Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Mechanical Engineering) by Title
Now showing items 3-22 of 48
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Communication, mapping and navigational aspects for a free-ranging, automated guided vehicle.
(1992)A free-ranging automated guided vehicle incorporating navigation and radio communication for use in a fully automated flexible manufacturing system has been developed. A vehicle, operating as a complete subsystem, was built ... -
Computational and analytical modelling of composite structures based on exact and higher order theories.
(1995)The objective of the present study is the computational and analytical modelling of a stress and strain state of the composite laminated structures. The exact three dimensional solution is derived for laminated anisotropic ... -
Contractible arms elevating search and rescue (Caesar) robot : improvements and modifications for urban search and rescue (Usar) robots.
(2010)Rescuers have lost their lives in events requiring them to go into dangerous areas that have unstable structures and gases. Robots are necessary for search and rescue purposes, to access concealed places and environments ... -
Coriolis effect on the stability of convection in mushy layers during the solidification of binary alloys.
(2000)We consider the solidification of a binary alloy in a mushy layer subject to Coriolis effects. A near-eutectic approximation and large far-field temperature is employed in order to study the dynamics of the mushy layer ... -
Crashworthiness modelling of thin-walled composite structures.
(2003)This thesis is concerned with the study of the crashworthiness of thin-walled composite structures. Composites are being used more and more in different fields of engineering, particularly, in aerospace and automotive ... -
Design and performance simulation of a hybrid sounding rocket.
(2012)Sounding rockets find applications in multiple fields of scientific research including meteorology, astronomy and microgravity. Indigenous sounding rocket technologies are absent on the African continent despite a potential ... -
Design and testing of a composite material for modelling wind turbine blade structures in tropical region.
(2018)Currently large wind turbine blades have been installed in several offshore and onshore wind farms around the world, particularly in the desert areas of North East Africa where wind turbine blades and nacelles are affected ... -
Design, modelling and optimisation of an isolated small hydropower plant using pumped storage hydropower and control techniques.
(2015)Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) has proved to be a reliable power generation technology, especially in cases of emergency peak power demand. It is best utilised in areas where the availability of water is a challenge because ... -
Design, modelling and simulation of 2 novel 6 DOF hybrid machines.
(2012)Industrial robot arms are an essential part of automated manufacturing, and perform tasks such as component assembly, welding, light machining, spray painting, etc. They are highly repeatable, can be calibrated to be ... -
Development of a decision support system for decision-based part/fixture assignment and fixture flow control.
(2018)An intense competition in a dynamic situation has increased the requirements that must be considered in the current manufacturing systems. Among those factors, fixtures are one of the major problematic components. The ... -
Development of a decision support system for decision-based part/fixture assignment and fixture flow control.
(2018)An intense competition in a dynamic situation has increased the requirements that must be considered in the current manufacturing systems. Among those factors, fixtures are one of the major problematic components. The ... -
Development of high strength material for smart aircraft bolt.
(2005)Scientists are constantly seeking new and convenient non-destructive damage assessment techniques. In fact, a global market has developed for structural health monitoring products. Many of the currently available techniques ... -
The development of instrumentation for the direct measurement of heat loss from man in a normal working mode.
(1974)Based on a theoretical analysis of the heat transfer process between the human body and its environment, graphs are presented for determining the theoretical skin surface temperatures and sweat rates as a function of the ... -
The development of methods for the design and evolution of reconfigurable cellular manufacturing systems.
(2016)The concept of reconfigurable manufacturing is presently being researched due to the need for production systems that are able to economically respond to changes in markets and the rapid introduction of new products. ... -
Distributed control synthesis for manufacturing systems using customers' decision behaviour for mass customisation.
(2013)The mass customisation manufacturing (MCM) paradigm has created a problem in manufacturing control implementation, as each individual customer has the potential to disrupt the operations of production. The aim of this ... -
Dynamic stability and buckling of viscoelastic plates and nanobeams subjected to distributed axial forces.
(2016)Plates and beams are typical examples of structures that must be analyzed and understood. Buckling and vibration represent for such structures a potential source of fatigue and damage. Damage and fatigue are often caused ... -
EEG artefact identification and extraction in autonomic wireless network for future coordination and control of semi-autonomous systems.
(2015)Electroencephalographic signals is used to show correlations between specific forms of cognitive activities and robotic hand motion. This research presents EEG artefact identification, extraction and classification for ... -
The effect of tip clearance and tip gap geometry on the performance of a one and a half stage axial gas turbine.
(1996)In a previous work of a similar nature, the performance of a low speed axial turbine with a second stage nozzle was examined with respect to the effect of the variation of tip clearance for various tip shapes. Present ... -
Fabrication and characterization of metal oxide nanostructured thin film for photovoltaic application.
(2018)This study focused on fabrication and characterization of nanostructured metal oxide heterojunction solar cells for photovoltaic application. The study involved experimental fabrication of the device and modelling and ... -
Finite element and analytical solutions for the optimal design of laminated composites.
(1996)The present study involves the analysis and design optimisation of composite structures using analytical and numerical methods. Five different problems are considered. The first problem considers the design of laminated ...