Syngas consisting mainly of a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other diluents, is an important fuel for power generation applications since it can be obtained from both biomass and coal gasification. Clean coal technologies require stable and efficient operation of syngas-fired gas turbines. The trapped vortex combustor (TVC) is a relatively new gas turbine combustor concept which shows tremendous potential in achieving stable combustion under wide operating conditions with low emissions. In the present work, combustion of low calorific value syngas in a TVC has been studied using in-situ laser diagnostic techniques and numerical modeling. Specifically, this work reports in-situ measurements of mixture fraction, OH radical concentration and velocity in a single cavity TVC, using state-of-the art laser diagnostic techniques such as Planar Laser-induced Fluorescence (PLIF) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Numerical simulations using the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approaches have also been carried out to complement the experimental measurements. The fuel-air momentum flux ratio (MFR), where the air momentum corresponds to that entering the cavity through a specially-incorporated flow guide vane, is used to characterize the mixing. Acetone PLIF experiments show that at high MFRs, the fuel-air mixing in the cavity is very minimal and is enhanced as the MFR reduces, due to a favourable vortex formation in the cavity, which is corroborated by PIV measurements. Reacting flow PIV measurements which differ substantially from the non-reacting cases primarily because of the gas expansion due to heat release show that the vortex is displaced from the centre of the cavity towards the guide vane. The MFR was hence identified as the controlling parameter for mixing in the cavity. Quantitative OH concentration contours showed that at higher MFRs 4.5, the fuel jet and the air jet stream are separated and a flame front is formed at the interface. As the MFR is lowered to 0.3, the fuel air mixing increases and a flame front is formed at the bottom and downstream edge of the cavity where a stratified charge is present. A flame stabilization mechanism has been proposed which accounts for the wide MFRs and premixing in the mainstream as well. LES simulations using a flamelet-based combustion model were conducted to predict mean OH radical concentration and velocity along with URANS simulations using a modified Eddy dissipation concept model. The LES predictions were observed to agree closely with experimental data, and were clearly superior to the URANS predictions as expected. Performance characteristics in the form of exhaust temperature pattern factor and pollutant emissions were also measured. The NOx emissions were found to be less than 2 ppm, CO emissions below 0.2% and HC emissions below 700 ppm across various conditions. Overall, the in-situ experimental data coupled with insight from simulations and the exhaust measurements have confirmed the advantages of using the TVC as a gas turbine combustor and provided guidelines for stable and efficient operation of the combustor with syngas fuel.

Nous investiguons dans ce travail la dynamique des excitons dans une couche mince d’agrégats H autoassemblés hélicoïdaux de molécules de sexithiophène. Le couplage intermoléculaire (J=100 meV) place ce matériau dans la catégorie des semi-conducteurs à couplage de type intermédiaire. Le désordre énergétique et la forte interaction électronsphonons causent une forte localisation des excitons. Les espèces initiales se ramifient en deux états distincts : un état d’excitons autopiégés (rendement de 95 %) et un état à transfert de charge (rendement de 5%). À température de la pièce (293K), les processus de sauts intermoléculaires sont activés et l’anisotropie de la fluorescence décroît rapidement à zéro en 5 ns. À basse température (14K), les processus de sauts sont gelés. Pour caractériser la dynamique de diffusion des espèces, une expérience d’anisotropie de fluorescence a été effectuée. Celle-ci consiste à mesurer la différence entre la photoluminescence polarisée parallèlement au laser excitateur et celle polarisée perpendiculairement, en fonction du temps. Cette mesure nous donne de l’information sur la dépolarisation des excitons, qui est directement reliée à leur diffusion dans la structure supramoléculaire. On mesure une anisotropie de 0,1 après 20 ns qui perdure jusqu’à 50ns. Les états à transfert de charge causent une remontée de l’anisotropie vers une valeur de 0,15 sur une plage temporelle allant de 50 ns jusqu’à 210 ns (période entre les impulsions laser). Ces résultats démontrent que la localisation des porteurs est très grande à 14K, et qu’elle est supérieure pour les espèces à transfert de charge. Un modèle numérique simple d’équations