A State-Switched Absorber (SSA) is a device capable of instantaneously changing its stiffness, thus it can switch between resonance frequencies, increasing its effective bandwidth as compared to classical tuned vibration absorbers for vibration control. This dissertation considers the performance of the SSA for vibration suppression of continuous systems, specifically a beam and a plate. The SSA tuning frequencies and attachment point on the continuous body were optimized using a simulated annealing algorithm. It was found that an optimized SSA outperforms and optimized TVA at controlling vibrations of both a beam and a plate. These performance gains were also observed experimentally employing magneto-rheological elastomers to achieve a stiffness change. This dissertation also considers zero strain switching criteria and the maximum work extraction switching rule used by the SSA. The zero strain switching criteria ensures the system remains stable as no energy is added or released across a switch event. The maximum work extraction switching rule is designed to maximize the power dissipated by the absorber, but also guarantees minimization of the motion of the base to which the absorber is attached.

This thesis explores the effects of two assumptions commonly used in mathematical models related to a piezoelectric damping method known as State Switching. The technique relies on changing the stiffness state of a piezoelectric patch through control of the electrical boundary conditions. The transition between stiffness states is assumed to occur instantaneously and in concurrence with the switch event. In actuality, the transition will occur over a finite time and will trail behind the switch event by a finite time. For these assumptions to be valid, the effects of switch duration and delay on the performance of the State Switching method must be examined. The vibration reduction for various switch duration/delay values was calculated using a numerical solver; the results of the simulations were used to provide a range in which the two aforementioned assumptions produce negligible error, defined here as a 10% decrease in method performance. Switch durations of more than 3% of the forcing period lead to significant performance decrease, for most values of damping and coupling coefficient. Results of the switch delay simulations were counter-intuitive and require further examination and validation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-09-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:09:51Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santelo_tn_me_ilha.pdf: 2212208 bytes, checksum: a764ab5d18d16ce24639a45f6f1553bd (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho apresenta um novo conversor PWM monofásico CA-CC, com um único estágio de retificação e correção do fator de potência, utilizando a célula de comutação de três estados. É demonstrado o conversor proposto empregando duas destas células, em substituição as configurações convencionais de duplo estágio, um estágio retificador e outro pré-regulador. A célula de comutação de três estados é composta basicamente por dois interruptores ativos, dois passivos e dois indutores acoplados magneticamente. A topologia desta célula permite que apenas metade da potência de entrada seja processada pelos interruptores ativos, reduzindo assim a corrente de pico sobre estes à metade do valor da corrente de pico da entrada, tornando importante para aplicações em potências mais elevadas. O volume dos elementos reativos (indutores e capacitores) é reduzido, pois, por características topológicas, a freqüência da ondulação da corrente e da tensão é o dobro da freqüência de operação dos interruptores, sendo assim, possível operar o conversor com menores freqüências, diminuindo consequentemente as perdas na comutação. As perdas totais são distribuídas entre todos semicondutores, facilitando a dissipação de calor. O paralelismo dos interruptores é muito atraente para a configuração do circuito estudado, possibilitando o uso de interruptores mais baratos. Outra vantagem é possuir uma menor faixa de operação na região de descontinuidade, ou seja, a faixa de operação no modo de condução contínua é ampliada. É realizado um estudo do conversor boost CC-CC operando com razão cíclica (0 < D < 0,5) e (0,5 < D < 1). Em seguida este conversor é empregado, operando em toda faixa de variação da razão cíclica (0 LÜD LÜ1), no conversor CA-CC de estágio único. O circuito do conversor em questão funciona em malha fechada utilizando o circuito integrado UC3854 para... / This work presents a new AC-to-DC PWM single-phase converter, with only one stage including rectification and power factor correction, using the three-state switching cell. It is demonstrated the proposed converter using two of these cells, instead of the conventional configurations that use a rectifier stage and a high-frequency pre-regulator. The three-state switching cell comprises two active switches, two diodes and two coupled inductors. In this topology only part of the input energy is processed by the active switches, reducing the peak current in these switches in a half of the peak value of the input current, making this topology suitable to the operation in larger power levels. The volume of the power reactive elements (inductors and capacitors) is also decreased since the ripple frequency on the output is twice the switching frequency. For a smaller operating frequency, the switching losses are decreased. Due to the topology of the converter, the total losses are distributed among all semiconductors, facilitating the heat dissipation. The parallelism of switches is very attractive for the studied configuration, facilitating the use of cheaper switches. Another advantage of this converter is the smaller region to operate in discontinuous conduction mode or, in other words, the operation range in continuous conduction mode is enlarged. It is developed a study of the DC-to-DC boost converter operating with duty (0 < D < 0,5) and (0,5 < D < 1). Then, this converter was used in full variation range of the duty-cycle (0 < D < 1) in the AC-to-DC single-stage converter. The circuit of this issue converter works with a feedback control line using the integrated circuit UC3854 to do the control in continuous conduction mode for input current with instantaneous average mode. Besides the mathematical analysis and development through...

