Within the inflationary paradigm, our patch of the universe near the end of inflation is highly homogeneous and isotropic as necessitated by cosmic microwave background observations. This patch, however, is also in a cold and non-thermal state. A successful model of an inflationary primordial universe should account for how the universe transitioned from an inflationary to a radiation-dominated, hot, thermal phase required for the production of light elements via big-bang nucleosynthesis. It is desirable for such a model also to include a mechanism for the generation of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry and perhaps a primordial mechanism for the generation of cosmic magnetic fields. The transition from an inflationary to a radiation-dominated, thermal phase (reheating) is likely to be phenomenologically rich. Reheating could include explosive particle production and various other non-perturbative, non-linear and non-equilibrium phenomena. Reheating can leave its own observational signatures in the form of gravitational waves and non-Gaussianities. Importantly, reheating can also affect the observational predictions of the preceding phase of inflation. Reheating remains an active field of research, with significant gaps in our understanding of the process. This thesis is an attempt to improve our understanding of the period following inflation, including reheating, through an exploration and analysis of realistic post-inflationary models with the aid of detailed numerical simulations. The focus of the studies is on aspects of the models with potential observational implications. In Part I of this thesis, we provide an overview of inflation and its end, concentrating on our current understanding of reheating and the challenges we face in trying to constrain reheating observationally. In Part II, we consider the post-inflationary expansion history in a broad class of observationally-favoured single-field models of inflation. Generally, the ambiguity in the expansion history of reheating can cause significant uncertainty in predictions for inflationary observables such as the spectral index, n_s, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. The work in this part considers the full non-linear evolution of the inflaton during the initial stages of reheating and places bounds on the post-inflationary expansion history when perturbative couplings of the inflaton to other relativistic fields are included. In Part III, we investigate non-perturbative particle production and non-linear dynamics after inflation in models where the inflaton is charged under global/local symmetries. We first explore the effects of the non-linear inflaton dynamics for the generation of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the case where a global U(1) symmetry of the inflaton is weakly broken. We find a parameter range in which the model successfully predicts the observed baryon-to-photon ratio. We then consider the particle production during and after inflation in models with a charged inflaton under Abelian, U(1), and non-Abelian, SU(2) and U(1) x SU(2), gauge symmetries. Finally, we present a novel algorithm for evolving the full set of coupled, non-linear equations describing the U(1) charged inflaton and accompanying gauge fields on a lattice in an expanding universe. The novel feature here is that the gauge constraints are satisfied to machine precision when the gravitational dynamics are self-consistently included at the background level, and there are no restrictions on the order of the time-integrators.

Este trabalho refere-se à otimização energética na produção de fio-máquina, onde os aços estudados foram os de baixo carbono. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com o apoio de uma empresa parceira que cedeu as instalações e acesso às informações necessários ao desenvolvimento da dissertação. O objetivo geral do trabalho foi reduzir o consumo de energia de reaquecimento de tarugos para laminação de vergalhões e fio-máquina em rolos. Os objetivos específicos foram: descrever os preceitos teóricos a respeito do processo de reaquecimento; realizar um levantamento do estado da arte em relação à influência das variáveis de enfornamento nas propriedades do material e em relação ao consumo de energia em fornos de reaquecimento; melhorar o conhecimento existe na empresa parceira do estudo a respeito do processo de enfornamento e otimizar o processo de enfornamento na empresa. Para desenvolvimento da trabalho foi necessário o acompanhamento das energias envolvidas: energia de deformação e energia de reaquecimento. Quanto maior a temperatura de laminação, menor será a energia necessária para deformar o material, porém, maior será a energia de reaquecimento, ocorrendo maior consumo de combustível. Para analisar o consumo das energias, foi feito o acompanhamento da corrente elétrica das principais gaiolas para duas bitolas, depois, foi alterada a temperatura e medida novamente a corrente elétrica e o consumo do gás natural. Esta sequência de testes e medições visou identificar oportunidades para redução da temperatura de laminação e a influência na corrente elétrica