It is important to be able to quantify potential seismic damage to structures and communicate risk in a comprehendible way to all stakeholders. The risks involved with damage to constructed facilities due to catastrophic disasters can be hedged using financial instruments such as Catastrophic (CAT) bonds. This work uses the loss ratio (Lr), which is the ratio of the repair cost to the total replacement cost, to represent structural and non-structural damage caused by earthquakes. A loss estimation framework is presented that directly relates seismic hazard to seismic response to damage and hence to losses. A key feature of the loss estimation approach is the determination of losses without the need for fragility curves. A Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) approach towards assessing the seismic vulnerability of structures relating an intensity measure (IM) to its associated engineering demand parameter (EDP) is used to define the demand model. An empirically calibrated tripartite loss model in the form of a power curve with upper and lower cut-offs is developed and used in conjunction with the previously defined demand model in order to estimate loss ratios. The loss model is calibrated and validated for different types of bridges and buildings. Loss ratios for various damage states take into account epistemic uncertainty as well as an effect for price surge following a major hazardous event. The loss model is then transformed to provide a composite seismic hazard-loss relationship which is used to estimate financial losses from expected structural losses. The seismic hazard-loss model is then used to assess the expected spread, that is the interest rate deviation above the risk-free (prime) rate in order to price two types of CAT bonds: indemnity CAT bonds and parametric CAT bonds. It is concluded that CAT bonds has the ability to play a major role in hedging financial risk associated with damage to a civil engineering facility as a result of a catastrophe. However, it is seen that a potential investor seeks a high degree of confidence when investing in CAT bonds as there is huge uncertainty surrounding the probability of occurrence of an event.

Tall building frames that respond to large seismic ground motions tend to have significant spatial variability of damage over their height, often with a concentration of that damage in the lower stories. In spite of this spatial variability of damage, existing damage and loss models tend to focus on taking the maximum story drift and then assuming the same drift applies over the entire height, damage is then calculated for the building—clearly a conservative approach. A new loss analysis approach is thus recommended that incorporates the effects of spatial distribution of earthquake induced damage to frame buildings. Moreover, the approach aims to discriminate between required repair and replacement damages. Suites of earthquakes and incremental dynamic analysis along with the commercial software SAP2000 are used to establish demands from which story damage and financial losses are computed directly and aggregated for the entire structure. Rigorous and simplified methods are developed that account for spatial distribution of different damage levels arising from individual story drifts.

With the increasing speed of the microprocessor and its rapidly increasing demand for power, determining how to power the microprocessors for our computers becomes an important issue. So far, industry has been struggling to operate the VR/VRM at higher and higher switching frequencies while maintaining acceptable power conversion efficiency. As a consequence, the power switches used in the VR/VRM must be able to work efficiently at a higher switching frequency and with a higher current density. To evaluate the performance of the MOSFET for this low-output-voltage, high-current and high-switching-frequency application, a prevalent criterion, the Figure-of-Merit (FOM), is being widely adopted for determining the top switch of the buck converter in the VR/VRM. By comparing the FOMs of different devices, the device with the lowest FOM value should have the best performance and lead to the lowest loss for this device in the circuit. Qgd*Rdson is a widely accepted and widely used FOM for power devices. Due to the lack of accuracy of the power loss model, this FOM is no longer suitable for VRM applications. Furthermore, the question of how to use this FOM to select the right device for different application is another important issue. This work presents an investigation of a new Figure-of-Merit based on a more accurate loss model, which includes the factor of Qgs2, the gate-driving voltage and the packaging parasitics. Furthermore, a simple method is proposed to select the right device and gate-driving voltage for different circuit conditions. A new simple and accurate closeform model for device loss with packing parasitics is derived. This model can provide more physical information for each of the device parameters. The loss influence of the different packaging method is analyzed and discussed at the end of the work. / Master of Science

