Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Mechanical Engineering Department, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: William D Hunt; Committee Member: Bruno Frazier; Committee Member: Dale Edmondson; Committee Member: Marie Csete; Committee Member: Peter Edmonson; Committee Member: Ruth O'Regan

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-157).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-149).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 169 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-155).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-143). Also available via World Wide Web.

Supershear earthquake is an interesting phenomena that is still without a robust method for its proving. In 2012 Vallée and Dunham (2012) published a method that studied far-field waveforms from supershear earthquakes. They conclude that unilateral supershear ruptures have similar shape of surface waves on the border of Mach cone as surface waves of smaller earthquake with the similar mechanism and location. In this work we use their method and we developed a script in Python with use of ObsPy library. Our script is capable of downloading and processing data from worldwide seismic databases like IRIS. We tested our program on a supershear earthquake in 2001, Kokoxili, China, which was studied in the original paper. Our results were the same as the original one. Then we use our script to other potential supershear earthquakes: Denali 2002, Yushu 2010 and Aegean sea 2014 to test the method and its results. We conclude that this method is relatively stable for large earthquakes like Kokoxili where we have a big difference between the main shock and the small one. For smaller events there could be a problem with seismic noise and proper setting of frequention.

M.Ing. / The aim of Spoornet is to provide a minimise predictable service. In order to provide a predictable service, it is necessary to move trains safely and effectively from the place of departure to their destination. The keywords here are safely and effectively. Although support functions such as infrastructure and train control procedures are vital in moving the train, the train or rolling stock as it is generally known, warrants some attention. Defects on the rolling stock are very costly to Spoornet. This is mainly due to the fact that a defect on the rolling stock that goes undetected can cause damage to the rolling stock and the infrastructure. This damage can eventually lead to derailments. Considering that a derailment can cost Spoornet millions of rand and cause delays to the services, it is only logical to spend time preventing derailments. It is for this reason that a workgroup was formed to investigate and solve the problem of defects causing derailments and delays by developing an early warning system. The need for an integrated train condition monitoring system became apparent when considering an early warning system. The objectives of the integrated train condition monitoring system are to provide train condition information to different users, and alarms on detection of emergency or dangerous conditions. Various train defects that may cause damage or derailments were identified. One of them being a flat wheel on a rail vehicle. A flat wheel is characterised by the flattening of the wheel on one or more positions on its circumference, so that the wheel does not have an even and completely round profile. Flat wheels are mostly caused by the wheels of a vehicle becoming locked during braking, and sliding along the rail track. The friction created by this action grinds a flat spot on the wheel. The flat wheel leads to a decline in the riding quality of the rolling stock and a rise in the levels of vibration and noise is evident. But more importantly, the flat spot causes the wheel to roll unevenly, creating impacts on the rail on some points. It is these impacts that can cause damage to the rail and the rolling stock. Depending on the length of the flat spot, the vehicle type and speed, the stresses may be sufficient to cause final failure of the rail or initiate fatigue cracks in the rail. Severe flat wheels are a safety hazard and can in some cases, cause derailments and consequent delays to trains. Smaller flat spots contribute to track deterioration and so increase maintenance costs by damaging the rails, sleepers and ballast. Flat wheels can thus be very costly to Spoornet and its public image. In addition to safety and economic considerations, wheel flats reduce the comfort levels in the passenger coaches and the noises they make is annoying. In an attempt to restrict the damage caused by flat wheels, most railway administrations place a limit on the length of the flats that may stay in service. But to effectively find a flat wheel on rolling stock is currently a very expensive exercise. Flat wheels can be detected by an audible knocking sound when standing next to the rail. This sound is impossible for the driver to hear and therefore goes undetected. Normally flat wheels are detected by random inspection of the rolling stock or when they are brought in for a routine service. The service cycle on rolling stock can be up to 24 months in Spoornet. Considering that a flat wheel has an impact roughly every 3m, a serious flat generates roughly 160 000 impacts on a single trip on the coal heavy haul export line. It is therefore clear that a flat wheel can cause a considerable amount of damage between service cycles. The severity of the problem is however not accurately defined in Spoornet, because up to a few months ago there was no detection system in use to determine the distribution of flat wheels. The research department of the Deutsche Bundesbahn however considers rail fractures due to the flat wheels to be a serious problem with a significant annual replacement cost. There are thus sound safety and economic reasons for wishing to understand the mechanisms of flat wheels and to develop an early warning system using an automatic detector.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Capacitance and conductance measurements using two and four wire techniques were developed and statically and dynamically calibrated in this thesis. The voltage sensitivities range from 7.3 to 8.1 ± 0.1 mV/cm for the two wire capacitance system static calibrations. This is ± 5.2% of the limiting theoretical value. The voltage sensitivities range from 0.3 to 0.4 ± 0.1 V/cm for the four wire conductance system static calibrations. Dynamic calibrations were only completed for the conductance system. The dynamic calibration results were weakly frequency dependent with a qj-0.15 decay in a limited, 2-4 Hz range. Wind power spectrum measurements were taken in the existing Upper Ocean Simulations Facility at the Naval Postgraduate School. There was excellent agreement in the spectra with both techniques. Driven gravity wave frequency downshifting and wind energy dumping was observed in the combined gravity wave and wind-wave measurements. The power spectra peaked near two Hertz and decayed at 50 to 70 dB per decade, or as CO -5 to G)" 7 for both systems. Gravity wave phase speed and wavelength measurements were performed with the capacitance system. The results were approximately 40% higher than theory. / http://archive.org/details/developmentcalib00yarb

Depuis plusieurs années, des recherches sont conduites à l'ONERA, sur les radars " transhorizon " et notamment sur le radar de surveillance côtière à onde de surface (ROS). En vue d'augmenter les performances de ce radar, il est nécessaire d'améliorer son rayonnement en onde de surface. Lors de précédents travaux réalisés à l'ONERA et à l'UPMC, il a été proposé d'utiliser un métamatériau pour lancer, vers la surface de la mer, une onde confinée, ce qui est impossible avec un matériau à permittivité positive. Le métamatériau devra être placé sur le sol, devant les antennes d'émission du radar, ce qui permettra d'augmenter leur rayonnement vers la surface, sans pour autant modifier significativement l'architecture du système. Mais l'ajout du métamatériau crée une rupture d'impédance entre le métamatériau et le sol. L'objectif de ces travaux de thèse est de répondre à deux questions principales. La rupture d'impédance existant entre le métamatériau et le sol va-t-elle diffracter l'onde de surface créée sur celui-ci ? L'augmentation du niveau de champ électrique, à la surface du métamatériau, va-t-elle se conserver lors de la propagation sur la mer ? / For many years, researches « on over the horizon radar » are investigated, especially on the High Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR), which is dedicated to the maritime surveillance. To increase the efficiency of the HFSWR we deal with the part of the electromagnetic field radiated at low elevation angle. In a previous work conducted at ONERA and UPMC, it has been suggested to use a metamaterial to launch, at the interface between air and ground a confined wave, which can not exist with a soil with positive permittivity. The metamaterial is placed on the interface in the vicinity of the transmitting antennas to allow the propagation of a strong surface wave without modifying significantly the architecture of the system. But, the inclusion of this metamaterial creates a quite high discontinuity in permittivity. The principal aim of this research work is to answer two main questions. The discontinuity of permittivity between the metamaterial and the soil, is it going to diffract the surface wave create over the metamaterial? The improvement of the electric field level at low elevation angle metamaterial, is it going to keep throughout the propagation on the sea?