Orientador: Aparecido Carlos Gonçalves / Resumo: Pares engrenados são elementos de transmissão de potência amplamente utilizados em máquinas e equipamentos, todavia as falhas catastróficas desses componentes são comuns e dispendiosas. A análise de vibrações está entre as técnicas de diagnóstico de defeitos incipientes utilizadas em manutenção preditiva, posto que a presença de uma falha altera o comportamento dinâmico do sistema e o estado de degradação pode ser detectado pelo monitoramento dos sinais de vibração. Na indústria atual, onde as aquisições de dados, tanto para controle de processos, quanto para o monitoramento das condições de integridade de equipamentos, são realizadas em tempo real, faz-se necessário o desenvolvimento de métodos que aumentem a confiabilidade das tomadas de decisões em relação à identificação, localização e prognóstico de falhas. O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um modelo matemático de par de engrenagens que auxilie no monitoramento da condição e validar o modelo dinâmico com dados de vibração de um multiplicador de velocidades obtidos experimentalmente. Para tanto, foi elaborada uma metodologia baseada no modelo dinâmico de par engrenado com 6 graus de liberdade para simulação de sinais de vibração; nesse modelo, inclui-se erros geométricos no perfil do dente; de maneira analítica, simula-se uma a trinca do dente de uma das engrenagens que ocasiona a queda de rigidez em função do tempo; desenvolveu-se também um experimento com um multiplicador de velocidades; e, por fim, algumas técnic... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Spur gears are transmission power elements widely used in machinery, however catastrophic failures of this components are just as common and onerous. Vibration analysis is a technique, in among of others, that can be used in diagnostics of incipient damages, common in predictive maintenance, because they change the dynamic behavior of the mechanical system, and the degradation state can be detected by vibration signal or noise. In the current industry production, in which real-time data acquisition - whether for processes control, or for health condition monitoring of equipment - is the reality, it is necessary to develop auxiliary methods that provide high reliability to identification, localization and failure prognostics. In this work, the main objective is to provide a spur gears’ model-based methodology for condition-monitoring and to validate a dynamic model with experimental vibration data of a gearbox. Hence, a dynamic model of spur meshing gears was developed considering a 6 degrees of freedom and time-varying meshing stiffness to simulate vibrations signals; a tooth profile error was also included; in this analytical model, a straight crack was simulated by reducing the meshing stiffness in a tooth; experiments with a gearbox experimental set were run; and, some signal processing was apllied in the vibration data. The results allowed the model validation with the comparison between simulate and experimental signals, in time-domain and frequency-domain / Mestre

The client-server architecture of STAR-CCM+ allows multiple users to collaborate on a simulation set-up. The effectiveness of collaboration with this architecture is tested and evaluated on five models. The testing of these models is a start to finish set-up of an entire simulation excluding computational time for generating mesh and solving the solution. The different models have distinct differences which test every operation that would be used in a general CFD simulation. These tests focus on reducing the time spent preparing the geometry to be meshed, including setting up for a conformal mesh between multiple regions in conjugate heat transfer models. Results from these five tests show a maximum speed up of 36%.

Medical imaging technologies have allowed for in vivo evaluation of the human musculoskeletal system. With advances in both medical imaging and computing, patient-specific model development of anatomic structures is becoming a reality. Three-dimensional surface models are useful for patient-specific measurements and finite element studies. Orthopaedics is closely tied to engineering in the analysis of injury mechanisms, design of implantable medical devices, and potentially in the prediction of injury. However, a disconnection exists between medical imaging and orthopaedic analysis; whereby, the ability to generate three-dimensional models from an imaging dataset is difficult, which has restricted its application to large patient populations. We have compiled image processing, image segmentation, and surface generation tools in a single software package catered specifically to image-based orthopaedic analysis. We have also optimized an automated segmentation technique to allow for high-throughput bone segmentation and developed algorithms that help to automate the cumbersome process of mesh generation in finite element analysis. We apply these tools to evaluate graft placement in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in a multicenter study that aims to improve the patient outcomes of those that undergo this procedure.