This thesis presents a grid-based indoor radiolocation technique based on a Spatially Coherent Path Loss Model (SCPL). SCPL is a path loss model which characterizes the radio wave propagation in an environment by solely using Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprints. The propagation of the radio waves is characterized by uniformly dividing the environment into grid cells, followed by the estimation of the propagation parameters for each grid cell individually. By using SCPL and RSS fingerprints acquired at an unknown location, the distance between an agent and all the access point in an indoor environment can be determined. A least-squares based trilateration is then used as the global fix of location the agent in the environment. The result of the trilateration is then represented in a probability distribution function over the grid cells induced by SCPL. Since the proposed technique is able to locally model the propagation accounting for attenuation of non-uniform environmental irregularities, the characterization of the path loss in the indoor environment and radiolocation technique might yield improved results. The efficacy of the proposed technique was investigated with an experiment comparing SCPL and an indoor radiolocation technique based on a conventional path loss model. / Master of Science / This thesis presents a technique uses radio waves to localize an agent in an indoor environment. By characterizing the difference between transmitted and received power of the radio waves, the agent can determine how far it is away from the transmitting antennas, i.e. access points, placed in the environment. Since the power difference mainly results from obstructions in the environment, the attenuation profile of the environment carries a significant importance in radiolocation techniques. The proposed technique, called Spatially Coherent Path Loss Model (SCPL), characterizes the radio wave propagation, i.e. the attenuation, separately for different regions of the environment, unlike the conventional techniques employing global attenuation profiles. The localization environment is represented with grid-cell structure and the parameters of SCPL model describing the extent of the attenuation of the environment are estimated individually. After creating an attenuation profile of the environment, the agent localizes itself in the localization environment by using SCPL with signal powers received from the access points. This scheme of attenuation profiling constitutes the main contribution of the proposed technique. The efficacy and validity of the proposed technique was investigated with an experiment comparing SCPL and an indoor radiolocation technique based on a conventional path loss model.

This dissertation is put together from a set of three journal papers. The first paper describes how satellite imagery and spacecraft autonomy are used to advance the field of near real-time detection, monitoring, and rapid response to flooding. The second paper describes the ground instrumentation of an artificial water recharge basin field site close to Tucson with a network of inter-connected sensors to study the transient process of repeated flooding in real-time, and the third paper describes an effort to link together multiple ground-based and space-based remote sensing assets to an integrated and coordinated monitoring system for floods. Collectively, the three papers describe new breakthroughs in the field of flood detection and monitoring through the use of satellite onboard automation and Sensorweb networks.

The power density of a switching converter is dependent on the size of the power circuit components. Converters are operated in the hundreds of kHz to achieve high power density since the size of the converter reactive components decrease as frequency increases. Most present day low power (<200W) DC-DC converters operate at switching frequencies up to 500kHz. Some research has been conducted on converters that can operate above 500kHz up to 4MHz. In the near future, most DC-DC switching converters for communications and computers will operate at switching frequencies of 1-10MHz in order to achieve greater power density and improved transient response. To meet the next generation requirements of these applications, four new ideas are proposed in this thesis. The first contribution is a new current source gate drive circuit for power MOSFETs. The circuit provides a nearly constant gate current to reduce switching transition times and therefore switching loss in power MOSFETs. In addition, it can recover a portion of the gate energy normally dissipated in a conventional driver. Demonstrated loss reduction of 24.8% at 10V/5A load are presented in comparison to a conventional voltage source driver for a boost converter switching at 1MHz. The second contribution is a new high efficiency 1MHz synchronous buck voltage regulator using an improved current source driver. The proposed circuit achieves short rise and fall times to reduce switching loss in the buck HS MOSFET. It also recovers a portion of the SR gate energy, enabling a loss reduction of 24% at 1.3V/30A load in comparison to a conventional driver. In the third contribution, a new switching loss model is proposed for synchronous buck voltage regulators. The model uses simple closed form equations to calculate the rise and fall times and piecewise linear approximations of the HS MOSFET voltage and current waveforms to allow quick and accurate calculation of switching loss. The final contribution is a new variable frequency digital control method for resonant converters, which is suitable for future applications switching at 10MHz. The proposed method uses frequency dithering to reduce the clock frequency demands of the digital controller. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-02-28 10:56:06.732

