No description available.

Les convertisseurs de puissance multicellulaires trouvent une place privilégiée dans le contrôle des systèmes de très forte puissance. Dans ce travail de thèse une nouvelle classe de convertisseurs de puissance est étudiée les Convertisseurs Multicellulaires Parallèles (CMP). La topologie de ces convertisseurs repose sur une association de n cellules de commutationinterconnectées par l'intermédiaire d'inductances indépendantes, appelées aussiinductances de liaison. Le CMP permet d'atteindre un courant de sortie égal à n fois le courant d'entrée du convertisseur, l'inconvénient majeur de ce type de convertisseur est le déséquilibrage des courants de branches . Dans le but de réduire et d'économiser le nombre de capteurs, nous avons proposé dans la première partie de la thèse une analyse d'observabilité spécifique à une classe de système dynamique hybride appelée Z(TN)-Observability et synthétisé un observateur hybride en utilisant l'algorithme super twisting. La deuxièmepartie du travail a été consacrée à la synthèse d'une loi de commande pour la régulation des courants de branches. En effet, le régulateur proposé est un régulateur hybride en basant sur la modélisation par réseaux de pétri de l'algorithme de contrôle. Enfin, Les deux parties théoriques sont suivies par une réalisation pratique d'un CMP à trois cellules de commutation pour valider les deux approches proposées. Les résultats expérimentaux nous ont montré les performances de l'observateur et le régulateur de courant et de tension de sortie. / This study deals with observability problems and control of the parallel multicell chopper. In the area of strong currents with high switching frequencies, new structures based on the combination of components have been developed. This type of chopper is a DC/DC static power converter which has an output current equals to n (n is the number of cells) times the source current. After recalling the dynamical equations of the converter, its hybrid dynamical behaviour and properties are highlighted. This particular hybrid system induces new and difficult observability problems, such problem can be tackled by a new observability concept [the Z(TN)-observability]. However, for a large number of switching cells in parallel, the complexity of the system makes it impossible to predict the transient behaviour of the converter and therefore all predimensioning. The main disadvantage of this type of converter is the imbalance branches of current with increasing number of cells. Therefore modelling and control with Petri net is proposed to solve the problems of imbalanced of currents and the voltage output regulation with variation of the load. The authors approaches are attested by several numerical simulations and experimental results considering noisy measurements and load variations.

The idea of utilizing multiple antennas (MIMO) has emerged as one of the significant breakthroughs in modern wireless communications. MIMO techniques can improve the spectral efficiency of wireless systems and provide significant throughput gains. As such, MIMO will be increasingly deployed in future wireless systems. On the other hand, in order to meet the increasing demand for high data rate multimedia wireless services, future wireless systems are evolving towards universal frequency reuse, where neighboring cells may utilize the same radio spectrum. As such, the performance of future wireless systems will be mainly limited by inter-cell interference (ICI). It has been shown that the throughput gains promised by conventional MIMO techniques degrade severely in multi-cell systems. This definitely attributes to the existence of the ICI. A lot of related work has been performed on the ICI mitigation or cancellation strategies, in multi-cell MIMO systems. Most of them assume that the channel and even data information is available at the collaborating base stations (BSs). Different from the previous work, we are looking into certain low-complexity codebook-based multi-cell multi-user MIMO strategies. For most of our work, we derive the statistics of the selected user's signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR), which enable us to calculate the achieved sum-rate accurately and e ciently. With the derived sum-rate expressions, we evaluate and compare the sum-rate performance for several proposed low-complexity ICI-mitigation systems with various system parameters for single-user per-cell scheduling case. Furthermore, in order to fully exploit spatial multiplexing gain, we are considering multi-user per-cell scheduling case. Based on the assumption that all CSI including intra-cell and inter-cell channels are available at each BS, we rstly look into the centralized optimization approach. Typically, since the sum-rate maximization problem is mostly non-convex, it is generally di cult to obtain the globally optimum solution. Through certain approximation and relaxations, we successfully investigate an iterative optimization algorithm which exploits the second-order cone programming (SOCP) approach. From the simulation results, we will observe that the iterative option can provide near-optimum sum capacity, although only locally optimized. Afterwards, inspired by the successful application of Per-User Unitary Rate Control (PU2RC) scheme, we manage to extend it into dual-cell environment, with limited coordination between two cells. / Graduate