Les objectifs principaux de la géomodélisation sont la représentation et la compréhension du sous-sol. Les structures géologiques ont un rôle important pour comprendre et prédire son comportement physique. Nous avons défini un modèle géologique comme étant composé d'un ensemble de structures et de leurs connexions. Les maillages sont des supports numériques servant à résoudre les équations modélisant la physique du sous-sol. Il est donc important de construire un maillage représentant un modèle géologique afin de prendre en compte l'impact de ces structures dans les phénomènes du sous-sol. L'objectif de cette thèse est de développer des méthodes de maillage volumique pour les modèles géologiques. Nous proposons une méthode de génération de maillages non structurés volumiques permettant de construire deux types de maillages : un maillage tétraédrique et un maillage hex-dominant (c'est-à-dire composé de tétraèdres, prismes à base triangulaire, pyramides à base quadrilatérale et hexaèdres). Cette méthode génère dans un premier temps un maillage tétraédrique qui peut respecter différents types de données : (1) un modèle géologique défini par frontières afin de capturer les structures dans le maillage volumique, (2) des trajectoires de puits représentées par un ensemble de segments, (3) une propriété de taille d'éléments afin de contrôler la longueur des arêtes des éléments et (4) un champ de directions pour contrôler des alignements de sommets/éléments dans le maillage afin de favoriser certaines caractéristiques comme des éléments possédant des angles droits. Dans un deuxième temps, ce maillage tétraédrique peut être transformé en un maillage multi-éléments. La méthode reconnaît des relations combinatoires entre tétraèdres permettant l'identification de nouveaux éléments comme les prismes, les pyramides et les hexaèdres. Cette méthode est ensuite utilisée pour générer des maillages aux caractéristiques spécifiques correspondant à une application donnée afin de limiter les erreurs lors du calcul numérique. Plusieurs domaines d'applications sont considérés tels que les simulations géomécaniques, d'écoulements et de propagation d'ondes sismiques. / The geomodeling main goals are to represent and understand the subsurface. The geological structures have an important role for understanding and predicting its physical behavior. We defined a geological model as a set of structures and their connections. The meshes are numerical supports to solve the equations modeling the subsurface physics. So it is important to build a mesh representing a geological model to take into account the impact of these structures on the subsurface phenomena. The objective of this thesis is to develop volumetric meshing methods for geological models. We propose a volumetric unstructured meshing method to build two mesh types: an adaptive tetrahedral mesh and an hex-dominant mesh (i.e. made of tetrahedra, triangular prisms, quadrilateral pyramids and hexahedra). This method generates first a tetrahedral mesh that can respect different types of data: (1) a geological model defined by its boundaries to capture the structures in the volumetric mesh, (2) well paths represented as a set of segments, (3) a mesh size property to control the mesh element edge length and (4) a direction field to control vertex/element alignments inside the mesh to increase some features such as elements with right angles. Then, this tetrahedral mesh can be transformed in a mixed-element mesh. The method recognizes combinatorial relationships between tetrahedra to identify new elements such as prisms, pyramids and hexahedra. This method is then used to generate meshes whose features correspond to a given application in order to reduce errors during numerical computation. Several application domains are considered such as geomechanical, ow and wave propagation simulations.

The permeability of rocks has a critical influence on their fluid transport response in critical geo-environmental applications, such as pollutant transport or underground storage of hazardous nuclear waste. In such processes, the materials microstructure may be altered as a result of various stimuli, thereby impacting the fluid transfer properties. Stress or strain state modifications are one of the main causes for such evolutions. To numerically address this concern, an integrated and automated numerical tool was developed and illustrated on subsets of microCT scans of a Vosges sandstone (i) to explore the links between the pore space properties and the corresponding macroscopic transfer properties, with (ii) an incorporation of the microstructural alterations associated with stress state variations by using a realistic image-based representation of the microstructural morphology. The ductile mechanical deformation behavior under high confining pressures at the scale of the microstructure, inducing pore closures by local plastifications, was modelled using finite elements simulations with a non-linear elastoplastic law, allowing to take into account the redistribution of local stresses. These simulations require robust discretization tools to capture the complex geometry of the porous network and the corresponding solid boundaries of the heterogeneous microstructural geometries. To achieve this, an integrated approach for the conformal discretization of complex implicit geometries based on signed distance fields was developed, producing high quality meshes from both imaging techniques and computational RVE generation methodologies. This conforming discretization approach was compared with an incompatible mode-based framework using a non conforming approach. This comparison highlighted the complementarity of both methods, the former capturing the effect of more detailed geometrical features, while the latter is more flexible as it allows using the same (non conforming) mesh for potentially variable geometries.The evolution of permeability was evaluated at different confining pressure levels using the Lattice-Bolzmann method. This uncoupled solid-fluid interaction made it possible to study the combined influence on the permeability, porosity and the pores size distribution of the pore space morphology and the solid skeleton constitutive law parameters during loading and unloading conditions. The results highlight the need to consider elastoplastic laws and heterogeneities in the rock model to simulate the ductile behavior of rocks at high confining pressures leading to significant permeability alterations under loading, and irreversible alterations under loading/unloading cycles induced by progressive pore closures.The proposed methodology is designed to be flexible thanks to the interfacing with 'classical' discretization approaches and can be easily readapted to other contexts given the block approach. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The mechanical behavior of closed cell metallic foams strongly depends on their geometry at the scale of cells and cell walls. Two approaches are proposed in this work to address this computationally:(i) a controlled geometrical description of foam morphology features by exploiting an advanced tessellation-based procedure, allowing to generate realistic microstructural geometry,(ii) a procedure allowing to extract geometrical features of a foam morphology based on image-based modelling using CT scans. The first approach proposes a methodology that allows the automated generation of RVEs with a detailed control of the microstructure, including of cell geometries. It is primarily based on an inclusions packing algorithm assisted by distance fields control. Such distance fields can subsequently be used to morph inclusions, producing generalized tessellations with the possibility of incorporating curved and irregular boundaries. 3D morphologies of closed cell foams are produced by extracting the geometry from a proper combination of distance field functions. The procedure allows controlling the cell size distribution, spatial cell wall thickness distribution (correlated or not with the cell size distribution), wall curvatures and/or defects. An automated 3D meshing tool for implicit geometries was exploited to produce high quality tetrahedral meshes from the generated implicit foam geometries. Representative volume element based simulations were performed using this approach to assess the different morphological features relative importance on the mechanical behaviour of ALPORAS. An original extension of this tool was incorporating the transformation of 3D geometry into a shell-based finite element model. This resulted in a significant gain in computation time and allowed for simulating compression test up to densification (being out of reach with 3D solid finite element models) showing a good qualitative match with experimental results from the literature.The second approach proposes a robust methodology for the automated generation of shell-based finite element models directly from X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) scans.An in situ X-ray CT compression test of the sample was performed to serve as basis of comparison to the computations. As first steps, raw CT images are segmented using various image processing techniques and an implicit 3D geometry is reconstructed for each cell by using a Euclidean distance field computation technique. An automated geometrical procedure is used next to extract a (surface) shell geometry from this implicit 3D geometry, followed by subsequent meshing step. A direct comparison of the performed simulations with raw experimental data is performed. The detailed deformation and failure mechanisms of closed-cell foams under quasi static uniaxial compressive loading are investigated numerically and compared directly with the result of the in situ experimental measurement. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

