Les études présentées dans ce mémoire portent sur la simulation numérique et l'analyse physique des milieux granulaires immergés dans un fluide. Des développements numériques ont été réalisés pour coupler la méthode Lattice Boltzmann pour la dynamique du fluide avec la méthode de Contact Dynamics en 2D et avec la méthode Molecular Dynamics en 3D pour la dynamique des grains. Ces outils numériques ont été utilisés pour étudier l'initiation des avalanches sur un plan incliné en fonction de la compacité initiale et de l'angle d'inclinaison en 3D. Les résultats sont en bon accord quantitatif avec les expériences et ont permis de mettre en évidence la stabilisation de la pente granulaire par une pression négative du fluide interstitielle induite par la dilatance, et l'évolution spatiotemporelle des grandeurs telles que la compacité et la déformation de cisaillement. Ces évolutions dans la phase de fluage qui précède la rupture de pente ont pu être mises à l'échelle par un modèle théorique incorporant la loi de Darcy et l'effet de la dilatance sur l'angle de frottement interne. L'analyse de la texture granulaire a révélé la distorsion du réseau des contacts pendant le fluage et la saturation de l'anisotropie comme un critère de rupture. La propagation des avalanches granulaires a été étudiée dans la configuration 2D pour deux géométries différentes : 1) l'effondrement et l'étalement d'une colonne sous son propre poids, 2) l'étalement d'une pente sous l'effet d'une énergie cinétique injectée. Nous avons en particulier montré que la distance et la durée d'étalement obéissent à des lois de puissances en fonction du rapport d'aspect initial ou de l'énergie injectée. Le fluide exerce deux effets contradictoires : réduire les temps de relaxation et lubrifier les contacts. Ces effets ont été analysés dans le régime visqueux en fonction des conditions initiales et la viscosité du fluide. / By means of numerical simulations, we investigate the behavior of granular materials immersed in a fluid. Numerical developments were carried out to interface the Lattice Boltzmann Method for fluid dynamics with the Contact Dynamics method in 2D and with the Molecular Dynamics method in 3D for the simulation of the grains. Extensive simulations were applied to study the initiation of avalanches in a granular bed inclined at an angle above its angle of repose as function of the initial packing fraction and slope angle in 3D. The results are in excellent quantitative agreement with the reported experimental data, and show the stabilization of the granular bed by a negative pore overpressure induced by the dilatancy of the bed and the spatiotemporal evolution of the packing fraction and the shear deformation. The time evolution of these variables during the creeping phase before slope failure is scaled by a theoretical model accounting for darcian drag forces and the effect of dilatancy on the internal friction coefficient. We also analyzed the granular microstructure, which shows a gradual distortion of the contact network during creep at nearly a constant connectivity and the saturation of the anisotropy at failure. The runout of granular avalanches were investigated in 2D for two different configurations : 1) the collapse of a granular column under its own weight and 2) the runout of a granular pile as a result of kinetic energy supplied directly to the grains. We find power-law dependence of the resulting runout lengths and times with respect to the initial geometry or energy of the system. The time scales are shown to be consequence of two competing effects of the fluid on the grains : reducing relaxation times by viscous friction and the lubricating the contacts between grains.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-03-09T12:11:00Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertacao_LeonardoDallaPorta.pdf: 4244662 bytes, checksum: 214ab17f2ee3583441af553e0a0a7931 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-09T12:11:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertacao_LeonardoDallaPorta.pdf: 4244662 bytes, checksum: 214ab17f2ee3583441af553e0a0a7931 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-26 / FACEPE / Avalanches neuronais, assim como oscilações e sincronização, são padrõesde atividade espontânea observados em redes neuronais. O conceito de avalanches neuronais foi concebido na última década.EssepadrãodeatividadetemdistribuiçõesdetamanhosP(s)eduraçõesP(d)invariantes por escala, i.e., obedecem relações do tipo lei de potênciaP(s)∼s−τ, com expoenteτ≃3/2, e P(d)∼d−τt, com expoenteτt ≃2, respectivamente. Essas propriedades são compatíveis com a ideia de que o cérebro opera em um regime crítico. A partir dessas constatações, muitos estudos teóricos e experimentais reportaram os potenciais benefícios de um cérebro operando na criticalidade, como por exemplo a máxima sensibilidade aos estímulos sensoriais, máxima capacidade de informação e transmissão e uma ótima capacidade computacional. Modelos da classe de universalidade de percolação direcionada (DP) têm sido amplamente utilizados para explicar a estatística invariante por escala das avalanches neuronais. Porém estes modelos não levam em consideração a dinâmica dos neurônios inibitórios e, além disso, como apresentam uma transição de fase entre um estado