différentielles à temps de vie radiatif et de dépolarisation constants permet de reproduire les données expérimentales. Ce modèle a toutefois ses limitations, notamment en ce qui a trait aux mécanismes de dépolarisation des excitons. / In this work, we investigate exciton dynamics in a thin film of sexithiophene molecules in self-assembled chiral H-aggregate supramolecular stacks. The intermolecular coupling energy J=100 meV places those molecules in the intermediate coupling regime. The energetic disorder and the strong phonon-electron interactions leads to high localization of the photoexcitations. The initial photoexcited species branches into two distinct states : self-trapped exciton (95% yield) and charge-transfer excitons (5% yield). At room temperature (293K), the intermolecular hopping processes are thermaly activated and the fluorescence anisotropy goes to zero within 5 ns. At low temperature (14K), hopping processes are frozen. To characterize exciton diffusion mechanisms, a fluorescence anisotropy experiment has been done. This measurement consists of monitoring the difference between the parallel and perpendicular composants of the photoluminescence (with respect to the laser beam), as a function of time. The fluorescence anisotropy gives us information about the depolarization of the excitons, which is directly connected with their diffusion within the supramolecular stack. We measure an anisotropy of 0,1 after 20 ns which stays constant for 50 ns. Chargetransfer states induce a rise of the anisotropy up to 0,15 between 50 ns and 210 ns (the period between adjacent laser pulses). Those measurements shows that exciton localization is very strong at 14K and higher for the charge-transfer states than the self-trapped ones. A simple mathematical model based on the resolution of a system of differential equations with constants radiative and depolarization lifetimes can reproduce the experimental data. This model has some limitations, especially for the description of the depolarization mechanisms of the self-trapped excitons.

Ao largo da costa oeste da Am´erica do Sul o sistema de ressurg^encia costeira apresenta uma excepcional produtividade, um resultado da alta efici^encia do ecossistema biol´ogico em converter a produ¸c~ao prim´aria em biomassa. Esses processos qu´?micobiol ´ogicos s~ao fortemente modulados pelo ambiente f´?sico da regi~ao. Por exemplo, durante eventos do El-Ni~no a produtividade pesqueira ´e fortemente prejudicada em resposta a uma inibi¸c~ao da ressurg^encia costeira. Apesar disso ser um fato j´a bastante conhecido desde ´epocas pr´e-colombianas, muita d´uvida ainda persiste sobre o mecanismo pelo qual o sistema costeiro ´e afetado por esses fen^omenos de grande escala. O presente trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de se contribuir com esse conhecimento, estudando como ocorreram as mudan¸cas do sistema durante recentes eventos El Ni~no, principalmente na escala intrasazonal. Nessa investiga¸c~ao foram utilizadas diferentes metodologias de an´alise de dados para identificar a natureza dos for¸cantes de oscila¸c~oes significativas observadas durante o El Ni~no 1997-1998. Tamb´em foi investigado se essas oscila¸c~oes foram for¸cadas remotamente e se propagaram como ondas aprisionadas na costa; quais foram suas propriedades espaciais e sua propaga¸c~ao longo da costa. A primeira parte do trabalho consiste na an´alise da variabilidade temporal e a caracteriza¸c~ao das flutua¸c~oes de baixa freq¨u^encia ocorridas durante eventos El Ni~no. Essa an´alise faz uso do espectro de ondeleta aplicado a s´eries temporais longas de dados do n´?vel do mar de esta¸c~oes costeiras distribu´?das ao longo da costa sul do Equador, costa do Peru e costa norte do Chile. O espectro de ondeleta cruzada e o espectro da coer^encia foram usados para avaliar a import^ancia relativa das for¸cantes remota e local das varia¸c~oes do n´?vel do mar associadas com os efeitos do El Ni~no 1997-1998. Na segunda parte, as flutua¸c~oes for¸cadas remotamente foram comparadas com modelos lineares simples e o modelo de Brink e Chapman (1987) para se obter as propriedades das ondas aprisionadas na costa durante o El Ni~no Extraordin ´ario (1997-1998). Uma importante conclus~ao dessas an´alises foi a constata¸c~ao de que variabilidades intrasazonais ao largo da costa do Peru durante esse El Ni~no foi, em parte significativa, o resultado da atua¸c~ao de for¸cantes remotas e locais, associadas com ondas equatoriais incidindo na Costa Oeste da Am´erica do Sul e com o efeito do vento, respectivamente. / Off the western coast of South America, the coastal upwelling system presents an exceptional productivity, a result of the high efficiency of the biological ecosystem in converting the primary production into biomass. These chemical and biological processes are strongly modulated by the