Aplicação dos conceitos de RCM e a ferramenta FMEA no aumento de confiabilidade em equipamentos de uma indústria química

The growing demand for quality at competitive prices and fast production process put to the test function in the industrial Maintenance. The need for equipment with high availability to fit this fierce competitiveness makes maintenance becomes essentially reliable. Despite this current context, many companies still have an old view of maintenance, focused only on corrective services, and proposals for change are often neglected due to the sense of urgency day to day. Thus, this study aims to demonstrate through theoretical applicability of simple tool, but of great value in increasing reliability within the maintenance sector of an industry, applying the concepts of Reliability Centered Maintenance – RCM and Analysis tool Failure Modes and Effects – FMEA in equipment of a chemical company directly involved in the manufacturing process of the brake fluid, which this product is used in vehicles around the country. That way, you can identify the types, occurrence and criticality of each failure and evaluate assertively decision making for each device, avoiding unnecessary downtime and potential failures of the same

Avaliação ambiental em empresas do distrito industrial Antônio Crepaldi, Presidente Prudente/SP

The sustainable development is the center of many discussions about the environment, economy and society. Environmental issues bring out problems with the fauna and flora, water resources, land use, population growth, residues, basic sanitation, and others. In this sense, the aim of the present work was to develop an environmental diagnostics and propose measures to mitigate the most significant environmental impacts generated by four enterprises in Antonio Crepaldi Industrial District, located at the city of Presidente Prudente/SP. In the study, it was used the methodology proposed by Moreira (2006), and it was done the following activities: monitoring and analyses of the production process, identification of potential environmental aspects and impacts; assessment of the impacts according to its nature, relevance and significance; proposition of measures to mitigate the critical impacts. As a final result, it was obtained an environmental diagnosis about the situation of each of the four companies studied, and it was possible to know the level of criticality of the impacts in each one, and proposing mitigation measures to control or minimizing them, bringing many benefits to the organization

Análise dinâmica e estrutural de virabrequim

This paper deals with static analysis and dynamic stress of an ensemble crank and crankshaft, contained within a combustion engine of 4 cylinders. Aimed to illustrate procedures for computer-aided analysis having as goal the optimization of components according to the need for the market demand. Thus, to work in static and dynamic analyzes were summarized the basic theory involved in the calculations and analyzes necessary actuation forces and held a brief introduction about the manufacturing process and forging. Subsequently, it was applied with the use of software in a case the crankshaft, to obtain the performance and structural dynamic thereof. There was a conservative result and critical points in the fillet of the crankshaft bearing, as well as for lubrication hole. It was concluded that there are possibilities for improvements in the manufacturing process and design optimization in order to provide lower criticality and a more robust part

Estudo das propriedades mecânicas do aço SAE 1312 modificado ao nióbio

The study of mechanical properties of high-alloy special steels is of great interest of the steel industry due to the great demand by companies that manufacture automotive components of high criticality, and also because of its high commercial value. However, the development of this type of alloy metals demand highly technical knowledge. Among these extremely important kinds of steel, the subject which is the interest of this study is the special steel modified by niobium. The manganese and niobium are the main alloying elements in the composition of these steels, both of them increase the stability of the austenite region, however, manganese increases the hardenability and tensile yield strength, and niobium increases the mechanical strength and promotes refining the grain. The mechanical characterization of steel SAE 1312 modified the niobium was made in order to gain a better understanding of the influence on the mechanical properties caused by aging at different temperatures and for different reductions in the drawing of gauge material. This characterization was made by means of tensile test and hardness. This material showed an increase in yield strength and hardness when gauge with large reductions during the wiredrawing, but when subjected to aging temperatures higher than 300 ° C had a slight loss of these properties