Behavioural responses can reveal important fitness trade-offs and ecological traps in evolutionarily novel contexts created by anthropogenic stimuli, and are of increasing conservation concern due to possible links to population-level impacts. This thesis illustrates the use of proxies for energy acquisition and expenditure within multivariate and state-based modelling approaches to quantify the relative time and energetic costs of behavioural disturbance for a deep-diving marine mammal (Physeter macrocephalus) in foraging grounds in Kaikoura Canyon (New Zealand) and near Lofoten Islands (Norway). A conceptual framework is first developed to identify and explore links between individual motivation, condition and external constraints to behavioural disturbance [Chapter 1]. The following chapters then use data from behavioural response studies (BRS) to: 1) derive biologically relevant metrics of behaviour [all chapters], 2) investigate effects of boat-based focal follows and tagging procedures [Chapters 2-3], and 3) relate responses to specific disturbance stimuli (distance, approach, noise) from whale-watching [Chapter 2], naval sonar and playback of presumed natural predator (killer whale Orcinus orca) sounds [Chapter 4]. A novel hidden state model was developed to estimate behavioural budgets of tagged sperm whales from multiple streams of biologging (DTAG) data [Chapter 3]. Sperm whales traded off time spent at foraging depths in a non-foraging and non-resting state in response to both tag boat presence, 1-2 kHz naval sonar (SPL 131-165 rms re 1μPa) and mammal-eating killer whale sound playbacks, indicating that parallel non-lethal costs were incurred in both anthropogenic disturbance and presumed antipredatory contexts. While behavioural responses were highly variable by individual, biologically informed state-based models appeared effective to control for variability in energy proxies across different functional contexts. These results and Chapter 5 “linking buzzes to prey” demonstrate that behavioural context is a signal that can aid understanding of how individual non-lethal disturbance responses can impact fitness.

Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta um novo conversor PWM monofásico CA-CC, com um único estágio de retificação e correção do fator de potência, utilizando a célula de comutação de três estados. É demonstrado o conversor proposto empregando duas destas células, em substituição as configurações convencionais de duplo estágio, um estágio retificador e outro pré-regulador. A célula de comutação de três estados é composta basicamente por dois interruptores ativos, dois passivos e dois indutores acoplados magneticamente. A topologia desta célula permite que apenas metade da potência de entrada seja processada pelos interruptores ativos, reduzindo assim a corrente de pico sobre estes à metade do valor da corrente de pico da entrada, tornando importante para aplicações em potências mais elevadas. O volume dos elementos reativos (indutores e capacitores) é reduzido, pois, por características topológicas, a freqüência da ondulação da corrente e da tensão é o dobro da freqüência de operação dos interruptores, sendo assim, possível operar o conversor com menores freqüências, diminuindo consequentemente as perdas na comutação. As perdas totais são distribuídas entre todos semicondutores, facilitando a dissipação de calor. O paralelismo dos interruptores é muito atraente para a configuração do circuito estudado, possibilitando o uso de interruptores mais baratos. Outra vantagem é possuir uma menor faixa de operação na região de descontinuidade, ou seja, a faixa de operação no modo de condução contínua é ampliada. É realizado um estudo do conversor boost CC-CC operando com razão cíclica (0 < D < 0,5) e (0,5 < D < 1). Em seguida este conversor é empregado, operando em toda faixa de variação da razão cíclica (0 LÜD LÜ1), no conversor CA-CC de estágio único. O circuito do conversor em questão funciona em malha fechada utilizando o circuito integrado UC3854 para... / Abstract: This work presents a new AC-to-DC PWM single-phase converter, with only one stage including rectification and power factor correction, using the three-state switching cell. It is demonstrated the proposed converter using two of these cells, instead