Dans cette thèse nous avons ajouté le contrôle du paramètre spectral pour donner plus de degré de liberté à l’instrument basé sur l’Imagerie par Résonance des Plasmons de Surface (SPRI), développant un système instrumental à interrogation angulo-spectrale. Pour valider notre travail, nous avons pris comme modèle d’étude un milieu diélectrique absorbant à unelongueur d’onde visible. La fonction diélectrique complexe est traitée par le modèle de Lorentz et la relation entre la partie réelle et imaginaire de l’indice optique est assurée par la relation de Kramers-Kronig. Nous avons commencé par injecter dans la cellule de mesure un colorant absorbant à 630 nm et mesuré la réflectivité angulo-spectrale avec ce milieu. Ensuite, un programme d’ajustement, que nous avons développé, a été utilisé pour le calcul inverse et la détermination des paramètres optiques à partir des données de l’expérience. Cet ajustement permet d’extraire la partie réelle et la partie imaginaire de l’indice de réfraction démontrant la possibilité d’applications de type spectroscopique. Nous avons également intégré successivement à la surface des molécules d’ADN marquées par différents chromophores pour voir l’effet de la position d’absorption sur la variation de réflectivité angulo-spectrale. En plus des milieux absorbants, nous avons fabriqué des réseaux diélectriques et métalliques et les avons intégrés à la surface du prisme. Les structures utilisées avaient une période de 250 nm et une épaisseur de 300 nm en PMMA. Cette condition nous a permis de voir un plasmon bandgap centré à 735 nm. Cette étude expérimentale est validée par une étude théorique en utilisant la méthode RCWA pour simuler la réponse des réseaux périodiques. / During this work we added the spectral parameter to the homemade Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRI) instrument, developing an angulo-spectral instrumental system. To validate our set-up, we first used a dielectric medium absorbing in the visible spectral range as a model case. The complex dielectric function was treated by the Lorentz model and the relationship between the imaginary and the real part of the refractive index medium was calculated with the Kramers-Kronig relation. We started by injecting an absorbing dye at 630 nm in the microfluidic cell and then measured the angulo-spectral reflectivity. The experimental measurements were fitted with calculations issued from a newly developedprogram to extract the dielectric optical parameter from the experimental data. This fit calculates the imaginary and real part of the absorbing dielectric medium demonstrating the possibility for spectroscopic applications. We also integrated DNA molecules tagged with different chromophores to study the effect of the absorption wavelength on the surface plasmon angulo-spectral reflectivity variation. Furthermore, to illustrate the interest of the spectral parameter, one can integrate adielectric or metallic grating on the prism surface. Specifically, we fabricated a dielectric grating of PMMA with 250 nm period and 300 nm thickness. We observed plasmons bandgap located at 735 nm. This experimental study was in good agreement with a simulation obtained using a RCWA method based program.

