Condition-based maintenance is an important aspect in various industries to ensure reliable operation of machinery. To successfully execute maintenance responsibilities, it is required to know which components are healthy and which are in a damaged state. Thus, the need for effective incipient fault detection requires a method that can separate fault signatures from operating condition information. Conventional gearbox monitoring techniques assume that a change in the vibration signal is caused by the presence of a fault. Under constant operating conditions this assumption may be valid, but under fluctuating conditions the assumption does not hold. Fluctuating operating conditions are inevitable for gearboxes in mining and wind turbine industries due to fluctuating ground and wind properties. The fluctuating conditions cause smearing of the signal frequency spectrum and valuable diagnostic information is lost when using classical condition monitoring techniques. More sophisticated signal processing techniques are therefore needed to effectively diagnose incipient faults to make informed asset management decisions. In this dissertation, envelope analysis, which has long been recognized as one of the best methods for bearing fault diagnosis, is used as the primary diagnostic tool. A common precursor to envelope analysis is bandpass filtering which is aimed at emphasising bearing faults and removing background noise and deterministic components. Identification and optimal selection of the informative frequency band which contains damage related information is the focus area for research in this dissertation. Many automatic band selection techniques exist and have proven effective under constant speed conditions. However, it has been shown that these techniques occasionally identify frequency bands that contain non-damage related information, especially under fluctuating speeds and low damage levels. With this research, a new methodology is proposed which makes use of popular informative frequency band selection techniques, such as the Fast Kurtogram amongst others, to effectively identify damage under constant and fluctuating speed conditions. The proposed methodology uses both healthy and damaged vibration signals to identify novelty information. In doing so, the method can also identify damage earlier than existing methods. The technique is designed to ignore potentially dominant deterministic components which would lead to incorrect band selection for envelope analysis. Furthermore, pre-whitening of vibration signals is a common technique to enhance the bearing signal-to-noise ratio. Without pre-whitening, random noise and deterministic components often dominate the bearing fault signatures and render existing diagnostic techniques ineffective. The proposed methodology is shown to be more robust than existing automatic band selection methods because it requires no pre-whitening. By using both healthy and damaged signals, the proposed methodology favours frequency bands that contain damage related information. The findings in this dissertation are validated on a range of synthetic signals as well as on actual experimental data. The synthetic signals are constructed from a phenomenological gearbox model where the exact operating and bearing condition can be controlled. The experimental results are statistically compared for a wide range of signals and damage levels such that the robustness of the proposed method can be critically evaluated. It was found that the new method is capable of outperforming existing methods in terms of percentage classification of bearing signals with outer race damage and can detect damage with smaller fault severity. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

<p>The next generation satellite communication networks will provide multimedia services supporting high bit rate, mobility, ATM, and TCP/IP. In these cases, the satellite technology will act as the internetwork infrastructure of future global systems and assuming a global wireless system, no distinctions will exist between terrestrial and satellite communications systems, as well as between fixed and 3G mobile networks. In order for satellites to be successful, they must handle bursty traffic from users and provide services compatible with existing ISDN infrastructure, narrowcasting/multicasting services not offered by terrestrial ISDN, TCP/IP-compatible services for data applications, and point-to-point or point-to-multipoint on-demand compressed video services. This calls for onboard processing payloads capable of frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing and interference suppression.</p><p>This thesis introduces a new class of oversampled complex modulated filter banks capable of providing frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing. Under certain system constraints, the system can handle all possible shifts of different user signals and provide variable bandwidths to users. Furthermore, the aliasing signals are attenuated by the stopband attenuation of the channel filter thus ensuring the approximation of the perfect reconstruction property as close as desired. Study of the system efficient implementation and its mathematical representation shows that the proposed system has superiority over the existing approaches for Bentpipe payloads from the flexibility, complexity, and perfect reconstruction points of view. The system is analyzed in both SISO and MIMO cases. For the MIMO case, two different scenarios for frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing are discussed.</p><p>To verify the results of the mathematical analysis, simulation results for SISO, two scenarios of MIMO, and effects of the finite word length on the system performance are illustrated. Simulation results show that the system can perform frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing and the stopband attenuation of the prototype filter controls the aliasing signals since the filter coefficients resolution plays the major role on the system performance. Hence, the system can approximate perfect reconstruction property by proper choice of resolution.</p>

