Prefabricated concrete elements are widely used in the construction industry today. With advantages such as time savings, increased safety at the construction site and minimized material usage, prefab becomes a major challenger to the traditional on-site casting construction method. However, constructing a bridge in concrete still presents challenges when using prefab as a construction method. Hence, more research in the area is needed. This master thesis has been studying the behavior of a prefabricated skew angle slab and the connection between the slab and wall elements of a bridge. The study was conducted using a finite element software, where three 3D-models of skew angle slabs were created. The three models had different skew angles (0, 15 and 30 degrees) and crossed the same path. The models could represent both the slab and the slab-wall connection. The finite element analysis showed that slabs with angles up to 15 degrees could be designed as a straight bridge. However, when the skew angle increases to 30 degrees, the behavior of the slab and connection changes significantly. Furthermore, the results show that a stress concentration occurs in the obtuse corner and that the stress increases when the skew angle increases. Moreover, there is a slight uplift in the acute corner when the skew angle increases to 30 degrees.

Le rachis est une structure ostéo-disco-ligamentaire complexe jouant un rôle majeur dans la stabilité et la mobilité du corps humain. Dans certaines conditions, des blessures traumatiques ou de fatigue peuvent survenir. Chaque année, plus de 700000 nouveaux traumas rachidiens sont comptabilisés au niveau mondial. Les blessures de fatigue, résultant d’une sur-sollicitation des structures vertébrales, sont fréquentes dans le domaine sportif. La spondylolyse est la blessure la plus commune parmi les blessures de fatigue dues au sport, notamment chez les adolescents. Cette thèse vise à améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes de blessures du rachis lombaire dans des conditions traumatiques et sportives en tenant compte des facteurs intrinsèques (posture, propriétés mécaniques des ligaments) et extrinsèques (conditions de chargement). Le volet expérimental décrit la caractérisation des ligaments du rachis thoracique et lombaire humain en traction uni-axiale dynamique. Le volet numérique porte sur l’analyse par éléments finis des pathomécanismes du rachis lombaire en conditions traumatiques, d’une part, et pour l’étude des risques de spondylolyse dans le domaine sportif d’autre part. Cette thèse a été réalisée en cotutelle entre Polytechnique Montréal et le Laboratoire de Biomécanique Appliquée (UMRT21 Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux/ Aix-Marseille Université) et s’inscrit dans les travaux de recherche du Laboratoire international – Imagerie et biomécanique du rachis (iLab-Spine) et de la Chaire de recherche industrielle CRSNG/Medtronic en biomécanique de la colonne vertébrale. / The spine is an osteo-disco-ligamentous structure playing a major role in the human body’s stability and mobility. In some conditions, traumatic or stress injuries may happen. Each year, more than 700,000 new traumatic injuries are diagnosed worldwide. Stress injuries result from overuse of spinal structures because of repetitive movements and sport practice is a common cause. The spondylolysis is the most common stress injuries due to sport activities, particularly in adolescents. The objective of this thesis was to improve the understanding of the lumbar injury mechanisms in traumatic and sport-related conditions taking into account intrinsic (posture, ligament mechanical properties) and extrinsic factors (loading conditions). The experimental part deals with the lumbar and thoracic ligament characterization under uni-axial dynamic tensile tests. The numerical part was performed to assess the pathomechanisms of the lumbar spine in traumatic conditions and related to the risk of spondylolysis in sport-related conditions. This project was done as a joint program between Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and the Laboratoire de biomécanique appliquée (UMRT21 Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux/ Aix-Marseille Université) and was a part of the research work of the iLab-Spine (International Laboratory - Spine Imaging and Biomechanics) and the Industrial Research Chair program CRSNG/Medtronic on the spinal biomechanics.

