In the Directed Steiner Tree problem, we are given a directed graph G = (V,E) with edge costs, a root vertex r ∈ V, and a terminal set X ⊆ V . The goal is to find the cheapest subset of edges that contains an r-t path for every terminal t ∈ X. The only known polylogarithmic approximations for Directed Steiner Tree run in quasi-polynomial time and the best polynomial time approximations only achieve a guarantee of O(|X|^ε) for any constant ε > 0. Furthermore, the integrality gap of a natural LP relaxation can be as bad as Ω(√|X|).  We demonstrate that l rounds of the Sherali-Adams hierarchy suffice to reduce the integrality gap of a natural LP relaxation for Directed Steiner Tree in l-layered graphs from Ω( k) to O(l · log k) where k is the number of terminals. This is an improvement over Rothvoss’ result that 2l rounds of the considerably stronger Lasserre SDP hierarchy reduce the integrality gap of a similar formulation to O(l · log k). We also observe that Directed Steiner Tree instances with 3 layers of edges have only an O(logk) integrality gap bound in the standard LP relaxation, complementing the fact that the gap can be as large as Ω(√k) in graphs with 4 layers. Finally, we consider quasi-bipartite instances of Directed Steiner Tree meaning no edge in E connects two Steiner nodes V − (X ∪ {r}). By a simple reduction from Set Cover, it is still NP-hard to approximate quasi-bipartite instances within a ratio better than O(log|X|). We present a polynomial-time O(log |X|)-approximation for quasi-bipartite instances of Directed Steiner Tree. Our approach also bounds the integrality gap of the natural LP relaxation by the same quantity. A novel feature of our algorithm is that it is based on the primal-dual framework, which typically does not result in good approximations for network design problems in directed graphs.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2008. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on March 17, 2009. Major professor: David D. Marshall. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering." "June 2008." Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-127). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Dimitri N. Mavris, Committee Chair ; Lakshmi N. Sankar, Committee Member ; Daniel P. Schrage, Committee Member ; Robert J. Englar, Committee Member ; Robert C. Michelson, Committee Member.

The material handling industry is facing new challenges with the divergence from the established EUR-pallet. In correlation with the autonomous technology which is becoming more advanced, available and affordable than ever before, new demands are created. The industry calls for innovative material handling automated guided vehicles to meet the requirements. These vehicles will increase the owners profit by being more efficient in terms of time, size and cost. The aim for this study is to develop suitable lifting mechanisms for an ultra-compact automated guided vehicle. A generic product development process is utilized. The requirements for the lifting mechanism is defined and presented in a specification. A selection of employees are involved in the ideation and concept generation to add in-house knowledge and experience. The concepts are developed with component research, 3D visualizations and concept descriptions. The concepts are evaluated and the most promising are selected. The selected concepts are further developed with CAD-models, calculations and a selection of components. The concepts are compared with each other and the initial specification to assess the most suitable lifting mechanism. The single acting hydraulic system, including a Micro Power Pack and four small hydraulic cylinders, is considered the best suitable choice for an ultracompact material handling automated guided vehicle.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas, Florianópolis, 2009 / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-24T11:52:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 269434.pdf: 2858553 bytes, checksum: a40fb9d6bf0b6863a34590d7ae283c8a (MD5) / A repartida de poços é um procedimento de alta complexidade. Em uma repartida mal executada, a vazão de líquido pode apresentar um comportamento oscilatório com variações bruscas, denominado #golfada severa#, o que é indesejável por diminuir a produtividade; atrapalhar o processo de separação, que ocorre à pressão constante; ou, até mesmo, levar ao desligamento do sistema. Atualmente, a repartida é realizada de forma manual, seguindo um caráter conservativo. A execução é baseada principalmente na experiência dos operadores, onde visa-se amenizar as golfadas até que o poço atinja o ponto de operação. A eficiência do procedimento é altamente dependente do operador. A troca de turno dos operadores pode levar a diferentes formas de execução da repartida, indicando a existência de uma grande variabilidade do procedimento. Neste trabalho, é