Gestão da Manutenção Centrada na Confiabilidade em Pontes Rolantes

The objective of this work is to perform a study applying the methodology of Reliability Centered Maintenance - MCC to a group of cranes belonging to Amsted -Maxion in Cruzeiro - SP. The work consists of a presentation of maintenance, the reasons why more and more people worry about maintenance, making a presentation on the types of maintenance, its peculiar characteristics and then do a study where you identified the functionality required by the equipment under study, identified failure modes and their probable causes, and then detail the effects and consequences of these failures. With that evaluate the criticality of these failures and identify the most significant consequences that affect safety, availability or cost of equipment operation and allow a selection of the most appropriate tasks for the identified failure modes. We will also present best crane equipment, its main components, verify that there was or not improvement in the machine after the application of MCC and make a current analysis of maintenance in Amsted -Maxion

Melhoria nas forças restaurativas do equilíbrio do gerador de indução duplamente alimentado por meio de controle da tensão interna

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

Probing the Mott physics in kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)X salts via thermal expansion

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A dissipative Fermi-Ulam model under two different kinds of dissipation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Projeto de Futuro na dimensão sócio afetiva: como se constroem as percepções de alunos(as) do Ensino Secundário em Portugal e do Ensino Médio no Brasil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Quantum-Critical Spin Dynamics in Quasi-One-Dimensional Antiferromagnets

By means of nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate T-1(-1), we follow the spin dynamics as a function of the applied magnetic field in two gapped quasi-one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets: the anisotropic spin-chain system NiCl2-4SC(NH2)(2) and the spin-ladder system (C5H12N)(2)CuBr4. In both systems, spin excitations are confirmed to evolve from magnons in the gapped state to spinons in the gapless Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid state. In between, T-1(-1) exhibits a pronounced, continuous variation, which is shown to scale in accordance with quantum criticality. We extract the critical exponent for T-1(-1), compare it to the theory, and show that this behavior is identical in both studied systems, thus demonstrating the universality of quantum-critical behavior.

A decaying factor accounts for contained activity in neuronal networks with no need of hierarchical or modular organization

The mechanisms responsible for containing activity in systems represented by networks are crucial in various phenomena, for example, in diseases such as epilepsy that affect the neuronal networks and for information dissemination in social networks. The first models to account for contained activity included triggering and inhibition processes, but they cannot be applied to social networks where inhibition is clearly absent. A recent model showed that contained activity can be achieved with no need of inhibition processes provided that the network is subdivided into modules (communities). In this paper, we introduce a new concept inspired in the Hebbian theory, through which containment of activity is achieved by incorporating a dynamics based on a decaying activity in a random walk mechanism preferential to the node activity. Upon selecting the decay coefficient within a proper range, we observed sustained activity in all the networks tested, namely, random, Barabasi-Albert and geographical networks. The generality of this finding was confirmed by showing that modularity is no longer needed if the dynamics based on the integrate-and-fire dynamics incorporated the decay factor. Taken together, these results provide a proof of principle that persistent, restrained network activation might occur in the absence of any particular topological structure. This may be the reason why neuronal activity does not spread out to the entire neuronal network, even when no special topological organization exists.

Mesoscale dynamics and boundary-layer structure in topographically forced low-level jets

Two types of mesoscale wind-speed jet and their effects on boundary-layer structure were studied. The first is a coastal jet off the northern California coast, and the second is a katabatic jet over Vatnajökull, Iceland. Coastal regions are highly populated, and studies of coastal meteorology are of general interest for environmental protection, fishing industry, and for air and sea transportation. Not so many people live in direct contact with glaciers but properties of katabatic flows are important for understanding glacier response to climatic changes. Hence, the two jets can potentially influence a vast number of people. Flow response to terrain forcing, transient behavior in time and space, and adherence to simplified theoretical models were examined. The turbulence structure in these stably stratified boundary layers was also investigated. Numerical modeling is the main tool in this thesis; observations are used primarily to ensure a realistic model behavior. Simple shallow-water theory provides a useful framework for analyzing high-velocity flows along mountainous coastlines, but for an unexpected reason. Waves are trapped in the inversion by the curvature of the wind-speed profile, rather than by an infinite stability in the inversion separating two neutral layers, as assumed in the theory. In the absence of blocking terrain, observations of steady-state supercritical flows are not likely, due to the diurnal variation of flow criticality. In many simplified models, non-local processes are neglected. In the flows studied here, we showed that this is not always a valid approximation. Discrepancies between simulated katabatic flow and that predicted by an analytical model are hypothesized to be due to non-local effects, such as surface inhomogeneity and slope geometry, neglected in the theory. On a different scale, a reason for variations in the shape of local similarity scaling functions between studies is suggested to be differences in non-local contributions to the velocity variance budgets.

