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The recent application of semiconductor materials, such as GaN, to power electronics has led to the development of a new generation of devices, which promise lower losses, higher operating frequencies and reductions in equipment size. The aim of this research is to study the capabilities of emerging GaN power devices, to understand their advantages, drawbacks, the challenges of their implementation and their potential impact on the performance of power converters. The thesis starts by presenting the development of a simple model for the switching transients of a GaN cascode device under inductive load conditions. The model enables accurate predictions to be made of the switching losses and provides an understanding of the switching process and associated energy flows within the device. The model predictions are validated through experimental measurements. The model reveals the suitability of the cascode device to soft-switching converter topologies. Two GaN cascode transistors are characterised through experimental measurement of their switching parameters (switching speed and switching loss). The study confirms the limited effect of the driver voltage and gate resistance on the turn-off switching process of a cascode device. The performance of the GaN cascode devices is compared against state-of-the-art super junction Si transistors. The results confirm the feasibility of applying the GaN cascode devices in half and full-bridge circuits. Finally, GaN cascode transistors are used to implement a 270V - 28V, 1.5kW, 1 MHz phase-shifted full-bridge isolated converter demonstrating the use of the devices in soft-switching converters. Compared with a 100 kHz silicon counterpart, the magnetic component weight is reduced by 69% whilst achieving a similar efficiency of 91%.

Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) technologies are applicable to a wide variety of mobile wireless communication systems. The principal energy loss mechanism for this type of antenna is the dielectric loss, and then using modern ceramic materials, this may be very low. These antennas are typically of small size, with a high radiation efficiency, often above 95%; they deliver wide bandwidths, and possess a high power handling capability. The principal objectives of this thesis are to investigate and design DRA for low profile personal and nomadic communications applications for a wide variety of spectrum requirements: including DCS, PCS, UMTS, WLAN, UWB applications. X-band and part of Ku band applications are also considered. General and specific techniques for bandwidth expansion, diversity performance and balanced operation have been investigated through detailed simulation models, and physical prototyping. The first major design to be realized is a new broadband DRA operating from 1.15GHz to 6GHz, which has the potential to cover most of the existing mobile service bands. This antenna design employs a printed crescent shaped monopole, and a defected cylindrical DRA. The broad impedance bandwidth of this antenna is achieved by loading the crescent shaped radiator of the monopole with a ceramic material with a permittivity of 81. The antenna volume is 57.0  37.5  5.8 mm3, which in conjunction with the general performance parameters makes this antenna a potential candidate for mobile handset applications. The next class of antenna to be discussed is a novel offset slot-fed broadband DRA assembly. The optimised structure consists of two asymmetrically located cylindrical DRA, with a rectangular slot feed mechanism. Initially, designed for the frequency range from 9GHz to 12GHz, it was found that further spectral improvements were possible, leading to coverage from 8.5GHz to 17GHz. Finally, a new low cost dual-segmented S-slot coupled dielectric resonator antenna design is proposed for wideband applications in the X-band region, covering 7.66GHz to 11.2GHz bandwidth. The effective antenna volume is 30.0 x 25.0 x 0.8 mm3. The DR segments may be located on the same side, or on opposite sides, of the substrate. The end of these configurations results in an improved diversity performance.

