>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This project aimed to investigate proton unbound states in 32Cl using the 32S(3He; t) charge-exchange reaction. This research is relevant both in the context of nuclear structure and astrophysics. Excited states in 32Cl up to Ex 6 MeV were produced using a 50 MeV 3He++ beam from the K200 separated sector cyclotron at iThemba LABS. The triton ejectiles were mass analysed and detected at the focal plane of the K600 magnetic spectrometer. An additional segmented silicon detector array called CAKE was used to detect the unbound protons from states in 32Cl in conjunction with the tritons. In this work we looked for potential sources of isospin admixture that could explain the apparent violation of the Isobaric Multiplet Mass Equation (IMME) for the A = 32, T = 2 quintet. We also investigated the possibility of determining the 31S(p; ) reaction rate indirectly, via measurements of the partial proton widths of unbound states in 32Cl.

Trial and error and the use of highly time-consuming methods are often necessary for investigation and characterization of nonlinear systems. However, for the rather common case where a nonlinear system has linear relations between many of its degrees of freedom there are opportunities for more efficient approaches. The aim of this thesis is to develop and validate new efficient simulation and experimental methods for characterization of mechanical systems with localized nonlinearities. The purpose is to contribute to the development of analysis tools for such systems that are useful in early phases of the product innovation process for predicting product properties and functionality. Fundamental research is combined with industrial case studies related to metal cutting. Theoretical modeling, computer simulations and experimental testing are utilized in a coordinated approach to iteratively evaluate and improve the methods. The nonlinearities are modeled as external forces acting on the underlying linear system. In this way, much of the linear theories behind forced response simulations can be utilized. The linear parts of the system are described using digital filters and modal superposition, and the response of the system is recursively solved for together with the artificial external forces. The result is an efficient simulation method, which in conjunction with experimental tests, is used to validate the proposed characterization methods. A major part of the thesis addresses a frequency domain characterization method based on broad-band excitation. This method uses the measured responses to create artificial nonlinear inputs to the parameter estimation model. Conventional multiple-input/multiple-output techniques are then used to separate the linear system from the nonlinear parameters. A specific result is a generalization of this frequency domain method, which allows for characterization of continuous systems with an arbitrary number of localized zero-memory nonlinearities in a structured way. The efficiency and robustness of this method is demonstrated by both simulations and experimental tests. A time domain simulation and characterization method intended for use on systems with hysteresis damping is also developed and its efficiency is demonstrated by the case of a dry-friction damper. Furthermore, a method for improved harmonic excitation of nonlinear systems using numerically optimized input signals is developed. Inverse filtering is utilized to remove unwanted dynamic effects in cutting force measurements, which increases the frequency range of the force dynamometer and significantly improves the experimental results compared to traditional methods. The new methods form a basis for efficient analysis and increased understanding of mechanical systems with localized nonlinearities, which in turn provides possibilities for more efficient product development as well as for continued research on analysis methods for nonlinear mechanical structures.

The accuracy of existing methods for estimating the drag based on experimental flow field measurements were assessed for two-dimensional bodies. The effects of control volume boundary placement and inherent simplifying assumptions were also investigated. Wind tunnel experiments were performed on a circular cylinder operating at a Reynolds number of 8,000 and 20,000, and on a NACA 0018 airfoil operating at a chord Reynolds number of 100,000 for three angles of attack (α), specifically, 5◦, 10◦, and 15◦. The circular cylinder experiments fall within the the shear layer transition flow regime. Airfoil investigations span both types of flow development common to low Reynolds number airfoil operation. For α = 5◦ and 10◦, a separation bubble forms on the upper surface of the airfoil, while, for α = 15◦, the flow separates without reattaching, resulting in a stalled airfoil. Wake velocity and pressure measurements were performed at several downstream locations to investigate the impact of control volume boundary placement. Wake profiles were measured between 3 and 40 diameters downstream from the circular cylinder axis and between 1 and 4.5 chord lengths from the trailing edge of the airfoil. In addition to wake profiles, the outer flow velocity variation was quantified to investigate the appropriate location to measure freestream flow characteristics in a test section with streamwise-varying outer flow conditions. The results show that drag estimates are strongly dependent on the streamwise position of the measured wake profile for all methods investigated. Drag estimates improved, and streamwise variation decreased, with increasing streamwise position of the flow measurements. For the pressure based method examined, wake measurements should be taken at least 10 times the projected model height downstream of the model. In the case of the circular cylinder, this is equivalent to 10 diameters and, for the airfoil investigated, it is approximately 1 chord length from the trailing edge. For the methods relying on velocity measurements, acceptable estimates of drag were possible when based on measurements taken at least 30 projected heights downstream, i.e., 30 diameters for the circular cylinder and 3 chord lengths for the airfoil model investigated. The findings highlight the importance of providing a detailed description of the methodology and experimental implementation for drag estimates based on flow field measurements. Finally the study offers guidelines for implementing momentum integral based drag calculations in future investigations.