Fuels comprised of the element thorium have become increasingly popular with researchers and the public as the next generation fuel due to its ability to produce its own fissile element (U-233) and generate lower concentrations of heavy actinides. The use of thorium can possibly lead to a self-sustaining cycle whereby the addition of fissile material is not required and that the fuel can breed sufficient amounts of U-233 for a continuous supply. Research into thorium use in CANDU reactors has mainly been focused on using driver elements such as U-235 or Pu-239 to initiate the nuclear reaction by taking advantage of bundle design or by mixing the thorium and driver fuel together; however, these methods have added complexities and may not lead to a pure thorium fuel cycle, but extend the life of current nuclear fuels used. This thesis will investigate a simpler means of utilizing thorium for the intent of breeding U-233 through the use of pure thorium bundles in a once-through cycle by the ways of a heterogeneous core loading in a CANDU-6 reactor model. A 3x3 multi-cell model using DRAGON 3.06K will simulate the dual fuel model by having the centre lattice enclosing the thorium bundle and the outer eight lattices enclosing the enriched uranium bundles as the driver fuel. Next, the diffusion code DONJON 3.02E is used to produce time-average, instantaneous, and initial startup full-core simulations. As well, a brief look at the refuelling operations on the thorium channels will be done. The presence of a thorium bundle places a negative reactivity load on the multi-cell, but causes a positive insertion of reactivity for a coolant void and shutdown scenario. In the full-core modelling, the final core configuration chosen shows that thorium channels should be located in the inner core rather than in the most outer channels to produce a flattening effect on the radial profile. Thorium channels will require a combination of SEU and thorium bundles in an attempt to maintain channel power levels. Specifically, the use of 4, 6, or 8 Th bundles were investigated. The most optimal core performance shown has a radial form factor of 0.816, a total average core burnup of 18.32 GWd/t, and operates within designed power limits. It is possible to implement pure thorium bundles into a reactor set in a dual fuel mode. A careful consideration of where thorium bundles should be located in the core can help flatten the radial power distribution and help the reactor operate within the operating licensing parameters without the use of adjuster rods while breeding U-233 for a future thorium fuel cycle. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

No / Limited tumor penetrability of anti-cancer drugs is recognized as one of the major factors that lead to poor anti-tumor activity. SRJ09 (3,19-(2-bromobenzylidene) andrographolide) has been identified as a lead anti-cancer agent for colon cancer. Recently, this compound was shown by us to be a mutant K-Ras binder. In this present study, the penetrability of SRJ09 through the DLD-1 colon cancer multicell layer (MCL) was evaluated. The amount of SRJ09 that penetrated through the MCL was quantitated by utilizing high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Histopathological staining was used to visualize the morphology of MCL. A chemosensitivity assay was performed to assess the anti-cancer activity of SRJ09 in DLD-1 cells. SRJ09 was able to penetrate through DLD-1 MCL and is inversely proportional with the MCL thickness. The flow rates for SRJ09 through MCL were 0.90 ± 0.20 μM/min/cm2 and 0.56 ± 0.06 μM/min/cm2 for days 1 and 5, respectively, which are better than doxorubicin. Histopathological examination revealed that the integrity of the DLD-1 MCL was retained and no visible damage was inflicted on the cell membrane, confirming the penetration of SRJ09 was by diffusion. Short term exposure (1 h) in DLD-1 cells demonstrated SRJ09 had IC50 of 41 μM which was approximately 4-folds lower than andrographolide, the parent compound of SRJ09. In conclusion, SRJ09 successfully penetrated through DLD-1 MCL by diffusion and emerged as a potential candidate to be developed as a clinically viable anti-colon cancer drug.

No description available.

Nonlinear explicit finite element (FE) simulations are used to study the axial collapse behavior of multi-corner. single- and multi-cell crush tubes under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. It is shown that the higher hardening modulus and yield stress increases the crush force and its resulting energy absorption. Moreover, the multi-cell tubes are found to have complicated collapse modes because of the geometrical complexity of the corner region unlike single-cell tubes. it was also shown that the stress wave propagation has a significant effect on the formation of crush modes in the tubes without imperfections whereas this effect can be ignored in tubes with imperfection or trigger mechanism. An analytical formula for the prediction of mean crush force of multi-corner multi-cell tubes is derived based on the super folding element theory. The analytical predictions for the mean crush force are found to be in good agreement with the FE solutions. Results also show a strong correlation between the cross-sectional geometry and the crash behavior with the method of connecting the inner to the outer walls having large influence on the energy absorption.

