O estudo dos efeitos da heterogeneidade de tecidos nas doses administradas em radioterapia tem sido alvo de diversos trabalhos. A maioria deles mostra medidas \"in vitro\" em fantomas homogêneos nos quais são introduzidos materiais que simulam a presença de ossos ou de cavidades de ar. No presente trabalho optou-se por um estudo \"in vivo\" para o qual utilizou-se como instrumento de medida a dosimetria termoluminescente, bastante apropriada por motivos bem conhecidos. Foram escolhidos oito pacientes com tumor na região pélvica, tratados com raios x do Acelerador Linear de 4 MeV do Instituto de Radioterapia Osvaldo Cruz. A relação entre as doses medidas na entrada e na saída do feixe quando comparada ao valor previsto para fantomas homogêneos, indica a influência da heterogeneidade na distribuição da dose. A análise das medidas efetuadas nos oito pacientes, mostrou que a dose administrada ao centro do tumor pode ser 8% menor do que aquela planejada sem levar-se em conta a referida heterogeneidade. / Several authors investigated the effect of the heterogeneity of tissue in the dose distribution in a radiation therapy. Practically all of them carried out \"in vitro\" measurements using a solid body immersed in a water phantom, in order to simulate the inhomogeneity, such as bone, air cavity, etc. In the present work, \"in vivo\" measurements were performed utilizing thermoluminescent dosimeters, whose appropriateness and convenience are well known. Eight patients at Instituto de Radioterapia Oswaldo Cruz were selected, that were under irradiation treatments in their pelvic region. The ratio between body entry radiation dose and the corresponding exit dose, when compared to the same ratio for a homogeneous phantom, gives the influence of the heterogeneity of the tissue the radiation crosses. The results found in those eight patients have shown that \"in vivo\" measurements present a ratio about 8% smaller than in homogenous phantom case.

L'utilisation de plus en plus fréquente de matériau composite, qui combine une raideur importante pour une faible masse, afin d'alléger les structures aéronautiques entraîne la dégradation des performances d'isolation acoustique aux bruits extérieurs. La plupart du temps, ces nuisances sonores sont réduites par l'installation de matériaux isolants. Ces méthodes, dites passives, deviennent inefficaces aux basses fréquences et il est possible de mettre en place un contrôle actif au moyen de transducteurs électromécaniques. Dans le but de réduire la puissance acoustique transmise à travers la double paroi aéronautique dans la cabine, des unités de contrôle composées d'un actionneur et d'un capteur colocalisé dual sont réparties sur le panneau intérieur afin d'en modifier la vibration. Cette stratégie de contrôle actif vibroacoustique permet, pour des perturbations primaires harmoniques, d'imposer localement une impédance mécanique virtuelle à la structure, au moyen d'un contrôleur décentralisé. Cependant, sans communication entre les unités, le contrôle peut difficilement minimiser un critère global comme la puissance acoustique rayonnée. Afin de calculer les impédances mécaniques virtuelles qui garantissent la minimisation de la puissance acoustique rayonnée par la structure, une approche en deux étapes est considérée : (1) la matrice diagonale des impédances mécaniques virtuelles optimales est calculée à partir de mesures acoustiques ou vibratoires de la perturbation primaire et des transferts avec les actionneurs secondaires, (2) l'objectif exprimé en terme d'impédances mécaniques virtuelles est atteint grâce à un contrôle en temps réel. Une attention particulière est portée à la comparaison de cette approche avec une stratégie classique d'amortissement actif réalisée par un contrôle par rétroaction sur la vitesse de la structure, où l'impédance mécanique virtuelle alors imposée est un réel positif. Le calcul optimal réalisé à l'issue de la première étape se faisant pour une perturbation primaire donnée, la robustesse de la méthode aux variations de la perturbation primaire est un aspect également développé dans cette étude. Des résultats théoriques et expérimentaux sont comparés dans le cas académique d'une plaque mince d'aluminium simplement appuyée et soumise à une onde plane incidente. Enfin, la méthode est appliquée au panneau intérieur d'une double paroi aéronautique, à savoir une structure courbée, en matériau composite, et composée d'un hublot. Contrairement à la majorité des études qui considèrent l'implantation d'impédances virtuelles dissipatives, il apparaît que dans certains cas, le contrôle optimal requiert l'injection d'énergie des unités à la structure. / Composite materials are widely used in the aeronautic industry for their low mass/stiffness ratio. However, this property tends to reduce the acoustic transmission loss, particularly at low frequencies. At these frequencies, active control is an effective mean of controlling sound transmission. Among the various approaches, Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC) has received considerable attention because transducers can be integrated to the