apresentada uma análise do procedimento de repartida para o mapeamento e a compreensão dos principais fenômenos e como estes se manifestam durante sua execução. É proposta a automatização da repartida com o objetivo de propiciar uma repartida suave e diminuir o grau de influência do operador. São propostas duas estratégias de controle utilizando a medição da pressão de fundo e atuando na abertura do choke de produção. A primeira, é baseada na curva estática que relaciona a pressão de fundo à vazão de gás de injeção. Esta pressão define a quantidade de líquido que entra no tubo de produção. A estratégia é formulada de forma intuitiva, e procura variar a pressão de fundo de acordo com a vazão de gás injetado, regulando indiretamente a vazão de líquido. A malha de controle faz uso de um controlador PI e a referência é calculada através de um algoritmo estimador de pressão de fundo baseado na vazão de injeção. Na segunda estratégia, um controlador nebuloso é projetado para retratar a forma de atuação que um operador teria durante a execução do procedimento. As estratégias propostas são testadas no simulado OLGA2000, da empresa ScandpowerPT, utilizando um modelo validado experimentalmente. Resultados de simulação mostram que ambas técnicas atendem às especificações, e que portanto propiciam uma repartida suave, amenizando as golfadas severas. / The gas-lift wells restart process has high complexity. If the procedure is not carefully executed, the production liquid flowrate can show an oscillatory behaviour, called #severe slugs#. This situation is undesirable because it causes productivity loss, decreases oil-watergas separation process performance or can lead to the shutdown of the system. Nowadays at the production fields, the restart process is still performed manually, following a conservative way and based on the human operator knowledge. The main objective relies on supressing the liquid slug until the system reaches its production operation point. However, the process efficiency and variability have high level dependence of the human operator. In this work, an analysis of the process is presented in order to better understand the behaviour of the main process variables. Moreover, a process automation is proposed in order to execute a well-behaved restart. Two free model strategies are presented, using the downhole pressure measurement as controlled variable and the choke openning as manipulated variable. The first strategy is based on the steady-state curve which gives the downhole pressure as function of the injection gas flowrate. This pressure defines the liquid flowing from the well into the tubing bottom. The strategy tries to mantain the downhole pressure close to its steadystate value depending on the gas flowrate being injected into the well, and thus, indirectly regulating the liquid flowrate at the tubing bottom. The downhole pressure setpoint is calculated through an estimaton algorithm considering the gas flowrate as input. A control loop is designed using a switching PI controller. The second strategy relies on a fuzzy logic control system. The controller is designed trying to retract the action sequence of the manually execution. The two proposed strategies are tested using an experimentally validated model implemented in the OLGA2000 simulator of ScandpowerPT. Simulations results show that both techniques provide an adequate restart process avoiding the #severe slugs.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-26T08:51:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 303356.pdf: 3566227 bytes, checksum: 8f1f75f1fcdcf746c471b25658f476a3 (MD5) / O método de elevação via gas-lift contínuo trata-se de um método muito utilizado pela indústria de petróleo, inclusive no Brasil onde é responsável por mais de 70% da produção. Essa grande utilização justifica a necessidade de ampliar os estudos e portanto do desenvolvimento de um modelo que consiga descrever os comportamentos dinâmicos e de regime permanente. Além disso, quando o poço opera com baixas vazão de injeção de gás podem ocorrer dois fenômenos oscilatórios característicos desse método de elevação, o Heading e o Density Wave, que também precisam ser descritos pelo modelo. O objetivo deste trabalho é então desenvolver um modelo fenomenológico simplificado que consiga descrever todos esses comportamentos. Para isso são aplicados os princípios de conservação de massa e de quantidade de movimento, como efeito de simplificação não foi considerado o princípio de conservação de energia, adotando-se uma temperatura constante para todo o comprimento do poço. Para validação dos resultados utilizou-se um simulador comercial, cujos dados foram confrontados aos do modelo. Como possíveis aplicações foi apresentada uma nova estratégia de controle e um exemplo de otimização do produção de óleo. / Gas-lift is an artificial lift method widely used by the petroleum industry, especially