Turbocharging is used as a means to downsize petrol engines, thereby, producing more power for a lower engine size, when compared with a naturally aspirated engine. Due to the presence of a throttle valve in the intake system in petrol engines, flow is restricted at the outlet pipe of the compressor during low load engine operation. For example, during transient tip out tip in maneuvers. Hence, there is a chance of the turbocharger operating in near surge or surge conditions and, thus, generating surge noise. This Thesis describes an experimental and simulation method to predict and measure the turbocharger surge noise. Initially, experimental transient tip-in and tip-out maneuver was performed on a non turbocharged car with a petrol engine. The measured noise level in the intake manifold, at a low frequency of up to 1200 Hz, was analysed and was shown not to represent surge noise. Next, a one dimensional simulation method was applied to simulate the noise of the engine and this demonstrated an increase in the acoustic pressure level in the intake manifold during the tip in and tip out maneuver. However, a surge noise pattern was not observed in the analysis of acoustic pressure signals in the intake system using Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT). The simulation procedure was also used to inform the design of an experimental rig to recreate the surge noise under laboratory conditions. An experimental turbocharger noise rig, designed and built for this purpose, is explained in the Thesis. Important component parts likely to be involved in the surge noise generation such as the intake system, compressor, throttle body, compressor recirculation valve and measurement and control systems were integrated into the test rig. Background noise contributions from the electric motor, AC mains, supercharger pulley, throttle body, inverter fan, throttle body gearing and structural vibration of the supporting structure were identified from the analysed frequency components of the signals from surface microphone measurements taken at the intake system. This helped to clearly identify the surge noise frequency components (3250 Hz) in the STFT analysis. The fundamental mechanism of noise generation was identified using an analysis of the experimental results and a frequency calculation for vortex shedding and the radial acoustic resonances. One of the main conclusions of the Thesis is that the compressor recirculation valve (CRV) open or close position, the CRV delay time and the throttle position are major contributing factors to the cause of the surge noise. Another major conclusion is that the radial acoustic resonance may be a mechanism of surge noise generation. Finally, a passive solution to reduce the surge noise is proposed. A pipe with cross ribs is designed as a passive solution using the radial acoustic resonance calculation and the corresponding nodal patterns. This solution demonstrated a measured intake system noise reduction of up to 10dB under compressor surge conditions.

Threaded fastener is one of the most common ways to join components. Having a method to test threaded fasteners is key when designing a joint and even more a nutrunner. A joint is often tightened by a torque applied on the head. The applied torque is equal to three quantities in the joint, the thread torque, the underhead torque and the clamp force. To measure these quantities are the propose of a friction test rig. A test rig was built last year to be able to do that in a flexible and effective way. But the test rig built last year does not have the possibility to measure the underhead torque. A new transducer is constructed to add that possibility. The transducer is constructed by using methods such as concept generation, strength calculations, FEM simulations and a comparison of sensors are made. An easy way to change the stiffness is also investigated but no possible solution could be found. Some modifications and trims are also done on the test rig and also a comparison with the older BLM rig. A validation is made of how good the rig perform is also done. The results shows in favour for the FTR but precise results is not possible to determine.

