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Flatness of wood composite panels, such as Laminated Veneer Lumber, is often difficult to control during the manufacturing process. Out-of-plane deformation, or warpage, of wood veneers caused by changes in moisture content affects the ability to press flat panels. To understand wood panel warpage, experimental methods are developed to create and measure moisture-induced deformation of wood veneers on five species of various thicknesses. Three moisture induction methods are investigated and evaluated to determine the increase in moisture content. Experiments are developed to produce moisture gradients of two concentrations in the veneers to examine the effect on warpage behavior. Additionally, the surface area of applied moisture and veneer thickness is also investigated. Three-dimensional scanning technology is used to measure warpage of veneers. A procedure using a structured-light scanner is developed to analyze the surface curvatures to observe the effect of moisture-induced warpage. After moisture-induction treatment of the veneer, surface deformation data is measured using the scanner and the data is converted into a 3D solid body model that is used for curvature comb analysis. The results show that curvature comb analysis can be used to analyze the geometry of moisture-induce warpage. The method can be used to analyze the effect of moisture gradient variables on warpage behavior including concentration, veneer thickness, and surface area. The experimental methods developed can be used by future researchers to validate theoretical warpage prediction models. / Master of Science / Flatness of wood composite panels, such as Laminated Veneer Lumber, is often difficult to control during the manufacturing process. Warpage of wood veneers is caused by changes in moisture content affecting manufacturers' ability to press flat panels. To understand wood panel warpage, experimental methods are developed to create and measure moisture-induced warpage of wood veneers on five species of various thicknesses. Three moisture induction methods are investigated and evaluated to determine the increase in moisture content. Experiments are developed to produce moisture gradients of two concentrations in the veneers to examine the effect on warpage behavior. Additionally, the surface area of applied moisture and veneer thickness is also investigated. Three-dimensional scanning technology is used to measure warpage of veneers. A procedure is developed to analyze the surface curvatures to observe the effect of moisture-induced warpage. After moisture-induction treatment of the veneer, surface deformation data is measured and converted into a 3D solid body model that is used to analyze curvature. The results show that moisture induction methods used to induce warpage can experience different geometries to analyze a veneer's curvature. The methods can be used to analyze warpage behavior of veneers by future researchers to validate warpage prediction model.

Byggsektorn har fortfarande svårigheter med att hantera fuktproblematiken.  Vi har valt att fokusera på hanteringen av material i produktion. Den informationssamling vi utfört ligger till grund för vår analys och slutsats. Vi har intervjuat flera olika entreprenörer från byggbranschen för att ge oss en helhetssyn av fuktsäkerheten ute på byggarbetsplatserna. Studien påvisar att det råder brister både på beställar- och entreprenörssidan. Vi ser att det finns potential för förbättring när det så krävs. Därför rekommenderar vi att högre krav ställs på fuktsäkerheten och att tydliga riktlinjer finns att följa. Den handbok som framtagits är riktat till att hjälpa yrkesarbetarna på entreprenörssidan att uppnå de krav som ställs. Handboken innehåller tillvägagångssätt för materialhantering och fuktkvotsmätning samt kritiska fuktvärden för olika material. / The construction sector still has difficulties in dealing with moisture problems. We have chosen to focus on the material handling in the production phase at the building site. The information collection we performed is the basis for our analysis and conclusion. We have interviewed several contractors in the construction industry to give us a comprehensive view of the moisture safety out on construction sites. The study shows that there are shortcomings on both constructor- and contractor’s side. We see that there is a potential for improvement when it’s required. We recommend that greater demands are placed on the moisture safety and that clear guidelines are to follow. The handbook is directed at helping skilled workers in the contractor end to achieve the required demands. The handbook includes procedures for material handling and moisture measurements as well as critical moisture values for different materials.

