Dans le présent travail, deux aspects complémentaires de la modélisation mécanique des élastomères sont abordés. Le premier concerne le choix d'un modèle de comportement adapté aux élastomères et le second concerne le développement d'un élément fini spécifique pour l'étude des membranes élastomères soufflées. <br />Après une description des caractéristiques mécaniques particulières de ces matériaux, une méthodologie d'identification des paramètres matériels est proposée. A cette fin, un outil spécifique est développé. Celui-ci permet d'identifier un matériau suivant plusieurs cas de chargement simultanément. Une des originalités de ce travail est l'utilisation des algorithmes génétiques et d'une programmation proche de l'orienté objet. Cet outil a permis d'établir un bilan des performances respectives de différents modèles hyperélastiques de la littérature. <br />Notre attention s'est ensuite portée sur la construction d'un nouveau modèle permettant de modéliser l'effet Mullins, perte de raideur dans les premiers cycles de chargement, caractéristique des élastomères. Sur la base de concepts physiques, le modèle huit-chaînes est modifié afin de rendre compte des modifications des caractéristiques de réseau. <br />Enfin, la comparaison des modèles de comportement est vue au travers du soufflage de structures membranes. Un élément fini utilisant une interpolation de type B-spline est développé afin d'étudier la réponse fortement non-linéaire de structures simples axisymétriques. Puis, une étude comparative est menée sur les modèles récents fondés sur la statistique de chaînes afin de mettre en évidence l'influence du choix du modèle constitutif sur la réponse globale de la structure.

Ce travail porte sur l'étude théorique et numérique des splines de Chebyshev. Ces fonctions généralisent les splines polynomiales tout en préservant l'essentiel de leurs propriétés. Elles offrent de plus un intérêt particulier pour le design géométrique grâce aux paramètres de forme qu'elles fournissent. Dans un premier temps, nous étudions les splines basées sur un espace de Chebyshev invariant par translations, et les propriétés de la B-spline correspondante. Dans un deuxième temps, nous montrons, sous certaines hypothèses, que la base des B-splines de Chebyshev est orthonormale dans un espace de Sobolev pondéré par une suite unique de nombres positifs. La meilleure approximation dans l'espace de splines de Chebyshev au sens de la norme associé au produit scalaire précédent est alors un projecteur local. Enfin, pour l'implémentation numérique des résultats précédents, nous utilisons une méthode de quadratures adaptées. Quelques exemples illustrant les effets de forme obtenus sont présentés. Ces résultats généralisent un résultat prouvé récemment par Ulrich Reif dans le cas particulier des splines polynomiales.

Les nanostructures métalliques sont le siège de résonances plasmoniques qui permettent de confiner le champ électromagnétique et de contrôler la lumière à une échelle très sublongueur d'onde. Les travaux de cette thèse portent en premier lieu sur la conception de structures plasmoniques agissant en absorption. Dans cette thèse, j'ai dimensionné, fabriqué et caractérisé des résonateurs métal / isolant / métal verticaux (sillons à grand rapport d'aspect) qui présentent une absorption totale dans l'infrarouge. Par ailleurs, j'ai étudié le couplage fort dans ces résonateurs qui mène à de très grands facteurs de qualité. Je montre qu'on peut également coupler plusieurs résonateurs pour faire du tri de photons et de l'absorption large bande. D'autre part, les systèmes plasmoniques deviennent plus complexes, et leur dimensionnement rapide passe par une réduction du temps de calcul. J'ai développé une méthode modale basée sur les B-splines qui permet, grâce à l'utilisation de matrices creuses, d'accélérer les calculs. De telles méthodes peuvent être utilisées conjointement avec un algorithme métaheuristique pour dimensionner des fonctions optiques, par exemple un absorbant large bande ou un filtre passe bande.

Identification of individuals has been solved with many different solutions around the world, either using biometric data or external means of verification such as id cards or RFID tags. The advantage of using biometric measurements is that they are directly tied to the individual and are usually unalterable. Acquiring dependable measurements is however challenging when the individuals are uncooperative. A dependable system should be able to deal with this and produce reliable identifications. The system proposed in this thesis can autonomously classify uncooperative specimens from depth data. The data is acquired from a depth camera mounted in an uncontrolled environment, where it was allowed to continuously record for two weeks. This requires stable data extraction and normalization algorithms to produce good representations of the specimens. Robust descriptors can therefore be extracted from each sample of a specimen and together with different classification algorithms, the system can be trained or validated. Even with as many as 138 different classes the system achieves high recognition rates. Inspired by the research field of face recognition, the best classification algorithm, the method of fisherfaces, was able to accurately recognize 99.6% of the validation samples. Followed by two variations of the method of eigenfaces, achieving recognition rates of 98.8% and 97.9%. These results affirm that the capabilities of the system are adequate for a commercial implementation.

Composed of a left mold and a right one, an open and close molding mechanism is widely used in various plastic industries. The aim of this study is to design cam-link mechanisms whose right mold motions can rapidly synchronize with their left mold motions so that the mechanisms have higher stiffness for reducing residual vibration. In structural design of a molding mechanism, the device is actuated by a planar cam mechanism. And a set of cam actuated links is synthesized to drive the left mold. Then, another set of links connected to one of the left mold links is used to synchronously actuate the right mold together with the left mold. This study first is to synthesize the B-Spline curves for the left mold motion. Subsequently, the linkage sizes are modified base on the mechanical advantages. Then, the motion curves of the right mold and the cam follower device can be analytically determined. And the rigid body dynamic behavior of the mechanism is analyzed. Finally, the geometry of the cam is analyzed and the size of the cam follower rollers are selected to achieve the longer life time at the working speeds. This research presents eight different design cases to investigate the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the molding mechanism. As a result, a case with improved kinematic and dynamic performance is selected.