absorvente e uma fase ativa, torna-se difícil conciliar o modelo com correlações temporais de longo alcance que são observadas experimentalmente em diferentes escalas espaciais. Neste contexto, um novo modelo computacional (CROs, do original em inglês Critical Oscillations) surgiu na literatura (Poil et al., J. Neurosci.,32 9817, 2012), incluindo neurônios inibitórios e buscando conciliar correlações temporais com avalanches neuronais. Neste modelo não há uma fase absorvente, e uma suposta transição de fases ocorre entre uma fase ativa e outra com oscilações coletivas. Devido à ausência de uma fase absorvente, avalanchesneuronaissãodefinidascomparando-seaatividadeinstantâneadaredecomumlimiar que depende da mediana da atividade total. Justamente na linha crítica do espaço de parâmetros, quandoháumabalançoentreexcitaçãoeinibiçãoneuronal,avalanchesneuronaisinvariantespor escala são observadas juntamente com correlações temporais de longo alcance (ruído 1/f). No presente trabalho, um estudo mais profundo a respeito dos resultados reportados para o modelo CROs foi realizado. As oscilações neuronais mostraram-se robustas para diferentes tamanhos de rede, e observamos que a dinâmica local reflete a dinâmica oscilatória global da rede. Correlações temporais de longo alcance foram observadas (num intervalo de escalas temporais) através da técnica deDetrendedFluctuationAnalysis, sendo robustas perante modificações no tamanho da rede. O resultado foi confirmado pela análise direta do espectro, que apresentou decaimento do tipo 1/f numa determinada faixa de frequências. O diagrama de fases do modelo mostrou-se robusto em relação ao tamanho da rede, mantendo-se o alcance das interações locais. Entretanto,osresultadosmostraram-sefortementedependentesdolimiarutilizadoparadetecção dasavalanchesneuronais.Porfim,mostramosquedistribuiçõesdeduraçõesdeavalanchessãodo tipo lei de potência, com expoenteτt ≃2. Este resultado é inédito e o valor encontrado coincide com o expoente crítico da classe de universalidade de DP na dimensão crítica superior. Em conjunto, nossos resultados fornecem mais evidências de que o modelo CROs de fato apresenta uma transição de fases. / Neuronal avalanches, as well as waves and synchronization, are types of spontaneous activity experimentally observed in neuronal networks. The concept of neuronal avalanches was conceivedinthepastdecade.ThispatternofactivityhasdistributionsofsizeP(s)anddurationP(d) which are scale invariant, i.e., follow power-law relationsP(s)∼s−τ, with exponentτ≃3/2, and P(d)∼ d−τd, with exponentτt ≃ 2, respectively. These properties are compatible with the idea that the brain operates in a critical regime. From these findings, many theoretical and experimental studies have reported the potential benefits of a brain operating at criticality, such as maximum sensitivity to sensory stimuli, maximum information capacity and transmission and an optimal computational capabilities. Models belonging to the directed percolation universality class (DP) have been widely used to explain the scale invariant statistic of neuronal avalanches. However,these modelsdo not take into account the dynamics ofinhibitory neuronsand, since as they present a phase transition between an absorbing state and an active phase, it is difficult to reconcile the model with long-range temporal correlations that are observed experimentally at different spatial scales. In this context, a new computational model (CROs, Critical Oscillations) appeared in the literature (Poil et al., J. Neurosci.,32 9817, 2012), including inhibitory neurons and seeking to reconcile temporal correlations with neuronal avalanches. In this model there is no absorbing phase, and a supposed phase transition occurs between an active phase and another with collective oscillations. Due to the lack of an absorbing phase, neuronal avalanches are defined comparing by the instant network activity with a threshold that depends of the total activity median. Precisely at the critical line in parameter space, when a balance between neuronal excitation and inhibition occurs, scale invariant neuronal avalanches are observed with long-range temporal correlations (1/f-like noise). In the present work, a deeper study about the resultsreportedfortheCROsmodelwasperformed.Neuronaloscillationshavebeenshowntobe robust to increasing network sizes, and it was observed that local dynamic reflects the oscillatory global dynamic of the network. Long-range temporal correlations were observed (in a range of time scales) via Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, being robust against changes in network size. The result was confirmed by direct analysis of the spectrum, which showed a decay like 1/f in a given frequency band. The phase diagram of the model was robust with respect to the network size, as long as the range of local interactions was kept. However, the results were dependent of the thresholdused to detect neuronal avalanches.Finally,we have shown thatthe distributions of avalanches duration follows a power-law with exponentτt ≃2. This result is unprecedented and the value obtainedcoincides with the criticalexponent of the DP universality class in the upper criticaldimension.Together,ourresultsprovidefurtherevidencethatinfacttheCROsmodel presents aphasetransition.

