<p>The purpose of this Master Thesis is to improve the driving performance of mine hoists. The work is divided into two parts. The first and main part deals with simulation of the rope elongation that occurs at load changes in the mine hoist. A mathematical load model of the elongation in the ropes at a mine hoist is made for four types of mine hoists. Mass less springs and dampers are used to get the elastic behaviour of the ropes.</p><p>The mathematical model is implemented in Matlab and Simulink for all four hoist types to make load simulations possible. The implementation in the laboratory HoistLab is made by modifying an existing program with the line elongation functionality. It is only done for the tower mounted friction hoist. There are several functions that are modified to make the simulations realistic.</p><p>The task for the second part of this Master Thesis is to do a pilot study to decide if it is worth making further investigations about how the derivative part will improve the drive performances. A PI controller is designed and gives an acceptable rollback as result when the brakes are released. Then the controller model is extended with the derivative part, D-part, which improves the results essentially. It is still too uncertain how sensitive the system will be for noise when using the derivative part, but the performance potential is clear so the recommendation is to make further investigations.</p> / <p>Syftet med detta examensarbete är att förbättra driftegenskaperna för gruvspel. Arbetet är uppdelat i två olika delar. Den första och största delen handlar om simulering av den lintöjning som uppkommer vid lastförändringar i gruvspel. Matematiska modeller för detta är framtagna för fyra olika sorters typer av gruvspel. Elasticiteten i linorna är modellerad genom masslösa fjädrar och dämpare.</p><p>De matematiska sambanden är implementerade i Matlab och som modeller i Simulink för att utföra simuleringar. I HoistLab är modellen realiserad genom att utöka ett befintligt lastsimuleringsprogram med de nya funktionerna för lintöjning. Detta är utfört enbart för den toppmonterade typen av friktionsspel. Ett flertal funktioner fick ändras för att få realistiska simuleringar.</p><p>Den andra delen av examensarbetet går ut på att göra en förstudie kring den deriverande delen i PID-regulatorer och hur den påverkar gruvspelets prestanda. För denna del är en PI-regulator som ger ett acceptabelt resultat av backgången när bromsarna släpps designad. Därefter är modellen utökad med den deriverande delen, D-delen, vilket ger väsentligt bättre resultat. Det är dock osäkert hur bruskänsligt systemet blir när den deriverande delen används men eftersom förbättringspotentialen är tydlig är rekommendationen att göra vidare undersökningar kring D-delen.</p>

In the Everest valley of Nepal, because of the rugged mountain terrain, the ‘roads' are nothing more than dirt mountain footpaths. Most of the material is conveyed over long distances by professional porters who carry impressive burdens in a wicker basket supported by a strap looped over their head. We measured the body weight and loads carried by the Himalayan porters passing along the busy footpath to Namche Bazaar, the main market place of the Everest region. On average, the porters were carrying loads equivalent to 90% of their body weight on the last day of a 7-9 day trip covering a horizontal distance of ~100 km with >8000 m of total ascents and >6300 m of total descents. Interestingly, these porters adopt a specific rhythm of walking: they generally walk slowly and make very frequent rest stops using a T-stick or stone-platforms built along the trail to support the load during the pause. It has been shown that African women could carry head-supported loads more economically than Western subjects because they have developed a mechanical energy-saving strategy. Similarly, Nepalese porters could also have developed a mechanism to carry economically their very heavy loads. To test this hypothesis, we measured the energy consumption and the mechanical work done during level walking under different loading and speed conditions in the Nepali porters and in Western subjects. We compared these results to those of the African women. Nepalese porters carry loads at a lower cost than either the control subjects or the African women. For example, for a load equivalent to 60% of body weight, western Caucasian subjects increases their metabolic rate by 60%, the African women by 40% and the Nepalese porters by only 30%. Contrary to the African women who are taking advantage of the load to reduce the work performed, Nepalese porters do not modify their gait while carrying a load. Consequently, the mechanical work performed is not reduced as compared to control subjects walking at same speed-load combinations. Yet the Nepalese porters are the most economical load-carriers measured to date, particularly while carrying heavy loads at walking speeds slower than 1.4 m/s, but the exact mechanisms by which they save energy are still unknown. G. J. Bastien et al. Eur J Appl Physiol 94, 76 (2005); G. J. Bastien et al. Science 308, 1755 (2005); G. J. Bastien et al. J Exp Biol submitted.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-158).

