Cette étude est dédiée à l’optimisation de capteurs chimiques de gaz de type résistifs à base de dioxyde d’étain (SnO2) pour l’application en ligne d’échappement automobile. Les capteurs sont élaborés par la technique de sérigraphie qui permet la production en masse de capteurs robustes sur substrat alumine. En vue de l’application automobile visée, les capteurs ont été optimisés par l’ajout d’une couche protectrice poreuse déposée sur l’élément sensible de SnO2. Le comportement de ces capteurs a été étudié en fonction de différents paramètres, comme la température et la vitesse des gaz, représentatifs de conditions d’échappement automobile. De plus, une modélisation « simple » de la réponse électrique des capteurs en fonction de la concentration d’un ou plusieurs gaz polluants cibles a été proposée. / This study is dedicated to the optimization of chemical gas sensors based on resistive type tin dioxide (SnO2) for automotive exhaust application. The sensors were produced by screen-printing technique which allows mass production of robust sensors on alumina substrate. In regards of the automotive application, the sensors were optimized by adding a porous protective layer deposited on the sensing element SnO2. The behaviour of this type of gas sensors was studied depending on gas parameters such as gas temperature and velocity, representative of real operation conditions. In addition, a “simple” modelisation of the electrical response of sensors depending on the concentration of one or more gaseous targets is proposed.

Les travaux menés au cours de cette thèse abordent les aspects de la conception optimale des machines électriques appliquées à la traction automobile.Cette thèse traite tout d’abord des contraintes imposées par le cahier des charges de l’application automobile électrique/hybride. Une méthode de classification ayant pour but de réduire le nombre d’évaluations des points de fonctionnement y est décrite. Ensuite, un prédimensionnement optimal de la machine est présenté. Le design de la machine est alors construit pour respecter la solution obtenue par le prédimensionnement.Dans la suite, une modélisation électromagnétique analytique précise et rapide de la machine est mise au point pour évaluer ses performances. Enfin, le modèle analytique précédemment conçu est couplé à une routine d’optimisation. Deux solutions optimales de machines synchrones à aimants permanents (MSAP) dédiées à l’application automobile seront finalement mises en exergue. / The work presented in this thesis aims at the modelling and optimisation of electrical machine for an automotive application.The first part shows the constraints required to electric/hybrid automotive specifications. A clustering method which allows to reduce evaluations number of the operating points is described. Next, an optimal pre-sizing of the machine is presented and designed in order to respect this optimal pre-sizing.In what follows an accurate and fast analytical electromagnetic modelling of the machine is performed. Well, the analytical modelling developed is related to a genetic algorithm. Two solutions of permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) designed to automotive application are finally showed and analysed.

Shape Memory Alloy is an amazing material, which can “remember” and return to its original shape when heated due to its temperature dependent phase transformation. Shape Memory Alloy wire has significant potential for application in the automobile industry due to its high ratio of energy / weight and silent actuation. However, a dependable method to measure the operating temperature of SMA wire and a reliable heat transfer model to characterize the dynamics of the SMA wire limit its widespread use in the automobile industry. This thesis presents a detailed description of the work performed to develop a reliable method for determining surface temperature of current carrying SMA wires and the development of a heat transfer correlation for natural convection cooling of heated SMA wires. The major findings of the research are as follows: When a spot welded thermocouple measures the temperature of a current carrying SMA wire, there is a “spurious voltage” ΔV added to the thermo electro-motive force (EMF) of the thermocouple as a result of a voltage drop across the two points of contact that the thermocouple wires make with the SMA wire. This leads to an erroneous temperature reading that can be higher or lower than the actual temperature depending on the direction of current flow. When the carrying current is reversed in direction, the “spurious voltage” becomes –ΔV allowing a correct temperature reading to be obtained by averaging the readings based on opposed current flow. A two-step spot welding procedure for attaching thermocouples to SMA wire can eliminate the influence of the “spurious voltage” in the temperature reading. By spot welding the thermocouple wires onto the SMA wire one by one, the thermocouple lead offset is eliminated and the thermocouple provides an accurate point source reading. Infrared thermal imaging can be a good supplement in the experiment to monitor errors in temperature readings from thermocouples. Due to the curvature of the SMA wire, the temperatures of the locations on the SMA wire that are the closest to the infrared camera represent the temperature of the SMA wire. So a line analysis across the SMA wire on the software “ThermaCAM” is required to determine the temperature of the SMA wire by infrared thermal imaging and the highest temperature on the line is the temperature of the SMA wire. A new natural convective heat transfer correlation comprising the inclination angle φ is developed based on experimental results, which can be used to predict the temperature of a SMA wire given its diameter and inclination angle. The comparisons show that the new correlation agrees with existing correlations in a vertical orientation and for small Rayleigh numbers (0.001 < RaD < 0.05) in the horizontal orientation. The correlation developed in this work for horizontal orientation tends to overestimate values of Nusselt numbers as predicted in other correlations when the Rayleigh number is high (0.05 < RaD < 0.6). It is speculated that this overestimation can be attributed to a temperature distortion associated with thermocouple measurement at or near ambient pressure conditions.