das gaiolas do laminador. Uma das premissas, da realização deste trabalho, é que sejam alcançados os objetivos estabelecidos com a manutenção da qualidade do material e de suas propriedades mecânicas. Após a realização dos testes, constatou-se que é possível laminar com temperatura 20°C abaixo dos valores praticados atualmente, porém, a grande limitação é a última gaiola do trem médio de laminação, que trabalha, nestas condições, com a corrente elétrica no limite de desarme, sendo muito grande o risco de parada eminente do laminador. Recomenda-se implantar um investimento para aumentar a potência do acionamento desta gaiola. Com a redução em 20°C nas temperaturas de ajuste do forno economiza-se, nas condições do estudo, 0,36 Nm³/t. / This master dissertation refers to energy optimization in the production of wire rod from low-carbon steels. The work was supported by a partner company that gave access to the facilities and information necessary for the development of the dissertation. The general objective of this work was to reduce the energy consumption of billet reheating for rolling rebar and wire rod in coils. The specific objectives were: to describe the theoretical precepts about the reheating process; to describe the state of the art regarding the influence of variables in reheating process and its relation to energy consumption; improve knowledge exist in the partner company about the process and optimize the reheating process of the company. For development work was necessary monitoring of the energies involved, deformation energy and reheating energy. If the temperature of the process is higher, the energy required to deform the material is lower, however, the energy of rewarming is higher, causing higher fuel consumption. To analyze the deformation energy, the electrical current was monitored at two main cages for two different products, then the temperature was changed and the electric current was measured again as well as the consumption of natural gas. This sequence of tests and measurements aimed at to identify opportunities to reduce the process temperature and the influence of electrical current in rolling cages. One of the assumptions of the present study is to achieve the goals maintaining the quality of the material and its mechanical properties. After the tests, we found that it is possible laminar temperature 20°C below than the values currently practiced, however, the major limitation is the M4 cage that works, on these conditions, with the electrical current in the trip limit, being very great risk of imminent stop of the rolling mill. It is recommended to increase the power of the drive cage. With the reduction at 20°C in temperature adjustment of the oven, it saves 0.36 Nm³/t.

Este trabalho refere-se à otimização energética na produção de fio-máquina, onde os aços estudados foram os de baixo carbono. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com o apoio de uma empresa parceira que cedeu as instalações e acesso às informações necessários ao desenvolvimento da dissertação. O objetivo geral do trabalho foi reduzir o consumo de energia de reaquecimento de tarugos para laminação de vergalhões e fio-máquina em rolos. Os objetivos específicos foram: descrever os preceitos teóricos a respeito do processo de reaquecimento; realizar um levantamento do estado da arte em relação à influência das variáveis de enfornamento nas propriedades do material e em relação ao consumo de energia em fornos de reaquecimento; melhorar o conhecimento existe na empresa parceira do estudo a respeito do processo de enfornamento e otimizar o processo de enfornamento na empresa. Para desenvolvimento da trabalho foi necessário o acompanhamento das energias envolvidas: energia de deformação e energia de reaquecimento. Quanto maior a temperatura de laminação, menor será a energia necessária para deformar o material, porém, maior será a energia de reaquecimento, ocorrendo maior consumo de combustível. Para analisar o consumo das energias, foi feito o acompanhamento da corrente elétrica das principais gaiolas para duas bitolas, depois, foi alterada a temperatura e medida novamente a corrente elétrica e o consumo do gás natural. Esta sequência de testes e medições visou identificar oportunidades para redução da temperatura de laminação e a influência na corrente elétrica das gaiolas do laminador. Uma das premissas, da realização deste trabalho, é que sejam alcançados os objetivos estabelecidos com a manutenção da qualidade do material e de suas propriedades mecânicas. Após a realização dos testes, constatou-se que é possível laminar com temperatura 20°C abaixo dos valores praticados atualmente, porém, a grande limitação é a última gaiola do trem médio de laminação, que trabalha, nestas condições, com a corrente elétrica no limite de desarme, sendo muito grande o risco de parada eminente do laminador. Recomenda-se implantar um investimento para aumentar a potência do acionamento desta gaiola. Com a redução em 20°C nas temperaturas de ajuste do forno economiza-se, nas condições do estudo, 0,36 Nm³/t. / This master dissertation refers to energy optimization in the production of wire rod from