The objective of the research presented in this thesis has been to develop a physics-based dislocation density-based numerical framework to simulate microstructure evolution in severe plastic deformation (SPD) manufacturing processes for different materials. Different mechanisms of microstructure evolution in SPD manufacturing processes were investigated and summarized for different materials under dynamic or high strain rates over a wide temperature range. Thorough literature reviews were performed to clarify discrepancies of the mechanism responsible for the formation of nanocrystalline structure in the machined surface layer under both low-temperature and high-temperature conditions. Under this framework, metallo-thermo-mechanically (MTM) coupled finite element (FE) models were developed to predict the microstructure evolution during different SPD manufacturing processes. Different material flow stress responses were modeled subject to responsible plastic deformation mechanisms. These MTM coupled FE models successfully captured the microstructure evolution process for various materials subjected to multiple mechanisms. Cellular automaton models were developed for SPD manufacturing processes under intermediate to high strain rates for the first time to simulate the microstructure evolution subjected to discontinuous dynamic recrystallization and thermally driven grain growth. The cellular automaton simulations revealed that the recrystallization process usually cannot be completed by the end of the plastic deformation under intermediate to high strain rates. The completion of the recrystallization process during the cooling stage after the plastic deformation process was modeled for the first time for SPD manufacturing processes at elevated temperatures.

Vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) seeks to detect, quantify, locate, and prognosticate damage by processing vibration signals measured while the structure is operational. The basic premise of vibration-based SHM is that damage will affect the stiffness, mass or energy dissipation properties of the structure and in turn alter its measured dynamic characteristics. In order to make SHM a practical technology it is necessary to perform damage assessment using only a minimum number of permanently installed sensors. Deducing damage at unmeasured regions of the structural domain requires solving an inverse problem that is underdetermined and(or) ill-conditioned. In addition, the effects of local damage on global vibration response may be overshadowed by the effects of modelling error, environmental changes, sensor noise, and unmeasured excitation. These theoretical and practical challenges render the damage identification inverse problem ill-posed, and in some cases unsolvable with conventional inverse methods. This dissertation proposes and tests a novel interpretation of the damage identification inverse problem. Since damage is inherently local and strictly reduces stiffness and(or) mass, the underdetermined inverse problem can be made uniquely solvable by either imposing sparsity or non-negativity on the solution space. The goal of this research is to leverage this concept in order to prove that damage identification can be performed in practical applications using significantly less measurements than conventional inverse methods require. This dissertation investigates two sparsity inducing methods, L1-norm optimization and the non-negative least squares, in their application to identifying damage from eigenvalues, a minimal sensor-based feature that results in an underdetermined inverse problem. This work presents necessary conditions for solution uniqueness and a method to quantify the bounds on the non-unique solution space. The proposed methods are investigated using a wide range of numerical simulations and validated using a four-story lab-scale frame and a full-scale 17 m long aluminum truss. The findings of this study suggest that leveraging the attributes of both L1-norm optimization and non-negative constrained least squares can provide significant improvement over their standalone applications and over other existing methods of damage detection.

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy is the most common spinal cord disorder in persons over 55 years of age in North America and perhaps in the world. Surgical options are broadly classified into two categories namely, anterior and posterior approaches. This study focuses on the posterior based approach (i.e. laminectomy or laminoplasty) which is considered when multiple levels of the spine have to be decompressed or when most of the cord compression results from posterior pathological conditions. The external and internal behavior of the spine after laminoplasty and laminectomy has been evaluated using both experimental and computational methods. Computationally, a validated intact 3D finite element model of the cervical spine (C2-T1) was modified to simulate laminectomy and laminoplasty (open door (ODL) and double door (DDL)) at levels C3-C6. During flexion, after ODL the adjacent levels C2-C3 and C6-C7 showed a 39% and 20% increase in the motion respectively; while no substantial changes were observed at the surgically altered levels. The percent increase in motion after DDL varied from 4.3% to 34.6%. The inclination towards increased motion during flexion after double door laminoplasty explains the role of the lamina-ligamentum flavum complex in the stability of spine. Compared to the intact model, laminectomy at C3-C6 led to a profound increase (37.5% to 79.6%) in motion across the levels C2-C3 to C6-C7. Furthermore, the changes in the von Mises stresses of the intervertebral disc observed after laminoplasty and laminectomy during flexion can be correlated to the changes in the intersegmental motions. An in-vitro biomechanical study was conducted to address the effects of laminoplasty (two-level and four-level) and four-level laminectomy on the flexibility of the cervical spine. Both two-level and four-level laminoplasty resulted in minimal changes in C2-T1 range of motion. For flexion/extension, two-level and multi-level laminoplasty showed an approximate 20% decrease (p>0.05) in the range of motion at C4-C5 and C2-C3 respectively due to the encroachment of the spinous process into the opened lamina. The decrease was mostly observed in older specimens and specimens with adjacent laminae close to each other; thus leading to the encroachment of the spinous process into the opened lamina. Laminectomy resulted in a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase in the range of motion compared to the intact condition during the three loading modes. These results correspond well with the finite element predictions, where a four-level ODL and laminectomy resulted in a minimal 5.4% and a substantial 57.5% increase in C2-T1 motion respectively during flexion. Adaptive bone remodeling theory was applied to the open door laminoplasty model to understand the effect of the surgical procedure on the internal architecture of bone. Bone remodeling was implemented at the C5 vertebra by quantifying the changes in apparent bone density in terms of the mechanical stimulus (i.e. SED/density). After laminoplasty, the increased load distribution through the bony hinge region led to the increased bone density during extension. This increased bone density could eventually lead to bone formation in those regions through external remodeling. The current study proved laminoplasty to be a motion preservation technique wherein the plates and spacer provided additional stability via reconstruction of the laminar arch while laminectomy can cause instability of spine especially during flexion. In the future, patient-specific finite element models that incorporate geometry-related differences could be developed to optimize the number of operated levels and to further explain the effect of surgical procedure on the unaltered levels.