structure. In order to reduce the acoustic power radiated by a flexible panel, dual colocated actuator sensor pairs are used to modify its vibration. The control strategy implemented for harmonic disturbances leads to locally impose a virtual mechanical impedance to the structure, using a decentralized controller. This virtual mechanical impedance is computed in order to minimise the radiated acoustic power. The challenging problem is then to find the local control to impose on each independent devices that minimizes the global acoustic radiation of the structure. The proposed approach consists in two steps : (1) the matrix of optimal virtual mechanical impedance is calculated by measuring the primary disturbance and the transfer functions between actuators and structural / acoustic sensors, (2) the virtual mechanical impedance objective is achieved using a real-time integral controller. Special focus is put on the discussion about such control approach versus a classical active damping strategy were the virtual mechanical impedance is defined as real positive. Considering that optimal control is computed during the first step for a given primary disturbance, the robustness of the method to variations of the primary disturbance between step 1 and step 2 is discussed. Theoretical and experimental results are compared in the case of a simply supported thin aluminum plate and a primary disturbance under the form of an incident plane wave. Then, the method is implemented on a curved composite aircraft panel comprising a window. Unlike most of previous studies where dissipative virtual mechanical impedance are imposed, it clearly appears that optimal control can require energy injection from the control units into the structure.

In the thesis presented, three novel uni-planar left handed transmission lines based on Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRR) and Complementary Spiral Resonator (CSR) metamaterial particles are proposed for the first time and successfully applied for the performance enhancement of conventional coupled line filters and the design of a full scan leaky wave antenna. Based on the implementation of Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRR) a fully planar Composite Right left handed transmission line (CRLH-TL) plus a Dual Composite Right Left Handed transmission line (D-CRLH-TL) are proposed, designed and studied. The CRLH transmission line is realized loading a microstrip host line with CSRR metamaterial particles and capacitive gaps on the conductor strip of the line, while the D-CRLH transmission line is built bridging the capacitive gaps between the CSRR's with inductive connections to induce dual propagation properties in the structure. A further performance enhancement is achieved by a second proposal based on the implementation of Complementary Spiral Resonators (CSRs). The studies applied to the structure reveal that conditions for D-CRLH propagation are created in a transmission line composed only by CSR metamaterial resonant particles as the result of the unique electromagnetic properties acquired by the CSRs etched on the conductor line of a microstrip waveguide. The CSRR/CSR based D-CRLH transmission lines proposed are applied in the design of two enhanced coupled line filters. The implementation is possible for the first time in this work as result of the highly versatile layout features of the left handed transmission lines proposed which among other important geometrical features, allows couplings in both sides of the structure. Enhanced filtering features are reached by the metamaterial based coupled line filters proposed in terms of selectivity and size reduction in comparison with conventional coupled line filters. In the case of the CSRR loaded metamaterial coupled line filter a size reduction of 49% is achieved compared with a filter of similar performance. A further enhancement is reached by the second coupled filter proposed based on CSR metamaterial resonant particles. The CSR coupled filter proposed reach a roll off rate improvement of 8 dB/GHz and size reduction of 43% in comparison with a conventional coupled line filter of the same order. When this is compared against a conventional coupled line filter of similar performance but higher order, a remarkable size reduction of 77% is achieved by the proposed CSR coupled line filter. Finally, the CSR loaded D-CRLH transmission line is applied in the design of a fully planar leaky wave antenna. Using the CSR structures etched on the conductor line of a microstrip as part of the radiation mechanism altogether with the D-CRLH propagation features of the structure. A full scan radiation pattern is created with backward, forward and broadside radiation as result of the left handed propagation band, right handed propagation band and the balanced transition between them. Two leaky wave antennas are designed to operate at the centre frequencies of 12.5GHz and 6.0GHz. In order to corroborate the performance the CSR D-CRLH leaky wave antenna operating at 6.0GHz is fabricated and measured showing a scanning range of 30 deg with a maximum gain of 13.2 dBi.