low-carbon steels. The work was supported by a partner company that gave access to the facilities and information necessary for the development of the dissertation. The general objective of this work was to reduce the energy consumption of billet reheating for rolling rebar and wire rod in coils. The specific objectives were: to describe the theoretical precepts about the reheating process; to describe the state of the art regarding the influence of variables in reheating process and its relation to energy consumption; improve knowledge exist in the partner company about the process and optimize the reheating process of the company. For development work was necessary monitoring of the energies involved, deformation energy and reheating energy. If the temperature of the process is higher, the energy required to deform the material is lower, however, the energy of rewarming is higher, causing higher fuel consumption. To analyze the deformation energy, the electrical current was monitored at two main cages for two different products, then the temperature was changed and the electric current was measured again as well as the consumption of natural gas. This sequence of tests and measurements aimed at to identify opportunities to reduce the process temperature and the influence of electrical current in rolling cages. One of the assumptions of the present study is to achieve the goals maintaining the quality of the material and its mechanical properties. After the tests, we found that it is possible laminar temperature 20°C below than the values currently practiced, however, the major limitation is the M4 cage that works, on these conditions, with the electrical current in the trip limit, being very great risk of imminent stop of the rolling mill. It is recommended to increase the power of the drive cage. With the reduction at 20°C in temperature adjustment of the oven, it saves 0.36 Nm³/t.

Este trabalho refere-se à otimização energética na produção de fio-máquina, onde os aços estudados foram os de baixo carbono. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com o apoio de uma empresa parceira que cedeu as instalações e acesso às informações necessários ao desenvolvimento da dissertação. O objetivo geral do trabalho foi reduzir o consumo de energia de reaquecimento de tarugos para laminação de vergalhões e fio-máquina em rolos. Os objetivos específicos foram: descrever os preceitos teóricos a respeito do processo de reaquecimento; realizar um levantamento do estado da arte em relação à influência das variáveis de enfornamento nas propriedades do material e em relação ao consumo de energia em fornos de reaquecimento; melhorar o conhecimento existe na empresa parceira do estudo a respeito do processo de enfornamento e otimizar o processo de enfornamento na empresa. Para desenvolvimento da trabalho foi necessário o acompanhamento das energias envolvidas: energia de deformação e energia de reaquecimento. Quanto maior a temperatura de laminação, menor será a energia necessária para deformar o material, porém, maior será a energia de reaquecimento, ocorrendo maior consumo de combustível. Para analisar o consumo das energias, foi feito o acompanhamento da corrente elétrica das principais gaiolas para duas bitolas, depois, foi alterada a temperatura e medida novamente a corrente elétrica e o consumo do gás natural. Esta sequência de testes e medições visou identificar oportunidades para redução da temperatura de laminação e a influência na corrente elétrica das gaiolas do laminador. Uma das premissas, da realização deste trabalho, é que sejam alcançados os objetivos estabelecidos com a manutenção da qualidade do material e de suas propriedades mecânicas. Após a realização dos testes, constatou-se que é possível laminar com temperatura 20°C abaixo dos valores praticados atualmente, porém, a grande limitação é a última gaiola do trem médio de laminação, que trabalha, nestas condições, com a corrente elétrica no limite de desarme, sendo muito grande o risco de parada eminente do laminador. Recomenda-se implantar um investimento para aumentar a potência do acionamento desta gaiola. Com a redução em 20°C nas temperaturas de ajuste do forno economiza-se, nas condições do estudo, 0,36 Nm³/t. / This master dissertation refers to energy optimization in the production of wire rod from low-carbon steels. The work was supported by a partner company that gave access to the facilities and information necessary for the development of the dissertation. The general objective of this work was to reduce the energy consumption of billet reheating for rolling rebar and wire rod in coils. The specific objectives were: to describe the theoretical precepts about the reheating process; to describe the state of the art regarding the influence of variables in reheating process and its relation to energy consumption; improve knowledge exist in the partner company about the process and optimize the reheating process of the company. For development work was necessary monitoring of the energies involved, deformation energy and reheating energy. If the temperature of the process is higher, the energy required to deform the material