in Brazil where it is responsible for more than 70% of the total oil production. This widespread use justifies the need to expand the studies and therefore the development of a model that can describe its dynamic and steady-state behavior. Moreover, when the well operates with low gas injection flow rates two oscillatory phenomena, heading and density wave, characteristic of this elevation method, may happen and must be described by the model. The objective of this work is then to develop a simplified phenomenological model that can describe all these behaviors. For this purpose the mass and momentum conservation laws are applied. In order to obtain a simple but representative model the energy conservation law was not considered adopting a constant temperature throughout the length of the well. To validate the model results a commercial simulator was used. Examples of the model application in the area of control and optimization are presented. A new control strategy for heading and density wave phenomena is developed and simulated and the simulation results obtained with the optimization of the oil production of a group of wells is presented.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas, Florianópolis, 2016. / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-04T04:08:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 344655.pdf: 1117941 bytes, checksum: a45c92ea3c17a0805934928a27206a2e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / A otimização da produção de poços de petróleo operados por injeção contínua de gás (gas-lift) sob restrições de roteamento e pressão é um problema que tem sido bastante abordado na literatura técnica.Na busca por uma representação da relação em regime permanente entre variáveis do processo, recorre-se, frequentemente, a funções algébricas. Funções essas derivadas a partir de um conjunto de dados obtidos de medições reais ou de simuladores fenomenológicos do processo. Dois métodos são comumente usados para aproximar essas relações: modelos não lineares e lineares por partes. Modelos não lineares são resolvidos por abordagens "caixa-preta" ou fazem uso de substituições obtidas por meio de ajustes nas funções que envolvem o problema, o que permite resolver problemas difíceis.Já os modelos lineares por partes são bastante eficientes no sentido de permitirem que se alcance ótimos globais, entretanto, inserem no problema de otimização um número elevado de variáveis quando são utilizadas muitas curvas para a representação do modelo.Nessa dissertação é proposta uma abordagem genérica para a solução do problema a partir de aproximações lineares ou quadráticas côncavas para curvas de produção de poços e funções lineares ou quadráticas convexas para curvas de queda de pressão. O resultado é uma formulação em Programação Convexa Inteira Mista a qual é mais compacta e permite que se alcance o ótimo global. No entanto, utilizando somente aproximações lineares para curvas de produção de poços e queda de pressão, o modelo se torna de Programação Linear Inteira Mista, o qual é mais eficiente quando aplicado a modelos com um menor fatiamento do domínio.Duas formulações foram desenvolvidas e suas eficiências foram analisadas em termos de análise computacional para um campo de petróleo sintético representativo. Além disso, demonstra-se que essas formulações são equivalentes e podem ser utilizadas para a solução do problema de otimização da produção de petróleo.<br> / Abstract : The optimization of oil wells operated by gas-lift under facility, routing and pressure constraints is a problem that is being addressed in the technical literature. Due to the presence of unknown functions that are not given in explicit form, two methods are commonly used to approximate such relations: nonlinear and piecewise-linear models. The nonlinear methods fall into derivative-free or black-box approaches, or make use of surrogates obtained by curve fitting procedures, which can entail solving challenging problems. Piecewise linear models are efficient in order to reach globally optimal solutions, but their models tend to get very large because of the number of variables inserted in the problem.In this work, it is proposed a generic approach relying on linear or concave quadratic approximations for well production curves and linear or convex quadratic functions for pressure drops combining all possibilities of approximations. The result is a Mixed-Integer Convex Programming (MICP) formulation which is more compact and allows the global optimum to be reached. However, using only linear curves for well production and pressure-drop curves the model becomes a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation which is more efficient when applied in smaller domain divisions.Two formulations were developed and their performance were assessed by means of computational analysis for a representative synthetic oil field.