O modelo estocástico Raise and Peel é estudado nesta tese. Para isto é utilizado o método de simulação por Monte Carlo junto com os métodos de diagonalização exata e numérica do operador de Liouville. Este modelo estocástico é um modelo de crescimento unidimensional com dois parâmetros livres. Um parâmetro de absorção local e um parâmetro de dessorção não local. Em função destes dois parâmetros se observa um rico diagrama de fase, apresentando regiões massivas, regiões criticamente auto-organizadas, estados quase-estacionários e transições a múltiplos estados absorventes. O principal resultado deste trabalho é ressaltar a existência de células de Jordan no operador de Liouville. Células de Jordan que crescem com o tamanho do sistema e portanto no limite termodinâmico a dinâmica assintótica pode ser mascarada. A nível numérico estas células de Jordan podem levar a errôneas interpretações de fases criticas quando são na realidade fases massivas ou vice-versa. Portanto dependendo da condição inicial observa-se que a presença de células de Jordan pode levar à determinação errônea de expoentes críticos e a observações de tempos de decaimentos excessivamente grandes. Tudo isto ressalta a necessidade de se determinar os expoentes críticos e os tempos de decaimento por diversos métodos, sempre que for possível, além de se controlar o comportamento destas quantidades considerando a evolução do modelo com diferentes condições inicias. Entre outros resultados que obtivemos observamos a existência de estados quase-estacionários com tempos de vida que crescem muito mais rápido que uma lei de potencia do tamanho do sistema. Encontramos o expoente critico dinâmico z=1, no caso da transição a estados multi-absorventes. Este resultado ocorreu tanto nos casos sem absorção como nos casos sem dessorção. O modelo exibe também uma fase rugosa com um expoente de rugosidade próximo de zero quando a taxa de absorção é maior que a taxa dessorção. E finalmente observamos que o modelo estudado em condições periódicas de contorno pode ser enxergado como um modelo KPZ em 1+1 dimensões, sujeito a dois tipos de perturbações. Uma das pertubações sendo relevante e a outra irrelevante. / The stochastic model Raise and Peel is studied in this thesis. we use the Monte Carlo simulation method together with the exact and numerical diagonalization methods of the Liouville operator. This stochastic model is a one-dimensional growth model with two free parameters. A local absorption parameter and a non-local desorption one. As a function of these two parameters, a rich phase diagram is observed, presenting massive regions, critically self-organized regions, quasi-stationary states and transitions to multiple absorbing states. The main result of this work is to emphasize the existence of Jordan cells in the Liouville operator. Jordan cells that grow with the size of the system and therefore in the thermodynamic limit the asymptotic dynamics can be masked. At the numerical level, these Jordan cells can lead to erroneous interpretations of massive phases as being massless critical ones or vice versa. Therefore depending on the initial condition, it is observed that the presence of Jordan cells can lead to the erroneous determination of critical exponents and produce excessively large lifetimes. Due to these effects, it is necessary to determine the critical exponents and the lifetimes by several distinct methods whenever possible, besides controlling the behavior of these quantities, by considering the evolution with different initial conditions. Among other results, we found the existence of quasi-stationary states with lifetimes that grow much faster than a power law of the systems size. We obtained a dynamic critical exponent z = 1 in the transition to multi-absorbent states in both cases without absorption or desorption. The model also shows a rough phase with a roughness exponent close to zero when the absorption rate is higher than the desorption rate. Finally, we observed that the model studied under periodic boundary conditions, can be seen as a KPZ model in 1 + 1 dimensions, under the effect of two perturbations. One of them being relevant and the other one irrelevant.

Mes travaux de thèse portent sur la construction de conditions aux limites absorbantes (CLAs) pour des problèmes de propagation d'ondes posés dans des milieux limités par des surfaces régulières. Ces conditions sont nouvelles car elles prennent en compte non seulement les ondes proagatives (comme la plupart des CLAs existantes) mais aussi les ondes évanescentes et rampantes. Elles sont donc plus performantes que les conditions existantes. De plus, elles sont facilement implémentables dans un schéma d'éléments finis de type Galerkine Discontinu (DG) et ne modifie pas la condition de stabilité de Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL). Ces CLAs ont été implémentées dans un code simulant la propagation des ondes acoustiques ainsi que dans un code simulant la propagation des ondes en régime harmonique. Les comparaisons réalisées entre les nouvelles conditions et celles qui sont les plus utilisées dans la littérature montrent que prendre en compte les ondes évanescentes et les ondes rampantes permet de diminuer les réflexions issues de la frontière artificielle et donc de rapprocher la frontière artificielle du bord de l'obstacle. On limite ainsi les coûts de calcul, ce qui est un des avantages de mes travaux. De plus, compte tenu du fait que les nouvelles CLAs sont écrites pour des frontières quelconques, elles permettent de mieux adapter le domaine de calcul à la forme de l'obstacle et permettent ainsi de diminuer encore plus