<p> This thesis investigates the characteristics of noise generation in the gas wiping process, including the effects of the various parameters manipulated in the process and countermeasures used to reduce noise levels. The process of gas wiping is used in many industrial applications such as drying of pulp and paper, photograph production and some high performance cooling applications. One of the most important industrial applications of gas wiping is the production of hot-dipped galvanized sheet steel. Gas wiping is a very efficient and reliable process to control coating thickness and uniformity of galvanized steel products, and can be used for very high line speeds and production rates. Changing the various process parameters such as the jet to strip distance (z), the jet slot width (h), plenum pressure (P) and jet inclination angle (α) allows manufacturers to control the coating thickness and quality of the finished product.</p> <p> The gas wiping process is also responsible for the generation of very high levels of noise, which can be a factor in limiting the overall production rates and indirectly increase production costs for manufacturers. To maintain a constant coating thickness as the line speed and production rate is increased, the plenum pressure supplied to the jets and thus the incident jet velocity must be increased, or the jet-to-strip distance must be decreased. Noise production in the gas wiping process is acknowledged to be proportional to the incident jet velocity and inversely proportional to the jet-to-strip distance. Thus, for a given coating thickness, as the production rates increase, the noise generated by the process must also increase. Ergonomic restrictions in the workplace, which limit the exposure to high sound pressure levels and audible acoustic tones, may indirectly limit the maximum line speed for a steel sheet with a given coating thickness. This limitation is particularly relevant to the production of high quality automotive sheet steels, which often have very thin coating thicknesses and have higher than normal coating uniformity tolerances, which necessitate the use of high plenum pressures and small jet-to-strip distances.</p> <p> At present, the state of knowledge for noise generation in the gas wiping process is very limited. Only two previous investigations have been devoted to this problem, and the experiments for these studies have only modeled specific individual cases, with no attempt at a comprehensive modeling of noise in this process. For the current study, measurements have been performed in both an actual manufacturing environment and on a scaled galvanizing simulator in a laboratory environment. A comprehensive set of experiments over a wide range of gas wiping parameters was performed in order to provide a broad overview of noise generation in the gas wiping process and allow for process optimization to reduce noise and allow higher production rates and efficiency. The creation of noise maps, modeling the overall sound pressure level and tone intensity for gas wiping as function of the various operating parameters of the process, as well as a set of equations and models to determine the frequency of discrete acoustic tones are presented. A full analysis of the frequency response, as well as the acoustic modes generated in various jet impingement regions has also been provided.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Exterior vehicle noise has a very big impact when it comes to environmental noise pollution. Due to the decrease of the other noise sources of a passenger car, like power-train and air turbulence noise in the last decade, the tyre/road noise has become a more important part in the overall noise generation of a vehicle nowadays. It is considered as the main noise source in nearly all driving conditions, especially with increasing vehicle speed. The easiest idea to tackle this pollution is to introduce rules like speed-limits to control the noise at a certain area or time. More interesting, however, is to approach the problem of unwanted noise directly at the source. This Thesis, carried out at Loughborough University, aims to give a better understanding about the basic noise generation mechanisms at the tyre/road interface. Especially, the air related mechanisms of closed cavities are analysed. With the usage of a solid rubber tyre, unique measurements have been carried out and the results are compared to the theories already existing in the literature. These measurements reveal some of the strengths and weaknesses of the current understanding of air related noise generation.

Acoustic noise pollution is an environmental aggressor in everyday life. Aero- dynamically generated noise annoys and was linked with health issues. It may be caused by high-speed turbulent free flows (e.g. aircraft jet exhausts), by airflow interacting with solid surfaces (e.g. fan noise, wind turbine noise), or it may arise within a confined flow environment (e.g. air ventilation systems, refrigeration systems). Hence, reducing the acoustic noise levels would result in a better life quality, where a systematic approach to decrease the acoustic noise radiation is required to guarantee optimal results. Computational predic- tion methods able to provide all the required flow quantities with the desired temporal and spatial resolutions are perfectly suited in such application areas, when supplementing restricted experimental investigations. This thesis focuses on the use of numerical methodologies in compressible flow applications to understand aerodynamically noise generation mechanisms and to assess technologies used to suppress it. Robust and fast steady-state Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based formulations are employed for the optimal design process, while the high fidelity Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach is utilized to reveal the detailed flow physics and to investigate the acoustic noise production mechanisms. The employment of fast methods on a wide range of cases represents a brute-force strategy used to scrutinize the optimization parameter space and to provide general behavioral trends. This in combination with accurate simulations performed for particular condi- tions of interest becomes a very powerful approach. Advance post-processing techniques (i.e. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Dynamic Mode Decomposition) have been employed to analyze the intricate, highly turbulent flows. The impact of using fluidic injection inside a convergent-divergent nozzle for acoustic noise suppression is analyzed, first using steady-state RANS simulations. More than 250 cases are investigated for the optimal injection location and angle, amount of injected flow and operating conditions. Based on a-priori established criteria, a few optimal candidate solutions are detected from which one geometrical configuration is selected for being thoroughly investigated by using detailed LES calculations. This allows analyzing the unsteady shock pattern movement and the flow structures resulting with fluidic injec- tion. When investigating external fluidic injection configurations, some lead to a high amplitude shock associated noise, so-called screech tones. Such unsteady phenomena can be captured and explained only by using unsteady simulations. Another complex flow scenario demonstrated using LES is that of a high ve- locity jet ejected into a confined convergent-divergent ejector (i.e. a jet pump). The standing wave pattern developed in the confined channel and captured by LES, significantly alters the acoustic noise production. Steady-state methods failed to predict such events. The unsteady highly resolved simulations proved to be essential for analyzing flow and acoustics phenomena in complex problems. This becomes a very powerful approach when is used together with steady-state, low time-consuming formulations and when complemented with experimental measurements. / <p>QC 20141202</p>

