An ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique has been developed to characterize the superficial layer of articular cartilage. The technique utilizes the unique properties of surface waves to detect changes in mechanical properties of the surface layer of the test sample. Experiments were performed first on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels, a material used to model articular cartilage, to examine repeatability and the ability of wave propagation parameters to reflect changes in material properties. Dynamic shear and compression tests were performed on 20% and 25% PVA by weight hydrogels to examine the difference in material properties. Ultrasonic NDE tests with longitudinal, shear and surface waves were performed on the hydrogels. Wave speeds in the 20% and 25% hydrogels were compared. Results showed that ultrasonic NDE with surface waves was repeatable and the technique was able to detect material property changes in hydrogels. Ultrasonic NDE tests with surface waves were then performed on healthy and damaged bovine articular cartilage. Wave speeds in the healthy cartilage were compared to speeds in enzymatically digested cartilage. Results showed that ultrasonic NDE with surface waves was repeatable and the technique was able to detect material property changes in the superficial layer of articular cartilage. Findings suggest that the technique has potential to be a tool in diagnosing diseases involving cartilage degeneration, such as osteoarthritis.

Gradient Enhanced Piezoelectric Actuators (GEPAC) are thin piezoelectric plates embedded between two composites layers having different thermal properties. Compared to standard unimorph bending actuators, GEPACs offer superior performances for operations at low frequencies. Potential applications are in the area of multifunctional aircraft skins. In practice, delaminations or debonding within the actuator itself can occur, and it is highly desirable to develop an ultrasonic nondestructive method to monitor the integrity of the actuator in real time. For this study, the composite material is unidirectional Kevlar-epoxy, with fibers oriented at 90 and 0 for the upper and lower layers to achieve different coefficient of thermal expansion. A thin PZT plate is inserted between the two layers, and extended copper foil is used for electrodes on the PZT. The first objective of the research is to demonstrate that, by using segmented electrodes, one can simultaneously launch an ultrasonic pulse (1 MHz) for NDE testing while the actuator is undergoing low frequency actuation (less than 100 Hz). The second objective is to show that the ultrasonic signal can be used to detect damage induced during fatigue testing of the actuator. The third objective is to use the technique to monitor the integrity of a composite plate containing several embedded GEPACs.

Ultrasound is a valuable tool to monitor wound healing. In this report, ultrasound is used to determine the features in the B-scans that correspond to a bruise. High frequency ultrasound scans show clear and distinct features that correspond to a laceration or a late stage pressure ulcer. This is because of the extensive damage and the rupture of the epidermis in both the cases. This study assumes significance because it is an effort to find such artifacts in the ultrasound scans of bruises caused by blunt forces where the epidermis remains intact. In this study, the structure of the skin was visualized using a 20 MHz ultrasound scanner. Skin thickness and echogenicity changes may result due to blood extravasations or edema. The thickness and the echogenicity values are plotted against time to determine the trend in the variation of these parameters. We see an intraday and a daily fluctuation of skin thickness and echogenicity albeit with no distinct trend on a day to day basis or between subjects. The results also give us a good estimation of the variation observable in these parameters in the event of an injury. A snapshot analysis is also performed, which describes qualitatively the structural changes in the B-scan of the bruise site compared to the control site. There are six different types of qualitative changes which can appear in the B-scan of a bruised site compared to the control. In the event of an injury, usually, more than one of these changes is manifested in the scan of a bruise. Skin thickness and echogenicity vary considerably due to a number of physiological factors which can seldom be controlled. Therefore, these parameters can give conclusive evidence of a bruise only if the change between a bruised region and a control region is much greater than the daily, normal variations. Snapshot analysis can help detect a bruise or a deep tissue injury. Further work involves the application of pattern recognition or face recognition algorithms to automate the detection.

By focusing on the cooling requirement of high power LED, the study aims to explore the spray cooling method and analyze its cooling performance. The ultrasonic micro-nozzle plate made of piezoelectric ceramic material was used in this experiment in order to establish a spray cooling system. The nozzle plate array (3 ¡Ñ 2) was used to carry out a cooling test for 24 LEDs with high power (6 ¡Ñ 4). Three different watts (1 W, 3 W, 5 W) of LED were tested, the total input power was 24W, 72W and 120 W, respectively, and the working medium was DI water. The goal is to understand the variance in performance caused by nozzle plates of different nozzle diameters (dj = 7, 35 £gm) in varied nozzle distances (z = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 mm). The experiment used thermocouples to measure the slug temperature of LED. By applying thermal resistnace to the LED to calculate its chip temperature, and using micrometer resolution particle image velocimetry (£gPIV) to observe the spray flowfield inside the LED chamber, this study analyzes the influence of flowfield change on cooling performance.

