L‘objectif de ce travail est de proposer une démarche, mettant en oeuvre les techniques de diffraction ainsi que les approches théoriques de la modélisation auto-cohérente, afin d'analyser et mieux comprendre le comportement mécanique de chaque phase d'un acier inoxydable austéno-ferritique laminé à chaud. L'étude expérimentale vise la caractérisation du comportement mécanique local des phases sous un chargement uniaxial. La diffraction des rayons X et la diffraction neutronique ont été utilisées dans cette optique. Les états de contrainte ont été déterminés par DRX dans les phases austénitique et ferritique chargées en traction. L'évolution des déformations élastiques dans chacune des phases a été mesurée par la diffraction des neutrons en utilisant la technique de « temps-de-vol » au cours d'essais de traction et de compression. Les constantes élastiques radiocristallographiques ont été déterminées en utilisant une procédure de calcul faisant appel au modèle auto-cohérent pour une déformation purement élastique. <br />Pour rendre compte du comportement mécanique du matériau étudié, le modèle micromécanique polycristallin auto-cohérent pour une déformation élastoplastique a été adapté et confronté aux expériences menées. La texture cristallographique et les contraintes résiduelles initiales ont été prises en compte dans cette analyse. Les cissions critiques et les paramètres d'écrouissage de chacune des phases de l'acier duplex étudié ont été identifiés. Les résultats de cette étude ont montré que la phase austénitique représente la phase la moins dure et la plus écrouissable. Lors du calcul, la prise en compte des contraintes résiduelles initiales dans l'échantillon non déformé a expliqué l'asymétrie du comportement mécanique des phases en traction et en compression. Il a été montré que les contraintes initiales modifient considérablement les valeurs des limites d'élasticité des phases. Une bonne correspondance a été notée en comparant les résultats obtenus par DRX à ceux obtenus par la diffraction neutronique. Le problème de la relaxation de la contrainte normale à la surface irradiée par les rayons X a été analysé et discuté. <br />En utilisant la DRX et la modélisation auto-cohérente, l'effet de la composition chimique de l'acier inoxydable austéno-ferritique ainsi que l'influence d'un vieillissement à 400°C pendant 1000h, sur le comportement mécanique de chacune des phases austénitique et ferritique, ont été mis en évidence.

D. Tech. Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. / Studies the electrochemical and tribological behaviour of synthesized duplex stainless steels produced by high pressure high temperature (HPHT) sintering technique. This aim will be achieved through the following objectives: Understand the mechanisms by which HTHP sintering enhance the synthesis of Duplex stainless steel composites from different feedstock powders. Investigate the effects of feedstock composition and HTHP sintering parameters on their microstructure, composition and phases generated. Assess the electrochemical behaviour of the oxide dispersion strengthened steel (ODS) in varying media using potentiodynamic polarization scans. Study the wear behaviour to understand the effect of the partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) on the mechanical properties of the composite. Explore corroborative technique for studying corrosion and wear damages on ODS steels.

