredura de tubulações baseados em ondas guiadas ultrassônicas vêm ganhando espaço devido à sua capacidade de inspecionar toda a seção de trechos extensos de uma tubulação metálica. Baseado nestas duas premissas, este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar estudos visando o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia que seja capaz de obter as propriedades elásticas de um meio e obter as características de propagação das ondas mecânicas, cobrindo uma metodologia para obtenção das propriedades elásticas baseados em ensaios ultrassônicos, um método de otimização baseado em propriedades vibracionais e por fim, confrontando dados provenientes de modelos em elementos finitos com resultados experimentais e aproximações teóricas. Como resultados espera-se gerar informações necessárias para que possa-se compreender os mecanismo de propagação das ondas elásticas, pois é ele que permitirá a obtenção de informações a respeito dos defeitos presentes na estrutura analisada ou ainda utilizar as informações de dispersão em função da frequência e em função da direção para localização de fontes acústicas em meios ortotrópicos, sendo o conhecimento das propriedades de fase e energia das ondas em tais materiais de fundamental importância para a plena exploração do seu potencial de inspeção e monitoramento. / The adoption of new materials by the oil and gas industry has been occurring gradually and still finds some resistance due to the novelty of their application in mechanical design and their lower reliability compared to metals. The usage in large scales also depends on the development of inspection methods and structure health monitoring. In a parallel way, systems that scan pipes using mechanical guided waves have gained space because of their ability to inspect the section of large excerpts of an metallic pipe. Based on these two assumptions, this work aims to study the development of a methodology that is able to obtain the elastic properties of a medium and obtain mechanical characteristics through propagation of the stress waves in it. For this, a method to obtain elastic properties based on ultrasonic testing, a optimization method was based on vibrational properties, and comparison of to data from finite element models with experimental results and theoretical approaches were used. The results are expected to generate information needed for understand the mechanism of propagation of elastic waves, needed to obtain information about defects present in the structure or using information of angular or frequency dispersion for localizing acoustic sources in orthotropic media. As knowledge of the properties of the phase and energy waves propagation in such material are crucial for the full exploitation of inspection and monitoring.

The discretization of time-dependent wave propagation is plagued with dispersion in which the wavefield is perceived to travel with an erroneous velocity. To remediate the problem, simulations are run on dense and computationally expensive grids yielding plausible approximate solutions. This work introduces an error analysis tool which can be used to obtain optimal simulation parameters that account for mesh size, orders of spatial and temporal discretizations, angles of propagation, temporal stability conditions (usually referred to as CFL conditions), and time of propagation. The classical criteria of 10-15 nodes per wavelength for second-order finite differences, and 4-5 nodes per wavelength for fourth-order spectral elements are shown to be unrealistic and overly-optimistic simulation parameters for different propagation times. This work analyzes finite differences, spectral elements, optimally-blended spectral elements, and isogeometric analysis.

V této diplomové práci jsou popsané SHM metody používané v letectví a dále jsou udělány MKP simulace šíření ultrazvoukových vln v celokompozitním tenkostěnném materiálu používaném u leteckých konstrukcí. Pro simulaci byla zvolena SHM metoda nazývaná pitch-catch. Simulace byla provedena na dvou různých kompozitových materiálech a každý z nich byl testován třemí různými konfiguracemi s trhlinou a jednou konfigurací bez trhliny. Jako prepocessor byl použit MSC.Patran a jako post processory byli použity MSC.Nastran a MSC.Dytran, jejichž výsledky byli na závěr porovnány. Simulace prokázali, že rychlost šíření a amplituda vln šířících se v simulovaném panelu je trhlinami ovlivněna. Při konfiguracích s trhlinami rychlost šíření i amplituda vln byli menší, než v případě bez trhliny. Jako vhodnější post processor při MKP simulacích se ukázal MSC.Nastran, jehož výsledky byli přesnější a zárověň bylo i snažší správně odečítat hodnoty dat z grafů pro podrobnější pozorování šíření vln.

Dans cette thèse, on s'intéresse à la propagation d'ondes en milieu fortement hétérogène modélisée par l'équation d'Helmholtz. Les méthodes numériques permettant de résoudre ce problème souffrent de dispersion numérique, en particulier à haute fréquence. Ce phénomène, appelé "effet de pollution", est largement analysé dans la littérature quand le milieu de propagation est homogène et l'utilisation de "méthodes d'ordre élevé" est souvent proposée pour minimiser ce problème. Dans ce travail, on s'intéresse à un milieu de propagation hétérogène, cas pour lequel on dispose de moins de connaissances. On propose d'adapter des méthodes éléments finis d'ordre élevé pour résoudre l'équation d'Helmholtz en milieu hétérogène, afin de réduire l'effet de pollution. Les méthodes d'ordre élevé étant généralement basées sur des maillages "larges", une stratégie multi-échelle originale est développée afin de prendre en compte des hétérogénéités de petite échelle. La convergence de la méthode est démontrée. En particulier, on montre que la méthode est robuste vis-a-vis de l'effet de pollution. D'autre part, on applique la méthode a plusieurs cas-tests numériques. On s'intéresse d'abord à des problèmes académiques, qui permettent de valider la théorie de convergence développée. On considère ensuite des cas-tests "industriels" appliqués à la Géophysique. Ces derniers nous permettent de conclure que la méthode multi-échelle proposée est plus performante que les éléments finis "classiques" et que des problèmes 3D réalistes peuvent être considérés. / The main objective of this work is the design of an efficient numerical strategy to solve the Helmholtz equation in highly heterogeneous media. We propose a methodology based on coarse meshes and high order polynomials together with a special quadrature scheme to take into account fine scale heterogeneities. The idea behind this choice is that high order polynomials are known to be robust with respect to the pollution effect and therefore, efficient to solve wave problems in homogeneous media. In this work, we are able to extend so-called "asymptotic error-estimate" derived for problems homogeneous media to the case of heterogeneous media. These results are of particular interest because they show that high order polynomials bring more robustness with respect to the pollution effect even if the solution is not regular, because of the fine scale heterogeneities. We propose special quadrature schemes to take int account fine scale heterogeneities. These schemes can also be seen as an approximation of the medium parameters. If we denote by h the finite-element mesh step and by e the approximation level of the medium parameters, we are able to show a convergence theorem which is explicit in terms of h, e and f, where f is the frequency. The main theoretical results are further validated through numerical experiments. 2D and 3D geophysica benchmarks have been considered. First, these experiments confirm that high-order finite-elements are more efficient to approximate the solution if they are coupled with our multiscale strategy. This is in agreement with our results about the pollution effect. Furthermore, we have carried out benchmarks in terms of computational time and memory requirements for 3D problems. We conclude that our multiscale methodology is able to greatly reduce the computational burden compared to the standard finite-element method