Les systèmes méandriformes construisent, à long terme, des architectures sédimentaires composées de corps poreux disséminés dans un volume de sédiments peu perméables. Ces corps sont susceptibles de contenir des ressources naturelles. Afin d'optimiser leur exploitation, il importe d'estimer la répartition et la connectivité de ces corps. À cet effet, Mines-Paristech développe Flumy, un logiciel de modélisation par processus de ces architectures . Cette thèse vise à améliorer la simulation de la migration dans Flumy en introduisant une influence.Pour cela, trois différents modèles ont été reliés entre eux et comparés. Le premier (modèle à pente constante) est celui actuellement en place dans Flumy, héritier des travaux de [Ikeda 1981] et dans lequel la pente de la surface du cours d'eau est constante. Le deuxième (modèle à pente variable) fut proposé par [Lopez 2003]. Il attribue à la surface libre la pente locale de la topographie. Enfin, un dernier modèle (modèle Saint Venant) a été élaboré en modifiant le précédent. L'écoulement moyen, initialement calculé sous une surface libre connue, est désormais obtenu par résolution des équations de Saint Venant sur un fond connu. Ces trois modèles ont été appliqués à la migration à long terme de méandres libres. Les modèles à pente constante et à pente variable ont également été utilisés pour reproduire les méandres confinés de deux rivières canadiennes, la Beaver et la Red Deer.Les résultats montrent un développement plus réaliste des méandres simulés avec le modèle à pente variable que de ceux simulés avec le modèle à pente constante. Cette amélioration est observable dans les méandres isolés (ralentissement de la vitesse d'extension) et dans les trains de méandres (confinement en ceintures de méandres). Le modèle à pente variable permet également une meilleure reproduction de la morphologie des méandres confinés. L'utilisation du modèle Saint Venant apporte les mêmes améliorations dans la simulation des méandres libres, quoique moins prononcées. Il permet surtout de construire une surface libre physique sur une grande variété de fonds, résolvant ainsi une limite identifiée dans le modèle à pente variable.

Description of the interaction of a shallow-water wave with variable topography is a classical and fundamental problem of fluid mechanics. The behaviour of linear waves and isolated solitary waves propagating over an uneven bottom is well understood. Much less is known about the propagation of nonlinear wavetrains over obstacles. For shallow-water waves, the nonlinear wavetrains are often generated in the form of undular bores, connecting two different basic flow states and having the structure of a slowly modulated periodic wave with a solitary wave at the leading edge. In this thesis, we examine the propagation of shallow-water undular bores over a nonuniform environment, and also subject to the effect of weak dissipation (turbulent bottom friction or volume viscosity). The study is performed in the framework of the variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries (vKdV) and variable-coefficient perturbed Korteweg-de Vries (vpKdV) equations. The behaviour of undular bores is compared with that of isolated solitary waves subject to the same external effects. We show that the interaction of the undular bore with variable topography can result in a number of adiabatic and non-adiabatic effects observed in different combinations depending on the specific bottom profile. The effects include: (i) the generation of a sequence of isolated solitons -- an expanding large-amplitude modulated solitary wavetrain propagating ahead of the bore; (ii) the generation of an extended weakly nonlinear wavetrain behind the bore; (iii) the formation of a transient multi-phase region inside the bore; (iv) a nonlocal variation of the leading solitary wave amplitude; (v) the change of the characteristics wavelength in the bore; and (vi) occurrence of a ``modulation phase shift" due to the interaction. The non-adiabatic effects (i) -- (iii) are new and to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported in previous studies. We use a combination of nonlinear modulation theory and numerical simulations to analyse these effects. In our work, we consider four prototypical variable topography profiles in our study: a slowly decreasing depth, a slowly increasing depth , a smooth bump and a smooth hole, which leads to qualitatively different undular bore deformation depending on the geometry of the slope. Also, we consider (numerically) a rapidly varying depth topography, a counterpart of the ``soliton fission" configuration. We show that all the effects mentioned above can also be observed when the undular bore propagates over a rapidly changing bottom . We then consider the modification of the variable topography effects on the undular bore by considering weak dissipation due to turbulent bottom friction or volume viscosity. The dissipation is modelled by appropriate right-hand side terms in the vKdV equation. The developed methods and results of our work can be extended to other problems involving the propagation of undular bores (dispersive shock waves in general) in variable media.

