Cette thèse présente une contribution à l’étude des transferts d’eau au sein des piles à combustible de type PEMFC, un aspect clé de cette technologie. Une approche de simulation numérique est développée en couplant un modèle de type réseau de pores dans la couche de diffusion (DM), une approche mixte continue –réseau de pore dans la couche microporeuse (MPL) et une modélisation par compartiments dans la couche active. L’approche développée prend en compte les transferts couplés de chaleur et d’eau via notamment la modélisation des phénomènes de changement de phase dans la DM et la MPL (évaporation et condensation). Dans une première partie, nous étudions le cas où l’eau migre dans l’assemblage MPL-DM directement en phase liquide. L’impact de la variation de pression dans la phase gazeuse sur la distribution de la phase liquide est étudié. L’épaisseur optimale de la MPL est également étudiée. Dans une seconde partie, nous étudions des situations où l’eau se forme par condensation dans la couche de diffusion. Nous étudions tout d’abord l’impact des propriétés de la couche de diffusion et de la MPL sur le diagramme de condensation. Ensuite nous analysons l’impact de la formation de l’eau liquide sur la distribution de courant locale. Enfin, l’impact de la mouillabilité sur les figures de condensation est étudié. Cette dernière étude est vue comme un premier pas vers l’étude des mécanismes de dégradation dans le régime de condensation. / This thesis is a contribution to the study water transfers within PEM fuel cell, a key element of this technology. A numerical simulation tool is developed coupling a pore network model in the gas diffusion layer (DM), a mixed continuum – pore network approach in the microporous layer (MPL) and a model by compartments in the catalyst layer. The developed approach takes into account the coupled heat and water transfers through the modeling of phase change phenomena (evaporation – condensation) in the DM and in the MPL. In the first part, we study the case where water migrates into the MPL-DM assembly directly in liquid phase. The impact of gas pressure variation on liquid phase distribution is studied. The optimal thickness of MPL is studied too. In the second part we study situations where liquid water essentially formed by condensation in the diffusion layer. We first study the impact of DM and MPL properties on the condensation diagram. Then we analyze the impact of liquid water formation on the local current density distribution. Finally the impact of wettability modifications on the liquid water patterns is studied. This last study is considered as a first step toward the study of degradation mechanisms in the condensation regime.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2017-05-29T13:55:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 5619701 bytes, checksum: 3d5e3403144a3249722499b4dea043e9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-29T13:55:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 5619701 bytes, checksum: 3d5e3403144a3249722499b4dea043e9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / It is presented in this thesis, a proposal for solution of engineering problems in heat transfer area using the network simulation method (NSM - Network Simulation Method), which is to solve these problems by analogy between the thermal circuits and electrical circuits. It will be presented to validate the two-dimensional problem of heat conduction in a cylinder in which the solutions obtained by simulation with the solution analytically obtained via Technical Generalized Integral Transform will face (GITT). In the simulations makes up the body discretization study with the aim of establishing a correlation between the amount of cells (the mesh refinement) and the relationship between the radius of the size and length of the cylinder so that the problem solution of heat transfer in the body can be considered one-dimensional. A comparison will be made between the analytical response and obtained by simulation, varying the number of divisions and different relationships between beam dimensions and length of the cylinder. From the solution validated the proposed method, applying the work presented as a generic fabric prepared by the NSM and implementation PSPICE, which serves for solving many problems of heat conduction in a cylindrical geometry. / É apresentada neste trabalho de tese, uma proposta para solução de problemas de engenharia na área de transferência de calor utilizando o método de simulação de rede (NSM – Network Simulation Method), que consiste na resolução destes problemas pela analogia existente entre os circuitos térmicos e os circuitos elétricos. Nele será apresentada a validação do problema bidimensional de condução de calor em um cilindro, no qual, serão confrontadas as soluções obtidas por simulação com a solução obtida analiticamente via Técnica da Transformada Integral Generalizada (GITT). Nas simulações realizadas fazse a discretização do corpo em estudo, com o objetivo de se estabelecer uma correlação entre a quantidade de células (refinamento da malha) e a relação entre o tamanho do raio e comprimento do cilindro para que a solução do problema de transferência de calor no corpo possa ser considerada unidimensional. A comparação se dará entre a resposta analítica e a obtida por simulação, variando o número de divisões e as diferentes relações entre as dimensões raio e comprimento do cilindro. A partir da solução validada pela metodologia proposta, o trabalho apresenta como aplicação, uma malha genérica elaborada através do NSM e implementação no PSPICE, a qual serve para resolução de diversos problemas de condução de calor em geometria cilíndrica.