A injeção de carvão pulverizado (pulverized coal injection - PCI) é uma técnica largamente utilizada nos altos-fornos pelas siderúrgicas brasileiras, seguindo uma tendência mundial, que busca reduzir o consumo específico de coque por tonelada de gusa e, em consequência, do custo do ferro gusa produzido. A combustão do carvão pulverizado ocorre sob pressões médias (de até 4 atm), temperaturas de chama elevadas (em torno de 2 000 °C), altas taxas de aquecimento (104 a 105 °C/s), tempo de residência muito curtos (inferiores a 40 ms), e é seguida pela gaseificação na presença de CO2. Como não existem métodos padronizados para a avaliação das características de combustão dos carvões para sua utilização em PCI, utilizam-se geralmente equipamentos de injeção de carvão em escalas laboratorial e de bancada, além plantas-piloto com este propósito. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é apresentar as etapas do desenvolvimento de um equipamento em escala de bancada realizado no Laboratório de Siderurgia da Escola de Engenharia da UFRGS (LASID-UFRGS), desde o projeto conceitual até a fase pré-operacional, e os resultados iniciais obtidos, para estudar as características de combustão dos carvões em condições bastante similares às que ocorrem nos altos-fornos. Os testes iniciais incluem a avaliação da combustão de um carvão brasileiro objetivando seu uso potencial em PCI, em substituição parcial de carvões importados para este fim. Optou-se por um projeto moderno, altamente automatizado, que inclui aquisição rápida de dados, com escala e conceito operacional adequados para estudos acadêmicos, de configuração vertical e que possibilitasse a operação no modo de injeção de uma amostra de carvão em pulso único, bem como uma adequação futura ao modo de injeção contínua de carvão. Algumas características relevantes do equipamento são a medição e aquisição ultrarrápida de dados termodinâmicos de pressão e temperatura em diversos pontos do sistema, permitindo o registro dos fenômenos transientes que ocorrem durante a combustão, a possibilidade de programação e controle de tempos, pressões e temperaturas para testes de combustão e de pirólise através de rotinas especialmente desenvolvidas para isto, bem como a coleta representativa dos produtos sólidos e gasosos resultantes da combustão para posterior análise. É ainda possível a filmagem da xvi combustão em modo ultrarrápido, permitindo correlacionar as imagens aos dados termodinâmicos registrados durante a combustão ao longo de um segundo, em intervalos de poucos milissegundos. Os resultados iniciais obtidos na fase pré-operacional demonstram o bom funcionamento do sistema, permitindo distinguir claramente a influência da variação de parâmetros operacionais como tipo de carvão, massa e de amostra injetada, pressão e temperatura de operação e composição dos gases oxidantes. / Pulverized coal injection (PCI) is a technique used in blast furnaces (BFs) by Brazilian steel industry, following a worldwide trend, to reduce coke consumption by ton of hot metal produced, and therefore reducing the overall cost. Burning of pulverized coal injected into tuyeres of BFs takes place under medium pressure (up to 4 atm), high flame temperatures (around 2 000 °C), very fast heating rates (104–105 °C/s) and very short residence times, less than 40 ms, followed by gasification in presence of CO2. Since there are no standard tests for evaluation of coal combustibility at PCI conditions, lab and bench scale coal injection rigs and pilot plants are usually employed for this purpose. This work shows the development steps of a bench-scale rig, built at the Iron and Steelmaking Laboratory of the School of Engineering - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (LASID-UFRGS), from the conceptual design to the pre-operational step, as well as the initial results. This equipment permits to study the combustion characteristics of coals in conditions very close to those occurring in blast furnaces. Initial tests include the combustion evaluation of a Brazilian coal, aiming its potential usage for PCI, in partial substitution of imported coals for this purpose. The rig has a modern design and is highly automated. Its scale and operational concept is fitted for academic studies. It has a vertical configuration, to be operated with injection of a coal sample in a single pulse mode and is capable to be adjusted afterwards to continuous coal injection mode. Some relevant characteristics of the injection rig are: (1) the very fast measurement and acquisition of thermodynamic data of pressure and temperature in several points of the system, allowing the capture of transient phenomena occurring along the combustion process; (2) the possibility of programming and controlling time intervals, pressures and temperatures to perform combustion and pyrolysis tests, employing specially developed routines; and (3) the representative sample collection of solid and gaseous combustion products to be further analyzed. It is also possible to capture images of the combustion by a high-speed camera, allowing correlate the images, acquired during a time interval of one second, with the thermodynamic data collected in intervals of few milliseconds. xviii The good performance of the equipment was shown by the initial results obtained at the pre-operational phase. The experimental data clearly depicted the effect of operational parameters like coal type, injected sample mass, operational pressure and temperature, and oxidizing gas composition.

Drill String dynamic behaviour during the oil drilling operation, was a major source for the failure of the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). The behaviour produced torsional vibration, which underpins the stick slip phenomena. Besides threatening the safety of the oil drilling process, such failure cause interruptions in the drilling operations and incurred high maintenance cost to the oil drilling company. This issue can be resolved with the implementation of the optimum control mechanism while operating the drill string. In this research, an optimum control mechanism was proposed to suppress the torsional vibration as well as mitigate the risk of stick slip phenomenon from occurring. The mechanism was proposed through a series of rigorous research strategies i.e. updated-mathematical equation modelling, experimentation and simulation. As the first step, a mathematical equation model describing system dynamics was derived to set the parameter of investigation. Representing the freedom torsional of the two degrees - conventional vertical drill string, the model was used to predict the frictional Torque On Bit (TOB) through non-linear friction force, denoting the ground-formation behaviour during drilling activity. Using a velocity feedback system, the drill-string oscillation was reduced while gradually increasing its velocity via gain scheduling method - allowing fast response to load disturbance. To avoid the motor torque from exceeding the maximum threshold, a Weight On Bit (WOB) was introduced. This approach remarks the novel contribution of this research. Next, an experiment on the preliminary test rig within a controlled laboratory set up was conducted. The rotary drill rig was assembled to identify the dynamics (i.e. parameters) of an individual part of the drill string. The results obtained were then applied in the drill string operation experiment, to identify the optimum control mechanism that can avoid the torsional vibration. To enable triangulation of results, a simulation was conducted by applying the same parameters obtained from the test rig experiment in the model- which is the optimum control mechanism that was proposed in this research to minimise torsional vibration, as well as reducing the chance of drill-string failure due to stick-slip phenomenon.

