T glossary entries

A tachometer is an instrument or sensor system that measures rotational speed of a shaft, rotor, wheel, or rotating machine.

A tailings storage facility is an engineered system used to contain mine tailings, process water, and associated seepage or closure controls.

Tensile strength is the tensile stress level associated with fracture or with the maximum load carried during a tensile test, depending on the material and reporting convention.

Thermal efficiency is the ratio of the net work output of a heat engine or thermodynamic cycle to the heat energy supplied from the hot source, measuring how effectively the cycle converts heat into useful work.

Thermal stress is the internal stress that develops in a body when its thermal expansion or contraction is wholly or partially prevented by external constraints, internal compatibility requirements, or the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients between bonded dissimilar materials.

A thermocouple is a temperature sensor that uses the Seebeck voltage generated by two dissimilar conductors joined at a measurement junction.

A Thevenin equivalent represents a linear two-terminal network as an ideal voltage source in series with an equivalent impedance.

Thrust is the propulsive force produced when a system accelerates mass or exchanges momentum with a surrounding fluid.

A time constant is the characteristic time scale of a first-order exponential response, indicating how fast a system approaches a new steady state.

Tolerance stack-up is the analysis of how individual part and assembly variations accumulate to affect a critical dimension or functional requirement.

Torque is the rotational moment produced by a force acting with a lever arm about an axis, causing rotation, twist, or rotational equilibrium.

A transducer is a device that converts a physical quantity or form of energy into another signal form, usually for measurement, control, or actuation.

A transfer function is the ratio of the Laplace transform of a system's output to the Laplace transform of its input, assuming zero initial conditions, and provides a complete description of the input–output behaviour of a linear time-invariant system.

Turbulence is irregular, three-dimensional fluid motion with fluctuating velocity, pressure, vorticity, and enhanced mixing across a wide range of scales.