Browsing by Author "Govender, Reuben"

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    A system for high strain rate interruptible tensile tests
    (2024) Thomas, Malcolm; Govender, Reuben; Trevor, Cloete
    The Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) is a widely used piece of equipment used for measuring a material's response to high strain rates. High strain rate data is critical for exhaustive characterisation, due to the sensitivity of materials to the rate at which they are strained. The principle limitation of conventional SHPB is that there is limited control of the ultimate deformation of specimens, because specimens are rarely recoverable after having undergone a single loading event. For this reason, microstructural investigations on SHPB specimens offer limited value, as the specimen was loaded repeatedly. In the MSc, a tensile SHPB (TSHB) was designed with momentum trapping to conduct interruptible tests on specimens. This configuration makes use of tandem momentum traps, allowing for the system to be fully trapped without the need for precisely preset gaps, or tight control over striker speed. A pull-off design of tubular tensile striker was used alongside the tandem momentum trapping, in a novel configuration allowing the input bar to remain supported over its entire length. The fir-tree design of dynamic tensile specimen fixture was utilised. Thorough preliminary measurements of the wave propagation properties of the hardware are taken. Strain gauge calibration tests were then conducted, followed by a rigorous commissioning process. This involved fine-tuning trap impedances and verification of the complex critical subsystems. As the commissioning process progressed, emergent flaws were rectified, and a standard operating procedure was established to ensure the reliable performance of said subsystems. The operation of the TSHB was demonstrated by a series of experiments on DOMEX 550 specimens. The recorded loading history is compared to the measured length of recovered specimens as verification of the interruptibility of tests using this apparatus. These specimens are also compared to those tested under the same conditions, but without the interruption, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the developed system.
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    Design and implementation of a high strain Town rate biaxial tension test for elastomeric materials and biological soft tissue
    (2020) Graham, Aaron; Govender, Reuben; Cloete Trevor
    The mechanical properties of biological tissues are of increasing research interest to disciplines as varied as designers of protective equipment, medical researchers and even forensic Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The mechanical properties of biological tissue such as skin are relatively well known at low strain rates and strains, but there is a paucity of data on the high rate, high strain behaviour of skin - particularly under biaxial tension. Biaxial tensile loading mimics in vivo conditions more closely than uniaxial loading [1, 2], and is necessary in order to characterise a hyper-elastic material model[3]. Furthermore, biaxial loading allows one to detect the anisotropy of the sample without introducing noise from inter-sample variability - unlike uniaxial tensile testing. This work develops a high strain rate bulge test device capable of testing soft tissue or polymer membranes at high strain rates. The load history as well as the full field displacement data is captured via a pressure transducer and high speed 3D Digital Image Correlation (DIC). Strain rates ranging from 0.26s −1 to 827s −1 are reliably achieved and measured. Higher strain rates of up to 2500s −1 are achieved, but are poorly measured due to equipment limitations of the high speed cameras used. The strain rates achieved had some variability, but were significantly more consistent than those achieved by high rate biaxial tension tests found in the literature. In addition to control of the apex strain rate, the bi-axial strain ratio is controlled via the geometry of the specimen fixture. This allowed for strain ratios of up to 2 to be achieved at the apex 1 . When testing anisotropic membranes, the use of full field 3D DIC allowed for accurate and efficient detection of the principal axis of anisotropy in the material. No skin is tested, but instead three types of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, ”silicone') skin simulant are tested. These simulants were chosen to fully encapsulate the range of mechanical behaviour expected from skin - they were chosen to have stiffness's, strain hardening exponents and degrees of anisotropy significantly above or below the behaviour exhibited by skin. This ensured that the device was validated over a wider range of conditions than expected when testing skin. A novel approach to specimen fixation and speckling for silicone membranes is developed, as well as a fibre reinforced skin simulant that closely mimics the rate hardening and anisotropic behaviour of skin. In addition to bulge tests, uniaxial tensile tests are conducted on the various simulant materials in order to characterise their low strain rate behaviour. The composite skin simulant is characterised using a modified version of the anisotropic skin model developed by Weiss et al (1996) [4], and the pure silicone membranes are characterised using the Ogden hyper-elastic model.
