The work presented in this thesis is the result of the KTH CICERO project “Dynamic Engine Performance” in which the main objective was to develop simple models foremission formation. The demand for such models is increasing, mainly due to the tightening emission legislation for diesel engines which has lead to more complex engines and thereby more laborious development and calibration processes. Simple emission models can be a valuable tool during the development phase, e.g. when used with models for gas exchange - and after-treatment systems, and for precalibration of the engine control settings. Since engines in automotive application typically work under dynamic load, the main prerequisites were that the models should be comprehensive enough to handle the extreme conditions that can occur in engines during load transients but still simple enough to be used for calibration. Two main approaches have been used; one where the combustion and emission formation processes were modeled from the flame front and downstream using equilibrium chemistry. In the other approach, the entire mixing/entrainment process was modeled and emission formation was modeled with kinetic chemistry. Both approaches were found to meet the requirements but had different advantages; the first, simpler approach had shorter calculation time while the latter was more comprehensive and required less tuning. The latter also resulted in a model for heat release rate which can be useful as a stand-alone model and allows the emission models to be used for untested conditions. Another objective in this project was to identify techniques/instruments that can be used for emission measurements during transient operation since these are essential for understanding of emission formation in these conditions and as validation data for the emission models. / QC 20110502

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-10-16T13:15:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VERUSKA DO NASCIMENTO SIMÕES - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGEQ) 2017.pdf: 2545421 bytes, checksum: 612af87b3495d3aaeee52a9d15ef1ffc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-16T13:15:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VERUSKA DO NASCIMENTO SIMÕES - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGEQ) 2017.pdf: 2545421 bytes, checksum: 612af87b3495d3aaeee52a9d15ef1ffc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-05 / CNPq / A poluição atmosférica é considerada atualmente um dos maiores problemas da sociedade contemporânea, por ameaçar sua qualidade de vida, pois gera impactos negativos no meio ambiente natural e antrópico. No presente trabalho foi definido um modelo matemático fenomenológico representando a dispersão do poluente a partir de uma chaminé de uma termelétrica e as reações envolvidas no processo. O efluente estudado é constituído de óxidos nitrogenados (NOX) um dos gases causadores da chuva ácida. Nesse sentido, realizaram-se simulações numéricas para descrever processos reativos e hidrodinâmicos que ocorrem na Camada Limite Atmosférica com objetivo avaliar os parâmetros operacionais como a velocidade do ar, pressão e concentrações mássicas dos produtos formados nas reações químicas estudadas. Foi utilizada a ferramenta computacional Ansys CFX® versão 15.0. O modelo de turbulência utilizado foi o k  padrão. Os resultados indicam que para melhor dispersão de poluentes as condições de instabilidade apresentam menores índices de concentração dos ácidos nítricos, nitrosos e dióxidos de nitrogênio. O aumento da temperatura ambiente favorece a produção dos ácidos nítrico e nitroso, porém não houve diferenças significativas para o dióxido de nitrogênio. / Air pollution is now considered one of the greatest problems of contemporary society, because it threatens their quality of life, as it creates negative impacts on the natural and anthropic environment. In the present work a phenomenological mathematical model was defined representing the dispersion of the pollutant from a chimney of a thermoelectric plant and the reactions involved in the process. The studied effluent is nitrogen oxides (NOX), one of the gases that cause acid rain. In this sense, numerical simulations were performed to describe reactive and hydrodynamic processes that occur in the Atmospheric Limit Layer, with the objective of evaluating the operational parameters such as air velocity, pressure and the mass fractions of each substance present in the reactions. The Ansys CFX® software version 15.0 was used. The turbulence model used k  standard The results indicate that for better dispersion of pollutants the conditions of instability have lower indices of concentration of nitric acids, nitrous and nitrogen dioxides. The increasing ambient temperature favors the production of nitric and nitrous acids, but there were no significant differences for nitrogen dioxide.