La conception, fabrication et caractérisation d’un récepteur hétérodyne à 1.2 THz a été effectuée par le Laboratoire d’Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères (LERMA) et constitue la base de ce rapport de thèse. Les études, analyse et résultats présentés dans ce manuscrit ont été effectués dans le cadre la mission JUpiter ICe moon Explorer (JUICE). JUICE est la première des grandes missions proposées à l’agenda du programme spatial Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 de l’Agence Spatial Européenne (ESA). La mission satellitaire JUICE est consacrée à l’étude du système Jovien. La charge utile du satellite est composée de 10 instruments à l’état-de-l’art et d'une expérience. Le développement du récepteur hétérodyne à 1.2 THz présenté dans cette thèse est dédié à SWI, acronyme anglais de “Submillimeter Wave Instrument", qui, grâce à une résolution spectrale de 107, étudiera à partir de 2030 la structure, la composition et la dynamique des températures de la stratosphère et de la troposphère de Jupiter ainsi que les exosphères et les surfaces des lunes glacées. La partie haute fréquence du récepteur est complètement basée sur la technologie de diodes Schottky planaires sur membrane d'arséniure de galium (GaAs), appelées “Planar Schottky Barrier Diodes” (PSBDs) dans le manuscrit. La réalisation du canal à 1.2 THz de SWI basé sur la technologie Schottky et entièrement développé par le consortium européen, dont fait parti le LERMA, a été le défi le plus significatif rencontré par ce dernier. L'extrême réduction de la taille des anodes des diodes Schottky nécessaire pour monter aux fréquences du THz a été atteinte en collaboration avec le Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures (LPN) en utilisant la lithographie électronique pour la fabrication de véritables “Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits” (MMIC).Une partie importante du ce rapport de thèse et consacrée à l’étude des phénomènes physiques additionnels qui apparaissent quand les dimensions des diodes sont fortement réduites. En particulier, les modifications du comportement résistif et capacitif des diodes Schottky dues à des phénomènes microscopiques bidimensionnels ont été étudiées au moyen d’un simulateur bidimensionnel Monte Carlo (2D-MC), en collaboration avec l’Université de Salamanca, en Espagne.Comme détaillé dans ce manuscrit, la caractérisation précise du comportement capacitif de la diode Schottky est un point critique pour déterminer la plage de fréquences de leur utilisation pour une application donnée. Toute modélisation imprécise de cette propriété de la diode peut entrainer un décalage significatif de la plage de fréquences d’opération d'un circuit THz.Cependant, la modélisation précise des diodes Schottky à ultra-hautes fréquences, n'est qu'une des étapes requises pour réussir à concevoir correctement un circuit THz. L’analyse précise et méticuleuse de l’interaction entre le comportement électromagnétique du chip MMIC et le comportement physique des diodes Schottky a été le but le plus important poursuit dans ce travail doctoral pour le développement du récepteur à 1.2 THz. Cette tâche a été abordée en utilisant les outils commerciaux “High Frequency Simulation/Structure Software” (Ansys-HFSS) et “Keysight Advance Design System” (Keysight-ADS). La combinaison des simulations électromagnétiques des structures tridimensionnelles du chip MMIC (Ansys-HFSS) et les simulations du comportement électrique non-linéaire de la diode Schottky (Keysight-ADS) est la manière actuelle d'aborder la conception de ce type de circuits THz. Le modèle électrique analytique de la diode requis par l’outil ADS a été défini par l'auteur conformément aux résultats précédemment obtenus avec le simulateur physique Monte Carlo. L’implémentation du modèle étendu de la diode Schottky dans cette méthode pour la conception et l'optimisation de chaque étage du récepteur à 1.2THz, est le sujet développé dans ce rapport de thèse. / The design, fabrication and testing of a frequency heterodyne receiver at 1.2 THz has been developed by Laboratoire d’Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères (LERMA) and it is the foundation of this dissertation. The studies, analysis and results presented in this manuscript have been carried out within the framework of the JUpiter ICe moon Explorer (JUICE) mission. JUICE is one of the proposed missions in the agenda of the European Space Agency (ESA) Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. The objective of the JUICE satellite mission is to study the Jovian system, especially the Jupiter atmosphere properties and the surface characteristics of its icy moons. Scientific equipment consisting of ten state-of-the-art instruments and one experiment comprise the payload of this satellite. The development of a 1.2 THz channel is part of the Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) devoted to recovering the spectroscopy data of the Jupiter atmosphere and icy-moons’ surface composition. The scientific principle for this receiver is all-solid-state semiconductor technology based in GaAs Planar Schottky Barrier Diodes (PSBDs). The achievement of a 1.2 THz channel based in PSBDs totally developed by European partners was the major challenge proposed for SWI, with LERMA committed to this assignment. The required ultra-scaling of the Schottky anode size of PSBDs in the attainment of the THz range has been achieved in collaboration with Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures (LPN) using e-beam photolithography in the fabrication of Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMIC). An important part of this dissertation addresses the appearance of additional physical phenomena when ultrascaling solid-state PSBDs. Particularly, the modification of the electrical resistivity and capacitance of SBDs due to two-dimensional phenomena has been studied by means of a physical microscopic Two-Dimensional Monte Carlo (2D-MC) simulator, in collaboration with the University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. As discussed within this manuscript, the accurate characterization of the diode capacitance is one of the critical points when opening a frequency window in the required frequency range of a THz application. A misunderstanding of this modified capacitance during the design of these devices can lead to a considerable offset in the frequency range of the experimental module. However, the accurate modeling of PSBDs in such high frequency applications is only a part of the expertise required for the successful completion of this challenge. The accurate and meticulous analysis of the interrelationship between the electromagnetic behavior of the MMIC chip and the physical behavior of the integrated PSBDs is the main challenge faced in this dissertation for the development of the 1.2 THz receiver. This task has been addressed using the commercial Ansys High Frequency Simulation/Structure Software (Ansys-HFSS) and the Keysight Advance Design System (Keysight-ADS). The combination of the three-dimensional electromagnetic characterization of the chip structure (obtained with HFSS) with the non-linear electrical circuit simulation (carried out by ADS) of diodes is the current methodology for the design of these modules. The analytical electrical model of PSBDs required by ADS software has been defined by this author in agreement with the results obtained with the 2D-MC simulator. The implementation of this approach in the design and optimization of the different stages of the accomplished 1.2 THz receiver is the main subject of this dissertation. The interaction between the physical model of the PSBDs and the electromagnetic modeling of the structure will be discussed within the different chapters of this dissertation. Finally, the mechanical engineering of these applications must be addressed in this discussion.