Wireless services have become an indispensable part of our social, economic, and everyday activities. They have facilitated and continue to facilitate rapid access to information and have created a highly-interconnected web of users who are untethered to particular locations. In fact, it is expected that in the very near future, the number of users that access the Internet through their mobile devices will surpass those access the Internet from the fixed infrastructure. Aside from mobile Internet access, wireless technologies enable many critical applications such as emergency response, healthcare and implantable medical devices, industrial automation, tactical communications, transportation networks, smart grids, smart homes, navigation, and weather services. The proliferation and wealth of wireless applications has created a soaring demand for ubiquitous broadband wireless access. This demand is further fueled by the richness of the information accessed by users. Low-bit rate voice communications and text have been replaced with graphics, high-definition video, multi-player gaming, and social networking. Meeting the growing traffic demand poses many challenges due to the spectrum scarcity, the cost of deploying additional infrastructure, and the coexistence of several competing technologies. These challenges can be addressed by developing novel wireless technologies, which can efficiently and securely manage multi-user access to the wireless medium. The multi-user access problem deals with the sharing of the wireless resource among contending users in an efficient, secure, and scalable manner. To alleviate contention and interference among the multiple users, contemporary wireless technologies divide the available spectrum to orthogonal frequency bands (channels). The availability of multiple channels has been demonstrated to substantially improve the performance and reliability of wireless networks by alleviating contention and interference. Multi-channel networks, whether cellular, sensor, mesh, cognitive radio, or heterogeneous ones, can potentially achieve higher throughput and lower delay compared to single-channel networks. However, the gains from the existence of orthogonal channels are contingent upon the efficient and secure coordination of channel access. Typically, this coordination is implemented at the medium access control (MAC) layer using a multi-channel MAC (MMAC) protocol. MMAC protocols are significantly more sophisticated than their single-channel counterparts, due to the additional operations of destination discovery, contention management across channels, and load balancing. A significant body of research has been devoted to designing MMAC protocols. The majority of solutions negotiate channel assignment every few packet transmissions on a default control channel. This design has several critical limitations. First, it incurs significant overhead due to the use of in-band or out-of-band control channels. Second, from a security standpoint, operating over a default control channel constitutes a single point of failure. A DoS attack on the control channel(s) would render all channels inoperable. Moreover, MMAC protocols are vulnerable to misbehavior from malicious users who aim at monopolizing the network resources, or degrading the overall network performance. In this dissertation, we improve the security and spectral efficiency of channel access mechanisms in multi-channel wireless networks. In particular, we are concerned with MAC-layer misbehavior in multi-channel wireless networks. We show that selfish users can manipulate MAC-layer protocol parameters to gain an unfair share of network resources, while remaining undetected. We identify possible misbehavior at the MAC-layer, evaluate their impact on network performance, and develop corresponding detection and mitigation schemes that practically eliminate the misbehavior gains. We extend our misbehavior analysis to MAC protocols specifically designed for opportunistic access in cognitive radio networks. Such protocols implement additional tasks such as cooperative spectrum sensing and spectrum management. We then discuss corresponding countermeasures for detecting and mitigating these misbehavior. We further design a low-overhead multi-channel access protocol that enables the distributed coordination of channel access over orthogonal channels for devices using a single transceiver. Compared with prior art, our protocol eliminates inband and out-of-band control signaling, increases spatial channel reuse, and thus achieves significant higher throughput and lowers delay. Furthermore, we investigate DoS attacks launched against the channel access mechanism. We focus on reactive jamming attacks and show that most MMAC protocols are vulnerable to low-effort jamming due to the utilization of a default control channel. We extend our proposed MMAC protocol to combat jamming by implementing cryptographic interleaving at the PHY-layer, random channel switching, and switching according to cryptographically protected channel priority lists. Our results demonstrate that under high load conditions, the new protocol maintains communications despite the jammer's effort. Extensive simulations and experiments are conducted to evaluate the impact of the considered misbehaviors on network performance, and verify the validity of the proposed mechanisms.