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    Design, manufacture and commissioning of a low pressure quasistatic bulge tester for skin and membrane tissue
    (2020) Curry, Andrew Michael; Govender, Reuben; Nurick, Gerald
    The material properties of skin are of great importance to a variety of fields such as dermatology and reconstructive surgery. Relatively little infrastructure and expertise exists locally in South Africa for testing biological tissue. The difficulties of testing the material properties of skin are the non-uniformity and anisotropy across specimen location and subjects. This anisotropy is most commonly measured by tensile testing of samples cut in different orientations. However, the individual samples at different orientations would be extracted from slightly different locations on the same subject, which will naturally vary in response. Bulge testing is a method of determining response to tension in different directions at the same location, by applying biaxial tension. It uses a positive pressure applied to a peripherally clamped specimen to deform the specimen in a balloon type manner. In this project, bulge testing apparatus was designed and built for the purpose of testing skin and membrane tissue, under biaxial tension. The testing apparatus consists of a syringe pump to control inflation of a specimen, which is clamped in an inflation chamber. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was used to capture the 3D deformation fields of the specimen, and hence infer the strain fields. To simplify commissioning testing, a commercial silicone elastomer suited for skin prosthetics, was used to manufacture specimens for uniaxial and bulge experimental testing. Two types of bulge specimens were manufactured, standard round specimens and elliptical specimens. The round specimens were used to compare their material response to uniaxial tests and the elliptical bulge specimens were used to simulate the anisotropic response of skin. The method of analysis used in this project is based on using DIC and curvature calculations at multiple points to calculate membrane stresses in principal directions. The method of calculating principal curvatures from DIC is adapted from the work by Machado et al. [1] that calculated Gaussian curvature using the first and second fundamental forms of a surface. In total 18 round, 6 elliptical and 10 uniaxial specimens were tested and the material properties were found to vary slightly between each specimen. The spread in data between the uniaxial and bulge tests was found to be very similar with the bulge data showing 10 % spread at 1.2 stretch and constant 8 % spread above 1.2 stretch and the uniaxial data showing increasing spread from 7 % to 15 %. The curvature results showed very clear principal directions of curvature for the elliptical specimens. This demonstrated that the method used in this project is capable of clearly extracting the orientations of stiffer fibre directions of skin and other collagenous tissue.
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    Development of image based crack measurements, to investigate delamination in different weave Fibre Reinforced Polymers
    (2019) Harnekar, Abraar; Govender, Reuben
    This project investigates the delamination dependence of fibre reinforced polymers, of different weave patterns, using an image-based crack measurement method. Glass fibre reinforce polymer (FRP) with three different weave pattern namely Unidirectional, Plain weave and Twill weave patterns were manufactured using the infusion process. Waterjet cutting was used to cut the panels to produce the test specimens. The Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) test was used to measure the Mode I fracture toughness, following the standardised test method ASTM D5528. DCB tests requires two hinge blocks to be bonded to the specimens and is conducted using the Zwick machine which actively measures force and opening displacement. In order to calculate the fracture toughness from a DCB test, the crack length must be measured. An image-based crack measurement method was developed, using still images that were extracted from a digital video of the DCB experiment. The image-base method involved scripting a MATLAB file to detect the specimen surface as edges. The specimen was painted white and the test had a black background. This caused a sharp change in intensity which made the specimen edge easier to detect. The detection algorithm only catered for accuracy and not speed. A series of tests were conducted to verify the detection algorithm, of which included designing an Ultrasound Wedge device. The Wedge device was used to emulate a DCB tests in a static position whereby an Ultrasound Thickness Tester was used to obtain and verify the position of the crack tip obtained by the algorithm. DCB tests showed that the Twill weave specimens had the greatest resistance to delamination, while the Unidirectional weave offered the least resistance to delamination. The Plain weave pattern was inconclusive due to the large variation between the Plain weave specimens.