Predicting breast tissue deformation is of great significance in several medical applications such as surgery, biopsy and imaging. In breast surgery, surgeons are often concerned with a specific portion of the breast, e.g., tumor, which must be located accurately beforehand. Also clinically it is important for combining the information provided by images from several modalities or at different times, for the planning and guidance of interventions. Multi-modality imaging of the breast obtained by mammography, MRI and PET is thought to be best achieved through some form of data fusion technique. However, images taken by these various techniques are often obtained under entirely different tissue configurations, compression, orientation or body position. In these cases some form of spatial transformation of image data from one geometry to another is required such that the tissues are represented in an equivalent configuration. We constructed the 3D biomechanical models for this purpose using Finite Element Methods (FEM). The models were based on phantom and patient MRIs and could be used to model the interrelation between different types of tissue by applying displacements of forces and to register multimodality medical images.

Constructing multi floor buildings by light weight material have increased recently. There are many advantages of using light weight material, such as wood, for the environment. However, one of the deficiencies of lightweight material is the acoustic performance. Transmission of sound and vibration through floors in multi floor buildings in wood is a drawback to be considered. There are many studies that have addressed this issue. It is most common to make a finite element models well as experiments in laboratory. In these studies the material properties in the FE model are probably often adjusted to correlate to the laboratory experiments, since there is a large spread in material properties found in literature. This thesis however tries to elaborate on the actual material properties of the included wooden elements. Dynamic testing is done to determine the spread (here spread means gap between material properties) in material properties of wooden elements. The materials tested are chipboards and two types of wooden beams. The examined beams are both normal wooden beams and laminated veneer lumber beams. When the dynamic behaviour is known for the wooden parts, they are assembled to two small floor systems. The floor systems consist of four beams and one wooden board. The assembly is dynamically tested in laboratory and in FE software. The FE model used the known material properties for each individual building part. The results from the FE model correlate well with the laboratory tests. This shows that when material properties are known a FE model can predict the real behaviour. However, the examined material properties show a large spread from beam to beam, etc and a better knowledge about the material properties of used wooden parts is needed. / Att bygga flervåningshus med lätta byggmaterial har blivit allt vanligare. Det finns många fördelar med att använda lätta material, såsom trä. En av fördelarna är att det är skonsamt för miljön. Emellertid är en av bristerna i lättviktsmaterial den akustiska prestandan. Överföring av ljud och vibrationer genom golv i flervåningshus i trä är en nackdel att överväga. Det finns flera studier som har behandlat denna fråga. Ofta görs finita element modeller samt tester i laboratorium. I dessa studier justerar man materialegenskaperna i FE-modellen för att korrelera mot laboratorieexperiment. Detta eftersom det finns en stor spridning i materialegenskaperna för trä i litteraturen. Med detta examensarbete, undersöks de faktiska materialegenskaperna hos träelementen genom försök. Dynamiska tester utförs för att bestämma spridningen i materialegenskaper. De testade materialen är spånskivor och två typer av träbalkar. De undersökta balkarna är både normala träreglar och laminerade faner balkar. När det dynamiska beteendet är känt för trädelarna, monteras de ihop till två små golvsystem. Golvsystemen består av fyra balkar och en träskiva. Den assemblerade modellen testas både dynamiskt i ett praktiskt försök och i ett FE program. I FEmodellen används de tidigare framtagna faktiska materialegenskaper för varje ingående enskild byggnadsdel. Resultaten från FE-modellen korrelerar väl med de praktiska experimenten. Med detta examensarbete visas att när materialegenskaperna är kända kan FE-modellen förutsäga det verkliga beteendet. De undersökta materialegenskaperna visar dock en stor spridning från balk till balk, etc. och mer kunskap om materialegenskaper hos trädelar behövs.