The objectives of this work are to review, investigate and model the microwave planar filters of the modern wireless communication system. The recent main stream of microwave filters are classified and discussed separately. Various microwave filters with detailed applications are investigated in terms of their geometrical structures and operational performances. A comprehensive theoretical study of microwave filters is presented. The main types of microwave filters including the basic low-pass filters such as Butterworth and Chebyshev filters are fully analysed and described in detail. The transformation from low-pass prototype filters to high-pass filters, band-pass filters and band-stop filters are illustrated and introduced. Research work on stepped impedance resonator (SIR) and asymmetric stepped impedance resonator (ASIR) structure is presented. The characteristics of λg/4, λg/2 and λg (λg is the guided wavelength of the fundamental frequency in the free space) type SIR resonators, and the characteristic of asymmetric SIR resonator are categorized and investigated. Based on the content mentioned above, novel multi-standard high performance asymmetric stepped impedance resonator single-wideband and dual-wideband filters with wide stopbands are proposed. The methodologies to realize wide passband and wide stop-band filters are detailed. In addition, multi-standard high performance triplewideband, quadruple-wideband and quint-wideband filters are suggested and studied. The measurement results for all prototype filters agree well with the theoretical predictions and simulated results from Ansoft HFSS software. The featured broad bandwidths over single/multiple applicable frequency bands and the high performances of the proposed filters make them very promising for applications in future multistandard wireless communication.

Metamaterials are humanly engineered artificial electromagnetic materials which produce electromagnetic properties that are unusual, yet can be observed readily in nature. These unconventional properties are not a result of the material composition but rather of the structure formed. The objective of this thesis is to investigate and design smaller and wideband metamaterial-inspired antennas for personal communication applications, especially for WiMAX, lower band and higher band WLAN applications. These antennas have been simulated using HFSS Structure Simulator and CST Microwave Studio software. The first design to be analysed is a low-profile metamaterial-inspired CPW-Fed monopole antenna for WLAN applications. The antenna is based on a simple strip loaded with a rectangular patch incorporating a zigzag E-shape metamaterial-inspired unit cell to enable miniaturization effect. Secondly, a physically compact, CSRR loaded monopole antenna with DGS has been proposed for WiMAX/WLAN operations. The introduction of CSRR induces frequency at lower WLAN 2.45 GHz band while the DGS has provided bandwidth enhancement in WiMAX and upper WLAN frequency bands, keeping the radiation pattern stable. The next class of antenna is a compact cloud-shaped monopole antenna consisting of a staircase-shaped DGS has been proposed for UWB operation ranges from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. The novel shaped antenna along with carefully designed DGS has resulted in a positive gain throughout the operational bandwidth. Finally, a quad-band, CPW-Fed metamaterial-inspired antenna with CRLH-TL and EBG is designed for multi-band: Satellite, LTE, WiMAX and WLAN.