Cette thèse s'intéresse au problème de la prédétermination des avalanches par couplage entre modélisation numérique et données historiques. L'assemblage s'effectue grâce au formalisme bayésien hiérarchique. La modélisation stochastique, l'inférence du modèle et la prédiction des aléas de référence sont clairement distinguées. L'échelle d'étude est tout d'abord celle d'un site avalancheux. Trois jeux d'hypothèses correspondant à différents compromis entre disponibilité des données et description de la propagation de l'avalanche sont proposés. L'incertitude liée à la méconnaissance du phénomène est combinée avec sa variabilité intrinsèque pour obtenir la loi de probabilité prédictive de la période de retour associée à n'importe quelle distance d'arrêt. Les distributions des autres variables caractérisant l'aléa sont également étudiées. Une analyse de sensibilité aux différentes hypothèses de modélisation est proposée. La prédétermination des fréquences avalancheuses sur des sites peu documentés et en contexte non stationnaire est ensuite traitée à l'échelle communale avec un modèle spatio-temporel. Celui-ci permet de quantifier les variations des occurrences avalancheuses dans les Alpes françaises au cours des soixante dernières années. Enfin, le problème du dimensionnement d'un ouvrage de protection est abordé. Le modèle stochastique est complété par les effets sur l'écoulement avalancheux d'une digue verticale et par une fonction de coût permettant l'optimisation de la hauteur de l'ouvrage. Le risque bayésien permet de ne pas séparer inférence et décision en prenant en compte l'erreur d'estimation pour le dimensionnement.

<p>Snežne lavine izazvane zemljotresima su fenomen koji se jo&scaron; uvek istražuje, iako je prisutan u skoro svim planinskim regionima &scaron;irom sveta. U okviru ove doktorske disertacije razvijena je i unapređena metoda procene bezbednosti i zdravlja na radu za slučaj snežnih lavina izazvanih zemljotresom. Osnovni cilj unapređene metode je smanjenje rizika na najmanji mogući nivo, odnosno prihvatanje najmanjeg mogućeg rezidualnog rizika, čije dalje smanjenje ili uklanjanje ne bi bilo isplativo. Unapređena metoda uzima u obzir niz faktora (duboku geologiju, sastav stena, visinu snežnog pokrivača, rasprostranjenost kritičnih nagiba, itd.) koji mogu da utiču na pojavu snežnih lavina uzrokovanih zemljotresom. Za verifikaciju metode uzet je skija&scaron;ki centar Kopaonik, koji nije dovoljno istražen, iako je jedan od najvećih centara u jugoistočnom delu Evrope.</p> / <p>Snow avalanches caused by earthquakes are a subject of many researches, even<br />though this phenomenon is present in mountain regions around the world. In this<br />doctoral dissertation, an improved method of assessing occupational health and safety<br />in cases of earthquake-induced snow avalanches has also been developed. The main<br />goal of the improved method is to reduce the risk to the smallest possible level, i.e. to<br />accept the least possible residual risk, the further reduction or removal of which would<br />not be profitable. This method takes into account a number of factors (deep geology,<br />rock composition, snow cover height, critical inclination distribution, etc.) that can affect<br />the occurrence of the earthquake-induced snow avalanches. For the verification of the<br />method, the ski center Kopaonik was analyzed, which has not been sufficiently<br />explored, although it is one of the largest ski centers in south-eastern part of Europe.</p>

