A novel battery power system configured by the battery power modules (BPMs) is proposed. Each BPM consists of a single battery pack or a battery bank equipped with an associated DC/DC converter. The output ports of BPMs can be connected in series for the high voltage applications, or in parallel to cope with a higher power or energy. For a large scale battery power system, a number of BPMs can be arrayed with combination of series and parallel connections to meet the load requirements. These all configurations allow the BPMs be operated individually. Consequently, the discharging currents of the batteries can be independently controlled, but coordinated to provide a full amount of the load current. The performances of BPMs connected in both parallel and series at outputs are analyzed theoretically and discussed from the experimental results. Batteries operating independently do not suffer from charge imbalance, and thus can avoid being over-charged or over-discharged, so that the life cycle can be prolonged. Furthermore, sophisticated discharging profiles such as intermittent currents can be realized to equalize the charges and thus to efficiently utilize the available stored energy in batteries. During the operation period, some of the batteries may take rest or be isolated from the system for the open-circuit measurement, facilitating the estimation of the state-of-charge (SOC) and the evaluation of the state-of-health (SOH). With the benefit of independent operation, the BPMs can be discharged with a scheduled current profile, such as intermittent discharging. The investigation results show that the average current plays the most important role in current discharging. By detecting the battery voltage at the break time, an SOC estimation method based on the dynamically changed open-circuit voltage exhibits an acceptable accuracy in a shorter time with considerations of the previous charging/discharging currents and the depth-of- discharge (DOD). In addition, the coulomb counting method can be enhanced by evaluating the SOH at the exhausted and fully charged states, which can be intended on the independently operated BPMs. Through the experiments that emulate practical operations, the SOC estimation methods are verified on lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy.

By means of N-body simulations we study the ion and electron dynamics in molecular first-row hydride clusters when exposed to intense and short X-ray pulses. We find that, for a particular range of X-ray intensities, fast protons are ejected from the system on a considerably shorter time scale than that of the screened core. As a consequence, the structure of heavy atoms is kept intact", which may be relevant in the context of X-ray based molecular imaging. Moreover the final charge states of the heavy ions are considerably lower than those of the ions in pristine atomic clusters exposed to the same laser pulses, which is in agreement with recent measurement of methane cluster at the LCLS in Stanford.

Microfluidics and its applications to Lab-on-a-Chip have attracted a lot of attention. Because of the small length scale, the flow is characterized by a low Re number. The governing equations become linear. Boundary element method (BEM) is a very good option for simulating the fluid flow with high accuracy. In this thesis, we present a 2D numerical simulation of the electrothermal flow using BEM. In electrothermal flow the volumetric force is caused by electric field and temperature gradient. The physics is mathematically modeled by (i) Laplace equation for the electrical potential, (ii) Poisson equation for the heat conduction caused by Joule heating, (iii) continuity and Stokes equation for the low Reynolds number flow. We begin by solving the electrical potential and electrical field. The heat conduction is caused by the Joule heating as the heat generation term. Superposition principle is used to solve for the temperature field. The Coulomb and dielectric forces are generated by the electrical field and temperature gradient of the system. The buoyancy force is caused by the non-uniform temperature distribution inside the system. We analyze the Stokes flow problem by superposition of fundamental solution for free-space velocity caused by body force and BEM for the corresponding homogeneous Stokes equation. It is well known that a singularity integral arises when the source point approaches the field point. To overcome this problem, we solve the free-space velocity analytically. For the BEM part, we also calculate all the integrals analytically. With this effort, our solution is more accurate. In addition, we improve the robustness of the matrix system by combining the velocity integral equation with the traction integral equation when we simulate the electrothermal pump. One of our purpose is to design a pump for the microfluidics system. Since the system is a long channel, the flow is fully developed in the area far away from the electrodes. With this assumption, the velocity profile is parabolic at the inlet and outlet of the channel. So we can get appropriate boundary conditions for the BEM part of Stokes equation. Consequently, we can simulate the electrothermal flow in an open channel. In this thesis, we will present the formulation and implementation of BEM to model electrothermal flow. Results of electrical potential, temperature field, Joule heating, electrothermal force, buoyancy force and velocity field will be presented.