In the present thesis, we have explored multiple aspects concerning the stochasticity of magnetic domain wall motion during magnetization reversal, all of which originated from our initial study of magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect. Magnetic field sensors occupy a very important and indispensable position in modern technology. They can be found everywhere, from cellphones to automobiles, electric motors to computer hard disks. At present there are several emerging areas of technology, including biotechnology, which require magnetic field sensors which are at the same time simple to use, highly sensitive, robust under environmental conditions and sufficiently low cost to be deployed on a large scale. Magnetic field sensing using planar Hall effect is one such feasible technology, which we have explored in the course of the thesis. The work was subsequently expanded to cover some fundamental aspects of the stochasticity of domain wall motion, studied with planar Hall effect, which forms the main body of work in the present study. In Chapter 1, we give an introduction to the phenomenology of planar Hall effect, which is the most important measurement technique used for all the subsequent studies. Some early calculations, which had first led to the understanding of anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect as being caused by spin-orbit interaction are discussed. In Chapter 2, we discuss briefly the experimental techniques used in the present study for sample growth and fabrication, structural and magnetic characterization, and measurement. We discuss pulsed laser ablation, which is the main technique used for our sample growth. Particular emphasis is given to the instrumentation that was carried out in-house for MOKE and low field magnetotransport (AMR and PHE) measurement. This includes an attempt at domain wall imaging through MOKE microscopy. Some of the standard equipments used for this work, such as the SQUID magnetometer and the acsusceptometer are also discussed in detail. In Chapter 3 we discuss our work on planar Hall sensors that led to the fabrication of a device with a very simple architecture, having transfer characteristics of 650V/A.T in a range of _2Oe. The sensing material was permalloy (Ni81Fe19), and the value had been obtained without using an exchange biased pinning layer. Field trials showed that the devices were capable of geomagnetic field sensing, as well as vehicle detection by sensing the anomaly in Earth's magnetic field caused by their motion. Its estimated detection threshold of 2.5nT made it well suited for several other applications needing high sensitivity in a small area, the most prominent of them being the detection of macromolecules of bio-medical significance. Chapter 4: The work on Barkhausen noise was prompted by reproducibility problems faced during the sensor construction, both between devices as well as within the same device. Study of the stochastic properties led us to the conclusion that the devices could be grouped into two classes: one where the magnetization reversal occurred in a single step, and the other where it took a 0staircase0 like path with multiple steps. This led us to simulations of Barkhausen noise using nucleation models like the RFIM whence it became apparent that the two different groups of samples could be mapped into two regimes of the RFIM distinguished by their magnetization reversal mode. In the RFIM, the nature of the hysteresis loop depends on the degree of disorder, with a crossover happening from single-step switching to multi-step switching at a critical disorder level. Appropriate changes also appear in the Barkhausen noise statistics due to this disorder-induced crossover. By studying the Barkhausen noise statistics for our permalloy samples and comparing them with simulations of the RFIM, we found nearly exact correspondence between the two experimental groups with the two classes resulting from crossing the critical disorder. What remained was to quantify the 0disorder0 level of our samples, which was done through XRD, residual resistivity and a study of electron-electron interaction effects in the resistivity. All these studies led to the conclusion that the samples reversing in multiple steps were more 0defective0 than the other group, at par with the model predictions. This completed the picture with respect to the modeling of the noise. In experiments, it was found that a high rate of film deposition yielded less 0defective0 samples, which severed as an important input for the sensor construction. These results can be viewed from a somewhat broader perspective if we consider the present scenario in the experimental study of Barkhausen noise, or crackling noise in general. Two classes of models exist for such phenomena: front propagation models and nucleation models. Both appear to be very successful when it comes to experiments with bulk materials, while the comparison with experiments on thin films is rather disappointing. It is still not clear whether the models are at fault or the experiments themselves. Through our study, we could demonstrate that there can be considerable variation in the Barkhausen noise character of the same material deposited in the same way, and what was important was the degree of order at the microscopic level. This may be a relevant factor when experimental papers report non-universality of Barkhausen noise in thin films, which can now be interpreted as either