La vitesse des liens séries haut débit (USB, SATA, PCI-express, etc.) a atteint les multi-gigabits par seconde, et continue à augmenter. Deux des principaux paramètres électriques utilisés pour caractériser les performances des SerDes sont la gigue transmis à un niveau de taux d’erreur donné et la capacité du récepteur à suivre la gigue à un taux d’erreur donné.Modéliser le bruit de phase des différents components du SerDes, et extraire la gigue temporelle pour la décomposer, aideraient les ingénieurs en conception de circuits à atteindre les meilleurs résultats pour les futures versions des SerDes. Générer des patterns de gigue synthétiques de bruits blancs ou colorés permettrait de mieux analyser les effets de la gigue dans le système pendant la phase de vérification.La boucle d’asservissement de phase est un des contributeurs de la gigue d’horloge aléatoire et déterministe à l’intérieur du système. Cette thèse présente une méthode pour modéliser la boucle d’asservissement de phase avec injection du bruit de phase et estimation de la gigue temporelle. Un modèle dans le domaine temporel en incluant les effets de non-linéarité de la boucle a été créé pour estimer cette gigue. Une nouvelle méthode pour générer des patterns synthétiques de gigue avec une distribution Gaussienne à partir de profils de bruit de phase coloré a été proposée.Les standards spécifient des budgets séparés de gigue aléatoire et déterministe. Pour décomposer la gigue de la sortie de la boucle d’asservissement de phase (ou la gigue généré par la méthode présentée), une nouvelle technique pour analyser et décomposer la gigue a été proposée. Les résultats de modélisation corrèlent bien avec les mesures et cette technique aidera les ingénieurs de conception à identifier et quantifier proprement les sources de la gigue ainsi que leurs impacts dans les systèmes SerDes.Nous avons développé une méthode, pour spécifier la boucle d’asservissement de phase en termes de bruit de phase. Cette méthode est applicable à tout standard (USB, SATA, PCIe, …) et définit les profils de bruits de4phases pour les différentes parties de la boucle d’asservissement de phase, pour s’assurer que les requis des standards sont satisfaits en termes de gigue. Ces modèles nous ont également permis de générer les spécifications de la PLL, pour des standards différents. / Bit rates of high speed serial links (USB, SATA, PCI-express, etc.) have reached the multi-gigabits per second, and continue to increase. Two of the major electrical parameters used to characterize SerDes Integrated Circuit performance are the transmitted jitter at a given bit error rate (BER) and the receiver capacity to track jitter at a given BER.Modeling the phase noise of the different SerDes components, extracting the time jitter and decomposing it, would help designers to achieve desired Figure of Merit (FoM) for future SerDes versions. Generating white and colored noise synthetic jitter patterns would allow to better analyze the effect of jitter in a system for design verification.The phase locked loop (PLL) is one of the contributors of clock random and periodic jitter inside the system. This thesis presents a method for modeling the PLL with phase noise injection and estimating the time domain jitter. A time domain model including PLL loop nonlinearities is created in order to estimate jitter. A novel method for generating Gaussian distribution synthetic jitter patterns from colored noise profiles is also proposed.The Standard Organizations specify random and deterministic jitter budgets. In order to decompose the PLL output jitter (or the generated jitter from the proposed method), a new technique for jitter analysis and decomposition is proposed. Modeling simulation results correlate well with measurements and this technique will help designers to properly identify and quantify the sources of deterministic jitter and their impact on the SerDes system.We have developed a method, for specifying PLLs in terms of Phase Noise. This method works for any standard (USB, SATA, PCIe, …), and defines Phase noise profiles of the different parts of the PLL, in order to be sure that the standard requirements are satisfied in terms of Jitter.

