No description available.

Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem, a decentralized adaptive sliding mode control scheme is proposed in this thesis for a class of mismatched perturbed large-scale systems containing dead-zone input to solve regulation problems. The main idea is that some adaptive mechanisms are embedded both in the sliding surface and in the controllers, so that not only the mismatched perturbations are suppressed during the sliding mode, but also the information of upper bound of perturbations is not required. The sliding surface function is firstly designed through the usage of a pseudo controller which is capable of stabilizing the reduced-order systems. The second step is to design the controllers so that the trajectories of the controlled systems are able to reach sliding surface in a finite time. Once the controlled system enters the sliding mode, the asymptotical stability is guaranteed for each subsystem even the mismatched perturbations exist. A numerical example and a practical example are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed design technique.

The Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone is created by strong persistent water stratification and nutrient loading from the Mississippi River which fuels primary production and bacterial decomposition. The Texas-Louisiana shelf becomes seasonally oxygen depleted and hypoxia (O2 less than or equal to 1.4 ml l-1) occurs. Low oxygen environments are conducive for the microbial production of nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful greenhouse gas found in the atmosphere in trace amounts (319 ppbv). Highly productive coastal areas contribute 61% of the total oceanic N2O production and currently global sources exceed sinks. This study is the first characterization of N2O produced in the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. Because of enhanced microbial activity and oxygen deficiency, it is hypothesized that the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone is a source of N2O to the atmosphere. Seasonal measurements of N2O were made during three research cruises in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (Sept. 2007, April 2008, and July 2008). Water column N2O profiles were constructed from stations sampled over time, and bottom and surface samples were collected from several sites in the hypoxic zone. These measurements were used to calculate atmospheric flux of N2O. The Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone was a source of N2O to the atmosphere, and N2O production was highest during times of seasonal hypoxia. N2O was positively correlated with temperature and salinity, and negatively correlated with oxygen concentration. Atmospheric fluxes ranged from -11.27 to 153.22 umol m-2 d-1. High accumulations of N2O in the water column (up to 2878 % saturated) were associated with remineralization of organic matter at the base of the pycnocline and oxycline. Seasonal hypoxia created a source of N2O to the atmosphere (up to 2.66 x 10-3 Tg N2O for the month of September 2007), but there was a slight sink during April 2008 when hypoxia did not occur. Large fluxes of N2O during the 3 to 5 month hypoxic period may not be counterbalanced by a 7 to 9 month sink period indicating the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone may be a net source of N2O to the atmosphere.

Electric fields can be used to change and control flame properties, for example changing flame speed, enhancing flame stability, or reducing pollutant emission. The ions generated in flames are believed to play the primary role. Although experiments have been carried out to study electric field enhanced combustion, they are not sufficient to explain how the ions in a flame are affected by an electric field. It is therefore necessary to investigate the problem through numerical simulations. In the present work, the electric structure of stabilized CH4/air premixed flames at atmospheric pressure within a direct current field is studied using numerical simulations. This study consists of three parts. First, the transport equations are derived from the Boltzmann kinetic equation for each individual species. Second, a general method for computing the diffusivity and mobility of ions in a gas mixture is introduced. Third, the mechanisms for neutral and charged species are improved to give better predictions of the concentrations of charged species, based on experimental data. Following from this, comprehensive numerical results are presented, including the concentrations and fluxes of charged species, the distributions of the electric field and electric potential, and the electric current-voltage relation. Two new concepts introduced with the numerical results are the plasma sheath and dead zone in the premixed flame. A reactive plasma sheath and a Boltzmann relation sheath are discovered in the region near the electrodes. The plasma sheath penetrates into the flame gas when a voltage is applied, and penetrating further if the voltage is higher. The zone outside the region of sheath penetration is defined as the dead zone. With the two concepts, analytical solutions for the electric field, electric potential and current-voltage curve are derived. The solutions directly describe the electric structure of a premixed flame subject to a DC field. These analytical solutions, together with the discovery of the plasma sheath and dead zone in flames, are the novel contributions of this work.

