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Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Theoretical And Experimental Study Of Generation Mechanisms For Laser Ultrasound In Woven Graphite /Epoxy Composites With Translaminar Stitching, Adam D. Friedman Jan 2000

Theoretical And Experimental Study Of Generation Mechanisms For Laser Ultrasound In Woven Graphite /Epoxy Composites With Translaminar Stitching, Adam D. Friedman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The aerospace industry is beginning to use advanced composite materials for primary load bearing structures and their failure mechanisms must be better understood to predict their behavior in service. The Combined Loads Tests (COLTS) facility is being constructed at the NASA Langley Research Center to characterize these failure mechanisms. Laser based ultrasonic NDE can monitor the samples during dynamic loading without interfering with the structural tests. However, the constraints of implementing laser ultrasound in a structures laboratory reduces the efficiency of the technique. The system has to be "eye-safe" because many people will be present during the structural tests. Consequently, …


Propagation Of Rayleigh Waves In Thin Films, Agus A. Ananda Jan 1997

Propagation Of Rayleigh Waves In Thin Films, Agus A. Ananda

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

With the advent of thin film technology and more recently its applications in microelectronics and control of surface properties, the interest in mechanical properties of thin films has grown tremendously. Mechanical defects such as creep, fracture and adhesion loss, play a very important role in physical instabilities of thin film materials. An acoustic microscope has been built to study mechanical properties of thin-films. The microscope operates at a nominal frequency of 50 MHz. Rayleigh surface waves velocities on the surface of film-substrate systems were measured from V(z) curves generated by the acoustic microscope. V(z) curves are produced from interference between …


Propagation Of Guided Acoustic Waves In Composite Media, Michael David Seale Jan 1996

Propagation Of Guided Acoustic Waves In Composite Media, Michael David Seale

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Composite materials are being more widely used today by aerospace, automotive, and a number of other commercial industries because of their advantages over conventional metals. Composites are finding applications ranging from bicycle frames to the proposed High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT). Determining the response to a variety of damage mechanisms is necessary for a complete understanding of the total use environment of composite structures. The objective of the research presented here is to provide a method of quantifying the amount of damage in composite materials for a number of different damage scenarios. Components which have non-visible damage, but have degraded performance, …


Fabrication Of Thermoplastic Polymer Composite Ribbon, Donald Allan Sandusky Jan 1995

Fabrication Of Thermoplastic Polymer Composite Ribbon, Donald Allan Sandusky

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The goal of this research was to develop a controllable process to convert a thermoplastic powder-coated carbon-fiber towpreg into uniform and consolidated ribbon. The approach comprised four primary activities. (1) The patent and processing literature was studied to evaluate the state of the art. (2) A functional ribbon fabrication technique was developed by scaling-up, in a novel configuration, hardware components found in the literature. (3) The ex parte ribbonizing process was characterized by calibrating equipment, determining steady state and studying cause and effect between process parameters and ribbon quality. (4) Process design and control methods were derived from heat transfer …


Nonlinearity Parameters Of Polymers, Meng-Chou Wu Jan 1989

Nonlinearity Parameters Of Polymers, Meng-Chou Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Three types of acoustic nonlinearity parameters for solids are discussed. The results of measurements of these parameters for three polymers--polymethyl methacrylate, Polystyrene, and polysulfone--are presented.;The author has developed a new technique, using piezoelectric transducers directly bonded to the specimens, which allows the measurements of fundamental and second harmonics generated in the solids, and thereby the determination of nonlinearity parameter {dollar}\beta\sb3{dollar}, which is the ratio of a linear combination of second- and third-order elastic coefficients to the second-order elastic coefficient.;The second nonlinearity parameter, B/A can be determined from the temperature and pressure derivatives of the sound velocity. We derive its exact …