The next generation satellite communication networks will provide multimedia services supporting high bit rate, mobility, ATM, and TCP/IP. In these cases, the satellite technology will act as the internetwork infrastructure of future global systems and assuming a global wireless system, no distinctions will exist between terrestrial and satellite communications systems, as well as between fixed and 3G mobile networks. In order for satellites to be successful, they must handle bursty traffic from users and provide services compatible with existing ISDN infrastructure, narrowcasting/multicasting services not offered by terrestrial ISDN, TCP/IP-compatible services for data applications, and point-to-point or point-to-multipoint on-demand compressed video services. This calls for onboard processing payloads capable of frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing and interference suppression. This thesis introduces a new class of oversampled complex modulated filter banks capable of providing frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing. Under certain system constraints, the system can handle all possible shifts of different user signals and provide variable bandwidths to users. Furthermore, the aliasing signals are attenuated by the stopband attenuation of the channel filter thus ensuring the approximation of the perfect reconstruction property as close as desired. Study of the system efficient implementation and its mathematical representation shows that the proposed system has superiority over the existing approaches for Bentpipe payloads from the flexibility, complexity, and perfect reconstruction points of view. The system is analyzed in both SISO and MIMO cases. For the MIMO case, two different scenarios for frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing are discussed. To verify the results of the mathematical analysis, simulation results for SISO, two scenarios of MIMO, and effects of the finite word length on the system performance are illustrated. Simulation results show that the system can perform frequency multiplexing and demultiplexing and the stopband attenuation of the prototype filter controls the aliasing signals since the filter coefficients resolution plays the major role on the system performance. Hence, the system can approximate perfect reconstruction property by proper choice of resolution.

Bloch analysis was originally developed by Felix Bloch to solve Schrödinger's equation for the electron wave function in a periodic potential field, such as that found in a pristine crystalline solid. His method has since been adapted to study elastic wave propagation in periodic structures. The absence of a rigorous mathematical analysis of the approach, as applied to periodic structures, has resulted in mistreatment of internal forces and misapplication to nonlinear media. In this thesis, we detail a mathematical basis for Bloch analysis and thereby shed important light on the proper application of the technique. We show conclusively that translational invariance is not a proper justification for invoking the existence of a "propagation constant," and that in nonlinear media this results in a flawed analysis. Next, we propose a general framework for applying Bloch analysis in damped systems and investigate the effect of damping on dispersion curves. In the context of Schrödinger's equation, damping is absent and energy is conserved. In the damped setting, application of Bloch analysis is not straight-forward and requires additional considerations in order to obtain valid results. Results are presented in which the approach is applied to example structures. These results reveal that damping may introduce wavenumber band gaps and bending of dispersion curves such that two or more temporal frequencies exist for each dispersion curve and wavenumber. We close the thesis by deriving conditions which predict the number of wavevectors at each frequency in a dispersion relation. This has important implications for the number of nearest neighbor interactions that must be included in a model in order to obtain dispersion predictions which match experiment.

Presents results of research in the field of low-level electromagnetic fields interacting with the higher organisms, in the frequency band from 0,01 to 30 Hz effect on the individual or social group. Provides a description of the methodology of measuring and evaluating the impact of workplace assembled measuring low-level electromagnetic fields, extremely low frequency (ELF) on a sample of respondents. It was proposed measuring device for monitoring and evaluating how respondents' reactions to changes in the geomagnetic or external - external magnetic / electromagnetic field and to work for the measurement and evaluation of changes in external magnetic fields very low levels (ELF). This work is designed to process and evaluate implemented within experimental research into the influence of low-level magnetic fields in the Earth's resonator psychophysiological parameters of human organism and its behavior and decision-making. The work confirmed the influence of low-level magnetic fields on the psychophysiological parameters of the organism to be simultaneously confirmed the hypothesis established in accordance with the objectives of work.

This thesis proposes novel methods to address specific challenges in analyzing the frequency- and time-domain properties of nonstationary time series data motivated by the study of electrophysiological signals. A new method is proposed for the simultaneous and automatic analysis of the association between the time-varying power spectrum and covariates. The procedure adaptively partitions the grid of time and covariate values into an unknown number of approximately stationary blocks and nonparametrically estimates local spectra within blocks through penalized splines. The approach is formulated in a fully Bayesian framework, in which the number and locations of partition points are random, and fit using reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques. Estimation and inference averaged over the distribution of partitions allows for the accurate analysis of spectra with both smooth and abrupt changes. The new methodology is used to analyze the association between the time-varying spectrum of heart rate variability and self-reported sleep quality in a study of older adults serving as the primary caregiver for their ill spouse. Another method proposed in this dissertation develops a unique framework for automatically identifying bands of frequencies exhibiting similar nonstationary behavior. This proposal provides a standardized, unifying approach to constructing customized frequency bands for different signals under study across different settings. A frequency-domain, iterative cumulative sum procedure is formulated to identify frequency bands that exhibit similar nonstationary patterns in the power spectrum through time. A formal hypothesis testing procedure is also developed to test which, if any, frequency bands remain stationary. This method is shown to consistently estimate the number of frequency bands and the location of the upper and lower bounds defining each frequency band. This method is used to estimate frequency bands useful in summarizing nonstationary behavior of full night heart rate variability data. / Statistics