L'étude des cellules souches est l'un des champs de recherches les plus importants dans le domaine biomédical. La vision par ordinateur et le traitement d'images ont été fortement mis en avant dans ce domaine pour le développement de solutions automatiques de culture et d'observation de cellules. Ce travail de thèse propose une nouvelle méthodologie pour l'observation et la modélisation de la prolifération de cellule souche neuronale sous microscope à contraste de phase. À chaque observation réalisée par le microscope durant la prolifération, notre système extrait un modèle en trois dimensions de la structure de cellules observées. Cela est réalisé par une suite de processus d'analyse, synthèse et sélection. Premièrement, une analyse de la séquence d'images de contraste de phase permet la segmentation de la neurosphère et des cellules la constituant. À partir de ces informations, combinées avec des connaissances a priori sur les cellules et le protocole de culture, plusieurs modèles 3-D possibles sont générés. Ces modèles sont finalement évalués et sélectionnés par rapport à l¿image d¿observation, grâce à une méthode de recalage 3-D vers 2-D. A travers cette approche, nous présentons un outil automatique de visualisation et d'observation de la prolifération de cellule souche neuronale sous microscope à contraste de phase. / The study of stem cells is one of the most important fields of research in the biomedical field. Computer vision and image processing have been greatly emphasized in this area for the development of automated solutions for culture and observation of cells. This work proposes a new methodology for observing and modelling the proliferation of neural stem cell under a phase contrast microscope. At each time lapse observation performed by the microscope during the proliferation, the system determines a three-dimensional model of the structure formed by the observed cells. This is achieved by a framework combining analysis, synthesis and selection process. First, an analysis of the images from the microscope segments the neurosphere and the constituent cells. With this analysis, combined with prior knowledge about the cells and their culture protocol, several 3-D possible models are generated through a synthesis process. These models are finally selected and evaluated according to their likelihood with the microscope image using a 3-D to 2-D registration method. Through this approach, we present an automatic visualisation tool and observation of the proliferation of neural stem cell under a phase contrast microscope.