Shape Memory Alloy is an amazing material, which can “remember” and return to its original shape when heated due to its temperature dependent phase transformation. Shape Memory Alloy wire has significant potential for application in the automobile industry due to its high ratio of energy / weight and silent actuation. However, a dependable method to measure the operating temperature of SMA wire and a reliable heat transfer model to characterize the dynamics of the SMA wire limit its widespread use in the automobile industry. This thesis presents a detailed description of the work performed to develop a reliable method for determining surface temperature of current carrying SMA wires and the development of a heat transfer correlation for natural convection cooling of heated SMA wires. The major findings of the research are as follows: When a spot welded thermocouple measures the temperature of a current carrying SMA wire, there is a “spurious voltage” ΔV added to the thermo electro-motive force (EMF) of the thermocouple as a result of a voltage drop across the two points of contact that the thermocouple wires make with the SMA wire. This leads to an erroneous temperature reading that can be higher or lower than the actual temperature depending on the direction of current flow. When the carrying current is reversed in direction, the “spurious voltage” becomes –ΔV allowing a correct temperature reading to be obtained by averaging the readings based on opposed current flow. A two-step spot welding procedure for attaching thermocouples to SMA wire can eliminate the influence of the “spurious voltage” in the temperature reading. By spot welding the thermocouple wires onto the SMA wire one by one, the thermocouple lead offset is eliminated and the thermocouple provides an accurate point source reading. Infrared thermal imaging can be a good supplement in the experiment to monitor errors in temperature readings from thermocouples. Due to the curvature of the SMA wire, the temperatures of the locations on the SMA wire that are the closest to the infrared camera represent the temperature of the SMA wire. So a line analysis across the SMA wire on the software “ThermaCAM” is required to determine the temperature of the SMA wire by infrared thermal imaging and the highest temperature on the line is the temperature of the SMA wire. A new natural convective heat transfer correlation comprising the inclination angle φ is developed based on experimental results, which can be used to predict the temperature of a SMA wire given its diameter and inclination angle. The comparisons show that the new correlation agrees with existing correlations in a vertical orientation and for small Rayleigh numbers (0.001 < RaD < 0.05) in the horizontal orientation. The correlation developed in this work for horizontal orientation tends to overestimate values of Nusselt numbers as predicted in other correlations when the Rayleigh number is high (0.05 < RaD < 0.6). It is speculated that this overestimation can be attributed to a temperature distortion associated with thermocouple measurement at or near ambient pressure conditions.

