Submitted master’s thesis deals with rotary draw bending of tubes as a subprocess of automobile’s stabilizer bar production. The main goal of the thesis is to clarify the influence of the process parameters of the bend on the resulting shape and properties of the product. Submitted thesis includes theoretical description of the chosen tube bending technology, description of defects and possibilities of their removal. The description of the bending machine used for stabilizer bars production is done afterwards. Practical part of the thesis includes experiments clarifying influence of parameters on the resulting shape of the stabilizer bar.

The University of Pretoria is an international institution that has seen many of its alumni carry its good reputation and high standards into the global community. A well rounded student is one who has not only achieved academically, but also has learnt life skills through exposure to different people from all walks of life. The Core Student Centre is the heart of the University's campus that belongs to the students. It is a place where students will feel like they belong, and be unconsciouslyb encouraged to interact with fellow students. Branding in architecture is the vehicle through which centralised management,student ownership and consistency in high standards of service will keep the Core Student Centre as the hub of student activity on the University's campuses. The main campus in Hatfield is the pilot project, then the rest of the University's campuses will have their student centres adapted to have the Core brand be a campus-wide initiative. The students will then know to expect nothing but high quality standards associated with the brand. Copyright 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bhebhe, T 2008, Rejuvenation of the campus core, MInt(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11272008-154959 / > C169/eo / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

This thesis describes the design of two particular types of conventional distributed amplifiers and treats a proposed split-band amplifier. The method used for the conventional designs is an iterative synthesis process developed at Stanford University in 1952. The objective was to investigate the possibility of producing distributed amplifiers of superior performance. Only amplifiers with a flat amplitude response were considered since the calculating equipment available was inadequate for the computations involved in producing amplifiers with other types of response characteristics. Three designs of one form of conventional distributed amplifier were carried out. These were amplifiers with ladder networks for delay lines and with both delay lines identical except for a possible difference in impedance level. None of the three amplifiers had theoretical characteristics which justified an attempt to construct them. The other conventional amplifier was one employing ladder-like networks for the delay lines with each of the lines symmetrical about the mid-point of its length and with both lines identical except for a possible difference in impedance level. An attempt to design one of these amplifiers produced new information beyond that reported in the original work at Stanford University. Furthermore, when using the iterative technique to design this amplifier, there seemed to be reasonable doubt as to whether or not the process was always convergent. No definite opinion on the matter was formulated since it would have required that the calculations be continued through more cycles of iteration than could reasonably be carried out with the computing equipment at hand. Finally, a proposed split-band amplifier was investigated and its theoretical gain-bandwidth characteristics were compared with those of a conventional distributed amplifier. It showed a slight advantage, but this was far outweighed by certain serious inherent disadvantages and the project was discontinued. The investigation has shown that it is impractical to carry out the calculations involved in the iterative prodecure when using a hand calculator. Also, some doubt as to the general convergence of the iterative synthesis process has been raised. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study has been to design a prototype accelerating tube, to determine the correct point shape and spacing needed to produce corona current along the tube for the case of negative-point-to-positive-plane discharge, and to study the voltage-gradient characteristics of short sections of the tube when they were evacuated to a low internal pressure.

No description available.