les coûts de calcul numérique. / In my PhD, I have worked on the construction of absorbing boundary conditions (ABCs) designed for wave propagation problems set in domains bounded by regular surfaces. These conditions are new since they take into account not only propagating waves (as most of the existing ABCs) but also evanescent and creeping waves. Therefore, they outperform the existing ABCs. Moreover, they can be easily implemented in a discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme and they do not change the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy stability condition. These ABCs have been implemented in two codes that respectively simulate the propagation of acoustic waves and harmonic waves. The comparisons performed between these ABCs and the ABCs mostly used in the litterature show that when we take into account evanescent and creeping waves, we reduce the reflections coming from the artificial boundary. Therefore, thanks to these new ABCs, the artificial boundary can get closer to the obstacle. Consequently, we reduce the computational costs which is one of the advantages of my work. Moreover, since these new ABCs are written for any kind of boundary, we can adapt the shape of the computational domain and thus we can reduce again the computational costs.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:42:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RegiaCP_TESE.pdf: 5580865 bytes, checksum: b0d574167afcc48aece0c780848733c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-22 / Universidade Estadual de Roraima / Were synthesized systems Ni0,5Zn0,5Fe2O4, i0,2Zn0,5Mn0,3Fe2O4, Mn0,5Zn0,5Fe2O4, Ni0,5Mg0,5Fe2O4, Ni0,2Cu0,3Zn0,5Fe2O4 and Ni0,2Cu0,3Zn0,5Mg0,08Fe2O4, the precursors citrate method. The decomposition of the precursors was studied by thermogravimetric analysis and spectroscopy in the infrared region, the temperature of 350?C/3h. The evolution of the phases formed after calcinations at 350, 500, 900 and 1100?C/3h was accompanied by X-ray diffraction using the Rietveld refinement to better identify the structures formed. The materials were also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, magnetic measurements and analysis of the reflectivity of the material. The samples calcined at different temperatures showed an increase of crystallinity with increasing calcination temperature, verifying that for some compositions at temperatures above 500?C precipitates of second phase such as hematite and CuO. The compositions of manganese present in the structure diffusion processes slower due to the ionic radius of manganese is greater than for other ions substitutes, a fact that delays the stabilization of spinel structure and promotes the precipitation of second phase. The compositions presented with copper precipitation CuO phase at a temperature of 900 and 1100?C/3h This occurs according to the literature because the concentration of copper in the structure is greater than 0.25 mol%. The magnetic measurements revealed features of a soft ferrimagnetic material, resulting in better magnetic properties for the NiZn ferrite and NiCuZnMg at high temperatures. The reflectivity measurements showed greater absorption of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band for the samples calcined at 1100?C/3h, which has higher crystallite size and consequently the formation of multi-domain, increasing the magnetization of the material. The results of absorption agreed with the magnetic measurements, indicating among the ferrites studied, those of NiZn and NiCuZnMg as better absorbing the incident radiation. / Foram sintetizados os sistemas Ni0,5Zn0,5Fe2O4, Ni0,2Zn0,5Mn0,3Fe2O4, Mn0,5Zn0,5Fe2O4, Ni0,5Mg0,5Fe2O4, Ni0,2Cu0,3Zn0,5Fe2O4 e Ni0,2Cu0,3Zn0,5Mg0,08Fe2O4, pelo m?todo dos citratos precursores. A decomposi??o dos precursores foi estudada por an?lise termogravim?trica e espectroscopia na regi?o do infravermelho, na temperatura de 350?C/3h. A evolu??o das fases formadas ap?s as calcina??es a 350, 500, 900 e 1100?C/3h foi acompanhada por difra??o de raios X utilizando o refinamento de Rietveld, para melhor identifica??o das estruturas formadas. Os materiais foram tamb?m analisados por microscopia eletr?nica de varredura, medidas magn?ticas e an?lise da refletividade do material. As amostras calcinadas em diferentes temperaturas indicaram um aumento da cristalinidade com o aumento da temperatura de calcina??o, verificando-se que, para algumas composi??es, em temperaturas acima de 500?C ocorre a precipita??o de segunda fase, como hematita e CuO. As composi??es com mangan?s na estrutura apresentaram processos de difus?o mais lentos devido ao raio i?nico do mangan?s ser maior em rela??o aos outros ?ons substituintes, fato que retarda a estabiliza??o da estrutura espin?lio e favorece a precipita??o de segunda fase. As composi??es com cobre apresentaram precipita??o da fase CuO na temperatura de 900 e 1100?C/3h, fato que ocorre segundo a literatura porque a concentra??o de cobre na estrutura ? maior que 0,25 mol%. As medidas magn?ticas revelaram racter?sticas de um material ferrimagn?tico macio, obtendo-se melhores ar?metros magn?ticos para as ferritas de NiZn e NiCuZnMg em altas temperaturas. As medidas de refletividade mostraram maior absor??o da radia??o eletromagn?tica na faixa de microondas para as amostras calcinadas a 1100?C/3h, que tem maior tamanho do cristalito e em conseq??ncia forma??o de multidom?nios, aumentando a magnetiza??o do material. Os resultados de absor??o concordaram com as medidas magn?ticas, indicando dentre as ferritas estudadas, as de NiZn e NiCuZnMg como melhores absorvedoras da radia??o incidente.