The use of B-spline interpolation functions in the finite element method (FEM) is not a new subject. B-splines have been utilized in finite elements for many reasons. One reason is the higher continuity of derivatives and smoothness of B-splines. Another reason is the possibility of reducing the required number of degrees of freedom compared to a conventional finite element analysis. Furthermore, if B-splines are utilized to represent the geometry of a finite element model, interfacing a finite element analysis program with existing computer aided design programs (which make extensive use of B-splines) is possible. While B-splines have been used in finite element analysis due to the aforementioned goals, it is difficult to find resources that describe the process of implementing B-splines into an existing finite element framework. Therefore, it is necessary to document this methodology. This implementation should conform to the structure of conventional finite elements and only require exceptions in methodology where absolutely necessary. One goal is to implement B-spline interpolation functions in a finite element framework such that it appears very similar to conventional finite elements and is easily understandable by those with a finite element background. The use of B-spline functions in finite element analysis has been studied for advantages and disadvantages. Two-dimensional B-spline and standard FEM have been compared. This comparison has addressed the accuracy as well as the computational efficiency of B-spline FEM. Results show that for a given number of degrees of freedom, B-spline FEM can produce solutions with lower error than standard FEM. Furthermore, for a given solution time and total analysis time B-spline FEM will typically produce solutions with lower error than standard FEM. However, due to a more coupled system of equations and larger elemental stiffness matrix, B-spline FEM will take longer per degree of freedom for solution and assembly times than standard FEM. Three-dimensional B-spline FEM has also been validated by the comparison of a three-dimensional model with plane-strain boundary conditions to an equivalent two-dimensional model using plane strain conditions.

This thesis uses Spline-based model, which was developed by McCulloch, and parsimonious model, which was developed by Nelson-Siegel, to estimate the yield curves of zero-coupon bonds in Turkey. In this thesis, we construct the data by using Turkish secondary government zero-coupon bond data, which contain the data from January 2005 to June 2005. After that, relative performances of models are compared using in-sample goodness of fit. As a result, we see that performance of McCulloch model in fitting yield is better than that of Nelson-Siegel model.

Intermittent Mechanisms are widely used in automation equipment, including delivery, assembly, and indexing systems. The aim of this research is to set up a systematic design and analysis procedure of a conjugate intermittent gear cam mechanism. The output of a conjugate intermittent gear cam mechanism is the intermittent motion of sun gear, which has a dwell function in a working period. The intermittent of sun gear is the combination of carrier constant rotation and planet gear variable rotation that is influenced by the conjugate cam profiles. This research first is to set up the design and analysis procedure including applications of rational B-splines to synthesis of output intermittent motion curve and the ALM optimization method for motion tuning to meet specific demands. Secondly, for kinematic analysis, the rigid body transformation methos is used to determinate the conjugate cam profiles so that the geometric analysis can be performed. Then, the rigid body dynamic behavior of the mechanism is analyzed. Finally, to verify the usefulness and effectiveness of the developed procedure, it is conducted to design and analyze a real paper conveyor system of a die cutting and creasing machine. The research results obtained in this study have been applied in the industry due to its validation.

Zugl.: Zürich, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2009

[Truncated abstract] This thesis is concerned with geometrically-defined curves that can be used for interpolation in Riemannian or, more generally, semi-Riemannian manifolds. As in much of the existing literature on such curves, emphasis is placed on manifolds which are important in computer graphics and engineering applications, namely the unit 3-sphere S3 and the closely related rotation group SO(3), as well as other Lie groups and spheres of arbitrary dimension. All geometrically-defined curves investigated in the thesis are either higher order variational curves, namely critical points of cost functionals depending on (covariant) derivatives of order greater than 1, or defined by geometrical algorithms, namely generalisations to manifolds of algorithms from the field of computer aided geometric design. Such curves are needed, especially in the aforementioned applications, since interpolation methods based on applying techniques of classical approximation theory in coordinate charts often produce unnatural interpolants. However, mathematical properties of higher order variational curves and curves defined by geometrical algorithms are in need of substantial further investigation: higher order variational curves are solutions of complicated nonlinear differential equations whose properties are not well-understood; it is usually unclear how to impose endpoint derivative conditions on, or smoothly piece together, curves defined by geometrical algorithms. This thesis addresses these difficulties for several classes of curves. ... The geometrical algorithms investigated in this thesis are generalisations of the de Casteljau and Cox-de Boor algorithms, which define, respectively, polynomial B'ezier and piecewise-polynomial B-spline curves by dividing, in certain ratios and for a finite number of iterations, piecewise-linear control polygons corresponding to finite sequences of control points. We show how the control points of curves produced by the generalised de Casteljau algorithm in an (almost) arbitrary connected finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold M should be chosen in order to impose desired endpoint velocities and (covariant) accelerations and, thereby, piece the curves together in a C2 fashion. A special case of the latter construction simplifies when M is a symmetric space. For the generalised Cox-de Boor algorithm, we analyse in detail the failure of a fundamental property of B-spline curves, namely C2 continuity at (certain) knots, to carry over to M.