This thesis analyses the domain of wearables and its current developments, and the notion of Hertzian Space, under the consideration of the emerging areas of the internet of things and ubiquitous computing. It introduces wearables as an opening into Hertzian Space and presents a possible approach to how a wearable could be designed to function as a touchpoint between human body and Hertzian Space. It thereby looks into what electronic intimacy can look like and how it can be created and used to bridge an enstrangement between person and device.This thesis illustrates a whole process of shaping this wearable device, including experimentation, digital sketching, and different testing methods. From the making of this prototype it is concluded that enhancing electronic characteristics and opening the Hertzian Space for interaction can create a stronger awareness of our electronic surrounding and the invisible fields around us, which thereby also facilitates a better understanding of our position within Hertzian Space and offers a new personal perspective. This study provides an opening into the eld of exploration of the Hertzian Space through wearables and should be seen as a generative design contribution, which ties aspects in the fields of wearables, Hertzian Space and interaction design together and also offers openings for further research.

This thesis analyses the domain of wearables and its current developments, and the notion of hertzian space, under the consideration of the emerging areas of the internet of things and ubiquitous computing. It introduces wearables as an opening into hertzian space and presents a possible approach to how a wearable could be designed to function as a touchpoint between human body and hertzian space. It thereby looks into what electronic intimacy can look like and how it can be created and used to bridge an enstrangement between person and device.This thesis illustrates a whole process of shaping this wearable device, including experimentation, digital sketching, and different testing methods. From the making of this prototype it is concluded that enhancing electronic characteristics and opening the hertzian space for interaction can create a stronger awareness of our electronic surrounding and the invisible fields around us, which thereby also facilitates a better understanding of our position within hertzian space and offers a new personal perspective. This study provides an opening into the eld of exploration of the hertzian space through wearables and should be seen as a generative design contribution, which ties aspects in the fields of wearables, hertzian space and interaction design together and also offers openings for further research.

The connection between contact geometry and fatigue in tapered roller bearings utilized in the railroad environment is still of interest. Roller bearings for railroad applications are typically precision ground with crowned contact geometries to prevent edge loading of components. This normally results in completely elastic Hertzian contact stresses under standard railcar loads. However, under extreme load conditions, detrimental edge loading has been known to occur. It is proposed to develop a tool, using finite element analysis, that can be utilized to optimize complex raceway crown geometries for severe applications. A successful implementation of this tool is presented and validated using proven Hertzian contact theory. Correlation within 5% of the ultimate surface and subsurface stress magnitudes, using finite element modeling, in contrast with proven contact theory is achieved. In addition, analyses of other load conditions and contact geometries in order to illustrate the practical application of the tool are exhibited.

There is a technological need for hard thin films with high elastic modulus. Silicon Carbide (SiC) fulfills such requirements with a variety of applications in high temperature and MEMS devices. A detailed study of SiC thin films mechanical properties was performed by means of nanoindentation. The report is on the comparative studies of the mechanical properties of epitaxially grown cubic (3C) single crystalline and polycrystalline SiC thin films on Si substrates. The thickness of both the Single and polycrystalline SiC samples were around 1-2 µm. Under indentation loads below 500 µ-Newton both films exhibit Elastic contact without plastic deformation. Based on the nanoindentation results polycrystalline SiC thin films have an elastic modulus and hardness of 422 plus or minus 16 GPa and 32.69 plus or minus 3.218 GPa respectively, while single crystalline SiC films elastic modulus and hardness of 410 plus or minus 3.18 Gpa and 30 plus or minus 2.8 Gpa respectively. Fracture toughness experiments were also carried out using the nanoindentation technique and values were measured to be 1.48 plus or minus 0.6 GPa for polycrystalline SiC and 1.58 plus or minus 0.5 GPa for single crystal SiC, respectively. These results show that both polycrystalline SiC thin films and single crystal SiC more or less have similar properties. Hence both single crystal and polycrystalline SiC thin films have the capability of becoming strong contenders for MEMS applications, as well as hard and protective coatings for cutting tools and coatings for MEMS devices.