Les glissements de terrain se produisent dans toutes les chaînes de montagnes où la résistance de massifs rocheux est insuffisante pour contrer l’action de la gravité. Les terrains volcaniques sont particulièrement susceptibles de s’effondrer car les édifices sont composés des lithologies diverses et variées qui peuvent être fortement fracturées. En plus, la croissance rapide des édifices volcaniques favorise leur instabilité et leur effondrement. L’activité magmatique est un facteur additionnel responsable de la déformation des édifices, tandis que l’activité hydrothermale réduit la résistance des roches volcaniques. Pour ces raisons, l’évaluation des aléas liés à l’effondrement des édifices et à la formation des avalanches des débris volcaniques mérite une attention particulière. Les caractéristiques physiques des composants des avalanches des débris ont une influence directe sur la dynamique de ce type d'écoulement. Les dépôts des avalanches de débris présentent une morphologie de surface composée des nombreuses collines (hummocks), qui montrent fréquemment les séquences volcaniques initiales, ce qui suggère un mécanisme de mise en place proche de celui des glissements de terrain. Cependant, d’autres dépôts présentent des crêtes allongées (rides) dont le mécanisme de formation est encore méconnu. Le volcan Tutucapa (sud du Pérou) a été affecté récemment par deux avalanches de débris. La plus ancienne, « Azufre », est d’âge Holocène et résulte de l’effondrement d’un complexe des dômes et d’une séquence volcanique altérée (hydrothermalisée) sous-jacente. La deuxième avalanche, « Paipatja », a eu lieu il y a seulement 200-230 ans BP et est associée à une grande éruption explosive du Tutupaca. Les dépôts de cette avalanche présentent notamment de nombreuses rides. Les deux dépôts d’avalanche montrent deux unités différentes : une unité inférieure, caractérisée par la présence des blocs altérés (hydrothermalisés) provenant de l’édifice basal, tandis que l’unité supérieure est constituée par des blocs du complexe de dômes actifs. Le travail de terrain montre que les rides de l’avalanche « Paipatja » présentent une forte variation de granulométrie entre leur partie centrale (enrichie en blocs grossiers) et leurs parties latérales, ce qui suggère un processus de ségrégation granulaire. Des expériences analogiques montrent que des écoulements de mélanges de particules des différentes tailles subissent un processus de ségrégation et de digitation granulaire qui engendre des rides par jonction de levées statiques qui délimitent un chenal d’écoulement. Le processus de formation des rides est facilité par de faibles différence de taille des particules dans des mélanges bidisperses. Ces résultats suggèrent que les rides observées au Tutupaca résultent d’un écoulement granulaire. Les principales caractéristiques morphologiques des structures formées lors de ces expériences de laboratoire ont été comparées qualitativement avec les structures observées dans les dépôts du Tutupaca. Les structures observées au Tutupaca montrent que deux mécanismes de mise en place peuvent coexister dans les avalanches de débris volcaniques : le glissement de blocs plus ou moins cohérents, et l’écoulement semblable à celui d’un matériau granulaire. Cela dépend probablement de la nature des différents matériaux à la source des avalanches. Cette information doit être prise en compte pour l’évaluation des aléas liés aux avalanches des débris car des mécanismes d’écoulement différents peuvent induire des fortes variations de la distance parcourue par ces avalanches. / Landslides occur in all mountainous terrain, where the rock strength is unable to support topographic loading. Volcanic rocks are particularly landslide prone, as they mix strong and weak lithologies and are highly pre-fractured. Also, volcanoes themselves, are peculiar mountains, as they grow, thus creating their own topographic instability. Magmatic activity also deforms the edifice, and hydrothermal activity reduces strength. For all these reasons, volcanoes need close consideration for hazards, especially for the landslide-derived rock avalanches. The characteristics and properties of different debris avalanche components influence their behavior during motion. Deposits are generally hummocky, preserving original layering, which indicates a slide-type emplacement. However, some deposits have ridged morphology for which the formation mechanisms are not well understood. Two recent debris avalanches occurred at the Tutupaca volcano (S Peru). The first one, “Azufre” is Holocene and involved the collapse of active domes and underlying older hydrothermally altered rocks. The second debris