This thesis deals on the design, implementation, testing and measuring of a firmware module for FPGA chips, which enables DMA transfers of network data from computer RAM to the FPGA chip placed on a network interface card. These transfers are carried out using a PCIe bus on the speed of up to 100 Gbps with the possible support of speeds 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps. The goal of this technology is to allow network data processing for the purpose of maintenance of backbone network nodes and data centers. The module is designed so it can be used on different types of FPGA chips, mainly those produced by companies Xilinx and Intel.

The differential mobility classifier (DMC) is one of the core components in electrical mobility particle sizers for sizing sub-micrometer particles. Designing the DMC requires knowledge of the geometrical and constructional imperfection (or tolerance). Studying the effects of geometrical imperfection on the performance of the DMC is necessary to provide manufacturing tolerance and it helps to predict the performance of geometrically imperfect classifiers, as well as providing a calibration curve for the DMC. This thesis was accomplished via studying the cylindrical classifier and the parallel plate classifier. The numerical model was built using the most recent versions of COMSOL Multiphysics® and MATLAB®. For the cylindrical DMC, two major geometrical imperfections were studied: the eccentric annular classifying channel and the tilted inner cylinder/rod. For the parallel-plates DMC, the first study examined for the perfectly designed plates to optimize its dimensions and working conditions, while the second study conducted the plates’ parallelism. For both DMCs, a parametric study was conducted for several tolerances under various geometrical factors (i.e., channel length, width, spacing, cylinders radii, etc…), flow conditions (i.e., sheath-to-aerosol flow ratio, total flow rate), and several particles sizes. The results show that the transfer function deteriorated as the geometrical imperfection increased (i.e., the peak is reduced and the width at the half peak height is broadened). The parallel- plates DMC results show that the aspect ratio of the classifying channel cross-section (width-to-height) was recommended to be above 8. Particle diffusivity reduces the effect of geometrical imperfection, especially for particle sizes less than 10 nm.

Moisture damage in asphalt mixes can be defined as loss of strength and durability due to the presence of moisture at the binder-aggregate interface (adhesive failure) or within the binder (cohesive failure). This research focuses on the evaluation of the susceptibility of aggregates and asphalts to moisture damage through understanding the micro-mechanisms that influence the adhesive bond between aggregates and asphalt and the cohesive strength and durability of the binder. Moisture damage susceptibility is assessed using surface energy measurements and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Surface energy is defined as the energy needed to create a new unit surface area of material in vacuum condition. Surface energy measurements are used to compute the adhesive bond strength between the aggregates and asphalt and cohesive bond strength in the binder. DMA testing is used to evaluate the rate of damage accumulation in asphalt binders and mastics. The DMA applies a cyclic, torsional strain controlled loading to cylindrical asphalt mastics until failure. The DMA results are analyzed using continuum damage mechanics that focuses on separating the energy expended in damaging the material from that associated with viscoelastic deformation. A new approach is developed to analyze the DMA results and calculate the rate of damage. The developed approach is used to evaluate six asphalt mixtures which have performed either well or poorly in the field. The resistance of the field mixes to moisture damage is shown to be related to the calculations of bind energies and the accumulated damage in the DMA.

Chemnitz, Techn. Univ., Diplomarb., 2008.

Orientador: Maria Odila Hilário Cioffi / Resumo: Os compósitos são materiais atrativos para a indústria aeronáutica, devido a alta resistência mecânica em relação ao peso significativamente baixo. Isso possibilita a redução de custos ao mesmo tempo que mantém suas propriedades físicas. Quando se utiliza diferentes reforços os compósitos se caracterizam como híbridos, os quais têm o benefício de combinar as vantagens das diferentes fibras e reduzir, simultaneamente, os seus atributos menos desejáveis. Dentre os processos de manufatura de compósitos, o RTM tem sido de grande interesse, o que pode ser justificado pela maior facilidade de fabricação com um custo relativamente baixo quando comparado a outros métodos tradicionais como a autoclave. Porém, por se tratar de um processo no qual um molde rígido fechado é usado, muitas tensões residuais podem ser inseridas na matriz. Além disso, em se tratando de híbridos, durante a cura pode haver mudanças nas propriedades relacionadas ao fenômeno da relaxação das cadeias poliméricas. Sendo assim, ter conhecimento do comportamento do material, com base nas relaxações das cadeias, é fundamental e isso pode ser realizado pelas análises dinâmico-mecânicas. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi compreender o efeito dos dois reforços no fenômeno de relaxação da matriz epóxi por meio de propriedades viscoelásticas. Essas propriedades foram obtidas pela análise dinâmico-mecânica de dois compósitos híbridos, reforçados com fibras de carbono e de vidro em matriz epóxi. Esses compósitos foram pr... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Composites are attractive materials for the aircraft industry due to have high mechanical strength to a significantly underweight, which make possible the cost reduction keeping, at the same time physical properties. The use of different reinforcements it is possible and, then, the composite is characterized as hybrid, which have benefit to combine advantages of different fibers, reducing, simultaneously, their less desirable characteristics. Among the RTM, it has been of great interest due to the ease of manufacture in a relatively low cost compared to other traditional methods such as autoclaving. However, because it is a process in which a closed rigid mold is used, many residual stresses could be occurred in the matrix. Furthermore, regarding hybrid composites, during the cure process changes in properties related to the relaxation phenomenon of the polymeric chains could occur, which has a great influence on the physical properties of the advanced composite. Therefore, it is essential to have information about the relaxation phenomena, which is provided by dynamic mechanical analysis. The objective of this work was to understand the effect of two different reinforcements in the relaxation phenomena of epoxy matrix through viscoelastic properties. These properties were obtained by dynamic mechanical analysis of the hybrid composite reinforced with carbon fiber glass epoxy matrix, which was processed by RTM and compared to those produced with carbon fiber and glass fiber. ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