L’explosion de la plateforme de forage Deepwater Horizon qui s’est produite dans le Golfe du Mexique en 2010, à l’origine d’une catastrophe écologique sans précédent dans l’histoire des Etats-Unis, nous a conduit à nous interroger sur l’encadrement international de l’activité d’exploration et d’exploitation des hydrocarbures en mer et la protection de l’environnement. Parce que cette activité qui est exercée sur le plateau continental des états, génère des pollutions opérationnelles et accidentelles, et parce que la pollution marine ne connait pas les frontières, l’encadrement international d’une telle activité est de rigueur. L’activité qui a débuté à la fin du XIXe siècle a connu un véritable essor vers les années 70. A ce moment là, les états prennent conscience de la nécessité de protéger l’environnement. Dans le même temps, un régime international encadrant l’activité se développe entre les années 70 et les années 90. Se distingue alors le régime de prévention du régime de réaction. Dans un premier temps l’activité doit répondre à des exigences de prévention. Il n’existe toutefois pas un instrument universel exclusivement dédié à cette activité, de telle sorte que l’on observe un éclatement du régime au travers d’instruments directement applicables à vocation universelle et régionale, complétés par des instruments indirectement applicables relatifs à la protection de l’environnement. Malgré cet éclatement il en ressort que les principaux aspects constituant le cycle de vie de l’activité, partant de la délivrance de permis d’exploration et d’exploitation au démantèlement des plateformes en passant par le contrôle de l’activité sont relativement bien encadrés. Mais malgré cet encadrement nous ne sommes pas à l’abri de la survenance d’une pollution contre laquelle il faudra lutter.Dans ce second temps les états ont donc développé un régime de réaction en réponse aux pollutions opérationnelles et accidentelles. Concernant les pollutions opérationnelles, l’on voit en marge des régimes de prévention déjà existants et imposant certains seuils, se dessiner une lutte empirique contre ces pollutions, essentiellement à l’échelle régionale. Les états prennent conscience que les seuils de pollutions opérationnelles doivent être indéniablement plus contraignants. Concernant la lutte contre les pollutions accidentelles, les états disposent d’un régime international relativement satisfaisant puisqu’une série d’instruments prévoit les mesures imposées aux états que ces derniers doivent prendre en cas de survenance d’une pollution mais surtout parce qu’un instrument universel est dédié à cette problématique. L’existence d’un tel régime ne signifie par pour autant que les états doivent s’en contenter et doivent de cette manière en permanence faire évoluer le droit en vue d’un meilleur encadrement, telle qu’a su le faire l’Union européenne en adoptant en 2013 sa directive sur les accidents majeurs. / The deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was the most important ecological catastrophe of the United States of America. This event inspired us to study the current international law about the hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation at sea and the protection of the environment. Because this activity takes place on the continental shelf it leads to operational and accidental pollutions, because marine pollution does not have frontiers, therefore legal international control of this activity is necessary.The activity which begun at the end of the nineteenth century, knew a real development around the 70's. At that moment, States became aware of the necessity to protect the environment. At the same time, an international settlement supervising the activity is emerging from the 70's to the 90's. Thus we can distinguish the prevention settlement from the react settlement. First of all the activity must respond to the prevention requirements. Notwithstanding, there is no universal treaty exclusively dedicated to this activity. That is why we do observe a splited settlement through universal and regional treaties directly applicable, completed by treaties indirectly applicable relating to environmental protection. Despite this splitting, we observe that principal aspects constituting the life cycle of the activity, from exploration and exploitation delivery permitted to decommissioning of paltforms, are well controled.Despite this control, a pollution can occur against which one we have to fight.That is why in the second time States developped a react settlement in response to the operational and accidental pollutions. About operational pollutions, we observe around the current preventional settelement which sets limits, developing some new limits through an empirical struggle, essentially at the regional level. States become aware that the limits imposed for operational pollution have to be more restrictive.With reference to the accidental pollutions, a current international settlement is quite satisfactory since various treaties and particularly an universal treaty, decree measures to States, which they fullfil if pollutions occure. This kind of instrument do not significate that States do not have to make the law progress. Indeed the law needs to evoluate permanentaly that is why UE adopted a directive about major accidents.At the same time react settlement not only means fighting pollution but also identifying the liable of the pollution and repare the damage, specifically the per se ecological damage.

