In electrochemistry "Inductive loops" appear as a small "hook" into the upper half-plane in the low frequency range of the Nyquist plot of the impedance function. This has puzzled scientists for decades because the electrochemical impedance is known to have a purely negative imaginary part. In this dissertation we will show that the lack of time-invariance can be a source of inductive loops. We first introduce a technique for measuring the impedance of a time-invariant electrochemical system. Since circuits of arbitrary complexity can be approximated by an equivalent circuit model consisting of elementary Voigt circuits and possibly a capacitor, we show that this technique gives a reliable approximation of the impedance of an elementary Voigt element and the exact impedance of a capacitor. We then apply the same procedure to systems with time-dependent resistances and capacitances and observe the appearance of inductive loops in the plot of the "impedance function". Finally, we examine electrochemical systems whose properties change on time scales of $1/\Ge$, where $\Ge$ is a small parameter. We derive a formula which permits one to extend the theory of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to time-dependent systems with slowly changing properties. This formula agrees with the classical theory at high frequencies while being able to capture low-frequency inductive loops. / Mathematics

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No / Extensive research has been performed for developing knowledge based intelligent monitoring systems for improving the reliability of manufacturing processes. Due to the high expense of obtaining knowledge from human experts, it is expected to develop new techniques to obtain the knowledge automatically from the collected data using data mining techniques. Inductive learning has become one of the widely used data mining methods for generating decision rules from data. In order to deal with the noise or uncertainties existing in the data collected in industrial processes and systems, this paper presents a new method using fuzzy logic techniques to improve the performance of the classical inductive learning approach. The proposed approach, in contrast to classical inductive learning method using hard cut point to discretize the continuous-valued attributes, uses soft discretization to enable the systems have less sensitivity to the uncertainties and noise. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been illustrated in an application of monitoring the machining conditions in uncertain environment. Experimental results show that this new fuzzy inductive learning method gives improved accuracy compared with using classical inductive learning techniques.

Integrated circuit design has progressed significantly over the last few decades. This increasing complexity of hardware systems poses several challenges to the digital hardware verification. Functional verification has become the most expensive and time-consuming task in the overall product development cycle. Almost 70\% of the total verification time is being consumed by design verification and it is projected to worsen further. One of the reasons for this complexity is the synthesis and optimization (automated as well as manual) techniques used to improve performance, area, delay, and other measures have made the final implementation of the design very different from the golden (reference) model. Determining the functional correctness between the reference and implementation using exhaustive simulation can almost always be infeasible. An alternative approach is to prove that the optimized design is functionally equivalent to the reference model, which is known to be functionally correct. The most widely used formal method to perform this process is equivalence checking. The success of combinational equivalence checking (CEC) has contributed to aggressive combinational logic synthesis and optimizations for circuits with millions of logic gates. However, without powerful sequential equivalence checking (SEC) techniques, the potential and extent of sequential optimization is quite limited. In other words, the success of SEC can unleash a plethora of aggressive sequential optimizations that can take circuit design to the next level. Currently, SEC remains extremely difficult compared to CEC, due to the huge search space of the problem. Sequential Equivalence Checking remains a challenging problem, in this thesis we address the problem using efficient learning techniques. The first approach is to mine missing multi-node patterns from the mining database, verify them and add those proved as true during the unbounded SEC framework. The second approach is to mine powerful and generalized Boolean relationships among flip-flops and internal signals in a sequential circuit using a data mining algorithm. In contrast to traditional learning methods, our mining algorithms can extract illegal state cubes and inductive invariants. These invariants can be arbitrary Boolean expressions and can help in pruning a large don't-care space for equivalence checking. The two approaches are complementary to each other in nature. One computes the subset of illegal states that cannot occur in the normal function mode and the other approach mines legal constraints that represent the characteristics of the miter circuit and can never be violated. These powerful relations, when added as new constraint clauses to the original formula, help to significantly increase the deductive power for the SAT engine, thereby pruning a larger portion of the search space. Likewise, the memory required and time taken to solve the SEC problem is alleviated. / Master of Science

In this dissertation separation and selection theorems are presented. It begins by presenting a detailed proof of the Inductive Definability Theorem of D. Cenzer and R.D. Mauldin, including their boundedness principle for monotone coanalytic operators.