La zone morte, région laminaire confinée au coeur des disques protoplanétaires dont la turbulence de l'écoulement à petite échelle explique l'accrétion de matière sur l'étoile en formation, semble être un lieu propice à la formation planétaire. En effet, au bord interne de la zone morte la différence d'accrétion entraîne le développement d'une sur-densité capable de piéger les grains de poussière qui dérivent vers l'étoile. L'écoulement à cet endroit est de plus potentiellement instable. Le cas échéant, il s'organise en structures tourbillonnaires appelées ''vortex'' qui collectent efficacement la poussière. La position du bord interne est toutefois très incertaine et dépend en particulier de la thermodynamique du modèle de disque considéré. Récemment, le déplacement du bord interne a été envisagé pour expliquer la variabilité de l'accrétion des étoiles jeunes. Cette thèse aborde le problème posé par l'influence de la thermodynamique sur la dynamique du bord interne de la zone morte. Des simulations MHD qui incluent le couplage entre les processus thermodynamiques avec la dynamique de l'écoulement ont tout d'abord permis de confirmer le comportement dynamique du bord interne ainsi que de réaliser la mesure inédite de sa vitesse typique de déplacement. La comparaison de ces résultats avec les prédictions données par un modèle de champ moyen a révélé le rôle du transport d'énergie par des ondes excitées au bord interne de la zone morte. Ces simulations présentent de plus un phénomène nouveau: les vortex formés à l'interface suivent un cycle de formation-migration-destruction. Cette découverte est susceptible de modifier notre vision du scénario de formation planétaire. En résumé, cette thèse met en évidence le fait que les processus thermodynamiques sont au coeur du fonctionnement de la région du bord interne de la zone morte dans les disques protoplanétaires. / The dead zone, a quiescent region enclosed in the turbulent flow of a protoplanetary disk, seems to be a promising site for planet formation. Indeed, the development of a density maximum at the dead zone inner edge, that has the property to trap the infalling dust, is a natural outcome of the accretion mismatch at this interface. Moreover, the flow here may be unstable and organize itself into vortical structures that efficiently collect dust grains. The inner edge location is however loosely constrained. In particular, it depends on the thermodynamical prescriptions of the disk model that is considered. It has been recently proposed that the inner edge is not static and that the variations of young stars accretion luminosity are the signature of this interface displacements. This thesis address the question of the impact of the gas thermodynamics onto its dynamics around the dead zone inner edge. MHD simulations including the complex interplay between thermodynamical processes and the dynamics confirmed the dynamical behaviour of the inner edge. A first measure of the interface velocity has been realised. This result has been compared to the predictions of a mean field model. It revealed the crucial role of the energy transport by density waves excited at the interface. These simulations also exhibit a new intriguing phenomenon: vortices forming at the interface follow a cycle of formation-migration-destruction. This vortex cycle may compromise the formation of planetesimals at the inner edge. This thesis claims that thermodynamical processes are at the heart of how the region around the dead zone inner edge in protoplanetary disks works.

No description available.

Natural stream systems contain a variety of flow geometries which contain flow separation, turbulent shear layers, and recirculation zones. This work focuses on streams with dead zones. Characterized by slower flow and recirculation, dead zones are naturally occurring cutouts in stream banks. These dead zones play an important role in stream nutrient retention and solute transport. Previous experimental work has focused on idealized dead zone geometries studied in laboratory flumes. This work explores the capabilities of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate the scaling relationships between flow parameters of idealized geometries and the time scales of transport. The stream geometry can be split into two main regions, the main stream flow and the dead zone. Geometric parameters of the dead zone as well as the bulk stream velocity were varied to determine a scaling relationship for the transport time scales. These flow geometries are simulated using the RANS turbulence model with the standard k-ω closure. The standard first order dead zone model is expanded to a two region model to accommodate the multiple time scales observed in the simulation results. While this model currently has limited predictive capability, it provides physical insight into the functional dependence of the dead zone time scales. LES is used to evaluate the performance of the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence model and to describe the anisotropic turbulence characteristics. The differences between the time averaged flow field for Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and RANS was determined to have a significant impact on passive scalar transport. / Graduation date: 2012