L'objectif de ce travail est de comprendre l'influence des particules très fines sur le phénomène de ré-agglomération lors du broyage. Des billes de verre de taille 0 à 20 µm avec un pourcentage massique variant entre 0 à 1% sont ajoutées dans un tas granulaire de billes de verre de 200 à 300 µm dans un tambour tournant cylindrique de diamètre et longueur 10 cm. La présence des particules fines montre un effet ambivalent sur la stabilité du tas granulaire. Nous avons établi un diagramme de stabilité du milieu granulaire en fonction de la concentration de particules fines et cherché à quantifier l'effet des fines combiné avec d'autres paramètres (humidité relative et vitesse de rotation du tambour). La stabilité d'un tas granulaire dans un tambour tournant est déterminée par la mesure de son angle maximum de stabilité θm. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié l'évolution de cet angle à des vitesses de rotation différentes. Les expériences montrent qu'à faible concentration (< 0; 15%), le tas se déstabilise par avalanches lorsque le tambour tourne, θm diminue lorsqu'on augmente la quantité de fines. Quand la vitesse de rotation augmente, le mouvement du tas évolue du régime d'avalanche intermittent au régime d'écoulement continu. En revanche, lorsque la concentration des fines est supérieure à 0,15%, la déstabilisation du tas se traduit par un phénomène de stick-slip à la paroi du tambour, et la quantité de fines augmente la stabilité du tas. Ce comportement apparemment contradictoire est lié au fait que la localisation de la déstabilisation est modifiée. Dans le régime des faibles concentrations, les avalanches commencent à la surface du tas, et le remplissage de l'espace intermédiaire entre les grosses billes par les fines rend la surface de plus en plus lisse, ce qui déstabilise le tas. Par ailleurs, les fines induisent une augmentation de la cohésion du tas par la nucléation des ponts capillaires entre les grains. Ainsi, dans le régime des fortes concentrations, le tas granulaire se comporte comme un corps solide et la déstabilisation a lieu à l'interface tas-tambour. Nous avons également étudié l'influence de l'humidité relative sur la stabilité et montré que dans le régime de faible concentration de particules fines, la déstabilisation est indépendante de l'humidité. D'autre part dans le régime des hautes teneurs en fines, une humidité relative élevée induit une forte cohésion due à la condensation capillaire entre les grains et le tambour ce qui entraîne une augmentation de l'angle maximum de stabilité.

In this thesis we have utilized few-cycle pulses in the range 10-15s, to initiate CE to allow us to image the structure, dynamics, and kinetics of ionization and dissociation of triatomic molecules. We have made a series of measurements of this process for CO2 and N2O, by varying the laser pulse duration from 7 to 500 fs with intensity ranging from 2.5×1014 to 4×1015 (W/cm2), in order to identify the charge states and time scales involved. This is a new approach in CEI introducing a multi-dimensional aspect to the science of non-perturbative laser-molecule interaction. We refer to this approach as FEmtosecond Multi-PUlse Length Spectroscopy (FEMPULS). The use of a time and position sensitive detector allow us to observe all fragment ions in coincidence. By representing the final fragmentation with Dalitz and Newton plots, we have identified the underlying break up dynamics. Momentum conservation has been used to extract the correlated fragment ions which come from a single parent ion. This is achieved by considering that the total momentum of all correlated fragments must add up to zero. One of the main outcomes of our study is observation of charge resonance enhanced ionization (CREI) for triatomic molecules. In the case of CO2, we found that for the 4+ and higher charge states, 100 fs is the time scale required to reach the critical geometry RCO= 2.1Å and ӨOCO =163º (equilibrium CO2 geometry is RCO= 1:16Å and ӨOCO =172º. The CO23+ molecule, however, appears always to begin dissociation from closer than 1.7 Å indicating that dynamics on charge states lower than 3+ is not sufficient to initiate CREI. Finally, we make quantum ab initio calculations of ionization rates for CO2 and identify the electronic states responsible for CREI. Total kinetic energy (KER) has been measured for channels (1, 1, 1) to (2, 2, 2) and it was found that the (1, 1, 1) channel is not Coulombic, while (2, 2, 2) channel is very close to Coulombic (KER close to 90% of the coulombic potential). As another outcome of our study, for the case of N2O, we observed for the first time that there are two stepwise dissociation pathways for N2O3+: (1) N2O3+ → N++ NO2+ → N+ + N++ O+ and (2) N2O3+ → N22++O+ → N+ + N++ O+ as well as one for N2O4+ → N2++ NO2+ → N2+ + N++ O+. The N22+ stepwise channel is suppressed for longer pulse length, a phenomenon which we attribute to the influence which the structure of the 3+ potential has on the dissociating wave packet propagation. Finally, by observing the KER for each channel as a function of pulse duration, we show the increasing importance of CREI for channels higher than 3+.