Design techniques for heterogeneous three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuits are developed in this thesis. Heterogeneous 3-D integration is a platform for multifunctional, high performance, and low power electronics. For the advancement of heterogeneous 3-D ICs, contactless solutions are investigated to implement inter-tier communication between tiers manufactured with disparate processes and heterogeneous technologies. Two challenges for the development of contactless inter-tier communication are addressed, the design of energy efficient, heterogeneous inductive link transceivers and the impact of crosstalk noise due to the on-chip spiral inductors. Inter-tier communication between circuits fabricated with disparate technologies requires transceivers capable of operating at dissimilar voltages. A low power transceiver design methodology is proposed exploiting the difference in the core voltage between disparate manufacturing processes in a 3-D system in package. A transceiver is designed to provide inter-tier communication between a sensing layer, designed in a commercial 0.35 Âμm process and a processing layer, designed in an advanced 65 nm process. A significant gain in the power consumed by the transceiver is shown compared to equivalent state-of-the-art prototypes, profiting by the tradeoff between the core voltage and sensing ability of the transceiver circuit in each process. Due to their wireless nature, however the use of inductive links introduces crosstalk noise due to the coupling between the on-chip inductor and on-chip interconnects in the vicinity of the inductor. The noise caused by the inductor on the power distribution network of an integrated system is explored, analysed, and modelled through electromagnetic simulations. The spatial distribution of the noise is described for several power distribution topologies to determine the preferred placement solution for the power and ground network in the vicinity of the inductor, considering the impact on other sources of noise, such as the resistive drop. Depending upon the power distribution network topology, the induced noise can be reduced up to 70% when the additional noise caused by the inductive link is considered by the routing algorithm. Additionally, a methodology utilising an analytic model is proposed for the evaluation of the crosstalk noise without resorting to electromagnetic simulations. A closed-form magnetostatic model is developed to assess the mutual inductance between the on-chip inductor and the power distribution network. Utilising the mutual inductance model, the crosstalk noise is evaluated with SPICE simulations. A signifcant benefit in speedup is achieved, up to four orders of magnitude for determining the mutual inductance and up to 4.7× for the assessment of the crosstalk noise. The accuracy of the model is within 10% of the electromagnetic simulation.

The ignition process is a critical consideration for combustion devices. External energy transfer to the combustor is required for ignition in common combustion systems. There are many ways to deposit energy into the flow but a standard method is a spark discharge because it is simple, compact, and reliable. Sparks can be categorized as either inductive or capacitive sparks that use a coil or an electrical resonance circuit with capacitor, respectively, to amplify the voltage. The creation of a successful ignition event depends on the spark energy deposited into the flow, the initial composition, pressure, temperature, turbulence level of flow etc. The deposited energy by the spark into the flow is critical for estimation of initial energy available for ignition of the mixture. Therefore, the electrical characteristics of the sparks were investigated under various flow conditions. Then measurements of deposited energy into the flow were conducted using a very accurate experimental procedure that was developed in this research. The results showed considerable electric energy losses to the electrodes for the relatively long, inductive sparks. However, the short, capacitive spark deposits electric energy into the flow with minimal loss (above 90% deposition efficiency). In addition, the characteristics of inductive spark are affected by flow velocity and by the existence of a flame. However, variations in the flow conditions do not affect the characteristics of the capacitive spark such as voltage-current time trace and energy deposition efficiency. Two ignition systems using above mentioned two spark types were developed. First, the capacitive spark energy was directly deposited into the premixed flow. Most researchers have not concentrated on the early initiation process but on the flame growth. Therefore, the generated kernel formed by the energy deposition was observed and characterized using optical methods, immediately following the spark. In addition, the mixing effect for this ignition kernel with surrounding gas was simulated using a numerical method. Based on the time trace of the OH* chemiluminescence, the reaction starts with the discharge and it is continuous until combustion begins. This means that in the presence of a high density spark in premixed flow, there exists no traditional delay as defined by other researchers for auto ignition. A simple Radical Jet Generator (RJG) was developed that is able to ignite and stabilize a flame in a high-speed flow. The inductive spark initiates the combustion in the RJG chamber. The RJG then injects the partially-burned products carrying large amounts of heat and radicals into a rapidly moving flammable main stream. Then it ignites and stabilizes a flame. The RJG requires low levels of electrical power as long as the flow velocity is relatively low since most of the radicals are produced by the incomplete combustion in its chamber. The importance of radicals was analyzed by RJG experiments and numerical methods. The reaction zone for RJG using a rich mixture was located both inside and outside of the RJG chamber. Therefore, the RJG using a rich mixture performed better in the ignition and stabilization of combustion in the main flow. According to an analysis using the CHEMKIM simulation software combined with the San Diego chemical mechanism, the RJG jet resulting from a rich mixture contains more radicals and intermediates than that produced by a lean mixture for the same sensible enthalpy. In addition, the burned gas contains less radicals and intermediates than the partially burned gas. If the RJG is operating with a high speed main flow, the flow rate through the RJG chamber must be increased to allow the radical jet to penetrate well into the rapid flow due to their higher injection velocity. Unfortunately, this leads to unsteady combustion in the RJG, which results in the pulsation of the radical jet. This reduces the number of radicals injected into the main flow. To investigate this operating condition, special attention was focused on four possible factors: unburned reactant pockets caused by motion of the spark channel, spark frequency, flame propagation speed and ignition delay. It was shown that the unsteadiness is affected by the flame speed and ignition delay because the frequency of pulsation in the chamber is highly dependent on the equivalence ratio. In addition, the interaction between the RJG operation and the combustion dynamics in the main combustor was documented. The acoustic pressure oscillations in the main combustor were suppressed when the RJG jet was turned on because the reaction region is relocated by the operation of the RJG.

