Conventional hydraulic brake (CHB) systems used in automotive industry have several limitations and disadvantages such as the response delay, wear of braking pad, requirement for auxiliary components (e.g. hydraulic pump, transfer pipes and brake fluid reservoir) and increased overall weight due to the auxiliary components. In this thesis, the development of a novel electromechanical brake (EMB) for automotive applications is presented. Such brake employs mechanical components as well as electrical components, resulting in more reliable and faster braking actuation. The proposed electromagnetic brake is a magnetorheological (MR) brake. The MR brake consists of multiple rotating disks immersed into an MR fluid and an enclosed electromagnet. When current is applied to the electromagnet coil, the MR fluid solidifies as its yield stress varies as a function of the magnetic field applied by the electromagnet. This controllable yield stress produces shear friction on the rotating disks, generating the braking torque. This type of braking system has the following advantages: faster response, easy implementation of a new controller or existing controllers (e.g. ABS, VSC, EPB, etc.), less maintenance requirements since there is no material wear and lighter overall weight since it does not require the auxiliary components used in CHBs. The MRB design process included several critical design steps such as the magnetic circuit design and material selection as well as other practical considerations such as cooling and sealing. A basic MRB configuration was selected among possible candidates and a detailed design was obtained according to a set of design criteria. Then, with the help of a finite element model (FEM) of the MRB design, the magnetic field intensity distribution within the brake was simulated and the results were used to calculate the braking torque generation. In order to obtain an optimal MRB design with higher braking torque generation capacity and lower weight, the key design parameters were optimized. The optimization procedure also consisted of the FEM, which was required to calculate the braking torque generation in each iteration. Two different optimization search methods were used in obtaining the minimum weight and maximum braking torque: (i) a random search algorithm, simulated annealing, was first used to find an approximate optimum design and (ii) a gradient based algorithm, sequential quadratic programming, was subsequently used to obtain the optimum dimensional design parameters. Next, the optimum MRB was prototyped. The braking performance of the prototype was tested and verified, and the experimental results were shown. Also, experimental results were compared with the simulation results. Due to the lack of accurate material property data used in the simulations, there were discrepancies between the experimental and the simulation results. Other possible sources of errors are also discussed. Since the prototype MRB generates much lower braking torque compared to that of a similar size CHB, possible design improvements are suggested ton further increase the braking torque capacity. These include the relaxation of the optimization constraints, introduction of additional disks, and the change in the basic magnetic circuit configuration.

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In this study, experimental modal analysis was studied. Experimental modal analysis includes modal testing, modal parameter estimation and calibration. For this purpose a 4 span skewed steel frame was constructed in Structural Mechanics Laboratory of Civil Engineering Department of METU. The model was transported to Vibration and Acoustic Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering Department of METU. The tests were conducted by cooperation with Vibration and Acoustics Laboratory. Due to lack of experimental modal analysis software in Structural Mechanics Laboratory, modal parameter estimation and finite element updating softwares were written in Matlab platform. The written softwares were executed on the data obtained from modal testing. 15 reasonable modes are extracted from the FRFs that are obtained from modal testing. 59.23 percent consistency is found for the nominal modal comparison. At the end of calibration process 76.14 percent consistency is achieved between the experimental results and analytical results.

Smart structures become highly popular with the developing technology. The aim of this study is to develop a basic model, which can be also used in the design of more complex systems by performing simultaneous optimization of a structure and associated controller with respect to some design parameters and feedback gains. In this thesis work, two smart structures are used as case studies and their results are compared with the available results in the literature. The first case study is simple twobar truss problem controlled by either one or two actuators. This problem is solved both numerically and analytically. The latter is a twenty-element parabolic truss, which is controlled by four actuators. This problem is solved numerically only. In the optimization process, the design parameters are taken as the cross sectional areas of bar elements, positions and/or number of actuators, and the elements of closed loop gain matrix. In the second case study, in addition to these parameters, shape design parameters are also optimized. A coordinate transformation is applied in both cases from the displacement space to the modal space. The modal model reduction method is used in the design of second problem. The optimization goal in both cases studies is to minimize the system energy while satisfying some frequency and mass constraints. In the second case study, in addition to the original objective function, system controllability and stability robustness are also maximized. In the solution of design problem, two optimization algorithms are used one embedded within the other. In the outer loop, a hide and seek simulated annealing algorithm optimizes structural design parameters, and positions and/or number of actuators. In order to generate a candidate design family for this level, optimal closed loop gain matrices are calculated by using MATLAB&reg / .

Difficult gradient calculations, converging to a local optimum without exploring the design space adequately, too much dependency on the starting solution, lacking capabilities to treat discrete and mixed design variables are the main drawbacks of conventional optimization techniques. So evolutionary optimization methods received significant interest amongst researchers in the optimization area. Genetic algorithms (GAs) and simulated annealing (SA) are the main representatives of evolutionary optimization methods. These techniques emerged as powerful and modern strategies to efficiently deal with the difficulties encountered in conventional techniques, and therefore rightly attracted a substantial interest and popularity. The underlying concepts of these techniques and thus their algorithmic models have been devised by establishing between the optimization task and events occurring in nature. While, Darwin&amp / #8217 / s survival of the fittest theory is mimicked by GAs, annealing process of physical systems are employed to SA. On the other hand, dome structures are among the most preferred types of structures for large unobstructed areas. Domes have been of a special interest in the sense that they enclose a maximum amount of space with a minimum surface. This feature provides economy in terms of consumption of constructional materials. So merging these two concepts make it possible to obtain optimum designs of dome structures. This thesis is concerned with the use of GAs and SA in optimum structural design of dome structures, which range from some relatively simple problems to the problems of increased complexity. In this thesis, firstly both techniques are investigated in terms of their practicality and applicability to the problems of interest. Then numerous test problems taken from real life conditions are studied for comparing the success of the proposed GA and SA techniques with other discrete and continuous optimization methods. The results are discussed in detail to reach certain recommendations contributing to a more efficient use of the techniques in optimum structural design of pin-jointed 3-D dome structures.