The aim of the thesis was to study the susceptibility for brittle failures and the fracture process of duplex stainless steels at sub-zero temperatures (°C). In the first part of the thesis plates of hot-rolled duplex stainless steel with various thicknesses were used to study the influence of delamination (also known as splits) on the fracture toughness. The methods used were impact and fracture toughness testing. Light optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to investigate the microstructure and fracture surfaces. It was concluded that the delaminations caused a loss of constraint along the crack front which resulted in a stable fracture process despite the presence of cleavage cracks. These delaminations occurred when cleavage cracks are constrained by the elongated austenite lamellae. The pop-in phenomenon which is frequently observed in duplex stainless steels during fracture toughness testing was shown to occur due to these delaminations. The susceptibility for pop-in behaviour during testing increased with decreasing plate thickness. The toughness anisotropy was also explained by the delamination phenomenon.In the second part of the thesis duplex stainless steel weld metals from lean duplex and super duplex were investigated. For the lean duplex weldments with different nickel contents, tensile, impact and fracture toughness testing were conducted from room temperature to sub-zero temperatures. The result showed that increased nickel content decreased the susceptibility for critical cleavage initiation at sub-zero temperatures. The super duplex stainless steel weldment was post weld heat treated. The fracture sequence at low temperature was critical cleavage fracture initiation after minor crack-tip blunting and ductile fracture. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy investigation of the weld metals showed that substitutional element partitioning is small in the weld metal. However, for the post weld heat treated weldments element partitioning occurred which resulted in decreased nickel content in the ferrite. / <p>QC 20131108</p>

In a well-defined subrecess in the Appalachian thrust belt in northwestern Georgia, two distinct regional strike directions intersect at approximately 50°. Fault intersections and interference folds enable tracing of both structural strikes. Around the subrecess, tectonically thickened weak stratigraphic layers—shales of the Cambrian Conasauga Formation—accommodated ductile deformation associated with the folding and faulting of the overlying Cambrian–Ordovician regional competent layer. The structures in the competent layer are analogous to those over ductile duplexes (mushwads) documented along strike to the southwest in Alabama. The intersection and fold interference exemplify a long-standing problem in volume balancing of palinspastic reconstructions of sinuous thrust belts. Cross sections generally are constructed perpendicular to structural strike, parallel to the assumed slip direction. An array of cross sections around a structural bend may be restored and balanced individually; however, restorations perpendicular to strike across intersecting thrust faults yield an imbalance in the along-strike lengths of frontal ramps. The restoration leads to a similar imbalance in the surface area of a stratigraphic horizon, reflecting volume imbalance in three dimensions. The tectonic thickening of the weak-layer shales is evident in palinspastically restored cross sections, which demonstrate as much as 100% increase in volume over the restored-state cross sections. The cause of the surplus shale volume is likely prethrusting deposition of thick shale in a basement graben that was later inverted. The volume balance of the ductile duplex is critical for palinspastic reconstruction of the recess, and for the kinematic history and mechanics of the ductile duplex.

The objective of this study is to characterize the long-term behavior of an austenitic-ferritic stainless steel-based pretensioned system for strengthening reinforced concrete bridge pier caps in shear. Stress relaxation experiments were conducted on UNS S32101 stainless steel bars subjected to various initial stresses and temperatures within the low homologous temperature (LHT) regime. Data from these experiments were used to develop a viscoplastic constitutive model to describe the long-term time- and temperature-dependent behavior of the stainless steel bars. This mechanics-based approach is integrated with an analytical method based on strut-and-tie analysis to compute the shear strength of reinforced concrete pier caps strengthened with this external pretensioned system.

Duplex stainless steels (DSS) with roughly equal amount of austenite and ferrite phases are being used in industries such as petrochemical and pulp and paper mills. However, many DSS grades have been reported to undergo corrosion and stress corrosion cracking in some aggressive environments such as chlorides and sulfide-containing caustic solutions. Although stress corrosion cracking of duplex stainless steels in chloride solution has been investigated and well documented in the literature, SCC mechanisms for DSS in caustic solutions were unknown. Microstructural changes and environmental factors, such as pH of the solution, temperature, and resulting electrochemical potential also influence the SCC susceptibility of duplex stainless steels. In this study, the role of material and environmental parameters on corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of duplex stainless steels in caustic solutions were investigated. Results showed that the austenite phase in the DSS is more susceptible to crack initiation and propagation in caustic environment, which is different from that in the low pH chloride environment where the ferrite phase is the more susceptible phase. This study also showed that alloy composition and microstructural changes in duplex stainless steels due to different heat treatments could affect their SCC susceptibility. Moreover, corrosion rates and SCC susceptibility of DSS was found to increase with addition of sulfide to caustic solutions. Corrosion films on DSS indicated that the metal sulfide compounds formed along with oxides at the metal surface in the presence of sulfide containing caustic environments made the steel susceptible to SCC initiations. The overall results from this study helped in understanding the mechanism of SCC in caustic solutions. Favorable slip systems in the austenite phase of DSS favors slip-induced local film damage thereby initiating a stress corrosion crack. Repeated film repassivation and breaking, followed by crack tip dissolution results in crack propagation in the austenite phase of DSS alloys. Result from this study will have a significant impact in terms of identifying the alloy compositions, fabrication processes, microstructures, and environmental conditions that may be avoided to mitigate corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of DSS in caustic solutions.