The knowledge of soil moisture is of pronounced importance in various applications e.g. flood control, agricultural production and effective water resources management. These applications require the knowledge of spatial and temporal variation of the soil moisture in the watershed. There are three approaches of estimating/measuring soil moisture namely,(i) in-situ measurements,(ii) remote sensing, and(iii) hydrological modelling. The in situ techniques of measurement provide relatively accurate information at point scale but are not feasible to gather in large numbers relevant for a watershed. The soil moisture can be simulated by hydrological models at the desired spatial and temporal resolution, but these simulations would often be affected by the uncertainties in the model physics, parameters, forcing, initial and boundary conditions. The remote sensing provides an alternative to retrieve the soil moisture of the surface (top few centimeters ) layer, but even this data is limited by the spatial or temporal resolution, which is satellite dependant. Hydrological models could be improved by assimilating remotely sensed soil moisture, which requires a retrieval algorithm. In order to develop a retrieval algorithm the satellite data need to be calibrated/validated with the in-situ ground measurements. The retrieval of surface soil moisture from microwave remote sensing is sensitive to surface conditions, and hence requires calibration/validation specific to a site/region. The improvement in the hydrological variables/fluxes is sensitive to the framework adopted during the assimilation of remotely sensed data. The main focus of the study was to assess the retrieval algorithm for the surface soil moisture from both active (ENVISAT,RADARSAT-2)and passive(AMSR-E) microwave satellites in a semi-arid tropical watershed of South India. Further, the usefulness of these retrieved remotely sensed products for the estimation of recharge was investigated by developing a coupled hydrological model and an assimilation framework. A brief introduction was made in Chapter 1 on the importance of surface soil moisture and evapotranspiration in hydrology, and the feasible options available for the retrieval from microwave remote sensing. A detailed review of the literature is presented in Chapter 2 to establish the state-of-the-art on the following:(i) retrieval algorithms for the surface soil moisture from active and passive microwave remote sensing,(ii) estimation of actual evapotranspiration from optical remote sensing(MODIS),(iii) coupled surface-ground water hydrological models,(iv) estimation of soil hydraulic properties with their uncertainties, and(v) assimilation framework specific to hydrological modelling. To calibrate/validate the retrieval algorithms and to test the coupled model and the assimilation framework developed, field measurements were carried out in the BerambadI experimental watershed located in the Kabini river basin. The surface soil moisture in 50 field plots, profile soil moisture up to 1m depth in 20 field plots, and ground water level in 200 bore wells were measured. Twelve images of ENVISAT, seven teen images of RADARSAT-2, along with AMSR-E and MODIS data were used. These data pertained to different durations during the period 2008 to 2011,the details of which are given in Chapter 3. The approach for the retrieval of surface soil moisture and the associated uncertainty from active and passive microwave remote sensing is given in Chapter 4. Surface soil moisture was retrieved for six vegetation classes using the linear regression model and copulas. Three types of copulas(Clayton, Frank and Gumbel) were investigated. It was found that the ensemble mean simulated using the linear regression model and three copulas was nearly same. The copulas were found to be superior than the linear regression model when comparing the distributions of the mean of the generated ensemble. Among the copulas it was observed that the Clayton copula performed better in the lower and middle ranges of backscatter coefficient, while the Gumbel and Frank copulas were found to be superior in the upper ranges of backscatter coefficients. The range of RMSE was approximatively 4cm3cm−3 indicating that the retrieval from ENVISAT/RADARSAT-2 was good. ACDF based approach was proposed to retrieve the surface soil moisture map for the watershed with a spatial resolution of 100m x 100m ( i.e one hectare). The map of the uncertainty in the retrieved surface soil moisture was also prepared using the Clayton copula. The AMSR-E surface soil moisture product was calibrated for the watershed during the period 2008 to 2011, using the map generated from the ENVISAT/RADARSAT data. They Clayton copula was used to generate the ensemble of the corrected AMSR-E surface soil moisture. The standard deviation of the generated ensemble varied from 0.01 to 0.03cm3cm−3 ,hence the derived surface soil moisture product for Berambadi was found to be good. In the Chapter 5, a one dimensional soil moisture model was developed based on the numerical solution of the Richards’ equation using finite difference method and inverse modeling was carried out using the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation(GLUE) approach for estimating the soil hydraulic parameters of the van Genuchten(VG) model and their uncertainty. The parameters