Vascular cognitive impairment describes a heterogeneous condition in which cognitive decline is precipitated by underlying cerebrovascular dysfunction. Ageing, as well as vascular diseases such as hypertension, stroke, cerebral small vessel disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy, are risk factors for vascular cognitive impairment. The precise mechanisms by which these conditions impact the cerebral vasculature to drive cognitive decline, however, are unknown. Previous research has indicated that vascular risk factors can lead to microvascular oxidative stress, inflammation and endothelial dysfunction that can lead to tissue hypoperfusion, the development of white and grey matter vascular lesions (microinfarcts and microbleeds) and cognitive impairment. It was hypothesised that ageing, a prominent risk factor for cognitive decline, would induce impairments on neurovascular coupling resulting from neurovascular unit disruption. It was further hypothesised that induction of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion would mediate neurovascular dysfunction and vascular lesion development through increased oxidative stress, resulting in cognitive decline. Finally, it was also hypothesised that neurovascular impairments resulting from ageing and chronic cerebral hypoperfusion would be exacerbated in the presence of amyloid deposition. Four studies were performed in order to test these hypotheses. Vascular risk factors can be reproduced using experimental mouse models and provide a valuable basis in which to test hypotheses and therapeutic interventions. As such, a primary aim of this thesis was to develop and validate sensitive MRI approaches that would allow the detection of vascular alterations in vivo. In the first series of studies, MRI techniques to assess resting cerebral blood flow, vessel number, vascular lesions and inflammation in experimental mice were validated using established in vivo and ex vivo techniques, so that these techniques could be used in subsequent studies for vascular assessments in vivo. Arterial spin labelling was developed to assess resting cerebral blood flow, and was able to detect reductions in blood flow following cerebral hypoperfusion that correlated well with those obtained from laser speckle imaging. Q-map imaging was able to detect reductions in vessel number in acute lesions, and in non-lesioned mice measures of vessel number correlated well with histopathological measures. Structural T2 imaging was performed in order to detect ischaemic and haemorrhagic lesions in chronically hypoperfused mice, and was validated using H&E and Perls’ staining. Finally, contrast-enhanced T2* imaging was used to detect iron oxide uptake by macrophages in the brains of hypoperfused mice, which was further validated by the identification of iron-containing macrophages in immunostained brain sections. The second study was conducted to test the hypothesis that ageing would impair neurovascular unit function and structure, and that these impairments would be exacerbated in the presence of amyloid pathology. The aim of the study was to incorporate previously developed in vivo imaging approaches in the assessment of vascular function and alterations in neurovascular unit structure in both wild type and TgSwDI mice. As predicted, ageing caused a pronounced deficit on measures of neurovascular coupling, however this was not exacerbated by accumulation of amyloid in TgSwDI mice and was not associated with alterations in baseline blood flow measured by arterial spin labelling. Structural assessment of the neurovascular unit revealed a loss of contact between astrocytic endfeet and vasculature, which was significantly associated with the impairment on neurovascular coupling, in addition to other markers of breakdown of the neurovascular unit such as loss of pericyte coverage and microglial activation. Age and thalamic vascular amyloid accumulation were also associated with an increase in the NADPH oxidase (NOX) subunit p47, indicative of increased oxidative stress. Data from this experiment indicate that ageing can profoundly impair neurovascular coupling, mediated by gliosis and loss of astrocytic contacts with vasculature. The third study aimed to test the hypothesis that chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (a prominent early feature of vascular cognitive impairment) would impair vascular function and induce the development of vascular lesions and cognitive decline. The impact of hypoperfusion on neurovascular coupling, ischaemic and haemorrhagic lesion burden and cognition was investigated in wild type and TgSwDI mice. Hypoperfusion induced deficits on neurovascular coupling, increased lesion burden and inflammation assessed with T2 and contrast-enhanced T2* imaging, and caused impairment on measures of learning and memory. Hypoperfusion was also associated with an increase in the levels of NOX2, NOX4 and 3-NT at 3 months following surgery, indicating persistent reactive oxygen species production and oxidative damage in hypoperfused mice. The findings from this study indicate that vascular dysfunction and cognitive impairment following hypoperfusion may be mediated by increased NADPH oxidase activity and resulting oxidative stress. The previous studies indicated that markers of oxidative stress were induced in response to ageing, vascular amyloid accumulation and cerebral hypoperfusion. The final study sought to determine whether increased NOX activity mediates downstream pathological effects on vascular function, vascular lesion development and cognitive decline following hypoperfusion. NOX activity was inhibited pharmacologically by administration of apocynin to hypoperfused TgSwDI mice for 3 months following surgery. Treatment with apocynin significantly restored neurovascular coupling to a level similar to sham-operated mice, and there was a trend toward reduction of ischaemic vascular lesions. However, it was unable to rescue the prominent inflammatory response or decline in cognitive ability, as apocynin-treated mice were no different on these measures to non-treated hypoperfused mice. The data indicate that whilst inhibiting NOX may have potential therapeutic value in improving vascular function, additional interventions, for example to reduce inflammation, may also be required in order to prevent cognitive decline. Overall, the work outlined within the thesis indicate that vascular risk factors of ageing, cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cerebral hypoperfusion may converge on common pathways involving oxidative stress and increased inflammation in order to drive vascular dysfunction and lead to cognitive decline. Inhibition of NOX activity was able to rescue vascular function, however the results indicate that this was not sufficient to protect against cognitive impairment, suggesting additional therapeutic targets may need to be sought in order to fully preserve vascular health and prevent cognitive decline.