The demand for mobile wireless network resources is constantly on the rise, pushing for new communication technologies that are able to support unprecedented rates. In this thesis we address the issue by considering advanced interference management techniques to exploit the available resources more efficiently under relaxed channel state information (CSI) assumptions. While the initial studies focus on current half-duplex (HD) technology, we then move on to full-duplex (FD) communication due to its inherent potential to improve spectral efficiency. Work in this thesis is divided into four main parts as follows. In the first part, we focus on the two-cell two-user-per-cell interference broadcast channel (IBC) and consider the use of topological interference management (TIM) to manage inter-cell interference in an alternating connectivity scenario. Within this context we derive novel outer bounds on the achievable degrees of freedom (DoF) for different system configurations, namely, single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input single-output (MISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Additionally, we propose new transmission schemes based on joint coding across states that exploit global topological information at the transmitter to increase achievable DoF. Results show that when a single state has a probability of occurrence equal to one, the derived bounds are tight with up to a twofold increase in achievable DoF for the best case scenario. Additionally, when all alternating connectivity states are equiprobable: the SISO system gains 11/16 DoF, achieving 96:4% of the derived outer bound; while the MISO/MIMO scenario has a gain of 1/2 DoF, achieving the outer bound itself. In the second part, we consider a general G-cell K-user-per-cell MIMO IBC and analyse the performance of linear interference alignment (IA) under imperfect CSI. Having imperfect channel knowledge impacts the effectiveness of the IA beamformers, and leads to a significant amount of residual leakage interference. Understanding the extent of this impact is a fundamental step towards obtaining a performance characterisation that is more relevant to practical scenarios. The CSI error model used is highly versatile, allowing the error to be treated either as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or as independent of it. Based on this error model, we derive a novel upper bound on the asymptotic mean sum rate loss and quantify the DoF loss due to imperfect CSI. Furthermore, we propose a new version of the maximum signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (Max-SINR) algorithm which takes into account statistical knowledge of the CSI error in order to improve performance over the naive counterpart in the presence of CSI mismatch. In the third part, we shift our attention to FD systems and consider weighted sum rate (WSR) maximisation for multi-user multi-cell networks where FD base-stations (BSs) communicate with HD downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) users. Since WSR problems are non-convex we transform them into weighted minimum mean squared error (WMMSE) ones that are proven to converge. Our analysis is first carried out for perfect CSI and then expanded to cater for imperfect CSI under two types of error models, namely, a norm-bounded error model and a stochastic error model. Additionally, we propose an algorithm that maximises the total DL rate subject to each UL user achieving a desired target rate. Results show that the use of FD BSs provides significant gains in achievable rate over the use of HD BSs, with a gain of 1:92 for the best case scenario under perfect CSI. They also demonstrate the robust performance of the imperfect CSI designs, and confirm that FD outperforms HD even under CSI mismatch conditions. Finally, the fourth part considers the use of linear IA to manage interference in a multi-user multi-cell network with FD BSs and HD users under imperfect CSI. The number of interference links present in such a system is considerably greater than that present in the HD network counterpart; thus, understanding the impact of residual leakage interference on performance is even more important for FD enabled networks. Using the same generalised CSI error model from the second part, we study the performance of IA by characterising the sum rate and DoF losses incurred due to imperfect CSI. Additionally, we propose two novel IA algorithms applicable to this network; the first one is based on minimising the mean squared error (MMSE), while the second is based on Max-SINR. The proposed algorithms exploit statistical knowledge of the CSI error variance in order to improve performance. Moreover, they are shown to be equivalent under certain conditions, even though the MMSE based one has lower computational complexity. Furthermore for the multi-cell case, we also derive the proper condition for IA feasibility.