<p>Thallium is a highly toxic element that humans are exposed to mainly by consumption of drinking water and vegetables grown in soil with high thallium content but also through inhalation of particles in the air. Thallium is also present in fossil fuels, alloys, and in electronic utilities. The increasing use of the element and emissions from notably energy production has lead to a higher load on the surface of the Earth. This study aims at increasing the knowledge about the behaviour of thallium in aquatic environments. Focus has been on the redox chemistry of thallium in relation to its mobility, which is of great importance because Tl(I) and Tl(III) have very different properties in this respect.</p><p>The relationship between Tl(I) and Tl(III) in surface waters from contaminated and uncontaminated environments was examined by ion chromatography connected on line to ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). It was found in controlled systems that even though Tl(III) is thermodynamically unstable under fresh water conditions Tl(I) was oxidised in the presence of light and iron(III). This was also confirmed in field studies. When lake water samples were exposed to light, Tl(I) was oxidised and thallium was lost from the solution. The most likely explanation for this was adsorption of thallium to particle surfaces.</p><p>The concentration of thallium in Swedish lakes and soil were measured. In unpolluted lakes the concentration ranges between 4.5-12 ng/l, the sediment concentration was 0.07-1.46 mg/kg. The anthropogenic load was found to have increased since the end of the Second World War although concentrations above background were found since the early industrialisation. In contaminated areas the concentration in soil ranges from 0.64-88 mg/kg, high concentrations were found in systems with alum shale and in soil exposed to runoff from a lead and zinc enrichment plant.</p><p>The mobilisation of thallium from solid phases in contaminated areas was dependent on pH and about 50% of the leachable content was mobilised already at pH 5-6. Once it had been released to water it was highly mobile. These conditions suggest that in a large part of the Swedish environment a high mobility of thallium can be expected.</p>

Thallium is a highly toxic element that humans are exposed to mainly by consumption of drinking water and vegetables grown in soil with high thallium content but also through inhalation of particles in the air. Thallium is also present in fossil fuels, alloys, and in electronic utilities. The increasing use of the element and emissions from notably energy production has lead to a higher load on the surface of the Earth. This study aims at increasing the knowledge about the behaviour of thallium in aquatic environments. Focus has been on the redox chemistry of thallium in relation to its mobility, which is of great importance because Tl(I) and Tl(III) have very different properties in this respect. The relationship between Tl(I) and Tl(III) in surface waters from contaminated and uncontaminated environments was examined by ion chromatography connected on line to ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). It was found in controlled systems that even though Tl(III) is thermodynamically unstable under fresh water conditions Tl(I) was oxidised in the presence of light and iron(III). This was also confirmed in field studies. When lake water samples were exposed to light, Tl(I) was oxidised and thallium was lost from the solution. The most likely explanation for this was adsorption of thallium to particle surfaces. The concentration of thallium in Swedish lakes and soil were measured. In unpolluted lakes the concentration ranges between 4.5-12 ng/l, the sediment concentration was 0.07-1.46 mg/kg. The anthropogenic load was found to have increased since the end of the Second World War although concentrations above background were found since the early industrialisation. In contaminated areas the concentration in soil ranges from 0.64-88 mg/kg, high concentrations were found in systems with alum shale and in soil exposed to runoff from a lead and zinc enrichment plant. The mobilisation of thallium from solid phases in contaminated areas was dependent on pH and about 50% of the leachable content was mobilised already at pH 5-6. Once it had been released to water it was highly mobile. These conditions suggest that in a large part of the Swedish environment a high mobility of thallium can be expected.