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    Development of specimen mounting and gripping system for planar biaxial tensile testing of biological membrane tissue
    (2023) Siddiqui, Aashir; Govender, Reuben
    There has always been a need to understand the mechanical properties of biological membrane tissues in the fields of medicine, biomechanical engineering, and cosmetology. These tissues are known to display complex anisotropic, hyperelastic, and non-linear stress-strain properties, while also being sensitive to environmental conditions. Given these complexities, ongoing efforts are being made to develop a suitable testing methodology. At the University of Cape Town, the Blast Impact and Survivability Research Unit is building a testing methodology (using their in-house planar biaxial tensile testing and bulge inflation devices) that has thus far been used to test small intestine submucosa tissue. As part of this ongoing effort, this research aimed to build a tissue-gripping system that can be used to attach a specimen to the planar biaxial tensile testing machine since the previous clamping method was not suitable. A rake clamping system that allowed contra-lateral motion was built, along with the necessary tooling to attach the rakes and excise a square-shaped specimen. Planar biaxial tensile tests were then conducted on small intestine submucosa tissue to assess the performance of these rakes. The rakes were found to be effective at allowing the tissue to expand and contract contra-laterally while also being structurally sound enough to withstand the loads applied during testing. In the progression of this research, improvements were also made to the optical deformation measurements and sample thickness measurements. Regarding the optical deformation measurements, it was found that speckling the sample with multi-coloured paints improved correlation, and the addition of Cross Polarising Line filters removed harsh reflections that would stop the Digital Image Correlation software from evaluating facet displacement. Looking at the thickness measurements, a migration was made from wax histology to cryo-histology for preparing sections to measure the samples' thickness. Images taken showed that the cryo-sectioned tissue had undergone less dilation and fibre fraying than the wax histology used by prior students, offering more realistic and accurate thickness measurements. The successes found with the designed rakes and the improvements made to the testing methodology have laid the groundwork for other biological tissues to be tested.
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    Ink-gel simultaneous embedded 3D printing
    (2025) Van Driel, Adrian; Govender, Reuben
    3D printing has improved by leaps and bounds. The gains include both the hardware and software. With 3D printers increasingly becoming staples of many a laboratory and engineering workshop, naturally comes the application of 3D printing to ever more significant issues. Some of these new applications encouraged the use of 3D printing to solve problems involving printing materials that do not solidify in the near-instantaneous manner that most existing methodologies used in 3D printing require. The material requirements of liquid or gel materials that may take minutes or even hours to solidify prompted the invention of embedded 3D printing. Embedded 3D printing is a methodology whereby a liquid is 3D printed into a support gel that supports the printed material's form until it can cure. This project aims to design and test a prototype that may increase the useful print volume of an embedded 3D printer modified from an existing low-cost fused deposition modelling type 3D printer. To create parts using embedded 3D printing in the past, a support bath needed to be prepared before printing and the printed material nozzle needed to be longer than the shortest axis of the part. With that design, the requirement for a long nozzle to print larger parts introduces some problems. More extended nozzles require more pressure to extrude material, are more likely to clog than shorter nozzles, create more of a disturbance in the support gel and are more susceptible to deflection over the nozzle's length. A need was identified to print support gel on demand and, in that way, make an embedded printer that could expand the useful print volume without increasing the length of the nozzle. Various sub-assemblies were designed, tested, and iteratively improved until the entire assembly could be tested together to achieve simultaneous printing of the printed material and the support gel. This assembly would be called the Dual Ink-Gel Extruder (DIGEX). The printed material and the support gel were mixed in the same lab as the 3D printer, and the rheological properties of several concentrations of the support gel were tested and analysed to best enable simultaneous printing. Printed material and gel deposition methodologies were developed for this purpose, and their performance was analysed for best results. Several iterations of the electrical hardware, the software, and the slicer configurations were tested and iterated for use with DIGEX. These improvements culminated in a result that could successfully demonstrate the concept of simultaneous dual extrusion. However, some new complications were introduced in the printing process that need further iterations and research to enable large-format embedded 3D printers
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    Investigated physical/strength properties and elastic constants of fimbul granular ice applied to ice cliff stability analysis
    (2024) Econi, Jonathan Arthur Olivu; Kalumba, Denis; MacHutchon, Keith; Skatulla, Sebastian; Govender, Reuben