Mobile jack-up rigs are widely used in offshore oil and gas exploration and increasingly in temporary production and maintenance work. There is a steadily increasing demand for their use in deeper water and harsher environments. A typical modem jack-up has three independent legs, each equipped with a footing known as ‘spudcan’. This thesis is concerned with the performance of spudcan foundation subjected to vertical loading correspondent to preloading during its installation into uniform clay. The chief aim of this study is to investigate the bearing behaviour with the corresponding soil failure mechanisms during spudcan penetration. Centrifuge model test and Finite Element (FE) analysis are carried out extensively. In centrifuge modelling, a half-spudcan model and a full spudcan model are used. In the half- spudcan model test, a novel system for revealing soil failure mechanisms and measuring soil deformation has been adopted, in which the half-spudcan model is placed against a transparent window and a subsequent Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) analysis is performed. The full-spudcan model test is conducted to measure the load-penetration response. In numerical simulation, both small strain and large deformation analyses are carried out with smooth and rough soil-spudcan interfaces considered. At the initial stage of penetration, it is observed that a cavity is formed above the spudcan as it is penetrating into a uniform clay. Meanwhile, soil flows towards the surface and thus soil heave forms close to the spudcan shoulders. With further penetration, the soil underneath the spudcan starts to flow back into the cavity on the exposed top of the spudcan. This backflow causes the spudcan to be embedded while the initially formed cavity remains open. / Eventually, the spudcan becomes fully embedded and the soil flow mechanism reaches a fully localised failure mechanism with deep embedment. The lateral extent of visible distortion due to soil flow is confined well within 1.5-1.6 D (D: spudcan diameter). From both centrifuge and numerical investigations, it is found that in uniform clay, it is inevitable to form a cavity above the spudcan foundation. Thus, the stable cavity depth and soil back flow mechanisms are studied. It is clear that the back flow is caused by a Flow Failure, where it is due to the downward penetration of the spudcan. This is contrary to the Wall Failure that is the mechanism recommended by the current offshore design guidelines to estimate the stable cavity depth. In wall failure, the soil back flow is due to the cavity wall too high to stand. The stable cavity depth is estimated up to 4 times higher by the wall failure mechanism than the one by the flow failure. This explains that the wall failure is never observed in model test. Therefore, a new design chart with design formula is developed for design engineers in the stable cavity depth calculation. The spudcan bearing response is strongly correspondent with the variation of soil failure mechanisms during penetration. At the initial stage of the penetration, the spudcan bearing capacity increases with penetration, which is due to the increase of overburden pressure from cavity formation. At the second stage of the penetration, soil back flow embeds the spudcan, and the spudcan bearing capacity is increasing as the soil flow mechanism transits from its shallow failure mechanism to its deep failure mechanism. / At the final stage of the penetration, the spudcan bearing capacity reaches its ultimate value, where the deep/localised failure mechanism remains. A rough spudcan shows 14 % higher bearing capacity than a smooth spudcan. And a flat-plate shows 8 % higher capacity than a spudcan with a same surface roughness. The ultimate bearing capacity factor N, = 10.5 in uniform soil is recommended as a conservative value when the deep failure mechanism is reached. A correspondent N, = 10.1 in NC clay is suggested for a deeply embedded spudcan.