La théorie de la rigidité étudie l'unicité des réalisations des graphes, i.e., des charpentes. Initialement motivée par l'ingénierie des structures, la théorie de la rigidité trouve aujourd'hui des applications dans plusieurs domaines importants comme la prédiction de la flexibilité des protéines, la conception assistée par ordinateur, la localisation dans les réseaux des capteurs, etc. Cette thèse traite une grande variété de problèmes concernant différents types de rigidité, qui correspondent à différents niveaux d'unicité (locale/infinitésimale, globale et universelle) dans des modèles variés de charpentes. D'abord, nous développons des résultats sur la construction récursive et la décomposition des graphes avec des conditions mixtes de sparsité ainsi que des résultats sur le packing des arborescences avec des contraintes de matroïde. Ces résultats sont alors utilisés pour obtenir des caractérisations de la rigidité infinitésimale des charpentes avec des contraintes mixtes. Nous étudions aussi l'effet des opérations d'extension sur des charpentes et étendons un résultat connu sur la préservation de la rigidité globale d'$1$-extension dans les charpentes à direction et à longueur de la dimension deux aux dimensions supérieures. Pour la rigidité universelle, un sujet que l'on connait très peu, nous obtenons une caractérisation complète pour la classe des charpentes biparties complètes sur la ligne. Nous généralisons aussi une condition suffisante pour la rigidité universelle des charpentes en permettant des positions non générales. / The theory of rigidity studies the uniqueness of realizations of graphs, i.e., frameworks. Originally motivated by structural engineering, rigidity theory nowadays finds applications in many important problems such as predicting protein flexibility, Computer-Aided Design, sensor network localization, etc. The present thesis treats a wide range of problems concerning different kinds of rigidity, corresponding to different scopes of uniqueness (local/infinitesimal, global and universal), in various types of frameworks. First, we develop results in inductive construction and decomposition of graphs with mixed sparsity conditions as well as results on the packing of arborescences with matroidal constraints. These results are then used to obtain characterizations of infinitesimal rigidity in frameworks with mixed constraints. We also investigate the effect of extension operations on frameworks and extend a known result on the global rigidity preservation of $1$-extension on direction-length frameworks in dimension two to all dimensions. For universal rigidity, where little is known, we obtain a complete characterization for the class of complete bipartite frameworks on the line. We also generalize a sufficient condition for the universal rigidity of frameworks by allowing non-general positions.

Railway turnout heating is essential during the winter because snow and ice can hinder the movement of the switch. In Sweden, heating has traditionally been done using resistive heating wires mounted to the stock rail, but the technology is outdated and generally exhibits low efficiency and performance. Inductive heating systems such as Indheater, described in this exam work, has in previous studies shown great potential in reduction of the power consumption. Real world data comparing a resistive system and an Indheater system confirms this, with an energy consumption of the latter reaching 37,3 % of the resistive system’s consumption over two winter seasons. To achieve high efficiency and reliability, the heating system control algorithm is important, and during the work described in this report, fault detection was implemented to the programmable logic controller (PLC). Alarms will be triggered if the peak power is too low, which could indicate a heater malfunction. Additionally, detection of faulty switch position sensors and temperature sensors is also described. Given the dynamic nature of the Indheater system, calculations were performed to assess the electrical performance under both balanced and unbalanced load scenarios. Various sizes of phase compensating capacitors were compared. It is recommended to select a capacitor that provides a high power factor for a wide range of different loads, while still reducing the current enough at full load.