Electric vehicles contain hundreds of high-energy density lithium-ion batteries. The crashworthiness of these vehicles can be improved by better understanding the response of these batteries in an event of an accident or abusive loads. These loads can induce short-circuit and thermal runways in extreme cases. Therefore, an efficient finite element model of a battery that can precisely predict the coupled multi-physics behavior of a cell in a real-world application is desired. This investigation incorporates detailed and homogenized multi-physics modeling of various form factors of lithium-ion batteries. In the first two chapters of this thesis, a multi-physics homogenized model of a pouch cell was developed and validated in a wide range of multi-disciplines of the battery. In contrast to other similar models described in the literature, which are only applicable in certain scenarios, this model has a much broader range of applications due to the innovative techniques developed for material calibration and cell modeling. In addition, due to the homogenized nature and computational cost efficiency of this technique, the developed model has significance in the crashworthiness analysis of battery packs and electric vehicles where hundreds of these batteries exist. In the final chapter, a detailed layered model of an 18650 cylindrical cell was developed. Component and cell-level tests were performed on the cell to calibrate the material properties and extract the geometries of all the components of the cell. This model is the first of its kind that precisely predicts the load-displacement response and shape of deformation in various loading scenarios. This developed model has crucial importance in the safety assessment of the batteries by providing insight into the sequence of deformation of the internal layers and components and their interplay during mechanical abuse loadings. Overall, the two developed models in this thesis provide battery-related industries with a tool to improve the safety of future electrified industries. / Mechanical Engineering

Electroplated zinc-alloy coatings have been used on fasteners in the automotive industry for many years. The coating often consists of three layers: a zinc-alloy layer, a passivation layer and a sealer or top-coat. The coating layers affect the functional properties of the fastener (mainly the corrosion resistance, friction coefficient and electrical conductivity), and the aim of this thesis has been to increase the understanding of how these functional properties are affected by the properties of the coating. The corrosion resistance, friction coefficient and electrical conductivity of several different fasteners have been tested. Variations in these properties are connected with morphological and chemical properties of the electro-deposited zinc-alloy coating, passivation layer and sealer/top-coat of the fasteners. Measurement methods include scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), light optical microscope (LOM), x-ray fluorescence (XRF), glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES), broad ion beam (BIB) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). From the results it can be concluded that the surface structure of zinc-nickel layers differs significantly from supplier to supplier. Screws with a thicker and rougher zinc-nickel surface structure displays higher friction values, but lower electrical resistance values. Optimisation of both of these properties is thus challenging. The distribution and surface structure of the outmost top-coat layer also differs between suppliers, but no connection between this and the functional properties of the screw has been found. The corners of the screw heads are often lacking a proper zinc-alloy coating, and this is also where corrosion is initiated. In general, the zinc-nickel alloy coating systems are performing better and display less corrosion spreading effects than the zinc-iron or pure zinc systems in terms of corrosion. / Elektropläterade zinklegeringsbeläggningar har använts på fästelement inom bilindustrin under många år. Beläggningen består ofta av tre skikt: ett zinklegeringsskikt, ett passiveringsskikt och en ”top-coat”, eller ”sealer”. Beläggningsskikten påverkar fästelementens funktionella egenskaper (främst korrosionsbeständighet, friktionskoefficient och elektrisk ledningsförmåga) och syftet med denna avhandling har varit att öka förståelsen för hur dessa funktionella egenskaper påverkas av ytbeläggningens egenskaper. Korrosionsmotståndet, friktionskoefficienten och den elektriska ledningsförmågan hos flera olika fästelement har mätts. Variationer i dessa egenskaper kopplas till de morfologiska och kemiska egenskaperna hos den elektropläterade zinklegeringsskiktet, passiveringsskiktet och top-coat-skiktet hos fästelementen. Mätmetoder inkluderar svepelektronmikroskop och röntgenspektroskopi (SEMEDX), ljusoptiskt mikroskop (LOM), röntgenfluorescens (XRF), optisk strålningsspektroskopi (GD-OES), bred jonstråle (BIB) och Fourier-transformerad infraröd spektroskopi (FTIR). Av resultaten kan man dra slutsatsen att ytstrukturen hos zink-nickelskiktet skiljer sig avsevärt från leverantör till leverantör. Skruvar med tjockare och hårdare zink-nickelytstruktur visar högre friktionsvärden, men lägre elektriska resistansvärden. Optimering av båda dessa egenskaper är således utmanande. Distributionen och ytstrukturen hos det yttersta top-coat-skiktet skiljer sig också mellan leverantörer, men ingen samband mellan detta och skruvens funktionella egenskaper har hittats. Skruvhuvudets hörn saknar ofta en lämplig zinklegeringsbeläggning, och det är också där korrosion initieras. I allmänhet fungerar zink-nickellegeringsbeläggningssystemen bättre och visar mindre spridningseffekter i termer av korrosion än zinkjärn eller rena zinksystem.