physical environment. For instance, during El Ni~no events the fishery productivity is strongly impaired in response to an inhibition of the coastal upwelling. In spite of this fact be widely known since pre-Colombian times, much doubts still persist about the mechanism by means of which the coastal system is affected by the large scale phenomena. The present work was idealized with the intention of contributing for this knowledge, studying how occurred the changes in the system during recent El Ni~no events, with emphasis on the intraseasonal scale. In this investigation, different methodologies of data analysis were used to identify the nature of the forcing which produced significant oscillations observed during the El Ni~no 1997-1998. Also, it was investigated if these oscillations were remotely forced and propagated along the coast as coastal trapped waves; what were their spatial and propagation properties. The first part of the work consists of an analysis of the temporal variability and the characterization of the low-frequency fluctuations occurred during the El Ni~no events. This analysis uses the wavelet spectrum applied to time series of sea level data collected off southern Equador, Peru and northern Chile. The cross wavelet spectrum and coherence spectrum were used to evaluate the relative importance of local and remote forcing of the sea level, associated with effects of the 1997-1998 El Ni~no. In the second part, the fluctuations remotely forced wer compared with results of simple linear models and with the model of Brink and Chapman (1987), in order to obtain the coastal trapped waves properties during that extraordinary El Ni~no event. One important conclusion of these analyses was the confirmation that the intraseasonal variability observed offo Peru during the 1997-1998 El Ni~no was, in part, the result of remote and local forcing, associated with equatorial waves and the wind effect, respectively.

Ao largo da costa oeste da Am´erica do Sul o sistema de ressurg^encia costeira apresenta uma excepcional produtividade, um resultado da alta efici^encia do ecossistema biol´ogico em converter a produ¸c~ao prim´aria em biomassa. Esses processos qu´?micobiol ´ogicos s~ao fortemente modulados pelo ambiente f´?sico da regi~ao. Por exemplo, durante eventos do El-Ni~no a produtividade pesqueira ´e fortemente prejudicada em resposta a uma inibi¸c~ao da ressurg^encia costeira. Apesar disso ser um fato j´a bastante conhecido desde ´epocas pr´e-colombianas, muita d´uvida ainda persiste sobre o mecanismo pelo qual o sistema costeiro ´e afetado por esses fen^omenos de grande escala. O presente trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de se contribuir com esse conhecimento, estudando como ocorreram as mudan¸cas do sistema durante recentes eventos El Ni~no, principalmente na escala intrasazonal. Nessa investiga¸c~ao foram utilizadas diferentes metodologias de an´alise de dados para identificar a natureza dos for¸cantes de oscila¸c~oes significativas observadas durante o El Ni~no 1997-1998. Tamb´em foi investigado se essas oscila¸c~oes foram for¸cadas remotamente e se propagaram como ondas aprisionadas na costa; quais foram suas propriedades espaciais e sua propaga¸c~ao longo da costa. A primeira parte do trabalho consiste na an´alise da variabilidade temporal e a caracteriza¸c~ao das flutua¸c~oes de baixa freq¨u^encia ocorridas durante eventos El Ni~no. Essa an´alise faz uso do espectro de ondeleta aplicado a s´eries temporais longas de dados do n´?vel do mar de esta¸c~oes costeiras distribu´?das ao longo da costa sul do Equador, costa do Peru e costa norte do Chile. O espectro de ondeleta cruzada e o espectro da coer^encia foram usados para avaliar a import^ancia relativa das for¸cantes remota e local das varia¸c~oes do n´?vel do mar associadas com os efeitos do El Ni~no 1997-1998. Na segunda parte, as flutua¸c~oes for¸cadas remotamente foram comparadas com modelos lineares simples e o modelo de Brink e Chapman (1987) para se obter as propriedades das ondas aprisionadas na costa durante o El Ni~no Extraordin ´ario (1997-1998). Uma importante conclus~ao dessas an´alises foi a constata¸c~ao de que variabilidades intrasazonais ao largo da costa do Peru durante esse El Ni~no foi, em parte significativa, o resultado da atua¸c~ao de for¸cantes remotas e locais, associadas com ondas equatoriais incidindo na Costa Oeste da Am´erica do Sul e com o efeito do vento, respectivamente. / Off the western coast of South America, the coastal upwelling system presents an exceptional productivity, a result of the high efficiency of the biological ecosystem in converting the primary production into biomass. These chemical and biological processes are strongly modulated by the physical environment. For instance, during El Ni~no events the fishery productivity is strongly impaired in response