[CCoE Notice] Ph.D. Thesis Defense: July 25 at 130p

[Grayson, Audrey A]

Innovative Applications of Smart Materials for Actuation and Structural Health Monitoring in Energy Industry and Structural Study of Multifunctional Carbon Fiber Tape Embedded Concrete
By: Devendra Patil
July 25, 2014 at 1:30pm Engr. Small Conf. Room
Committee members: Dr. G. Song, Dr. M. Franchek. Dr. L. Sun, Dr. Y-L. Mo and Dr. M. Li
Abstract
This dissertation presents the work conducted on three major projects: the development of shape memory alloy (SMA) based hydraulic accumulator for blowout preventer actuation in ultradeep-seas, development of piezoceramic-based wind turbine blade structural health monitoring (SHM) system, and investigation of impact on embedded carbon fiber heating tape on structural integrity of concrete.
To meet the ever increasing demands of energy, the offshore oil and gas industry is moving into deeper waters to reach large hydrocarbon reserves. Therefore it has become essential to develop more reliable and efficient hydraulic accumulators to supply pressurized fluids for various control and actuation operations, such as closing of blowout preventers. This work shows the development and testing of a reliable, compact, and easy to operate SMA actuated accumulator prototype.
To improve energy harvesting from clean, renewable energy sources, the renewable energy industry has increased the size of wind turbine blades. The structural changes also demands for a reliable and accurate SHM system for the turbine blades. In second project, a piezoceramic actuator and sensors based active sensing method including wavelet packet analysis based damage index is proposed, developed and tested for health monitoring of blades. Experimental results show that the proposed method can not only detect different type of damages, but also be used as indication of damage severity and warn the operator of impending failure.
In third project, the mechanical effect of embedded carbon fiber tape (CFT), which has been proposed as a deicing solution for concrete structures (such as sidewalks, roads, highways and bridges), on the integrity of concrete is evaluated. Experimental results show that CFT cannot be used as reinforcing element by itself. However, strategic placement of CFT along with rebar reinforcement can provide additional strength to concrete. An uniaxial stress-strain model of CFT was developed for FEA analysis and its accuracy was verified by experimental results. Resistance monitoring of CFT during test has indicated that the CFT can survive the cracking of concrete and can still function as a heating element.

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