of the conventional configurations that use a rectifier stage and a high-frequency pre-regulator. The three-state switching cell comprises two active switches, two diodes and two coupled inductors. In this topology only part of the input energy is processed by the active switches, reducing the peak current in these switches in a half of the peak value of the input current, making this topology suitable to the operation in larger power levels. The volume of the power reactive elements (inductors and capacitors) is also decreased since the ripple frequency on the output is twice the switching frequency. For a smaller operating frequency, the switching losses are decreased. Due to the topology of the converter, the total losses are distributed among all semiconductors, facilitating the heat dissipation. The parallelism of switches is very attractive for the studied configuration, facilitating the use of cheaper switches. Another advantage of this converter is the smaller region to operate in discontinuous conduction mode or, in other words, the operation range in continuous conduction mode is enlarged. It is developed a study of the DC-to-DC boost converter operating with duty (0 < D < 0,5) and (0,5 < D < 1). Then, this converter was used in full variation range of the duty-cycle (0 < D < 1) in the AC-to-DC single-stage converter. The circuit of this issue converter works with a feedback control line using the integrated circuit UC3854 to do the control in continuous conduction mode for input current with instantaneous average mode. Besides the mathematical analysis and development through... / Orientador: Falcondes José Mendes de Seixas / Coorientador: Grover Victor Torrico Bascopé / Banca: Fabio Toshiaki Wakabayashi / Banca: João Onofre Pereira Pinto / Mestre

Dans cette thèse est décrite la synthèse et les propriétés magnétiques des composés de coordination contenant des liaisons Co-Co ou Cr-Cr. Le contexte général sera discuté dans la première partie de ce travail en considérant l'évolution historique de ce type de chimie de coordination. Dans le deuxième chapitre, la possibilité d'intégrer un cluster {Co3} avec des ligands dipyridylamide et liaisons intermétalliques, dans des polymères de coordination unidimensionnels est discutée. Les interactions entre les porteurs de spin et l'effet du ligand pontant sont étudiés. Les changements des propriétés de transition de spin sont contrôlés en comparant par rapport au précurseur. Dans le troisième chapitre, les propriétés de molécule aimant d'un cluster de {Cr3} analogue à celui du {Co3}, sont étudiées. L'influence du ligand axial et la symétrie de la molécule sont également considérés et corrélées avec les propriétés de la molécule. Dans le quatrième chapitre, l'effet de la transition de spin induite par la coordination est étudié sur un exemple de cluster de {Co3} avec des ligands dipyridylformamidinate. La rupture et le rétablissement d'une liaison Co-Co est contrôlée par le biais de la température et de la lumière. L'effet de la rupture de la liaison intermétallique sur les propriétés magnétiques et structurales est aussi étudié. / In this thesis is described the synthesis, structures and magnetic properties of coordination compounds containing Co-Co or Cr-Cr bonds. In the first part of this work a general background is given on the historical evolution of this type of coordination chemistry. In the second chapter the possibility of incorporating a {Co3} cluster with dipyridylamide ligands and intermetallic bonds into one-dimentional coordination polymers is discussed. The interactions between spin centers and the effect of the bridging ligand were studied, and changes in the spin crossover properties were monitored and compared to the precursor. In the third chapter the Single-Molecule Magnet properties of a series of {Cr3} clusters are presented. The influence of the axial ligand and the symmetry of the molecule was considered and correlated to the magnetic properties. In the fourth chapter the phenomenon of coordination induced spin transition in a {Co3} cluster with dipyridylformamidinate ligands is discussed. Changes in magnetism and optical properties as a result of the breaking and restoring of a Co-Co bond were monitored as a function of temperature and light irradiation.