Layered learning is a machine learning paradigm used to develop autonomous robotic-based agents by decomposing a complex task into simpler subtasks and learns each sequentially. Although the paradigm continues to have success in multiple domains, performance can be unexpectedly unsatisfactory. Using Boolean-logic problems and autonomous agent navigation, we show poor performance is due to the learner forgetting how to perform earlier learned subtasks too quickly (favoring plasticity) or having difficulty learning new things (favoring stability). We demonstrate that this imbalance can hinder learning so that task performance is no better than that of a suboptimal learning technique, monolithic learning, which does not use decomposition. Through the resulting analyses, we have identified factors that can lead to imbalance and their negative effects, providing a deeper understanding of stability and plasticity in decomposition-based approaches, such as layered learning. To combat the negative effects of the imbalance, a complementary learning system is applied to layered learning. The new technique augments the original learning approach with dual storage region policies to preserve useful information from being removed from an agent’s policy prematurely. Through multi-agent experiments, a 28% task performance increase is obtained with the proposed augmentations over the original technique.

Collaborative jamming with digital musical instruments (DMI) exposes a need for output synchronization. While temporal solutions have been established, a better understanding of how live sound transformations could be balanced across instruments is required. In this work, a technology probe for reciprocal sound transformations was designed and developed by networking the instruments of four musicians and employing layered mapping between a shared interface, high-level sound attributes, and the sound synthesis parameters of each instrument. The probe was designed and used during a series of participatory design workshops, where seven high-level attributes were constructed according to the spectromorphology framework. The analysis, where the notion of sonic narrative and the concept of flow were applied, reveals how live controlling reciprocal sound transformations facilitates collaboration by supporting role-taking, motivating the ensemble, and directing the focus of its members. While generality of the implemented attributes cannot be claimed, challenges of the chosen mapping strategy and requirements for the user interface were identified. / Jammande i grupp med digitala musikinstrument (DMI) avslöjar ett behov för att kunna synkronisera dem utgående signalerna. Temporära lösningar har etablerats, men en bättre förståelse för hur live ljudtransformationer skulle kunna balanseras över flera instrument är nödvändig. I detta arbete utvecklades och designades en teknologisk sond för reciproka ljudtransformationer genom att koppla ihop fyra musikers instrument och en flerlagersavbildning skapades med ett delat gränssnitt, högnivå ljudattribut samt ljudsyntesparametrarna för varje instrument. Sonden designades och användes under co-design-workshops, där sju högnivå ljudattribut konstruerades enligt spectromorfologiramverket. Analysen, där begreppen soniskt berättande och konceptet flyt applicerades, avslöjar hur realtidskontroll av reciproka ljudtransformationer främjer medverkande genom att stödja rolltagande, motivera ensemblen, samt rikta fokuset hos medlemmarna. Även om det inte går att hävda att de implementerade attributen är generella, så identifierades utmaningarna hos den valda avbildningsstrategien och hos användargränssnittet.