En raison de la demande croissante de services de communication sans fil et de la limitation des ressources de spectre, la radio cognitive (CR) a été initialement proposée pour résoudre la pénurie de spectre. CR divise les systèmes transmetteurs-récepteurs de communication en deux catégories : les Utilisateurs Principaux (PU) et les Utilisateurs Secondaires (SU). PU a le droit légal d'utiliser la bande spectrale, tandis que SU est un utilisateur opportuniste qui peut transmettre sur cette bande chaque fois qu'elle est vacante afin d'éviter toute interférence avec le signal de PU. De ce fait, la détection des activités de PU devient une priorité principale pour toute CR.Le Spectrum Sensing devient ainsi une partie importante d’un système CR, qui surveille les transmissions de PU. En effet, le Spectrum Sensing joue un rôle essentiel dans le mécanisme du fonctionnement du CR en localisant les canaux disponibles et, d'autre part, en protégeant les canaux occupés des interférences de la transmission SU. En fait, Spectrum Sensing a gagné beaucoup d'attention au cours de la dernière décennie, et de nombreux algorithmes sont proposés. Concernant la fiabilité de la performance, plusieurs défis comme le faible rapport signal sur bruit, l'incertitude de bruit (NU), la durée de détection du spectre, etc. Cette thèse aborde les défis de la détection du spectre et apporte quelques solutions. De nouveaux détecteurs basés sur la détection des caractéristiques cyclo-stationnaires et la densité spectrale de puissance (PSD) du signal de PU sont présentés. Un algorithme de test de signification de corrélation canonique (CCST) est proposé pour effectuer une détection cyclo-stationnaire. CCST peut détecter la présence des caractéristiques cycliques communes parmi les versions retardées du signal reçu. Ce test peut révéler la présence d'un signal cyclo-stationnaire dans le signal de mélange reçu. Une autre méthode de détection basée sur la PSD cumulative est proposée. En supposant que le bruit est blanc (sa PSD est plate), la PSD cumulative s'approche d'une droite. Cette forme devient non linéaire pour les signaux de télécommunication. Distinguer la forme cumulative PSD peut donc conduire à diagnostiquer l'état du canal.La radio cognitive Full-Duplex (FD-CR) a également été étudiée dans ce manuscrit, où plusieurs défis sont analysés en proposant de nouvelles contributions. Le fonctionnement FD permet au CR d'éviter la période de silence pendant la détection du spectre. Dans le système CR classique, le SU cesse de transmettre pendant la détection du spectre afin de ne pas affecter la fiabilité de détection. Dans FD-CR, SU peut éliminer la réflexion de son signal transmis et en même temps réaliser le Spectrum Sensing. En raison de certaines limitations, le résidu de l'auto-interférence ne peut pas être complètement annulé, alors la crédibilité de la détection du spectre est fortement affectée. Afin de réduire la puissance résiduelle, une nouvelle architecture de récepteur SU est élaborée pour atténuer les imperfections du circuit (comme le bruit de phase et la distorsion non linéaire de l'amplificateur à faible bruit du récepteur). La nouvelle architecture montre sa robustesse en assurant une détection fiable et en améliorant le débit de SU. / Due to the increasing demand of wireless communication services and the limitation in the spectrum resources, Cognitive Radio (CR) has been initially proposed in order to solve the spectrum scarcity. CR divides the communication transceiver into two categories: the Primary (PU) or the Secondary (SU) Users. PU has the legal right to use the spectrum bandwidth, while SU is an opportunistic user that can transmit on that bandwidth whenever it is vacant in order to avoid any interference to the signal of PU. Hence the detection of PU becomes a main priority for CR systems. The Spectrum Sensing is the part of the CR system, which monitors the PU activities. Spectrum Sensing plays an essential role in the mechanism of the CR functioning. It provides CR with the available channel in order to access them, and on the other hand, it protects occupied channels from the interference of the SU transmission. In fact, Spectrum Sensing has gained a lot of attention in the last decade, and numerous algorithms are proposed to perform it. Concerning the reliability of the performance, several challenges have been addressed, such as the low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), the Noise Uncertainty (NU), the Spectrum Sensing duration, etc. This dissertation addresses the Spectrum Sensing challenges and some solutions are proposed. New detectors based on Cyclo-Stationary Features detection and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the PU are presented. CanonicalCorrelation Significance Test (CCST) algorithm is proposed to perform cyclo-stationary detection. CCST can detect the presence of the common cyclic features among the delayed versions of the