The goal of this thesis is design and build rectangular patch antenna for 60 GHz band, matched to 50 Ohms. First section described general knowledges about microstrips antennas and technologies for 60 GHz band. Second section introduced rectangular patch antenna feeded by miscrostrip line matched by quarter wave transformer on CuClad 217 substrate. Third section introduced two structural modification of rectangular patch antenna and measurements of return loss |S11|.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / With explosive growth in the satellite communication market. there is an increasing need for the satellite network service providers to support many satellites with a common Telemetry, Tracking, and Commanding (TT&C) assets. The open bus technology, and Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Hardware and Software components, provides an opportunity to build a common IF and baseband systems that will support many satellites with different frequencies and protocols. However, the high frequency front end components of the ground station such as antenna or HPA can not be common due to different gain and polarization requirements of the various communication bands and frequencies. The system architecture presented in this paper offers such system that is interoperable and reconfigurable in near real-time to support multiple frequency and multiple communication protocols.

Ce travail de recherche présente une extension de la construction classique des modèles réduits (ROMs) obtenus par analyse modale, en dynamique numérique des structures linéaires. Cette extension est basée sur une stratégie de projection multi-niveau, pour l'analyse dynamique des structures complexes en présence d'incertitudes. De nos jours, il est admis qu'en dynamique des structures, la prévision sur une large bande de fréquence obtenue à l'aide d'un modèle éléments finis doit être améliorée en tenant compte des incertitudes de modèle induites par les erreurs de modélisation, dont le rôle croît avec la fréquence. Dans un tel contexte, l'approche probabiliste non-paramétrique des incertitudes est utilisée, laquelle requiert l'introduction d'un ROM. Par conséquent, ces deux aspects, évolution fréquentielle des niveaux d'incertitudes et réduction de modèle, nous conduisent à considérer le développement d'un ROM multi-niveau, pour lequel les niveaux d'incertitudes dans chaque partie de la bande de fréquence peuvent être adaptés. Dans cette thèse, on s'intéresse à l'analyse dynamique de structures complexes caractérisées par la présence de plusieurs niveaux structuraux, par exemple avec un squelette rigide qui supporte diverses sous-parties flexibles. Pour de telles structures, il est possible d'avoir, en plus des modes élastiques habituels dont les déplacements associés au squelette sont globaux, l'apparition de nombreux modes élastiques locaux, qui correspondent à des vibrations prédominantes des sous-parties flexibles. Pour ces structures complexes, la densité modale est susceptible d'augmenter fortement dès les basses fréquences (BF), conduisant, via la méthode d'analyse modale, à des ROMs de grande dimension (avec potentiellement des milliers de modes élastiques en BF). De plus, de tels ROMs peuvent manquer de robustesse vis-à-vis des incertitudes, en raison des nombreux déplacements locaux qui sont très sensibles aux incertitudes. Il convient de noter qu'au contraire des déplacements globaux de grande longueur d'onde caractérisant la bande BF, les déplacements locaux associés aux sous-parties flexibles de la structure, qui peuvent alors apparaître dès la bande BF, sont caractérisés par de courtes longueurs d'onde, similairement au comportement dans la bande hautes fréquences (HF). Par conséquent, pour les structures complexes considérées, les trois régimes vibratoires BF, MF et HF se recouvrent, et de nombreux modes élastiques locaux sont entremêlés avec les modes élastiques globaux habituels. Cela implique deux difficultés majeures, concernant la quantification des incertitudes d'une part et le coût numérique d'autre part. L'objectif de cette thèse est alors double. Premièrement, fournir un ROM stochastique multi-niveau qui est capable de rendre compte de la variabilité hétérogène introduite par le recouvrement des trois régimes vibratoires. Deuxièmement, fournir un ROM prédictif de dimension réduite par rapport à celui de l'analyse modale. Une méthode générale est présentée pour la construction d'un ROM multi-niveau, basée sur trois bases réduites (ROBs) dont les déplacements correspondent à l'un ou l'autre des régimes vibratoires BF, MF ou HF (associés à des déplacements de type BF, de type MF ou bien de type HF). Ces ROBs sont obtenues via une méthode de filtrage utilisant des fonctions de forme globales pour l'énergie cinétique (par opposition aux fonctions de forme locales des éléments finis). L'implémentation de l'approche probabiliste non-paramétrique dans le ROM multi-niveau permet d'obtenir un ROM stochastique multi-niveau avec lequel il est possible