Adhesive bonding is one of the most attractive joining techniques for any structural application, including high profile examples in the aerospace, automotive, marine construction and electrical industries. Advantages of adhesive bonding include; superior fatigue performance, better stress distribution and higher stiffness than conventional joining techniques. When the design of bonded joints is considered, fatigue is of critical importance in most structural applications. There are two main issues that are of importance; a) in-service damage characterisation during fatigue loading and, b) lifetime prediction under both constant and variable amplitude fatigue loading. If fatigue damage characterisation is considered, there has been some work to characterise damage in-situ using the backface strain (BFS) measurement technique, however, there has been little investigation of the effects of different types of fatigue behaviour under different types of geometry and loading. Regarding fatigue lifetime prediction of bonded joints, most of the work in the literature is concentrated with constant amplitude fatigue, rather than variable amplitude fatigue. Fatigue design of a bonded structure based on constant amplitude fatigue, when the actual loading on the structure is of the variable amplitude fatigue, can result in erroneous lifetime prediction. This is because of load interaction effects caused by changes in load ratio, mean load etc., which can decrease the fatigue life considerably. Therefore, the project aims to a) provide a comprehensive study of the use of BFS measurements to characterise fatigue damage, b) develop novel techniques for predicting lifetime under constant amplitude fatigue and c) provide an insight into various types of load interaction effects. In this project, single lap joints (SLJ) and compound double cantilever beam geometries were used. Compound double cantilever beams were used mainly to determine the critical strain energy release rate and to obtain the relationship between strain energy release rate and fatigue crack growth rate. The fatigue life of SLJs was found to be dominated by crack initiation at lower fatigue loads. At higher fatigue loads, fatigue life was found to consist of three phases; initiation, stable crack propagation and fast crack growth. Using these results, a novel damage progression model was developed, which can be used to predict the remaining life of a bonded structure. A non-linear strength wearout model (NLSWM) was also proposed, based on strength wearout experiments, where a normalised strength wearout curve was found to be independent of the fatigue load applied. In this model, an empirical parameter determined from a small number of experiments, can be used to determine the residual strength and remaining life of a bonded structure. A fracture mechanics approach based on the Paris law was also used to predict the fatigue lifetime under constant amplitude fatigue. This latter method was found to under-predict the fatigue life, especially at lower fatigue loads, which was attributed to the absence of a crack initiation phase in the fracture mechanics based approach. A damage mechanics based approach, in which a damage evolution law was proposed based on plastic strain, was found to predict the fatigue life well at both lower and higher fatigue loads. This model was able to predict both initiation and propagation phases. Based on the same model, a unified fatigue methodology (UFM) was proposed, which can be used to not only predict the fatigue lifetime, but also various other fatigue parameters such as BFS, strength wearout and stiffness wearout. The final part of the project investigated variable amplitude fatigue. In this case, fatigue lifetime was found to decrease, owing to damage and crack growth acceleration in various types of variable amplitude fatigue loading spectra. A number of different strength wearout approaches were proposed to predict fatigue lifetime under variable amplitude fatigue loading. The NLSWM, where no interaction effects were considered was found to over-predict the fatigue life, especially at lower fatigue loads. However, approaches such as the modified cycle mix and normalised cycle mix approaches were found to predict the fatigue life well at all loads and for all types of variable amplitude fatigue spectra. Progressive damage models were also applied to predict fatigue lifetime under variable amplitude fatigue loading. In this case a fracture mechanics based approach was found to under-predict the fatigue life for all types of spectra at lower loads, which was established to the absence of a crack initiation phase in this method. Whereas, a damage mechanics based approach was found to over-predict the fatigue lifetime for all the types of variable amplitude fatigue spectra, however the over- prediction remained mostly within the scatter of the experimental fatigue life data. It was concluded that, the damage mechanics based approach has potential for further modification and should be tested on different types of geometry and spectra.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The ability to control engine valve timing has the potential to alter the engine performance over the entire operating range. The outcome of valve timing technology enables the possibility to increase efficiency, lowering emissions, increase engine torque, etc. One of the simplest ways to obtain a variable valve timing is to use cam phasers. The dynamics of a hydraulic cam phaser has been studied, three concepts with the purpose to control such an element has been developed using simulation driven product development. Focus have been on robustness, simplicity and implementation. A final concept using on/off solenoids to control a torque driven cam phaser has been designed and simulated in GT-SUITE which validated its performance and functionality. A dynamic model was built in Simulink which simulated the behaviour of the cam phaser and provided tools for optimizing the rotor design. By combining the knowledge of mechanical- and control engineering at Scania, the development process of such machine elements was effective. The outcome of this thesis has given a new perspective in understanding these components and their potentials.

