Les instabilités vibratoires, telles que le crissement de frein, sont souvent étudiées par des analyses aux valeurs propres complexes sur des modèles éléments finis (EF). L'objectif de cette thèse est d'enrichir ces modèles en prenant en compte la viscoélasticité dont les effets sont l'amortissement et la rigidification des matériaux en fonction de la fréquence. Pour cela un viscoanalyseur a été développé. Il permet de caractériser en cisaillement les matériaux entre 100 et 3500Hz, sans utiliser les équivalences temps-température. Ce viscoanalyseur permet d'alimenter en paramètres le modèle rhéologique de Maxwell généralisé par le biais d'une nouvelle méthode d'identification particulièrement robuste. Le modèle de Maxwell généralisé est ensuite introduit dans les modèles EF grâce à un modèle d'état projeté sur un sous-espace adéquat. Ces modèles améliorés prédisent moins d'instabilités du fait de l'amortissement, mais ils montrent également que la viscoélasticité peut avoir des effets de déstabilisation du fait de la rigidification. / The vibratory instabilities, such as the brake squeal noise, are often studied by complex Eigenvalues analysis (CEA) on finite elements models (FE). The purpose of this thesis is to improve these models by taking the material viscoelasticity into account which induces damping and stiffening of materials according to the frequency.For that a tester was developed. It makes it possible to characterize the shearing behavior of materials between 100 and 3500Hz, without using time-temperature equivalences. This tester allows feeding in parameters the rheological model of generalized Maxwell by the means of a new robust identification method. The generalized Maxwell model is then introduced into FE models thanks to a state-space model on an accurate subspace.These improved models predict less instability occurrences because of damping, but they also show that viscoelasticity may induce destabilization because of stiffening.

A novel approach has been introduced in making flexible armor composites. Armor composites are usually made by reinforcing Kevlar fabric into the mixture of a polymer and nanoscale particles. The current procedure deviates from the traditional shear thickening fluid (STF) route and instead uses silane (amino-propyl-trimethoxy silane) as the base polymer. In addition, a cross-linking fixative such as Glutaraldehyde (Gluta) is added to the polymer to create bridges between distant pairs of amine groups present in Kevlar and silated nanoparticles. Water, silane, nanoparticles and Gluta are mixed using a homogenizer and an ultra-sonochemical technique. Subsequently, the admixture is impregnated with Kevlar - bypassing the heating and evaporating processes involved with STF. The resulting composites have shown remarkable improvement in spike resistance; at least one order higher than that of STF/Kevlar composites. The source of improvement has been traced to the formation of secondary amine C-N stretch due to the presence of Gluta. / by Vincent Lambert. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Fraturas são descontinuidades físicas, presentes em diversos materiais utilizados na engenharia, e são responsáveis pela redução da resistência e da rigidez global dos materiais. Tratando-se de fraturas de pequena dimensão, é possível definir a existência de duas escalas: a escala microscópica, onde as fraturas são visíveis, e a escala macroscópica, onde o material fraturado é homogêneo. Maghous et al. (2010) utilizaram a micromecânica para expor o tensor de rigidez homogeneizado para materiais elásticos fraturados, fazendo a ressalva de que fraturas transmitem esforços por suas faces. Utilizando os conceitos formulados por Maghous, Lorenci (2013) ampliou sua aplicação, estendendo à distribuição aleatória das fraturas. Utilizando o mesmo procedimento realizado por Lorenci, determinou-se os tensores de rigidez homogeneizados para materiais elásticos fraturados, os quais foram empregados para formular as condições de propagação de fraturas para materiais elásticos. Conceitualmente, a condição de propagação de fraturas em meios elásticos é formulada com base em conceitos clássicos da termodinâmica, baseados na dissipação de energia. Tratando-se de meios viscoelásticos, a dissipação de energia adquire um novo termo denominado de dissipação viscosa. Nguyen (2010) estabeleceu uma condição de propagação de fissuras em meios viscoelásticos, entretanto, as fissuras admitidas por Nguyen não são responsáveis pela transferência de esforços. Para estender a análise de Nguyen ao caso de fraturas, foi necessário determinar os tensores de relaxação do material viscoelástico fraturado, estes tensores foram obtidos combinando-se os tensores elásticos homogeneizados com os conceitos da transformada de Carson-Laplace, admitindo que as fraturas não se propagam ao longo do tempo. Com base no tensor de relaxação isótropo homogeneizado, determinou-se um modelo reológico equivalente que represente o material viscoelástico fraturado assumindo diferentes modelos reológicos para a matriz e para fraturas. Por fim, analisou-se as condições de propagação de fraturas em meios viscoelásticos de duas formas: de forma aproximada (apurando os estudos realizados por Nguyen) e de forma homogeneizada (admitindo que a propagação de fraturas se dá na escala macroscópica). / responsible for reducing the overall strength and stiffness of the material. In the case of small fractures, is possible set two scales: a microscopic scale, where fractures are visible, and the macroscopic scale, where the fractured material is homogeneous. Maghous et al. (2010) used the micromechanics to expose the homogenized stiffness tensor for fractured elastic materials, making the observation that fractures transmit efforts by their faces. Using the concepts formulated by Maghous, Lorenci (2013) expanded its application, extending to a random distribution of fractures. Using the same procedure performed by Lorenci, the homogenized stiffness tensor was determined for fractured elastic materials, which were employed to formulate the fracture propagation conditions for elastic materials. Conceptually, the fracture propagation conditions for elastic means is made based on classical concepts of thermodynamics, based on the energy dissipation. In the case of viscoelastic means, the energy dissipation acquires a new term called viscous dissipation. Nguyen (2010) established a condition of crack propagation in viscoelastic means, however, the Nguyen’s cracks are not responsible for the transfer of efforts. To extend Nguyen analysis to the case of fractures, was necessary to determine the relaxation tensor for viscoelastic fractured materials, these tensors are obtained by combining the homogenized elastic tensor to the concepts of the Carson- Laplace transform, assuming that the fractures are not propagate over time. Based on the isotropic homogenized relaxation tensors, was determined an equivalent rheological model representing the fractured viscoelastic material assuming different rheological models for matrix and fractures. Finally, was analyzed the fracture propagation conditions in viscoelastic means in two ways: in an approximate way (improving the studies conducted by Nguyen) and homogenized form (assuming that the propagation of fractures occurs at the macroscopic scale).