d'attribuer un niveau d'incertitude spécifique à chaque ROB. L'application présentée est relative à une automobile, pour laquelle le ROM stochastique multi-niveau est identifié par rapport à des mesures expérimentales. Le ROM proposé permet d'obtenir une dimension réduite ainsi qu'une prévision améliorée, en comparaison avec un ROM stochastique classique / This work deals with an extension of the classical construction of reduced-order models (ROMs) that are obtained through modal analysis in computational linear structural dynamics. It is based on a multilevel projection strategy and devoted to complex structures with uncertainties. Nowadays, it is well recognized that the predictions in structural dynamics over a broad frequency band by using a finite element model must be improved in taking into account the model uncertainties induced by the modeling errors, for which the role increases with the frequency. In such a framework, the nonparametric probabilistic approach of uncertainties is used, which requires the introduction of a ROM. Consequently, these two aspects, frequency-evolution of the uncertainties and reduced-order modeling, lead us to consider the development of a multilevel ROM in computational structural dynamics, which has the capability to adapt the level of uncertainties to each part of the frequency band. In this thesis, we are interested in the dynamical analysis of complex structures in a broad frequency band. By complex structure is intended a structure with complex geometry, constituted of heterogeneous materials and more specifically, characterized by the presence of several structural levels, for instance, a structure that is made up of a stiff main part embedding various flexible sub-parts. For such structures, it is possible having, in addition to the usual global-displacements elastic modes associated with the stiff skeleton, the apparition of numerous local elastic modes, which correspond to predominant vibrations of the flexible sub-parts. For such complex structures, the modal density may substantially increase as soon as low frequencies, leading to high-dimension ROMs with the modal analysis method (with potentially thousands of elastic modes in low frequencies). In addition, such ROMs may suffer from a lack of robustness with respect to uncertainty, because of the presence of the numerous local displacements, which are known to be very sensitive to uncertainties. It should be noted that in contrast to the usual long-wavelength global displacements of the low-frequency (LF) band, the local displacements associated with the structural sub-levels, which can then also appear in the LF band, are characterized by short wavelengths, similarly to high-frequency (HF) displacements. As a result, for the complex structures considered, there is an overlap of the three vibration regimes, LF, MF, and HF, and numerous local elastic modes are intertwined with the usual global elastic modes. This implies two major difficulties, pertaining to uncertainty quantification and to computational efficiency. The objective of this thesis is thus double. First, to provide a multilevel stochastic ROM that is able to take into account the heterogeneous variability introduced by the overlap of the three vibration regimes. Second, to provide a predictive ROM whose dimension is decreased with respect to the classical ROM of the modal analysis method. A general method is presented for the construction of a multilevel ROM, based on three orthogonal reduced-order bases (ROBs) whose displacements are either LF-, MF-, or HF-type displacements (associated with the overlapping LF, MF, and HF vibration regimes). The construction of these ROBs relies on a filtering strategy that is based on the introduction of global shape functions for the kinetic energy (in contrast to the local shape functions of the finite elements). Implementing the nonparametric probabilistic approach in the multilevel ROM allows each type of displacements to be affected by a particular level of uncertainties. The method is applied to a car, for which the multilevel stochastic ROM is identified with respect to experiments, solving a statistical inverse problem. The proposed ROM allows for obtaining a decreased dimension as well as an improved prediction with respect to a classical stochastic ROM

The aim of this diploma thesis is to study the possibilities and problems of low-profile antennas and subsequently to design a directional antenna with spherical reflector for millimeter wavelengths. The theoretical part deals with basic information about horn and reflector antennas, and about SIW technology. In addition, the thesis deals with the specific design and modeling of the antenna using CST Microwave Studio. The simulated design achieved a sufficient bandwidth to cover ISM (57 GHz to 64 GHz) with gain 13.6 dBi at 60 GHz frequency. On fabricated antenna, the antenna impedance ratios were worse and the target bandwidth was not reached. Antenna gain was 14.33 dBi at 60 GHz frequency.