The industrial practice of grain refinement of aluminium alloys involves the addition of inoculant particles to initiate alpha-aluminium grains at small undercoolings. This results in a uniformly fine, equiaxed as-cast microstructure and is commonly achieved using Al-Ti-B additions. The phase responsible for initiation of grains in aluminium melts inoculated with Al-Ti-B was determined during the 1990s; since that time, scientific understanding of grain refinement has advanced rapidly. However, one of the main problems of addition inoculants is impurities which is added to the melt and may affect the desired characteristics of the product. With regards to this problem other methods of refinement and the mechanisms of refining have not been fully understood and prediction of as-cast Microstructures in aluminium alloys has much scope for improvement. In this thesis: 1-Factors in establishing equiaxed microstructure were analysed and the origin of equiaxed grains were explored. Then the nucleation process and the involved mechanisms were investigated in depth and control of nucleation process to achieve a fine and uniform structure was set as target. 2-Refinement of microstructure with introduction of shearing was evaluated and the process of refinement in the mushy zone (semisolid state) as a base line was established. Then introduction of shearing above liquidus as a development was analysed and outstanding refinement was seen with shearing above liquidus which have not been investigated properly elsewhere. 3- The mechanisms of refinement by introducing shearing were investigated and the refining mechanisms below and specifically above liquidus were investigated systematically. As results an appropriate understanding about the mechanisms of nucleation and refinement above liquidus was established. 4- Finally, with simulation the most dominant factor in approaching fine grain size by applying shear was identified and the results of experimental examination was verified by simulation.

FOOPS is a concurrent object oriented specification language with an executable subset. In this thesis we propose an extension of FOOPS with features for specifying systems of distributed and autonomous objects. This extension supports most features of concurrent object oriented programming, including classes of objects with associated methods and attributes, object identity, dynamic object creation and deletion, overloading, polymorphism, inheritance with overriding, dynamic binding, concurrency, nondeterminism, atomic execution, evaluation of method expressions as background processes, and object protection. The main contribution of this thesis is to develop a framework for supporting formal development of software in the extension of FOOPS mentioned above. In particular, we introduce a structural operational semantics for FOOPS, a notion of refinement for concurrent object oriented programs, congruence properties of refinement of FOOPS programs, and tools for mechanising refinement proofs. The operational semantics is the core of the formal definition of FOOPS. It is used to define notions of refinement for FOOPS states, programs, and specifications. Those notions and associated proof techniques for proving refinement are used to illustrate stepwise formal development of programs in FOOPS. The congruence properties of refinement (with respect to some of FOOPS operators) justify compositional development of software in FOOPS. The tools help to validate the framework introduced in this thesis and motivate its use in practice.

Aluminetos de ferro pertencem a uma classe de materiais interessantes por combinarem excelente resistência à oxidação com boas propriedades mecânicas em temperaturas moderadas a altas (até 500°C). Estes materiais, contudo, em temperatura ambiente, possuem baixa ductilidade (menos de 5% de alongamento à tração), característica correlacionada a efeitos ambientais, o que dificulta seu processo de conformação. A fundição é uma via de processamento tradicionalmente aplicada às ligas frágeis (por exemplo, ferro fundido cinzento), sendo necessário conhecer as propriedades termoquímicas da liga para que as peças fundidas sejam livres de defeitos atribuídos ao processo, como a formação de poros e rechupes. Neste trabalho foram investigadas três ligas distintas de intermetálicos, Fe28Al, Fe28Al6Cr e Fe28Al6Cr1Ti, sob a influência de diferentes condições de solidificação. Para estas três composições de liga, observou-se a redução do tamanho de grão em até 60% pela adição de Al-5Ti-1B como inoculante ao metal fundido. As ligas foram produzidas em condições laboratorias (forno de indução com capacidade máxima de 2 kg e proteção sob fluxo de Ar), bem como em escala industrial (forno de indução com capacidade de 100 kg). O processo em escala industrial resultou em peças de fundição com pequena quantidade de defeitos, sendo este um indicativo da capacidade de produzir peças destes aluminetos de ferro diretamente pelo processo de fundição. A técnica de tomografia de raios X auxiliou na mensuração da contração linear (~6%) e tendência à formação de defeitos. Além da caracterização microestrutural das ligas produzidas, este trabalho, ao relatar processo de fundição em escala industrial, inclui uma discussão sobre a reatividade do metal fundido e o material refratário que reveste o forno de indução. Dessa forma, os dados obtidos permitem averiguar a fundibilidade de ligas da família FeAl pelo uso de forno de indução. / Iron aluminides are good candidates for applications at moderate to high temperatures (up to 500 °C) because they combine excellent oxidation resistance with good mechanical properties. However, these materials have low ductility at room temperature (less than 5% traction elongation), a characteristic correlated to environmental effects, which hinders their conformation process. Casting is a processing route traditionally applied to brittle alloys (eg, gray cast iron), it is necessary to know the thermochemical properties of the alloys to reduce the formation of defects attributed to the casting process, such as the formation of pores, scar and blows. In this work, three different alloys of intermetallic (Fe28Al, Fe28Al6Cr and Fe28Al6Cr1Ti) were investigated under the influence of different solidification conditions. For these three alloy compositions, grain size reduction by up to 60% was observed by the addition of Al-5Ti-1B as an inoculant to the molten metal. The alloys were produced under laboratory conditions (induction furnace with a maximum capacity of 2 kg and protection under Air flow), as well as industrial scale (induction furnace with capacity of 100 kg). The industrial scale process resulted in castings with a small number of defects, which is an indication of the ability to produce mechanical parts of these iron aluminides directly by the casting process. The X-ray tomography technique assisted in the measurement of linear contraction (~ 6%) and tendency to defect formation. In addition to the microstructural characterization of the alloys, this work includes a discussion about the reactivity of the molten metal and the refractory material coating the induction furnace. In this way, the obtained data allow to investigate the FeAl alloys castability by the use of induction furnace.

