O sistema elétrico brasileiro possui atualmente níveis de perdas elétricas da ordem de 15%. Destes, aproximadamente a metade são provenientes das chamadas perdas comerciais (PC) que ocorrem nos sistemas de distribuição. As PC são a soma de toda energia não faturada pelas distribuidoras, á exceção das perdas técnicas. As suas causas mais frequentes são os furtos de energia elétrica, fraudes e defeitos em medidores. Os custos provenientes dessas perdas são normalmente repassados pelas distribuidoras aos consumidores regulares. No entanto, novas regulamentações do regulador brasileiro do sistema elétrico, a Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL), impõem limite a esse repasse, o que cria nas concessionárias um maior incentivo para o seu combate. Entre as metodologias empregadas para a mitigação de PC, tem sido destacadas na literatura aquelas baseadas na análise das bases de dados de clientes das empresas distribuidoras com o objetivo de reconhecer padrões de clientes irregulares. Neste contexto, neste trabalho é proposto e desenvolvido um sistema de combate a PC baseado no classificador supervisionado Floresta de Caminhos Ótimos (Optimum-Path Forest, OPF). São propostas a utilização de dados categóricos e a normalização de dados como modificações nos métodos encontrados na literatura. Os testes com o sistema desenvolvido são aplicado a uma base de dados sintetizada a partir de clientes residenciais, diferentemente de trabalhos em que se utilizaram dados de consumidores comerciais e industriais. Os resultados mostram que as modificações propostas podem melhorar o desempenho do OPF. O comparativo com outros métodos de classificação reafirma a eficiência do OPF mas contesta alguns resultados presentes na literatura. / The Brazilian electric power system has about 15% of losses. About a half of this amount is due to the so called commercial losses. The commercial losses are the sum of the unbilled energy less the technical losses. The commercial losses are mainly caused by electricity theft, frauds in electricity meters and electricity meter failure. The financial costs caused by these losses are included in the electricity bill, paid by the regular consumers. New regulations approved by the Brazilian regulatory agency for the electric system create a limit for this, which stimulates the investments in commercial loss mitigation by distribution companies. Among the methods used to mitigate commercial losses, those based on pattern recognition of irregular consumers within electric companies’ clients’ databases are some of the most promising. In this work, a system for commercial losses mitigation based on the supervised classifier Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) is studied and developed. Categorical data and data normalization are proposed as methods for improving classifier performance. In order to check the system performance, tests are conducted on a database derived from residential consumer data found in the literature, differently from other works which proposed data classification for commercial and industrial consumers only. The results show that using categorical data and normalization may improve OPF performance. Comparing this method with other classifiers confirms OPF’s efficiency but contests some results shown in the literature.

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Precast, prestressed concrete panels (PCPs) are used in 85% of bridges in Texas. The goal of this thesis is to reduce collinear cracking (cracks propagating parallel to strands) in PCPs. One way to reduce collinear cracking would be to reduce the initial prestress force. In design, TxDOT conservatively assumes total prestress losses of 45 ksi. Based on eight panel specimens, instrumented and fabricated at two different precast plants in Texas, actual prestress losses were measured as at most 25 ksi. This difference (about 20 ksi) is consistent with a reduction in initial prestress force from 16.1 kips per strand to 14.4 kips per strand. Another way to reduce collinear cracking would be to provide additional transverse reinforcement in the end regions of the panels. By comparing crack spacings and crack widths in current and modified panel specimens, it was found that additional reinforcement consisting of one or two #3 bars placed transverse to strands at panel ends would effectively control collinear cracking in PCPs. / text

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Half model testing is considered a valuable wind tunnel technique that offers many benefits over conventional full span testing. The technique suffers from aerodynamic losses due to flow separations on the model surfaces near the model/floor junction. Computational Fluid Dynamics, employing the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, and experimental investigations were carried out to evaluate the losses and to investigate the effect of localised suction on the junction flows. The wind tunnel model used was a rectangular and untwisted wing having a NASA LS(1)-0413 cross section and with a physical aspect ratio of 3. Tests were conducted at 10.00 incidence at a Reynolds number of 0.44 x 106. Aerodynamic performance of the wind tunnel half model was obtained by surface flow visualisation and pressure measurements on the wing surface in the junction region. CFD predictions showed significantly large losses compared to the experimental findings and therefore CFD predicted significant influence and benefits of suction. These were seen as elimination of the model surface separation and also recovery of the wing surface pressure distributions. In contrast to this, experiments showed much smaller separation than CFD without suction and applying suction in experiments, showed only a marginal effect on the flow separations, which also further deteriorated the pressure distributions. Future CFD studies on junction flows should be conducted using more advanced turbulence models such as Large Eddy Simulations (LES). In addition, to validate these CFD studies, velocity and turbulence measurements in the wing/floor junction region are also needed.

Huang, Zheng. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-32). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract (English) --- p.i / Abstract (Chinese) --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / List of Tables and Figures --- p.v / Chapter Chapters: --- List of Tables and Figures / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review: Accrual Anomaly --- p.7 / Chapter 3. --- Data and Descriptive Statistics --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- Sample Selection --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2 --- Variable Measurement --- p.12 / Chapter 3.3 --- Descriptive Statistics --- p.14 / Chapter 4. --- Basic Accrual Anomaly Evidence for Loss Firms --- p.15 / Chapter 5. --- Empirical Evidences of the Pseudo accrual Trading Strategy --- p.18 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Effectiveness of the Pseudo accrual Trading Strategy --- p.18 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Asset Growth Effect Tests of the Pseudo Accrual --- p.22 / Chapter 6. --- Sensitivity Tests --- p.25 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.28 / References --- p.30

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: Agricultural Engineering.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-69).

This study investigates the status and potential of the low temperature district heating system in Lyckebo, focusing on the distribution losses in the culvert system and in the heat exchangers. The Lyckebo system was built in the 1980’s as a test system with heating from a solar field and an electrical boiler. The unique features with this system were a cavern for storage of excess heat combined with a low temperature system. Today, the solar field has been substituted with two pellet boilers, but the cavern is still in service. Low temperature district heating systems are built in order to lower the losses, due to a smaller temperature difference between the medium in the culvert and the soil. This technology is used in newly built energy efficient residential areas, which makes it interesting to investigate the status of a system that was built in the 1980’s, in comparison to the possibilities of low temperature systems today. A simulation model has been developed to calculate the theoretical losses in the culvert system with production data from 2013. The total instantaneous losses in the culvert system were between 210- 280 kW and the highest losses in  can be found in the secondary system. There are heat exchangers in the system that has a return temperature of approximately 8°C lower than the return temperature in the system, which leads to the conclusion that many of the exchangers in the system probably have poor energy utilization.

This thesis is to develop a novel consensus algorithm or protocol for multi-agent systems in the event of communication link failure over the network. The structure or topology of the system is modeled by an algebraic graph theory, and defined as a discrete time-invariant system with a second-order dynamics. The communication link failure is governed by a Bernoulli process. Lyapunov-based methodologies and Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) techniques are then applied to find an appropriate controller gain by satisfying the sufficient conditions of the error dynamics. Therefore, the controller with the calculated gain is guaranteed to drive the system to reach a consensus. Finally, simulation and experiment studies are carried out by using two Mobile Robot Pioneer 3-DXs and one Pioneer 3-AT as a team to verify the proposed work.