This study aims at developing a model to estimate flood damage cost caused in Gonaives, Haiti by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. In order to reach this goal, the influence of income, inundation duration and inundation depth, slope, population density and distance to major roads on the loss costs was investigated. Surveyed data were analyzed using Excel and ArcGIS 10 software. The ordinary least square and the geographically weighted regression analyses were used to predict flood damage costs. Then, the estimates were delineated using voronoi geostatistical map tool. As a result, the factors account for the costs as high as 83%. The flood damage cost in a household varies between 24,315 through 37,693 Haitian Gourdes (approximately 607.875 through 942.325 U.S. Dollars). Severe damages were spotted in the urban area and in the rural section of Bassin whereas very low and low losses are essentially found in Labranle. The urban area was more severely affected by comparison with the rural area. Damages in the urban area are estimated at 41,206,869.57USD against 698,222,174.10 17,455,554.35USD in the rural area. In the urban part, damages were more severe in Raboteau-Jubilée and in Downtown but Bigot-Parc Vincent had the highest overall damage cost estimated at 9,729,368.95 USD. The lowest cost 7,602,040.42USD was recorded in Raboteau. Approximately, 39.38% of the rural area underwent very low to moderate damages. Bassin was the most severely struck by the 2004 floods, but Bayonnais turned out to have the highest loss cost: 4,988,487.66 USD. Bassin along with Labranle had the least damage cost, 2,956,131.11 and 2,268,321.41 USD respectively. Based on the findings, we recommended the implementation and diversification of income-generating activities, the maintenance and improvement of drains, sewers and gullies cleaning and the establishment of conservation practices upstream of the watersheds. In addition, the model should be applied and validated using actual official records as reference data. Finally, the use of a calculation-based approach is suggested to determine flood damage costs in order to reduce subjectivity during surveys.

In this thesis electromagnetic wave propagation is investigated in an indoor environment. The indoor environment is a furnished office building with corridors, corners and rooms. Particularly, there is an atrium through the building in the center. For the study there were measurements available from real building in the 2.1 GHz frequency band. One objective is to design a propagation model that should be simple but reflect the trend of the propagation measurements. Furthermore, a system performance evaluation is carried out based on the implemented model. The proposed 3D model is a combination of the Free Space Path Loss model, the Keenan-Motley model and the recursive diffraction model. The channel predictions from the 2D Keenan-Motley algorithm are quite different from the measurements. Therefore, the 3D Keenan-Motley algorithm is designed to depict the atrium effect and speed up the simulation at the same time. Besides a buttery radiation diagram is created to mimic Kathrein 80010709 antenna installed in the building. Finally, a diffracted path is added to improve the received signal strength for the users around the atrium areas. With all the above procedures, the final results from the model are in good quantitative agreement with the measurement data. With the implemented propagation model, a further analysis of the system performance on the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) is performed. A comparison for the system capacity between the closed building and the atrium building is conducted, showing that the former one benefits more when the number of the cells increases. The reason is the atrium cells suffer severe interference from neighbor cells during high traffic demand scenarios. Then some further cell configurations show that the number of the cells, the geometry performance and the balance of the user fraction should be considered to improve the system capacity.

