Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-210). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-85). Also issued online.

<p>The design and analysis of drop test to investigate the behaviour of adhesive joints in automotive structures is performed. The drop test is simulated by FE software. The specimen geometry is based on Volvo Car Corp. drop test standard.</p><p>In the drop test machine, a general beam structure is supporting all the parts. The machine includes a lifting system. The test is applied to a pre designed specimen, which will provide the information about adhesive joint strength.</p>

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Grain Science and Industry / X. Susan Sun / The ecological and public health liabilities related with consuming petroleum resources have inspired the development of sustainable and environmental friendly materials. Plant protein, as a byproduct of oil extraction, has been identified as an economical biomaterial source and has previously demonstrated excellent potential for commercial use. Due to the intrinsic structure, protein-based materials are vulnerable to water and present relatively low wet mechanical properties. The purpose of this study focuses on increasing protein surface hydrophobicity through chemical modifications in order to improve wet mechanical strength. However, most of the water sensitive groups (WSG), such as amine, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups, are also attributed to adhesion. Therefore, the goal of this research is to reduce water sensitive groups to an optimum level that the modified soy protein presents good wet adhesion and wet mechanical strength. In this research, we proposed two major approaches to reduce WSG: 1). By grafting hydrophobic chemicals onto the WSGs on protein surface; 2). By interacting hydrophobic chemicals with the WSGs. For grafting, undecylenic acid (UA), a castor oil derivative with 11-carbon chain with a carboxyl group at one end and naturally hydrophobic, was used. Carboxyl groups from UA reacted with amine groups from protein and converted amines into ester with hydrophobic chains grafting on protein surface. The successful grafting of UA onto soy protein isolate (SPI) was proved by both Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and ninhydrin test. Wood adhesive made from UA modified soy protein had reached the highest wet strength of 3.30 ± 0.24 MPa with fiber pulled out, which was 65% improvement than control soy protein. Grafting fatty acid chain was verified to improve soy protein water resistance. For interaction approach, soy oil with three fatty acid chains was used to modify soy protein. Soy oil was first modified into waterborne polyurethanes (WPU) to improve its compatibility and reactivity with aqueous protein. The main forces between WPU and protein were hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, and physical entanglement. Our results showed that WPU not only increased protein surface hydrophobicity with its fatty acid chains but also enhanced the three-dimensional network structure in WPU-SPI adhesives. WPU modification had increased wet adhesion strength up to 3.81 ± 0.34 MPa with fiber pulled out compared with 2.01 ± 0.46 MPa of SPI. Based on IR and thermal behavior changes observed by DSC, it was inferred that a new crosslinking network formed between WPU and SPI. To exam if the UA and WPU technologies developed using soy protein are suitable for other plant proteins, we selected camelina protein because camelina oil has superior functional properties for jet fuels and polymers. Like soy protein, camelina protein is also highly water sensitive. However, simply applied UA and WPU to camelina protein following the same methods used for soy proteins, we did not obtain the same good adhesion results compared to what we achieved with soy protein. After protein structure analysis, we realized that camelina protein is more compact in structure compared to soy protein that made it weak in both dry and wet adhesion strength. Therefore, for camelina protein, we unfolded its compact structure with Polymericamine epichlorohydrine (PAE) first to improve flexible chains with more adhesion groups for future reaction with UA or WPU. PAE with charged groups interacted camelina protein through electrostatic interaction and promoted protein unfolding to increase reactivity within protein subunits and between protein and wood cells. Therefore, the wet adhesion strength of camelina protein was improved from zero to 1.30 ± 0.23 MPa, which met the industrial standard for plywood adhesives in terms of adhesion strength. Then the wet adhesion strength of camelina protein was further improved after applying UA and WPU into the PAE modified camelina protein. In addition, we also found PAE unfolding significantly improved the dry adhesion strength of camelina protein from 2.39 ± 0.52 to 5.39 ± 0.50 MPa with 100% wood failure on two-layer wood test. Camelina meal which is even more economical than camelina protein was studied as wood adhesive. Through a combination of PAE and laccase modification method, the wet adhesion strength of camelina meal was improved as high as 1.04 ± 0.19MPa, which also met industrial standards for plywood adhesives. The results of this study had proven successful modification of oilseed protein to increase water resistance and wet mechanical strength. We have gained in-depth understanding of the relationship between protein structure and wet adhesion strength. The successful modification of plant proteins meeting the industrial needs for bio-adhesives will promote the development of eco-friendly and sustainable materials.

No description available.

Post-installed anchoring systems are used extensively in Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) projects due their ease of attachment to existing structures. However, recommendations on materials from various manufacturers are currently lacking for certain situations such as long-term tension loading. The purpose of the investigation presented in this thesis was to provide guidance on the use of anchoring systems to MassDOT. This research project evaluated the behavior of adhesive and cementitious bonded anchoring systems per the Stress-versus-Time-to-Failure approach found in the provisional standard AASHTO TP-84 in order to provide recommendations pertaining to the test method. Supplemental short-term anchor pullout tests were conducted using the best performing materials as evaluated by AASHTO TP-84 to study the effects of certain in-service and installation parameters on bond strength. The parameters studied included installation direction and extreme in-service temperatures. Polymer characterization testing of adhesive products were also conducted in order to comment on technique usefulness for field quality assurance/quality control of field installed bonded anchor materials.