A novel electromechanical brake (EMB) based on the eddy current principle is proposed for application in electrical vehicles. The proposed solution is a feasible replacement for the current conventional hydraulic brake (CHB) systems. Unlike CHBs eddy current brakes (ECBs) use eddy currents and their interaction with an externally applied magnetic field to generate braking torque. Due to their pure electrically controllable and contact free nature, ECBs have multiple advantages over the current CHB systems, such as faster response, reduced weight and number of components, ease of implementing various controllers (e.g., anti-lock braking), and reduced noise levels. However, the torque generated by a typical ECB at low speeds is insufficient to effectively and completely stop a moving vehicle. Therefore, an ECB is commonly used as an assistive brake to the CHB system in heavy vehicles, i.e. trains and trucks In order to overcome this shortcoming, the use of AC magnetic fields is proposed to realize a stand-alone ECB system in which sufficient braking torque can be generated at low speeds. To this end, eddy currents are modeled analytically using the governing Maxwell’s equations with the consideration of time varying field application. The analytical model was validated using finite element analysis. Results show that the braking torque increases with the application of a time varying field. Various forms of time varying fields have been studied. It was found that the frequency-modulated applied field in triangular waveform results in the highest braking torque. Next, the design was optimized to maximize the braking torque and an optimum configuration was obtained using multiple pole projection areas (PPAs). Optimization results show that the braking torque significantly increases with the introduction of additional PPAs to the configuration, and the braking torque generation for an optimum four-PPA ECB configuration exceeds the braking requirements for current passenger vehicles. For control purposes, a dynamic model for a novel stand-alone ECB system using AC fields for automotive applications has been successfully designed and evaluated. Also, a model-based predictive controller has been developed for the optimum ECB configuration. Finally an experimental test-bed has been designed for experimentation of both DC and AC field application on ECB. / Graduate

Le travail de recherche présenté dans ce mémoire concerne le développement de capteurs logiciels de position pour la commande de la machine synchrone à aimants permanents. La commande vectorielle de la MSAP nécessite une connaissance précise de la position rotorique. Traditionnellement, cette position est obtenue à partir de l’utilisation d’un capteur mécanique.Depuis des années, l’attention de la communauté scientifique s’est portée sur la limitation du nombre de capteurs vu que leur présence, non seulement augmente le coût et la complexité matérielle totale, mais aussi réduit sa fiabilité avec une sensibilité additionnelle aux perturbations extérieures. Dans une première partie, nous présentons plusieurs types de capteurs logiciels deposition pour la MSAP. En fonction du régime de fonctionnement de la machine, nous proposons le capteur, selon nous, le mieux adapté pour une application automobile. Ce capteur est basé sur le couplage intelligent entre un observateur et un capteur logiciel basé sur la technique d’injection de signaux. Dans une deuxième partie, nous proposons une méthode simple et rapidepermettant l’estimation de la résistance et des inductances statoriques à l’arrêt. La méthode proposée, basée sur la technique d’injection de signaux de haute fréquence, exploite la mise en oeuvre des filtres à variable d’état afin d’obtenir un modèle linéaire par rapport aux paramètres. La combinaison de l’identification à l’arrêt et du capteur logiciel permet une bonne estimationde la position de la MSAP sur une large plage de vitesse y compris les basses vitesses et à l’arrêt. Nous abordons également certains aspects de commande de robustesse vis-à-vis de l’ensemble des paramètres incertains de la machine, mais ce de manière plus prospective. / This thesis focuses on the development of soft sensors for position control of the permanent magnet synchronous machine. Vector control of PMSM requires accurate knowledge of the rotor position. Traditionally, this position can be obtained from a mechanical sensor. Many years ago, the attention of the scientific community has focused on reducing the number of sensorsbecause their presence not only increases the cost and the total hardware complexity, but also reduces its reliability with an additional sensitivity to external disturbances. As a first step, we present several known types of soft sensors for PMSM. We present the complete design of a soft sensor for speed measurement of permanent magnet synchronous motor. The rotor speedand position can be estimated in a wide speed range even at low speed and standstill. We introduce two soft sensors operating in two different ranges of speed. Secondly, a simple method based on high frequency signal injection and exploiting the implementation of state variable filters to obtain a linear model with respect to the parameters is presented. Thus, a simplifiedprocedure of identification based on a least squares algorithm can be used. In an automotive application, the PMSM parameters can change due to temperature variation and aging of the material. Therefore, the coupling of the hybrid soft sensor and the simplified pocedure of identification provides a good estimate of the PMSM position over a wide speed range including standstill. We also consider a new approach to the robust control of the PMSM, but just as a newtrack for further investigations.