The challenge to put power electronics on the same cost reduction spiral as integrated signal electronics has yet to be met. In the ongoing work for achieving complete power electronic converter integration, it has proven to be essential to develop a technology for integration of electromagnetic power passives. This integration will enable the incorporation of resonant circuits, transformers, EMI filters and the like into the integrated power electronics modules. These integrated electromagnetic power passives have been realized in terms of distributed structures, utilizing magnetic layers, conductive layers and dielectric layers. Because of the compact structures and the special implementation techniques of these integrated modules, the high frequency parasitic resonance are normally significant and may have negative impact on the performance and EMI characteristics. However, the existing modeling technique can only predict the fundamental resonant frequency and showed neither the causes of the high frequency resonance nor how to calculate those accurately. In this dissertation, comprehensive research work towards higher order electromagnetic modeling of integrated passive components is presented. Firstly, an L-C cell is identified as the basic building block of integrated passives such as an integrated series resonator. As an essential mistake in the structure evolution process of the original resonant transmission line primitive, the well-known conventional transmission line equivalent circuit as well as the equations are not applicable for the unbalanced current in an integrated passive module. For this particular application, a generalized transmission structure theory that applies to both balanced and unbalanced current has to be developed. The impedances of a generalized transmission structure with various loads and interconnections have been studied. An open-circuited load and a short-circuited load lead to series resonance and parallel resonance, respectively. The equations are substantiated with experimental results. Some preliminary study indicates the advantages of this unbalanced current passives integration technique. Since the existing integrated passive components are no other than some combination of this generalized transmission line primitive, the theoretical analysis may be applied to the further modeling of all integrated passive components. As the extension of the generalized two-conductor transmission structure model developed for the two-conductor approach, the generalized multi-conductor transmission structure theory has been proposed. As multiple L-C cells are putting in parallel, magnetic and capacitive coupling between cells cannot be neglected. To determine the capacitance between two adjacent conductors on top of the same dielectric substrate, Schwarz-Christoffel transformation and its inverse transformation have been applied with the calculation results verified by measurement. Based on the original voltage and current equations written in matrix form, modal analysis has been conducted to solve the equations. All these provide the basis for any further modeling of an integrated passive structure. Based on the basic L-C cell structure, this dissertation proposes an alternative multi-cell approach to the integration of reactive components and establishes the principles for its design and operation. It achieves the 3-D integration and has a PCB-mount chip-like structure which may have the potential to be more manufacturable, modularizable and mechanically robust. Different functional equivalents can be obtained by different PCB interconnections. The experimental results confirm the functionality as integrated reactive components for applications such as high frequency resonators. To apply the multi-conductor generalized transmission structure model to practical integrated passives structures, three typical cases have been studied: spiral-winding structure integrated series resonator, multi-cell structure integrated series resonator and integrated RF EMI filter. All these structures can be treated as one or more multi-conductor transmission structures connected in certain patterns. Different connection patterns only determine the voltage and current boundary conditions with which the equations can be solved. After obtaining the voltages and currents at each point, the impedance or transfer gain of a structure can be obtained. The MATLAB calculation results correlate well with the measurement results. The calculation sensitivities with respect to variation of various parameters are also discussed and causes of resonance at different frequency range are identified. The proposed generalized transmission structure model based on matrix modal analysis is rather complex and takes a lot of computer time especially when the number of turns is large. Furthermore, the operating frequency of an integrated resonant module is normally around its 1st resonant frequency and up to the 2nd resonant frequency. Therefore, a more simplistic higher order lumped element model which covers the operating range up to the 2nd resonant frequency may be good enough for the general design purpose. A higher order equivalent circuit model for integrated series resonant modules as an example of integrated power passives is presented in this dissertation. Inter-winding capacitance is also considered compared to the conventional 1st order approximation model. This model has been verified by small-signal test results and can be easily implemented into the design algorithm as part of the high frequency design considerations. The wide band modeling and proposed new structure mentioned above provide a comprehensive basis for better design of integrated passive components. As a general frequency plane modeling approach, the work presented in this dissertation may be extended to other passive structures, such as multi-layer capacitors, planar magnetics, etc.. / Ph. D.

