Yes / This work presents a combination of a cup-shaped monopole antenna and an E-shaped Multi-Mode Resonator (MMR) with the presence of a pair of PIN diodes and a varactor diode to form a compact reconfigurable communication filtering antenna for interweave Cognitive Radio (CR) systems. The proposed filtering antenna operates in the WiMAX band, and it is fabricated on an FR4 substrate with overall dimensions normalized to the wavelength ( λ o ) of the first resonant frequency (0.413λ o × 0.516λ o × 0.0165λ o ). The step and continuous tuning serve the secondary user of the WiMAX CR system to communicate in the absence of the primary users at modifiable resonant frequencies and data rates.When the PIN diodes are OFF, the filtering antenna operates with a fixed odd mode resonant frequency and tunable even mode resonant frequency. This state results in a tunable antenna bandwidth covering a maximum measured frequency range of 3.25-4.02~ GHz and a minimum measured range equal to 3.25-3.58~ GHz. The ON state of the PIN diodes eliminates the antenna matching at the even mode resonant frequency while keeping a strong matching at the odd mode resonant frequency. The resulted operational measured frequency range of the antenna in this state is fixed at 2.9-3.28~ GHz. The filtering antenna has acceptable gain values at the pass band of the E-shaped MMR with a maximum simulated gain value equal to 2.5~ dB and a measured maximum gain equal to 2.48~ dB. The simulated and measured power patterns of the antenna for all diodes states are omnidirectional, which are convenient for portable CR gadgets. / This work was supported in part by the Innovation Programme under Grant H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424, and in part by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under Grant EP/E022936/1.

A power system stability is essential for maintaining the power system oscillation frequency within a small and acceptable interval around its nominal frequency. Hence, it is necessary to study and control the frequency for stable operation of a power system by knowing the characteristics within a power system. One approach is to understand the effectiveness of frequency and damping characteristics of generators in power systems. Hence, the simulation analysis of IEEE 118-bus power system is used for this study. The analysis includes theoretical analysis with a mathematical approach and simulation studies of swing equation to determine the characteristics of damped single-machine infinite bus, which is represented as a generator connects to a large network system with a small signal disturbance by line losses. Additionally, mathematical derivation of Prony analysis is presented in order to estimate the frequency and damping ratio of the simulation results. In the end, the results demonstrate that the frequency and damping characteristics of generators are highly dependent on the system inertia constant. Therefore, the higher inertia constant is a critical factor to ensure the system is more stable. / Master of Science / A power system’s stability is dependent on maintaining the oscillation frequency within a small and acceptable variance of its normal frequency. In order to control the frequency for the stable operation of a power system, it is necessary to study the characteristics within a power system. One approach is to study the effectiveness of frequency and damping characteristics of generators in power systems. For this study, the simulation analysis of the IEEE 118-bus power system will be used. This includes a mathematical approach and simulation studies of swing equation. These will determine the characteristics of damped single-machine infinite bus. This is represented as a generator connected to a large network system with a small signal disturbance caused by line losses. Additionally, the mathematical basis of Prony analysis is presented in order to estimate the frequency and damping ratio of the simulation results. In the end, the results demonstrate that the frequency and damping characteristics of generators are highly dependent on the system inertia constant. Therefore, a high inertia constant is critical to the stability of the system.

Tableau d’honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2001-2002 / Les moyens technologiques ont suscité différents phénomènes qui ont eu une influence sur la pratique de l’illustration de mode. Le vêtement est défini comme langage indiquant comment il tient un rôle déterminant dans un discours social, comme une véritable carte d’identité. Sortis de leur contexte le vêtement et l’art contemporain ont des pluralités et des singularités qui les font se rapprocher et se nourrir mutuellement. Le vêtement questionné dans un milieu de mode organisé nous fait mieux comprendre le rôle de l’illustrateur de mode. L’histoire de l’illustration de mode nous explique la réciprocité de l’art et de la mode comme facteur d’évolution, à tel point qu’aujourd’hui ces genres se nourrissent mutuellement. L’art donne des habits neufs à la mode, le vêtement questionne l’art dans ses sujets de prédilection : le corps, les attitudes, les comportements, les valeurs, et l’identité. Ma démarche en création vise à établir une complicité entre un discours scientifique, sociologique et artistique sur les aspects du vêtement et de la mode. Elle questionne le potentiel artistique de l’illustration de mode soustrait de sa fonction et mise en espace par l’installation dans le lieu de la galerie d’art. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2019

Η παρούσα Εργασία εκπονήθηκε στον Τομέα Ρευστών της Σχολής Μηχανολόγων Μηχανικών του ΕΘΝΙΚΟΥ ΜΕΤΣΟΒΙΟΥ ΠΟΛΥΤΕΧΝΕΙΟΥ. Η εργασία αποσκοπεί: Α) Στην εξοικείωση των συμμετασχόντων με τον έγχρωμο υπερηχοκαρδιογραφο Vivid 7 της GE. Β) Στον έλεγχο της αξιοπιστίας των μεθόδων έγχρωμου Doppler (Color Doppler), παλμικού Doppler και M-mode στο υπολογισμό της παροχής και την σύγκριση μεταξύ τους. Γ) Στην εύρεση πιθανών αιτιών στις αποκλίσεις των μεθόδων, έτσι ώστε οι κώδικες που αναπτύχθηκαν σε MATLAB για έγχρωμο Doppler και Μ-mode να βελτιωθούν στο μέλλον. Δ) Στην δημιουργία μιας αρχικής βάσης δεδομένων για τις παροχές και τις διαμέτρους που μετρούνται in vivo προεγχειρητικά σε χοίρους, που χρησιμοποιούνται σε ερευνητικό πρόγραμμα ΠΕΝΕΔ. Η Εργασία χωρίζεται σε τρία μέρη. Στο πρώτο μέρος γίνεται μια θεωρητική προσέγγιση του θέματος, με ανάλυση της αρχής Doppler, καθώς και των μεθόδων μέτρησης και απεικόνισης με συστήματα Doppler. Στο δεύτερο μέρος παρουσιάζεται η πειραματική διαδικασία, τόσο η δική μας, όσο και παλαιότερες. Στο τρίτο μέρος παρουσιάζονται κάποια αποτελέσματα και συμπεράσματα των δικών μας πειραμάτων. / The present project was elaborated at National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical Engineering, Fluids Section, and it aims at: A)The familiarization of the participants with the Color Vivid7 Dimension, Cardiovascular Ultrasound System of GE B)The control of credibility of the methods of Color Doppler, Pulsed Wave Doppler and M-Mode at the calculation of flow and their comparison C)The finding of possible causes of the deviations of these methods, with the intention of MATLAB Color and M-Mode Doppler codes improvement D)The creation of a database concerning flows and diameters calculated in vivo, prior to the surgery, in pigs used at a Research Program of Athens Academy Medical-Biological Center. This Project is divided in three parts. On first part a theoritical approach of the issue is presented, analyzing the Doppler Principal, as well as the methods used for Doppler Imaging. On the second part the experimental procedures are presented, both ours and of others. On the third part a number of results and conclusions are presented.

No description available.

Dans cette thèse, j’ai conçu un nouveau test de rupture adapté à l’étude des matériaux fragiles sur une grande gamme de vitesse de fissure. Il a été mis en œuvre sur le PMMA, permettant de caractériser la transition entre un régime de rupture à grande vitesse v>vc=15 mms-1 avec des faciès optiquement plats et un autre régime pour v<vc avec une rugosité caractérisée par des motifs triangulaires. L’étude de la déformation du front dans le plan moyen de fissuration montre que le matériau est plus tenace à l’intérieur de ces triangles qu’à l’extérieur. Qui plus est, ces triangles sont décorés par de petits motifs en forme de toit d’usine, caractéristiques de l’instabilité de fragmentation sous mode I+III. Pour comprendre l’émergence de ces formes, nous revisitons tout d’abord les modèles de fragmentation en supposant que l’énergie de rupture dépend du cisaillement comme Gc(KIII/KI)=GcI[1+ (KIII/KI)2]. Le seuil de fragmentation (KIII/KI)thc ainsi prédit décroit significativement, réconciliant théorie et expérience. Le motifs triangulaires permettant de mesurer le paramètre exp à partir de la déformée du front et le degré de cisaillement (KIII/KI)exp par l’inclinaison des facettes qui est compatible avec la valeur de seuil prédite (KIII/KI)thc. A partir des valeurs exp et (KIII/KI)thc ainsi déterminées, nous prédisons que les facettes dérivent le long du front avec un angle compatible avec celui formé par les triangles. Cette compréhension fine de ces motifs nous permet donc de mettre en relation la transition rugueuse observée dans le PMMA avec l’instabilité de fragmentation et ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour la compréhension de motifs similaires dans d’autres matériaux. / During this PhD thesis, a new fracture test geometry is designed for the accurate measurement of the fracture properties of brittle solids, subsequently applied to study failure in PMMA. At high crack speeds, their fracture surfaces are optically smooth. But below vc = 15 mms-1, a transition to rough surfaces occurs through the formation of puzzling triangular patterns. These patterns lead to significant toughening of the material that reflects through the pinned shape of the crack front as it crosses triangles. In addition, these triangles are found to be decorated by faceted features reminiscent of the crack front fragmentation instability in mode I+III. Assuming a shear-dependent fracture energy Gc(KIII/KI) = GcI[1+ (KIII/KI)2] we theoretically predict a fragmentation threshold (KIII/KI)thc that can be as low as a few percent while earlier models (that assumes = 0) predict a much larger value, inconsistent with various experimental observations. Applied to our experiments, this model allows us to measure exp from the deformation amplitude of the pinned front and the amount of applied shear (KIII/KI)exp from the facet inclination which is found to be compatible with the theoretically predicted threshold (KIII/KI)thc . Using the values (KIII/KI)exp and exp thus determined, one finally predict a drift of the facets from the propagation direction accounting for the triangle angle observed experimentally. To conclude, our study shows that the roughening transition in PMMA is a signature of front fragmentation under mode I+III. As a result, deciphering the triangular patterns at the transition led to significant improvements in the understanding of this instability.

L'influence de la variation de masse volumique pour le développement des instabilités primaires d'un jet plan est étudiée par simulation numérique directe des équations deNavier-Stokes incompressibles. Chaque méthode numérique retenue ainsi que la construction du programme sont détaillées pas à pas en insistant particulièrement sur le choix desconditions aux limites. La méthode est validée par une étude linéaire qui présente des résultats pour une large gamme de valeurs du rapport de densité. À partir de ce code nonlinéaire, on étudie la transition convective/absolue subie par le mode variqueux lorsque lerapport de densité diminue pour di_érents profils dont le Bickley et le presque top-hat. Une remise en cause du critère de stabilité marginale est proposée. En outre, l'observation inattendue de modes globaux amortis pour les rapports de densité voisins de 1 dans le cas d'un profil presque top-hat nous conduit à proposer une hypothèse en étudiant l'équationanalytique implicite qui définit la relation de dispersion du mode variqueux pour un profiltop-hat. Une courte étude expérimentale dans laquelle on présente les différentes techniques employées, ainsi que les premières mesures de vitesse et de densité, complète ce travail, endonnant des informations sur les fréquences caractéristiques.

Many problems in tracking control have been identified over the years, such as the availability of systems states, the presence of noise and system uncertainties, and speed of response, just to name a few. This thesis is concerned with developing novel integrated control and estimation algorithms to overcome some of these problems in order to achieve an efficient tracking performance. Since there are some significant advantages associated with Sliding Mode Control (SMC) or Variable Structure Control (VSC), (fast regulation rate and robustness to uncertainties), this research reviews and extends new filtering concepts for state estimation, referred to as the Variable Structure Filter (VSF)and Smooth Variable Structure Filter (SVSF). These are based on the philosophy of Sliding Mode Control.<p>The VSF filter is designed to estimate some of the states of a plant when noise and uncertainties are presented. This is accomplished by refining an estimate of the states in an iterative fashion using two filter gains, one based on a noiseless system with no uncertainties and the second gain which reflects these uncertainties. The VSF is combined seamlessly with the Sliding Mode Controller to produce an integrated controller called a Sliding Mode Controller and Filter (SMCF). This new controller is shown to be a robust and effective integrated control strategy for linear systems. For nonlinear systems, a novel integrated control strategy called the Smooth Sliding Mode Controller and Filter (SSMCF), fuses the SMC and SVSF in a particular form to address nonlinearities. The gain term in the SVSF is redefined to form a new algorithm called the SVSF with revised gain in order to obtain a better estimation performance. Its performance is compared to that of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) when applied to a particular nonlinear plant.<p>The SMCF and SSMCF are applied to the experimental prototype of a precision positioning hydraulic system called an ElectroHydraulic Actuator (EHA) system. The EHA system is known to display nonlinear characteristics but can approximate linear behavior under certain operating conditions, making it ideal to test the robustness of the proposed controllers.<p>The main conclusion drawn in this research was that the SMCF and SSMCF as developed and implemented, do exhibit robust and high performance state estimation and trajectory tracking control given modeling uncertainties and noise. The controllers were applied to a prototype EHA which demonstrated the use of the controllers in a real world application. It was also concluded that the application of the concepts of VSC for the controller can alleviate a challenging mechanical problem caused by a slip-stick characteristic in friction. Another conclusion is that the revised form of the SVSF could obtain robust and fast state estimation for nonlinear systems.<p>The original contributions of the research include: i) proposing the SMCF and SSMCF, ii) applying the Sliding Mode Controller to suppress cross-over oscillations caused by the slip-stick characteristics in friction which often occur in mechanical systems, iii) the first application of the SVSF for state estimation and iv) a comparative study of the SVSF and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to the EHA demonstrating the superiority of the SVSF for state estimation performance under both steady-state and transient conditions for the application considered.<p>The dissertation is written in a paper format unlike the traditional Ph.D thesis manuscript. The content of the thesis discourse is based on five manuscripts which are appended at the end of the thesis. Fundamental principles and concepts associated with SMC, VSF, SVSF and the fused controllers are introduced. For each paper, the objectives, approaches, typical results, conclusions and major contributions are presented. Major conclusions are summarized and original contributions reiterated.

Many problems in tracking control have been identified over the years, such as the availability of systems states, the presence of noise and system uncertainties, and speed of response, just to name a few. This thesis is concerned with developing novel integrated control and estimation algorithms to overcome some of these problems in order to achieve an efficient tracking performance. Since there are some significant advantages associated with Sliding Mode Control (SMC) or Variable Structure Control (VSC), (fast regulation rate and robustness to uncertainties), this research reviews and extends new filtering concepts for state estimation, referred to as the Variable Structure Filter (VSF)and Smooth Variable Structure Filter (SVSF). These are based on the philosophy of Sliding Mode Control.<p>The VSF filter is designed to estimate some of the states of a plant when noise and uncertainties are presented. This is accomplished by refining an estimate of the states in an iterative fashion using two filter gains, one based on a noiseless system with no uncertainties and the second gain which reflects these uncertainties. The VSF is combined seamlessly with the Sliding Mode Controller to produce an integrated controller called a Sliding Mode Controller and Filter (SMCF). This new controller is shown to be a robust and effective integrated control strategy for linear systems. For nonlinear systems, a novel integrated control strategy called the Smooth Sliding Mode Controller and Filter (SSMCF), fuses the SMC and SVSF in a particular form to address nonlinearities. The gain term in the SVSF is redefined to form a new algorithm called the SVSF with revised gain in order to obtain a better estimation performance. Its performance is compared to that of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) when applied to a particular nonlinear plant.<p>The SMCF and SSMCF are applied to the experimental prototype of a precision positioning hydraulic system called an ElectroHydraulic Actuator (EHA) system. The EHA system is known to display nonlinear characteristics but can approximate linear behavior under certain operating conditions, making it ideal to test the robustness of the proposed controllers.<p>The main conclusion drawn in this research was that the SMCF and SSMCF as developed and implemented, do exhibit robust and high performance state estimation and trajectory tracking control given modeling uncertainties and noise. The controllers were applied to a prototype EHA which demonstrated the use of the controllers in a real world application. It was also concluded that the application of the concepts of VSC for the controller can alleviate a challenging mechanical problem caused by a slip-stick characteristic in friction. Another conclusion is that the revised form of the SVSF could obtain robust and fast state estimation for nonlinear systems.<p>The original contributions of the research include: i) proposing the SMCF and SSMCF, ii) applying the Sliding Mode Controller to suppress cross-over oscillations caused by the slip-stick characteristics in friction which often occur in mechanical systems, iii) the first application of the SVSF for state estimation and iv) a comparative study of the SVSF and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to the EHA demonstrating the superiority of the SVSF for state estimation performance under both steady-state and transient conditions for the application considered.<p>The dissertation is written in a paper format unlike the traditional Ph.D thesis manuscript. The content of the thesis discourse is based on five manuscripts which are appended at the end of the thesis. Fundamental principles and concepts associated with SMC, VSF, SVSF and the fused controllers are introduced. For each paper, the objectives, approaches, typical results, conclusions and major contributions are presented. Major conclusions are summarized and original contributions reiterated.

In this thesis a multifunctional DC/DC converter board will be developed for utilization as an educational experiment set in the switched-mode power conversion laboratory of power electronic courses. The board has a generic power-pole structure allowing for easy configuration of various power converter topologies and includes buck, boost, buck-boost, flyback, and forward converter topologies. All the converters can be operated in the open-loop control mode with a switching frequency range of 30-100 kHz and a maximum output power of 20 W. Also the buck converter can be operated in voltage mode control and the buck-boost converter can be operated in peak-current-mode control for the purpose of demonstrating the closed loop control performance of DC/DC converters. The designed board allows for experimentation on the DC/DC converters to observe the macroscopic (steadystate/ dynamic, PWM cycle and low frequency) and microscopic (switching dynamic) behavior of the converters. In the experiments both such characteristics can be clearly observed such that students at basic learning level (involving only the macroscopic behavior), and students at advanced learning level (additionally involving the parasitic effects) can benefit from the experiments. The thesis reviews the switch mode conversion principles, gives the board design and proceeds with the experiments illustrating the capabilities of the experimental system.