Thin films that are functionally gradient improve the mechanical properties of film-substrate layered materials. Mechanical properties of such materials are found by using indentation tests. In this study, finite element models are developed to simulate the indentation test. The models are based on an axisymmetric half space of a specimen subjected to spherical indentation. The film layer through the thickness is modeled to have either homogeneous material properties or nonhomogeneous material properties that vary linearly. Maximum indenter displacement, and maximum normal and shear stresses at the interface are compared between the homogeneous model and the nonhomogeneous model for pragmatic contact length to film thickness ratios of 0.2 to 0.4, and film to substrate moduli ratios of 1 to 200 to 1. Additionally, a coefficient is derived from regression of the stress data produced by these models and compared to that used to define the pressure field in the axisymmetric Hertzian contact model. The results of this study suggest that a displacement boundary condition to an indenter produces the same results as a pressure distribution boundary condition. The critical normal stresses that occur between modeling a film as a nonhomogeneous and as a homogeneous material vary from 19% for a modulus ratio of 2.5:1 to as high as 66% for a modulus ratio of 200:1 indicating that the modeling techniques produced very different maximum normal stresses. The difference in the maximum shear stress between the nonhomogeneous and the homogeneous models varied from 19% for a 2.5:1 modulus ratio to 57% for the 200:1 modulus ratio but reached values as low as 6% for the 50:1 modulus ratio. The maximum contact depth between the nonhomogeneous and the homogeneous models varied from 14% for the 2.5:1 case to as much as 75% in the 200:1 case. The results from the reapplication of the pressure field derived from the regression coefficients and the R2 values from these regression models indicate the correctness of the regression model used as well as its ability to replicate the normal stresses in the contact area and maximum indenter displacements in a FEA model for both the homogeneous and the nonhomogeneous models for modulus ratios ranging from 2.5:1 to 200:1. The agreement between the regression based coefficients and the force based coefficients suggests the validity for the use of the theoretical axisymmetric Hertzian contact model for defining the pressure field in the contact area and displacements for both the homogeneous case and the nonhomogeneous case for the considered film to substrate moduli ratios and contact length to film thickness ratios.

The research on tribology and wear of the metals and composites has always been the topic of interest to understand the behavior and life of them. The wear of the materials with three-body contact has been of particular interest because the wear debris generated due to the wear and tear between the contact surfaces in constant motion will aggravate the wear rate of the contact surfaces. Hence it would be interesting to understand the stress distribution inside the materials with three-body contact. The current research presents the stress distribution within the materials which are in three-body contact modeling them as plain-strain problems with three different models viz., point force model, uniform pressure model and Hertzian Pressure model. The stress distribution of all the three cases are numerically computed and compared and the stress intensity factor is calculated in each case.