received signal. This test can reveal the presence of a cyclo-stationary signal in the received mixture signal. Another detection method based on the cumulative PSD is proposed. By assuming the whiteness of the noise (its PSD is at), the cumulative PSD approaches a straight line. This shape becomes non-linear when a telecommunication signal is present in the received mixture. Distinguishing the Cumulative PSD shape may lead to diagnose the channel status.Full-Duplex Cognitive Radio (FD-CR) has been also studied in this manuscript, where several challenges are analyzed by proposing a new contribution. FD functioning permits CR to avoid the silence period during the Spectrum Sensing. In classical CR system, SU stops transmitting during the Spectrum Sensing in order to do not affect the detection reliability. In FD-CR, SU can eliminate the reflection of its transmitted signal and at the same time achieving the Spectrum Sensing. Due to some limitations, the residual of the Self Interference cannot be completely cancelled, then the Spectrum Sensing credibility is highly affected. In order to reduce the residual power, a new SU receiver architecture is worked out to mitigate the hardware imperfections (such as the Phase Noise and the Non-Linear Distortion of the receiver Low-Noise Amplifier). The new architecture shows its robustness by ensuring a reliable detection and enhancing the throughput of SU.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo relacionado a três estados de superfície aplicados em um substrato de aço ferramenta AISI H13 temperado e revenido utilizado no processo de calibração a frio para a fabricação de forjados de precisão, os quais posteriormente processados transformam-se em componentes de um semieixo homocinético. O foco deste trabalho foi demostrar através da aplicação de tratamentos de superfície o aumento do desempenho em termos de resistência ao desgaste na interface da superfície da ferramenta em análise e também correlacionar com o seu custo benefício do produto final, visto que o critério para avaliação de vida útil depende diretamente do dimensional final do forjado. Para a comparação e o teste industrial foram estipuladas três condições diferentes de superfície para serem avaliadas. A primeira sem revestimento, a segunda com modificação superficial pelo processo de nitretação gasosa e a terceira com revestimento Dúplex PVD a base de CrTiN. A caracterização das amostras foram realizadas com o auxílio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura, análises metalográficas de microestrutura e dureza. A partir dos resultados obtidos foi constatado que o revestimento Dúplex aplicado em ferramentas para calibração a frio apresentou o melhor desempenho em relação às outras duas condições propostas. O revestimento Dúplex obteve um ganho de 400% em vida útil de ferramentas correlacionado a melhor resistência ao desgaste e, além disso, uma melhor performance em seu comportamento dimensional perante ao processo aplicado. Como segunda alternativa, as ferramentas com o processo de nitretação gasosa atingiram uma redução de 17% nos custos de ferramentas por peças produzidas e acréscimo de 20% em vida útil de ferramentas, apresentando uma melhora em relação as ferramentas sem tratamento de superfície. / This work presents a study related to three surface states applied on a quenching and tempered AISI H13 tool steel substrate used in the cold calibration process for the manufacture of precision forgings, which are subsequently processed into components of a halfshafts. This dissertation aims at demonstrating, through the application of surface treatments, the increase in the wear resistance performance of the tool under analysis and correlating this with cost benefit in the final product, since the end life criterion for the tools depends directly on the dimensions of the forged part. For comparison and industrial testing three different surface conditions were stipulated for evaluation. The first uncoated, the second with surface modification by the gas nitriding process and the third with PVD duplex coating based on CrTiN. The characterization of the samples was carried out with Optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy, Metallographic Analysis of the Microstructure and Hardness Tests. According with obtained results it was verified that the treatment duplex coating applied in tools for cold calibration presented the best performance in relation to the other two conditions proposed. The duplex coating obtained a gain of 400% in tool life correlated to better resistance to wear and, in addition, a better performance in its dimensional behavior in relation to the previous condition without surface treatment. As a second alternative, the tools treated by the gas nitriding process achieved a 17% reduction in tooling costs per parts produced and a 20% increase in tool life, showing an improvement over tools without surface treatment.