No / Hydrolytic degradation studies have been undertaken on Maxon B, a bioresorbable block copolymer of polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polytrimethylene carbonate (TMC). Isotropic and oriented samples were studied by dynamic mechanical measurements over a wide range of temperatures. In addition to mechanical tests, water content and mass loss were also determined on the degraded samples. At early stages of degradation water content was the dominant factor and plasticisation lead to reductions in the glass transition temperatures of the PGA and TMC components. Orientation was shown to give significant improvements in the mechanical properties, including overall increases in modulus and an increase in the glass transition temperature of the PGA component, which is important for the behaviour at body temperature (37 °C). Oriented samples also showed significantly less reduction in mechanical properties on degradation. Simple one-dimensional Takayanagi models were used to provide useful insight into the understanding of the mechanical behaviour.

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Les instabilités vibratoires, telles que le crissement de frein, sont souvent étudiées par des analyses aux valeurs propres complexes sur des modèles éléments finis (EF). L'objectif de cette thèse est d'enrichir ces modèles en prenant en compte la viscoélasticité dont les effets sont l'amortissement et la rigidification des matériaux en fonction de la fréquence. Pour cela un viscoanalyseur a été développé. Il permet de caractériser en cisaillement les matériaux entre 100 et 3500Hz, sans utiliser les équivalences temps-température. Ce viscoanalyseur permet d'alimenter en paramètres le modèle rhéologique de Maxwell généralisé par le biais d'une nouvelle méthode d'identification particulièrement robuste. Le modèle de Maxwell généralisé est ensuite introduit dans les modèles EF grâce à un modèle d'état projeté sur un sous-espace adéquat. Ces modèles améliorés prédisent moins d'instabilités du fait de l'amortissement, mais ils montrent également que la viscoélasticité peut avoir des effets de déstabilisation du fait de la rigidification. / The vibratory instabilities, such as the brake squeal noise, are often studied by complex Eigenvalues analysis (CEA) on finite elements models (FE). The purpose of this thesis is to improve these models by taking the material viscoelasticity into account which induces damping and stiffening of materials according to the frequency.For that a tester was developed. It makes it possible to characterize the shearing behavior of materials between 100 and 3500Hz, without using time-temperature equivalences. This tester allows feeding in parameters the rheological model of generalized Maxwell by the means of a new robust identification method. The generalized Maxwell model is then introduced into FE models thanks to a state-space model on an accurate subspace.These improved models predict less instability occurrences because of damping, but they also show that viscoelasticity may induce destabilization because of stiffening.

This thesis investigates dynamics of determinants of government bond spreads in EMU and non-EMU countries, using non-linear Markov-switching method and Dynamic model averaging. Utilizing Dynamic model averaging we found evidence of three bond pricing regimes - pre-crisis, crisis and post Outright monetary transaction announcements. These three regimes are characteristic for all EMU countries (except Slovak Republic) and Czech Republic. Announcements of OMTs triggered post OMTs announcement regime also in Slovak republic. Third regime is not present in Poland, Hungary and United Kingdom. Moreover United Kingdom has only one regime and is dominated solely by market expectations. We found that there is heterogeneity in the determinants of bond spreads across all examined countries. Moreover we found that spreads are significantly related to market and economic sentiments. JEL Classification F12, F21, F23, H25, H71, H87 Keywords Bond yields, bond spreads, DMA Author's e-mail jan.popadak@fsv.cuni.cz Supervisor's e-mail jaromir.baxa@fsv.cuni.cz

This Master's Thesis describes the design of a new system where a digital signal processor has been added to an existing imaging system consisting of field programmable gate arrays. The new system will offer a higher degree of flexibility by considerably shortening the design time and make it possible to implement more complex algorithms than the existing ones. The choice of system architecture and a test implementation are discussed. The test implementation consists of a program for the digital signal processor and VHDL code for one of the field programmable gate arrays. The code for the digital signal processor was designed for testing on an evaluation board from Texas Instruments. The evaluation board is connected to a computer, which runs a Windows program to visualize the result. The choice of algorithm has not been made yet. In the test implementation a skewing algorithm is used as an example. Two implementations of the skewing algorithm has been optimized, one fix point version and one floating point version.