The aim of this research is to develop an optimisation tool to support the preliminary design of gas turbine combustors by providing a partial automation of the design process. This tool is to enable better design to be obtained faster, providing a reduction in the development costs and time to market of new engines. The first phase of this work involved the analysis of the combustor design process with the aim of identifying the critical tasks that are suitable for being automated and most importantly identifying the key parameters describing the performance of a combustor. During the second phase of this work an adequate design methodology for this problem was defined. This led to the development of a design optimisation Toolbox based on genetic algorithms, containing the tools required for it's proper integration into the combustor preliminary design environment. For the development of this Toolbox, extensive work was performed on genetic algorithms and derived techniques in order to provide the most efficient and robust optimisation method possible. The optimisation capability of the Toolbox was first validated and metered on analytical problems of known solution, where it demonstrated excellent optimisation performance especially for higher-dimensional problems. In a second step of the testing and validation process the combustor design capability of the Toolbox was demonstrated by applying it to diverse combustor design test cases. There the Toolbox demonstrated its capacity to achieve the required performance targets and to successfully optimise some key combustor parameters such as liner wall cooling flow and NOx emissions. In addition, the Toolbox demonstrated its ability to be applied to different types of engineering problems such as wing profile optimisation.

This study investigated the neuroprotective effects of novel small molecule NOX inhibitors after induction of an ischemic stroke model on Neuroblastoma cells (NB69). Previous findings show that high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been identified for playing a role in causing inflammation, cellular damage and apoptosis in many cardiovascular diseases. It is believed that by inhibiting the Nox enzymes that generate ROS, the damage caused to the brain (measured as % cell viability) would be decreased.  NOX2 and NOX4 gene expression what validated in NB69 cells using PCR, gel electrophoresis and GAPDH as a reference gene. Stroke was modelled by using the oxygen-glucose depletion model and reperfusion injury was modelling by replenishing glucose and oxygen supplies to the cell and incubator for 24-72hrs. Gene expression of NOX4 expression after 1hr ischemia and 24-48hrs reperfusion showed there was an increase in relative expression after 24hrs and a decrease in expression after 48hrs. No gene expression analysis could be shown for NOX2. Cell viability was measured amongst treatment groups using the MTS assay. Statistical analysis consisted of Shapiro Wilk tests, One-way ANOVAs, Tukey tests and ROUT Outlier analysis. Only M114 was seen to have a statistically significant neuroprotective effect on the cells ( after 1hr ischemia, 24+48hrs reperfusion and 2hr ischemia + 48hr reperfusion). After 72hrs reperfusion all three treatments reduced cell viability significantly from the negative control group (p<0.0001) highlighting the importance of ROS signalling in neural cells and the consequences of eradicating it. Media was changed on plates after 48hrs reperfusion. These findings show that all three substances have some effect on the cells and can target their NOX enzymes and identifies M114 as a potential new treatment for stroke patients.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:58:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3252_1.pdf: 2382561 bytes, checksum: c2a06bbc48d03850db39ab0f6ef2859e (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Este trabalho apresenta uma proposta para gerenciamento e monitoramento de redes virtuais através da adaptação do Nagios, uma ferramenta de gerência e monitoramento amplamente utilizada em datacenters por administradores de rede. Esta adaptação foi implementada através da criação de um plug-in que coleta dados relevantes de switches virtuais realizando inferências de estados de disponibilidade destes switches. Para verificação da usabilidade do plug-in, foi criada uma rede virtual utilizando o software de padrão aberto Openflow e OpenvSwitch em conjunto com o NOX, além da criação de máquinas virtuais sobre o virtualizador KVM com o auxílio da biblioteca libvirt para criação das máquinas virtuais e interfaces virtuais