is lower, however, the energy of rewarming is higher, causing higher fuel consumption. To analyze the deformation energy, the electrical current was monitored at two main cages for two different products, then the temperature was changed and the electric current was measured again as well as the consumption of natural gas. This sequence of tests and measurements aimed at to identify opportunities to reduce the process temperature and the influence of electrical current in rolling cages. One of the assumptions of the present study is to achieve the goals maintaining the quality of the material and its mechanical properties. After the tests, we found that it is possible laminar temperature 20°C below than the values currently practiced, however, the major limitation is the M4 cage that works, on these conditions, with the electrical current in the trip limit, being very great risk of imminent stop of the rolling mill. It is recommended to increase the power of the drive cage. With the reduction at 20°C in temperature adjustment of the oven, it saves 0.36 Nm³/t.

In this thesis, a proof of concept of a digital twin of a type of reheating furnace, the walking beam furnace, is presented. It is created by using a machine learning concept called a neural network. The digital twin is trained using real data from a walking beam furnace located in Swerim AB, Luleå, and is taught to predict the temperature in the furnace using air, fuel and pressure as inputs. The machine learning technique used is an artifical neural network in the form of a multilayer perceptron model. The resulting model consists of 3 layers, input, hidden and output layer. The hyperparameters is decided by using grid search cross validation. The hyperparameters chosen to use in this thesis was amount of epochs, optimizer, learning rate, batch size, activation function, regularizer and amount of neurons in the hidden layer. The final settings for these can be found in table. The digital twin is then evaluated comparing predicted temperatures and actual temperatures from the measured data. The end result shows that the twin performs reasonably well. The predictions differs from measured temperature with a percentage around 0.5% to 1.5%.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18069号 / 理博第3947号 / 新制||理||1569(附属図書館) / 30927 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 佐々木 節, 教授 田中 貴浩, 教授 畑 浩之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

The carbon footprint from the iron, steel and other metal sectors has become a problem both environmentally and economically. The purpose of this report is to propose a concept of an electrified reheat furnace for the steel industry in the making of sheet metal. The aim is to reduce the environmental impact from the steel industry. The approach in this report has been to analyse relevant facts to propose a fully electrified concept. The concept is divided into two sections. The first section of the concept consists of a preheating furnace with the purpose to heat the slabs to 850 °C before it enters the second section. The preheating furnace contains 1447 – 2412 MoSi2 heating elements due to considering different efficiencies. The second section consists of 13 induction heating modules heating the slabs to a homogenous temperature of 1250 °C. By applying electrical heating in a walking beam furnace approximately 100 000 tonne carbon dioxide can be reduced annually. In conclusion, the proposed concept could be a feasible solution in order to avoid carbon emission and obtain the same production rate as the existing reheating furnaces. However, it is suggested that further investigations and analysis are performed regarding this concept to verify the total efficiency of the reheating furnace and to theoretically determine the required power input / Koldioxidutsläppen från järn, stål och andra metallindustrier har blivit ett problem både urmiljö och ekonomisk synpunkt. Syftet med denna rapport är att föreslå ett koncept av en heltelektrifierad uppvärmningsugn för stålindustrin i processen för att skapa plåt. Målet meddenna studie är att reducera stålindustrins påverkan på växthuseffekten. Metoden i denna rapport har varit att analysera relevant fakta för att sedan kunna föreslå ettkoncept av en helt elektrifierad ugn. Det föreslagna konceptet är uppdelad i två delar. Denförsta delen består av en förvärmningsugn med målet att värma stålet till 850 °C innan ståletgår in i den andra delen. Förvärmningsugnen består av 1447 – 2412 stycken MoSi2värmeelement med hänsyn till ugnens verkningsgrad. Den andra delen består utav 13 styckeninduktionsvärmemoduler som värmen stålet till en homogentemperatur på 1250 °C. Genomatt använda elektricitet för att värma ugnen minskar koldioxidutsläppen med 66 kg per tontillverkas stål. Sammanfattningsvis, det föreslagna konceptet kan vara en möjlig lösning för att minskakoldioxidutsläpp och samtidigt bibehålla samma produktionshastighet som existerandeuppvärmningsugnar. Däremot är det förslaget att vidare studier och analyser görs påkonceptet för att verifiera den totala verkningsgraden av ugnen och för att bestämma denexakta energiförbrukningen.

