Neste trabalho experimental, apresenta-se várias propostas para a construção de sensores termoelétricos para a medida da radiação solar. 0s sensores construídos segundo estas propostas obedecem 4 configurações geométricas, e têm seus princípios de funcionamento de acordo com dois sistemas: Preto e Branco e de Grande Capacidade Calorífica. 0s materiais utilizados são facilmente encontrados no mercado brasileiro, e a técnica de construção é simples e assegura a reprodutibilidade dos instrumentos. Uma das grandes vantagens oferecidas por alguns destes instrumentos é a possibilidade da utilização de instrumentos auxliares de leitura, baratos e comuns no mercado brasileiro. Enfim, os instrumentos construídos para este trabalho são considerados bons, fornecem um sinal de saída alto e um custo relativamente baixo, quando comparado aos instrumentos importados. / In this experimental work, we are presenting some proposals for the construction of themo-electrical sensors to measure solar radiation. According to these proposals, the sensors built so far have four geometrical constructions and their functioning are based on two systems: Black an White and Ful I-black. The material used can be easily on the Brazilian market; their construction tecnique is simple which garantees the reproductibility of the instruments. One of the greatest advantages of some of these instruments is the possibility of using auxiliary reading instruments which are cheap and available on the B r a z i l ian rnarket. Final ly , the instruments constructed throughout t h i s work are considered good; they have a high output and can be built at a low cost when compared with imported ones.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T23:15:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo9180_1.pdf: 3741305 bytes, checksum: d441838aadd73b92c4e7a67ed7fcefdd (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / pós um breve estudo sobre a fisiologia do sistema olfativo humano para estabelecer analogias com um possível método para a percepção artificial de voláteis, e também da realização de diversos experimentos relacionados com a construção de dispositivos sensores, foi observado que o fenômeno de relaxação dielétrica existente em algumas moléculas orgânicas pode ser alterado na presença de voláteis. Sabendo-se que, de forma genérica, a interação de voláteis com algum material sensor é um fenômeno de superfície, foi utilizada a sílica gel porosa para imobilizar moléculas orgânicas em interesse, na sua imensa área superficial, e assim tornar possível à construção de dispositivos que apresentem elevadas sensibilidades. A atividade estabelecida neste trabalho consiste na descrição de uma metodologia para a construção e caracterização de dispositivos sensores de voláteis baseados na imobilização de moléculas orgânicas em superfícies. Essas moléculas são aquelas que apresentem algum grau de afinidade com os voláteis por meio de interações fracas e que assim alteram de forma reversível as suas propriedades de relaxação dielétrica. Para um melhor estudo no levantamento das características desta nova classe de sensores, foi construído um gerador padronizado de voláteis, que tem o seu funcionamento baseado na evaporação de solventes orgânicos de forma bastante controlada e assim, produz voláteis em concentrações previamente estabelecidas. As mudanças das propriedades dielétricas do material sensor durante a interação com voláteis, podem ser detectadas por meio da medição da capacitância dos dispositivos construídos. Uma avaliação inicial relativa às vantagens e restrições existentes nesta nova classe de sensores encontra-se apresentada. A diversidade na sua provável utilização aliada as suas características de sensibilidade e estabilidade, indicou que é grande o potencial de aplicação prática destes dispositivos

Natural vibrissae fulfill a lot of functions. Next to object distance detection and object shape recognition, the surface texture can be determined. Inspired by the natural process of surface texture detection, the goal is to adapt it by technical concepts. Modeling the vibrissa as an Euler­Bernoulli bending beam and the vibrissa-surface contact with respect to Coulomb's Law of Friction, the first approach is formed by the group of Steigenberger and Behn. Due to the surface contact, the vibrissa gets deformed. Initiating a linear movement of the beam support in the way that the bearn tip gets pushed, first the beam tip is sticking to the surface. The acting friction force prevents a movement of the beam tip until the static friction coeflicient is reached. The displacement of the support corresponds to changes in the acting forces and moment. Out of these changes the coeflicient of static friction can be determined. Advancing the present model, the effects of an elastic support, a conical shape of the considered beam, a natural pre-curved (stress free) beam and an inclined contact plane on the resulting forces and moments are analyzed in an analytical way, and then discussed by numerical simulations in performing parameter studies. All these special features of the beam as a tactile sensor are successfully studied. The results for the conical beam shape are only of theoretical relevance. In a next step, a quasi-static model is compared to experimental data to verify the concept. The displacement is represented by a linear, stepwise change of the support of the sensor. By image processing the deformations of the beam for every support position are analyzed. This information is compared to the simulation. The concept in principal is confirmed by the experiments. / Tesis

In nature, vibrissae are tactile hairs of mammals used as sensor elements for the exploring the surrounding area. These hairs, also known as whiskers, can be found in different locations on an animals body. Mystacial vibrissae are distributed over a whiskerpad on a muzzle. Carpal vibrissae are located on the downside aspect of the forelimbs of mammals. The vibrissal hair has a conical shape and grows from a special heavily innervated hair follicle incorporating a capsule of blood. As the hair itself has no receptors along its length, the vibrissa may be considered as a system for transmitting forces and torques that arise from the contact between the hair and an object to sensory receptors inside the follicle. The present thesis deals with the vibrational motion of vibrissae dur- ing natural exploratory behaviour from the mechanical point of view. The phenomenon of the parametric resonance of the vibrissa is investigated the- oretically and numerically. In the first part of this thesis, two mechanical models of an elastic beam are presented based on findings in the literature. The first model considers a straight beam with the linearly decreasing radius of the circular cross-section. The second model takes into account the circu- lar natural configuration of the cylindrical beam. Within these models, the small transverse vibration of the beam under a periodic following force at the tip are analysed using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and asymptotic methods of mechanics. In the second part of the thesis, the numerical analysis of the problems is performed based on the finite element method using ANSYS 16.2 software. For each model, the dynamical response of the system on the parametric excitation is simulated for different frequency values. It is shown theoretically and numerically that at specific ranges of the excitation frequency the phenomenon of the parametric resonance of the beam takes place. That means that the amplitude of vibrations of the beam increases exponentially with time, when it is stimulated within one of the frequency ranges of the parametric resonance. These ranges depend on the geometrical and material parameters of the beam model, as well as the am- plitude of the periodic excitation. / Tesis

In modern industrial applications, sensors are an expensive part of installed systems. Nevertheless, many system variables cannot be measured sufficiently frequently or accurately. Thus, soft sensors have been developed to estimate those variables without the expense of additional hardware. The use of a soft sensor with a bias update term has shown to perform well for disturbed systems with time delays and multirate sampling times. In industrial application, the time delay and sampling times often vary. Yet, the case of variation of the time delay and sampling time in the bias update term has not been considered in previous publications. This thesis tests a soft sensor with bias update term in simulation and gives a modification yielding better performance. It is shown that the tested method gives unstable results. Hence, a more general method with a bias update term that considers all possible sampling times in each step is proposed, giving stable results in simulation. Furthermore, the stability of the general method is proven mathematically by building a state space representation and applying / Tesis

Estágio realizado no INESC-Porto e orientado pelo Prof. Doutor Francisco Manuel Moita Araújo / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Civil. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Estágio realizado na University of Maryland Baltimore County e orientado pelo Doutor Ramachandram Badugu / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Química. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Tese de Doutoramento. Engenharia Civil. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2004