Adaptive methods in finite element analysis are essential tools in the efficient computation and error control of problems that may exhibit singularities. In this paper, we consider solving a boundary value problem which exhibits a singularity at the origin due to both the structure of the domain and the regularity of the exact solution. We introduce a hybrid mixed finite element method using Lagrange Multipliers to initially solve the partial differential equation for the both the flux and displacement. An a posteriori error estimate is then applied both locally and globally to approximate the error in the computed flux with that of the exact flux. Local estimation is the key tool in identifying where the mesh should be refined so that the error in the computed flux is controlled while maintaining efficiency in computation. Finally, we introduce a simple refinement process in order to improve the accuracy in the computed solutions. Numerical experiments are conducted to support the advantages of mesh refinement over a fixed uniform mesh.

O presente estudo tem por objetivo analisar, sob a perspectiva antropológica, representações envolvidas no universo simbólico da etiqueta a partir de um campo privilegiado de observação empírica - os cursos de etiqueta oferecidos na cidade de São Paulo nos anos de 1990 - e, também, de instrumentos midiáticos como sites, livros, programas televisivos que constroem um repertório cultural do qual o público se utiliza para consumir tal bem simbólico. Analisamos, por fim, de que forma os aspectos conflitivos e simbólicos que emergem nesse campo polissêmico nos ajudam a compreender a "teia de significados" construída pelos sujeitos envolvidos nessa prática cultural. / The aim of the present study is to anaylise the representation involved in the symbolic universe of etiquette from an anthropological view, based on a privileged field of empirical observation - the etiquette courses taking place in the city of São Paulo in the 1990´s - and also on the media (web sites, books, magazines and tv programmes), which build a cultural fund that provides the public with such symbolic goods. At last we have analysed how the symbolic and conflitive aspects that come out from this varied help us to understand the "web of meanings" created by the individuals involved in this cultural practice.

Finding disparity maps between stereo images is a well studied topic within computer vision. While both classical and machine learning approaches exist in the literature, they frequently struggle to correctly solve the disparity in regions with low texture, sharp edges or occlusions. Finding approximate solutions to these problem areas is frequently referred to as disparity refinement, and is usually carried out separately after an initial disparity map has been generated. In the recent literature, the use of Normalized Convolution in Convolutional Neural Networks have shown remarkable results when applied to the task of stereo depth completion. This thesis investigates how well this approach performs in the case of disparity refinement. Specifically, we investigate how well such a method can improve the initial disparity maps generated by the stereo matching algorithm developed at Saab Dynamics using a rectified stereo rig. To this end, a dataset of ground truth disparity maps was created using equipment at Saab, namely a setup for structured light and the stereo rig cameras. Because the end goal is a dataset fit for training networks, we investigate an approach that allows for efficient creation of significant quantities of dense ground truth disparities. The method for generating ground truth disparities generates several disparity maps for every scene measured by using several stereo pairs. A densified disparity map is generated by merging the disparity maps from the neighbouring stereo pairs. This resulted in a dataset of 26 scenes and 104 dense and accurate disparity maps. Our evaluation results show that the chosen Normalized Convolution Network based method can be adapted for disparity map refinement, but is dependent on the quality of the input disparity map.