The thesis is concerned with the contact mechanics behaviour of non-conforming solids. The geometry of the solids considered gives rise to various contact configurations, from concentrated contacts with circular and elliptical configuration to those of finite line nature, as well as those of less concentrated form such as circular flat punches. The radii of curvature of mating bodies in contact or impact give rise to these various nonconforming contact configurations and affect their contact characteristics, from those considered as semi-infinite solids in accord with the classical Hertzian theory to those that deviate from it. Furthermore, layered solids have been considered, some with higher elastic modulus than that of the substrate material (such as hard protective coatings) and some with low elastic moduli, often employed as tribological coatings (such as solid lubricants). Other bonded layered solids behave in viscoelastic manner, with creep relaxation behaviour under load, and are often used to dampen structural vibration upon impact. Analytic models have been developed for all these solids to predict their contact and impact behaviour and obtain pressure distribution, footprint shape and deformation under both elastostatic and transient dynamic conditions. Only few solutions for thin bonded layered elastic solids have been reported for elastostatic analysis. The analytical model developed in this thesis is in accord with those reported in the literature and is extended to the case of impact of balls, and employed for a number of practical applications. The elastostatic impact of a roller against a semi-infinite elastic half-space is also treated by analytic means, which has not been reported in literature. Two and three-dimensional finite element models have been developed and compared with all the derived analytic methods, and good agreement found in all cases. The finite element approach used has been made into a generic tool for all the contact configurations, elastic and viscoelastic. The physics of the contact mechanical problems is fully explained by analytic, numerical and supporting experimentation and agreement found between all these approaches to a high level of conformance. This level of agreement, the development of various analytical impact models for layered solids and finite line configuration, and the development of a multi-layered viscoelastic transducer with agreed numerical predictions account for the main contributions to knowledge. There are a significant number of findings within the thesis, but the major findings relate to the protective nature of hard coatings and high modulus bonded layered solids, and the verified viscoelastic behaviour of low elastic modulus compressible thin bonded layers. Most importantly, the thesis has created a rational framework for contact/impact of solids of low contact contiguity.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / As propriedades mecÃnicas de nano e micro sistemas tÃm motivado muitos estudos com o objetivo de entender como a interaÃÃo mecÃnica afeta os materiais em pequenas dimensÃes. A nanoindentaÃÃo foi desenvolvida no inÃcio dos anos 1970 e à amplamente usada para extrair propriedades mecÃnicas de materiais, como por exemplo, o mÃdulo de Young. Tem-se observado que modelos matemÃticos clÃssicos da mecÃnica do contato com base no contato Hertziano (derivado do contato elÃstico semi-infinito) nÃo descrevem adequadamente os campos de tensÃo e deformaÃÃo devido aos efeitos do substrato e tamanho do indentador. Esse trabalho tem por objetivo adaptar o modelo proposto por Hertz para simular o contato entre indentadores com uma superfÃcie de espessura finita. O mÃtodo de elementos finitos (MEF) foi utilizado para modelar as geometrias do contato esfÃrico e cÃnico, permitindo a investigaÃÃo da resposta mecÃnica desses contatos por simulaÃÃes de indentaÃÃo computacional. Os dados obitidos pelo MEF permitiram o ajuste do modelo de Hertz e fatores de correÃÃo foram incluidos para levar a informaÃÃo da espessura da amostra e assim melhorar o entendimento do efeito do substrato em nanoindentaÃÃes. Esses ajustes do modelo de Hertz em conjunto com os dados experimentais de microscopia de forÃa atÃmica sÃo importantes no estudo das propriedades mecÃnicas de materiais biolÃgicos, pois fornece a possibilidade de obter dados quantitativo e qualitativos a respeito do comportamento elÃstico de sistemas em pequena escala.

This diploma thesis deals with the development of experimental apparatus for measuring the real contacts. Phase Shift Interferometry was used for measuring the contacts of steel or brass ball and glass plate. The approach which is desci-bed in this thesis is a unique. It was demonstrated, that the deformation of con-tact body is possible to determine. There is some discusion about final aplicati-on of this optic profilometry for measuring real contacts.

In this bachelor thesis we report on our numerical investigations into the optimal design of protective multi-layer coatings subject to an external force of Hertzian form. In view of mechanical reliablity and durability of the substrate and the coating we aim to find the best composition of given materials with the least computational effort. Numerical studies are carried out using the simulation software ELASTICA being the first non-FEM approach for the computation of stress fields within multi-layer coated, elastic materials. We thereby made use of the massive parallel computer CLiC (Chemnitzer Linux Cluster) where we ran our Windows based application in a Wine Environment. The outcome of the optimization is in general very sensitive towards the input parameters(i.e., material properties) which are not always available in the desired accuracy. However, the scheme outlined in this work is shown to produce very good results and could contribute a great deal to find optimal solutions for real applications. / Diese Bachelorarbeit befasst sich mit numerischen Untersuchungen zum optimalen Design von schützenden Mehrschichtbeschichtungen, die einer externen, Hertzschen Last ausgesetzt sind. Hinsichtlich der mechanischen Zuverlässigkeit und Haltbarkeit von Substrat und Beschichtung, versuchen wir die beste Zusammensetzung von gegebenen Materialien mit möglichst geringem Rechenaufwand zu finden. Die numerischen Berechungen wurden mit der Simulationssoftware ELASTICA durchgeführt, welches das erste kommerzielle, nicht-FEM-basierte Programm zur Berechnung von Stressfeldern innerhalb mehrfach beschichteter, elastischer Materialien darstellt. Dafür benutzten wir auf dem massiven Parrallelrechner CLiC (Chemnitzer Linux Cluster) unsere Windows basierte Anwendung unter der Emulationssoftware Wine. Das Ergebnis der Optimierung hängt im allgemeinen sehr stark von der Qualität der Eingangsparameter (z.B. Materialeigenschaften) ab, welche nicht immer in der erwünschten Genauigkeit vorliegen. Es wird gezeigt, dass die in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Vorgehensweise sehr gute Resultate liefert und für reale Anwendungen einen äusserst ressourcenschonenden Lösungsweg darstellt.