Métodos de controle baseado em dados utilizam dados de operação da planta para minimizar algum critério de desempenho, tipicamente quadrático, sem que seja necessário o conhecimento de um modelo da planta. O Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) é um destes métodos, utilizando dados obtidos da operação da planta em malha fechada para gerar uma estimativa não-polarizada do gradiente do critério de desempenho, que é então minimizado através de algum variante do método de Newton. Alguns resultados da literatura tratam da aplicação do IFT em sistemas não-lineares, sempre sob a condição de diferenciabilidade da não-linearidade (linearização em torno do ponto de operação). Um exemplo prático da aplicação do método na sintonia do controlador de um servomotor com folga é o único resultado encontrado. Este trabalho investiga, através de casos simulados e práticos, a aplicabilidade do método IFT em sistemas com não-linearidades não-diferenciáveis comumente encontradas em sistemas mecânicos, como a folga e a zona-morta, e a saturação, presente em todo e qualquer sistema físico. / Data based control methods use data collected from a plant’s “regular” operation to minimize a performance criterion, typically in quadratic form, without any information about a system’s model. Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) is one such method that uses closed-loop operating data to generate an unbiased estimate of the cost criterion gradient, which is then minimized with some form of the Newton method. Results in the literature for IFT applied to non-linear systems require that the non-linearity is differentiable (basically, linearizing the system around an operating point). One practical application of the algorithm to tune a controller for a servomotor system with backlash is the only result found. This work investigates, using simulated and practical examples, the suitability of the use of IFT in systems with non-differentiable non-linearities commonly found in mechanical systems, such as backlash and dead-zone, and saturation, found in every physical system.

Métodos de controle baseado em dados utilizam dados de operação da planta para minimizar algum critério de desempenho, tipicamente quadrático, sem que seja necessário o conhecimento de um modelo da planta. O Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) é um destes métodos, utilizando dados obtidos da operação da planta em malha fechada para gerar uma estimativa não-polarizada do gradiente do critério de desempenho, que é então minimizado através de algum variante do método de Newton. Alguns resultados da literatura tratam da aplicação do IFT em sistemas não-lineares, sempre sob a condição de diferenciabilidade da não-linearidade (linearização em torno do ponto de operação). Um exemplo prático da aplicação do método na sintonia do controlador de um servomotor com folga é o único resultado encontrado. Este trabalho investiga, através de casos simulados e práticos, a aplicabilidade do método IFT em sistemas com não-linearidades não-diferenciáveis comumente encontradas em sistemas mecânicos, como a folga e a zona-morta, e a saturação, presente em todo e qualquer sistema físico. / Data based control methods use data collected from a plant’s “regular” operation to minimize a performance criterion, typically in quadratic form, without any information about a system’s model. Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) is one such method that uses closed-loop operating data to generate an unbiased estimate of the cost criterion gradient, which is then minimized with some form of the Newton method. Results in the literature for IFT applied to non-linear systems require that the non-linearity is differentiable (basically, linearizing the system around an operating point). One practical application of the algorithm to tune a controller for a servomotor system with backlash is the only result found. This work investigates, using simulated and practical examples, the suitability of the use of IFT in systems with non-differentiable non-linearities commonly found in mechanical systems, such as backlash and dead-zone, and saturation, found in every physical system.

Métodos de controle baseado em dados utilizam dados de operação da planta para minimizar algum critério de desempenho, tipicamente quadrático, sem que seja necessário o conhecimento de um modelo da planta. O Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) é um destes métodos, utilizando dados obtidos da operação da planta em malha fechada para gerar uma estimativa não-polarizada do gradiente do critério de desempenho, que é então minimizado através de algum variante do método de Newton. Alguns resultados da literatura tratam da aplicação do IFT em sistemas não-lineares, sempre sob a condição de diferenciabilidade da não-linearidade (linearização em torno do ponto de operação). Um exemplo prático da aplicação do método na sintonia do controlador de um servomotor com folga é o único resultado encontrado. Este trabalho investiga, através de casos simulados e práticos, a aplicabilidade do método IFT em sistemas com não-linearidades não-diferenciáveis comumente encontradas em sistemas mecânicos, como a folga e a zona-morta, e a saturação, presente em todo e qualquer sistema físico. / Data based control methods use data collected from a plant’s “regular” operation to minimize a performance criterion, typically in quadratic form, without any information about a system’s model. Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) is one such method that uses closed-loop operating data to generate an unbiased estimate of the cost criterion gradient, which is then minimized with some form of the Newton method. Results in the literature for IFT applied to non-linear systems require that the non-linearity is differentiable (basically, linearizing the system around an operating point). One practical application of the algorithm to tune a controller for a servomotor system with backlash is the only result found. This work investigates, using simulated and practical examples, the suitability of the use of IFT in systems with non-differentiable non-linearities commonly found in mechanical systems, such as backlash and dead-zone, and saturation, found in every physical system.