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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Experimental Methods And Practices For The Study Of Toroidal Inflated, Braided Fabric Members, Daniel J. Whitney Dec 2016

Experimental Methods And Practices For The Study Of Toroidal Inflated, Braided Fabric Members, Daniel J. Whitney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inflatable structures have become a very important area of interest for many differing applications where lightweight packable structures are required. NASA is developing Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology that takes advantage of stacked, inflated fabric tori to form a decelerating spacecraft nose cone. The tori consist of a bladder, braided fabric shell, and reinforcing in the form of integral cords or externally bonded straps. The focus of this thesis is on the development of methods for the structural testing of inflated fabric tori and developing an enhanced understanding of their behavior. This is essential for providing insight into the …


Microstructural Analysis Of Thermoelastic Response, Nonlinear Creep, And Pervasive Cracking In Heterogeneous Materials, Alden C. Cook Dec 2016

Microstructural Analysis Of Thermoelastic Response, Nonlinear Creep, And Pervasive Cracking In Heterogeneous Materials, Alden C. Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the development of robust numerical solution procedures for the generalized micromechanical analysis of linear and nonlinear constitutive behavior in heterogeneous materials. Although the methods developed are applicable in many engineering, geological, and materials science fields, three main areas are explored in this work. First, a numerical methodology is presented for the thermomechanical analysis of heterogeneous materials with a special focus on real polycrystalline microstructures obtained using electron backscatter diffraction techniques. Asymptotic expansion homogenization and finite element analysis are employed for micromechanical analysis of polycrystalline materials. Effective thermoelastic properties of polycrystalline materials are determined and compared …