High-temperature piezoelectric wafer active sensors (HT-PWAS) have been developed for structure health monitoring at hazard environments for decades. Different candidates have previously been tested under 270 °C and a new piezoelectric material langasite (LGS) was chosen here for a pilot study up to 700 °C. A preliminary study was performed to develop a high temperature sensor that utilizes langasite material. The Electromechanical impedance (E/M) method was chosen to detect the piezoelectric property. Experiments that verify the basic piezoelectric property of LGS at high temperature environments were carried out. Further validations were conducted by testing structures with attached LGS sensors at elevated temperature. Additionally, a detection system simulating the working process of LGS monitoring system was developed with PZT material at room temperature. This thesis, for the first time, (to the best of author’s knowledge) presents that langasite is ideal for making piezoelectric wafer active sensors for high temperature structure health monitoring applications.

Precisely positioned optical lenses are currently required for many highly repetitive mechanics and applications. Thus the need for micron-scale repetition between opto-mechanical units is evident, especially in industrial manufacturing and medical breakthroughs. In this thesis, a novel optical metrology system is proposed, designed, and built whose purpose is to precisely locate the center of a mechanical fixture and then to assemble a plano-convex optical lens into the located position of the fixture. Center location specifications up to ±3 µm decenter and ±0.001° tilting accuracy are required. Nine precisely positioned lenses and fixtures were built with eight units passing the requirements with a repetitive standard deviation of ±0.15 µm or less. The assembled units show satisfactory results.

This study experimentally investigated the effect of hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces characteristics on nucleate boiling heat transfer performance for the application of direct immersion cooling of electronics. A dielectric liquid, HFE – 7100 was used as the working fluid in the saturated boiling tests. Twelve types of 1-cm2 copper heater samples, simulating high heat flux components, featured reference smooth copper surface, fully and patterned hydrophobic surface and fully and patterned hydrophilic surfaces. Hydrophobic samples were prepared by applying a thin Teflon coating following photolithography techniques, while the hydrophilic TiO2 thin films were made through a two step approach involving layer by layer self assembly and liquid phase deposition processes. Patterned surfaces had circular dots with sizes between 40 – 250 μm. Based on additional data, both hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces improved nucleate boiling performance that is evaluated in terms of boiling incipience, heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux (CHF) level. The best results, considering the smooth copper surface as the reference, were achieved by the surfaces that have a mixture of hydrophobic/hydrophilic coatings, providing: (a) early transition to boiling regime and with eliminated temperature overshoot phenomena at boiling incipience, (b) up to 58.5% higher heat transfer coefficients, and (c) …

Heat shrink tubing is used to insulate wire conductors, protect wires, and to create cable entry seals in wire harnessing industries. Performing this sensitive process manually is time consuming, the results are strongly dependent on the operator’s expertise, and the process presents safety concerns. Alternatively, automating the process minimizes the operators’ direct interaction, decreases the production cost over the long term, and improves quantitative and qualitative production indicators dramatically. This thesis introduces the automation of a heat shrink tubing prototype machine that benefits the wire harnessing industry. The prototype consists of an instrumented heat chamber on a linear positioning system, and is fitted with two heat guns. The chamber design allows for the directing of hot air from the heat guns onto the wire harness uniformly through radially-distributed channels. The linear positioning system is designed to move the heat chamber along the wire harness as the proper shrinkage temperature level is reached. Heat exposure time as a major factor in the heat shrink tubing process can be governed by controlling the linear speed of the heat chamber. A control unit manages the actuator position continuously by measuring the chamber’s speed and temperature. A model-based design approach is followed to design …

An analytical model for lateral deflection in cold-formed steel shear walls sheathed with steel is developed in this research. The model is based on the four factors: fastener displacement, steel sheet deformation, and hold-down deformation, which are from the effective strip concept and a complexity factor, which accounts for the additional influential factors not considered in the previous three terms. The model uses design equations based on the actual material and mechanical properties of the shear wall. Furthermore, the model accounts for aggressive and conservative designers by predicting deflection at different shear strength degrees.