No description available.

The spans of precast prestressed concrete bridge girders have become longer to provide more economical and safer transportation structures. As the spans have increased, so has the depth of the girders which in turn have increased the slenderness of the girders. Slenderness in a beam or girder would increase the likelihood that a stability failure would occur. Stability failures could pose a danger to construction personnel due to the sudden nature in which a stability failure would occur. Furthermore, stability failures of prestressed concrete girders during construction would cause a detrimental economic impact due to the costs associated with the failure of the girder, the ensuing construction delays, damage to construction equipment and potential closures to highways over which the bridge was being constructed. An experimental and analytical study was performed to determine the stability behavior of prestressed concrete beams. Two stability phenomenons were investigated: (1) lateral-torsional buckling and (2) global stability. An emphasis was placed on the effects of initial imperfections on the stability behavior; the effect elastomeric bearing pads and support rotational stiffness was investigated. The experimental study involved testing six rectangular prestressed concrete beams for lateral-torsional buckling, a PCI BT-54 for thermal deformations and the same PCI BT-54 for global stability. The 32-ft. long rectangular beams were 4-in. wide and 40-in. deep. The PCI BT-54 had a 100-ft. long span. A material and geometric nonlinear, incremental load analysis was performed on the six rectangular beams. The nonlinear analyses matched the experimental load versus lateral displacement and load versus rotation behavior, and the analysis predicted the experimental maximum load within an error of 2%. The nonlinear analysis was extrapolated to several different initial imperfection conditions to parametrically study the effect of initial lateral displacement and initial rotation on the inelastic lateral-torsional buckling load. A simplified expression for lateral-torsional stability of beams with initial imperfections was developed. The data from the parametric study were used to develop reduction parameters for both initial sweep and initial rotation. The rollover stability behavior of the PCI BT-54 was investigated experimentally, and it was found that support end rotations and the elastomeric bearing pads had an adverse effect on the global stability. The nonlinear analysis was employed with the addition of a bearing pad model. It was found that the behavior was sensitive to the bearing pad stiffness properties and the assumption of uniform bearing. From the research, it was apparent that rollover stability was the controlling stability phenomenon for precast prestressed concrete bridge girders, not lateral-torsional buckling.

