A flex-fan has flexible blades which undergo large deformation under centrifugal forces to give the desired air-flow and power-consumption characteristics with speed. The finite element technique has been used to obtain the deflected shape of the blade of such a fan used for automobile radiator cooling. The natural frequencies of vibration are also evaluated at different speeds, up to 5,000 rpm. A partially conforming deflection function has been used in the analysis. The blade has been treated as a thin shell, idealized as an assembly of thin flat triangular elements. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

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Este trabalho relata resultados de estudos sobre drenagem de camadas próximas à superfície que visam contribuir para aperfeiçoar o entendimento de comportamento da fase não saturada de solos, e disseminar o uso de elementos finitos para estudo de movimento de água em componentes que constituem a plataforma de vias. Descreveram-se e comentaram-se tópicos sobre as relações entre o formato de vias e a drenagem na estrutura de vias, processos para estimativas de vazões percoladas e infiltradas em solos por métodos simplificados, tópicos sobre a evolução do estudo de movimento de água e estimativa de medidas sobre propriedades de solos não saturados. Para estudo de caso se adotou a simulação com elementos de volume de sólido e método dos elementos finitos para com dados publicados sobre propriedades de solo arenoso ou argiloso obter dados para testes estatísticos que ressaltassem as diferenças entre as vazões estimadas com uso da condutividade hidráulica constante e de solo saturado, e a condutividade que incluísse o solo não saturado. Os dados usados foram obtidos por simulação, que estimou vazões percoladas e infiltradas, que foram submetidos a teste de hipóteses sobre diferenças de médias. O objetivo proposto foi atingido discutindo resultados de análise sobre a significância estatística de diferenças entre vazões percoladas. / This work reports the conclusions of studies on draining water from surface layers of a way structure that aim to contribute to the knowledge on the behavior of non saturated ground, and to spread the use of the finite element technique for studies on the water movement inside components that constitute these platforms. It was discussed: an introduction on highways in Brazil, topics that had motivated the studies, methods and processes for treatment of the non saturated phase of the water movement. It was described and commented topics on the relations between the format of ways and the draining in their structure, processes to estimate the percolation and infiltration outflows using simplified methods, topics on the evolution of the study movement of water and estimating measures on non saturated ground properties. For case study it was adopted the simulation using elements of solid volume and the finite element technique obtained from bibliographical data on saturated and non saturated sand and clay properties, including the hydraulic conductivity. The tested data had been gotten by simulation, and had been submitted to the test of hypotheses on differences of percolated water volumes. The main objective was reached discussing statistical results on the significance of the differences among percolated volume of water.

Este trabalho relata resultados de estudos sobre drenagem de camadas próximas à superfície que visam contribuir para aperfeiçoar o entendimento de comportamento da fase não saturada de solos, e disseminar o uso de elementos finitos para estudo de movimento de água em componentes que constituem a plataforma de vias. Descreveram-se e comentaram-se tópicos sobre as relações entre o formato de vias e a drenagem na estrutura de vias, processos para estimativas de vazões percoladas e infiltradas em solos por métodos simplificados, tópicos sobre a evolução do estudo de movimento de água e estimativa de medidas sobre propriedades de solos não saturados. Para estudo de caso se adotou a simulação com elementos de volume de sólido e método dos elementos finitos para com dados publicados sobre propriedades de solo arenoso ou argiloso obter dados para testes estatísticos que ressaltassem as diferenças entre as vazões estimadas com uso da condutividade hidráulica constante e de solo saturado, e a condutividade que incluísse o solo não saturado. Os dados usados foram obtidos por simulação, que estimou vazões percoladas e infiltradas, que foram submetidos a teste de hipóteses sobre diferenças de médias. O objetivo proposto foi atingido discutindo resultados de análise sobre a significância estatística de diferenças entre vazões percoladas. / This work reports the conclusions of studies on draining water from surface layers of a way structure that aim to contribute to the knowledge on the behavior of non saturated ground, and to spread the use of the finite element technique for studies on the water movement inside components that constitute these platforms. It was discussed: an introduction on highways in Brazil, topics that had motivated the studies, methods and processes for treatment of the non saturated phase of the water movement. It was described and commented topics on the relations between the format of ways and the draining in their structure, processes to estimate the percolation and infiltration outflows using simplified methods, topics on the evolution of the study movement of water and estimating measures on non saturated ground properties. For case study it was adopted the simulation using elements of solid volume and the finite element technique obtained from bibliographical data on saturated and non saturated sand and clay properties, including the hydraulic conductivity. The tested data had been gotten by simulation, and had been submitted to the test of hypotheses on differences of percolated water volumes. The main objective was reached discussing statistical results on the significance of the differences among percolated volume of water.

The concept of using aluminum as the primary construction material for high speed ships and the hydroelastic behavior of the structure is widely gaining importance as a significant research topic in naval architecture. Aluminum is lighter than steel and hence can be predominantly used in high speed crafts which experiences significant slamming. This thesis work is focused on wedge shaped models. Free fall wedge impact is studied and a FORTRAN 90 computer program is developed to estimate the structural response of the wedge experiencing slamming by the use of matrix methods, finite element techniques and Newmark-Beta numerical time integration methods. The numerical solution is validated by comparison with the static solution. The theoretical hydrodynamic pressures which are used as input for this work was originally developed by using a flat cylinder theory [26]. The wedge drop at 0.6096 m (24 inch) drop height with an impact veloc- ity of v=3.05 m/s is based as the premise and the experimental pressure distributions measured by the pressure-transducers and the theoretical pressure predictions are used as inputs and the structural response is derived. Additionally, the response is compared for three different plate thicknesses and the results are compared against each other. The maximum deflection is comparable to the deflection evaluated from the experiment and tends to attain convergence as well. As the plate thickness reduces there tends to be a significant rise in the deflection values for the wedge plate, in the manner that when the plate thickness is halved there is a deviation of more than 75% in the deflection values as such.