Identification of favorable production zones in hydrocarbon-bearing shale often requires the quantification of in-situ mechanical properties. These properties are also necessary for the optimal design of hydro-fracturing operations. Rock elastic properties are affected by volumetric concentrations of mineral constituents, porosity, fluid saturations, and total organic carbon (TOC). Rapid depth variations of rock properties often encountered in shale gas formations make conventional petrophysical interpretation methods inadequate to estimate volumetric concentration of mineral constituents. We introduce a new method to assess elastic properties of organic shale based on the combined quantitative interpretation of sonic, nuclear, and resistivity logs. In-situ elastic properties of organic shale are estimated by (a) improving the assessment of volumetric concentrations of mineral constituents, (b) implementing reliable rock physics models and mixing laws for organic shale, and (c) numerically reproducing wideband frequency dispersions of Stoneley and flexural waves. An example of the application of the method is described in the Haynesville shale gas formation. Estimates of mineral concentrations, porosity, and fluid saturations are in agreement with available laboratory core measurements and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) data. Calculated layer-by-layer P- and S-wave velocities differ by less than 15% from measured velocities thus confirming the reliability of the method. Finally, based on the new interpretation method developed in this thesis, correlations are found between mineral concentrations, TOC, porosity, and rock elastic properties, which can be used in the selection of optimal production zones. / text

A database with 217 cases of load tests on shallow foundations, mostly in/on granular soils, was compiled. With this information, the comparison of predicted bearing capacity using different design methods, the American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 2A-LRFD (API RP2A-LRFD,1989), the American Petroleum Recommended Practice 2GEO (API RP2GEO, 2011), and International Standard Organization (ISO, 2003) is carried out. The answer to which standard makes a good prediction varies with the way to define failure load from load-displacement curve. Overall, ISO has a higher prediction compared with API RP2A and API RP2GEO. For the cases with vertical concentric loading conditions, if the capacity at plastic region and is defined as failure load, then the prediction by API RP2A is closest to measured capacity. If the capacity corresponding with 10% of footing width is considered as failure load, then the API RP2A and API RP2GEO underestimate the capacity, while ISO is in a good agreement with capacity corresponding with 10% of footing width. The prediction by API RP2GEO generally has a good agreement with capacity at tangent intersection region. In most of the cases with vertical eccentric loading, all three standard underestimate the measured capacities no matter which interpreted capacities is considered as failure load, while ISO makes slightly overprediction at the lower range of eccentricities and underprediction at higher range of eccentricities for some cases. In the inclined loading condition, the prediction by API RP2GEO is minimum among the three standards, while ISO proposed the highest prediction. All three prediction underestimate the capacity under inclined loading condition. From this study, it is found that small scale load laboratory test reveals a qualitative understanding with impact of vertical eccentric and concentric inclined loading on ultimate capacities. However, it is hard to detect a clear best prediction based on small scaled laboratory load test results. The well-controlled field test results, especially the field tests with vertical eccentric and concentric inclined loading condition, are valuable to evaluate the consistency of predicted capacity by three standards. / text

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Abstract A powerful tool for bearing time series feature extraction and classification is introduced that is computationally inexpensive, easy to implement and suitable for real-time applications. In this paper the proposed technique is applied to two rolling element bearing time series classification problems and shown that in some cases no data pre-processing, artificial neural network or nearest neighbour approaches are required. From the results obtained it is clear that for the specific applications considered, the proposed method performed as well as or better than alternative approaches based on conventional feature extraction.

5 pp. / Strawberries are easy to grow. They provide the first fruit of the season, and are quick to bear. When harvested fully ripe in the home garden they have excellent flavor. In stores they can be expensive and are often harvested prior to being fully ripe. Various types of strawberries are available. Each type has specific environmental requirements such as temperature and hours of daylight for good production. With the wide range of climatic zones in Arizona it is important to choose the right type of strawberry for your growing conditions.

The use of fibre composites in the design of load carrying aircraft structures has been increasing over the last few decades. At the same time, aluminium alloys are still present in many structural parts, which has led to an increase of the number of hybrid composite-aluminium structures. Often, these materials are joined at their interface by bolted connections. Due to their different response to thermal, mechanical and environmental impact, the composite and the aluminium alloy parts are subject to different design and certification practices and are therefore considered separately.The current methodologies used in the aircraft industry lack well-developed methods to account for the effects of the mismatch of material properties at the interface.One such effect is the thermally induced load which arises at elevated temperature due to the different thermal expansion properties of the constituent materials. With a growing number of hybrid structures, these matters need to be addressed.  The rapid growth of computational power and development of simulation tools in recent years have made it possible to evaluate the material and structural response of hybrid structures without having to entirely rely on complex and expensive testing procedures.However, as the failure process of composite materials is not entirely understood, further research efforts are needed in order to develop reliable material models for the existing simulation tools. The work presented in this dissertation involves modelling and testing of bolted joints in hybrid composite-aluminium structures.The main focus is directed towards understanding the failure behaviour of the composite material under static and fatigue loading, and how to include this behaviour in large scale models of a typical bolted airframe structure in an efficient way. In addition to that, the influence of thermally induced loads on the strength and fatigue life is evaluated in order to establish a design strategy that can be used in the industrial context. The dissertation is divided into two parts. In the first one, the background and the theory are presented while the second one consists of five scientific papers.

Historical attempts to measure forces in magnetic bearings have been unsuccessful as a result of relatively high uncertainties. Recent advances in the strain-gauge technology have provided a new method for measuring magnetic bearing forces. Fiber optic strain gauges are roughly 100 times more sensitive than conventional strain gauges and are not affected by electro-magnetic interference. At the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Laboratory, installing the fiber-optic strain gauges in magnetic bearings has produced force measurements with low uncertainties. Dynamic flexibility transfer functions exhibiting noticeable gyroscopic coupling have been identified and compared with results of a finite element model. The comparison has verified the effectiveness of using magnetic bearings as calibrated exciters in rotordynamic testing. Many applications including opportunities for testing unexplained rotordynamic phenomena are now feasible.

Taxonomy, according to Lawrence (1951) is a science that includes identification, nomenclature ahd classification of objects, and is usually restricted to objects of biological origin. He, further says that the plant taxonomy is fundamentally based on morphology vdth the support of all interrelated sciences. [...]

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