In an effort to reduce NOX emissions both in the landing and take-off (LTO) cycle as well as in cruise, significant research has been conducted on novel aero-engine low emissions combustor design concepts. Preliminary combustor design and emissions prediction software tools are becoming increasingly important during the conceptual design phase of aero-engine combustors. They allow a large number of designs to be explored, in a relatively short amount of time, thereby identifying the most promising designs to consider for further development. There are three methods for NOX emission prediction; correlations, stirred reactor models and CFD models. Correlation methods are derived from experimental results and are therefore only applicable for combustors for which data is available. The stirred reactor modelling approach provides a reasonably good compromise with respect to computational time and robustness relative to correlation and CFD based methods. The stirred reactor method assumes finite rate chemistry inside the combustor using simplified chemical kinetic models. The basic concept of the reactor-based method is to split the combustor into a number of reactors (perfectly or partially stirred) to compute the overall emissions. The primary objective of this doctoral research was to assess the suitability and limitations of the stirred reactor modelling approach to predict NOX emissions of a Rich-Burn Quick-Quench and Lean-Burn (RQL) combustor concept. The geometry of the RQL combustor and the model constraints were assumed from a NASA test rig experiment. The stirred reactor emission prediction model developed was verified using this test data. The results suggest that, based on the modelling assumptions made, the stirred reactor modelling approach is able to capture the trends of emissions (with changing boundary conditions) even though there are discrepancies in the absolute values. This suggests that the stirred reactor model is a useful tool during the preliminary design phase to quantify the impact of changes in boundary conditions/design parameters on changes in NOX emissions.

Le transport routier est responsable de la production de la majeure partie des oxydes d’azote (NOx) émis dans l’atmosphère. La majorité de cette pollution est donc concentrée dans des zones très urbanisées. L’exposition permanente aux gaz d’échappement a des conséquences graves pour la santé humaine et pour cela, des normes d’émission de plus en plus strictes sont mises en place. Les technologies post-Traitement embarquées dans les pots d’échappement sont de plus en plus complexes et nécessitent un control continu de la composition gazeuse. Les conditions sérères de ce milieu requièrent le développement de capteurs de gaz robustes et de longue durée de vie. Dans ce travail, nous présentons la procédure de fabrication et la caractérisation d’un capteur électrochimique à trois électrodes pouvant satisfaire les exigences d’une application industrielle dans le domaine automobile. La technologie de sérigraphie utilisée a l’avantage d’être facilement transférable dans l’industrie pour une production de masse bas cout.Le principe de fonctionnement du capteur est basé sur la polarisation galvanostatique de l’électrode sensible permettant une détection sélective de NO2 sans interférence avec d’autres gaz comme CO et NO. De plus, afin d’augmenter la stabilité du capteur, de diminuer les temps de réponse et de recouvrement, un nouveau matériau d’électrode composite à base d’or a été développé.Enfin, la réduction électrochimique de l’oxygène sur l’or et sur des électrodes composite a été étudiée, afin de proposer un mécanisme de détection de NO2 / Road transport is one of the main sources of NOx emitted into the atmosphere. The majority of this pollution is concentrated in urbanized areas. The permanent exposure to the exhaust gases has serious consequences for human health and for that, emission standards become more stringent. The modern technologies present in automotive need the continuous control of the exhaust composition. The variations of temperature, composition of exhaust gas, vibrations and other factors require long life robust control systems. In this work, we present the procedure of fabrication and characterization of an electrochemical sensor with three electrodes that can fulfill the demands of industrial applications in automotive industry. Manufacturing by screen-Printing technology allows producing low-Cost sensor with high reproducibility in industrial process.The principle of our sensor is based on galvanostatic polarization of a gold sensing electrode allowing the selective detection of NO2 without interference to other gases such as CO and NO. In order to increase stability, and to decrease the response and recovery time of the sensor, a new Au composite sensitive electrode was developed. The electrochemical reduction of oxygen on gold and gold-Based electrodes was then studied, to propose a detailed mechanism of NO2 detection.