Το πρόβλημα της μοντελοποίησης του ασύρματου διαύλου συνίσταται σε ένα ολοένα και αυξανόμενο πλήθος παραμέτρων και ιδιαίτερων χαρακτηριστικών που πρέπει να λαμβάνονται υπόψη και να ενσωματώνονται στα πλαίσια του RF σχεδιασμού (Radio-Frequency planning) ενός ασύρματου δικτύου εύρωστης παροχής υπηρεσιών. Ο χαρακτηρισμός του ασύρματου καναλιού προϋποθέτει κάτι περισσότερο από μία ντετερμινιστική εξίσωση που υπολογίζει τις απώλειες οδεύσεως ελεύθερου χώρου συναρτήσει της απόστασης πομπού-δέκτη και της συχνότητας. Ένα αξιόπιστο μοντέλο απωλειών σε μία τέτοια περίπτωση απαιτεί τον συνυπολογισμό των απωλειών λόγω των διάφορων μηχανισμών διάδοσης και εξασθένησης της Η/Μ ακτινοβολίας, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των απωλειών λόγω εμποδίων, αλλά και των φαινομένων σκίασης λόγω ανθρώπινης παρεμβολής. Η σημασία της συμβολής της διατριβής έγκειται στην συγκριτική αντιπαραβολή των βασικότερων μοντέλων απωλειών οδεύσεως και στην αριθμητική διόρθωση και επαναξιολόγηση του μοντέλου της ITU για ένα σύνολο τοπολογιών σύνθετης ράδιο-διάδοσης. Οι προτεινόμενες μας αλλαγές στο μοντέλο ITU αύξησαν σημαντικά την αξιοπιστία του όχι μόνο σε σχέση με την αρχική του απόδοση αλλά και συγκριτικά με τα υπόλοιπα μοντέλα. Επιπρόσθετα, υπολογίσαμε αναλυτικά για κάθε τοπολογία την εξασθένηση ανά απόσταση και προβήκαμε στην μοντελοποίηση της γεωγραφικής διασποράς της εξασθένησης ανά απόσταση με τρόπο που μπορεί να αποτελέσει το θεμέλιο ενός προγνωστικού εργαλείου για την παράμετρο αυτή. Επίσης, εξετάσαμε τις διαλείψεις μεγάλης κλίμακας και καταλήξαμε σε μία καινοτόμο μέθοδο για τον υπολογισμό του βάθους σκίασης απευθείας από τα εμπόδια της εκάστοτε τοπολογίας. Η μέθοδος αυτή προτάθηκε και ελέγχθηκε για την ακρίβειά της στα 2.4 GHz, αλλά μπορεί να εφαρμοστεί για κάθε συχνότητα ενδιαφέροντος εφόσον ακολουθηθούν οι διαδικασίες καταμέτρησης των απωλειών σκίασης των εμποδίων κάθε τύπου και πλήθους. Με τη μέθοδο αυτή μπορεί να υπολογιστεί και η εξασθένηση ανά απόσταση μέσω του βάθους σκίασης, συνεπώς είναι εφικτός ο χαρακτηρισμός της εξασθένησης εντός της τοπολογίας χωρίς την αναγκαιότητα πραγματοποίησης εκτεταμένων μετρήσεων. Επιπρόσθετα, εξετάσαμε πώς διαφορετικοί μηχανισμοί ράδιο-διάδοσης οδηγούν σε διαφορετική γεωγραφική διασπορά των τοπικών τιμών της λαμβανόμενης ισχύος. Τέλος, παρουσιάστηκε η λύση της Ασφάλειας Φυσικού Επιπέδου (Wireless Information-Theoretic Security, WITS) με διερεύνηση της επίδρασης των ρεαλιστικών απωλειών οδεύσεων ενός ασύρματου διαύλου με εμπόδια και διαλείψεις στα όρια των τιμών των παραμέτρων, ενώ επίσης εξετάστηκε για πρώτη φορά σε κλειστή μορφή η Αποκοπή Χωρητικότητας Ασφαλείας (Outage Secrecy Capacity). Μελετήσαμε την επίδραση της κινητικότητας των χρηστών στην αξιοπιστία της μεθόδου σε επίπεδο προσομοιώσεων αλλά και με πειραματικές μετρήσεις, αξιολογώντας ποσοτικά και ποιοτικά την επίδρασή τους στα όρια τιμών των παραμέτρων υπό την παρουσία ενός ωτακουστή, και εν συνεχεία σε καθεστώς πολλαπλών ωτακουστών, θεωρώντας μέθοδο συνεργασίας ωτακουστών SC και MRC. / Wireless Channel Modeling consists of an even more increasing number of factors and parameters that need to be accounted for, in the context of RF planning. Wireless Channel Characterization requires more than a deterministic formula for calculating free space path loss in relation to frequency and distance. A reliable path loss model needs to incorporate in its formula the various propagation mechanisms that influence signal attenuation, including losses due to obstacles and human body shadowing. The importance of our contribution lies in the comparative evaluation and validation of the most fundamental RF path loss models and in the numerical adjustment and re-evaluation of the ITU path loss model for a number of different complex propagation topologies. Our suggested correction to the ITU model has significantly increased its prediction precision compared not only to the initial ITU model but also to all other path loss models in question. In addition, we have calculated the attenuation over distance and modeled the distribution of the local mean values versus distance throughout each topology, in a way that can serve as the foundation of a prediction method for this parameter. The large-scale fading of the received signal has also been characterized and a new empirical method for the calculation of the shadow depth has been introduced. This method has been validated for the 2.4 GHz frequency, but it can be applied to any frequency of interest as long as the respective obstacle-caused losses are measured. Extending this method can be applied in order to calculate the attenuation over distance as a function of shadow depth, therefore allowing us to predict this parameter without extensive measurements. The impact of different propagation mechanisms on the variation of distribution of local mean values of received signal power throughout the topology has also been studied. Finally, the concept of Wireless Information-Theoretic Security (WITS) was discussed, by investigating the impact of channel-dependent variation of path loss on the boundaries of secure communications as defined by WITS parameters, whereas a closed-form expression for Outage Secrecy Capacity was introduced. The impact of user mobility on the range of these parameters was investigated in terms of simulations and experimental measurements, in the presence of a single eavesdropper and also for a multiple eavesdroppers scenario, assuming SC and MRC schemes.