<p>Current industrial practice in the steel Industry involves the use of natural gas with high methane content as a primary energy source. Natural combustion produces greenhouse gases, and with the continued focus on managing and reducing harmful emissions from industrial processes, there is a need for research into alternative sources of energy. Among several alternatives that have been studied is hydrogen: a non-carbon-based fuel. This work uses a coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-finite element analysis (FEA) combustion model to investigate hydrogen utilization as a fuel in a reheat furnace and how it impacts the quality of the steel produced by understanding the three dimensional (3D) flow behavior, furnace temperature profile, thermal stress distribution, heat flux, formation of iron oxides, emission gases and mode of heat transfer onto the steel slabs. The modeling process integrates the five different zones of a pusher type reheating furnace (top and bottom) and modeled using Ansys Fluent 2020R1 and Ansys Workbench 2022R1. Changes in these parameters are determined by comparison to a baseline case that uses methane as fuel and maintaining the same heat input in terms of chemical energy into the furnace. Global mechanism was used for hydrogen and two step mechanism was used for methane combustion. Results revealed a 2.6% increase in average temperature to 1478K across the furnace for hydrogen which resulted in 6.45% increase in maximum heat flux into the slabs. Similar flue gas flow patterns were seen for both cases and heat transfer mode from the combustion gases to the slabs was primarily by radiation (~97%) for both methane and hydrogen. 11.5% increase in iron oxide formation on the slab was recorded for the hydrogen case, however, the bulk of the iron oxide formed was more of wüstites which are the easiest form of iron oxide to descale. However, elevated nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels were recorded for hydrogen combustion which led to further study into NOx mitigation techniques. Application of the staged combustion method using hydrogen fuel showed potentials for NOx reduction. The use of regenerative burners further conserved exergy losses in hydrogen fuel application. Insignificant deviation from base case thermal stress distribution and zero carbon emission from the hydrogen case indicates the usability of hydrogen as an alternative fuel in reheating furnace operations. </p>

Dans cette thèse j'étudie le reheating de l'Univers inflationnaire. Cette ère fait le lien entre l'inflation de l'Univers et le modèle du Big- Bang chaud. Pendant celle-ci, l'Inflaton se désintègre en matière qui, via ses propres intéractions, thermalise et donne une description statistique au contenu de l'Univers. Ce travail est réalisé dans le cadre d'une théorie quantique des champs utilisant des méthodes hors équilibre telle que l'action effective 2-Particule-Irreductible permettant de faire face aux difficultés de la théorie quantique des champs hors équilibre traditionelle. J'étudie premièrement le cas où la matière produite peut être décrite par des champs scalaires puis par des degrés de liberté fermioniques, où l'approximation classique n'existe pas. Je développe l'action effective à l'ordre sous dominant d'un développement non perturbatif en inverse du nombre de champs de matière ce qui permet d'explorer des théories où la matière est fortement couplée à elle-même. Dans une deuxième partie j'étudie la décohérencedes fluctuations primordiales de densité. L'inflaton peut être vu comme un condensat quantiquement cohérent et sa désintégration comme une décohérence de celui-ci. Cette décohérence et perte de pureté est fortement liée à la perte d'information qu'un observateur a sur le système si il se restreint au sousespace Gaussien des fonctions de corrélations. Cette étude montre que, même dans le cadre peu habituel où le système n'est pas en intéraction avec un environnement extérieur incohérent et/ou thermique, celui-ci perd sa pureté et sa cohérence initiale au profit d'une production du nombre de degré de liberté ou d'entropie.

