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<p>In some turbochargers, boost pressure is reduced by opening the wastegate valve. In a modern turbo charged car, the most common way for opening the wastegate is with a pneumatic actuator and an air control solenoid, controlled by the ECU. In the control systems studied the ECU utilizes a static feedforward and a PID controller, for the purpose of making the boost pressure follow its reference value. With no systematic method for tuning the controller, this can be time consuming, and a set of well defined experiments to determine PID parameters are desired.When test time in a real engine is limited or expensive, it is advantageousto work in a simulation environment before doing live tests. A model for thewastegate actuator and air control solenoid is developed in the thesis. This is used to simulate controller performance before any tests in a real car is performed.In the thesis a tuning method for the PID controller based on step responsesis proposed. The tuning method evaluated is the IMC-choice of controller fora second order system, and it has a single design parameter not given by theexperiments. The controller is shown to give desired behavior when the staticfeedforward is correct or has small error.</p>

Two mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) passed over the Houston Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) network on 31 October 2005 and 21 April 2006. As the MCSs traverse the LDAR network, the systems slowly mature with a weakening convective line and a developing stratiform region and radar bright band. The intensification of stratiform region precipitation, including the bright band, is thought to play an important role in stratiform lightning structure, charge structure, and total lightning production of MCSs. The stratiform areas quadruple in size and the mean reflectivity values increase substantially by ~ 6 dB. As the stratiform region matures, VHF source density plots show a lightning pathway that slopes rearward and downward from the back of the convective line and into the stratiform region. At early times for both MCSs, the pathway extends horizontally rearward 40 to 50 km into the stratiform region at an altitude of 9 to 12 km. Near the end of the analysis time period, the pathway slopes rearward 40 km and downward through the transition zone before extending 40 to 50 km in the stratiform region at an altitude of 4 - 7 km. The sloping pathway likely results from charged ice particles advected from the convective line by storm relative front-to-rear flow while the level pathway extending further into the stratiform region is likely caused by both charge advection and local in-situ charging. As the stratiform region matures, the stratiform flash rates double and lightning heights decrease. The percentage of lightning flashes originating in the stratiform region increases significantly from 10 - 20% to 50 - 60%. Overall, the number of positive cloud-to-ground flashes in the stratiform region also increases. Between both MCSs, 60% of the positive CGs originated in the convective or transition regions. Both in-situ charging mechanisms created by the development of the mesoscale updraft and charge advection by the front-to-rear flow likely contribute to the increased electrification and lightning in the stratiform region.

In some turbochargers, boost pressure is reduced by opening the wastegate valve. In a modern turbo charged car, the most common way for opening the wastegate is with a pneumatic actuator and an air control solenoid, controlled by the ECU. In the control systems studied the ECU utilizes a static feedforward and a PID controller, for the purpose of making the boost pressure follow its reference value. With no systematic method for tuning the controller, this can be time consuming, and a set of well defined experiments to determine PID parameters are desired.When test time in a real engine is limited or expensive, it is advantageousto work in a simulation environment before doing live tests. A model for thewastegate actuator and air control solenoid is developed in the thesis. This is used to simulate controller performance before any tests in a real car is performed.In the thesis a tuning method for the PID controller based on step responsesis proposed. The tuning method evaluated is the IMC-choice of controller fora second order system, and it has a single design parameter not given by theexperiments. The controller is shown to give desired behavior when the staticfeedforward is correct or has small error.

