No description available.

Response characteristics and tactile coding capacities of single neurons of the dorsal column nuclei (DCN), and the dorsal horn, in particular, neurons of the spinocervical tract (SCT), were investigated in anaesthetized cats. Purely dynamically-sensitive tactile neurons of the DCN could be divided into two classes, one associated with hair follicle afferent (HFA) input, the other with Pacinian corpuscle (PC) input. The HFA-related class was most sensitive to low-frequency (&lt50 Hz) vibration, had phaselocked responses to vibration frequencies up to ~75 Hz and had a graded response output as a function of vibrotactile intensity changes. PC-related neurons had broader vibrotactile sensitivity, extending to ~300 Hz with tightest phaselocking between 50 and 200 Hz. The SCT neurons in the lumbar dorsal horn had tactile receptive fields on the hairy skin of the hindlimb and a very limited capacity to signal, in a graded way, the intensity parameter of the vibrotactile stimulus. Furthermore, because of their inability to respond on a cycle-by-cycle pattern at vibration frequencies above 5-10 Hz, these neurons were unable to provide any useful signal of vibration frequency beyond ~5-10 Hz, in contrast to DCN neurons. In the parallel human psychophysical study, the capacity for vibrotactile frequency detection and discrimination was examined in five subjects in glabrous and hairy skin. The vibrotactile detection threshold values obtained at four standard frequencies of 20, 50, 100 and 200 Hz were markedly higher on the hairy skin than on the glabrous skin. The discrimination task was examined by means of a two-alternative, forced-choice psychophysical procedure. Measures of the discriminable frequency increment (?????) and the Weber Fraction (????? / ??), revealed similar capacities for frequency discrimination at the two different skin sites at the standard frequencies of 20, 100 and 200 Hz, but an equivocal difference at 50 Hz. Cutaneous local anaesthesia in the dorsal forearm produced a marked impairment in vibrotactile detection and discrimination at the low frequencies of 20 and 50 Hz but little effect at higher frequencies, confirming that vibrotactile detection and discrimination in hairy skin depend upon superficial receptors at low vibrotactile frequencies, but depend on deep, probably Pacinian corpuscle receptors for high frequencies.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1997. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2006. / Description based on contents viewed Jan. 29, 2007; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1997. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Un nombre croissant d’appareils électroniques portatifs et portables entraîne une demande croissante de module d’alimentation électrique durable et localisé de petite taille et de poids, et offrant une puissance de sortie élevée. En tant que choix prometteur pour l’alimentation électrique, les moissonneuses d’énergie cinétiques (REC), qui transforment les vibrations ou les mouvements ambiants en énergie électrique, sont étudiées de manière intensive ces dernières années. Les performances des RECs miniatures disponibles dans la littérature sont généralement limitées par leur taille. Les vibrations ambiantes sont généralement abondantes en basse fréquence, ce qui est également un facteur majeur limitant la puissance de sortie du REC. Afin d’améliorer la puissance de sortie, nous devrions améliorer l’efficacité de la conversion d’énergie, qui est liée au principe de transduction. Ce travail présente l’amélioration de la puissance de sortie des RECs électrostatiques basse fréquence grâce à un mécanisme de conversion de fréquence mécanique couplé par impact, et propose un modèle numérique prédictif du prototype qui prend en compte l’effet d’amortissement de l’air et les impacts dans le prototype. Un prototype est proposé avec une géométrie améliorée du module capacitif réduisant la force d’amortissement de l’air. Des approches alternatives pour ajuster les RECs à des applications variées sont proposées, y compris un REC entièrement flexible conçue pour l’électronique portable, et un REC à basse fréquence 2-D sensible aux vibrations suivant deux directions orthogonales. De plus, un système d’étiquette RFID entièrement autonome en énergie mettant en œuvre le REC à basse fréquence en tant que module d’alimentation électrique et un module de communication RFID semi-passif est présenté / A growing number of portable and wearable electronics results in an increasing demand of sustainable and localized power supply module of small size and weight, and offering high output power. As a promising choice for the power supply, Kinetic energy harvesters (KEHs), transforming the ambient vibrations or motions into electrical energy, are studied intensively in recent yeas. The performance of the miniature KEHs available in literature are generaly confined by their sized. The ambient vibrations are usually abundant in low frequency, which is also a major factor restricting the output power of the KEH. In order to enhance the power output, we should improve the energy conversion efficiency, which is related to the transduction principle. This work presents the improvement of the output power of low frequency electrostatic KEHs through impact-coupled mechanical frequency up conversion mechanism, and proposes a predictive numerical model of the prototype which considers the squeeze film air damping effect and the impacts in the prototype. A prototype is proposed with improved geometry of capacitive module reducing the air damping force. Alternative approaches to adjust the KEHs to varied applications are proposed, including a fully flexible KEH designed for wearable electronics, and a 2-D low frequency KEH that is sensible to vibrations along two orthogonal directions. In addition, a fully energy-autonomous RFID tag system implementing the low frequency KEH as the power supply module and a semi-passive RFID communication module is presented