Knochenklebstoffe, welche eine unkonventionelle Möglichkeit im Bereich der chirurgischen Frakturversorgung darstellen, müssen bereits in vitro eine Reihe an klinischen Anforderungen erfüllen. Hinsichtlich entsprechender Prüfverfahren wurde noch keine Normierungsarbeit geleistet, weswegen Ergebnisse verschiedener Arbeiten schwierig vergleichbar sind. Ziel der Arbeit war es daher Prüfverfahren vorzustellen, welche die Besonderheiten des „Werkstoffes Knochen“ berücksichtigen. In diesem Rahmen werden zwei neuartigen Klebstoffsysteme, ein in situ härtender Knochenzement aus Trimagnesiumphosphat, Magnesiumoxid und organischer Phytinsäure und ein lichthärtender Knochenklebstoff aus Polyethylenglycoldimethacrylat, NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO), Campherchinon und anorganischen Newberyit-Füllern, vorgestellt. Neben diesen sind drei kommerziell erhältliche Klebstoffe Gegenstand der Untersuchung. Dies sind zum einen Histoacryl® und TruGlue® Gewebekleber, zwei Klebstoffe auf Cyanoacrylat-Basis mit unterschiedlich langer Alkyl-Seitenkette, zum anderen Bioglue®, ein Gewebekleber aus Albumin und Glutaraldehyd. Bei den Klebstoffen wurde die Zug- und Scherfestigkeit unter Einfluss der physiologischen Klebstoffalterung, der Variation der Klebefugenbreite, der Variation von komplementären Fügeteilen, sowie Fügeteiloberflächen inspiziert. Makro- und mikroskopische, sowie elektronenmikroskopischen Untersuchung der Bruchflächen auf mikrostrukturelle Besonderheiten und Versagemechanismus wurden angestellt. Die neuartigen Klebstoffsysteme unterliegen zwar den konventionellen Cyanoacrylaten hinsichtlich mechanischer Parameter, weisen aber dennoch adäquate Klebefestigkeiten auf bei zugleich zahlreichen Vorteilen gegenüber konventionellen Systemen im Umgang mit Knochen. Gerade der Magnesiumphosphatzement scheint auf Grund mechanischer Parameter und Vorzügen wie der guten Biokompatibilität und biologischen Abbaubarkeit, Osteoinduktivität, Osteokonduktivität, der einfachen Applizierbarkeit, einem hohen Kosten-Nutzen-Faktor oder dem günstigen Verhalten in wässrigen Milieu vielversprechend. / Bone adhesives are an alternative for surgical fracture treatment, which have to meet clinical requirements already in vitro. Concerning testing methods of bone adhesives, there is no standardization, what leads to the fact, that results of authors, who did research to this topic, are hard to compare. The aim of this research was to present testing methods, which consider the characteristics of the “material bone”. In this connection two novel bone adhesive systems are presented. These are first an in situ hardening bone cement consisting of trimagnesium phosphate, magnesium oxide and organic phytic acid and second a photocurable bone adhesive consisting of polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate, NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO), camphorquinone and a mineral ceramic newberyite-filler. Besides these two novel adhesive systems, three commercialized adhesives are examined. These are on the one hand Histoacryl® and TruGlue® tissue adhesives, two adhesives based on cyanoacrylate with a different size of the alkyl side chain, on the other hand Bioglue®, a tissue adhesive based on albumin and glutaraldehyde. In the case of these adhesives shear strength and tensile bonding strength, as well as the influence of factors like the physiological aging of the adhesive, the variation of the width of the bonded joint, the variation of the complementary adherend or the adherend surface, were investigated. Macro- and microscopic analysis as well as scanning electron microscope analysis of the area of fracture was executed to determine microstructural characteristics and the mechanism of failure. Indeed, the novel bonding systems succumb to the conventional cyanoacrylates concerning mechanical parameters, but nevertheless they exhibit adequate bonding strength for a clinical use. Additionally, they have numerous advantages when it comes to the “material bone” in contrast to conventional adhesives. Especially the magnesium phosphate cement seems to be promising due to its good biocompatibility, biological degradation, osteoinductivity, osteoconductivity, the simple application, an economic cost-benefit-ratio and its favorable performance under wet conditions.

The slippery zone of the carnivorous (animal eating) plants Nepenthes alata located inside the pitcher shows pronounced anti-adhesive properties. Even insects with highly developed adhesive systems cannot adhere to the slippery zone. This zone consists of three hierarchically structured levels. Lunate cells (length scale of several dozens micrometers) as the first level are covered by two waxy layers representing the second and third hierarchical levels. Inspired by the anti-adhesive properties of the slippery zone, artificial surfaces consisting of polymeric monolithic microsphere arrays within the diameter range 0.4 - 90 µm were developed. These microsphere arrays having approximately the same dimensions as the level 1 lunate cells were prepared by a double replication procedure. For preparation of synthetic anti-adhesives, two different designs, polystyrene (PS) microsphere arrays for dry adhesion and porous polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP) microsphere arrays for wet adhesion tests, respectively, were investigated. The adhesion measurements showed that such surfaces exhibit pronounced anti-adhesive properties to rigid as well as to sticky and compliant counterpart surfaces. Moreover, cell culturing experiments suggest that surface topographies promote anti-fouling properties. The bioinspired design strategy reported here may provide access to bioinspired surfaces with tailored contact mechanics by simple modifications of straightforward production processes. Furthermore, the results presented here may improve understanding of the contact mechanics of biological models.

Spider aggregate glue is secreted on to the webs of many spiders in the superfamily Araneoidea. Aggregate glue is sticky when wet and has a unique stress strain curve that varies depending on the relative humidity and speed of probe retraction. These features make it an attractive target for applications such as underwater adhesives or surgical glues. However, little is known about the genetic sequence of the glue protein itself. In this work, a method is identified to isolate the remainder of the aggregate gene sequence, and genetic constructs glue are created using known aggregate gene sequence. One construct is expressed in E. coli BL21 cells and the protein is tested for its adhesive properties.