Two mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) passed over the Houston Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) network on 31 October 2005 and 21 April 2006. As the MCSs traverse the LDAR network, the systems slowly mature with a weakening convective line and a developing stratiform region and radar bright band. The intensification of stratiform region precipitation, including the bright band, is thought to play an important role in stratiform lightning structure, charge structure, and total lightning production of MCSs. The stratiform areas quadruple in size and the mean reflectivity values increase substantially by ~ 6 dB. As the stratiform region matures, VHF source density plots show a lightning pathway that slopes rearward and downward from the back of the convective line and into the stratiform region. At early times for both MCSs, the pathway extends horizontally rearward 40 to 50 km into the stratiform region at an altitude of 9 to 12 km. Near the end of the analysis time period, the pathway slopes rearward 40 km and downward through the transition zone before extending 40 to 50 km in the stratiform region at an altitude of 4 - 7 km. The sloping pathway likely results from charged ice particles advected from the convective line by storm relative front-to-rear flow while the level pathway extending further into the stratiform region is likely caused by both charge advection and local in-situ charging. As the stratiform region matures, the stratiform flash rates double and lightning heights decrease. The percentage of lightning flashes originating in the stratiform region increases significantly from 10 - 20% to 50 - 60%. Overall, the number of positive cloud-to-ground flashes in the stratiform region also increases. Between both MCSs, 60% of the positive CGs originated in the convective or transition regions. Both in-situ charging mechanisms created by the development of the mesoscale updraft and charge advection by the front-to-rear flow likely contribute to the increased electrification and lightning in the stratiform region.

Due to the discrepancy among series-connected cells in a lead-acid battery pack, the restored capacities may not be the same during the charging/discharging processes. Through repeated charging and discharging, one can find that the unbalance of individual series-connected battery cell of lead-acid battery is getting worse, because those cells of poor state of charge may have negative voltage, causing reverse charging from the other cells. This abnormal operation results in not only more energy consumption, but also the acceleration of the battery-cell aging and the remarkable reduction of its lifetime. For the purpose of investigating this problem, the operating characteristics of each cell is under study. The battery cells are purposely charged by different floating voltages and discharged by different cutoff voltages. The investigation results show that the lifecycles of battery cells are affected more significantly by floating charging voltage than by the discharging cutoff voltage. It is also found that a long time reverse charging has a destructive effect on the battery cells.

This thesis investigates the performance of pulse charging, which is believed to be superior to constant current charging in some respects, such as charging efficiency and charging speed. The investigation is focused upon the extensively used secondary batteries, lead-acid batteries. The consecutive orthogonal arrays method is applied to search for the optimum operating variables of pulse charging, including pulse amplitude, duty ratio and frequency of the charging current. Unfortunately, the experimental results of consecutive orthogonal arrays reveal that charging efficiency is not obviously affected by pulse amplitude, duty ratio or frequency. Instead, charging rate is dominantly influenced by average charging current. These results indicate that pulse charging scheme is not superior to constant current charging. To compare these two charging schemes further, a series of experiments are carried out to discuss the effects of each operating variables. Unfortunately, no evidence from the experimental results can prove the superiority of pulse charging to constant current charging as formerly documented.