An accurate model for RO process has significant importance in the simulation and optimization proposes. A steady state model of RO process is developed based on solution diffusion theory to describe the permeation through membrane and thin film approach is used to describe the concentration polarization. The model is validated against the operation data reported in the literature. For the sake of clear understanding of the interaction of feed temperature and salinity on the design and operation of RO based desalination systems, simultaneous optimization of design and operation of RO network is investigated based on two-stage RO superstructure via MINLP approach. Different cases with several feed concentrations and seasonal variation of seawater temperature are presented. Also, the possibility of flexible scheduling in terms of the number of membrane modules required in operation in high and low temperature seasons is investigated A simultaneous modelling and optimization method for RO system including boron removal is then presented. A superstructure of the RO network is developed based on double pass RO network (two-stage seawater pass and one-stage brackish water pass). The MINLP problem based on the superstructure is used to find out an optimal RO network which will minimize the total annualized cost while fulfilling a given boron content limit. The effect of pH on boron rejection is investigated at deferent seawater temperatures. The optimal operation policy of RO system is then studied in this work considering variations in freshwater demand and with changing seawater temperature throughout the day. A storage tank is added to the RO layout to provide additional operational flexibility and to ensure the availability of freshwater at all times. Two optimization problems are solved incorporating two seawater temperature profiles, representing summer and winter seasons. The possibility of flexible scheduling of cleaning and maintenance of membrane modules is investigated. Then, the optimal design and operation of RO process is studied in the presence of membrane fouling and including several operational variations such as variable seawater temperature. The cleaning schedule of single stage RO process is formulated as MINLP problem using spiral wound modules. NNs based correlation has been developed based on the actual fouling data which can be used for estimating the permeability decline factors. The correlation based on actual data to predict the annual seawater temperature profile is also incorporated in the model. The proposed optimization procedure identified simultaneously the optimal maintenance schedule of RO network including its design parameters and operating policy. The steady state model of RO process is used to study the sensitivity of different operating and design parameters on the plant performance. A non-linear optimization problem is formulated to minimize specific energy consumption at fixed product flow rate and quality while optimizing the design and operating parameters. Then the MINLP formulation is used to find the optimal designs of RO layout for brackish water desalination. A variable fouling profile along the membrane stages is introduced to see how the network design and operation of the RO system are to be adjusted Finally, a preliminary control strategy for RO process is developed based on PID control algorithm and a first order transfer function (presented in the Appendix).

Waterflooding is a common type of oil recovery techniques where water is pumped into the reservoir for increased productivity. Reservoir states change with time, as such, different injection and production settings will be required to lead the process to optimal operation which is actually a dynamic optimization problem. This could be solved through optimal control techniques which traditionally can only provide an open-loop solution. However, this solution is not appropriate for reservoir production due to numerous uncertain properties involved. Models that are updated through the current industrial practice of ‘history matching’ may fail to predict reality correctly and therefore, solutions based on history-matched models may be suboptimal or non-optimal at all. Due to its ability in counteracting the effects uncertainties, direct feedback control has been proposed recently for optimal waterflooding operations. In this work, two feedback approaches were developed for waterflooding process optimization. The first approach is based on the principle of receding horizon control (RHC) while the second is a new dynamic optimization method developed from the technique of self-optimizing control (SOC). For the SOC methodology, appropriate controlled variables (CVs) as combinations of measurement histories and manipulated variables are first derived through regression based on simulation data obtained from a nominal model. Then the optimal feedback control law was represented as a linear function of measurement histories from the CVs obtained. Based on simulation studies, the RHC approach was found to be very sensitive to uncertainties when the nominal model differed significantly from the conceived real reservoir. The SOC methodology on the other hand, was shown to achieve an operational profit with only 2% worse than the true optimal control, but 30% better than the open-loop optimal control under the same uncertainties. The simplicity of the developed SOC approach coupled with its robustness to handle uncertainties proved its potentials to real industrial applications.