Bayesian inference is commonly used to quantify and reduce modeling uncertainties in coastal ocean models by computing the posterior probability distribution function (pdf) of some uncertain quantities to be estimated conditioned on available observations. The posterior can be computed either directly, using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach, or by sequentially processing the data following a data assimilation (DA) approach. The advantage of data assimilation schemes over MCMC-type methods arises from the ability to algorithmically accommodate a large number of uncertain quantities without a significant increase in the computational requirements. However, only approximate estimates are generally obtained by this approach often due to restricted Gaussian prior and noise assumptions. This thesis aims to develop, implement and test novel efficient Bayesian inference techniques to quantify and reduce modeling and parameter uncertainties of coastal ocean models. Both state and parameter estimations will be addressed within the framework of a state of-the-art coastal ocean model, the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) model. The first part of the thesis proposes efficient Bayesian inference techniques for uncertainty quantification (UQ) and state-parameters estimation. Based on a realistic framework of observation system simulation experiments (OSSEs), an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is first evaluated against a Polynomial Chaos (PC)-surrogate MCMC method under identical scenarios. After demonstrating the relevance of the EnKF for parameters estimation, an iterative EnKF is introduced and validated for the estimation of a spatially varying Manning’s n coefficients field. Karhunen-Lo`eve (KL) expansion is also tested for dimensionality reduction and conditioning of the parameter search space. To further enhance the performance of PC-MCMC for estimating spatially varying parameters, a coordinate transformation of a Gaussian process with parameterized prior covariance function is next incorporated into the Bayesian inference framework to account for the uncertainty in covariance model hyperparameters. The second part of the thesis focuses on the use of UQ and DA on adaptive mesh models. We developed new approaches combining EnKF and multiresolution analysis, and demonstrated significant reduction in the cost of data assimilation compared to the traditional EnKF implemented on a non-adaptive mesh.

Em muitos problemas de simulação de fenômenos físicos ou fenômenos de engenharia, o uso das malhas é um componente muito importante. Uma malha é uma aproximação de uma dada geometria por um conjunto de elementos mais simples, tais como triângulos e quadriláteros (caso bidimensional) ou tetraedros, prismas, pirâmides e hexaedros (caso tridimensional). Nesse texto, as malhas de interesse são as não-estruturadas e compostas por triângulos. A escolha de uma malha é fortemente influenciada pelo desempenho e precisão dos resultados da simulação. O desempenho depende do número de elementos a serem processados, ou seja, quanto maior for a área coberta por cada elemento da malha, menos elementos são necessários, por conseguinte, mais rápida será a simulaçao. A precisão nos resultados da simulação está relacionada tanto com o formato quanto com o tamanho dos elementos. Diferente do desempenho, quanto menor forem os elementos, mais precisos serão os resultados. O formato dos elementos também influencia a precisão, em geral, elementos mais próximos dos equiláteros são preferidos. Como é possível observar, desempenho e precisão são requisitos conflitantes e geralmente é necessário fazer uma ponderação entre eles. Para um determinado grupo de aplicações, o melhor compromisso entre desempenho e precisão é conseguido com elementos finos, longos e corretamente alinhados sobre o domí?nio onde a malha está definida. São as chamadas malhas anisotrópicas. Além disso, um método de refinamento anisotrópico pode melhorar ainda mais a precisão dos resultados. O principal objetivo desse trabalho é desenvolver métodos de refinamento de malhas anisotrópicas, usando como base, e tendo como ponto de partida, os métodos de refinamento Delaunay isotrópicos, a saber, os métodos de refinamento Delaunay de Jim Ruppert [13] e de Paul Chew [6], e também realizar a simplificação Delaunay proposto por Olivier Devillers [8] / The use of polygonal meshes for numerical simulation of physical problems is a well known component. Mesh is an piecewise approximation from a given geometry defined by a set of simpler elements, such as triangles and quadrilaterals (two-dimensional case) or tetrahedra, prisms, pyramid and hexahedra (three-dimensional case). In this work, the interest is unstructured meshes of triangles. The choice of a mesh is aimed at the performance and the precision of the simulation results. The performance depends of the number of elements that will be processed, i.e., the larger is the covered area for each mesh element, the less element is needed, therefore the simulation is faster performed. The simulation precision is related with the shape and the size of the elements. On the other hand, the smaller the elements are, the more precise are the results. The shape of the elements also influences on precision, generally, equilateral elements are preferred. It is worth to mention that performance and precision are opposite requirements and it is important to ponder between them. For a group of applications, the best commitment between performance and precision is obtained with thin and long elements correctly aligned on the domain where the mesh is defined. These meshes are named anisotropic meshes. Furthermore, a method of anisotropic refinement can even improve the precision. We aim at developing anisotropic mesh methods based on isotropic properties from well known Delaunay refinement methods, viz., the Delaynay refinement methods by Jim Ruppert [13] and Paul Chew [6], and performing a Delaunay simplification proposed by Olivier Devillers [8]