avalanche, “Paipatja” occurred 200-230 y BP and is associated with a large explosive event and this deposit is ridged. The excellent conservation state of the deposits and surface structures allows a comprehensive analysis of the ridges. Both deposits have two contrasting units: a lower basal edifice-derived hydrothermally-rich subunit and an upper dome-derived block-rich unit. Detailed fieldwork has shown that Paipatja ridges have coarser core material and are finer in troughs, suggesting grain size segregation. Using analog experiments, the process that allow ridge formation are explored. We find that the mixtures undergo granular segregation and differential flow that create fingering that forms ridges by junction of static léeves defining a channel flow. Granular segregation and fingering are favored by small particle size contrast during bi-dispersed flow. The results suggest that the ridges observed at Tutupaca are product of a granular flow We extract the morphological characteristics of the deposits of granular flows generated in the laboratory and make a qualitative comparison with the Tutupaca deposits. The description of the different landslide and debris avalanche features at Tutupaca shows that two types of debris avalanche motion can occur in volcanic debris avalanches: the sliding of blocks more or less coherent and a flow similar to a granular material. This probably depends on source materials and the conditions of different parts of the initial landslide. Such information should be taken into account when estimating hazards at other volcanic landslide sites, as the different behaviors may result in different run outs.

La présente thèse est un travail expérimental ayant pour objet l'étude de la transition liquide-gaz de l'hélium dans les aérogels de silice par des moyens optiques. De précédentes études d'isothermes d'adsorption d'hélium dans des aérogels ont mené à des résultats contradictoires. D'un côté, l'existence d'une véritable transition de phase le long d'un plateau de pression en dessous de la pression de vapeur saturante (Psat) de l'hélium libre. Cette transition implique deux phases respectivement plus et moins dense que le gaz et le liquide massifs. De l'autre, l'observation d'hystérésis entre l'adsorption et la désorption, ainsi qu'une compressibilité finie évoquant le phénomène courant connu sous le nom de condensation capillaire. La faible densité du `liquide' est alors analysée comme un remplissage partiel de l'aérogel à Psat. Le but de l'observation optique est de discréminer entre ces deux scenarii. Ce mémoire décrit la construction d'un cryostat optique ainsi que de la chaine de mesure associée. Cette plate-forme permet de mesurer simultanément les données thermodynamiques nécessaires à la réalisation d'isothermes, et la lumière diffusée par l'hélium confiné à différents angles. L'étude concerne deux échantillons de même porosité, mais de microstructure différente. Ils présentent chacun une structure fractale s'étendant de quelques nanomètres jusqu'à leur longueur de correlation (20 et 50~nm). Nos mesures indiquent l'existence d'hystérésis entre le remplissage et la vidange. Ces cycles peuvent être analysés en terme de condensation capillaire dans un matériau poreux constitué de pores cylindriques dont les diamètres sont étroitement distribués autour de la longueur de correlation des aérogels concernés. Ces résultats peuvent également être comparés à des simulations récentes où le désordre, plus que la géomètrie, est le facteur déterminant. La mesure de la densité de l'hélium confiné et l'observation optique révèlent qu'à Psat, l'aérogel est plein d'une phase homogène et plus dense que celle de l'hélium massif. En dessous de Psat, le signal optique diffusé à différents angles indique l'existence de domaines correlés sur des distances supérieures à la longueur de correlation des gels. Ces domaines apparaissent et grossissent systématiquement le long des cycles d'hystérésis, là où la compressibilité devient grande. En supposant leur géomètrie sphérique, leur taille maximale est comprise entre 100 et 400~nm.