The steel through-truss Traffic Bridge, located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is over one hundred years old. The bridge has been subject to ongoing maintenance throughout its service life. However, inspection reports from 2005 and 2006 highlighted the severe deterioration experienced primarily by the steel members immediately above and below the deck surface. These reports prompted the City of Saskatoon (COS) to implement a rehabilitation project that involved the installation of a post-tensioning system to relieve the badly corroded bottom chord members of the axial loads due to the self-weight of the structure, in 2006. Due to the severe deterioration and the structural modifications that the Traffic Bridge has endured, a limited scope structural health monitoring (SHM) system, based on strain measurements, was implemented to reduce some of the uncertainty regarding the active load paths occurring at the deck level. The objectives of the SHM study were to obtain more information regarding the actual load paths and ascertain possible types of structural redundancy, to determine how to best model this type of structure, and to find ways to track ongoing deterioration using instrumentation. The SHM study involved controlled truck loading scenarios to permit measurement of the load paths and provide data to compare the measured results to a finite element (FE) model of the instrumented span. In addition, random loading scenarios were used to capture the vertical dynamic response of the structure in order to further refine the FE model. This study focused on the response of one-half of one interior span. A total of 72 strain gauges were installed. The downstream truss was highly instrumented at ten locations, three members of the upstream truss were instrumented to measure the distribution, and the floor joists in the downstream lane were instrumented to establish possible redundancy paths. Using an FE model in combination with the measured strain data, it was found that redundant load paths only existed at the level of the deck. The bottom chord members experienced non-zero strains once the control vehicle was past the span, possibly indicating some level of redundancy. The members believed to relieve a portion of the bottom chord tensile forces included the car joists, edge joists, and the timber deck. The amount of force transferred from the bottom chord to the deck members was found by FE analysis to be highly related to the lateral stiffness of the floor beams. The FE model was adjusted to match the measured results by modifying various modelling parameters. The most important features of the model were that all deck elements were modelled to be located at the elevation of the bottom chord, that the lateral stiffness of the floor beams was reduced by 50% to best represent the transfer of forces to deck elements, and that the stiffness of bottom chord members was reduced to 80% of their pristine values. In combination with calibrated modification factors applied to the measured values, this FE model is believed to be a useful tool to represent the behaviour of the structure to assist in detecting further damage by modelling the strain differential between members, and components of members.