The potential for significant performance increases, using ceramic materials in un-lubricated rolling element bearing applications, has been the subject of research over the past two decades. Practical advantages over steel include increased ability to withstand high loads, severe environments and high speeds. However, widespread acceptance has been limited by the inability to predict wear life for ceramic bearing applications. In this thesis, the rolling contact wear of 52100 bearing steel and Over-aged Magnesia-Partially-Stabilised Zirconia (OA-Mg-PSZ) ceramic are examined using a newly developed rolling contact wear test rig. The new wear test rig simulates the system geometry of an un-lubricated hybrid (ceramic and steel) ball bearing. The new wear test rig is versatile in that it allows low cost samples to be utilised resulting in a larger number of samples that can be tested. Wear samples of 52100 bearing steel and OA-Mg-PSZ produced by the new wear test rig were examined for mass loss and wear depth. The wear behavior of both the steel and ceramic material showed a dependence on operating variables time and load. Load was varied between 300N to 790N. Typical mass loss after 1 hour of testing 52100 bearing steel at 790N was 0.03 grams as compared to OA-Mg-PSZ which was 0.001 grams. The rolling contact wear of the OA-Mg-PSZ was an order of magnitude lower than that of the 52100 bearing steel. The wear mechanism for 52100 bearing steel was typical of plastic deformation and shearing near and below the surface of rolling contact. Once cracks extend to reach the surface, thin flat like sheets are produced. In OA-Mg-PSZ the wear mechanism initially is that of plastic deformation on the scale of the surface asperities with asperity polishing occurring followed by lateral cracks and fatigue spallation. Results obtained using the new rolling contact wear test rig led to the establishment of a new equation for wear modeling of 52100 bearing steel and OA-Mg-PSZ ceramic materials.

Concrete is the most broadly used material in construction worldwide and Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC, a type of ultra high performance concrete) is a relatively new member of the concrete family. In this work the critical parameters of RPC mix design are investigated and the mix design is explored through a program of concrete casting and testing. Owing to the enhanced microstructure of RPC, porosity and permeability can be significantly decreased in the concrete matrix. This benefits the durability characteristics of RPC elements resulting in a longer service life with less maintenance costs than conventional concrete. It has been used for high integrity radiation waste material containers because of its low permeability and durability. Fibre reinforced RPC is also ideal for use in long span and thin shell structural elements without traditional reinforcement because of its advantageous flexural strength. Moreover, due to improved impact resistance, RPC can be widely employed in piers of bridges, military construction and blast protection. There is no standard approach to assessing the impact resistance of concrete. This investigation utilises relatively well accepted impact equipment to evaluate the mechanical properties of RPC under dynamic loading. The compressive and flexural tensile strengths of plain and fibre reinforced RPC are investigated using a variety of specimens and apparatus. The dynamic increase factor (DIF) is evaluated to indicate the strain rate sensitivity of the compressive and flexural strength.

<p>PolyTech AB in Malmköping manufactures gyro stabilized camera systems or helicopter applications. In this Master´s Thesis a shaker test rig for vibration testing of these systems is designed, implemented and evaluated. The shaker is required to have an adjustable frequency and displacement and different shakers that meet these requirements are treated in a literature study.</p><p>The shaker chosen in the test rig is based on a mechanical solution that is described in detail. Additionally all components used in the test rig are described and modelled. The test rig is identified and evaluated from different experiments carried out at PolyTech, where the major part of the identification is based on data collected from accelerometers.</p><p>The test rig model is used to develop a controller that controls the frequency and the displacement of the shaker. A three-phase motor is used to control the frequency of the shaker and a linear actuator with a servo is used to control the displacement. The servo controller is designed using observer and state feedback techniques.</p><p>Additionally, the mount in which the camera system is hanging is modelled and identified, where the identification method is based on nonlinear least squares (NLS) curve fitting technique.</p>

The EEC (Electron Energy Corporation) in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is researching the magnetic bearings for an alternative to conventional journal or ball bearings. The purpose of this research was to design and develop a high-temperature (1000ºF) hybrid Magnetic Bearing using High Temperature Permanent Magnets (HTPM), developed by the EEC for high performance jet engines at high speeds that supply loads of 500 lbf. Another objective is to design and build a test rig fixture to measure the load capacity of the designed bearing. The permanent magnet bias of the Homopolar radial magnetic bearing reduces the amount of current required for magnetic bearing operation. This reduces the power loss due to the coil current resistance and improves the system efficiency because the magnetic field of the HTPM can suspend the major portion of the static load on bearing. A high temperature radial magnetic bearing was designed via an iterative search employing 3D finite element based electromagnetic field simulations. The bearing was designed to produce 500 lbf of force at 1000ºF and the design weight is 48 lbs. The bias flux of the Homopolar radial bearing is produced by EEC HTPM to reduce the related ohmic losses of an electromagnetic circuit significantly. An experimental procedure was developed to measure actual load capacity of the designed bearing at the test rig. All the results obtained from the experiment were compiled and analyzed to determine the relation between bearing force, applied current and temperature.