were estimated from the two field sites(Berambadi and Wailapally watershed in South India) and from laboratory evaporation experiment for the Wailapally site. It was found that the GLUE approach was able to provide good uncertainty bounds for the soil hydraulic parameters. The uncertainty in the estimates from the field experiment was found to be higher than from the laboratory evaporation experiment for both water retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. The saturated soil moisture(θs )and shape parameter (n) of VG model estimated from the laboratory evaporation and field experiment were found to be the same, and further more they showed a lower uncertainty from both the experiments. Moreover, the residual soil moisture (θr), inverse of capillary fringe thickness (α) and saturated hydraulic conductivity( KS) showed a relatively higher uncertainty. In the Berambadi watershed ,the inverse modeling was performed in three bare field plots, and it was found that field plots which had higher θs showed a relatively higher actual evapotranspiration (AET) and lower potential recharge. In Chapter 6, the retrieval of profile soil moisture up to 2m by assimilation of surface soil moisture was investigated by performing synthetic experiments on six soil types. The measured surface soil moisture over top 5cm depth was assimilated into the one dimensional soil moisture model to retrieve the profile soil moisture. Even though the assimilation of surface soil moisture helped in improving the profile soil moisture for the six soil types, the bias was observed. To reduce the bias, pseudo observations of profile soil moisture were generated and used in addition to the surface soil moisture in the assimilation altogether. These pseudo observations were generated using the linear relationship existing between the surface and profile soil moisture. A significant bias reduction was found to be feasible by using this method when pseudo observations beyond 75cm depth were used then there was no significant improvement. A coupled surface-ground water model was developed, which had 5 layers for the vadose zone and one layer for the ground water zone, in order to consider the major hydrological processes from ground surface to ground water table in a semi-arid watershed. The details of the coupled model were described in Chapter 7. The major aim of this model was to be able to use remotely sensed data of surface soil moisture and evapotranspiration to simulate recharge. The model was tested by applying in a lumped framework to the field data set in the Berambadi watershed for the year 2010 to 2011. The performance of the model was evaluated with the measured watershed average root zone soil moisture and ground water levels. The watershed average root zone soil moisture was obtained by averaging the field measurements from 20 plots and average ground water level was obtained by averaging the field measurement from 200 bore wells. In order to assimilate the AET into the coupled model, the daily AET at a spatial resolution of 1km was estimated from MODIS data. The AET was validated in one forested and four agricultural sites in the watershed. The validation was based on the comparison with AET simulated from water balance models. For agricultural plots the STICS (crop model) and for the forested site the COMFORT (hydrological) model were used. The AET from the MODIS showed a reasonably good match with both the forested and agricultural plots at the annual scale (for the crop model approximately 4-5 months). Model simulations were carried out with and without assimilating the remotely sensed data and the performance was evaluated. It was found that the assimilation helped in capturing the trends in deeper layer soil moisture and groundwater level. At the end, in Chapter 8 the major conclusions drawn from the various chapters are summarized.

Moisture recovery is important in the operation of many fuel cell systems, especially proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The exhaust of a PEM fuel cell is a moderate temperature, pressurized humid air stream. A system that recovers liquid water condensate from the pressurized humid exhaust stream of a PEM fuel cell would markedly increase the effectiveness of such a system. The recovered water could be used to hydrate the fuel cell membrane, and it could supply a hydrocarbon reformer used for generating hydrogen. This project investigated and documented moisture recovery from the simulated humid exhaust stream of a 25 kW fuel cell with an improved axial flow separator. An axial flow centrifugal separator design was chosen as the best candidate due to its high efficiency and low pressure drop and a prototype was designed and constructed. The separator was then integrated into an experimental test system. First, the stream was simulated by heating compressed air and then humidifying it with superheated steam. Then, after expanding through the turbine section of an automotive turbocharger, the humid stream was passed through the moisture separator where liquid water condensate was removed from the flow. Results are presented for varying turbine inlet conditions at three separate separation lengths. It is shown that the separation efficiency for the improved design was 40% higher and the pressure drop was only 1/3 that of the conventional separator.