Les véhicules aériens sans pilote (UAVs), utilisés et développés pour la première fois dans le domaine militaire, ont connu de profonds changements ces dernières années et sont de plus en plus utilisés dans le domaine civil. Etant plus connus sous le nom des drones, ils sont le plus souvent utilisés dans les domaines civiles et militaires. Ils sont employés pour : la lutte contre les incendies, le sauvetage ainsi que dans des applications spécifiques comme la surveillance et l’attaque. Le vol en formation est de loin le plus utilisé car il permet une répartition judicieuse des tâches et améliore grandement l’efficacité des drones (principe de l’attaque en meute, des animaux carnassiers). Cela pose alors la problématique de la coordination et de la stratégie, ainsi que du type de fonctionnement (maitre/esclave,…).Le type et la qualité d’informations optimums restent aussi à définir.L'utilisation accrue de ces systèmes coopératifs dans des environnements dangereux rend leur fiabilité essentielle pour prévenir tout événement catastrophique. Une performance globale de la flotte des drones doit être garantie, malgré une possible dégradation des composants ou de toute modification du réseau et de l'environnement. Il est nécessaire de détecter les comportements anormaux pouvant contribuer aux collisions et ainsi affecter la mission. Compte tenu des performances et du coût, les systèmes à tolérance de pannes et à redondance ne représentent pas toujours la solution la plus efficace pour ce type de vol de flotte en formation. Différentes méthodes telles que l'analyse par arbre de défaillance (ADD), l'analyse des modes de défaillance, de leurs effets et de leurs criticités (AMDEC) ont été utilisées dans le monde des hélicoptères.Dans une première partie, une méthode statique basée sur l’ADD est proposée, pour assurer la fiabilité de la communication entre les drones d’un côté et entre les drones et la station de base de l’autre côté en accentuant l’échange de flux d’informations. Nous utilisons des arbres de défaillance pour représenter les différentes conditions d’erreur de ce système complexe.Dans une deuxième partie, nous analysons les différents états de défaillance des communications et leurs probabilités. Ce processus étant stochastique, une approche par chaîne de Markov absorbante est développée. L’approche proposée peut être utilisée pour trouver les scenarios les plus risqués et les éléments à prendre en compte pour améliorer la fiabilité.Enfin, dans une troisième partie, nous étudions le problème de réception des messages d’un drone en proposant un protocole basé sur le nombre de retransmissions. La réception est assurée avec une certaine probabilité de fiabilité, en fonction de plusieurs attributs tels que la modulation, le taux d’erreur des bits (BER) caractérisant les drones. / Unmanned aerial vehicles, used and developed initially in the military field, have experienced profound changes in recent years and are increasingly used in the civilian field. Recognized as drones, they are most often used in the civil and military domains. They are used for firefighting, rescue as well as in specific applications such as surveillance and attack. The formation flight is the most used because it allows a judicious distribution of the tasks and greatly improves the efficiency of the drones (principle of the attack in pack, carnivorous animals). This will raise the issue of coordination and strategy, as well as the type of operation (master /slave, ...). The type and quality of optimal information also remain to be defined.The increased use of these cooperative systems in hazardous environments makes their reliability essential to prevent any catastrophic event. Overall performance of the drone fleet should be ensured, despite possible degradation of components or any changes that occur to the network and the environment. It is necessary to detect the anomalous behaviors that might contribute to collisions and thus affect the mission. Taking into consideration performance and cost, the fault-tolerant system and redundant systems are