<p>Sectra Communications AB has developed a terminal for encrypted communication called the Tiger platform. During voice communication delays have sometimes been experienced resulting in conversational complications.</p><p>A solution to this problem, as was proposed by Sectra, would be to introduce voice activity detection, which means a separation of speech parts and non-speech parts of the input signal, to the Tiger platform. By only transferring the speech parts to the receiver, the bandwidth needed should be dramatically decreased. A lower bandwidth needed implies that the delays slowly should disappear. The problem is then to come up with a method that manages to distinguish the speech parts from the input signal. Fortunately a lot of theory on the subject has been done and numerous voice activity methods exist today.</p><p>In this thesis the theory of voice activity detection has been studied. A review of voice activity detectors that exist on the market today followed by an evaluation of some of these was performed in order to select a suitable candidate for the Tiger platform. This evaluation would later become the foundation for the selection of a voice activity detector for implementation.</p><p>Finally, the implementation of the chosen voice activity detector, including a comfort noise generator, was done on the platform. This implementation was based on the special requirements of the platform. Tests of the implementation in office environments show that possible delays are steadily being reduced during periods of speech inactivity, while the active speech quality is preserved.</p>

Sectra Communications AB has developed a terminal for encrypted communication called the Tiger platform. During voice communication delays have sometimes been experienced resulting in conversational complications. A solution to this problem, as was proposed by Sectra, would be to introduce voice activity detection, which means a separation of speech parts and non-speech parts of the input signal, to the Tiger platform. By only transferring the speech parts to the receiver, the bandwidth needed should be dramatically decreased. A lower bandwidth needed implies that the delays slowly should disappear. The problem is then to come up with a method that manages to distinguish the speech parts from the input signal. Fortunately a lot of theory on the subject has been done and numerous voice activity methods exist today. In this thesis the theory of voice activity detection has been studied. A review of voice activity detectors that exist on the market today followed by an evaluation of some of these was performed in order to select a suitable candidate for the Tiger platform. This evaluation would later become the foundation for the selection of a voice activity detector for implementation. Finally, the implementation of the chosen voice activity detector, including a comfort noise generator, was done on the platform. This implementation was based on the special requirements of the platform. Tests of the implementation in office environments show that possible delays are steadily being reduced during periods of speech inactivity, while the active speech quality is preserved.

Noise generation from underwater activities propagates into the marine environment.For marine vessels the propulsion system generates the most noise during itsoperations. Naval vessels that want to operate without being detected want to controlthe sound generating properties of the vessel. To control the sound generatingproperties this project has been looking into the existing propeller of the submergedcraft Carrier Seal that is produced by James Fisher Defense. Then a new and bespokenpropeller has been developed with theories applied to minimize its noise generatingproperties. The properties of the propeller that have been altered is the number ofblades, blade area ratio, pitch and skew angle. These properties have been alteredwith aid of the open-source software for Matlab named Openprop. From the finalpropeller design a prototype was later produced, tested and compared to the existingpropeller of the Seal Carrier. To test and compare these two propellers a test procedurewith inspiration from NATO and the Swedish Defense and Research Agency (FOI) wasdeveloped. The results from the comparison show that the sound pressure level fromthe propeller spectrum could be lowered with 3 dB re 1 μP a for the vessels design speedand several blade tones could be eliminated entirely. Simultaneously the efficiency ofthe vessel is increased throughout its speed range.In conclusions the recommendation to JFD is to change their existing propeller tothis bespoken propeller as it has proven itself to better in every way during thesetrials. / Ljud som genererats under vatten sprider sig långt från källan där de uppstått. Frånmarina fartyg är det framdrivningssystemet som står för majoriteten av det genereradeljudet. För militära fartyg som inte vill upptäckas är det av yttersta vikt att minimeraljuden som genereras ombord. För att kontrollera detta har det här projektet riktatin sig på fartyget Carrier Seal som tillverkas utav James Fisher Defense (JFD) ochdess propeller. Den existerande propellern har analyserats och därefter har en nyoch förbättrad propeller utvecklats. Utvecklingen har gjorts genom att tillämpatillgängliga teorier som gått ut på att minska propellerns ljudskapande egenskaper.Propelleregenskaperna som har undersökts är antalet blad som propellern har, dessbladtäckningsgrad, stigning och skevningsvinkel. Dessa egenskaper har varierats medhjälp av mjukvaran Openprop som körs i Matlab för att hitta en kombination somgenererar mindre ljud än sin föregångare. Därefter har en prototyp tillverkats ochtestats för att sedan jämföras med den existerande propellern. Testproceduren somgenomförts har tagits fram med inspiration från liknande procedurer som genomförtsav NATO och FOI. Resultatet från jämförelsen visar att ljudtrycksnivån från propellernhar kunnat minskats med 3 dB re 1 μP a för hela propellerspektrumet vid farkostensmarschfart och flertalet bladtoner kunde elimineras helt och hållet. Samtidigt someffektiviten kunnat förbättras över hela fartområdet.Slutsatsen som kan dras av arbetet är att JFD rekommenderas att byta deras nuvarandepropeller till den förbättrade propellern eftersom den har visat sig avsevärt mycketbättre under dessa tester.

This thesis deals with the creation of the intro with limited size. This work describes methods for reducing the size of the final application. The main part describes methods for generating graphic content and methods for its animation. It deals with creation of textures and geometry. Another part is aimed on the physical simulation of particle and elastic systems.