With the advances in wireless communication systems, antennas with different shapes and design have achieved great demand and are desirable for many uses such as personal communication systems, and other applications involving wireless communication. This has resulted in different shapes and types of antenna design in order to achieve different antenna characteristic. One attractive approach to the design of antennas is to suppress or attenuate harmonic contents due to the non-linear operation of the Radio Frequency (RF) front end. The objectives of this work were to investigate, design and implement antennas for harmonic suppression with the aid of a genetic algorithm (GA). Several microstrip patch antennas were designed to operate at frequencies 1.0, 1.8 and 2.4 GHz respectively. The microstrip patch antenna with stub tuned microstrip lines was also employed at 1.0 and 1.8 GHz to meet the design objectives. A new sensing patch technique is introduced and applied in order to find the accepted power at harmonic frequencies. The evaluation of the measured power accepted at the antenna feed port was done using an electromagnetic (EM) simulator, Ansoft Designer, in terms of current distribution. A two sensors method is presented on one antenna prototype to estimate the accepted power at three frequencies. The computational method is based on an integral equation solver using adaptive surface meshing driven by a genetic algorithm. Several examples are demonstrated, including design of coaxially-fed, air-dielectric patch antennas implanted with shorting and folded walls. The characteristics of the antennas in terms of the impedance responses and far field radiation patterns are discussed. The results in terms of the radiation performance are addressed, and compared to measurements. The presented results of these antennas show a good impedance matching at the fundamental frequency with good suppression achieved at the second and third harmonic frequencies.

L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’étudier l’interaction des ondes électromagnétiques en bande L avec les vagues côtières déferlantes, en particulier pour un observateur situé à proximité de la surface. Le travail s’attache à effectuer une modélisation électromagnétique précise en lien étroit avec le modèle hydrodynamique. Pour modéliser et calculer les champs électromagnétiques diffusés par les vagues déferlantes, nous utilisons une approche numérique par intégrale de frontière, notamment la Méthode des Moments (MdM). Dans ce cadre, nous focalisons le travail sur la problématique de la fiabilité et la convergence du calcul numérique pour des géométries de forte courbure comme peuvent l’être des surfaces de vagues déferlantes. Après une analyse approfondie de la problématique, nous montrons qu’une solution fondée sur la Méthode des Moments d’Ordre Supérieur (MdM-OS) combinée avec la technique de maillage Non Uniform Rational Basis Splines (NURBS) permet d’améliorer les performances de la méthode MdM-Classique. En parallèle du travail de modélisation électromagnétique, nous nous attachons à introduire un modèle hydrodynamique capable de simuler le plus fidèlement possible le mouvement et la déformation des vagues à proximité de la côte. Nous retenons une modélisation hydrodynamique basée sur la Méthode Désingularisée. Cette approche méthodologique nous permet d’étudier l’évolution des vagues en fonction de la pente du fond, de la hauteur relative et de la cambrure des vagues. La combinaison des résultats issus de la modélisation numérique électromagnétique et de la description hydrodynamique permettent ainsi d’évaluer l’évolution des champs électromagnétiques diffusés par les vagues côtières déferlantes en fonction du temps pour trois types de déferlement standard : glissant, plongeant et gonflant. / The purpose of this thesis work is to study the interaction of electromagnetic waves in L bandwith breaking coastal sea waves, in particular for an observer situated close to the surface. The work attempts to realize a precise electromagnetic modeling in narrow link with hydrodynamic model. To model and calculate electromagnetic fields scattered by breaking sea waves, we use a numerical approach by boundary integral technique, in particular Method of Moments (MoM). In this frame, we focus on the reliability and the convergence problem of numerical computation for strong curvature geometries as the surfaces of breaking sea waves are. After a thorough analysis of the problem, we show that a solution based on Higher-Order Method of Moments (HO-MoM) combined with Non Uniform Rational Basis Splines (NURBS) meshing technique allows the improvement of the performances of Classical-MoM. In parallel of the work on electromagnetic modeling, we attempt to introduce a hydrodynamic model able to precisely simulate the movement and the deformation of waves near the coast. We choose a hydrodynamic modeling based on Desingularized Method. This methodological approach allows the study of the evolution of waves according to the bottom slope, the relative height and the wave steepness. The combination of the results obtained from the numerical electromagnetic modeling and from the hydrodynamic description allows us to estimate the evolution of the electromagnetic fields scattered by breaking coastal sea waves according to time for three types of standard breaking : spilling, plunging and surging.

This work presents a study and implementation of the simulation of residual stresses in castings. The objects of study are a cast iron truck Hub part (provided by the company Volvo 3P) and an optimized version of the Hub resulting from the application of a topology optimization process. The models are solved through an uncoupled thermo-mechanical solidification analysis, performed both in the FE commercial software Abaqus and the FD commercial software Magmasoft and the results are compared. First, a thermal analysis is carried out where the casting is cooled down from a super-heated temperature to room temperature. The thermal history obtained, is then used as an external force to calculate the residual stresses by means of a quasi-static mechanical analysis, using a J2-plasticity model. The simulation procedures are explained through a simplified model of the Hub and then applied to the geometries of interest. A results comparison between the original Hub and its optimized version is also presented. The theoretical base is given in this work as well as detailed implementation procedures. The results shows that the part subjected to the topology optimization process develop less residual stresses than its original version.