La rhéologie des fluides complexes est un sujet à l’intérêt grandissant dans le domaine de la recherche appliquée. Toutefois, les rhéomètres classiques nécessitent de grands volumes d'échantillons et sont généralement limités à une plage relativement étroite de fréquences de fonctionnement. En outre, seuls quelques rhéomètres sont dédiés à desmesures à hautes pressions, qui sont pourtant essentielles pour résoudre certains des problèmes rencontrés dans l’industrie pétrolière. Par conséquent, dans le cadre de cette thèse, un rhéomètre piézo-électrique à vibrations axiales est présenté. Il peut produire des données sur une large gamme de fréquences continues (1 Hz à 8 kHz). Il peut êtreutilisé avec de faibles quantités d'échantillons (jusqu'à 10 μL) et a servi pour la caractérisation d’huiles de synthèse. Enfin, cet appareil a été adapté pour faire face à des conditions de haute pression. Pour ce faire, une nouvelle conception de la cellule a été nécessaire et est présentée dans ce travail. Ce projet de thèse permettra d'étudier les propriétés de transport des huiles lourdes et de concilier les données obtenues dans les domaines de la sismique et de la pétro-acoustique. / Rheology of complex fluids is growing topic in applied research. However, the conventional rheometers require large sample volumes and are usually limited to a relatively narrow range of operating frequencies. Furthermore, only few rheometers are dedicated to high pressures conditions, which are nevertheless crucial to tackle some of the petroleum industry problem. Therefore, in this thesis, a piezoelectric axial vibrator rheometer is presented which can produce data for a large continuous frequency range (1 Hz to 8 kHz). It can be used for very small amount of samples (down to 10μL) andhas been employed to characterize synthetic oil. Then, this apparatus has been adapted to deal with High Pressure conditions. To do so, a new design of the cell has been required and is presented in this work. This thesis project will allow studying the transport properties of heavy oils to conciliate the data obtained in the areas of seismic and petro-acoustic.