Dipoles are expected to often dramatically enhance the mutual collision rate of diffusing particles (above the effects of Brownian or turbulent motion). However, this spreading awareness of the possible influence of discrete dipoles on particles is still based largely on theory, and some qualitative experience of particle behaviour from microgravity experiments. Individual particle dipoles have not yet been definitely isolated in experiments, nor measured in practical situations. In this project, it was intended to measure, for the first time, distributions of dipole strength (as well as net charge and particle size) on particulates dispersed into air by typical industrial and pharmaceutical processing methods. The instruments designed to do this were built around a sampling head which allowed examination of a flow of dust dispersed into an air stream. During dispersal, the particles suffered tribocharging by mutual separation and collision on walls. Examination of the particles involved recording the path of particles as they moved through a non-uniform electric field around a central electrode, which was supplied with high voltage. Particles were attracted towards the central electrode (of 0.5 mm diameter in this study) if they contained dipoles, independent of the polarity of the field or their net charge. Particles to be examined were illuminated by a laser sheet as they moved past, and a high speed video captured their trajectories (over a field of view of around 5 mm). The equation of motion of a particle which involved the forces of both particle net charge and dipole strength was applied to the particle path to evaluate both these parameters. The particle trajectories were modelled, and checked against the observed experimental trajectories. The voltage applied to the probe varied from 4 kV to 18 kV but for most of the runs 6 kV voltage was used. The electric field around the probe tip was assumed to be same as that for a spherical electrode of the same size as the probe. The flow field axially towards and around the probe tip was calculated using the Stokes creeping flow equations around a sphere. The calculated electric and flow fields were checked against COMSOL Multiphysics models applied to actual geometries and flow regimes. The rotation dynamics of the particles was also considered important in the technique, requiring possibly extra knowledge of the initial direction of the dipole. The flow was led through a lateral field between two plates in order to orient the direction of any dipoles in the direction of the lateral field. The expected orientation of dipoles coming out of the plates was used as an initial guess of their orientation for modelling the rotation of the dipoles when they entered the probe field. Misalignment after leaving the plate field and before entering the probe field was also considered, and was found to be important due to vortices characterised by smoke and particle studies. However, the trajectory modelling revealed that the particles studied quickly rotated into alignment with the probe field, providing maximum attractive force to the probe, and so the values of net charge and dipole strength obtained did not depend on the initial orientation. Estimated errors of particle position and diameter used in all the calculation steps were judged to be well within a basic image error limit of ±1 pixel. Some particle trajectories showed unexplainable shapes which was traced to the influence of large mixing eddies around the gas/particle jet. A check for corona discharge at the probe tip was made both at the beginning and at the end of the sampling experiments. No corona was detected initially (up to 18 kV), but a discharge could be observed at voltages close to 7 kV in the later checks. Particles of acrylic, glass bubbles, whole milk and fertiliser powder were sampled and net charges and dipole charges were estimated. The sampled particles overall had net charge and dipole charge in the range of 10-15 C to 10-12 C on individual particles with diameters 20 μm -130 μm. Dipoles were more evident (more easily measured) for glass bubbles but the presence of dipoles on other particle samples was found and could not be completely ruled out for many of them. The analysis procedure is presently time consuming but can be automated so it is recommended in the future that it should be automated. The work can be extended into industrial situations by sampling moving dust suspensions, e.g. fluid bed overflows and pneumatically conveyed outflows, useful in the dairy and fertilizer industries.

No description available.

Electrophoretic displays (EDPs) are an attractive low power technology for small to large area displays. Such display technology has seen a surge of research interest with the launch of successful e-readers in the market place, owing to their lower power consumption and paper-like quality. This work aims to look at the influence of shape on the electrophoretic mobility of particles for such devices. Crosslinked poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) precursor particles with a narrow size distribution were produced by non aqueous dispersion polymerisation utilising a pump-feed method. To produce shape anisotropic particles an adapted version of the dynamic swelling method for polar media was chosen. Suitable monomers were screened by the use of Hansen solubility theory to find monomers which interact with PMMA but not the solvent. It was found that 2- hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAm) were two such suitable monomers, methyl methacrylate (MMA) was also used as a control series.It was found that cluster-like particle morphologies could be produced by the MMA system by the inclusion of small quantities of crosslinking monomer. This was due to precipitation of higher molecular weight polymer segments to the seed particle surface. The cluster-like morphology could be enhanced by use of a polar crosslinking monomer and by sequential reactions. For the polar system, it was found that the reactions with pure monomer were unclean, due to the solubility mismatch of the monomer and the solvent system. This was overcome by a copolymerisation with MMA. The system showed different particle morphologies could be produced by varying the polar monomer content. In one case a sample of pure dumbbell-like particles could be produced. These dumbbell-like particles are thought to be chemical as well as shape anisotropic owing to monomer composition. EPD evaluation for the particles was undertaken and showed that all particles can become highly charged in low dielectric constant media, but that the shape anisotropic particles are prone to adsorption to the cell walls and electrodes.The work outlined in this thesis shows the first reporting of shape anisotropic polymeric particles produced in low dielectric constant solvents system.