High-resolution three-dimensional (3D) shape reconstruction of objects has huge potential for applications in the field of design, security, entertainment, biomedicine, industrial quality control etc. Of the available techniques, optical methods have the distinctive advantage of facilitating non-contact and non-intrusive measurements. Of late, integration of optical measurement system with the computer based data processing has improved the quality of the results. Of the available techniques, structured-light illumination (Fringe Projection) is the most effective, owing its simplistic experimental architecture and analysis. Traditional Fringe Projection techniques function with the use of fringes generated using interferometric methods. With the advent of digital light projectors, digitally generated fringes have taken the place of interferometry based fringes. Despite the technological advances that this field has witnessed over last couple of decades, digital fringe projection technique still suffers from various shortcomings. This thesis presents a strategic solution to the challenges faced by the technique in its application to out-of-plane deformation measurement of objects under impact loading. First part of the thesis reports the developmental work on building an LED-Grating based optical projection system for implementation of linear-fringe projection profilometry. Successful use of the developed system in measuring out-of-plane deformation experienced by multiple targets under impact loading with a time sapling of 20,000 frames per second is re-ported. However, for performing ballistic impact measurements using the liner-fringe projection method, an order of magnitude higher time-sampling is needed. This is due to the disadvantages associated with linear fringe projection technique: (1) results in wrapped phase map (2p ambiguity) estimation, and (2) the deformation/shift of the recorded fringe pattern in the modulation direction sets a limit on unambiguously measurable whole-plane displacement. Typically, fringe pitch dictates the limit of maximum detectable displacement, and thus to be able to capture larger deformation from the earlier state, coarser fringe pitch is required to be projected; while this adversely affects the resolution of measurement system. Hence, there is a need to develop a fringe projection system which has capability for whole-plane displacement without affecting the resolution and/or necessitating higher temporal-sampling. Circular Fringe Projection (CFP) technique is proposed in the second part of the thesis as a novel solution to address the above issues. CFP technique offers additional advantage of relaxing the temporal resolution requirements of the imaging system by decoupling the maximum measurable deformation rate and the frame rate of camera. A new image analysis method is also developed to extract the underlying phase distribution of the recorded circular-fringe patterns, as the conventionally used single-frame linear-fringe analysis methods are incompetent at demodulating the circular fringes. Experimental results obtained in 3D shape measurement and whole-field out-of-plane displacement measurements of a deforming object reported in this thesis, not only confirms the ability of the proposed CFP technique in overcoming the shortcomings of the widely used linear-fringe projection technique, but also its suitability for deployment in ballistic-impact measurements.

A Lagrangian particle model was applied to estimating emission strength and air pollutant concentrations specifically for the short-range dispersion of an air pollutant in the atmospheric boundary layer. The model performance was evaluated with experimental data. The model was then used as the platform of parametric uncertainty analysis, in which effects of uncertainties in five parameters (Monin-Obukhov length, friction velocity, roughness height, mixing height, and the universal constant of the random component) of the model on mean ground-level concentrations were examined under slightly and moderately stable conditions. The analysis was performed under a probabilistic framework using Monte Carlo simulations with Latin hypercube sampling and linear regression modeling. In addition, four studies related to the Lagrangian particle modeling was included. They are an alternative technique of formulating joint probability density functions of velocity for atmospheric turbulence based on the Koehler-Symanowski technique, analysis of local increments in a multidimensional single-particle Lagrangian particle model using the algebra of Ito integrals and the Wagner-Platen formula, analogy between the diffusion limit of Lagrangian particle models and the classical theory of turbulent diffusion, and evaluation of some proposed forms of the Lagrangian velocity autocorrelation of turbulence.