L'attractivité des matériaux polymères issus de ressources renouvelables augmente continuellement en raison de la prise de conscience environnementale de la société. Dans ce contexte, l’acide polylactique (PLA) est un biopolymère qui possède d’indéniables atouts (notamment en termes de rigidité et résistance en traction/flexion) permettant d’envisager des applications à grande échelle, par exemple pour l’automobile. Cependant, les applications durables du PLA sont encore considérablement restreintes à cause de sa fragilité et de sa stabilité thermique limitée. Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes focalisés sur la conception de nouveaux matériaux à base de PLA pour des applications dans l’automobile, en travaillant notamment sur l’amélioration des propriétés thermiques et mécaniques (notamment la ductilité), y compris sous haute vitesse de déformation. Ainsi, la composition optimale permettant d’atteindre le meilleur compromis entre différentes propriétés (ductilité, résistance et rigidité, résilience, stabilité thermique…), tout en étant composée d’au moins 50% de matériaux biosourcés est déterminée. D'autres stratégies visant à améliorer la capacité ou la vitesse de cristallisation des compositions à base de PLA ont également été étudiées. Dans tous ces développements, une attention particulière est portée sur l’étude des interactions entre structure, propriétés et process. / The interest to use polymeric materials derived from renewable resources increases continuously due to considerably improved environmental awareness and the expected depletion of petrochemical ressources. In this regard, Poly(lactic acid), PLA, is a biopolymer that can respond to the demand for such materials for a wide range of applications, thanks to interesting mechanical properties such as high tensile/flexural strength and rigidity, in particular. However, in many cases, durable applications of PLA have been significantly limited by its inherent brittleness and limited thermal stability. In this dissertation, we focused on the design of new biobased PLA materials for automotive parts subjected to severe loading and environmental conditions, by improving thermal and mechanical properties, including under high strain rate loadings. Thus, the most promising compound is selected as the one that offers the best balance between different properties (ductility, strength and stiffness, impact toughness, good thermal stability…) with a content of bio-sourced polymer in the blend at least equal to 50%. Other strategies to improve crystallinity of PLA-based compounds are also studied. In all those developments, a particular attention is paid to the study of structure-process-properties interactions.

The demand for more power and performance from electronic equipment has constantly been growing resulting in an increased amount of heat dissipation from these devices. Thermal management of high-density power control units for hybrid electric vehicles is one such application. Over the last few years, the performance of this power control unit has been improved and size has been reduced to attain higher efficiency and performance causing the heat dissipation as well as heat density to increase significantly. However, the overall cooling system has remained unchanged and only the heat exchanger corresponding to the power control unit (PCU) has been improved. This has allowed the manufacturing costs to go down. Efforts are constantly being made to reduce the PCU size even further and also to reduce manufacturing costs. As a consequence, heat density will go up (~ 200 – 250 W/cm2) and thus, a better high performance cooler/heat exchanger is required that can operate under the existing cooling system design and at the same time, maintain active devices temperature within optimum range (<120 – 125 °C) for higher reliability. The aim of this dissertation was to study the various cooling options based on jet impingement, mini-channel, ribbed mini-channel, phase change material and double sided cooling configurations for application in hybrid electric vehicle and other similar consumer products and perform parametric and optimization study on selected designs. Detailed experimental and computational analysis was performed on different cooling designs to evaluate overall performance. Severe constraints such as choice of coolant, coolant flow-rate, pressure drop, minimum geometrical size and operating temperature were required for the overall design. High performance jet impingement based cooler design with incorporated fin-like structures induced swirl and provided enhanced local heat transfer compared to traditional cooling designs. However, the cooling scheme could manage only 97.4% of the target effectiveness. Tapered/nozzle-shaped jets based designs showed promising results (~40% reduction in overall pressure drop) but were not sufficient to meet the overall operating temperature requirement. Various schemes of mini-channel arrangement, which were based on utilizing conduction and convection heat transfer in a conjugate mode, demonstrated improved performance over that of impingement cooling schemes. Impingement and mini-channel based designs were combined to show high heat transfer rates but at the expense of higher pressure drops (~5 times). As an alternate, mini-channel based coolers with ~1.5 mm size channels having trip strips or ribs were studied to accommodate the design constraints and to enhance local as well as overall heat transfer rates and achieve the target operating temperature. A step by step approach to the development of the heat exchanger is provided with an emphasis on system level design. The computational based optimization methodology is confirmed by a fabricated test bed to evaluate overall performance and compare the predicted results with actual performance. Additionally, one of the impingement based configuration (Swirl-Impingement-Fin) developed during the course of this work was applied to the internal cooling of a turbine blade trailing edge and was shown to enhance the thermal performance by at least a factor of 2 in comparison to the existing pin-fin technology for the conditions studied in this work. / Ph. D.