This study aims to explore the use of an ultrasonic micro-nozzle plate, made of piezoelectric ceramic material, as a core material to establish a set of spray cooling system for high power LED. The system uses a single nozzle plate to implement a cooling test for 4 high power LEDs (2 ¡Ñ 2). The total input power was 4 W, 12 W and 20 W, and working medium was DI water. In order to understand the performance variance introduced by utilizing nozzle plates with differing nozzle diameters (dj = 7, 35 £gm) across various nozzle exit to test distance (z = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 mm). By using micrometer resolution particle image velocimetry (£gPIV) to observe the spray flowfield inside the chamber, and using thermocouples to measure the temperature of LED slug and thermal resistance was used to calculate the LED junction temperature , Tj, for analyzing the influence of flowfield change spread in chamber on its cooling performance. The possibility of an LED spray cooling system is also explored.

For the past few decades, Ni-YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia) has been the dominate anode material of high temperature (>1000¢J) solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). However, the conductivity of Ni/YSZ is not enough when the operation temperature is in the intermediate rage of 500~700¢J. Instead, Ni/CGO is a good candidate as the anode material of intermediate temperature SOFCs (IT-SOFC), due to its enhanced conductivity. This work was aimed at the preparation of Ni/CGO composite anodes using the electrostatic assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (EAUSP) method. By properly adjusting the deposition parameters, highly porous composite films with desired phases and microstructure rendering low electrode impedances were obtained. The results indicated that deposition temperature and the applied voltage dictated the evolution of film morphology and hence the interface impedance between the electrode and the electrolyte. Therefore, the optimum deposition parameters for the best microstructure and hence minimum interface impedance were 12 kV for the applied voltage, 6 : 4 for the Ni-CGO mole ratio, 450¢J for the deposition temperature. The microstructure thus obtained possessed a cauliflower-like structure with high porosity. The resultant interface impedance at 550¢J was 0.09 Ωcm2, lower than that obtained from the conventional anode preparation routes of dip-casting (0.14 Ωcm2) or mechanical mixing (0.12 Ωcm2).

Sludge management is one of the most difficult and expensive problems in wastewater treatment plant operation. Consequently, &amp / #8216 / sludge minimization&amp / #8217 / concept arose to solve the excess sludge production by sludge pretreatment. Sludge pretreatment converts the waste sludge into a more bioavailable substrate for anaerobic digestion and leads to an enhanced degradation. The enhanced degradation results in more organic reduction and more biogas production. Therefore, sludge pretreatment is a means of improving sludge management in a treatment plant. Among pretreatment methods, acidic pretreatment has been subject of limited successful studies reported in the literature. On the contrary / ultrasonic pretreatment was reported as an effective pretreatment method. Main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of these two pretreatment methods and their combination in order to achieve a synergistic effect and improve the success of both pretreatment methods. Experimental investigation of pretreatment methods consists of preliminary studies for deciding the most appropriate pretreatment method. Anaerobic batch tests were conducted for optimization of the parameters of selected method. Finally, operation of semi-continuous anaerobic reactors was to investigate the effect of pretreatment on anaerobic digestion in details. Preliminary studies indicated that, more effective pretreatment method in terms of solubilization of organics is ultrasonic pretreatment. Fifteen minutes of sonication enhanced 50 mg/L initial soluble COD concentration up to a value of 2500 mg/L. Biochemical methane potential tests indicated that the increased soluble substrate improved anaerobic biodegradability concurrently. Finally, semi-continuous anaerobic reactors were used to investigate the efficiency of pretreatment under different operating conditions. Results indicate that at SRT 15 days and OLR 0.5 kg/m3d ultrasonic pretreatment improved the daily biogas production of anaerobic digester by 49% and methane percentage by 16% and 24% more volatile solids were removed after pretreatment. Moreover, even after pushing reactors into worse operating conditions such as shorter solids retention time (7.5 days) and low strength influent, pretreatment worked efficiently and improved the anaerobic digestion. Finally cost calculations were performed. Considering the gatherings from enhancement of biogas amount, higher methane percentage and smaller amounts of volatile solid disposal from a treatment plant / installation and operation costs of ultrasound were calculated. The payback period of the installation was found to be 4.7 years.