This work aims to explore practical one-step-ahead forecasting of structurally changing data, an unstable behaviour, that real-life data connected to human activity often exhibit. This setting can be characterized as monitoring process. Various forecast models, methods and approaches can range from being simple and computationally "cheap" to very sophisticated and computationally "expensive". Moreover, different forecast methods handle different data-patterns and structural changes differently: for some particular data types or data intervals some particular forecast methods are better than the others, something that is usually not known beforehand. This raises a question: "Can one design a forecast procedure, that effectively and optimally switches between various forecast methods, adapting the forecast methods usage to the changes in the incoming data flow?" The thesis answers this question by introducing optimality concept, that allows optimal switching between simultaneously executed forecast methods, thus "tailoring" forecast methods to the changes in the data. It is also shown, how another forecast approach: combinational forecasting, where forecast methods are combined using weighted average, can be utilized by optimality principle and can therefore benefit from it. Thus, four classes of forecast results can be considered and compared: basic forecast methods, basic optimality, combinational forecasting, and combinational optimality. The thesis shows, that the usage of optimality gives results, where most of the time optimality is no worse or better than the best of forecast methods, that optimality is based on. Optimality reduces also scattering from multitude of various forecast suggestions to a single number or only a few numbers (in a controllable fashion). Optimality gives additionally lower bound for optimal forecasting: the hypothetically best achievable forecast result. The main conclusion is that optimality approach makes more or less obsolete other traditional ways of treating the monitoring processes: trying to find the single best forecast method for some structurally changing data. This search still can be sought, of course, but it is best done within optimality approach as its innate component. All this makes the proposed optimality approach for forecasting purposes a valid "representative" of a more broad ensemble approach (which likewise motivated development of now popular Ensemble Learning concept as a valid part of Machine Learning framework). / Denna avhandling syftar till undersöka en praktisk ett-steg-i-taget prediktering av strukturmässigt skiftande data, ett icke-stabilt beteende som verkliga data kopplade till människoaktiviteter ofta demonstrerar. Denna uppsättning kan alltså karakteriseras som övervakningsprocess eller monitoringsprocess. Olika prediktionsmodeller, metoder och tillvägagångssätt kan variera från att vara enkla och "beräkningsbilliga" till sofistikerade och "beräkningsdyra". Olika prediktionsmetoder hanterar dessutom olika mönster eller strukturförändringar i data på olika sätt: för vissa typer av data eller vissa dataintervall är vissa prediktionsmetoder bättre än andra, vilket inte brukar vara känt i förväg. Detta väcker en fråga: "Kan man skapa en predictionsprocedur, som effektivt och på ett optimalt sätt skulle byta mellan olika prediktionsmetoder och för att adaptera dess användning till ändringar i inkommande dataflöde?" Avhandlingen svarar på frågan genom att introducera optimalitetskoncept eller optimalitet, något som tillåter ett optimalbyte mellan parallellt utförda prediktionsmetoder, för att på så sätt skräddarsy prediktionsmetoder till förändringar i data. Det visas också, hur ett annat prediktionstillvägagångssätt: kombinationsprediktering, där olika prediktionsmetoder kombineras med hjälp av viktat medelvärde, kan utnyttjas av optimalitetsprincipen och därmed få nytta av den. Alltså, fyra klasser av prediktionsresultat kan betraktas och jämföras: basprediktionsmetoder, basoptimalitet, kombinationsprediktering och kombinationsoptimalitet. Denna avhandling visar, att användning av optimalitet ger resultat, där optimaliteten för det mesta inte är sämre eller bättre än den bästa av enskilda prediktionsmetoder, som själva optimaliteten är baserad på. Optimalitet reducerar också spridningen från mängden av olika prediktionsförslag till ett tal eller bara några enstaka tal (på ett kontrollerat sätt). Optimalitet producerar ytterligare en nedre gräns för optimalprediktion: det hypotetiskt bästa uppnåeliga prediktionsresultatet. Huvudslutsatsen är följande: optimalitetstillvägagångssätt gör att andra traditionella sätt att ta hand om övervakningsprocesser blir mer eller mindre föråldrade: att leta bara efter den enda bästa enskilda prediktionsmetoden för data med strukturskift. Sådan sökning kan fortfarande göras, men det är bäst att göra den inom optimalitetstillvägagångssättet, där den ingår som en naturlig komponent. Allt detta gör det föreslagna optimalitetstillvägagångssättetet för prediktionsändamål till en giltig "representant" för det mer allmäna ensembletillvägagångssättet (något som också motiverade utvecklingen av numera populär Ensembleinlärning som en giltig del av Maskininlärning).