Cet exposé présente des résultats expérimentaux et numériques sur les écoulements denses de matériaux granulaires secs dans un canal. Nous détaillons la méthode de dynamique moléculaire de sphère molles et les techniques expérimentales de suivi des particules et de densimétrie-gamma. Les résultats expérimentaux issus d'un système bidimensionnel sont ensuite présentés. Nous étudions en particulier la cristallisation d'une assemblée monodisperse au sein de l'écoulement, les profils de vitesse et compacité ainsi que la structure du front d'avalanche. Les empilements à stabilité dynamique (ou Super Stable Heaps) sont ensuite étudiés aussi bien expérimentalement que numériquement. Le rôle prépondérant du frottement aux parois latérales est mis en évidence. Nous nous intéressons également à la croissance d'un tel empilement, c'est-à-dire aux problématiques d'érosion et d'accrétion. Les profils de vitesse, compacité, vitesse de rotation etc sont étudiés par simulations numériques. Les simulations confirment également l'influence majeure du frottement aux parois latérales sur les propriétés de l'écoulement. Enfin nous étudions un régime d'écoulement rapide dans lequel une zone dense s'écoule en bloc sur une couche basale cisaillée, diluée et agitée. Nous montrons que ce régime d'écoulement ne semble pas expliquer les avalanches dites "à longue portée". De plus, nos simulation reproduisent l'apparente lubrification des écoulements géophysiques très volumineux pour des écoulements granulaires secs et partout denses.

Ce travail est dédié à l'étude de la rupture du manteau neigeux, conduisant<br />aux avalanches de plaques de neige.<br />La détermination expérimentale de la ténacité de la neige, qui caractérise sa résistance à la propagation d'une fissure, nous a donné des résultats originaux que nous interprétons en tenant compte de la structure particulière de ce matériau.<br />Une étude statistique basée sur les données de La Plagne et de Tignes nous a permis de montrer pour la première fois que les distributions des tailles d'avalanches sont invariantes d'échelle. Aucun modèle ne reproduisant correctement ces statistiques de terrain, nous avons créé un automate cellulaire à deux seuils, piloté en contrainte,<br />qui reproduit le comportement statistique des avalanches mais aussi celui d'autres aléas gravitaires naturels à l'aide du réglage d'un unique paramètre reflétant l'anisotropie de cohésion du matériau. Cette approche peut être considérée comme une alternative<br />à la Criticalité Auto Organisée pour les ruptures gravitaires.

This study is an examination of the rate at which organic debris and clastic sediment accumulate in a gully after it is scoured by a debris torrent. Of particular interest is the effect that a change in land use from old-growth to clear-cut conditions may have on these rates. This change should result in a reduction in the delivery of large organic debris (LOD), which is a major factor in sediment storage in gullies. It is hypothesized that this change in land use, and the subsequent reduction in the LOD supply, should result in a significant difference in debris recharge rates between old-growth and clear-cut gullies. Twenty-nine gullies in both land-treatment groups were sampled on the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Sampling procedures involved the estimation of the volume of LOD and sediment in storage (normalized by the gully surface area) and the determination of the time elapsed since the last debris torrent. These data were then used to estimate recharge rates(3h1)am’year of LOD, sediment, and total debris. Recharge rates of each material were compared between land-treatment groups using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. This test revealed that LOD has been delivered to old-growth gullies at a significantly higher rate relative to clear-cut gullies. There was no significant difference in sediment and total debris recharge rates between gullies in the two groups, but this outcome was partially a result of the small samples and the different debris recharge times in each data set. Graphical representations of the data permitted the identification of possible temporal trends in sediment and debris accumulation, which may be strengthened with larger data sets. Debris recharge rates have several applications. The estimate of sediment volume stored in a gully can be used in the construction of local sediment budgets, as one component of a watershed sediment cascade is quantified. The calculation of debris recharge rates will provide insight into the transfer rate of sediment from hillslopes to low order channels and to the storage capacity of the channels. Finally, debris recharge rates can be used to improve knowledge of the frequency-magnitude characteristics of debris torrents in an area.