As ligas Al-Si hipoeutéticas têm grande importância na indústria de fundição de peças devido às excelentes propriedades de fundição, como baixo ponto de fusão e alta fluidez. A análise térmica das curvas de resfriamento medidas durante a solidificação destas ligas pode ser utilizada para controlar a formação da macroestrutura de grãos. Esta análise envolve a determinação das temperaturas de início e final de solidificação, bem como a evolução da fração de sólido com o tempo a partir da chamada análise térmica de Fourier. Apesar desta técnica ter sido aplicada a diversas ligas comerciais, existem poucos dados referentes às ligas Al-Si binárias. Os dados são ainda mais escassos quando se deseja examinar o efeito do tratamento de inoculação do metal líquido para refino de grão. O objetivo do presente trabalho é investigar o efeito do tratamento de inoculação nas ligas binárias Al-3%Si, Al-7%Si e Al-11%Si através da análise térmica e metalográfica. Foram obtidos lingotes cilíndricos a partir do vazamento da liga Al-Si líquida com ou sem a adição de inoculante na forma da liga mãe Al-3%Ti-1%B, adicionada para se obter um teor nominal de 0,05%Ti. Curvas de resfriamento foram medidas a partir de termopares inseridos no interior da cavidade do molde, composto de areia de sílica ligada com resina fenólica. Os lingotes foram seccionados e as suas micro e macroestruturas examinadas por metalografia óptica. A análise térmica das curvas de taxa de resfriamento e a análise térmica de Fourier foram aplicadas para determinar os instantes de início e final de solidificação, a magnitude da recalescência, a evolução da fração de sólido com o tempo e a fração de sólido no momento da coesão dendrítica. Os resultados mostram que o inoculante, apesar de adicionado na mesma quantidade em todas as ligas, é mais efetivo em diminuir o tamanho de grão da liga Al-3%Si do que das ligas Al-7%Si e Al-11%Si. Esta perda de eficiência é chamada de envenenamento do inoculante pelo Si. A evolução da fração de sólido mostra que a fração de coesão diminui com o aumento do teor de Si, como observado por alguns autores. A adição do inoculante diminui a fração de sólido durante a solidificação, diminuindo também a fração de coesão. Este efeito contraria dados da literatura para o ponto de coesão medido através de métodos mecânicos. / The hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys are extremely important to the foundry industry owing to their excellent fluidity and castability. The thermal analysis of the cooling curves measured during solidification of these alloys can be used to control the formation of the grain macrostructure. This analysis consists of the determination of the temperatures at the beginning and end of solidification, as well as the calculation of the time evolution of the solid fraction by more elaborate techniques, such as, the Fourier thermal analysis. Although this technique has been applied to several aluminum commercial alloys, there are very few data about binary Al-Si alloys. Available data related to the effect of melt inoculation to decrease grain size are even scarcer. The objective of the present work is to study the effect of the inoculation treatment of the binary alloys Al-3%Si, Al-7%Si, and Al-11%Si by thermal analysis and metalography. Cylindrical ingots were cast by pouring Al-Si melts with or without the addition of inoculant in the form of Al-3%Ti-1%B to obtain 0,05%Ti. Cooling curves were measured by thermocouples located within the mold cavity, made of silica sand and phenolic resin. The ingots were sectioned and their micro and macrostructures examined by optical metalography. The simple thermal analysis and the Fourier analysis were used to determine the time of beginning and end of solidification, the size of the recalescence, the time evolution of solid fraction and the solid fraction at the dendrite coherency point. The results show that, although the same amount of inoculant is added to all melts, it is more effective to decrease the grain size of the Al-3%Si than that of the Al7%Si and Al-11%Si alloys. This fading of efficiency is referred to as poisoning of the inoculant by Si. The evolution of solid fraction shows that the solid fraction at the coherency point decreases with an increase in the Si content, as observed by other authors. The addition of inoculant also causes a decrease in the solid fraction at dendrite coherency, which disagrees with some published coherency fraction obtained by mechanical methods.