    During the 2020-2021 South African National Antarctic Programme Antarctic resupply voyage, a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey was conducted on the Fimbul ice shelf edge to determine a safe cargo offloading zone from the SA Agulhas II ship. The survey showed subsurface cracks which created concerns of shelf failure, risking the lives of crew and the ship stationed at the bottom of the cliff. To assess the risk of failure, this study was carried out to quantify the stability of the vertical cliff. A slope stability analysis model was required to achieve this, which in turn needed inputs such as cliff geometry and ice material properties. Therefore, laboratory tests to obtain these properties preceded the cliff modelling. Ice cores were retrieved from the shelf, and these were observed to be granular in structure, with different grainsizes and ice lenses. The analysis began with a core characterisation based on the grainsize percentages, ice lens concentrations, and due to ice's relationship to rock, Rock Quality Designation (RQD) of the cores. The grainsize segmentation was fine, medium, and large grained, with medium grained being the most abundant in the cores. The ice lens concentrations showed areas on the ice shelf with high meltwater which were to be avoided. The physical properties needed were density, elastic modulus, and Poisson's ratio. The mass/volume method was used to obtain an average density of 569.9±157.7kg/m3 . The elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio were both tested using ultrasonic methods to give 1.66±0.87GPa and 0.37±0.06 respectively. Each of the values were comparable to values mentioned in literature with the granular ice lying between the stiffnesses of snow ice structures and crystalline ice. The strength value tested was Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS), with shear strength and tensile strength determined afterwards. The UCS tests gave a value of 0.9±0.27MPa. The compression was carried out at a strain rate of 10-4.3 s -1 for ductile failure. Shear strength was then determined using the Rock Mass Rating (RMR) method, giving cohesion and friction angle readings of 0.25MPa and 30. The shear strength was then calculated to 0.77MPa. The tensile strength was equal to the ice bond strength, which was equal to the cohesion value of 0.25MPa. Modelling was then embarked for a base scenario, horizontal crack variation, and vertical crack depth variation scenario. The base critical Factor of Safety (FS) was 5.56. Failure occurred in both tension and shear, through the Mohr Coulomb failure criterion. In the horizontal variation, the critical crack zone lay between 9 - 20m away from the shelf edge with the lowest FS of 4.24 at 13m. The failure types observed were toppling failure, planar failure, crumbling of the overhanging part of the ice. Finally, the increasing crack depth at the critical horizontal location led to decrease in FS. The scenarios output FS values showing that the ice shelf cliff is safe. Despite this, the models run were an oversimplification of the entire shelf with a number of factors assumed due to the unavailability of data. To provide a detailed analysis of the entire ice shelf, a thorough survey of the entire shelf would need to be carried out to provide accurate layering data, precise material properties at depth, actual crack locations and dimensions on the shelf edge.
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    Rapid acceleration of legged robots: a pneumatic approach
    (2021) Van Zyl, Joshua; Patel, Amir; Govender, Reuben
    For robotics to be useful to the public in a multifaceted manner, they need to be both legged and agile. The legged constraint arises as many environments and systems in our world are tailored to ablebodied adults. Therefore, a practically useful robot would need to have the same morphology for maximum efficacy. For robots to be useful in these environments, they need to perform at least as well as humans, therefore presenting the agility constraint. These requirements have been out of reach of the field until recently. The aim of this thesis was to design a planar monopod robot for rapid acceleration manoeuvres, that could later be expanded to a planar quadruped robot. This was achieved through a hybrid electric and pneumatic actuation system. To this end, modelling schemes for the pneumatic cylinder were investigated and verified with physical experiments. This was done to develop accurate models of the pneumatic system that were later used in simulation to aid in the design of the platform. The design of the platform was aided through the use of Simulink to conduct iterative testing and multivariate evaluations using Monte Carlo simulation methods. Once the topology of the leg was set, the detail design was conducted in Solidworks and validated with its built in simulation functions. In addition to the mechanical design of the platform, a specialist boom was designed. The design needed to compensate for the forces the robot exerts on the boom as well as the material constraints on the boom. This resulted in the development of a cable-stayed, four bar mechanism boom system. An embedded operating system was created to control the robot and take in and fuse sensor inputs. This was run using multiple sensors, sub-controllers and microcontrollers. Sensor fusion for the system was done using a Kalman Filter to improve readings and estimate unmeasured states of the robot. This Kalman Filter took LiDAR and accelerometer readings as inputs to the system to produce a subcentimetre accurate position measure for the system. Finally, the completed platform was validated using fixed-body forward hopping tests. These tests showed a significant degree of similarity to the simulated results and therefore validated the design process.