In the present thesis, we have explored multiple aspects concerning the stochasticity of magnetic domain wall motion during magnetization reversal, all of which originated from our initial study of magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect. Magnetic field sensors occupy a very important and indispensable position in modern technology. They can be found everywhere, from cellphones to automobiles, electric motors to computer hard disks. At present there are several emerging areas of technology, including biotechnology, which require magnetic field sensors which are at the same time simple to use, highly sensitive, robust under environmental conditions and sufficiently low cost to be deployed on a large scale. Magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect is one such feasible technology, which we have explored in the course of the thesis. The work was subsequently expanded to cover some fundamental aspects of the stochasticity of domain wall motion, studied with planar Hall effect, which forms the main body of work in the present study. In Chapter 1, we give an introduction to the phenomenology of planar Hall effect, which is the most important measurement technique used for all the subsequent studies. Some early calculations, which had first led to the understanding of anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect as being caused by spin-orbit interaction are discussed. In Chapter 2, we discuss briefly the experimental techniques used in the present study for sample growth and fabrication, structural and magnetic characterization, and measurement. We discuss pulsed laser ablation, which is the main technique used for our sample growth. Particular emphasis is given to the instrumentation that was carried out in-house for MOKE and low field magnetotransport (AMR and PHE) measurement. This includes an attempt at domain wall imaging through MOKE microscopy. Some of the standard equipments used for this work, such as the SQUID magnetometer and the acsusceptometer are also discussed in detail. In Chapter 3 we discuss our work on planar Hall sensors that led to the fabrication of a device with a very simple architecture, having transfer characteristics of 650V/A.T in a range of _2Oe. The sensing material was permalloy (Ni81Fe19), and the value had been obtained without using an exchange biased pinning layer. Field trials showed that the devices were capable of geomagnetic field sensing, as well as vehicle detection by sensing the anomaly in Earth's magnetic field caused by their motion. Its estimated detection threshold of 2.5nT made it well suited for several other applications needing high sensitivity in a small area, the most prominent of them being the detection of macromolecules of bio-medical significance. Chapter 4: The work on Barkhausen noise was prompted by reproducibility problems faced during the sensor construction, both between devices as well as within the same device. Study of the stochastic properties led us to the conclusion that the devices could be grouped into two classes: one where the magnetization reversal occurred in a single step, and the other where it took a 0staircase0 like path with multiple steps. This led us to simulations of Barkhausen noise using nucleation models like the RFIM whence it became apparent that the two different groups of samples could be mapped into two regimes of the RFIM distinguished by their magnetization reversal mode. In the RFIM, the nature of the hysteresis loop depends on the degree of disorder, with a crossover happening from single-step switching to multi-step switching at a critical disorder level. Appropriate changes also appear in the Barkhausen noise statistics due to this disorder-induced crossover. By studying the Barkhausen noise statistics for our permalloy samples and comparing them with simulations of the RFIM, we found nearly exact correspondence between the two experimental groups with the two classes resulting from crossing the critical disorder. What remained was to quantify the 0disorder0 level of our samples, which was done through XRD, residual resistivity and a study of electron-electron interaction effects in the resistivity. All these studies led to the conclusion that the samples reversing in multiple steps were more 0defective0 than the other group, at par with the model predictions. This completed the picture with respect to the modeling of the noise. In experiments, it was found that a high rate of film deposition yielded less 0defective0 samples, which severed as an important input for the sensor construction. These results can be viewed from a somewhat broader perspective if we consider the present scenario in the experimental study of Barkhausen noise, or crackling noise in general. Two classes of models exist for such phenomena: front propagation models and nucleation models. Both appear to be very successful when it comes to experiments with bulk materials, while the comparison with experiments on thin films is rather disappointing. It is still not clear whether the models are at fault or the experiments themselves. Through our study, we could demonstrate that there can be considerable variation in the Barkhausen noise character of the same material deposited in the same way, and what was important was the degree of order at the microscopic level. This may be a relevant factor when experimental papers report non-universality of Barkhausen noise in thin films, which can now be interpreted