Although there have been tremendous improvements in crash safety there has been an increasing trend in side impact fatalities, rising from 30% to 37% of total fatalities from 1975 to 2004 (NHTSA, 2004). Between 1979 and 2004, 63% of AIS≥4 injuries in side impact resulted from thoracic trauma (NHTSA, 2004). Lateral impact fatalities, although decreasing in absolute numbers, now comprise a larger percentage of total fatalities. Safety features are typically more effective in frontal collisions compared to side impact due to the reduced distance between the occupant and intruding vehicle in side impact collisions. Therefore, an increased understanding of the mechanisms governing side impact injury is necessary in order to improve occupant safety in side impact auto crash. This study builds on an advanced numerical human body model with focus on a detailed thoracic model, which has been validated using available post mortem human subject (PMHS) test data for pendulum and side sled impact tests (Forbes, 2005). Crash conditions were investigated through use of a modified side sled model used to reproduce the key conditions present in full scale crash tests. The model accounts for several important factors that contribute to occupant response based on the literature. These factors are; the relative velocities between the seat and door, the occupant to door distance, the door shape and compliance. The side sled model was validated by reproducing the crash conditions present in FMVSS 214 and IIHS side impact tests and comparing the thoracic compression, velocity, and Viscous Criterion (VC) response determined by the model to the response of the ES-2 dummy used in the crash tests. Injury was predicted by evaluating VCmax, selected for its ability to predict rate-sensitive soft tissue injury during thoracic compression (Lau & Viano, 1986). The Ford Taurus FMVSS 214 and Nissan Maxima IIHS tests were selected from side impact crash test data found in the NHTSA database because they included factors not present in standard side impact test procedures. These factors were; the presence of door accelerometers used to provide input velocities to the side impact model and the use of a ES-2 (rather than the SID) to facilitate comparison of VC response to the human body model. Also, the two crash test procedures (FMVSS 214 & IIHS) were selected to ensure accurate side impact model response to different impact scenarios. The side impact model was shown to closely reproduce the timing and injury response of the full-scale FMVSS 214 side impact test of a Ford Taurus, as well as the IIHS side impact test of a Nissan Maxima. The side impact model was then used to investigate the effects of door to occupant spacing, door velocity profile, armrest height, seat foam, restraint system, and arm position. It was found that the VCmax was controlled by both the first and second peaks typically found in door velocity profiles, but the effect of each varies depending on the situation. This study found that VCmax was reduced by 73-88% when door intrusion was eliminated compared to the VC response incurred by an intruding door. Also, the presence of a deformable door based on physical geometry and material characteristics rather than a simplified rigid door reduced VCmax by 16% in this study. The study on seat foam determined that significant effects on VC response can be made by modest adjustments in foam properties. Low stiffness seat foam was found to increase VCmax by 41% when compared to the VC response when using high stiffness foam. Arm position has been proven to be a relevant factor in side impact crash. Positioning the arms parallel to the thorax, in the “down” position, caused a 42% increase in VCmax when compared to the VC response determined with the arms positioned at 45 degrees. Finally, although restraint systems have limited influence on side impact crash safety compared to front and rear impacts, this study found that the presence of a pre-tensioning restraint system reduced VCmax by 13% when compared to the VC response of an un-belted occupant. It should be noted that the current study was limited to velocity profiles obtained from a specific FMVSS 214 test and therefore results and observations are restricted to the confines of the input conditions used. However, the side impact model developed is a useful tool for evaluating factors influencing side impact and can be used to determine occupant response in any side impact crash scenario when the appropriate input conditions are provided.

Vibration isolation is a common approach to reduce the undesired vibration of a dynamic system from its surrounding. The common material used for the vibration isolator is rubber (for example) which is known to be environmentally unfriendly. This thesis presents a study on the use of corrugated cardboard for the vibration isolator, which is known to be a highly environment-friendly material. The focus of the study is on understanding and modeling of stiffness and damping of cardboard when it or its system (several cardboards) is used for isolating the vibration coming from the vertical direction of cardboard. In this thesis, a study is presented of finite element modeling of stiffness of corrugated cardboard in its vertical direction with the aim of overcoming two major shortcomings in modeling in the current literature: (1) the width effect is neglected even for cardboard with its width greater than length and (2) the non-linear constitutive relation is not accurately determined. Indeed, it is likely that these shortcomings are responsible for inaccuracy with the models in the current literature to predict the stiffness and peak load. Further, a test bed was set up for the measurement of damping of cardboards in this study. This thesis also presents an application of the theoretic development in the stiffness and damping of corrugated cardboard to design an isolator for the vacuum pump at Canadian Light Source. Several conclusions are drawn from this study: (1) modeling with consideration of the width effect and non-linear constitutive relation is necessary to improve the accuracy of prediction of stiffness of cardboard; (2) set up for the measurement of damping of cardboard is accurate; and (3) cardboard systems are feasible for vibration isolation in terms of the reduction of amplitude of vibration. The contribution of this thesis includes: (1) providing a finite element method for modeling of corrugated cardboards which have a complex non-linear constitutive relation, variable contact configuration, and 3D geometrical effect and (2) providing the feasibility of proving that corrugated cardboard can be used for vibration isolation.