Increasingly stringent legislations call for more efficient and cleaner combustion technology as well as sustainable fuels. Chemical kinetic models are required in designing and optimizing novel engine concepts as well as selecting appropriate renewable fuels. Among the many reactions controlling fuel reactivity, OH + Fuel elementary reaction is one of the most important reactions that plays a critical role from low to high temperatures. In this thesis, OH + Fuel elementary reactions are studied for a wide spectrum of conventional and renewable fuels. The overall rate coefficients are measured in a shock tube using OH time-history profiles recorded with a UV laser diagnostic. Alkanes constitute important components of gasoline and diesel. Overall rate coefficients are measured for a series of large branched alkanes and the rate rules are derived based on the next-nearest-neighbor classification method. The strength of this method lies in the ability to predict the rate coefficients for large and/or highly-branched alkanes, where both experiments and theoretical calculations are hard to reach. Next, OH reactions with bio-derived fuels, methanol and cyclic-ketones, are studied. For OH + methanol reaction, site-specific contributions from different C-H bonds are quantified using deuterium kinetic isotopic effect, and the measured rate coefficients are found to improve the general behavior of a detailed methanol kinetic model. Reactions of cyclic ketones with OH radicals are found to exhibit similar reactivity as those of similar carbon length acyclic ketones + OH reactions. Acetaldehyde is one of the most abundant hazardous byproducts in the combustion of various fuels. Similar to methanol, OH + acetaldehyde reaction is 4 studied at the site-specific level and the importance of competing reaction channels are quantified at high temperatures. Finally, reactions of OH + cyclohexadienes and OH + trimethylbenzenes, relevant for the fate of polycyclic aromatics hydrocarbons, are investigated. A highly complex temperature dependence is observed for these molecules, a six-parameter Arrhenius expression is needed to describe the overall reactivity. The work reported in this thesis provides elementary reaction data that are highly valuable for increasing the fidelity and accuracy of predictive chemical kinetic models.

Real-time monitoring of fluid properties in tubular systems, such as viscosity, flow rate, and pressure, is essential for industries utilizing the liquid medium. Today such fluid characteristics are studied off-line using laboratory facilities that can provide accurate results. Nonetheless, it is inadequate to match the pace demanded by the industries. Therefore, off-line measurements are slow and ineffective. On the other hand, commercially available real-time monitoring sensors for fluid properties are generally large and bulky, generating considerable pressure reduction and energy loss in tubular systems. Furthermore, they produce significant and persistent damage to the tubular systems during the installation process because of their bulkiness. To address these challenges, industries have realigned their attention on non-destructive testing and noninvasive methodologies installed on the outer tubular surface to avoid flow disturbance and shutting systems for installations. Although, such monitoring sensors showed greater performance in monitoring and inspecting pipe health conditions, they are not effective for monitoring the properties of the fluids. It is limited to flowmeter applications and does not include fluid characteristics such as viscometers. Therefore, developing a convenient real-time integrated sensory system for monitoring different fluid properties in a tubular system is critical. In this dissertation, a fully compliant compact sensory system is designed, developed, examined and optimized for monitoring fluid properties in tubular architectures. The proposed sensor system consists of a physically flexible platform connected to the inner surface of tubes to adopt the different diameters and curvature shapes with unnoticeable flow disruption. Also, it utilizes the microchannel bridge to serve in the macro application inside pipe systems. It has an array of pressure sensors located bellow the microchannel as the primary measurement unit for the device. The dissertation is supported by simulation and modeling for a deeper understanding of the system behavior. In the last stage, the sensory module is integrated with electronics for a fully compliant stand-alone system.

In the ocean, natural and artificial processes generate clouds of bubbles which scatter and attenuate sound. Measurements have shown that at the individual bubble resonance frequency, sound propagation in this medium is highly attenuated and dispersive. Theory to explain this behavior exists in the literature, and is adequate away from resonance. However, due to excessive attenuation near resonance, little experimental data exists for comparison. An impedance tube was developed specifically for exploring this regime. Using the instrument, unique phase speed and attenuation measurements were made for void fractions ranging from 6.2 × 10^−5 to 2.7 × 10^−3 and bubble sizes centered around 0.62 mm in radius. Improved measurement speed, accuracy and precision is possible with the new instrument, and both instantaneous and time-averaged measurements were obtained. Behavior at resonance was observed to be sensitive to the bubble population statistics and agreed with existing theory, within the uncertainty of the bubble population parameters. Scattering from acoustically compact bubble clouds can be predicted from classical scattering theory by using an effective medium description of the bubbly fluid interior. Experimental verification was previously obtained up to the lowest resonance frequency. A novel bubble production technique has been employed to obtain unique scattering measurements with a bubbly-liquid-filled latex tube in a large indoor tank. The effective scattering model described these measurements up to three times the lowest resonance frequency of the structure. / United States Navy Office of Naval Research Ocean Acoustics Program

No description available.

No description available.