På SCA Östrands massafabrik i Timrå produceras två olika typer av pappersmassa,blekt sulfatmassa och kemitermomekanisk massa (CTMP). Idag produceras ungefär 430 000 ton blekt sulfatmassa och 95 000 ton CTMP per år. Just nu pågåren om- och nybyggnation av sulfatmassalinjen inom projektet Helios. Målet med projektet är att under 2018 ta i drift en fabrik med en kapacitet att producera 900 000 ton blekt sulfatmassa per år. I och med utbyggnaden har fabriken fått en ny miljödom (som ett resultat av verksamhetstillståndsansökan) med villkor attförhålla sig till. I miljödomen presenteras ett antal olika villkor; utredningsvillkor, utsläppsvillkor och riktvärden. Ett av villkoren är ett utredningsvillkor som gäller utredning av rökgasreningstekniken SNCR (selektiv icke-katalytisk reduktion) för att rena rökgaserna från fabrikens ångproducerande enheter, barkpannan (ÅP1)och sodapannan (SP6), från NOx. Syftet med examensarbetet var att i ett första steg i utredningen av utredningsvillkoret undersöka möjligheterna till att använda SNCR som rökgasrening på ÅP1 för att rena rökgaserna från NOx. För att utreda möjligheterna att använda SNCR på ÅP1 gjordes temperaturmätningar av rökgaserna i pannans övre del och en temperaturprofil över pannan bestämdes. Vidare undersöktes olika metoder av SNCR och andra sekundära rökgasreningsmetoder i en litteraturstudie och i en undersökning av marknaden som bland annat innehöll referensbesök på anläggningar med olika SNCR-system.En grov kostnadsmässig analys genomfördes också genom att beräkna teoretiskautsläppsmängder för de nya förutsättningarna efter Helios, NOx-avgiften och kemikalieförbrukningen i ett hypotetiskt fall där SNCR installeras. Under de förutsättningar som temperaturmätningarna gjordes framkom det att det inte är möjligt att använda sig av SNCR för att reducera NOx-utsläppen från ÅP1. Mätningarna visade dock att det är möjligt att använda SNCR som reningsmetod vid laster högre än 72 ton ånga/h om det finns ett linjärt samband mellan last(ton ånga/h) och rökgastemperaturen.

With the rising influence of digitalization and its immense penetration intoeven everyday life, the last decade of the 20th Century addressed to a critical threshold in the successive transformation process of the spatiality in its long-term run. The advanced digital technologies of ubiquitous computing and generative design, as well as the invention of smart materials in late 90’s (particularly the nano-technological materials that emerged as the programmable matters with their ability to evolve continously) have all provoked the fluid characteristics of spatiality, and strengthen the transformative capacities of the architectural space through the emergence of computer-augmented territories. Additionally, while they are becoming as the body extensions, the advent of novel apparatuses and gadgets further enhanced the inte- gration of the corporal and incorporal bodies with the spatio-temporal multiplicities, where the hyperdimensionality of the space has been triggered to its outmost range, in relation to the “soft and smart technologically augmented immanent millieu”, in Spuybroek terms. Thus, like Spuybroek points out as the “haptonomist” presence of the body merges itself with these diverse bodily extensions on one hand; and on the other hand, as the rising influence of nomadic view of the world further stimulates the unboundedness and endless fluidity of space, so that the spatiality becomes a landscape of successive transformations, a topology of emergence or a plane of becoming, which is merely defined by lines of forces, and occures as an alive territory rather than a limited space of predefined boarders. Therefore, this evolvable territory which is affectable and being affected by the lines of forces –inner and outer forces–, emerges as an animated existence, an interactive organism. So, by interacting with the Deleuzian Philosophy and their notions like lines of forces, folding, becoming, smooth space, territory, spatium, this article aims to reveal the relevance of these notions in architectural discourse, as well as the emergence of the smooth space in the contemporary architectural practice, by magnifiying one of the very initial examples of its kind; in terms of unfolding the Fresh Water Pavilion of NOX Architecture by Lars Spuybroek into question to reveal the essences of thecontemporary transformable-evolvable architectural spatiality.