Cette thèse de doctorat s’intéresse à la fatigue des élastomères, et plus particulièrement des caoutchoucs nitrile hydrogénés (sigle HNBR en anglais). Les HNBR sont des élastomères de haute performance,classiquement utilisés pour des applications industrielles à haute température où une bonne résistance chimique aux hydrocarbures est également requise.La thèse est divisée en trois parties principales.En premier lieu, des améliorations majeures pour les expériences de durée de vie en fatigue des élastomères sont proposées. Une approche expérimentale originale permettant le pilotage des essais en contrainte vraie est détaillée.Grâce à cette méthode, la première « vraie »courbe de Wöhler (contrainte vraie en fonction du nombre de cycles) pour des élastomères est tracée. Ensuite, des outils statistiques, issus de la recherche médicale, permettent une analyse probabiliste des résultats présentant une grande dispersion et des durées de vie censurées.Dans un second temps, ces nouveaux outils sont utilisés pour étudier l'effet de la formulation chimique – les taux d’acrylonitrile et d'hydrogénation notamment - sur la résistance en fatigue du HNBR à 120 oC. Ces résultats sont complétés par des expériences de propagation de fissure de fatigue et par une analyse de l'endommagement. Finalement, l'influence du vieillissement thermique sur la résistance en fatigue du HNBR est étudiée ; deux nouveaux essais sont développés : des essais simultanés de vieillissement et de fatigue, et des expériences de fatigue sur des échantillons préalablement vieillis.De plus, la cristallisation sous tension dans le HNBR est pour la première fois étudiée de manière quantitative / The present PhD thesis is devoted to investigation of fatigue in elastomers, andmore particularly of carbon black-filled hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR).HNBR is a high performance elastomer classically used for high temperature industrial applications, where high resistance to industrial solvents is also required.The thesis is divided into three main parts.First, major improvements of testing procedures utilized in fatigue life testing ofelastomers are proposed. An original method to prescribe the true stress throughout fatigue experiments is developed; it permits to plot the first “true” Wöhler curve, i.e. true stress vs.number of cycles, for elastomers. Then,statistical tools, widely applied in medical research, are adopted for a comprehensive probabilistic analysis of fatigue life results that exhibit high scatter and censored lifetimes.Second, these novel tools are used to investigate the effect of chemical formulation -acrylonitrile content, percent hydrogenation,and of a composite blend - on fatigue resistance of HNBR at the service temperature of 120 oC. In addition to these fatigue life tests,fatigue crack propagation experiments and microscopic fatigue damage analysis are carried out. Third, the influence of thermal aging on fatigue performances of HNBR is investigated.To this end, two additional fatigue life tests are carried out: simultaneous aging and fatigue experiments, and fatigue experiments on preaged samples.Additionally, strain-induced crystallization in HNBR is studied; for the first time, quantitative relationships between crystallization, strain,and stress are established for unfilled HNBR blends.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-01-27T13:40:32Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Dissertação - Paulo Henrique Ramos Guimarães - 2014.pdf: 1517515 bytes, checksum: 862883b307a6231b2a7f63d38c9f03ea (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-01-28T11:19:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Dissertação - Paulo Henrique Ramos Guimarães - 2014.pdf: 1517515 bytes, checksum: 862883b307a6231b2a7f63d38c9f03ea (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-01-28T11:19:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Dissertação - Paulo Henrique Ramos Guimarães - 2014.pdf: 1517515 bytes, checksum: 862883b307a6231b2a7f63d38c9f03ea (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Some spatial analysis methods have been applied in order to mitigate environmental variation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of spatial statistical, through the method of Papadakis, relative to the analysis to augmented blocks Federer in the correction of environmental variation. Were evaluated 198 progenies S0:2 of rice and four witnesses for augmented blocks of Federer. Data set were taken in the grain yield (GY, kg ha- 1) and plant height (PH, cm). The data set were subjected to variance analyses and were estimated the genetic and phenotypic parameters. The different approaches (BAF and Papadakis) were compared as to their estimates of genetic and phenotypic parameters. The ranking of adjusted means in the two models analyzed was performed, and calculated the Spearman correlation. There have been improvements in the statistics that depict the experimental accuracy when the spatial analysis was, that affect the estimates of genetic and phenotypic parameters. The use of the Papadakis method yielded fewer iterations compared to BAF for the same value of . Was able to gain direct selection for the AP and PG characters when the Papadakis method was used. With the use of spatial analysis selection was less influenced by the effect of environmental variation. Finally it was found that the spatial analysis methods were effective in the removal of environmental effects highlighting the Papadakis method, indicating that it can provide improvement / Alguns métodos de análise espacial têm sido aplicados objetivando reduzir a variação ambiental. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a eficiência da análise espacial, por meio do método de Papadakis, em relação ao delineamento de blocos aumentados de Federer na correção da variação ambiental. Foram avaliadas 198 progênies S0:2 de arroz irrigado e quatro testemunhas no delineamento de blocos aumentados de Federer. Os caracteres avaliados foram: produção de grãos (PG, kg ha-1) e de altura de plantas (AP, cm). Foi efetuada análise de variância para os caracteres estudados e estimados os componentes de variância e os parâmetros genéticos e fenotípicos. As diferentes abordagens (BAF e Papadakis) foram comparadas quanto às suas estimativas de parâmetros genéticos e fenotípicos e correlação de Spearman. Houve melhorias nas estatísticas que retratam a precisão experimental quando a análise espacial foi utilizada, isto influenciou as estimativas de parâmetros genéticos e fenótipos. O uso do método de Papadakis apresentou a necessidade de uso de menor número de repetições em relação ao BAF para o mesmo valor de . Houve ganho de seleção direto para os caracteres AP e PG quando o método de Papadakis foi utilizado. Com o uso da análise espacial a seleção foi menos influenciada pelo efeito da variação ambiental. Por fim verificou-se que o método de Papadakis foi eficiente na remoção dos efeitos ambientais, indicando que o mesmo pode proporcionar melhoria na precisão experimental, o que torna o processo seletivo mais eficiente.