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are an advanced class of material which seeks to leverage the strengths of one material to mitigate the weaknesses of another. This allows for operation in extreme environments or conditions where materials properties must change at various locations within a structure. Fabrication of this advanced class of material is limited due to geometric, economic, and material constraints inherent in the various methods. For this reason, a model was developed to discretize continuous gradient curves to allow for the use of a step-wise approximations to such gradients. These alternative step-wise gradients would allow for the use of numerous manufacturing techniques which have improved composition control, cost of processing, cost of equipment, and equipment availability. One such technique, tape casting, was explored due to its robustness and ability to create layered ceramics. Since ceramics are inherently brittle materials, they serve to be strengthened by the thermal residual stresses that form in the creation of these step-wise graded composites. With models to calculate these residual stresses and determine step-wise approximations of various compositional gradients, the process of designing these layered ceramics can be significantly improved.

Applications of power electronics in power systems are growing very rapidly and changing the power system infrastructure in terms of operation speed and control. Even though applications of power electronics are wide spread, the cost and reliability of power electronics are the issues that could hinder their penetration in the utility and industrial systems. The demand for efficient and reliable converter controllers gave rise to modularized converter and controller design. The objective of this dissertation is to determine the appropriate partitioning and interface requirements between the system and application control layers for power electronic converters so that the minimum set of system layer to application layer control interfaces is compatible across all power electronic controllers. Previous work, using the Open System Architecture (OSA) concept has shown that there is a set of common functions shared by different converters at the low-level control layers. It has also shown that, depending on the application, there is a variation in control functions in application/middle control layers. This functional variation makes it difficult to define system functionality of power converters at upper control layers and further complicates the investigation into the partition requirements of system to application control layer. However, by analyzing the current or voltage affected by a converter in terms of orthogonal components, where each component or group of components is associated with a power-converter application, and the amount of required DC bus energy storage, a common functionality can be observed at the application control layer. Therefore, by establishing common functionality in terms of affected current or voltage components, a flexibility of operation can be realized at upper control layers that will be a major contribution towards standardizing the open system architecture. In order to a construct functional flexible power converter control architecture, the interface requirements to the system control layer and the partitioning between the system control layer and application control layer need to be explored. This will provide flexibility of system design methodology by reducing the number of constraints and enabling system designers to explore possible system architectures much more effectively.

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Today's commercial rapid prototyping systems (i.e., solid freeform fabrication, layered manufacturing) rely on human intervention to load and unload build jobs. Hence, jobs are processed subject to both the machine's and the operator's schedules. In particular, first-in-first-out (FIFO) queuing of such systems will result in machine idle time whenever a build job has been completed and an operator is not available to unload that build job and start up the next one. These machine idle times can significantly affect the system throughput, and, hence, the effective cost rate. This thesis addresses this problem by rearranging the job queue to minimizing the machine idle time, subject to the machine's and operator's schedules. This is achieved by employing a general branch-and-bound search method, that, for efficiency, reduces the search space by identifying contiguous sequences and avoiding reshuffling of those sequences during the branching procedure. The effectiveness of this job scheduling optimization has been demonstrated using a sequence of 30 jobs extracted from the usage log for the FDM 1600 rapid prototyping system in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. / Master of Science

A high-order hybrid discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DG-FEM) is developed for multi-layered curved panels having large deformation and finite strain. The kinematics of the multi-layered shells is presented at first. The Jacobian matrix and its determinant are also calculated. The weak form of the DG-FEM is next presented. In this case, the discontinuous basis functions can be employed for the displacement basis functions. The implementation details of the nonlinear FEM are next presented. Then, the Consistent Orthogonal Basis Function Space is developed. Given the boundary conditions and structure configurations, there will be a unique basis function space, such that the mass matrix is an accurate diagonal matrix. Moreover, the Consistent Orthogonal Basis Functions are very similar to mode shape functions. Based on the DG-FEM, three dedicated finite elements are developed for the multi-layered pipes, curved stiffeners and multi-layered stiffened hydrofoils. The kinematics of these three structures are presented. The smooth configuration is also obtained, which is very important for the buckling analysis with large deformation and finite strain. Finally, five problems are solved, including sandwich plates, 2-D multi-layered pipes, 3-D multi-layered pipes, stiffened plates and stiffened multi-layered hydrofoils. Material and geometric nonlinearities are both considered. The results are verified by other papers' results or ANSYS. / Master of Science