L'utilisation de plus en plus fréquente de matériaux composites, qui combinent une raideur importante pour une faible masse, afin d'alléger les structures aéronautiques, entraîne la dégradation des performances d'isolation acoustique aux bruits extérieurs. La plupart du temps, ces nuisances sonores sont réduites par l'installation de matériaux isolants. Ces méthodes, dites passives, deviennent inefficaces aux basses fréquences et il est possible de mettre en place un contrôle actif au moyen de transducteurs électromécaniques. Dans le but de réduire la puissance acoustique transmise à travers la double paroi aéronautique dans la cabine, des unités de contrôle composées d'un actionneur et d'un capteur colocalisé dual sont réparties sur le panneau intérieur afin d'en modifier la vibration. Cette stratégie de contrôle actif vibroacoustique permet, pour des perturbations primaires harmoniques, d'imposer localement une impédance mécanique virtuelle à la structure, au moyen d'un contrôleur décentralisé. Cependant, sans communication entre les unités, le contrôle peut difficilement minimiser un critère global comme la puissance acoustique rayonnée. Afin de calculer les impédances mécaniques virtuelles qui garantissent la minimisation de la puissance acoustique rayonnée par la structure, une approche en deux étapes est considérée : (1) la matrice diagonale des impédances mécaniques virtuelles optimales est calculée à partir de mesures acoustiques ou vibratoires de la perturbation primaire et des transferts avec les actionneurs secondaires, (2) l'objectif exprimé en terme d'impédances mécaniques virtuelles est atteint grâce à un contrôle en temps réel. Une attention particulière est portée à la comparaison de cette approche avec une stratégie classique d'amortissement actif réalisée par un contrôle par rétroaction sur la vitesse de la structure, où l'impédance mécanique virtuelle alors imposée est un réel positif. Le calcul optimal réalisé à l'issue de la première étape se faisant pour une perturbation primaire donnée, la robustesse de la méthode aux variations de la perturbation primaire est un aspect également développé dans cette étude. Des résultats théoriques et expérimentaux sont comparés dans le cas académique d'une plaque mince d'aluminium simplement appuyée et soumise à une onde plane incidente. Enfin, la méthode est appliquée au panneau intérieur d'une double paroi aéronautique, à savoir une structure courbée, en matériau composite, et composée d'un hublot. Contrairement à la majorité des études qui considèrent l'implantation d'impédances virtuelles dissipatives, il apparaît que, dans certains cas, le contrôle optimal requiert l'injection d'énergie des unités à la structure.

Vehicle Satellite Navigation Systems are commonplace but from a safety point of view, can be problematic. They are situated on small screens and often placed at an angle which is not in the driver’s field of view. This promotes glances away from the road and reduces situational awareness for events which occur. Audio commands and visual maps which are used to instruct drivers typically require translation to situationally meaningful actions before execution in the real world. This increases the driver’s workload and risk of distraction. A virtual car head-up display concept which is novel to this thesis is introduced. The design was motivated by issues in the literature regarding workload and risk of distraction and was shaped using a field study. Also, as head-up displays are becoming common in new vehicles, the benefits they offer have been explored in the design of the virtual car head-up display. Navigation instructions would be embedded in a familiar object to the driver; a car image, to support driving practices (e.g. indicating, lane positioning and turning) which are absent in the abstract commands and visual maps employed by vehicle satellite navigation systems. The navigation instructions used by the virtual car head-up display are easy to understand and can reduce the processing times for the instructions. For example, rather than translate audio commands e.g. “after 200 yards turn left”, the driver sees the virtual car indicate left 200 yards from the turn and sees it turn left on arrival at the turn. Also, rather than translate complex visual maps, the driver replicates the actions of the virtual car. An initial prototype for the virtual car head-up display was designed after which usability evaluation was carried out in a driving simulator to refine the concept. The first two studies were part of the design process and involved assessing the feasibility and conformity of the virtual car head-up display. It was found that the virtual car head-up display was an intelligible way to present the navigation instructions to drivers and that it was better to conform the virtual car to the external environment. The third study compared the prototype of the virtual car head-up display with the prototype of an arrow head-up display and vehicle satellite navigation system. It was found that the virtual car head-up display had the least workload and risk of distraction and was the easiest to use. A synthesis of the research work is provided which outlines the key contributions to research.