Dans l'industrie sidérurgique, les fours de réchauffage sont les plus grands consommateurs d'énergie après les hauts fourneaux. Réduire leur consommation énergétique est donc la préoccupation majeure de la commande des fours. Dans un four de réchauffage, des brames d'acier sont chauffées en traversant successivement plusieurs zones, de la température ambiante à un profil de température homogène de 1250 °C en sortie du four, avant d’être laminées dans les laminoirs à chaud. La température de brames est contrôlée par une structure de commande hiérarchisée à deux niveaux (niveau 1 et 2).L'objectif de ces travaux est d'améliorer la performance du chauffage et donc de réduire la consommation énergétique du four via une stratégie de commande prédictive distribuée hiérarchisée sur les deux niveaux de commande. Une approche de commande prédictive distribuée est tout d’abord développée pour le niveau 1 afin de suivre les consignes de température de zone, prenant en compte les couplages entre les zones et induisant une moindre complexité d’implantation par rapport à une approche centralisée. L’implantation industrielle a permis une amélioration significative de la précision du suivi de température et une réduction de la consommation d'énergie de 3%. Une deuxième étape propose l’élaboration de la commande prédictive hiérarchisée du niveau 2 afin, à partir de la consigne de température de brame, de déterminer les consignes de température optimales des zones en se fondant sur un modèle de transfert thermique du four. Les résultats de simulation, comparés aux données industrielles, montrent une réduction de la consommation énergétique de 5% et une meilleure qualité de chauffage des brames. L’approche précédente est enfin étendue pour prendre en compte et optimiser le cadencement des brames afin d’augmenter la productivité du four. La simulation montre une augmentation potentielle de productivité du four de 15 tonnes par heure tout en améliorant la qualité de chauffage des brames. / In steel industry, reheating furnaces are the biggest energy consumers after blast furnaces. As a result, reduction of energy consumption is the major concern of furnace control. In a walking-beam slab reheating furnace, steel slabs are heated by moving through successive zones from ambient temperature to a homogenous temperature profile of 1250°C at the furnace exit, to be rolled subsequently in the hot rolling mills. Temperature of slabs is controlled mainly by a two-level hierarchical structure, so called level 1 and level 2.The aim of this thesis is to improve the heating performance and consequently to reduce the energy consumption of the furnace by using hierarchical distributed model predictive control (MPC) strategy for both levels. In a first step, distributed model predictive controllers are developed for the level 1 in order to track zone temperature set-points. The distributed feature of the control law enables to consider coupling effects between zones while reducing the computation complexity compared to a complete centralized approach. The industrial results showed significant improvement on temperature tracking accuracy and an energy consumption reduction of 3%. In a second step, the hierarchical MPC is constructed for the level 2 in order to determine the optimal zones temperature setpoint from the slab temperature setpoint, based on a numerical heat transfer model of the furnace. The simulation results obtained with this strategy compared against industrial data show an energy consumption reduction of 5% and a better heating quality. The previous structure is finally extended to take into account and optimize the scheduling of the slabs within the MPC level 2 in order to increase productivity of the considered furnace. The simulation shows a potential increase of productivity of the furnace of 15 tons per hour while improving the slab heating quality.