The prediction of linear viscoelasticity (LVE) of a polymer melts from the knowledge of their structure has received tremendous attention in recent years. Quite accurate quantitative predictions are obtained for linear polymers, including inverse predictions of molecular weight distributions from knowledge of rheological response. The situation for branched polymers is much more complicated for at least two reasons. First, because of the incredible variety of architectures that can be, and are actually, made in the lab or by industry. Second, because branched polymers are characterised by very broad distributions of relaxation times, which are very dependent on details of the architecture. The main objective of this work is to propose a model suitable for predicting LVE of arbitrary mixtures of (a)symmetric stars and linear molecules, where the interrelation of relaxation processes (as reptation, tube length fluctuations or constraint release process) cannot be predicted a priori. We validate it on a large set of experimental data taken from the literature, from our own experiments or from co-workers. Next, we use it to detect long chain branching (LCB) in sparsely branched polycarbonate samples. This characterization technique, based on the analysis of the relaxation moduli, is compared to solution characterization. A similar work is performed for polyethylene samples, on which we compare our method to classical methods based on the measurement of their intrinsic viscosity or on the analysis of their activation energies spectrum. The success of our model in describing the relaxation of an already broad range of polymer structures gives some hope for understanding the dynamics of more complex systems. Indeed, its structure allows us to easily extend it to H or comb polymers and then, to proceed to polymers always closer to the industrial polymers.

Rutting is one of the major distresses in asphalt pavements and it increases road roughness and traps water, which leads to wet-weather accidents due to the loss of tire-pavement friction and hydroplaning. The fundamental mechanisms of rutting have not been well addressed because of the complexity of asphalt mixtures. A comprehensive characterization of the asphalt mixtures in compression was accomplished by mechanistically modeling the inherent anisotropy, viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity and viscofracture of the material. The inherent anisotropy due to preferentially oriented aggregates was characterized by a microstructural parameter (i.e., modified vector magnitudes) which could be rapidly and accurately measured by lateral surface scanning tests and physically related to anisotropic modulus ratio. The anisotropic viscoelasticity was represented by complex moduli and Poisson's ratios in separate orthogonal directions that were determined by an efficient testing protocol. Master curve models were proposed for the magnitude and phase angle of these complex variables. The viscoplasticity were intensively modeled by an anisotropic viscoplastic model which incorporated 1) modified effective stresses to account for the inherent and stress-induced anisotropy; 2) a new model to provide a smooth and convex yield surface and address the material cohesion and internal friction; 3) a non-associated flow rule to consider the volumetric dilation; and 4) a temperature and strain rate dependent strain hardening function. The viscofracture resulting from the crack growth in compression led to the stress-induced anisotropy and was characterized by anisotropic damage densities, the evolution of which was modeled by the anisotropic pseudo J-integral Paris' laws. Results indicated that the undamaged asphalt mixtures were inherently anisotropic and had vertical to horizontal modulus ratios from 1.2 to 2.0 corresponding to the modified vector magnitudes from 0.2 and 0.5. The rutting would be underestimated without including the inherent anisotropy in the constitutive modeling. Viscoelastic and viscoplastic deformation developed simultaneously while the viscofracture deformation occurred only during the tertiary flow, which was signaled by the increase of phase angle. Axial and radial strain decomposition methods were proposed to efficiently separate the viscoplasticity and viscofracture from the viscoelasticity. Rutting was accelerated by the occurrence of cracks in tertiary flow. The asphalt mixture had a brittle (splitting cracks) or ductile (diagonal cracks) fracture when the air void content was 4% and 7%, respecitvely. The testing protocol that produced the material properties is efficient and can be completed in one day with simple and affordable testing equipment. The developed constitutive models can be effectively implemented for the prediction of the rutting in asphalt pavements under varieties of traffic, structural, and environmental conditions.

<p>Pediatric cervical spinal injuries are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Cervical injuries observed in the pediatric population appear to be age dependent with younger children experiencing more upper cervical level injuries compared to increased lower level cervical injury patterns to older children. The majority of pediatric cervical spinal injuries are motor vehicle crash related. Current progress in child occupant protection, including increased and proper restraint usage continues to reduce serious injury and fatalities to child occupants. However, improper restraint usage and incorrect child seating location, especially with children transitioning from rear-facing child restraints to forward-facing restraints is still a concern. Continued reductions in serious injury and fatalities to child occupants in survivable motor vehicle crashes will be based on continued education and improvements in child anthropometric test devices, child computational injury models and child restraint system design. Improvements in all of these categories are dependent on an improved understanding of the developmental biomechanics of the human cervical spine. Currently, limited data exist on human child neck biomechanics and none of the current cadaveric work has evaluated the biomechanical response over the entire age spectrum from birth to young adulthood. Numerous surrogate studies exist and have formed the basis of child injury criteria and developmental biomechanics, but have not been assessed in relation to the response of the pediatric human cervical spine. The current work investigates the biomechanics of the osteoligamentous human cervical spine from birth to young adulthood under tensile and bending loading environments. Tensile low-load and load-to-failure stiffness, load-to-failure, and flexion-extension bending stiffness increased with age. Tensile normalized displacement at failure and total bending low-load range of motion decreased with age. Viscoelastic rate effects are present in the pediatric cervical spine and are modeled with quasi-linear viscoelasticity. Peak load and loading energy increases with increased loading rate, while hysteresis energy is rate insensitive at lower loading rates, but increases at higher rates of loading. These data establish structural response behavior and injury thresholds for the osteoligamentous cervical spine by age. Additionally, they provide human data to assess the appropriateness of current surrogate models and current scaling techniques associated with these models. Finally, these data provide human response by age useful in progressing the biofidelity of computational and physical models for child occupant protection.</p> / Dissertation