to an inhibition of the coastal upwelling. In spite of this fact be widely known since pre-Colombian times, much doubts still persist about the mechanism by means of which the coastal system is affected by the large scale phenomena. The present work was idealized with the intention of contributing for this knowledge, studying how occurred the changes in the system during recent El Ni~no events, with emphasis on the intraseasonal scale. In this investigation, different methodologies of data analysis were used to identify the nature of the forcing which produced significant oscillations observed during the El Ni~no 1997-1998. Also, it was investigated if these oscillations were remotely forced and propagated along the coast as coastal trapped waves; what were their spatial and propagation properties. The first part of the work consists of an analysis of the temporal variability and the characterization of the low-frequency fluctuations occurred during the El Ni~no events. This analysis uses the wavelet spectrum applied to time series of sea level data collected off southern Equador, Peru and northern Chile. The cross wavelet spectrum and coherence spectrum were used to evaluate the relative importance of local and remote forcing of the sea level, associated with effects of the 1997-1998 El Ni~no. In the second part, the fluctuations remotely forced wer compared with results of simple linear models and with the model of Brink and Chapman (1987), in order to obtain the coastal trapped waves properties during that extraordinary El Ni~no event. One important conclusion of these analyses was the confirmation that the intraseasonal variability observed offo Peru during the 1997-1998 El Ni~no was, in part, the result of remote and local forcing, associated with equatorial waves and the wind effect, respectively.

In recent years, a number of researchers have applied various computational methods to study wind wave and tsunami forcing on bridge superstructure problems. Usually, these computational analyses rely upon application of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes. While CFD models may provide reasonable results, their disadvantage is that they tend to be computationally expensive. During this study, an alternative computational method was explored in which a previously-developed diffraction model was combined with a previously-developed trapped air model under worst-case wave loading conditions (i.e. when the water surface was at the same elevation as the bottom bridge chord elevation). The governing equations were solved using a finite difference algorithm in MATLAB for the case where the bridge was impacted by a single wave in two dimensions. Resultant inertial and drag water forces were computed by integrating water pressure contacting the bridge superstructure in the horizontal and vertical directions, while resultant trapped air forces (high-frequency oscillatory forces or sometimes called “slamming forces” in the literature) were computed by integrating air pressure along the bottom of the bridge deck in the vertical direction. The trapped air model was also used to compute the buoyancy force on the bridge due to trapped air. Results were compared with data from experiments that were conducted at the University of Florida in 2009. Results were in good agreement when a length-scale coefficient associated with the trapped air model was properly calibrated. The computational time associated with the model was only approximately one hour per bridge configuration, which would appear to be a significant improvement when compared with other computational technique

Trapped Vortex Combustor (TVC) is a relatively new concept for potential use in gas turbine engines addressing ever increasing demands of high efficiency, low emissions, low pressure drop, and improved pattern factor. This concept holds promise for future because of its inherent advantages over conventional swirl-stabilized combustors. The main difference between TVC and a conventional gas turbine combustor is in the way combustion is stabilized. In conventional combustors, flame is stabilized because of formation of toroidal flow pattern in the primary zone due to interaction between incoming swirling air and fuel flow. On the other hand, in TVC, there is a physical cavity in the wall of combustor with continuous injection of air and fuel leading to stable and sustained combustion. Past work related to TVC has focussed on use of two cavities in the combustor liner. In the present study, a single cavity combustor concept is evaluated through simulation and experiments for applications requiring compact combustors such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and cruise missiles. In the present work, numerical simulations were initially performed on a planar, rectangular single-cavity geometry to assess