This thesis analyzes charge properties of (undoped) cuprate compounds from a theoretical point of view. The central question considered here is: How does the dimensionality of the CU-O sub-structure influence its charge degrees of freedom? The model used to describe the Cu-O sub-structure is the three- (or multi-) band Hubbard model. Analytical approaches are employed (ground-state formalism for strongly correlated systems, Mori-Zwanzig projection technique) as well as numerical simulations (Projector Quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization). Several results are compared to experimental data. The following materials have been chosen as candidates to represent different Cu-O sub-structures: Bi2CuO4 (isolated CuO4 plaquettes), Li2CuO2 (chains of edge-sharing plaquettes), Sr2CuO3 (chains of corner-sharing plaquettes), and Sr2CuO2Cl2 (planes of plaquettes). Several results presented in this thesis are valid for other cuprates as well. Two different aspects of charge properties are analyzed: 1) Charge properties of the ground state 2) Charge excitations. (gekürzte Fassung)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:18:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Marco Antonio Borges Traldi.pdf: 492440 bytes, checksum: 93d641fe65bccb8763ec9b2e879faee7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-13 / Topology optimization (TO) is an optimization technique that aims to help the designer in the phase of structural conception, seeking a better distribution of one fixed amount of material in a extended design domain. It combines a method of structural analysis with a mathematical programming (MP) algorithm. In this work, structural analysis is done by Finite Element Method (FEM) and the solution algorithm employed is the Optimality Criteria (OC). One of the main themes of research in TO refer to the regularization techniques, needed to make the solutions free of the classic numerical instabilities of the problem: the instability of the checkerboard and mesh dependency. The goal of this work is study the traditional regularization techniques found in literature as the sensitivity filter by Sigmund, Continuous Approximation of Material Distribution (CAMD) and projection techniques. A new projection technique is proposed in order to obtain solutions close to the void-solid form. The objective function is the mean compliance of the structure, and is imposed a restriction on the total volume of material to be distributed. Is used the model Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) to parameterize the distribution of isotropic materials, and their adaptation FGM-SIMP for functionally graded materials (FGM). To illustrate the behavior of these techniques examples of application are shown, fruits of the computational implementation. / A otimização de topologia (OT) é uma técnica de otimização que visa auxiliar o projetista na fase de concepção estrutural, buscando a melhor distribuição de uma quantidade fixa de material em um domínio estendido de projeto. Combina um método de análise estrutural com um algoritmo de programação matemática (PM). Neste trabalho, a análise estrutural é feita pelo Método dos Elementos Finitos (MEF) e o algoritmo de solução utilizado é o Critério de Otimalidade (CO). Um dos principais temas de pesquisa em OT remete às técnicas de regularização, necessárias para tornar as soluções livres das instabilidades numéricas clássicas do problema: a instabilidade do tabuleiro de xadrez (checkerboard) e a dependência de malha. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar as técnicas de regularização tradicionais encontradas na literatura como o filtro de sensibilidade de Sigmund, Continuous Approximation of Material Distribution (CAMD) e técnicas de projeção. Uma nova técnica de projeção é proposta visando a obtenção de soluções próximas à forma vazio-sólido. A função objetivo é a flexibilidade média da estrutura, sendo imposta uma restrição ao volume total de material a ser distribuído. Utiliza-se o modelo Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) para parametrizar a distribuição de materiais isotrópicos, e sua adaptação FGM-SIMP para materiais com gradação funcional (FGM). Para ilustrar o comportamento das técnicas estudadas são apresentados exemplos de aplicação, frutos das implementações computacionais realizadas.

This thesis analyzes charge properties of (undoped) cuprate compounds from a theoretical point of view. The central question considered here is: How does the dimensionality of the CU-O sub-structure influence its charge degrees of freedom? The model used to describe the Cu-O sub-structure is the three- (or multi-) band Hubbard model. Analytical approaches are employed (ground-state formalism for strongly correlated systems, Mori-Zwanzig projection technique) as well as numerical simulations (Projector Quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization). Several results are compared to experimental data. The following materials have been chosen as candidates to represent different Cu-O sub-structures: Bi2CuO4 (isolated CuO4 plaquettes), Li2CuO2 (chains of edge-sharing plaquettes), Sr2CuO3 (chains of corner-sharing plaquettes), and Sr2CuO2Cl2 (planes of plaquettes). Several results presented in this thesis are valid for other cuprates as well. Two different aspects of charge properties are analyzed: 1) Charge properties of the ground state 2) Charge excitations. (gekürzte Fassung)