The African Sahel is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate variability at different time scales. It is an arid to semi-arid region with limited water resources. The summer rainfall is one of these sources, but it exhibits pronounced interannual variability. This thesis presents several aspects of Sahelian Sudan rainfall. Sudan is located at the eastern fringe of the Sahel and its least studied part. We have examined the impact of tropical deforestation on the rainfall, the moisture sources of the region and the temporal characteristics of the observed and modeled rainfall. In a sensitivity study we performed three simulations, one control simulation and then setting the surface condition of South Sudan to either grass or desert conditions. The rainfall was reduced by 0.1 − 0.9 in the grass scenario and by 0.1 − 2.1 mm day−1 (hereafter mm d−1) in the desert scenario. These changes also propagated northward into Sahelian Sudan, indicating a remote impact. The total moisture convergence into Sahelian Sudan was reduced by 11.5% and 21.9% for grass and desert conditions, respectively. The change in moisture convergence into the region motivated a comprehensive analysis of the moisture sources for the region. Two different modeling approaches, Lagrangian and Eulerian, were applied to identify the moisture sources and quantify their contributions to the total annual rainfall budget. The analysis shows that atmospheric flows associated with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), e.g. from Guinea Coast, Central African and Western Sahel, brings about 40% − 50% of the annual moisture supply, while local evaporation adds about 20%. The rest of the moisture comes from the Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula and the Southern part of the Indian Ocean. While there were differences in the details between the results from the two modeling approaches, they agree on the larger scale results. In an attempt to characterize the temporal character of the rainfall, observed and modeled daily rainfall from different regional climate models was classified into five categories: weak (0.1 −1.0), moderate (&gt;1.0 − 10.0), moderately strong (&gt;10.0 − 20.0), strong (&gt;20.0 − 30.0), and very strong (&gt;30.0) mm d−1. We found that most rain-days were in the weak to moderate rainfall categories, accounting for 60% − 75%. Days that have strong rainfall represent about 6% of the total rain-days, yet they represent about 28% − 48% of the total amount of the annual rainfall. Regional climate models fail to produce the strong rainfall, instead most of the modeled rain-days are in the moderate category and consequently the models overestimated the number of rain-days per year. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

The construction industry stands in front of several challenges when it comes to sustainability where the choice of material can affect the carbon dioxide emissions. The interest to use CLT has increased the last years probably due to increased environmental awareness. Studies have shown that there is a research need when it comes to moisture in CLT which this report have looked deeper in to. The purpose was to create a bigger understanding for moisture protection of CLT in the design phase. The method was a qualitive case study where the main data collection was interviews. Complimentary material to the primary data was gathered through a document study to answer the first research question. This created a triangulation and strengthened the reliability of the study. A literature search was implemented to create a scientific foundation to the study.  Three reference objects were the basis for the study where architects, constructors, contractors and moisture consultants were interviewed. The results of this study showed that the industry standard for building moisture safe constructions ByggaF is used as a foundation for the moisture work but is adjusted to the project. The work with moisture protection begins in the project planning document phase and continues throughout the whole process of the project. The moisture consultant reviews and follow up the work continually. The study also shows that there is lack of experience when it comes to CLT in the industry. Challenges that occurred were inadequate communication between different disciplines. The areas for improvement in the industry are that a library with standard details should be developed. It also occurred that it is important to include a moisture consultant and supplier of CLT early in the project. The study showed that there is shortage in experience when it comes to moisture control of CLT. Shortage in experience can result in CLT being deselected as an alternative to concrete. It also appears that there are challenges with the communication to production which is probably a consequence of lack of experiences. The possibilities of CLT are many since it is a sustainable material, easy to assemble and creates a nice environment. By further education and sharing experiences, the knowledge regarding CLT and moisture in the industry can increase. For an easier design phase, a library with standard details should be developed as well as further tools in the form of an agenda that treats general moisture control. The question regarding weather protection is something that has been discussed which sets different requirements for the design phase and there is a need for further research regarding this question.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1944 F61 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1956 S62 / Master of Science