Neutronics analyses for fast spectrum nuclear systems and scenario studies for advanced nuclear fuel cycles

The present PhD thesis summarizes the three-years study about the neutronic investigation of a new concept nuclear reactor aiming at the optimization and the sustainable management of nuclear fuel in a possible European scenario. A new generation nuclear reactor for the nuclear reinassance is indeed desired by the actual industrialized world, both for the solution of the energetic question arising from the continuously growing energy demand together with the corresponding reduction of oil availability, and the environment question for a sustainable energy source free from Long Lived Radioisotopes and therefore geological repositories. Among the Generation IV candidate typologies, the Lead Fast Reactor concept has been pursued, being the one top rated in sustainability. The European Lead-cooled SYstem (ELSY) has been at first investigated. The neutronic analysis of the ELSY core has been performed via deterministic analysis by means of the ERANOS code, in order to retrieve a stable configuration for the overall design of the reactor. Further analyses have been carried out by means of the Monte Carlo general purpose transport code MCNP, in order to check the former one and to define an exact model of the system. An innovative system of absorbers has been conceptualized and designed for both the reactivity compensation and regulation of the core due to cycle swing, as well as for safety in order to guarantee the cold shutdown of the system in case of accident. Aiming at the sustainability of nuclear energy, the steady-state nuclear equilibrium has been investigated and generalized into the definition of the ``extended'' equilibrium state. According to this, the Adiabatic Reactor Theory has been developed, together with a New Paradigm for Nuclear Power: in order to design a reactor that does not exchange with the environment anything valuable (thus the term ``adiabatic''), in the sense of both Plutonium and Minor Actinides, it is required indeed to revert the logical design scheme of nuclear cores, starting from the definition of the equilibrium composition of the fuel and submitting to the latter the whole core design. The New Paradigm has been applied then to the core design of an Adiabatic Lead Fast Reactor complying with the ELSY overall system layout. A complete core characterization has been done in order to asses criticality and power flattening; a preliminary evaluation of the main safety parameters has been also done to verify the viability of the system. Burn up calculations have been then performed in order to investigate the operating cycle for the Adiabatic Lead Fast Reactor; the fuel performances have been therefore extracted and inserted in a more general analysis for an European scenario. The present nuclear reactors fleet has been modeled and its evolution simulated by means of the COSI code in order to investigate the materials fluxes to be managed in the European region. Different plausible scenarios have been identified to forecast the evolution of the European nuclear energy production, including the one involving the introduction of Adiabatic Lead Fast Reactors, and compared to better analyze the advantages introduced by the adoption of new concept reactors. At last, since both ELSY and the ALFR represent new concept systems based upon innovative solutions, the neutronic design of a demonstrator reactor has been carried out: such a system is intended to prove the viability of technology to be implemented in the First-of-a-Kind industrial power plant, with the aim at attesting the general strategy to use, to the largest extent. It was chosen then to base the DEMO design upon a compromise between demonstration of developed technology and testing of emerging technology in order to significantly subserve the purpose of reducing uncertainties about construction and licensing, both validating ELSY/ALFR main features and performances, and to qualify numerical codes and tools.