Radio access technologies for cellular mobile networks are continuously being evolved to meet the future demands for higher data rates, and lower end‐to‐end delays. In the research and development of LTE, radio network simulations play an essential role. The evolution of parallel processing hardware makes it desirable to exploit the potential gains of parallelizing LTE radio network simulations using multithreading techniques in contrast to distributing experiments over processors as independent simulation job processes. There is a hypothesis that parallel speedup gain diminishes when running many parallel simulation jobs concurrently on the same machine due to the increased memory requirements. A proposed multithreaded prototype of the Ericsson LTE simulator has been constructed, encapsulating scheduling, execution and synchronization of asynchronous physical layer computations. In order to provide implementation transparency, an algorithm has been proposed to sort and synchronize log events enabling a sequential logging model on top of non‐deterministic execution. In order to evaluate and compare multithreading techniques to parallel simulation job distribution, a large number of experiments have been carried out for four very diverse simulation scenarios. The evaluation of the results from these experiments involved analysis of average measured execution times and comparison with ideal estimates derived from Amdahl’s law in order to analyze overhead. It has been shown that the proposed multithreaded task‐oriented framework provides a convenient way to execute LTE physical layer models asynchronously on multi‐core processors, still providing deterministic results that are equivalent to the results of a sequential simulator. However, it has been indicated that distributing parallel independent jobs over processors is currently more efficient than multithreading techniques, even though the achieved speedup is far from ideal. This conclusion is based on the observation that the overhead caused by increased memory requirements, memory access and system bus congestion is currently smaller than the thread management and synchronization overhead of the proposed multithreaded Java prototype.