O cadeirante enfrenta diversos obstáculos ao longo do seu trajeto e diversas restrições de mobilidade. Assim, uma cadeira de rodas que permita ao usuário acessar objetos que estejam fora de seu limite de alcance especificamente o vertical com maior facilidade, proporcionar também maior conforto durante um diálogo com outras pessoas, entre outras situações. Esse trabalho tem como objetivo adaptar uma cadeira de rodas comum, com um sistema de automático elevação vertical em seu assento, que permite ao usuário ficar com uma altura equivalente à altura média humana, estando a pessoa em posição vertical ou seja em pé. O sistema de elevação automatizado do assento foi feito através de um mecanismo simples com comando elétrico, que possui facilidade na manutenção, e de baixo custo, tornando-a acessível a todas as classes sociais. / People with disabilities using wheelchairs face several obstacles along their path and various mobility restrictions. A wheelchair that allows the user to access objects that are out the range of his vertical limits provides quality of life, improves self-esteem and comfort for many situations, such as a dialogue with others. This project aims to adapt a common wheelchair with an automatic vertical elevation system attached to seat that allows the user to stay with a height equal to the human average height, being the person in an upright position standing. The automated elevation system was done through a simple mechanism with electric drive, which features easy maintenance, low cost, making it accessible to all social classes.

Visible light emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in daily consumer electronics systems, such as general lighting, displays, communication, sensing, and also biomedical applications. To mitigate the ever increasing technology demand, there are tremendous on-going efforts in improving material properties and micro-fabrication techniques. In general, visible LEDs are environmentally friendly, robust and reliable light emitters with small device footprint, and are capable of delivering high luminous efficacy. Typically, LEDs rely on group-III-nitride materials to generate visible light. One of the techniques to generate white light is to coat blue LEDs with yellow phosphor, or ultraviolet (UV) LEDs with red-green-blue (RGB) phosphor. Other scheme relies on combination of RGB LEDs, where high brightness green and blue LEDs are generally grown on robust sapphire substrate. But the current challenges in high threading dislocation density of III-Nitride materials on sapphire or hetero-substrate, phosphor degradation, and bulk-LED mechanical design constraints imposed by the supporting substrate wafer motivate further scientific investigations into strain-engineering, novel reliable phosphor-semiconductor, color-tuning techniques, and transferrable III-nitride vertical LEDs. The current research presents a significant step towards the utilization of annealed porous GaN as a template for subsequent growth of fully relaxed GaN-based epitaxy materials. In our study, we observed significant compressive strain relaxation of 0.41 ± 0.04 GPa in annealed porous GaN fabricated using UV-assisted electroless etching. Moreover the use of GaN nanoparticles with large wavelength tunability and 10 µm InGaN microstructures with different indium composition ushers a new way of making reliable phosphor for white light generation. We also investigate the epitaxial lift-off of InGaN LED structures by selectively etching unintentionally doped GaN sacrificial buffer layer. High GaN/InGaN etching selectivity of 100/1 and with GaN lateral etch-rate of 5 µm/min was achieved using the photo assisted electroless etching process. The kinetics of electron hole transfer in the diffusion limited etching reaction is discussed. Transferred LEDs onto flexible and glass substrates showed ~10 times higher optical power output, 2 times lower series resistance and a lower turn-on voltage than bulk LEDs fabricated from the same wafer. This innovative technique offers a low cost optoelectronic platform for the formation of pixelated red, green and blue (RGB) display on any flexible, transparent or rigid substrates. The technique will also enable new platform for sensing, wearable electronics/optoelectronics and biomedical applications.

This diploma thesis is concerned with the design of lift table with hydraulic actuator system. Lift table is supposed to perform vertical motion and tilting the upper desk in horizontal axis. In background research are explored various suitable movement mechanisms and types of actuating systems. After choosing the right mechanism type for lifting and tilting, actuating system and various design components the force and strength calculations are performed analytically and by finite element analysis. The hydraulic schema, 3D model of assembly and drawings are made.