No description available.

An algorithm for extracting event information from a Coulomb Explosion Imaging (CEI) position sensitive detector (PSD) is developed and compared with previously employed schemes. The PSD is calibrated using a newly designed grid overlay and validates the quality of the described algorithm. Precision calculations are performed to determine how best the CEI apparatus at The University of Waterloo can be improved. An algorithm for optimizing coincidence measurements of polyatomic molecules in CEI experiments is developed. Predictions of improved efficiency based on this algorithm are performed and compared with experiments using a triatomic molecule. Analysis of an OCS targeted CEI experiment using highly charged Argon ions to initiate ionization is performed. The resulting measurements are presented using a variety of visualization tools to reveal asynchronous and sequential fragmentation channels of OCS3+.

University, Diss., 2005--Hamburg.

University, Diss., 2003--Kassel.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:16:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2261.pdf: 6647837 bytes, checksum: 5f3d49f4f65a3ec465ca7904f635b5f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-26 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Using the classical molecular dynamics simulations, Perovskites systems composed by oxides (ABO3), in particular SrTiO3 and CaTiO3, were performed. The titanates are easily prepared as polycrystalline ceramics; chemically and mechanically stable they can be characterized in various temperature and pressure conditions. These provide us reliable experimental results for construction and consolidation of theoretical models. Another important fact is that these materials have wide variety of technological applications and many important properties as well as the phase transitions arising from the effect of temperature and pressure. That can be explored to understand the interactions among its constituents. The effective interatomic potential used has the same functional form of the potential proposed by Vashishta and Rahman and it s composed by the sum of terms Coulomb interaction, van der Waals, esthereometric and dipole-induced. The system was treated in (N, V, E) and (N, P, H) ensembles to verify the influence of temperature and pressure application on structural and dynamics properties of perovskites. The method used allowed us to describe various properties such as thermal expansion coefficient, angles distribution, coordination number, elastic properties, pair distribution function, density of vibrational states, Debye-Waller factor and so on. The phase transitions of systems were explored showing fantastic results. / Utilizando o método da Dinâmica Molecular clássica foram realizadas simulações de sistemas perovskitas formados por óxidos (ABO3), em particular SrTiO3 e CaTiO3. A vantagem em trabalhar com estes materiais é que os titanatos são facilmente preparados como cerâmicas policristalinas, são química e mecanicamente muito estáveis, o que torna possível caracterizálos em várias condições de temperatura e pressão, nos proporcionando resultados experimentais confiáveis para construção e consolidação de modelos teóricos. Outro fato importante é que estes materiais possuem ampla aplicabilidade tecnológica além de propriedades como transições de fase decorrentes do efeito de temperatura e pressão que podem ser exploradas para o melhor entendimento das interações entre seus constituintes. O potencial interatômico efetivo utilizado possui a mesma forma funcional dos potenciais propostos por Vashishta e Rahmann sendo composto pela soma dos termos de interação de Coulomb, de van der Waals, estereométrica e carga-dipolo induzido. Os sistemas foram tratados nos ensembles microcanônico (N,V,E) e isobárico-isoentálpico (N,P,H) para verificação da influência da temperatura e aplicação de pressão em suas propriedades estruturais e dinâmicas. O método empregado nos permitiu descrever de maneira satisfatória várias propriedades como coeficiente de expansão térmica, distribuição de ângulos, número de coordenação, propriedades elásticas, função distribuição de pares, densidade de modos vibracionais, fator de Debye-Waller entre outros. O comportamento dos sistemas na região em que ocorrem as transições de fase também foi explorado apresentando resultados fantásticos.