Estimação e compensação de não linearidades inerentes aos atuadores dos processos industriais

The oscillations presents in control loops can cause damages in petrochemical industry. Canceling, or even preventing such oscillations, would save up to large amount of dollars. Studies have identified that one of the causes of these oscillations are the nonlinearities present on industrial process actuators. This study has the objective to develop a methodology for removal of the harmful effects of nonlinearities. Will be proposed an parameter estimation method to Hammerstein model, whose nonlinearity is represented by dead-zone or backlash. The estimated parameters will be used to construct inverse models of compensation. A simulated level system was used as a test platform. The valve that controls inflow has a nonlinearity. Results and describing function analysis show an improvement on system response

Acelaração do universo e criação gravitacional de matéria escura fria: novos modelos e testes observacionais

Recent astronomical observations (involving supernovae type Ia, cosmic background radiation anisotropy and galaxy clusters probes) have provided strong evidence that the observed universe is described by an accelerating, flat model whose space-time properties can be represented by the FriedmannRobertsonWalker (FRW) metric. However, the nature of the substance or mechanism behind the current cosmic acceleration remains unknown and its determination constitutes a challenging problem for modern cosmology. In the general relativistic description, an accelerat ing regime is usually obtained by assuming the existence of an exotic energy component endowed with negative pressure, called dark energy, which is usually represented by a cosmological constant ¤ associated to the vacuum energy density. All observational data available so far are in good agreement with the concordance cosmic ¤CDM model. Nevertheless, such models are plagued with several problems thereby inspiring many authors to propose alternative candidates in the relativistic context. In this thesis, a new kind of accelerating flat model with no dark energy and fully dominated by cold dark matter (CDM) is proposed. The number of CDM particles is not conserved and the present accelerating stage is a consequence of the negative pressure describing the irreversible process of gravitational particle creation. In order to have a transition from a decelerating to an accelerating regime at low redshifts, the matter creation rate proposed here depends on 2 parameters (y and ߯): the first one identifies a constant term of the order of H0 and the second one describes a time variation proportional to he Hubble parameter H(t). In this scenario, H0 does not need to be small in order to solve the age problem and the transition happens even if there is no matter creation during the radiation and part of the matter dominated phase (when the ß term is negligible). Like in flat ACDM scenarios, the dimming of distant type Ia supernovae can be fitted with just one free parameter, and the coincidence problem plaguing the models driven by the cosmological constant. ACDM is absent. The limits endowed with with the existence of the quasar APM 08279+5255, located at z = 3:91 and with an estimated ages between 2 and 3 Gyr are also investigated. In the simplest case (ß = 0), the model is compatible with the existence of the quasar for y > 0:56 whether the age of the quasar is 2.0 Gyr. For 3 Gyr the limit derived is y > 0:72. New limits for the formation redshift of the quasar are also established

Estudo de titanatos nanoestruturados obtidos por tratamento hidrotérmico de óxido de titânio em meio alcalino

TiTanate NanoTubes (TTNT) were synthesized by hydrothermal alkali treatment of TiO2 anatase followed by repeated washings with distinct degrees of proton exchange. TTNT samples with different sodium contents were characterized, as synthesized and after heattreatment (200-800ºC), by X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, thermal analysis, nitrogen adsorption and spectroscopic techniques like FTIR and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance. It was demonstrated that TTNTs consist of trititanate structure with general formula NaxH2−xTi3O7·nH2O, retaining interlayer water in its multiwalled structure. The removal of sodium reduces the amount of water and contracts the interlayer space leading, combined with other factors, to increased specific surface area and mesopore volume. TTNTs are mesoporous materials with two main contributions: pores smaller than 10 nm due to the inner volume of nanotubes and larger pores within 5-60 nm attributed to the interparticles space. Chemical composition and crystal structure of TTNTs do not depend on the average crystal size of the precursor TiO2-anatase, but this parameter affects significantly the morphology and textural properties of the nanostructured product. Such dependence has been rationalized using a dissolution-recrystallization mechanism, which takes into account the dissolution rate of the starting anatase and its influence on the relative rates of growth and curving of intermediate nanosheets. The thermal stability of TTNT is defined by the sodium content and in a lower extent by the crystallinity of the starting anatase. It has been demonstrated that after losing interlayer water within the range 100-200ºC, TTNT transforms, at least partially, into an intermediate hexatitanate NaxH2−xTi6O13 still retaining the nanotubular morphology. Further thermal transformation of the nanostructured tri- and hexatitanates occurs at higher or lower temperature and follows different routes depending on the sodium content in the structure. At high sodium load (water washed samples) they sinter and grow towards bigger crystals of Na2Ti3O7 and Na2Ti6O13 in the form of rods and ribbons. In contrast, protonated TTNTs evolve to nanotubes of TiO2(B), which easily convert to anatase nanorods above 400ºC. Besides hydroxyls and Lewis acidity typical of titanium oxides, TTNTs show a small contribution of protonic acidity capable of coordinating with pyridine at 150ºC, which is lost after calcination and conversion into anatase. The isoeletric point of TTNTs was measured within the range 2.5-4.0, indicating behavior of a weak acid. Despite displaying semiconductor characteristics exhibiting typical absorption in the UV-Vis spectrum with estimated bandgap energy slightly higher than that of its TiO2 precursor, TTNTs showed very low performance in the photocatalytic degradation of cationic and anionic dyes. It was concluded that the basic reason resides in its layered titanate structure, which in comparison with the TiO2 form would be more prone to the so undesired electron-hole pair recombination, thus inhibiting the photooxidation reactions. After calcination of the protonated TTNT into anatase nanorods, the photocatalytic activity improved but not to the same level as that exhibited by its precursor anatase

Estimativa da profundidade do embasamento na bacia potiguar usando inversão gravimétrica

The gravity inversion method is a mathematic process that can be used to estimate the basement relief of a sedimentary basin. However, the inverse problem in potential-field methods has neither a unique nor a stable solution, so additional information (other than gravity measurements) must be supplied by the interpreter to transform this problem into a well-posed one. This dissertation presents the application of a gravity inversion method to estimate the basement relief of the onshore Potiguar Basin. The density contrast between sediments and basament is assumed to be known and constant. The proposed methodology consists of discretizing the sedimentary layer into a grid of rectangular juxtaposed prisms whose thicknesses correspond to the depth to basement which is the parameter to be estimated. To stabilize the inversion I introduce constraints in accordance with the known geologic information. The method minimizes an objective function of the model that requires not only the model to be smooth and close to the seismic-derived model, which is used as a reference model, but also to honor well-log constraints. The latter are introduced through the use of logarithmic barrier terms in the objective function. The inversion process was applied in order to simulate different phases during the exploration development of a basin. The methodology consisted in applying the gravity inversion in distinct scenarios: the first one used only gravity data and a plain reference model; the second scenario was divided in two cases, we incorporated either borehole logs information or seismic model into the process. Finally I incorporated the basement depth generated by seismic interpretation into the inversion as a reference model and imposed depth constraint from boreholes using the primal logarithmic barrier method. As a result, the estimation of the basement relief in every scenario has satisfactorily reproduced the basin framework, and the incorporation of the constraints led to improve depth basement definition. The joint use of surface gravity data, seismic imaging and borehole logging information makes the process more robust and allows an improvement in the estimate, providing a result closer to the actual basement relief. In addition, I would like to remark that the result obtained in the first scenario already has provided a very coherent basement relief when compared to the known basin framework. This is significant information, when comparing the differences in the costs and environment impact related to gravimetric and seismic surveys and also the well drillings