not always the most efficient solution for the formation fleet flight. Different methods like the fault tree analysis (FTA), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) have been used in the helicopter field.In the first part, we propose a static method based on FTA, to ensure a successful communication between the drones from one side, and between the drones and the ground station from the other side by emphasizing on the exchange of information flows. It uses various fault trees to represent the different error conditions of this complex system.In the second part, we analyze the different fault states and their probabilities. As this process is stochastic, an absorbing Markov chain approach is developed. The proposed approach can be used to find the most risky scenarios and considerations for improving reliability.Finally, in the third part, we put the emphasis on the message receipt problem in a drone’s communication network by proposing a protocol based on number of retransmissions. The reception of a message is provided with a certain probability of reliability depending on several attributes such as modulation and bit error rate (BER) characterizing the UAVs.

Ce travail de thèse a pour but de développer un dispositif basé autour d'un dispositif intégré de photodétection pour des applications biomédicales nécessitant une grande sensibilité de détection et une discrimination spectrale (sélectivité). Ce dispositif peut être appliqué, par exemple, à la mesure simultanée de plusieurs marqueurs fluorescents dans les laboratoires sur puce mettant en œuvre de très faibles volumes de réactifs (inférieurs au microlitre). Le travail de thèse se focalise sur la conception, la réalisation et le test de ce dispositif intégré de photodétection. Ce travail se décline selon deux axes principaux : d'une part, la conception d'un photodétecteur CMOS avec préamplificateurs intégrés, et d'autre part la conception, la réalisation et la caractérisation de filtres optiques intégrés performants pour la détection de fluorescence / This thesis aims to develop a system based around an integrated photosensor device for biomedical applications requiring high detection sensitivity and spectral discrimination (selectivity). For example, this system can be applied to mesure simultaneous emissions of several fluorescent labels in lab-on- a-chip implementing very small volumes of reagents (below the microliter). The thesis focuses on the design, implementation and testing of this integrated photodetector device. The work is divided in two main parts: first, the design of a CMOS photodetector with integrated preamplifiers, and secondly the design, realization and characterization of integrated optical filters for fluorescence detection

This dissertation describes the investigation of the synthesis and characterization of new squaraine-based photonic and electronic materials. In the first part of this thesis, squaraine dyes with large conjugation systems, including extended squaraines consisting of bis(donor)substituted vinylene-heterocycles and bis(indolinylenemethyl)squaraine-based oligomers linking through different π-bridges were designed, synthesized and characterized to exhibit strong two-photon absorption (2PA) for femotosecond and nanosecond optical-power limiting applications in the near-infrared (NIR). One of the dendronized squaraine forms smooth and high optical quality films with large NIR transparency window. In the second part, a series of squaraine- and phthalocyanine-based metal complexes were studied. Those dyes did not show large triplet quantum yield but significantly improved photovoltaic performance compared to the metal-free compounds. In the last part, an effective approach on optimizing bis(indolinylenemethyl)-based squaraine sensitizers with various surface anchor groups and π-linkers, achieved high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 6.7% in liquid dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and 2.7% in solid-state DSSCs, which stand out all the previous reported squaraine-based sensitizers.