insufficient defects or a sample area too small for the study. Chapter 5: Defects in a sample are not the only cause for stochastic behavior during magnetization. In most cases, random thermal 0events0 are also an important factor determining the path to magnetization reversal, which was also true for our permalloy samples. We studied the distribution of the external fields at which magnetization reversal took place in our samples, and tried to explain it in terms of the popular Neel-Brown model of thermal excitation over the anisotropy barrier. The analysis showed that even though the coercivity behaved 0correctly0 in terms of the model predictions, the behavior of the distribution width was anomalous. Such anomalies were common in the literature on switching field distributions, but there seemed to be no unified explanation, with different authors coming up with their own 0exotic0 explanations. We decided to investigate the simplest situations that could result in such a behavior, and through some model-based calculations, came to the conclusion that one of the causes of the anomalies could be the different magnitudes of barrier heights/anisotropy fields experienced by the magnetic domain wall when the reversal occurs along different paths. Though an exact match for the behavior of the distribution width could not be obtained, the extended Neel-Brown model was able to produce qualitative agreement. Chapter 6 contains a study of some interesting 0geometrical0 effects on Barkhausen noise of iron thin films. By rotating the applied magnetic field out-of plane, we could observe the same single-step to multi-step crossover in hysteresis loop nature that was brought about by varying disorder in Chapter 4. We could explain this through simulations of a random anisotropy Ising model, which, apart from exhibiting the usual disorder induced crossover, showed a transition from sub-critical to critical hysteresis loops when the external field direction was rotated away form the average anisotropy direction. Once again, simulation and experiment showed very good agreement in terms of the qualitative behavior. In the second part of this chapter, a study of exchange biased Fe-FeMn system was carried out, where it was observed that the reversal mode has been changed from domain wall motion to coherent rotation. Barkhausen noise was also suppressed. Though many single-domain models existed for this type of reversal, our system was not found to be strictly compatible with them. The disagreement was with regard to the nature of the hysteresis, which, if present, had to be a single step process for a single domain model. The disagreement was naturally attributed to interaction with the nearby magnetic moments, to verify which, simulations were done with a simplified micromagnetic code, which produced excellent agreement with experiment. In Chapter 7, we have studied the temporal properties of Barkhausen avalanches, to compare the duration distributions with simulation. We had used a permalloy sample that was sub-critical according to avalanche size distributions, and our measurement was based on magneto-optic Kerr effect. We measured duration distributions which showed a similar manifestation of finite-size effects as were shown by the size distributions. The power law exponent was calculated, which was deemed 0reasonable0 upon comparison simulations of the sub-critical RFIM. Appendix A contains a study of high-field magnetoresistance of permalloy, which shows that the dominant contribution to magnetoresistance is the suppression of electron-magnon scattering. An interesting correlation is observed between the magnetization of samples and an exchange stiffness parameter d1, that was extracted from magnetoresistance measurements. Here we also re-visit our earlier observation of permalloy thin films possessing a resistance minimum at low temperature. The origin of this minimum is attributed to electron-electron interaction. Appendix B contains the source codes for most of the important programs used for simulation and data analysis. The programs are written in MATLAB and FORTRAN 95. LabView programs used for data acquisition and analysis are not included due to space requirements to display their graphical source codes. Appendix C discusses the studies on a disordered rare-earth oxide LaMnO3. The re-entrant glassy phase is characterized with ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements to extract information about the nature of interactions between the magnetic 0macrospins0 in the system. Appendix D deals with electron scattering experiments performed with spinpolarized electrons (SPLEED) from clean metal surfaces in UHV. A study of the scattering cross sections as a function of energy and scattering angle provides information about spin-orbit and exchange interactions of the electrons with the surface atoms, and can answer important questions pertaining to the electronic and magnetic structure of surfaces. In the course of this study, planar Hall effect is seen to emerge as a powerful tool to study the magnetic state of a thin film, so that it is interesting to apply it to thin films of other materials such as oxides, where magnetization noise studies are next to nonexistent. What also emerged is that there is still a lot of richness present in the details of supposedly well-understood magnetization phenomena, some of which we have explored in this thesis in the context of stochastic magnetization processes.