The photoconductive method is one of the oldest methods for the generation of THz room temperature operated THz electromagnetic waves. The THz photoconductive source has operated at a lower power level in the order of hundreds of nW. In addition, the energy conversion of optical to THz efficiency has remained extremely low. One of the most efficient THz photoconductive sources is a trap-enhanced field (TEF) effect source. The field is measured to contain more than 90% of the total DC bias within the first 5 µm of an 80 µm gap between the electrodes reaching kV/cm with only a modest bias. The overall THz power, however, has remained low, due to its rapid saturation. To date, there has been a limited understanding of the TEF effect. In this thesis, a more detailed experimental investigation of TEF effect current transport and field distribution based on annealing is presented to explain some of the underlining physics of TEF effect. A spatially extended line excitation is introduced to effectively reduce the screening effect while still exploiting the TEF region to maintain high efficiency and reach the µW regime. The record efficiency reached by this method is demonstrated. An experimental demonstration with a numerical analysis of the line excitation is presented. The spectral analysis of both a point and a line excitation demonstrate that the line excitation spectrum is not only comparable to that of the point excitation, but also extends the range of useful lower frequency content. To further improve the THz efficiency, the line excitation THz array is investigated.

To fully exploit the capability of NV centers in diamond as magnetic sensors and quantum bits, the optimum production recipe as well as the method to enhance its optical performance has been studied in this work. The NV centers in bulk diamond were prepared by ion implantation and electron irradiation, and the optimum dose and temperature are found by comparing its optical and magnetic performance both experimentally and theoretically. In addition, the enhancement of optical performance and size characterization of NV centers in nanodiamonds will be discussed in this work.

The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to investigate the use of various optimisation heuristics in the fields of automated cryptanalysis and automated cryptographic function generation. These techniques were found to provide a successful method of automated cryptanalysis of a variety of the classical ciphers. Also, they were found to enhance existing fast correlation attacks on certain stream ciphers. A previously proposed attack of the knapsack cipher is shown to be flawed due to the absence of a suitable solution evaluation mechanism. Finally, a new approach for finding highly nonlinear Boolean functions is introduced.

Thesis (M.S.); Submitted to the University of California, Berkeley, 210 Hearst Mining Memorial Bldg., Berkeley, CA 94720 (US); 15 Dec 2003. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "LBNL--54116" Li, Sonny X. USDOE Director. Office of Science. Basic Energy Sciences (US) 12/15/2003. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.

Dans un contexte de miniaturisation à l’extrème des composants électroniques, les copolymères àblocs apportent une réponse technologique alternative aux procédés conventionnels destructuration des matériaux par lithographie. Parmi les défis à relever, l’obtention de systèmes decopolymères suffisamment résolus demeure un élément essentiel pour que cette technique puisseoffrir une réelle alternative pour la lithographie sub-20 nm. Nous montrons au travers del’exemple du maltoheptaose-b-polystyène (MH-b-PS) que les copolymères biosourcés ont lacapacité d’atteindre une résolution sub-10 nm grâce à l’association d’un bloc hydrophile(l’oligosaccharide) et d’un bloc hydrophobe (le polystyrène). Les études par AFM, SAXS etGISAXS réalisées sur les films de MH-b-PS ont permis de montrer que le recuit sous vapeur desolvant est plus efficace que le recuit thermique pour organiser ce type de copolymère, composéd’un bloc sensible à la dégradation thermique. Ensuite, une étude inédite du recuit sous vapeur desolvant par QCM-D (Micro-balance à quartz avec mesure de dissipation) a été présentée et adémontré la capacité de cette technique à caractériser la quantité de solvant absorbée par le filmau cours du traitement ainsi que l’évolution de la viscoélasticité du film permettant ainsi d’obtenirdes informations indispensables à la compréhension du mode d’action du recuit sous vapeur desolvant. Finalement, l’étude en solution de ce copolymère ainsi que l’impact de la longueur deschaines des deux blocs sur la morphologie des films auto-organisés permettra de mieuxcomprendre à l’échelle de la chaine de polymère le comportement spécifique du MH-b-PS. / The constant desire of size reduction in nanoelectronic leads to develop processes, able to patternmaterials at the sub-10 nm scale. In this context, self-assembling block copolymers are promisingmaterials offering an alternative method to conventional lithography techniques. Currently, one ofthe major challenges in this field is to find copolymers that could address sub-10 nm pattern sizein order to provide a competitive process. In this thesis, we studied the maltoheptaose-bpolystyrene(MH-b-PS) and we showed that these kinds of sugar-based copolymers are able toself-assemble on a sub-10 nm scale thanks to the combination of a hydrophilic block (sugar) and ahydrophobic block (polystyrene). The AFM, SAXS and GISAXS studies realized on the MH-b-PS films showed that for this kind of copolymer whose one of the block is easily degraded withtemperature, the solvent annealing is more efficient than the thermal annealing to self-assemblethe copolymer. Then, an original study of the solvent annealing by QCM-D (Quartz crystalmicrobalance with dissipation monitoring) evidenced that this technique is able to characterize theviscoelasticity of the film and the amount of solvent absorbed by the copolymer during the solventtreatment. These useful measurements allowed to improve our understanding of the poorly knownsolvent annealing mechanism. To finish, we performed a study of the copolymer in solution and astudy of the impact of the chain length on the morphology of the film and were able to highlightthe specific behavior of this copolymer at the level of the polymer chain.