No description available.

The present research seeks to study the decrease in diffusivity rate as relative humidity (RH) decreases and modeling drying shrinkage of hardened cement paste as a poroviscoelastic respose. Thin cement paste strips of 0.4 and 0.5 w/c at age 3 and 7 days were measured for mass loss and shrinkage at small RH steps in an environmental chamber at constant temperature. Non-linear drying diffusion rate of hardened cement was modeled with the use of Fick's second law of diffusion by assuming linearity of diffusion rate over short drops of ambient relative humidity. Techniques to determine drying isotherms prior to full equilibration of mass loss, as well as converting mass loss into concentration of water vapor were developed. Using the measured water vapor diffusivity, drying shrinkage strain was modeled by the theory of poroviscoelasticity. This approach was validated by determining viscoelastic properties from uniaxial creep tests considering the effect of aging by the solidification theory. A change in drying diffusion rate at different RH was observed in the 0.4 and 0.5 w/c pastes at different ages. Drying diffusion rate decreases as RH drops. This can be attributed to a change in diffusion mechanisms in the porous media at smaller pore radius. Shrinkage modeling with an average diffusion coefficient and with determined viscoelastic parameters from creep tests agreed well compared to the shrinkage data from experiments, indicating that drying shrinkage of cement paste may be considered as a poroviscoelastic reponse.

Materials like asphalt, asphalt concrete and polyimides that are used in the transportation and aerospace industry show viscoelastic behavior. These materials in the working environment are subject to degradation due to temperature, diffusion of moisture and chemical reactions (for instance, oxidation) and there is need for a good understanding of the various degradation mechanisms. This work focuses on: 1) some topics related to development of viscoelastic fluid models that can be used to predict the response of materials like asphalt, asphalt concrete, and other geomaterials, and 2) developing a framework to model degradation due to the various mechanisms (such as temperature, diffusion of moisture and oxidation) on polyimides that show nonlinear viscoelastic solid-like response. Such a framework can be extended to model similar degradation phenomena in the area of asphalt mechanics and biomechanics. The thermodynamic framework that is used in this work is based on the notion that the 'natural configuration' of a body evolves as the body undergoes a process and the evolution is determined by maximizing the rate of entropy production. The Burgers' fluid model is known to predict the non-linear viscoelastic fluid-like response of asphalt, asphalt concrete and other geomaterials. We first show that different choices for the manner in which the body stores energy and dissipates energy and satisfies the requirement of maximization of the rate of entropy production that leads to many three dimensional models. All of these models, in one dimension, reduce to the model proposed by Burgers. A thermodynamic framework to develop rate-type models for viscoelastic fluids which do not possess instantaneous elasticity (certain types of asphalt show such a behavior) is developed next. To illustrate the capabilities of such models we make a specific choice for the specific Helmholtz potential and the rate of dissipation and consider the creep and stress relaxation response associated with the model. We then study the effect of degradation and healing due to the diffusion of a fluid on the response of a solid which prior to the diffusion can be described by the generalized neo-Hookean model. We show that a generalized neo-Hookean solid - which behaves like an elastic body (i.e., it does not produce entropy) within a purely mechanical context - creeps and stress relaxes when infused with a fluid and behaves like a body whose material properties are time dependent. A framework is then developed to predict the viscoelastic response of polyimide resins under different temperature conditions. The developed framework is further extended to model the phenomena of swelling due to diffusion of a fluid through a viscoelastic solid using the theory of mixtures. Finally, degradation due to oxidation is incorporated into such a framework by introducing a variable that represents the extent of oxidation. The data from the resulting models are shown to be in good agreement with the experiments for polyimide resins.