Orientador: Milton Dias Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T13:57:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Melo_FabioMenegattide_M.pdf: 4740626 bytes, checksum: d8e7f3016b9b6ecce36397deb6f91e27 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Estruturas do tipo caixa são facilmente encontradas em sistemas mecânicos do cotidiano. Elas estão nas coberturas de motores e equipamentos de ar-condicionado, transformadores e compressores de refrigeradores e em todo sistema cuja cobertura é feita por uma proteção plástica ou metálica. Seu comportamento acústico e vibratório vem sendo estudado há alguns anos uma vez que problemas relacionados a ruído e vibração desses componentes são recorrentes. Como forma de atenuar o ruído radiado por essas estruturas alguns métodos são adotados. Dentre eles está a adição de massa a qual será estudada neste trabalho. Uma caixa retangular é modelada por meio de Elementos Finitos e duas análises realizadas: uma análise estrutural in vácuo de forma a determinar a variação do deslocamento volumétrico líquido e outra, vibroacústica, focando em como o nível de pressão sonora e o padrão de diretividade são afetados pela adição de massa. É possível verificar que a adição de massa muda de maneira significativa as frequências naturais e as formas modais da caixa. Além disso, ela pode reduzir o deslocamento volumétrico líquido daqueles modos com grande deslocamento volumétrico e pode aumentar ou diminuir a resposta acústica dependendo da quantidade de massas adicionadas / Abstract: Box-type structures are easily found in mechanical systems of the everyday. They are covering engines and air-conditioning equipment, transformers and hermetic compressors of refrigerators and every system which covering is made by a plastic or metallic protection. Their vibratory and acoustic behavior have been study for many years once that concerns regarding noise and vibration related to them are recurrent. As a manner to attenuate the noise radiated by these structures some known methods are adopted. One of these, which will be investigated in this work, is adding masses on the structure. A rectangular box is modelled by means of Finite Element approach. Two analyses are performed: a structural in vacuum analysis in order to determine the variation of the net-volume displacement and a vibroacoustic analysis focusing on how the sound pressure level and directivity pattern are affected by adding masses. The latter one is carried out considering fluid-structure interaction. It can be verified that mass addition changes, in a significant way, the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the box. In addition, it may reduce the net-volume displacement of modes which have large net-volume displacement and may increase or decrease the acoustical response of the box depending on the amount of added masses / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

With the growth of networked smart devices in indoor environments, human information acquisition becomes essential for these devices to make the environment smart and people’s lives more convenient. These networked systems, which are often referred to as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), learn and make decisions collaboratively based on data input. The data could come from sensors that perceive various signals in the physical world, human input, etc. In this thesis, I will focus on information acquisition based on data from sensing the physical world. The major challenges to accurately interpreting the information these systems perceive result from the complexity of the physical world. An extreme solution to this problem is to have a large number of sensors or sensing configurations that collect a large amount of data. Ideally, we could then have labeled data for each sensing condition and possible scenario in order to accurately model the world. However, in the real world, such solutions could be difficult if not impossible to achieve due to constraints on the hardware, computational power, and (labeled) dataset. This thesis targets this problem and sets the goal of obtaining accurate indoor human information through limited system configurations and limited labeled data. A new concept of utilizing structures as sensors is presented as the foundation of the system. The intuition is that people induce ambient structures to vibrate all the time, and their activities and information can be inferred from this vibration. To achieve that with the aforementioned constraints, an understanding of the physical world (that has been studied for centuries in multiple disciplines) is used to assist the sensing and learning process for more accurate information acquisition from sensor data.

High levels of vibration are essential for the proper operation of vibrating screens. However, this motion imparts high dynamic loads on their support structures leading to premature failure or costly construction. Various methods exist for the attenuation of these forces, but they require undesirable addition of weight to the screen assembly, which can be as much as 130% of the screen mass. More appropriate methods are pendulum, hydraulic and liquid inertia vibration absorbers. These devices can provide similar isolation at only a fraction of the weight increase of current screen isolation methods. The liquid inertia vibration absorber's unique properties make it ideal for the attenuation of screen forces, as this study will show. A mathematical model describing the motion for the vibration absorber was derived. This led to an equation describing the force transmissibility, which was used to show which parameters influence the absorber's performance. The model was extended to take into account the effect of conical port inlets/outlets, which were used to reduce the viscous damping. The effect of viscous damping was quantified using computational fluid dynamics. The mathematical model was used to show how an optimal set of parameters could be found. Two design procedures were developed for the vibration absorber and were then used to design an experimental absorber. The experimental absorber was used to validate the mathematical model. Several practical considerations for the design were discussed and solutions suggested. The stiffness of the absorber was estimated using finite element modelling. Two elastomeric springs of different hardnesses were fitted to the absorber. The softer spring achieved a transmissibility of 16% by 42 Hz. The main stumbling block in reducing the transmissibility even further is the reduction of the damping. The experience gained from the experimental absorber was used to suggest how an absorber could be applied to a screen. An absorber isolating at 12.5 Hz was designed for this purpose. A theoretical design study investigated two possible configurations of absorber fitment. When the absorber was fitted directly to the screen the force transmitted was reduced 7.2 times. Fitting the absorber to the sub-frame gave similar transmissibility results to that of a screen fitted with a sub-frame only, but the mass ratio was only 15%. The outcome of this study is a thorough understanding of liquid inertia vibration absorbers as well as a procedure for their optimal design. / Dissertation (M Eng (Mechanical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted