With recent advancements in material science, industrial operations are being conducted at higher and higher temperatures. This is apparent in the nuclear industry where a division of the field is working to develop the High Temperature Gas Reactor and the Very High Temperature Gas Reactor concurrently. Both of these facilities will have outlet gas temperatures that are at significantly higher temperatures than the typical water cooled reactor. These increased temperatures provide improved efficiency for the production of hydrogen, provide direct heating for oil refineries, or more efficient electricity generation. As high temperature operations are being developed, instruments capable of measuring the operating parameters must be developed concurrently. Within the gas reactor community there is a need to measure the impurities within the primary coolant. Current devices will not survive the temperature and radiation environments of a nuclear reactor. An instrument is needed to measure the impurities within the coolant while living inside the reactor, where this instrument would measure the amount of the impurity within the coolant. There are many industrial applications that need to measure the ratio of two components, whether it be the amount of particulate in air that is typical to pneumatic pumping, or the liquid to gas ratio in natural gas as it flows through a pipeline. All of the measurements in these applications can be met using a capacitance sensor. Current capacitance sensors are built to operate at ambient temperatures with only one company producing a product that will handle a temperature of up to 400 °C. This maximum operating temperature is much too low to measure the gas characteristics in the High Temperature Gas Reactor. If this measurement technique were to be improved to operate at the expected temperatures, the coolant within the primary loop could be monitored for water leaks in the steam generator, carbon dust buildup entrained in the flow, or used to measure the purity of the coolant itself. This work details the efforts conducted to develop such an instrument. While the concept of designing a capacitance sensor to measure a gas mixture is not unique, the application of using a capacitance sensor within a nuclear reactor is a new application. This application requires the development of an instrument that will survive a high temperature nuclear reactor environment and operate at a sensitivity not found in current applications. To prove this technique, instrument prototypes were built and tested in confined environments and at high temperatures. This work discusses the proof of concept testing and outlines an application in the High Temperature Test Facility to increase the operational understanding of the instrument. This work is the first step toward the ultimate outcome of this work, which is to provide a new tool to the gas reactor community allowing real-time measurements of coolant properties within the core. / Graduation date: 2013

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-06T18:59:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PEDRO YÓSSIS SILVA BARBOSA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 17089632 bytes, checksum: 4623777c293a51dbb1b392f37d2dd75e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T18:59:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PEDRO YÓSSIS SILVA BARBOSA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 17089632 bytes, checksum: 4623777c293a51dbb1b392f37d2dd75e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-27 / Capes / Companhias de energia começaram a substituir os medidores de energia tradicionais pelos Smart Meters, que podem transmitir valores de consumo para as companhias em curtos intervalos de tempo. Com uma insfraestrutura de Smart Meters, existem muitas motivações para as concessionárias de energia coletarem dados de consumo em alta resolução. Entretanto, isto implica em informações bastante detalhadas sobre os consumidores sendo monitoradas. Consequentemente, um problema sério precisa ser resolvido: como preservar a privacidade dos consumidores sem afetar a prestação de certos serviços pelas concessionárias? Claramente, este é um tradeoff entre privacidade e utilidade. Existem diversas abordagens para preservar a privacidade, porém muitas delas afetam a utilidade dos dados ou possuem um alto custo computacional. Neste trabalho, nós propomos e avaliamos uma abordagem computacionalmente barata que preserva a privacidade e utilidade dos dados através de adição de ruído. Para validar a privacidade, nós avaliamos possíveis ataques (tal como Monitoramento Não-Intrusivo de Carga de Eletrodomésticos - NIALM, do inglês Non-Intrusive Appliance Load Monitoring) utilizando dados reais de consumidores. Para validar a utilidade, nós avaliamos a influência da abordagem em vários benefícios que podem ser providos com o uso de Smart Meters. / Power providers have started replacing traditional electricity meters for Smart Meters, which can transmit power consumption levels to the provider within short intervals. With a Smart Metering infrastructure, there are many motivations for power providers to collect highresolution data of electricity usage from consumers. However, this implies in very detailed information about the consumers being monitored. Consequently, a serious issue needs to be addressed: how to preserve the privacy of consumers but making the provision of certain services still possible? Clearly, this is a tradeoff between privacy and utility. There are several approaches for privacy preserving, but many of them affect the data usefulness or are computationally expensive. In this work, we propose and evaluate a lightweight approach for privacy and utility based on the addition of noise. To validate the privacy, we evaluate possible attacks (such as a NIALM - Non-Intrusive Appliance Load Monitoring) using real consumers' data. To validate the utility, we analyze the influence of the approach in various benefits that can be provided through the use of Smart Meters.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:49:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_mr_me_ilha.pdf: 2058535 bytes, checksum: 046bcb6196cc4909e675190cc0e21275 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / O estudo da confiabilidade operacional de equipamentos se tornou fundamental para as empresas possuírem o devido controle dos seus ativos, tanto pelo lado financeiro quanto em questões de segurança. O estudo da taxa de falha de equipamentos prevê quando as falhas irão ocorrer possibilitando estabelecer atitudes preventivas, porém, seu estudo deve ser realizado em condições de operação estabelecidas e fixas. Os medidores de energia elétrica, parte do ativo financeiro das concessionárias de energia, são equipamentos utilizados em diversas condições de operação, tanto nas condições do fluxo de energia, tais como presenças de harmônicos, subtensões, sobre-tensões e padrões de consumo distintos, quanto pelo local físico de instalação, tais como maresia, temperatura, umidade, etc. As falhas nos medidores eletromecânicos de energia elétrica são de difícil constatação uma vez que a maioria dos erros de medição, ocasionados principalmente por envelhecimento de componentes, não alteram a qualidade da energia fornecida e nem interrompem o seu fornecimento. Neste sentido, este trabalho propõe uma nova metodologia de determinação de falhas em medidores eletromecânicos de energia elétrica ativa. Faz-se uso de banco de dados de uma concessionária de energia elétrica e do processo de descoberta de conhecimento em bases de dados para selecionar as variáveis mais significativas na determinação de falhas em medidores eletromecânicos de energia elétrica ativa, incluindo no conjunto de falhas a operação com erros de medição acima do permitido pela legislação nacional (2010). Duas técnicas de mineração de dados foram utilizadas: regressão stepwise e árvores de decisão. As variáveis obtidas foram utilizadas na construção de um modelo de agrupamento de equipamentos associando a cada grupo uma probabilidade... / The operational reliability study of equipments has become primal in order to enterprises have the righteous control over their assets, both by financial side as by security reasons. The study for the hazard rate of equipments allows to foresee the failures for the equipments and to act preventively, but this study must be accomplished under established and fixed operation conditions. The energy meters, for their part, are equipments utilized in several operating conditions so on the utilization manner, like presence of harmonics, undervoltages and over-voltages and distinct consumption patterns, as on the installation location, like swel, temperature, humidity, etc. Failures in electromechanical Wh-meters are difficult to detect once that the majority of metering errors occurred mainly by aging of components do not change the quality of offered energy neither disrupt its supply. In this context, this work proposes a novel methodology to obtain failure determination for electromechanical Whmeters. It utilizes Wh-databases from an electrical company and of the process of knowledge discovery in databases to specify the most significant variables in determining failures in electromechanical Wh-meters, including in the failure set the operation with metering errors above those permitted by national regulations (2010). Two techniques of data mining were used in this work: stepwise regression and decision trees. The obtained variables were utilized on the construction of a model of clustering similar equipments and the probability of failure of those clusters were determined. As final results, an application in a friendly platform were developed in order to apply the methodology, and a case study was accomplished in order to demonstrate its feasibility.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:41:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:41:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Atualmente, a caracterização dos resíduos radioativos gerados na operação do reator nuclear de pesquisas IEA-R1 está em curso. O reator IEA-R1 é um reator do tipo piscina aberta, moderado e refrigerado por água leve, utilizando dois leitos de resinas de troca iônica e de carvão ativado para purificação de água de refrigeração. Estes meios filtrantes são substituídos quando já não são capazes de manter a qualidade da água dentro dos limites exigidos e são tratados como rejeitos radioativos. Contendo produtos de fissão, ativação e actinídeos que escapam do núcleo do reator para a água da piscina, apresentam altas taxas de dose devido à quantidade de emissores gama de meias-vidas curtas e intermediárias, emissores alfa, elementos transurânicos de meia-vida longa bem como emissores beta puros. A caracterização destes rejeitos, consequentemente, requer métodos de análise radioquímica que incluem a amostragem e o processamento das amostras, resultando em doses elevadas para os trabalhadores. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho consistiu em correlacionar os resultados das análises radioquímicas de amostras de rejeitos, com os resultados das medições radiométricas, utilizando a modelagem das taxas de dose em diferentes distâncias da superfície dos embalados. As taxas de dose medidas foram comparadas com os resultados de cálculos . Massa, volume e geometria das fases sólidas e líquidas de cada um dos tambores também foram determinadas, uma vez que o teor de água varia amplamente entre diferentes tambores, e são essenciais para estimar as atividades totais em cada tambor. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Electromagnetic flow meters are simple, rugged, non-invasive flow measuring instruments, which are extensively employed in many applications. In particular, they are ideally suited for the flow rate measurement of liquid metals, which serve as coolants in fast breeder reactors. In such applications, theoretical evaluation of the sensitivity turns out to be the best possible choice. Invariably, an evaluation of the associated electromagnetic fields forms the first step. However, due to the complexity of the problem, only numerical field computational approach would be feasible. In the pertinent literature, couple of e orts could be found which employ the well-known Galerkin Finite Element Method (GFEM) for the required task. However, GFEM is known to suffer from the numerical stability problem even at moderate flow rates. This problem is quite common in fluid dynamics area and several stabilization schemes have been suggested as a remedial measure. Among such schemes, the Streamline Upwinding Petrov Galerkin (SU/PG) method is a simple and widely employed approach. The same has been adopted in some of the moving conductor literatures for obtaining a stable solution. Nevertheless, in fluid dynamics literature, it has been shown that the SU/PG solution can suffer from distortion/peaking at the boundary. The remedial measures proposed are nonlinear in nature and hence are computationally demanding. Also, even the SU/PG scheme by itself requires significant additional computation for quadratic and higher order elements. Further, the value of stabilization parameter is not accurately known for 2D and 3D problems. The present work is basically an attempt to address the above problem for flow meter and other rectilinearly moving conductor problems. More specifically, but for the requirement of (graded) structured mesh along the flow direction, it basically aims to address a more general class of problems not just limited to the flow meter. Following the classical approach employed in fluid dynamics literature, first the problem is studied in its 1D form. It was observed that a relatively better performance of GFEM over FDM scheme is basically due to the difference in their Right Hand Side (RHS) terms, which represents the applied magnetic field. Taking clue from this, it was envisaged that a better insight to the numerical problem can be obtained by using the control system theory's transfer function approach. An application of FDM or GFEM to the 1D form of the governing equation, leads to flalge-braic equations with space variable in discrete form. Hence, a Z-transform based approach is employed to relate the applied magnetic field to the vector potential of the resulting reaction magnetic field. It is then shown that the presence of a pole at Z = -1 is basically responsible for the oscillations in the numerical solution. It is then proposed that by using the control systems pole-zero cancellation principle, stability can be brought into the numerical solution. This requires suitable modification of RHS terms in the discretised equations and accordingly, two novel schemes have been proposed which works within the framework of GFEM. In author's considered opinion, the use of Z-transform for analysing the stability of the numerical schemes and the idea of employing pole-zero cancellation to bring in stability, are first of its kind. In the first of the proposed schemes, the pole-zero cancellation is achieved by simply restating the input magnetic field in terms its vector potential. Solving the difference equations given by the application of FDM or GFEM to 1D version of the governing equation, it is analytically shown that the proposed scheme is absolutely stable at high flow rates. However, at midrange of flow rates there is a small error, which is analytically quantified. Then the scheme is applied to the original flow meter problem which has only axially varying applied field and the stability is demonstrated for an extensive range of flow rates. Note that the discretisation along the flow direction was restricted in the above exercise to graded regular mesh, which can readily be realised for problems involving rectilinearly moving conductors. In order to cater for more general cases in which the applied field varies in both axial and transverse directions, a second scheme is developed. Here the RHS term representing the input magnetic field is considered in a generic weighted average form. The required weights are evaluated by imposing apart from the need for an essential zero yielding term, the flux preservation and other symmetry conditions. The stability of this scheme is proven analytically for both 1D and 2D version of the problem using respectively, the 1D and 2D Z-transform based approaches. The analytical inferences are adequately validated with numerical exercises. Also, the small error present for the midrange of flow rates is analytically quantified. Then the second scheme is applied to the actual flow meter with a general magnetic field pro le. The proposed scheme is shown to be very stable and accurate even at very high flow rates. As before, the discretisation was restricted to graded regular mesh along the flow direction. By solving for the standard TEAM No. 9 benchmark problem, applicability of the second scheme for other rectilinearly moving conductor problem has been adequately demonstrated. Even though the problems considered in this work readily permits the use of a graded regular mesh along the flow direction, for the sake of completeness, discretisation with arbitrary quadrilateral and triangular mesh is also considered. The performance of the proposed schemes for such cases even though found to deteriorate, is still shown to be considerably better than the GFEM. In summary, this work has successfully proposed two novel, computationally effcient and stable GFEM schemes for the simulation of electromagnetic flow meters and other rectilin early moving conductor problems.

Advances in technology continuously reshape habits, behaviours and interactions at individual, organisational and societal levels. Information and Communication technology (ICT) is pervasive, and is the bearer of crucial information, analysis and responses to the recipient. It assists in processes such as understanding phenomena and taking appropriate action. It also provides communication means, platforms and tools to interact with one another. In the United Kingdom’s (UK) Energy industry, smart meters are currently being deployed by energy suppliers to their customers. These are presented as a revolutionary device that supports a more efficient energy use at home and/or in the workplace, and helps customers save on their energy bill and reduce carbon footprint. Using interpretivist phenomenological Human-centred qualitative research, The thesis work explores the impact of using smart meter devices, as perceived by UK customers, in helping to monitor, use and manage energy consumption at home. Also, the study looks into alternative technology and customers’ expectations in the context of energy efficiency. And finally, the principles of a design is presented to respond to customers demands and desires. Passive participant observation, Future workshop and inspiration cards session are the methods and techniques applied in this research to collect  data. The findings constitute good grounds for individual consumers to be aware of the opportunities made available by alternative technology. At organisational level it is a basis for energy suppliers to change their behaviour towards a changing demand and adapt by switching their core business to supplying Information and analysis as well as energy efficiency management solutions. At societal level government bodies and regulating agencies can tackle sustainability and green energy issues by controlling the profit driven character of privatised energy companies and responding to real market demand as perceived by consumers. Emerging technologies present opportunities that have the capabilities of breaking the status quo of energy supply industry in the UK as well as the rest of world. The value of this research is to show customers’ perceived reality and expectations, as well as opportunities to change the way energy is supplied and consumed.

This thesis is devoted to the search of the level of physical abilities of today's younger school-age children in comparison with the results of the 'Children's fitness badge' competition. Data comes from two smaller schools of the Central Bohemian region - Kounice Elementary School, year 1989 and from elementary school Sedlčany, year 2015. The thesis also discusses the differences between results in physically active and inactive pupils, between boys and girls, as well as the ability of today's students to meet the elementary level of the 'Children's fitness badge' points table. I studied these disciplines - the long jump, the 50 meters sprint and the cricket ball throw for my testing. Data were analyzed by using the statistical program SPSS. Key words Athletics, 'Children's fitness badge', younger school-age, long jump, 50 meters sprint, cricket ball throw.

This thesis is devoted to the topic of detection of the level in selected disciplines of today's younger school-age children in comparison with the results of the 'Children's fitness badge' competition. Data comes from two smaller schools of the Central Bohemian region - Kounice Elementary School, year 1989 and from elementary school Sedlčany, year 2015. The thesis also discusses the differences between results in physically active and inactive pupils, between boys and girls, as well as the ability of today's students to meet the elementary level of the 'Children's fitness badge' points table. I study these disciplines - the standing long jump, the 50 meters sprint and the cricket ball throw for my testing. The practical part is realized by the measuring performance in certain disciplines. The performance of boys and girls in each grade are measured separately. Their performances are compared and evaluated by using a test battery 'Children's fitness badge'.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Management Sciences Specialising in Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / In the electricity prepayment metering industry the continuous increase in customers’ expectations and technological innovation demand that leading firms in the industry differentiate themselves from the competition by going beyond customers’ present expectations. Thus, organizations which have set their goals on mere customer satisfaction are, from a customers’ perspective, deemed to be of limited value and may subsequently lack the anticipation and preparation essential to meet the demands of the future. Electricity prepayment metering market competition today is forcing organisations to seek the means to gain customer satisfaction, and thus aim to sustain their future in times of economic instability. The study revealed that the most effective way to retain customer satisfaction is consistent service quality that decreases the cost of attracting new customers and raises sales and market share. The quality of service is one of the most effective factors in creating competitive advantages and advance business. Factors that influence customer satisfaction in the electricity prepayment industry were investigated and tested. The study also attempted to identify the critical factors, as identified in the literature, among those investigated: service quality, customer expectations, customer perception and customer retention. Against this background, the study sought to determine the interrelationship between customer satisfaction and the critical factors of customer satisfaction with Conlog Electricity Prepayment Meters in KwaZulu-Natal. The research developed to ascertain subjects’ perceptions of the critical factors of customer satisfaction; determine the interrelationship among the critical factors of customer satisfaction; and explore the relationship between customer satisfaction and the critical factors of customer satisfaction. The research population comprising of Conlog electricity prepayment metering customers in KwaZulu-Natal was selected and interviewed. Questionnaires were distributed through electronic mail and self-administered for data collection and a sample of twelve respondents was selected for interview. Interviews were analysed using conversational analysis and the data collected from the interviews were merged with the questionnaire data, seeking depth as well as breadth. Data collected from respondents was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The tool utilised to analyze data was the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). A p value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Conclusions and recommendations were drawn from the literature and the findings of the study. The results of the study revealed that service quality is the most significant critical factor of customer satisfaction. The study recommends that the management of Conlog can use the specific data obtained from the measurement of service quality in their strategies and plans. The study further recommends that Conlog allocates resources to this effect to provide better service to their customers. The results and findings of the study will provide further information concerning customer satisfaction and customer perception in the prepayment metering industry in KwaZulu-Natal. It will also contribute to future industry research, setting the ground for further research in measuring levels of customer satisfaction in the electricity prepayment industry in South Africa. / M