The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) establishes the basic principles for the design, selection, installation, operation, maintenance, and removal of traffic control devices (TCDs). The MUTCD indicates that some TCDs that are required and some are recommended, depending on the situation. However, most TCDs are not required and the decision to use a given TCD in a given situation is typically made by an engineer (or an individual working under engineering supervision) based on a variety of information. Not all engineers have the same degree of experience in making TCD decisions, and not all engineers that make these decisions have traffic engineering expertise. There are many other factors not addressed by the MUTCD that can lead to differences in the decision-making process. To assist engineers with evaluating these factors, this research developed a decision analysis process to assist engineers with making TCD decisions. The value of this research is the idea that the decision analysis process for TCD can be modeled and analyzed using appropriate factors. The developed factors include need, impact, influence, and cost. The process developed in this research applies two elements to each factor. One element compares the importance of each factor among all the other factors, and the other incorporates the engineer's judgment into the TCD decision. The first element described uses a decision analysis method, analytic hierarchy process, to determine the weights for each factor, or coefficients, as applied generally to a TCD. The second uses a mixture of quantitative and qualitative engineering judgment to determine the degree to which the factor applies to the TCD situation, or situational variable. The output of this process was a utility value that can be compared to a scale and determine the installation value of the device. This process will contribute to more uniform decisions amongst all levels of experience in TCD decision-making. Additional research that could expand on this developed process would include data collection on typical importance values for each factor as applied to a TCD and on decision scales for specific TCD situations. When applying this research, it is important to remember that it is not the intent of this process to remove engineering judgment. This is an important part of the process and should remain as such.

With the rapid increase in electrical loads, a considerable percentage of global power systems have been stretched to their designed capacity, leading to a sharp rise in the fault current. High fault current levels have severe impact on power systems. They can increase the likelihood of overcurrent damage, which may destroy electrical facilities or even cause system blackout. The resistive-type superconducting fault current limiter (RSFCL) is a device that can help to mitigate the increasing level of fault currents. It can also contribute to the performance, stability and efficiency of electricity grids. In order to promote the RSFCL more effectively, it is essential to study the device itself and conduct simulations regarding the performance and applicability from the system point of view. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of this thesis introduced fundamentals of superconductivity and RSFCLs, respectively. In Chapter 3, a power system model was built, and the transient analysis of short-circuit currents was given. Then, the operating principle of RSFCL was explained, and a step-resistance RSFCL model was introduced. To validate the current limiting performance of the SFCL module, wind farm protection schemes were studied under various fault scenarios. After thorough analysis it was concluded that the optimal allocating strategy of SFCLs was the installation of one SFCL at the integrating point of the system model. Chapter 4 presented a comprehensive study on the performance and optimal allocation strategy of RSFCLs. The two power system models used in this chapter were built based on the UK network standard. To assess the impact of incorporating SC material properties on the performance of SFCLs, three different models were compared throughout the study. Although computing time can be reduced when step-resistance and exponential equation models were used, such simplifications led to strong overestimations of the SFCL performance and resulted in wrong conclusion of optimal installing strategies. For both power system models, the simultaneous use of three SFCLs was the best protection strategy in terms of the performance, economic efficiency and reliability of the overall grids. To draw this conclusion, all the potential combinations of two, three, four, and five SFCLs were studied under a wide number of fault scenarios and measuring strategies. In Chapter 5, a series of experiments were performed to study the magnetic field-angular dependence of the critical current of different commercial YBCO samples. We selected ten 2G-HTS tapes with broad differences in width, fabrication process, and laminar structure. The obtained I_c (B,θ) characteristics of HTS samples were applied in the simulation of RSFCLs, showing unneglectable effect on the first peak limiting performance during faults. This study is helpful to the design and simulation of RSFCLs and other HTS applications which require superconducting wires operating inside magnetic fields. In Chapter 6, we presented a High Frequency (HF) AC-assisted quench study of the YBCO conductor. The differences in quench processes triggered by HF AC field were recorded and studied. We found that AC signals of 10 kHz can trigger quench of the HTS tape. Also, the device proved to be effective at guaranteeing uniform quench of the sample. After then, we placed the experimental device in a magnet, to study whether the quench process can be accelerated by external DC magnetic field. It was found that the DC field can reduce the quench time, but its performance was dependent on the amplitude of transport current and the characteristics of HF AC signals. In addition, the angle between the DC magnetic field and the tape surface showed a huge impact on the quench time. Finally, a comprehensive field-angular dependence study about the quench time of the YBCO sample was conducted, revealing the same pattern as J_c (θ,B) dependence of the tape, but with a greater anisotropy. To summarize, this technique showed outstanding performance regarding quench acceleration and tape protection, and therefore has huge potential to be applied in RSFCLs.

[pt] A presente tese tem como objetivo avaliar a interação trovão-solo no que toca a ocorrência de trovões e suas características microssísmicas, apontando a influência de vibrações induzidas para a redução do fator de segurança em uma análise (pseudo-estática) de estabilidade de encostas. Considerando a abordagem inédita, foi efetuado um levantamento teórico com o intuito de apresentar as principais características dos relâmpagos e suas correlações com o solo. Como material, foi utilizado um solo coluvionar, composto principalmente de quartzo, feldspato e biotita. O referido foi caracterizado através de métodos padrão (complementados com o uso da microtomografia 3D), e a retenção e disponibilidade de água foram reveladas. Foi efetuado um monitoramento de campo de longo prazo para avaliar a correlação entre os dados climáticos (incluindo incidência de raios) e o potencial hídrico dos solos. Por fim, foi utilizado uma estação para monitoramento sismográfico para captar as vibrações induzidas por trovões nos solos. Os resultados mostram 39 ocorrências de raios próximos ao local de monitoramento de campo. O monitoramento sísmico mostrou que os trovões causam sinais microssísmicos compostos por acelerações de pico do solo até 0,02 m/s ao quadrado. Em conclusão, para fins geotécnicos, o trovão é um assunto que pode ser avaliado à luz de um carregamento sísmico. / [en] The present thesis aims to evaluate thunder-soil interaction verifying the influence of its induced vibrations to the reduction of the factor of safety in a pseudo-static slope stability analysis. In order to carry out this research, considering the unpublished approach, a theoretical survey was made in order to present the main characteristics of the lightning and its correlations with the soil. As a material, a colluvial soil, mainly composed of quartz, feldspar and biotite was characterized by standard methods (supplemented with the use of 3D microtomography) in order to reveal its mineral composition, structural arrangement and water retention. After field and laboratory calibration of the water potential and volumetric moisture sensors, a long-term field monitoring was performed to evaluate the correlation between climatic data (including lightning incidence) and soil water potential. Finally, a seismographic monitoring station was used to capture the vibrations induced by thunder in the soils. The results depicted 39 lightning events near the field monitoring site. However, no rapid variation of water potential was revealed during thunderstorm days. Seismic monitoring showed that thunder caused micro-seismic signals composed of ground peak accelerations up to 0.02 m/s squared. In conclusion, for geotechnical purposes, thunder is a subject that can be evaluated in the light of pseudostatic loads. However, further researches are required to verify the vibrations of larger magnitudes, induced by rays that occur at smaller distances of the seismic monitoring point.