sensitivity of various parameters and to design a single-cavity TVC test rig. A water-cooled, modular, atmospheric pressure TVC test rig is designed and fabricated for reacting and non-reacting flow experiments. The unique features of this rig consist of a continuously variable length-to-depth ratio (L/D) of the cavity and optical access through quartz plates provided on three sides for visualization. Flame stabilization in the single cavity TVC was successfully achieved with methane as fuel, and the range of flow conditions for stable operation were identified. From these, a few cases were selected for detailed experimentation. Reacting flow experiments for the selected cases indicated that reducing L/D ratio and increasing cavity-air velocity favour stable combustion. The pressure drop across the single-cavity TVC is observed to be lower as compared to conventional combustors. Temperatures are measured at the exit using thermocouples and corrected for radiative losses. Species concentrations are measured at the exit using an exhaust gas analyzer. The combustion efficiency is observed to be around 98-99% and the pattern factor is observed to be in the range of 0.08 to 0.13. High-speed imaging made possible by the optical access indicates that the overall combustion is fairly steady, and there is no major vortex shedding downstream. This enabled steady-state simulations to be performed for the selected cases. Insight from simulations has highlighted the importance of air and fuel injection strategies in the cavity. From a mixing and combustion efficiency standpoint, it is desirable to have a cavity vortex that is anti-clockwise. However, the natural tendency for flow over a cavity is to form a vortex that is clockwise. The tendency to blow-out at higher inlet flow velocities is thought to be because of these two opposing effects. This interaction helps improve mixing, however leads to poor flame stability unless cavity-air velocity is strong enough to support a strong anti-clockwise vortex in the cavity. This basic understating of cavity flow dynamics can be used for further design improvements in future to improve flame stability at higher inlet flow velocities and eventually lead to the development of a practical combustor.

This work is about the properties of several low dimensional, small systems of interacting particles. We demonstrate that interaction between particles in the low dimensional small systems can lead to many unexpected effects. We considered electrons in a Luttinger liquid, in a superconducting state, and atoms in a magneto-optical trap. Using bosonization techniques we calculated the thermopower of a Luttinger liquid wire with an impurity. We predicted the appearance of a phase dependent force and resonant phase dependent magnetization in the nanoscopic superconductor - normal metal superconductor (or superconductor - two dimensional electron gas - superconductor) junction. We also considered plasma oscillations inside thin superconducting tubes and rings and predicted that the velocities of the plasmons in these systems are periodic functions of the magnetic flux. By considering neutral atoms in a harmonic trap we discovered that strongly repelling atoms do not form Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature but tend to occupy different orbitals with small mutual overlap, forming crystallite structures similar to Wigner molecules of electrons inside a quantum dot.

This thesis presents the investigations of Rubidium atoms in magneto-optical traps and triply charged Thorium ions in electrodynamic traps for future advances in long-distance quantum telecommunication, next generation clocks, and fundamental tests of current physical theories. Experimental realizations of two core building blocks of a quantum repeater are described: a multiplexed quantum memory and a telecom interface for long-lived quantum memories. A color change of single-photon level light fields by several hundred nanometers in an optically thick cold gas is demonstrated, while preserving quantum entanglement with a remotely stored matter excitation. These are essential elements for long-distance quantum telecommunication, fundamental tests of quantum mechanics, and applications in secure communication and computation. The first trapping and laser cooling of Thorium-229 ions are described. Thorium-229 nuclear electric quadrupole moment is revealed by hyperfine spectroscopy of triply charged Thorium-229 ions. A system to search for the isomer nuclear transition in Thorium-229 is developed and tested with the excitation of a forbidden electronic transition at 717 nm. Direct excitation of the nuclear transition with laser light would allow for an extremely accurate clock and a sensitive test bed for variations of fundamental physical constants, including the fine structure constant.