Spacecloth design and development is vital and crucial in Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM) for achieving Low Observability in an Aircraft or an Unmanned Air Vehicle(UAV). The RAM design translates into the spacecloth design. The spacecloths form the constituent layers in a broadband Jaumann absorber in which case they have to be designed for various values of surface resistivity. The design specifications of spacecloth(s) in RAMS is well understood and documented in literature. But the design of spacecloth hitherto, has been the domain of materials' scientists wherein the specified properties of the spacecloth are achieved by an iterative, trial and error process, by mixing various constituents in different proportions to get the design specified surface resistivity in the final end-product. In an effort to bridge this gap, a novel spacecloth for RAM applications is proposed in the thesis. It is proposed that a repetitive geometrical grid network of chip resistors simulates spacecloth. The sheet resistivity of the spacecloth is derived by analyzing various geometries like square, rectangle, triangle and hexagonal grids. The transmission and reflection loss for the chip resistor spacecloth is derived. The design of chip resistor spacecloths for operation at S and C bands is given followed by experimental verification using waveguide simulator experiments. Numerical study of multilayer RAM has been carried out with exponential taper variation of surface resistivities for constituent spacecloth layers and design curves are given for multilayer RAM both for normal and oblique incidence for TE and TM polarizations.

As many of the world’s nuclear power plants are near the end of their supposed life span a need arise to assess the components crucial to the safety of these plants. One of these crucial components is the concrete reactor confinement; to assess its condition, non-destructive testing (NDT) is an attractive method. Traditional testing of concrete structures has comprised of drilling out a sample and performing stress tests on it, but because of the radioactive environment inside the containment this method is far from ideal. NDT is of course possible to use at any structure but at reactor containments the benefits from not creating holes in the structure are prominent; NDT is also an attractive option from an esthetical point of view because it leaves the structure intact. The NDT method pertaining to this study is the impact echo method which comprise of applying a force on the structure, usually a hammer blow, and measuring the response with a receiver. The impact will excite waves propagating in the structure which gives rise to Lamb modes. Lamb modes are structural oscillations of the wall and it is the frequency of these modes that are used to determine the thickness of the wall. The elastic properties of the structure can in turn be obtained by measuring the velocities of the waves propagation. It is also possible to use the impact echo method to detect irregularities in the structure such as cracks or delamination. To simulate the dynamics of a system using NDT numerical methods such as finite element modeling (FEM) is often used. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility to utilize absorbing layers using increasing damping (ALID) in models to reduce the computational time of FEM analyses. ALIDs are used at the edges to simulate an infinite system and are thus supposed to cancel out incoming waves to prevent unwanted reflection from the edges. The models in this study have all pertained to two dimensional plates utilizing infinitesimal strain theory; the decrease in computational time is significant when using ALIDs and for three dimensional models it would be even more so. The ALIDs are specified by length and maximum mass proportional Rayleigh damping (CMmax), in this study three different lengths are tested, 0.5, 1.5 and 4.5 m for CMmax ranging from 103 to 2*105 Ns/m. The damping is increased with increasing distance into the ALID with specified maximum value at the back edge. However, it should be noted that the increase in damping causes difference in impedance between elements and if this difference is too large it will cause reflections of waves at the boundary between the elements. The ALID must thus be defined so that it sufficiently cancels out the wave without causing unwanted reflections due to impedance differences. The conclusion is that the 0.5 m long ALID does not provide good results for any choice of maximum mass proportional Rayleigh damping. Both the 1.5 and 4.5 m long ALIDs are, however, concluded to be applicable; the 1.5 m ALID having 2*104 < CMmax <5*104 Ns/m and the 4.5 m ALID having 5*103 < CMmax < 