Les futurs systèmes de communication sans fil devront utiliser des architectures cellulaires hétérogènes composées de grandes cellules (macro) plus performantes et de petites cellules (femto, micro, ou pico) très denses, afin de soutenir la demande de débit en augmentation exponentielle au niveau de la couche physique. Ces structures provoquent un niveau d'interférence sans précèdent à l'intérieur, comme à l'extérieur des cellules, qui doit être atténué ou, idéalement, exploité afin d'améliorer l'efficacité spectrale globale du réseau. Des techniques comme le MIMO à grande échelle (dit massive MIMO), la coopération, etc., qui contribuent aussi à la gestion des interférences, vont encore augmenter la taille des grandes architectures hétérogènes, qui échappent ainsi à toute possibilité d'analyse théorique par des techniques statistiques traditionnelles.Par conséquent, dans cette thèse, nous allons appliquer et améliorer des résultats connus de la théorie des matrices aléatoires à grande échelle (RMT) afin d'analyser le problème d'interférence et de proposer de nouveaux systèmes de précodage qui s'appuient sur les résultats acquis par l'analyse du système à grande échelle. Nous allons d'abord proposer et analyser une nouvelle famille de précodeurs qui réduit la complexité de calcul de précodage pour les stations de base équipées d'un grand nombre d'antennes, tout en conservant la plupart des capacités d'atténuation d'interférence de l'approche classique et le caractère quasi-optimal du précodeur regularised zero forcing. Dans un deuxième temps, nous allons proposer une variation de la structure de précodage linéaire optimal (obtenue pour de nombreuses mesures de performance) qui permet de réduire le niveau d'interférence induit aux autres cellules. Ceci permet aux petites cellules d'atténuer efficacement les interférences induites et reçues au moyen d'une coopération minimale. Afin de faciliter l'utilisation de l'approche analytique RMT pour les futures générations de chercheurs, nous fournissons également un tutoriel exhaustif sur l'application pratique de la RMT pour les problèmes de communication en début du manuscrit. / Future wireless communication systems will need to feature multi cellular heterogeneous architectures consisting of improved macro cells and very dense small cells, in order to support the exponentially rising demand for physical layer throughput. Such structures cause unprecedented levels of inter and intra cell interference, which needs to be mitigated or, ideally, exploited in order to improve overall spectral efficiency of the communication network. Techniques like massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), cooperation, etc., that also help with interference management, will increase the size of the already large heterogeneous architectures to truly enormous networks, that defy theoretical analysis via traditional statistical methods.Accordingly, in this thesis we will apply and improve the already known framework of large random matrix theory (RMT) to analyse the interference problem and propose solutions centred around new precoding schemes, which rely on large system analysis based insights. First, we will propose and analyse a new family of precoding schemes that reduce the computational precoding complexity of base stations equipped with a large number of antennas, while maintaining most of the interference mitigation capabilities of conventional close-to-optimal regularized zero forcing. Second, we will propose an interference aware linear precoder, based on an intuitive trade-off and recent results on multi cell regularized zero forcing, that allows small cells to effectively mitigate induced interference with minimal cooperation. In order to facilitate utilization of the analytic RMT approach for future generations of interested researchers, we will also provide a comprehensive tutorial on the practical application of RMT in communication problems.

Quick and accurate predictions of equivalent properties for thin-walled composite structures are required in the preliminary design process. Existing literature provides analytical solutions to some structures but is limited to particular cases. No unified approach exists to tackle homogenization of thin-walled structures such as beams, plates, or three-dimensional structures using the thin-walled approximation. In this work, a unified approach is proposed to obtain equivalent properties for beams, plates, and three-dimensional structures for thin-walled composite structures using mechanics of structure genome. The adopted homogenization technique interprets the unit cell associated with the composite structures as an assembly of plates, and the overall strain energy density of the unit cell as a summation of the plate strain energies of these individual plates. The variational asymptotic method is then applied to drop all higher-order terms and the remaining energy is minimized with respect to the unknown fluctuating functions. This has been done by discretizing the two-dimensional unit cell into one-dimensional frame elements in a finite element description. This allows the handling of structures with different levels of complexities and internal geometry within a general framework. Comparisons have been made with other works to show the advantages which the proposed model offers over other methods.