Two important issues related to nuclear materials safeguards are the continuous monitoring of nuclear processing facilities to verify that undeclared uranium is not processed or enriched and to verify that declared uranium is accounted for. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is tasked with ensuring special nuclear facilities are operating as declared and that proper material safeguards have been followed. Traditional safeguards measures have relied on IAEA personnel inspecting each facility and verifying material with authenticated instrumentation. In newer facilities most plant instrumentation data are collected electronically and stored in a central computer. Facilities collect this information for a variety of reasons, most notably for process optimization and monitoring. The field of process monitoring has grown significantly over the past decades, and techniques have been developed to detect and identify changes and to improve reliability and safety. Several of these techniques can also be applied to international and domestic safeguards. This dissertation introduces a safeguards monitoring system developed for both a simulated Uranium blend down facility, and a water-processing facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For the simulated facility, a safeguards monitoring system is developed using an Auto-Associative Kernel Regression model, and the effects of incorporating facility specific radiation sensors and preprocessing the data are examined. The best safeguards model was able to detect diversions as small as 1.1%. For the ORNL facility, a load cell monitoring system was developed. This monitoring system provides an inspector with an efficient way to identify undeclared activity and to identify atypical facility operation, included diversions as small as 0.1 kg. The system also provides a foundation for an on-line safeguards monitoring approach where inspectors remotely facility data to draw safeguards conclusion, possibly reducing the needed frequency and duration of a traditional inspection.

The simulation of seafloor-steel catenary interaction and prediction of riser fatigue life required an accurate characterization of seafloor stiffness as well as realistic description of riser load-deflection (P-y) response. This thesis presents two load-deflection (P-y) models (non-degradating and degradating models) to simulate seafloor-riser interaction. These two models considered the seafloor-riser system in terms of an elastic steel pipe supported on non-linear soil springs with vertical motions. These two models were formulated in terms of a backbone curve describing self-embedment of the riser, bounding curves describing P-y behavior under extremely large deflections, and a series of rules for describing P-y behavior within the bounding loop. The non-degradating P-y model was capable of simulating the riser behavior under very complex loading conditions, including unloading (uplift) and re-loading (downwards) cycles under conditions of partial and full separation of soils and riser. In the non-degradating model, there was a series of model parameters which included three riser properties, two trench geometry parameters and one trench roughness parameter, two backbone curve model parameters, and four bounding loop model parameters. To capture the seafloor stiffness degradation effect due to cyclic loading, a degradating P-y model was also developed. The degradating model proposes three degradation control parameters, which consider the effects of the number of cycles and cyclic unloading-reloading paths. Accumulated deflections serve as a measure of energy dissipation. The degradating model was also made up of three components. The first one was the backbone curve, same as the non-degradating model. The bounding loops define the P-y behavior of extreme loading deflections. The elastic rebound curve and partial separation stage were in the same formation as the non-degradating model. However, for the re-contact and re-loading curve, degradation effects were taken into the calculation. These two models were verified through comparisons with laboratory basin tests. Computer codes were also developed to implement these models for seafloor-riser interaction response.

Power systems must face new challenges in the current environment. The energy market liberalization and the increase in the loading level make the occurrence of instability phenomena leading to large blackouts more likely. Existing tools must be improved and new tools must be developed to avoid them. The aim of this thesis is the improvement of the voltage stability assessment efficiency. Two orientations are studied: the monitoring methods and the load modeling. The purpose of the monitoring methods is to evaluate the voltage stability using only measurements and without running simulations. The first approach considered is local. The parameters of the Thevenin equivalent seen from a load bus are assessed thanks to a stream of local voltage and current measurements. Several issues are investigated using measurements coming from complete time-domain simulations. The applicability of this approach is questioned. The second approach is global and uses measurements acquired by a Wide-Area Measurement System (WAMS). An original approach with a certain prediction capability is proposed, along with intuitive visualizations that allow to understand the deterioration process leading to the collapse. The load modeling quality is certainly the weak point of the voltage security assessment tools which run simulations to predict the stability of the power system depending on different evolutions. Appropriate load models with accurate parameters lead to a direct improvement of the prediction precision. An innovative procedure starting from data of long measurement campaigns is proposed to automatically evaluate the parameters of static and dynamic load models. Real measurements taken in the Belgian power system are used to validate this approach.

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