Le VIH infecte les cellules par fusion de sa membrane avec la membrane de la cellule cible. Cette fusion est effectuée par les glycoprotéines de l'enveloppe (Env) qui sont synthétisées en tant que précurseur, gp160, qui est ensuite clivé en gp120 et gp41. La protéine gp41 est la partie transmembranaire du complexe de l'enveloppe et l’ancre à la particule virale alors que la gp120 assure la liaison au récepteur cellulaire CD4 et corécepteur CCR5 ou CXCR4. Ces interactions successives induisent des changements de conformation d’Env qui alimentent le processus d'entrée du virus conduisant finalement à l'insertion du peptide de fusion de la gp41 dans la membrane de la cellule cible. La sous-unité extérieure gp120 contient cinq régions variables (V1 à V5), dont trois (V1, V2 et V3) étant capables d’empêcher l’adoption spontanée de la conformation liée à CD4. Cependant, le rôle de régions variables V4 et V5 vis-à-vis de ces changements de conformation reste inconnu. Pour étudier leur effet, des mutants de l'isolat primaire de clade B YU2, comprenant une délétion de la V5 ou une mutation au niveau de tous les sites potentiels de N-glycosylation de la V4 (PNGS), ont été générés. L'effet des mutations sur la conformation des glycoprotéines d'enveloppe a été analysé par immunoprécipitation et résonance de plasmon de surface avec des anticorps dont la liaison dépend de la conformation adopté par la gp120. Ni le retrait des PNGS de la V4 ni la délétion de V5 n’a affecté les changements conformationnels d’Env tels que mesurés par ces techniques, ce qui suggère que les régions variables V1, V2 et V3 sont les principaux acteurs dans la prévention de l’adoption de la conformation lié de CD4 d’Env. / HIV infects cells by fusing its membrane with the membrane of the target cell. This fusion is performed by the envelope glycoproteins (Env) which are synthesized as a precursor, gp160, which is later cleaved into gp120 and gp41. The transmembrane protein gp41 anchors the envelope complex to the viral particle whereas the gp120 ensures the binding to the cell receptor CD4 and coreceptor CCR5 or CXCR4. These sequential interactions trigger conformational changes on Env that fuel the viral entry process ultimately leading to the insertion of the gp41-derived-fusion peptide into the target cell membrane. The exterior subunit gp120 contains five variable regions (V1 to V5), of which three (V1, V2 and V3) have been shown to restrain the spontaneous sampling of the CD4-bound conformation by gp120. However, the role of variable regions V4 and V5 in these conformational changes remains unknown. To investigate their effect, mutants of the clade B YU2 primary isolate, comprising a deletion of the V5 or mutating all V4 potential N-linked glycosylation sites (PNGS), have been generated. The effect of mutations on the conformation of the envelope glycoproteins was analyzed by immunoprecipitation with conformation-dependent antibodies and surface plasmon resonance. Neither the removal of the V4 PNGS nor the removal of V5 affected Env conformational changes as measured by these techniques. Thus, suggesting that variable regions V1, V2 and V3 are the major players in preventing Env from spontaneously snapping into the CD4-bound conformation.

Through series of experiments this work compares effects of different types of genetic algorithms on evolution of a neural network that is used to control a robot. Genetic algorithms using binary and real coded individuals, algorithms using basic and advanced mutations and crossovers and algorithms using fixed and variable population size are compared on three tasks of evoltionary robotics. The goal is to determine wether usage of advanced genetic algorithms leads to faster convergence or to better solution than usage of basic genetic algorithm. Experiments are performed in an easily extendable simulator developed for purposes of this work.

Tato práce se zabývá problematikou aerodynamického zatížení statorových lopatek turbodmychadla s variabilní geometrií turbíny a jeho následnou optimalizací. Metody výpočtového modelování tekutin jsou aplikovány s využitím komerčního softwaru ANSYS CFX. Výpočtový model celého turbínového stupně je použit pro analýzu aerodynamického zatížení statorových lopatek v několika polohách a pro různé operační podmínky. Provedená byla detailní analýza vlivu rozložení tlaku v turbínové skříni, úhlu natočení lopatky, jakož i vlivu distančních pinů na aerodynamické zatížení. Následně bylo vyvinuto experimentální zařízení pro přímé měření aerodynamického momentu statorových lopatek s využitím testovacího zařízení s názvem Gas Stand. Toto zařízení spaluje zemní plyn a dokáže vytvořit velmi stabilní podmínky proudění při vysokých teplotách, což umožňuje vyloučit vliv pulzací plynu, vibrací motoru, jakož i vlivu řídící strategie motoru na měřenou veličinu. Výsledky experimentu jsou následně porovnány s vypočtenou hodnotou pomocí CFD modelu a je dosažená velmi dobrá shoda. Validovaný CFD model je následně zredukován s využitím podmínek cyklické symetrie na model jen jednoho segmentu statoru a rotoru. Umožňuje to výrazně zvýšit produktivitu simulací a prozkoumat několik návrhových parametrů statoru v celém rozsahu pohybu statorových lopatek. Provedená analýza citlivosti těchto parametrů položila výborný základ pro jejich následnou optimalizaci a ukázala významný potenciál několika z nich. Na základě analýzy požadavků na aerodynamické zatížení statorových lopatek byla následně vytvořena definice ideálního zatížení, která byla ustavena jako cíl pro jeho optimalizaci. Použitých bylo několik optimalizačních strategií s využitím metody analýzy působících silových vektorů a jejich výsledky byly následně zhodnoceny a porovnány z více aspektů. Výsledné optimalizované řešení bylo následně přepočteno pomocí modelu celého turbínového stupně, čímž se prokázali jeho výborné vlastnosti z hlediska aerodynamického zatížení a zvýšení účinnosti ve spodní části charakteristiky.