Methodological improvement of 3D fluoroscopic analysis for the robust quantification of 3D kinematics of human joints

3D video-fluoroscopy is an accurate but cumbersome technique to estimate natural or prosthetic human joint kinematics. This dissertation proposes innovative methodologies to improve the 3D fluoroscopic analysis reliability and usability. Being based on direct radiographic imaging of the joint, and avoiding soft tissue artefact that limits the accuracy of skin marker based techniques, the fluoroscopic analysis has a potential accuracy of the order of mm/deg or better. It can provide fundamental informations for clinical and methodological applications, but, notwithstanding the number of methodological protocols proposed in the literature, time consuming user interaction is exploited to obtain consistent results. The user-dependency prevented a reliable quantification of the actual accuracy and precision of the methods, and, consequently, slowed down the translation to the clinical practice. The objective of the present work was to speed up this process introducing methodological improvements in the analysis. In the thesis, the fluoroscopic analysis was characterized in depth, in order to evaluate its pros and cons, and to provide reliable solutions to overcome its limitations. To this aim, an analytical approach was followed. The major sources of error were isolated with in-silico preliminary studies as: (a) geometric distortion and calibration errors, (b) 2D images and 3D models resolutions, (c) incorrect contour extraction, (d) bone model symmetries, (e) optimization algorithm limitations, (f) user errors. The effect of each criticality was quantified, and verified with an in-vivo preliminary study on the elbow joint. The dominant source of error was identified in the limited extent of the convergence domain for the local optimization algorithms, which forced the user to manually specify the starting pose for the estimating process. To solve this problem, two different approaches were followed: to increase the optimal pose convergence basin, the local approach used sequential alignments of the 6 degrees of freedom in order of sensitivity, or a geometrical feature-based estimation of the initial conditions for the optimization; the global approach used an unsupervised memetic algorithm to optimally explore the search domain. The performances of the technique were evaluated with a series of in-silico studies and validated in-vitro with a phantom based comparison with a radiostereometric gold-standard. The accuracy of the method is joint-dependent, and for the intact knee joint, the new unsupervised algorithm guaranteed a maximum error lower than 0.5 mm for in-plane translations, 10 mm for out-of-plane translation, and of 3 deg for rotations in a mono-planar setup; and lower than 0.5 mm for translations and 1 deg for rotations in a bi-planar setups. The bi-planar setup is best suited when accurate results are needed, such as for methodological research studies. The mono-planar analysis may be enough for clinical application when the analysis time and cost may be an issue. A further reduction of the user interaction was obtained for prosthetic joints kinematics. A mixed region-growing and level-set segmentation method was proposed and halved the analysis time, delegating the computational burden to the machine. In-silico and in-vivo studies demonstrated that the reliability of the new semiautomatic method was comparable to a user defined manual gold-standard. The improved fluoroscopic analysis was finally applied to a first in-vivo methodological study on the foot kinematics. Preliminary evaluations showed that the presented methodology represents a feasible gold-standard for the validation of skin marker based foot kinematics protocols.

Integration of MFA and LCA methodologies: the anthropogenic aluminium cycle in Italy

MFA and LCA methodologies were applied to analyse the anthropogenic aluminium cycle in Italy with focus on historical evolution of stocks and flows of the metal, embodied GHG emissions, and potentials from recycling to provide key features to Italy for prioritizing industrial policy toward low-carbon technologies and materials. Historical trend series were collected from 1947 to 2009 and balanced with data from production, manufacturing and waste management of aluminium-containing products, using a ‘top-down’ approach to quantify the contemporary in-use stock of the metal, and helping to identify ‘applications where aluminium is not yet being recycled to its full potential and to identify present and future recycling flows’. The MFA results were used as a basis for the LCA aimed at evaluating the carbon footprint evolution, from primary and electrical energy, the smelting process and the transportation, embodied in the Italian aluminium. A discussion about how the main factors, according to the Kaya Identity equation, they did influence the Italian GHG emissions pattern over time, and which are the levers to mitigate it, it has been also reported. The contemporary anthropogenic reservoirs of aluminium was estimated at about 320 kg per capita, mainly embedded within the transportation and building and construction sectors. Cumulative in-use stock represents approximately 11 years of supply at current usage rates (about 20 Mt versus 1.7 Mt/year), and it would imply a potential of about 160 Mt of CO2eq emissions savings. A discussion of criticality related to aluminium waste recovery from the transportation and the containers and packaging sectors was also included in the study, providing an example for how MFA and LCA may support decision-making at sectorial or regional level. The research constitutes the first attempt of an integrated approach between MFA and LCA applied to the aluminium cycle in Italy.