Ultrasonic techniques were used to detect hollow heart in potatoes nondestructively. Fifty Russet Burbank potatoes were evaluated physically and sonically. A pair of dry-coupling 50-kHz ultrasonic transducers were used to generate an ultrasonic pulse with a power level of 0.22 W for the test of acoustic transmission through whole potato tuber in a transverse direction at different locations along the longitudinal axis with a certain interval distance. It was found that the waveform analyses in time domain for a series of transmitted signals along the longitudinal axis of potato tuber, yielded the potential in detecting hollow heart in potatoes noninvasively. The transmission losses for potatoes having hollow heart were found to be greater than 0.28 dB/mm. This value was used as a criterion to indicate potatoes with hollow heart at an accuracy of 98 percent. The ability to detect hollow heart in potatoes was limited to a minimum cavity size of 0.5 cm3 because the interval distance between locations of measurement was relatively large compared to the size of the projected area of hollow heart. The accuracy of the detection would be improved if a smaller contact area for the transmitting transducer were used, and if the intervals between ultrasonic measurement locations were smaller. Physical properties of the tested potatoes were also recorded for consideration of their relationships with ultrasonic parameters. Physical properties of tested potatoes such as modulus of elasticity, tuber length, diameter, and weight, were found to have poor correlation with ultrasonic parameters such as ultrasonic velocity, attenuation coefficient, and root mean square voltage of transmitted signal. This study showed that if all potatoes with weights of 300 g or less were eliminated from a mass of incoming potatoes, only 80 percent of the total mass would have to be examined for hollow heart. / Master of Science

Advanced technologies for mixed gas detection are discussed. A calorific measurement technique for hydrogen-natural gas mixtures using ultrasonic transducers is examined. Measuring the speed of sound in the gas medium enables an accurate composition testing of mixed gas. At the beginning, different ultrasonic transducers are tested and a suitable one for gas testing is chosen. A jig is designed to conduct the testing with nitrogen/oxygen mixtures in a proof of principle experiment. Another jig is designed and manufactured to test a transit time ultrasonic method for flow rate calculation in order to obtain a full energy flow measurement. A mixed gas leak detection technique based on laser spectroscopy is also studied. A Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR) laser is implemented to be used as a source in a direct absorption measurement for methane detection. The implemented MWIR laser uses nonlinear optics to generate a MWIR output. A novel intracavity structure using periodically poled lithium niobate as the nonlinear crystal is implemented, and the highest blackbox efficiency for continuous wave difference frequency generation in the MWIR region is reported, to the best of our knowledge. Currently the output power is around 8.1 mW at 3.5 μm with a 1.058% W-1 blackbox efficiency. Watt level MWIR generation is expected using an optimized setup. At last, a second laser source that operates in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) region was also studied. The discussed laser setup for LWIR generation is similar to the MWIR one with different pump and signal wavelengths and an orientation patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP) as the nonlinear crystal. Due to the absorption loss of GaP at the pump wavelength, only mW power level is expected out of the intracavity structure. Some alternative approaches for LWIR generation are discussed. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Orientador: Geraldo de Freitas Maciel / Resumo: Esta tese de doutorado traz uma abordagem experimental sobre mecanismos de geração, desenvolvimento e propagação em canal de instabilidade na superfície livre de um escoamento de fluido não-Newtoniano. Estas instabilidades, quando evoluem para um padrão estável, exibem comprimento, amplitude e celeridade bem definidos, sendo denominadas roll waves. Na literatura existe uma lacuna no que diz respeito às medições destes fenômenos em condições controladas de laboratório, e com pouquíssimos registros, quando presentes em eventos naturais. Assim, buscou-se neste trabalho projetar e implementar um aparato experimental operacional e de baixo custo com o objetivo de gerar e aferir tais instabilidades, sob condições controladas e sem a influência de vibrações externas (canalete posicionado sobre uma mesa inercial), seguindo metodologia de ensaio proposta e testada. O fluido teste utilizado foi o gel de carbopol 996, que apresentou boa estabilidade e propriedades reológicas aderentes ao modelo de Herschel-Bulkley, tal qual as lamas encontradas em pés de barragens, lamas oriundas de fluxos hiperconcentrados ou de corridas propriamente ditas. Um sistema de sucção-recalque, através de uma bomba hidráulica de cavidade progressiva, impulsionava o gel para o canal de ensaio, garantindo fluxo contínuo do material em regime de recirculação. Para gerar as instabilidades na superfície livre, foi imposta, a montante do canal, uma perturbação, por meio de um pulso de ar controlado em intensidade e... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor

Submitted by EVANDRO FERNANDES DA CUNHA (evandro.cunha@unesp.br) on 2018-11-18T20:13:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Evandro Cunha.pdf: 10054124 bytes, checksum: f324825069efc486e2637a46c1b85371 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Cristina Alexandra de Godoy null (cristina@adm.feis.unesp.br) on 2018-11-21T15:21:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 cunha_ef_dr_ilha.pdf: 10054124 bytes, checksum: f324825069efc486e2637a46c1b85371 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-21T15:21:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 cunha_ef_dr_ilha.pdf: 10054124 bytes, checksum: f324825069efc486e2637a46c1b85371 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-31 / Esta tese de doutorado traz uma abordagem experimental sobre mecanismos de geração, desenvolvimento e propagação em canal de instabilidade na superfície livre de um escoamento de fluido não-Newtoniano. Estas instabilidades, quando evoluem para um padrão estável, exibem comprimento, amplitude e celeridade bem definidos, sendo denominadas roll waves. Na literatura existe uma lacuna no que diz respeito às medições destes fenômenos em condições controladas de laboratório, e com pouquíssimos registros, quando presentes em eventos naturais. Assim, buscou-se neste trabalho projetar e implementar um aparato experimental operacional e de baixo custo com o objetivo de gerar e aferir tais instabilidades, sob condições controladas e sem a influência de vibrações externas (canalete posicionado sobre uma mesa inercial), seguindo metodologia de ensaio proposta e testada. O fluido teste utilizado foi o gel de carbopol 996, que apresentou boa estabilidade e propriedades reológicas aderentes ao modelo de Herschel-Bulkley, tal qual as lamas encontradas em pés de barragens, lamas oriundas de fluxos hiperconcentrados ou de corridas propriamente ditas. Um sistema de sucção-recalque, através de uma bomba hidráulica de cavidade progressiva, impulsionava o gel para o canal de ensaio, garantindo fluxo contínuo do material em regime de recirculação. Para gerar as instabilidades na superfície livre, foi imposta, a montante do canal, uma perturbação, por meio de um pulso de ar controlado em intensidade e frequência. Após evolução e estabilização, a onda (roll wave) era aferida por meio de sistema de medição ultrassônico na configuração de pulso-eco e, seguindo metodologia inovadora proposta nesta tese, por meio de técnica fotométrica em função da absorção luminosa de um corante (azul de metileno) adicionado ao fluido teste em escoamento. Para confirmação da qualidade dos resultados obtidos pela aplicação das técnicas de medição experimental, foram feitas confrontações entre as técnicas experimentais propostas e entre estas e um modelo numérico, desenvolvido pelo grupo de pesquisa. Por fim, foram testados dois estudos de caso de formação e propagação de roll waves no canal, o primeiro visando a obtenção e tratamento das amplitudes em diversos pontos ao longo do canal, e, no segundo, a influência da frequência de perturbação sobre a amplitude da roll wave, todos para cenários experimentais com números de Froude superiores ao Froude mínimo, condição necessária à geração do fenômeno. / This doctoral thesis brings an experimental approach on generation, development and propagation mechanisms of instabilities free-surface flows of a non-Newtonian fluid. When these instabilities evolve to a stable pattern, they display well-defined length, amplitude and celerity, being denominated as roll waves. There is a great gap in literature concerning experimental data. Few experiments are found relating laboratory measurements of these phenomena in controlled conditions; this is also true when it comes to in situ measurements from natural events. Thus, the aim of this project was to design and implement a low cost operational experimental apparatus to generate and measure such instabilities under controlled conditions, isolated from external vibration influences. This project follows a previous methodology developed which was tested and approved. Carbopol gel 996 was used as test fluid, presenting good stability and rheological properties matching to Herschel-Bulkley model, oftenly used for modeling industrial sludge, slurry fluids, natural mud, among others. A hydraulic circuit was installed in which a progressive cavity hydraulic pump pushed the gel to the inlet of the testing channel, ensuring continuous flow of material, capturing the fluid at the channel outlet. A free-surface disturbance was imposed to the flow through a controlled pulse of air (intensity and frequency) on the upstream flow to produce the free-surface instabilities. After evolution and stabilization, the wave (roll wave) was measured through ultrasonic measurement system in the pulse-echo configuration and also through photometric technique using light absorption by a dye (methylene blue) added to the test fluid. Confrontations of the experimental data were made among the proposed experimental techniques and also with numerical simulations developed by the research group in order to assess the quality of the results obtained by the application of the experimental measurement techniques. Lastly, two case studies of formation and propagation of roll waves were tested: the first one aimed to obtain and process the amplitudes in several points along the channel; the second one, the influence of frequency of disturbance over the amplitude of the roll wave was studied. All the experimental scenarios were tested for Froude number over the minimum value necessary for the generation of the phenomenon.