Engineering Commons^™

Stress Relaxation Cracking In 347h Austenitic Steel Weldments Under Various Heat Treatments: Experiments And Modeling, Yi Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

347H austenitic stainless steel exhibits exceptional creep and corrosion resistance, rendering it an exemplary candidate for pipeline materials, particularly in mid- to high-temperature working conditions. However, due to constraints in component dimensions, welding has been chosen as the preferred method for joining pipeline systems extensively employed in nuclear power plants, fossil fuel plants, and petrochemical companies. The welding process entails the accumulation of residual stress during the cooling stage, along with the introduction of microstructure evolution. Moreover, the residual stress field and microstructure continuously evolve under service conditions, thereby intensifying the susceptibility of crack initiation and propagation. The initial residual …

Characterizing Mechanical Regulation Of Bone Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells, Boyuan Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

Breast cancer most frequently metastasizes to the skeleton. Bone metastatic cancer is incurable and induces wide-spread bone osteolysis, resulting in significant patient morbidity and mortality. Mechanical stimuli in the skeleton are an important microenvironmental parameter that modulates tumor formation, osteolysis, and tumor cell-bone cell signaling, but which mechanical signals are the most beneficial and the corresponding molecular mechanisms are unknown. This work focused on bone matrix deformation and interstitial fluid flow based on their well-known roles in bone remodeling and in primary breast cancer. The goal of our research was to establish a platform that could define the relationship between …

Investigation Of Microstructure And Mechanical Properties By Direct Metal Deposition, Jingwei Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Microstructure and properties of Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) parts are very crucial to meeting industrial requirements of parts quality. Prediction, and control of microstructure and mechanical properties have attracted much attention during conventional metal manufacturing process under different conditions. However, there is few investigations focused on microstructure simulation and mechanical properties control under different process parameters during DMD process. This dissertation is intended to develop a multiscale model to investigate Ti6Al4V grain structure development and explore Ti6Al4V based functionally graded material (FGM) deposit properties during DMD process. The first research topic is to investigate and develop a cellular automaton-finite element …

Efficient Time-Dependent System Reliability Analysis, Zhifu Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Engineering systems are usually subjected to time-variant loads and operate under time-dependent uncertainty; system performances are therefore time-dependent. Accurate and efficient estimate of system reliability is crucial for decision makings on system design, lifetime cost estimate, maintenance strategy, etc. Although significant progresses have been made in time-independent reliability analysis for components and systems, time-dependent system reliability methodologies are still limited. This dissertation is motivated by the need of accurate and effective reliability prediction for engineering systems under time-dependent uncertainty. Based on the classic First and Second Order Reliability Method (FORM and SORM), a system reliability method is developed for multidisciplinary …

Simulation And Fabrication Of Three Novel Micromechanical Sensors, Yanqing Lu

Doctoral Dissertations

This work focuses on the simulation, fabrication and characterization of novel microdevices for chemical and biological sensors for improved sensitivity, enhanced performance and applicability. Specifically, microbridge and microcoil sensors have been fabricated via advanced microfabrication technologies. Due to the potential application in chemical and biological sensing, the growth of gold and platinum nanowires during an electrolysis process have also been investigated.

A microbridge can be considered as the head-to-head fusion of two cantilevers and the middle of the bridge would deform in a way similar to a microcantilever. The microbridge sensing device is more stable than the microcantilever, especially in …