Battery electric vehicles are crucial for moving towards a zero emission transport system. Though battery electric vehicle technology has been rapidly improving, it is still not competitive to the conventional vehicles in terms of both cost and performance. The limited driving range and high cost are significant impediments to the popularity of battery electric vehicles. The battery is the main element which affects the range and cost of the vehicle. The battery has to meet the requirements of sufficient power and energy, quick recharge, safety, low cost and sufficient life. However the battery can either provide high power or high energy but not both. Hybridisation of the energy source is one of the methods to improve the energy efficiency of the vehicle, which would involve combining a high energy battery with a high power source. High power batteries, ultracapacitors and high speed flywheels are the potential high power sources that could be used. Out of these, the high speed flywheel in combination with a mechanical transmission is an attractive high power source for the battery electric vehicle due to its favourable characteristics of high specific power, sufficient high specific energy, high energy efficiency, long cycle life, quick recharge and low cost . This thesis presents and critically assesses a concept of a mechanically connected flywheel assisted battery electric vehicle propulsion system for a modern passenger car application. The main contribution of this thesis is the analysis of the effect of utilizing a mechanically connected flywheel in a hybrid energy storage with Li-ion batteries on the energy efficiency of the electric vehicle. The starting point of the research was to create a base electric vehicle model based on current technology. An analysis of the battery electric vehicle, its various components and control strategy and various approaches to model it was discussed which led to the creation of the baseline model. Simulations using the baseline model on three real world driving cycles representing urban, extra urban and motorway conditions, showed the potential for improving the energy efficiency of the vehicle by utilizing a power handling device that could transmit power directly to the driveline such as a mechanically connected flywheel. Hybridisation of the energy storage with the incorporation of the mechanically connected flywheel was presented. The flywheel was sized and a road data analysis was performed to support the sizing analysis. To accomplish the integration of the flywheel with the driveline, a fundamental analysis of the mechanical power split continuously variable transmission was conducted which showed various ways of obtaining the desired ratio range for the flywheel operation according to vehicle requirements. The speed ratio, power flow and efficiency were derived for three different types of transmissions. This analysis produced a simple methodology that can be applied to design a transmission for flywheel energy storage to provide any required speed ratio coverage and predict its efficiency in both directions of power flow, which is an important contribution of the thesis. The hybrid vehicle layout was presented and all its components were discussed. Further to obtain the maximum potential for improvement in energy consumption with the hybrid vehicle, optimisation of the energy management strategy was conducted. The optimisation problem was complex because of factors such as the small storage capacity of the flywheel, the kinematic constraints and the slipping of clutches. Dynamic programming was used to find optimal energy management strategy on the three real world driving cycles, which was the first instance of its implementation for such a powertrain; another important contribution of the thesis. The results were compared with baseline using a quasi static backward model. There was significant reduction in energy consumption for the more aggressive motorway cycle, less for the extra urban cycle, while there was a small increase in energy consumption for the relatively less aggressive urban cycle. However significant reduction in battery stress was observed for all the cycles which is expected to lead to improvements in battery life and lower operating costs. To provide a further step in implementation, a predictive energy management strategy was applied in the backward model for the hybrid vehicle based on dynamic programming with short computation time and utilizing limited future journey information which showed good performance in comparison to the benchmark simulation results. Finally the control was tested in a forward dynamic simulation to verify its suitability for real life implementation, and showed small deviation in performance compared to the backward simulation.