An important goal of modern data networks is to support multiple applications over a single network infrastructure. The combination of data, voice, video and conference traffic, each requiring a unique Quality of Service (QoS), makes resource dimensioning a very challenging task. To guarantee QoS by mere over-provisioning of bandwidth is not viable in the long run, as network resources are expensive. The aim of proper resource dimensioning is to provide the required QoS while making optimal use of the allocated bandwidth. Dimensioning parameters used by service providers today are based on best practice recommendations, and are not necessarily optimal. This dissertation focuses on resource dimensioning for the DiffServ network architecture. Four predefined traffic classes, i.e. Real Time (RT), Interactive Business (IB), Bulk Business (BB) and General Data (GD), needed to be dimensioned in terms of bandwidth allocation and traffic regulation. To perform this task, a study was made of the DiffServ mechanism and the QoS requirements of each class. Traffic generators were required for each class to perform simulations. Our investigations show that the dominating Transport Layer protocol for the RT class is UDP, while TCP is mostly used by the other classes. This led to a separate analysis and requirement for traffic models for UDP and TCP traffic. Analysis of real-world data shows that modern network traffic is characterized by long-range dependency, self-similarity and a very bursty nature. Our evaluation of various traffic models indicates that the Multi-fractal Wavelet Model (MWM) is best for TCP due to its ability to capture long-range dependency and self-similarity. The Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP) is able to model occasional long OFF-periods and burstiness present in UDP traffic. Hence, these two models were used in simulations. A test bed was implemented to evaluate performance of the four traffic classes defined in DiffServ. Traffic was sent through the test bed, while delay and loss was measured. For single class simulations, dimensioning values were obtained while conforming to the QoS specifications. Multi-class simulations investigated the effects of statistical multiplexing on the obtained values. Simulation results for various numerical provisioning factors (PF) were obtained. These factors are used to determine the link data rate as a function of the required average bandwidth and QoS. The use of class-based differentiation for QoS showed that strict delay and loss bounds can be guaranteed, even in the presence of very high (up to 90%) bandwidth utilization. Simulation results showed small deviations from best practice recommendation PF values: A value of 4 is currently used for both RT and IB classes, while 2 is used for the BB class. This dissertation indicates that 3.89 for RT, 3.81 for IB and 2.48 for BB achieve the prescribed QoS more accurately. It was concluded that either the bandwidth distribution among classes, or quality guarantees for the BB class should be adjusted since the RT and IB classes over-performed while BB under-performed. The results contribute to the process of resource dimensioning by adding value to dimensioning parameters through simulation rather than mere intuition or educated guessing. / Dissertation (MEng (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Distributed virtual environments (DVEs) have been an active area of research and engineering for more than 20 years. The most widely deployed DVEs are network games such as Quake, Halo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), with millions of users and billions of dollars in annual revenue. Deployed DVEs remain expensive centralized implementations despite significant research outlining ways to distribute DVE workloads. This dissertation shows previous DVE research evaluations are inconsistent with deployed DVE needs. Assumptions about avatar movement and proximity - fundamental scale factors - do not match WoW's workload, and likely the workload of other deployed DVEs. Alternate workload models are explored and preliminary conclusions presented. Using realistic workloads it is shown that a fully decentralized DVE cannot be deployed to today's consumers, regardless of its overhead. Residential broadband speeds are improving, and this limitation will eventually disappear. When it does, appropriate security mechanisms will be a fundamental requirement for technology adoption. A trusted auditing system ('Carbon') is presented which has good security, scalability, and resource characteristics for decentralized DVEs. When performing exhaustive auditing, Carbon adds 27% network overhead to a decentralized DVE with a WoW-like workload. This resource consumption can be reduced significantly, depending upon the DVE's risk tolerance. Finally, the Pairwise Random Protocol (PRP) is described. PRP enables adversaries to fairly resolve probabilistic activities, an ability missing from most decentralized DVE security proposals. Thus, this dissertations contribution is to address two of the obstacles for deploying research on decentralized DVE architectures. First, lack of evidence that research results apply to existing DVEs. Second, the lack of security systems combining appropriate security guarantees with acceptable overhead.

This work is focused on the issue of wireless networks according to the IEEE 802.11 standard. The main subject of research is the Rate Adaptation Algorithms (RAA). The work also contains a description of simulation environments NS-3 and OMNeT in terms of adaptation algorithms. At the end of the work there is a summary of wireless network simulations in NS-3 and OMNeT environments and their comparison with the actual measurement of network parameters.

This master’s thesis is focused on behaviour of the TCP/IP protocol on free-space optical link which is affected by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This causes fluctuation of the received optical power and therefor bit error rate changes. In the simulation model short-time bit error rate is calculated from random generated received optical signal and then used in time-domain analysis of the OMNeT++ network simulator. A buffer in transmitter is designed based on simulation results. It pauses the data transmitting in cases of FSO link outage. This method is then implemented into FPGA device.

OMNeT++ is a discrete-event simulator commonly used to build various network simulations. It can be extended by INET framework that supplies models of protocols and devices from TCP/IP environment. This paper explores current capabilities of INET to model IPv6, particularly routing. Implemented extension includes modules of dual-stack router and dual-stack host that support XML-based configuration of IPv6 addressing and static routing. We also introduce an OSPFv3 module that implements most of auxiliary features and is ready for future development of the routing protocol core.

This master’s thesis is focused on behaviour of the TCP/IP protocol on free-space optical link which is affected by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This causes fluctuation of the received optical power and therefor bit error rate changes. In the simulation model short-time bit error rate is calculated from random generated received optical signal and then used in time-domain analysis of the OMNeT++ network simulator. A buffer in transmitter is designed based on simulation results. It pauses the data transmitting in cases of FSO link outage. This method is then implemented into FPGA device.