104 Ns/m are choices that have shown promise in the performed simulations. The hope is that the results obtained in this study will aid in the development of numerical analysis techniques for NDT methods that can be used in the construction of new reactor confinements and/or maintenance of existing reactor confinements and other thick concrete structures. / Många av världens kärnkraftverk närmar sig slutet på sin beräknade livslängd och ett behov uppstår då att kunna utvärdera de komponenter som är väsentliga för säkerheten på dessa verk. Reaktoromslutningen i betong är en av dessa komponenter och oförstörande provning (NDT) är en attraktiv metod för att bedöma dess tillstånd. Traditionellt har utvärdering av betongkonstruktioner bestått av stresstester på borrprover men p.g.a. den radioaktiva miljön på insidan av omslutningen är denna metod ej att föredra. NDT är självklart möjligt att använda på allsköns betongkonstruktioner då det ger både konstruktionsmässiga och estetiska fördelar. NDT metoden som rör denna studie kallas impact echo och går ut på att man med en hammare slår till en punkt på väggen och mäter responsen en bit därifrån. Lasten ger upphov till vågor i form av deformation som propagerar i väggen och dessa ger i sin tur upphov till Lamb moder. Lamb moderna är strukturella oscillationer av väggen och genom att studera dess frekvenser kan väggens tjocklek bestämmas. Elastiska egenskaper i väggen erhålls utifrån de olika vågornas propageringshastigheter. Impact echo metoden kan även användas för att finna strukturella oegentligheter inuti väggen så som sprickor och delaminering. För att utföra numeriska simuleringar av dynamiska system med NDT-metoder är finita elementmetoden (FEM) användbar. Syftet med denna studie är att bedöma vilka möjligheter som finns för att implementera absorberande ränder med ökande dämpning (ALID) i datamodeller för att minska beräkningstiden av FEM-analyser. ALID används vid kanterna för att simulera ett oändligt system, dess uppgift är att dämpa bort inkommande vågor så att dessa ej reflekteras tillbaka och stör mätningarna. Samtliga modeller i denna studie är två-dimensionella med antagen oändligt liten spänning i normalriktningen. Vinsten i beräkningstid av att använda ALID är stor och ökar ytterligare om modellen utökas till tre dimensioner. Ett ALID definieras genom dess längd och maximala massproportionerlig Rayleigh-dämpning (CMmax). I denna rapport har längderna 0.5, 1.5 and 4.5 m använts med CMmax i intervallet från 103 till 2*105 Ns/m. Dämpningen ökar med ökat avstånd in i ALID med det specificerade maxvärdet vid den bakre kanten. Det bör noteras att skillnad i dämpning mellan element leder till skillnad i impedans; reflektioner av vågorna uppstår vid övergång från ett element med lägre impedans till ett med högre impedans. Ett ALID måste således vara definierat så att det dämpar bort tillräckligt av de inkommande vågorna utan att oönskade reflektioner i ALID uppstår. Studien pekar på att ett 0.5 m långt ALID inte åstadkommer önskvärda resultat för något av valen för CMmax som använts i denna rapport. Både det 1.5 och 4.5 m långa ALID har däremot get bra resultat; ett 1.5 m långt ALID bör ha 2*104 < CMmax <5*104 Ns/m och ett 4.5 m långt ALID 5*103 < CMmax < 104 Ns/m. Förhoppningen med studien är att resultaten skall underlätta utvecklingen av NDT-metoder som kan användas vid konstruktion och underhåll av reaktoromslutningar och andra tjocka betongkonstruktioner.

Constraint satisfaction, graphs and algebras Jakub Bulín Abstract This thesis consists of three papers in the area of algebraic approach to the constraint satisfaction problem. In the first paper, a joint work with Deli'c, Jackson and Niven, we study the reduction of fixed template CSPs to digraphs. We construct, for every relational structure A, a digraph D(A) such that CSP(A) and CSP(D(A)) are logspace equivalent and most rele- vant properties carry over from A to D(A). As a consequence, the algebraic conjectures characterizing CSPs solvable in P, NL and L are equivalent to their restrictions to digraphs. In the second paper we prove that, given a core relational structure A of bounded width and B ⊆ A, it is decidable whether B is an absorbing subuniverse of the algebra of polymorphisms of A. As a by-product, we show that Jónsson absorption coincides with the usual absorption in this case. In the third paper we establish, using modern algebraic tools (e.g. absorption theory and pointing operations), the CSP dichotomy conjecture for so-called special oriented trees and in particular prove that all tractable core special trees have bounded width. Keywords: constraint satisfaction problem, algebra of polymorphisms, absorbing subuniverse, bounded width, oriented tree.