In this study, thermal management of Lithium ion (Li-ion) battery pack used in electric vehicle (EV) is considered. Li-ion cells generate a significant amount of heat during normal operation. Previous study has clearly identified that temperature affects the efficiency, safety, reliability and lifespan of the Li-ion battery. Therefore, a battery thermal management system (BTMS) enabling effective temperature control is essential for safety and overall performance of the Li-ion battery. Two critical aspects are key to design of efficient BTMS: firstly being able to predict the heat generated from Li-ion cells, and secondly to predict how the generated heat is removed though the cooling plate of the BTMS. To predict the heat generated from the Li-ion cell, a time-dependent, thermal behavior of a Li-ion polymer cell has been modelled for electric vehicle drive cycles with a view to developing an effective battery thermal management system. The fully coupled, new three-dimensional transient electrothermal model has proposed and implemented based on a finite volume method. To support the numerical study, a high energy density Li-ion polymer pouch cell was tested in a climatic chamber for various electric load cycles consisting of a series of charge and discharge rates, and a good agreement was found between the model predictions and the experimental data. To predict the heat removed, a numerical study has been performed on a cooling plate of a indirect liquid cooled BTMS. The BTMS has a battery cooling plate with coolant flowing through rectangular serpentine channels. The temperature distribution as well as the pressure drop across the battery cooling plate were investigated. Particular emphasis was placed on the temperature uniformity on the cooling plate surface as the lifespan of a battery is severely affected by non-uniform temperature distribution. From the simulations, it is found that the aspect ratio and the curvature have a significant effect on the surface temperature uniformity, and that a compromise of the battery cooling plate design would be required between the temperature uniformity and the pressure drop penalty. Thermal management of batteries for high discharge applications, for instance, in hybrid electric vehicle, is more challenging and typically requires turbulent heat transfer. In turbulent heat transfer not only mean temperatures but also temperature fluctuations need to be predicted correctly. For this, a numerical turbulent heat transfer of a triple jet is considered. In this study, a large eddy simulation (LES) technique was applied to predict the unsteady heat transfer behavior of turbulent flow. It is found that LES predicted the correct amplitude of temperature fluctuations which was in good agreement with the available experimental data in terms of mean, RMS, skewness and kurtosis. RANS simulations with two turbulence models were also conducted along with LES. The RANS based turbulence models produced a very small amplitude of fluctuations, and failed to predict the correct magnitude of unsteady thermal fluctuations, highlighting its limitations in unsteady turbulent heat transfer simulations. Keywords: battery thermal management; lithium-ion polymer battery; electro thermal model; EV drive cycles; finite volume method, electric vehicle; BTMS; conjugate heat transfer; battery cooling plate; rectangular serpentine channel; laminar flow; triple jet; thermal striping; mixing; thermal fatigue; LES; RANS.

The lithium-sulphur couple has such a high theoretical energy density that, in principle, it could contribute significant weight and cost savings for launching a spacecraft. The principle aim of this study was to determine the suitability of lithium-sulphur cell technology for space industry applications by considering all areas of performance, modelling and electronic protection requirements. This thesis is split into three main areas. Firstly, after examining the background material, the current state of the lithium-sulphur electrochemistry is analysed in detail. It is of great importance to have a clear understanding of the cell’s electrochemical and chemical interactions as they can be used to explain the performance characteristics of the cell later in the work. On completion of the electrochemical analysis the thesis then goes on to describe a set of electrical and thermal characterisation tests, the results of which are used to establish a novel equivalent circuit model of a Li-S battery. The equivalent circuit modelling method was chosen mainly for its ease of implementation into a full power system model and for its adaptability to future cell variations, both of which are important for the intended application. The resultant model uses electrical, thermal and “split capacity” domains to successfully predict cell performance. Further characterisation testing results are then analysed with a view to specifying the electrical protection requirements of a Li-S battery management system suitable for different space industry applications. It was determined that the Li-S cell has safety and protection needs that exceed that of lithium-ion batteries, as well as requiring a robust housing structure, reducing the energy density of the battery pack. The conclusion of the work is that, although the Li-S cell holds promise for the future, the current state of the cell’s degradation characteristics prevents it from competing with lithium-ion cells in its current format