The usage of UAVs (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle) is soaring, not just for hobbyists but increasingly for a range of professional and civil applications. Some of the more sophisticated applications that have high data usage and long-range flight requirements are being developed now. The range and capability of typical wireless connectivity technologies are not enough for such applications. Connecting UAVs to the mobile network is a solution. There are lots of benefits which mobile network can provide for UAVs and UTM (Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management). However, the anticipation of UAVs was not considered at first in network planning, which creates unexpected coverage conditions. The introduction of UAVs impacts LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in several ways and the network coverage and capacity of UAVs at low altitude is significantly different from that of terrestrial UEs. The thesis work includes investigation about how UAVs impact LTE network and how mobile network coverage and capacity for UAVs change when other factor changes. The impact of methods to enhance the mobile network for UAVs would also part of the research. In this work, a successful simulation in order to investigate UAV’s situation while using 4G LTE cellular networks is developed. In order to properly test the developed framework for a range of different inputs, various generic scenarios were successfully developed and executed. Using this simulation, we have shown that UAV’s network situation is affected by 2 parameters: the height of UAV and the load of the eNodeBs (Evolved Node B). We have successfully demonstrated that UAV at higher attitude may cause more serious network condition in the suburban area compared with the case in the urban area. Finally, an interference mitigation technique: antenna beam selection is applied and tested. We show that it can improve the network condition for UAV at a higher altitude. Some improvements to the model could be a modeling of inter-cell interference and multipath effects. Models of weather condition in UAV’s flying space would also greatly improve the framework. Besides a scheme for modulation and bit error calculation could be used to build a more generic model. In the thesis, antenna propagation and gain models are not perfect, so more accurate model would also be a great improvement. Only antenna beam selection is tested in this thesis and the implementation does not include antenna mechanical design and model building. For further research, more methods like interference cancellation, power control and inter-cell interference coordination can be tested in both simulation and hardware. / Användningen av UAV(Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle): er är stigande, inte bara för hobbyister utan allt mer för en rad professionella och civila applikationer. Några av de mer sofistikerade applikationerna som har hög dataanvändning och krav på lång räckvidd utvecklas nu. Räckvidden och kapaciteten för typiska trådlösa anslutningstekniker räcker inte för sådana applikationer. Att ansluta UAV: er till mobilnätet är en lösning. Det finns många fördelar som mobilnätet kan ge för UAV: er och UTM (Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management). Förväntningen på UAV: er beaktades dock inte först i nätverksplanering, vilket skapar oväntade täckningsförhållanden.Införandet av UAV: er påverkar LTE-nätverk (Long Term Evolution) på flera sätt och nätverkets täckning och kapacitet för UAV: er på låg höjd skiljer sig väsentligt från markbundna UE: er.Examensarbetet inkluderar utredning om hur UAV: er påverkar LTE-nätverk och hur mobilnätstäckning och kapacitet för UAV: er förändras när andra faktorer ändras. Effekten av metoder för att förbättra mobilnätverket för UAV: er skulle också vara en del av forskningen. I detta arbete utvecklas en framgångsrik simulering för att undersöka UAV: s situation med användning av 4G LTE-mobilnät. För att korrekt testa det utvecklade ramverket för en rad olika ingångar, utvecklades och genomfördes olika generiska scenarier. Med denna simulering har vi visat att UAVs nätverkssituation påverkas av två parametrar: UAV: s höjd och belastningen på eNodeBs (Evolved Node B). Vi har framgångsrikt visat att UAV vid högre inställning kan orsaka allvarligare nätverkstillstånd i förortsområdet jämfört med fallet i stadsområdet. Slutligen tillämpas och testas en interferensbegränsande teknik: val av antennstråle. Vi visar att det kan förbättra nätverksvillkoret för UAV på högre höjd. Några förbättringar av modellen kan vara modellering av inter-cellstörningar och flervägseffekter. Modeller av väderförhållanden i UAV: s flygutrymme skulle också förbättra ramverket kraftigt. Förutom ett schema för modulering och beräkning av bitfel skulle kunna användas för att bygga en mer generisk modell. I avhandlingen är antennutbredningsoch förstärkningsmodeller inte perfekta, så en mer exakt modell skulle också vara en stor förbättring. Endast val av antennstråle testas i denna avhandling och implementeringen inkluderar inte antennmekanisk design och modellbyggnad. För ytterligare forskning kan fler metoder som interferensavbrott, effektkontroll och inter-cell-interferenskoordination testas i både simulering och hårdvara.