A system able to simultaneously separate and pump a gas-liquid mixture was developed.<p>It works efficiently and can be used in many applications (nuclear power plants,<p>pulp and paper processing, petroleum extraction, etc.). However, this pump and separator<p>system (PASS) was especially designed to handle air-oil mixture generated in<p>aero-engine lubrication systems. The PASS combines three important functions of the<p>scavenge part of the lubrication system: the deaeration and deoiling of the air-oil mixture<p>generated in the bearing and gearbox sumps and the pumping of the oil towards<p>the tank. These are critical functions for the engine. Indeed, a poor deoiling efficiency<p>leads to a high oil consumption. This reduces the flight endurance, increases the size<p>and weight of the oil tank and has a negative impact on the environment. Poor deaeration<p>and pumping characteristics lead to problems in the cooling and the lubrication of<p>the engine bearings.<p><p>Integrating a PASS into the lubrication system allows considerable improvements<p>(and simplification) to the lubrication system architecture. An important number of<p>components are suppressed: the vent lines, the deoiler, the cyclone deaerator and the<p>scavenge pumps. This reduces the size and the weight of the lubrication system and<p>increases its reliability. Furthermore, an important part of this PhD thesis focuses on<p>reducing the oil consumption in the PASS. This improves the flight endurance, reduces<p>engine maintenance and working costs and is profitable to the environment.<p><p>In addition to the development of an advanced PASS design system, the objective of<p>this thesis was to obtain a good understanding of the separation processes occurring in<p>the PASS and to develop theoretical models able to predict the separation performance<p>for every working condition encountered in a typical aircraft flight. To achieve this<p>goal, three main tasks were performed: the development of different two-phase measurement<p>systems, the experimental tests of four different PASS architectures and the<p>theoretical development (after an extensive literature review) of correlations predicting<p>the performance of the PASS in function of the working conditions. Five specific aspects<p>of the PASS were studied: the inlet flow, the deoiling efficiency, the deaeration efficiency,<p>the pumping efficiency and the pressure drop. Finally, the models that have been developed<p>with the help of the measurement systems and of the experiments have been<p>integrated in a complete model of the lubrication system (under the EcosimPro modelling<p>environment). This helps to predict real in flight PASS working conditions and<p>performance. Indeed, the PASS is very sensitive to the engine working conditions and<p>an optimisation of the prototype size and performance is only feasible with an accurate<p>knowledge of these working conditions and a complete lubrication system model.<p>Finally, with the results of this PhD thesis, a new PASS design, optimised for different<p>aero-engine lubrication systems, is presented. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Shell and tube heat exchangers (STHEs) are the most common type of heat exchanger in preheat trains (PHT) of oil refineries and in chemical process plants. Most commercial design software tools for STHE assume uniform distribution over all tubes of a tube bundle. This leads to various challenges in the operation of the affected devices. Flow maldistribution reduces heat duty of STHE in many applications and supports fouling buildup in fluids that tend to particle, bio, and crystallization fouling (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, ed., 2010, Heat Atlas, 2nd ed., VDI-Buch., Springer-Verlag). In this article, a fluid mechanics study about tube side flow distribution of crude oil and related hydrocarbons in two-pass PHT heat exchangers is described. It is shown that the amount of flow maldistribution varies significantly between the different STHE designs. Therefore, a parameter study was conducted to investigate reasons for maldistribution. For instance, the nozzles diameter, type, and orientation were identified as crucial parameters. In consequence, simple design suggestions for reducing tube side flow maldistribution are proposed.