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur une nouvelle structure de machine à double excitation (MSDE) pour l'application des véhicules hybrides et électriques. Ce type de machine, ayant deux sources d'excitation, bénéficie un degré de liberté supplémentaire et un contrôle facile sur le flux. Grâce à ce degré de liberté, la machine peut être dimensionnée de manière que son meilleur rendement coïncide avec la zone de fonctionnement la plus sollicitée de la machine. Cette nouvelle structure a fait l'objet principal de ce mémoire. Le fonctionnement de la MSDE est présenté dans les deux premiers chapitres. La machine est dimensionnée suivant un cahier des charges pour véhicule hybride. La validation expérimentale a confirmé le bon fonctionnement de la structure et montré son intérêt. Une autre problématique dans le dimensionnement de la machine est l'aspect thermique car les machines sont devenues de plus en plus compactes et puissantes. Une estimation correcte des pertes est indispensable pour évaluer correctement les performances de la machine. C'est la raison pour laquelle on a décidé de consacrer une partie de cette thèse à la modélisation des pertes fer, dont l'estimation n'est pas évidente. / The PhD work deals with a new structure of hybrid excited synchronous machine (MSDE) for the application of hybrid and electric vehicles. This kind of machine, with two excitation sources, benefits an additional degree of freedom and an easy control of flux. Due to this degree of freedom, the machine can be designed in the way that its best efficiency coincide with the most solicited operating zone. This new machine structure is the main subject of this study. The principle of this MSDE is presented in the first two chapters. The machine is then designed according to the specifications for an hybrid vehicle. The experimental validation has confirmed the proper functioning of the structure and shown its interest. Another important subject in the machine sizing is the thermal aspect because our machines are becoming more and more compact and powerful. A correct estimation of the iron loss is essential for evaluating correctly the machine performances. That's why we have decided to dedicate a part of this study to the modeling of iron loss, of which the estimation is not evident.