The use of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods was needed for the conservation studies of historic timber structures. The aim of this study was to develop combined use of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurements and infrared (IR) thermography, together with visual analyses for soundness assessment of timber. An important timber structure in Ankara, Aslanhane Mosque and traditional timber dwellings, in AyaS and istiklal District were selected for in-situ analyses. Representative laboratory samples such as mud brick, fired brick, mud mortar, mud plaster, lime plaster, historic timbers of different species and some new timbers were used for analyses in the laboratory to develop reference data for in-situ analyses. This study has shown that direct and indirect UPV measurements taken parallel to fiber direction were good at estimating the soundness of timber elements. UPV measurements taken from timber samples were affected by atmospheric humidity, at which the timber was in equilibrium with or by its water content, cuts of timber and type of species. Quantitative Infrared thermography (QIRT) was good at soundness assessment and defect inspection of timber. The study showed that, the even or heterogeneous distribution of surface temperatures, different thermal inertia characteristics, reflected by the rates of heating and cooling of materials and their ratios to sound timber were good parameters to assess the state of deterioration of timber elements, dampness problems and the compatibility of neighbouring materials with timber. The joint use of QIRT and UPV methods combined with laboratory data has enhanced the accuracy and effectiveness of the survey.

This thesis presents the development and microfabrication of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUT) with diamond membranes for the first time in the literature. Although silicon and silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes have been generally used as the membrane material in CMUTs. These membrane materials have moderate properties that can cause damage during the operation of CMUTs. In this thesis, a new material for the membrane is introduced for CMUTs. Diamond has exceptional potential in the area of micro-nano technologies due to unrivalled stiffness and hardness, excellent tribological performance, highly tailorable and stable surface chemistry, high thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion, high acoustic velocity of propagating waves, and biocompatibility. Based on these excellent material properties, diamond is employed in the new generation CMUT structures for more robust and reliable operations. The microfabrication process of CMUT has been generally performed with either sacrificial release process or wafer bonding technique. High yield and low cost features of wafer bonding process makes it preferable for CMUT devices. In this thesis, plasma-activated direct wafer bonding process was developed for the microfabrication of 16-element 1-D CMUT arrays with diamond membranes. They were designed to operate at different resonance frequencies in the range of 1 MHz and 10 MHz with different cell diameters (120, 88, 72, 54, 44 &mu / m) and element spacing (250, 375 &mu / m). 1-D CMUT array devices can be used for focusing ultrasound applications. The electronic circuit for 1-D CMUT devices with diamond membranes was designed and implemented on PCB for the ultrasound focusing experiment. This electronic circuit generates continuous or burst AC signals of &plusmn / 15 V with different and adjustable phase shifting options at 3 MHz frequency. 16 elements of 72 &mu / m 1-D CMUT array were successfully tested. Fully functional 7 elements of 1-D CMUT array are focused at an axial distance of 5.81 mm on the normal to the CMUT center plane. The CMUT array was excited using 10 Vp&minus / p with 10 cycles sinusoidal signals at 3 MHz. The microfabrication process and focusing ultrasound of 1-D CMUT devices with diamond membranes are done successfully in this thesis.

In Diesel engine blocks properties such as tensile strength, heat conductivity, sound damping, engine vibration and noise are strongly influenced by graphite shape and volume percent in the matrix microstructure. In this study, the engine blocks were produced at ELBA Basin&ccedil / li D&ouml / k&uuml / m Od&ouml / ksan Cast iron foundry in Osmaneli Turkey by performing casting into furan resin sand and preparing cast iron liquid alloy in induction furnace that were treated with Mg by using ladle method. The main purpose of this study is to achive 0 &ndash / 25% volume nodularity and remaining is compacted graphite in the produced engine blocks. The shape and volume percent of graphite particles were characterized by an image analyze system. In the first part of this work, after the diesel engine blocks were produced at ELBA Basin&ccedil / li D&ouml / k&uuml / m Od&ouml / ksan Cast iron foundry in Osmaneli Turkey, the blocks were cut and samples were obtained from 14 different thicknesses of diesel engine blocks. Afterwards, the samples were examined under optical microscope, Soif XJP-6A. The nodularity and compacted graphite values were obtained numerically with the help of Materials Plus image analyzer systems, which is attached to the optical microscope. v In the second part of the study, the diesel engine blocks which are produced at Od&ouml / ksan were examined by ultrasonic test that was done by using USM 35 flaw detector test machine. Solidification &ndash / time and temperature &ndash / time simulations were also done by using NovaCast NovaFlow simulation code. Finally mathematical formulas for 13 different thickness of diesel engine blocks were obtained by using excel linest code. The compacted graphite volume percent observed at different sections of the diesel engine blocks were found to be a function of cooling rate and chemical composition. Best results were obtained when chemical Mg/S ratio was approximately 1 and C.E.V. was between 4.40 &ndash / 4.50.