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    Support Bath Deposition for Embedded 3D Printing
    (2020-12-30) Masters, Jessica Siobhan Shelagh; Govender, Reuben
    In recent years, the prinKng of som constructs has been aided by the development of embedded 3D printing. A notable form of embedded 3D printing known as freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) was developed and published by Hinton et al in 2015. In FRESH, the print material is deposited into a gel-like support bath which is removed once the print material has set . One of the primary limitations in embedded 3D printing is the size of the support bath. This project aimed to solve this issue through the development of a gel deposition system. A variety of parameters, including nozzle shape and size, the motion of the nozzle and the temperature of the support gel were considered. A peristaltic pump was developed in order to deliver gel to the deposition nozzle. The various components for the gel deposition system were designed, manufactured and assembled, and the effects of motion and temperature on the quality of the support bath and print material were tested. The results of these tests were qualitatively assessed. The testing outcomes indicated that, with further development, the deposition could feasibly be used to deliver support bath material in embedded 3D printing.
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    The Design and Construction of a Bulge Testing Device Platform for Human Skin Tissue Applications
    (2020) Fischer, Dustin; Govender, Reuben
    Limited standard mechanical testing practises and stress-strain data are available for anisotropic human skin tissue in biaxial loading configurations to suitably represent skin in vivo. Inconsistencies in mechanical and physical properties in the literature due to numerous physiological factors have restricted development of biaxial testing equipment in laboratories to ad hoc research solutions having limited modifiability and parametric control. This project aims to develop a biaxial tensile testing device and testing platform which can be used in a research laboratory setting to provide a springboard to expediate mechanical skin tissue testing. The device can be easily reconfigured to accommodate a range of bulge pressures, while being driven via a 10bar compressed air supply. Based on simplified modelling of skin as an elastomer, mechanical and pneumatic resistivecapacitive pressure vessel models are developed. These are used respectively to initially specify a modifiable piston-cylinder bulge testing apparatus, and to design a customisable discrete proportional-integral closed-loop feedback pressurisation rate control system and software control environment. Pressure-time histories were successfully collected and stored on a dedicated computer for silicone sheet samples of 50mm diameter, as a surrogate for skin, that were tested using the platform to maximum pressures of about 200 kPa, at rates set between 2 20 kPa/s. The efficacy of the rate control system was affected by resolution of discrete pressurisation components that were used. The described platform is currently suitable for controlled and measured bulge pressurisation of elastomers. It is recommended to extend facility of the current platform by integrating 3D imaging and measurement technologies, to evaluate deformation of bulged anisotropic skin tissue and map inhomogeneous stress-strain fields for complex tensile stress-strain evaluations.
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    The response of a structural target to oblique fragment and blast loading
    (2023) Van Der Merwe, Pierre; Chung Kim Yuen, Steeve; Govender, Reuben; Cloete, Trevor
    An improvised explosive device (IED) can be defined as a homemade bomb which is used to target humans and structures [1]. IEDs commonly have dual damaging effects, a high-pressure blast wave that propagates outwards from the point of detonation as well as blast induced fragments. The blast induced fragments include the casing of the IED and added components to increase its lethality and destructive power. Examples of these added components can include but not limited to nails, pieces of glass, nuts, bolts and ball bearings [2]. Fragments, released upon the detonation of the device, are propelled outwards at high velocities and different directions with devastating effects on structures or human lives. Investigating the fragment effect is vital to develop better protection. Two sets of experiments were undertaken in this study, projectile impact experiments and blast experiments. The impact loading of an IED was investigated by performing projectile impact experiments to infer the average impact velocity of the ball bearing during the blast experiments. Impact loading caused by IEDs is complex and often contains numerous fragments. Typical fragments were simplified to a ball bearing propelled using a two-stage gas gun towards a Domex 700 steel target plate. The velocity of the ball bearing and the orientation angle of the target plate was varied. A numerical study was undertaken to further study oblique impact of a ball bearing on a Domex 700 target plate and to investigate experimental uncertainty. Blast experiments were carried out using a cylindrical charge with an embedded ball bearing representing a simplified IED to investigate the response of a target plate experiencing oblique detonation by varying the angle of the explosive. The mass and geometry of the explosive and the placement of the ball bearings were kept constant. For the projectile impact experiments, it was found that an increase in the target plate orientation angle was associated with a decrease in the maximum deflection experienced by the target plate. In contrast, for the blast experiments, the target plate deflection increased as the orientation angle of the explosive charge increased up to 15°. The effect of the orientation angle of the explosive charge decreases for charge orientation angles larger than 15°.