Nous investiguons dans ce travail la dynamique des excitons dans une couche mince d’agrégats H autoassemblés hélicoïdaux de molécules de sexithiophène. Le couplage intermoléculaire (J=100 meV) place ce matériau dans la catégorie des semi-conducteurs à couplage de type intermédiaire. Le désordre énergétique et la forte interaction électronsphonons causent une forte localisation des excitons. Les espèces initiales se ramifient en deux états distincts : un état d’excitons autopiégés (rendement de 95 %) et un état à transfert de charge (rendement de 5%). À température de la pièce (293K), les processus de sauts intermoléculaires sont activés et l’anisotropie de la fluorescence décroît rapidement à zéro en 5 ns. À basse température (14K), les processus de sauts sont gelés. Pour caractériser la dynamique de diffusion des espèces, une expérience d’anisotropie de fluorescence a été effectuée. Celle-ci consiste à mesurer la différence entre la photoluminescence polarisée parallèlement au laser excitateur et celle polarisée perpendiculairement, en fonction du temps. Cette mesure nous donne de l’information sur la dépolarisation des excitons, qui est directement reliée à leur diffusion dans la structure supramoléculaire. On mesure une anisotropie de 0,1 après 20 ns qui perdure jusqu’à 50ns. Les états à transfert de charge causent une remontée de l’anisotropie vers une valeur de 0,15 sur une plage temporelle allant de 50 ns jusqu’à 210 ns (période entre les impulsions laser). Ces résultats démontrent que la localisation des porteurs est très grande à 14K, et qu’elle est supérieure pour les espèces à transfert de charge. Un modèle numérique simple d’équations différentielles à temps de vie radiatif et de dépolarisation constants permet de reproduire les données expérimentales. Ce modèle a toutefois ses limitations, notamment en ce qui a trait aux mécanismes de dépolarisation des excitons. / In this work, we investigate exciton dynamics in a thin film of sexithiophene molecules in self-assembled chiral H-aggregate supramolecular stacks. The intermolecular coupling energy J=100 meV places those molecules in the intermediate coupling regime. The energetic disorder and the strong phonon-electron interactions leads to high localization of the photoexcitations. The initial photoexcited species branches into two distinct states : self-trapped exciton (95% yield) and charge-transfer excitons (5% yield). At room temperature (293K), the intermolecular hopping processes are thermaly activated and the fluorescence anisotropy goes to zero within 5 ns. At low temperature (14K), hopping processes are frozen. To characterize exciton diffusion mechanisms, a fluorescence anisotropy experiment has been done. This measurement consists of monitoring the difference between the parallel and perpendicular composants of the photoluminescence (with respect to the laser beam), as a function of time. The fluorescence anisotropy gives us information about the depolarization of the excitons, which is directly connected with their diffusion within the supramolecular stack. We measure an anisotropy of 0,1 after 20 ns which stays constant for 50 ns. Chargetransfer states induce a rise of the anisotropy up to 0,15 between 50 ns and 210 ns (the period between adjacent laser pulses). Those measurements shows that exciton localization is very strong at 14K and higher for the charge-transfer states than the self-trapped ones. A simple mathematical model based on the resolution of a system of differential equations with constants radiative and depolarization lifetimes can reproduce the experimental data. This model has some limitations, especially for the description of the depolarization mechanisms of the self-trapped excitons.

This diploma thesis summarizes knowledge of significant genetically contitioned deseases occurring in border collies. There is described a total of 14 diseases, some with the location of causal mutation not yet known. Primary focus of this thesis is g.4411956_4411960delGTTT mutation of gene VPS13B causing Trapped Neuthrophil Syndrome (TNS), MDR1 gene's mutation AF045016.1: c.227_230delATAG associated with multidrug resistance (MDR1) and CUBN gene's mutation c.8392delC which causes intestinal malabsorption of cobalamin by another name ImerslundGräsbeck syndrome (IGS). A genotype analysis of 89 border collies with a proof of origin was performed. The DNA was extracted from buccal mucosal swabs, the isolation of DNA was performed by Chelex-100 from the native material. The analysis was proceeded by optimized PCR-RFLP method using restrictive MboI (MDR1) and Msl I (IGS) enzymes. There were detected 4 g.4411956_4411960delGTTT mutation vectors causing TNS. As for the MDR1 and IGS there wasn't detected any affected case.