The need for miniaturized, and high performance microwave devices has focused significant attention onto new fabrication technologies that can simultaneously achieve high performance and low manufacturing complexity. Additive manufacturing (AM) has proven its capability in fabricating high performance, compact and light weight microwave circuits and antennas, as well as the ability to achieve designs that are complicated to fabricate using other manufacturing approaches. Direct print additive manufacturing (DPAM) is an emerging AM process that combines the fused deposition modeling (FDM) of thermoplastics with micro-dispensing of conductive and insulating pastes. DPAM has the potential to jointly combine high performance and low manufacturing complexity, along with the possibility of real-time tuning. This dissertation aims to leverage the powerful capabilities of DPAM to come-up with new designs and solutions that meet the requirements of rapidly evolving wireless systems and applications. Furthermore, the work in this dissertation provides new techniques and approaches to alleviate the drawbacks and limitations of DPAM fabrication technology. Firstly, the development of 3D packaged antenna, and antenna array are presented along with an analysis of the inherent roughness of 3D printed structures to provide a deeper understanding of the antenna RF performance. The single element presents a new volumetric approach to realizing a 3D half-wave dipole in a packaged format, where it provides the ability to keep a signal distribution network in close proximity to the ground plane, facilitating the implementation of ground connections (e.g. for an active device), mitigating potential surface wave losses, as well as achieving a modest (10.6%) length reduction. In addition, a new approach of implementing conformal antennas using DPAM is presented by printing thin and flexible substrate that can be adhered to 3D structures to facilitate the fabrication and reduce the surface roughness. The array design leverages direct digital manufacturing (DDM) technology to realize a shaped substrate structure that is used to control the array beamwidth. The non-planar substrate allows the element spacing to be changed without affecting the length of the feed network or the distance to the underlying ground plane. The second part describes the first high-Q capacitively-loaded cavity resonator and filter that is compatible with direct print additive manufacturing. The presented design is a compromise between quality factor, cost and manufacturing complexity and to the best of our knowledge is the highest Q-factor resonator demonstrated to date using DPAM compatible materials and processes. The final version of the single resonator achieves a measured unloaded quality factor of 200-325 over the frequency range from 2.0 to 6.5 GHz. The two pole filter is designed using a coupled-resonator approach to operate at 2.44 GHz with 1.9% fractional bandwidth. The presented design approach simplifies evanescent-mode filter fabrication, eliminating the need for micromachining and vias, and achieving a total weight of 1.97 g. The design is fabricated to provide a proof-of-principle for the high-Q resonator and filter that compromises between performance, cost, size, and complexity. A stacked version of the two-pole filter is presented to provide a novel design for multi-layer embedded applications. The fabrication is performed using an nScrypt Tabletop 3Dn printer. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) (relative permittivity of 2.7 and loss tangent of 0.008) is deposited using fused deposition modeling to form the antenna, array, resonator, and filter structures, and Dupont CB028 silver paste is used to form the conductive traces conductive regions (the paste is dried at 90 °C for 60 minutes, achieving a bulk DC conductivity of 1.5×106 S/m.). A 1064 nm pulsed picosecond Nd:YAG laser is used to laser machine the resonator and filter input and output feedlines.

[pt] O objetivo deste trabalho é complementar a ferramenta de dimensionamento de pórticos planos de concreto armado já existente no Ftool, programa educacional amplamente difundido no meio acadêmico. Para tanto, foi introduzido o cálculo e dimensionamento de pilares de concreto armado à flexão composta reta. Foi adicionada uma nova seção transversal, referente aos pilares retangulares com armaduras simétricas. Além disso, foi necessária a inclusão de um método de análise não linear geométrica simplificado que fosse compatível com a filosofia do Ftool, aliando simplicidade e eficiência: o método dos Dois Ciclos Iterativos. A ferramenta para análise não linear geométrica pode ou não ser utilizada em conjunto com a ferramenta para o dimensionamento de estruturas de concreto armado, sendo possível a análise não linear geométrica de pórticos planos constituídos de outros materiais. A metodologia utilizada para o dimensionamento dos pilares em concreto armado é a que se baseia nas zonas de solicitação e foi adequada para estar de acordo com a norma brasileira vigente, a ABNT NBR 6118:2014, assim como o dimensionamento de vigas existente em uma versão anterior dessa ferramenta. Dessa forma, é possível exibir resultados para pórticos planos compostos por vigas e pilares em concreto armado, nos mesmos moldes da versão anterior, com diagramas para as armaduras longitudinal e transversal disponíveis nos modos necessária e adotada. / [en] The main objective of this work is to complement the reinforced concrete plane frames design tool already existing in Ftool, an educational tool widely known in academia. Therefore, the design of reinforced concrete columns was introduced. A new cross section for rectangular columns with symmetrical steel reinforcement was added. In addition to that, the inclusion of a simplified nonlinear geometric analysis that was in accordance to the philosophy of Ftool, combining simplicity and efficiency, was needed: the Two cycles iterative method. The nonlinear geometric analysis tool may or may not be used together with the reinforced concrete plane frames design tool, thus allowing for geometric nonlinear analyses of plane frames of other materials. The methodology used for the reinforced concrete frames design was based on solicitation zones and was adapted to be in accordance with the Brazilian code, the ABNT NBR 6118:2014, as was the existing reinforced concrete beams design tool. It is now possible to show results for plane frames composed of reinforced concrete columns and beams just as in the previous version of the reinforced concrete design tool, showing diagrams for the necessary and adopted longitudinal and transversal steel reinforcement.