Estudos bioestratigráficos, com base em nanofósseis calcários de amostras provenientes do DSDP, Leg 40, poços 364 e 361, das Bacias de Angola - Cuanza e Cabo - Orange, na Margem Africana, permitiram o refinamento taxonômico, para o Período Cretáceo (145,5 - 65,5 M.a.), entre os andares Aptiano e Turoniano (125 - 89,3 M.a.). Os dados do Leg 40 obtidos pelos relatórios do DSDP, na década de 1970, foram confeccionados sobre uma bibliografia controversa, utilizando biozoneamentos de regiões distintas do Oceano Atlântico Sul. No poço 364, 89% das amostras continham material passível de análise, totalizando 168 lâminas úteis para a obtenção das informações bioestratigráficas. Foram identificados um total de 78 taxa de nanofósseis calcários, com 66 a nível de espécie e 12 a nível de gênero. No poço 361, 67% das amostras apresentaram conteúdo afossilífero, e assim foram confeccionadas 64 lâminas, onde identificou-se 18 taxas, sendo 9 a nível espécie, 6 a nível gênero e 3 a nível família. O refinamento bioestratigráfico realizado possibilitou dividir, no poço 364, a seção cretácea amostrada em cinco andares, sendo eles: Turoniano (93,5 - 89,3 M.a.), Cenomaniano (99,6 - 93,5 M.a.), Albiano (112 - 99,6 M.a.), Aptiano (125 - 112 M.a.) e um identificado genericamente como Cretáceo inferior (de 125 M.a. para a base). No poço 361, a divisão do nível Cretáceo amostrado se deu em três andares: Um Albiano (112 - 99,6 M.a.), outro Aptiano (125 - 112 M.a.) e um Cretáceo genérico (de 125 M.a. para a base). Com os dados bioestratigráficos obtidos nos dois poços, foi possível gerar uma correlação entre ambos poços, integrando os andares Albiano (112 - 99,6 M.a.) e Aptiano (125 - 112 M.a.). Tal correlação permitiu interpretar em qual momento houve a influência das águas advindas do norte (Bacia de Angola - Cuanza) e do sul (Bacia do Cabo - Orange), divididas pelo alto estrutural representado pela Cordilheira de Walvis. / Biostratigraphic studies, based on calcareous nanofossils samples from DSDP, Leg 40, sites 364 and 361 (Angola - Cuanza and Cabo - Orange Basins, African Margin), allowed the taxonomic refinement for the Cretaceous period (145.5 - 65.5 M.a.), between Aptian and Turonian (125 - 89.3 M.a.). The Leg 40 data obtained from the 1970\'s DSDP reports were based in a controversial literature using biozones from distinct regions of the South Atlantic Ocean. In site 364, 89% of the samples contained nanofossil material, counting 168 slides useful to obtain biostratigraphic information. 78 taxa of calcareous nanofossils were identified, 66 at specific level and 12 at generic level. In site 361, 67% of the samples were sterile, thus, 64 slides were made, where 18 taxa were identified, 9 at the specific level, 6 at generic level and 3 at family level. The biostratigraphic refinement allowed to divide the Cretaceous section sampled on five ages in site 364: Turonian (93.5 - 89.3 Ma), Cenomanian (99.6 - 93.5 Ma), Albian (112 - 99.6 Ma), Aptian (125 - 112 Ma) and one generally identified as Lower Cretaceous (125 M.a. down). At site 361, the division of the Cretaceous level sampled occurred in three ages: Albian (112 - 99.6 M.a.), Aptian (125 - 112 M.a.) and a Cretaceous generic (125 M.a. down). With the biostratigraphic data obtained in the two sites, it was possible to generate a correlation between both sites, integrating the Albian (112 - 99.6 M.a.) and Aptian (125 - 112 M.a.) ages. This correlation made it possible to interpret the influence of waters from the north (Angola - Cuanza Basin) and the South (Cape Basin - Orange), divided by the structural high represented by the Walvis Ridge.