Cette thèse présente l'étude et la réalisation d'un disjoncteur statique tout silicium et intelligent pouvant fonctionner à haute température (200°C) pour des applications de type DC basse et moyenne tensions. Plusieurs applications dans l’aéronautique, l’automobile et les transports ferroviaires poussent les composants à semi-conducteur de puissance à être utilisés à haute température. Cependant, les Si-IGBT et Si-CoolMOSTM actuellement commercialisés ont une température de jonction spécifiée et estimée à 150°C et quelque fois à 175°C. L’une des faiblesses des convertisseurs provient de la réduction du rendement avec l’augmentation de la température de jonction des composants à semiconducteur de puissance qui peut amener à leur destruction. La solution serait d’utiliser des composants grand-gap (SiC, GaN), qui autorisent un fonctionnement à une température de jonction plus élevée ;mais ces technologies en plein essor ont un coût relativement élevé. Une solution alternative serait de faire fonctionner des composants en silicium à une température de jonction voisine de 200°C afin de conserver l’un des principaux intérêts du silicium en termes de coût. Avant de commencer, le premier chapitre portera sur un état de l’art des différentes techniques de protection aussi bien mécanique que statique afin d’identifier les éléments essentiels pour la réalisation du circuit de protection. Les disjoncteurs hybrides seront aussi abordés afin de voir comment ceux-ci arrivent à combler les lacunes des disjoncteurs mécaniques et purement électroniques (statiques). A partir du chapitre précédent, un disjoncteur statique intelligent de faible puissance sera réalisé afin de mieux cerner les différentes difficultés qui sont liées à ce type de disjoncteur. Le disjoncteur statique sera réalisé à partir de fonction analogique de telle façon à ce qui soit autonome et bas cout. Il en ressort que les inductances parasites ainsi que la température des composants à base de semi-conducteurs ont un impact significatif lors de la coupure.Le chapitre III portera sur une analyse non exhaustive, vis-à-vis de la température, de différents types d’interrupteurs contrôlés à base de semi-conducteur de puissance en s’appuyant sur plusieurs caractérisations électriques (test de conduction, tension de seuil, etc) afin de sélectionner le type d’interrupteur de puissance qui sera utilisé pour le chapitre IV. Comme il sera démontré, les composants silicium à super jonction peuvent se rapprocher du comportement des composants à base de carbure de silicium pour les basses puissances. Un disjoncteur statique 400V/63A (courant de court-circuit prédictible de 5kA) sera étudié et 4développé afin de mettre en pratique ce qui a été précédemment acquis et pour montrer la compétitivité du silicium pour cette gamme de puissance. / This thesis presents a study about a smart solid state circuit breaker which can work at 200°C forlow and medium voltage continuous applications. Some applications in aeronautics, automotive,railways, petroleum extraction push power semiconductor devices to operate at high junctiontemperature. However, current commercially available Si-IGBT and Si-CoolMOS have basically amaximum junction temperature specified and rated at 150°C and even 175°C. Indeed, the main problemin conventional DC-DC converters is the switching losses of power semiconductor devices (linked to thetemperature influence on carrier lifetime, on-state voltage, on-resistance and leakage current) whichdrastically increase with the temperature rise and may drive to the device failure. Then, the use of wideband gap semiconductor like SiC or GaN devices allows higher junction temperature operation (intheory about 500°C) and higher integration (smaller heatsink, higher switching frequency, smallconverter), but are still under development and are expensive technologies. In order to keep theadvantage of low cost silicon devices, a solution is to investigate the feasibility to operate such devicesat junction temperature up to 200°C.Before starting the first starting chapter is a stat of the art of protectives circuit technics as well asmechanics as statics in order to identify essentials elements to develop the protective circuit. Hybridprotective circuits are approached too.From the precedent chapter, a smart and low power solid state circuit breaker is realized to identifyproblems which are linked with this type of circuit breaker. Solid state circuit breaker is developed withanalog components in a way that is autonomous and low cost. It’s follow that stray inductance andtemperature have an important impact when a default occurs.Chapter III give an analyze on different silicon power semiconductor dice towards temperature5relying on statics and dynamics characteristics in order to find the best silicon power switch which beused in the chapter IV. It has been shown that super junction MOSFET has the same behavior at lowpower than silicon carbide MOSFET.Solid state circuit breaker (400V/63A) has been studied and developed, in order to use all theknowledge previously acquired and to show the competitively of the silicon for this power range.