SILVA, Aline Alves da. Decomposição e largura em árvore de grafos planares livres de ciclos pares induzidos. 2007. 80 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em ciência da computação)- Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza-CE, 2007. / Submitted by Elineudson Ribeiro (elineudsonr@gmail.com) on 2016-07-08T17:52:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_aasilva.pdf: 635256 bytes, checksum: 0ac10f7ac58ad14294969b2e4a830ce0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rocilda Sales (rocilda@ufc.br) on 2016-07-13T12:18:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_aasilva.pdf: 635256 bytes, checksum: 0ac10f7ac58ad14294969b2e4a830ce0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-13T12:18:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_aasilva.pdf: 635256 bytes, checksum: 0ac10f7ac58ad14294969b2e4a830ce0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / The definitions of tree decomposition and treewidth were introduced by Robertson and Seymour in their series of papers on graph minors, published during the nineties. It is known that many NP-hard problems can be polynomially solved if a tree decomposition of bounded treewidth is given. So, it is of interest to bound the treewidth of certain classes of graphs. In this context, the planar graphs seem to be specially challenging because, in despite of having many known bounded metrics (for example, chromatic number), they have unbounded treewidth. So, an alternative approach is to restrict ourselves to a subclass of planar graphs. In this work, we investigate the class of even-hole-free planar graphs. We show that if G is an even-hole-free planar graph, then it does not contain a subdivision of the 10£10 grid. So, if the grid minors of G are obtained from subdivisions, then G has treewidth at most 49. Furthermore, two polynomial, non-exact algorithms to compute a tree decomposition of a even-hole-free planar graph are given, both based on known characterizations of even-hole-free graphs. In the ¯rst one, a tree decomposition is built from basic graphs by concatenating the tree decomposition of small pieces via the clique, k-stars (k = 1; 2; 3) and 2-join cutsets. In the second one, a tree decomposition is built by including one by one the vertices of G, following their bi-simplicial order. / Os conceitos de Decomposição em Árvore e Largura em Árvore foram introduzidos por Robertson e Seymour em sua série de artigos sobre menores de grafos, publicados ao longo da década de 90. Sabe-se que muitos problemas NP - difíceis podem ser resolvidos polinomialmente para um grafo G, dada uma decomposição em Árvore de G de largura limitada. Logo, limitar a largura em árvore de uma classe de grafos torna-se um objeto de estudo de grande interesse. Neste contexto, a classe dos grafos planares se mostra bastante intrigante, uma vez que, apesar de possuir outras métricas limitadas em valores baixos (por exemplo, número cromático), não possui largura em árvore limitada. Desta forma, uma alternativa é restringir a classe estudada para uma subclasse dos grafos planares. Neste trabalho, nós investigamos a classe dos grafos planares livres de buracos pares. Nós mostramos que se G é um grafo planar livre de buracos pares, então ele não contém uma subdivisão de uma grade 10 £ 10. Portanto, se os menores grades de G são obtidos de subdivisões G tem largura em árvore no máximo 49. Além disso, dois algoritmos não exatos polinomiais para computar uma decomposição em árvore de um grafo planar livre de buracos pares são apresentados, ambos baseados em caracterizações conhecidas de tal classe de grafos. No primeiro algoritmo, uma decomposição em árvore é construída a partir de grafos básicos pela concatenação de decomposições em árvores de pedaços pequenos via os cortes clique, k-estrelas (k = 1; 2; 3) e 2-join. No segundo, uma decomposição em árvore é construída pela inclusão dos vértices de G um a um, seguindo sua ordem bi-simplicial.