The purpose of this project has been twofold. First, a thorough literature survey has been conducted in the field of information storage and retrieval with primary attention given to computer oriented techniques. The systems used and the theory behind them have been of more concern to the author than the actual equipment used because it is felt that equipment will change very rapidly as it has in the past whereas the basic system, in most cases, will prevail. The second part of this project has been the design of an overall automated trial information system with the needs of the designer being of prime importance. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

<p> The optimization study of space frames has been considered in two aspects in this project work. The first was to develop a suitable optimization technique for a nonlinear programming problem including equality constraints, without any particular reference to structural optimization. The necessacity for the above requirement was due to the fact that almost all existing methods on optimization have some limitation. The second object of this study was to set up the necessary equations for the constraints on stress and on frequency for the structural model used, and then to use the developed technique to optimize the structural model for minimum weight. </p> <p> A simple and effective strategy, which is a combination of direct search and linear approximate programming is believed to have been developed for optimization of simple nonlinear type equations. </p> <p> The analysis of the space structure and the study of structural optimization revealed several difficulties inherent in the evaluation of constraining equations for the stresses and frequencies, which makes the optimization very difficult. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

<p> An experimental study of stratified fluid flow phenomena for two equal depth, different density stratified liquids in a rectangular channel is presented. Two two fluid combinations were used, a sugar water and fresh water, and fresh water and varsol. The critical value of the determined densimetric Froude number at which the upper fluid began to participate in the flow was obtained and found to be 0.28 as against Huber's (1) predicted value of 2.76. It was concluded that the interfacial mixing and viscous effects are largely responsible for this difference. </p> <p> An attempt to extend Harleman's (7) work was made. The results obtained in present work were in good agreement with Harleman's (7) experimental work. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

<p> Dynamic stress tests were performed on mild steel samples. The material parameters 'n' and 'G(εᵣ, tₒ)', defined as 'stress dislocation velocity exponent' and 'flow function' respectively, were evaluated using the equation "σₘⁿtₒ K(n) = G(εᵣ, tₒ)" as proposed by Kardos (1). The values determined for 'n' are in agreement with the results obtained by other researchers using different techniques. </p> <p> The equipment for studying the response of materials to dynamic loading was modified to permit a wider duration range for the loading. </p> <p> A technique was developed to monitor the pressure of the oil in the intensifier throughout the entire loading cycle. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)