as either insufficient defects or a sample area too small for the study. Chapter 5: Defects in a sample are not the only cause for stochastic behavior during magnetization. In most cases, random thermal 0events0 are also an important factor determining the path to magnetization reversal, which was also true for our permalloy samples. We studied the distribution of the external fields at which magnetization reversal took place in our samples, and tried to explain it in terms of the popular Neel-Brown model of thermal excitation over the anisotropy barrier. The analysis showed that even though the coercivity behaved 0correctly0 in terms of the model predictions, the behavior of the distribution width was anomalous. Such anomalies were common in the literature on switching field distributions, but there seemed to be no unified explanation, with different authors coming up with their own 0exotic0 explanations. We decided to investigate the simplest situations that could result in such a behavior, and through some model-based calculations, came to the conclusion that one of the causes of the anomalies could be the different magnitudes of barrier heights/anisotropy fields experienced by the magnetic domain wall when the reversal occurs along different paths. Though an exact match for the behavior of the distribution width could not be obtained, the extended Neel-Brown model was able to produce qualitative agreement. Chapter 6 contains a study of some interesting 0geometrical0 effects on Barkhausen noise of iron thin films. By rotating the applied magnetic field out-of plane, we could observe the same single-step to multi-step crossover in hysteresis loop nature that was brought about by varying disorder in Chapter 4. We could explain this through simulations of a random anisotropy Ising model, which, apart from exhibiting the usual disorder induced crossover, showed a transition from sub-critical to critical hysteresis loops when the external field direction was rotated away form the average anisotropy direction. Once again, simulation and experiment showed very good agreement in terms of the qualitative behavior. In the second part of this chapter, a study of exchange biased Fe-FeMn system was carried out, where it was observed that the reversal mode has been changed from domain wall motion to coherent rotation. Barkhausen noise was also suppressed. Though many single-domain models existed for this type of reversal, our system was not found to be strictly compatible with them. The disagreement was with regard to the nature of the hysteresis, which, if present, had to be a single step process for a single domain model. The disagreement was naturally attributed to interaction with the nearby magnetic moments, to verify which, simulations were done with a simplified micromagnetic code, which produced excellent agreement with experiment. In Chapter 7, we have studied the temporal properties of Barkhausen avalanches, to compare the duration distributions with simulation. We had used a permalloy sample that was sub-critical according to avalanche size distributions, and our measurement was based on magneto-optic Kerr effect. We measured duration distributions which showed a similar manifestation of finite-size effects as were shown by the size distributions. The power law exponent was calculated, which was deemed 0reasonable0 upon comparison simulations of the sub-critical RFIM. Appendix A contains a study of high-field magnetoresistance of permalloy, which shows that the dominant contribution to magnetoresistance is the suppression of electron-magnon scattering. An interesting correlation is observed between the magnetization of samples and an exchange stiffness parameter d1, that was extracted from magnetoresistance measurements. Here we also re-visit our earlier observation of permalloy thin films possessing a resistance minimum at low temperature. The origin of this minimum is attributed to electron-electron interaction. Appendix B contains the source codes for most of the important programs used for simulation and data analysis. The programs are written in MATLAB and FORTRAN 95. LabView programs used for data acquisition and analysis are not included due to space requirements to display their graphical source codes. Appendix C discusses the studies on a disordered rare-earth oxide LaMnO3. The re-entrant glassy phase is characterized with ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements to extract information about the nature of interactions between the magnetic 0macrospins0 in the system. Appendix D deals with electron scattering experiments performed with spinpolarized electrons (SPLEED) from clean metal surfaces in UHV. A study of the scattering cross sections as a function of energy and scattering angle provides information about spin-orbit and exchange interactions of the electrons with the surface atoms, and can answer important questions pertaining to the electronic and magnetic structure of surfaces. In the course of this study, planar Hall effect is seen to emerge as a powerful tool to study the magnetic state of a thin film, so that it is interesting to apply it to thin films of other materials such as oxides, where magnetization noise studies are next to nonexistent. What also emerged is that there is still a lot of richness present in the details of supposedly well-understood magnetization phenomena, some of which we have explored in this thesis in the context of stochastic magnetization processes.