Sistema inteligente para apoio à decisão na operação de uma malha de escoamento de petróleo

The petroleum production pipeline networks are inherently complex, usually decentralized systems. Strict operational constraints are applied in order to prevent serious problems like environmental disasters or production losses. This paper describes an intelligent system to support decisions in the operation of these networks, proposing a staggering for the pumps of transfer stations that compose them. The intelligent system is formed by blocks which interconnect to process the information and generate the suggestions to the operator. The main block of the system uses fuzzy logic to provide a control based on rules, which incorporate knowledge from experts. Tests performed in the simulation environment provided good results, indicating the applicability of the system in a real oil production environment. The use of the stagger proposed by the system allows a prioritization of the transfer in the network and a flow programming

Optical Waveguides and Structures for Short Haul Optical Communication Channels within Printed Circuit Boards

Optical waveguides have shown promising results for use within printed circuit boards. These optical waveguides have higher bandwidth than traditional copper transmission systems and are immune to electromagnetic interference. Design parameters for these optical waveguides are needed to ensure an optimal link budget. Modeling and simulation methods are used to determine the optimal design parameters needed in designing the waveguides. As a result, optical structures necessary for incorporating optical waveguides into printed circuit boards are designed and optimized. Embedded siloxane polymer waveguides are investigated for their use in optical printed circuit boards. This material was chosen because it has low absorption, high temperature stability, and can be deposited using common processing techniques. Two sizes of waveguides are investigated, 50 $unit{mu m}$ multimode and 4 - 9 $unit{mu m}$ single mode waveguides. A beam propagation method is developed for simulating the multimode and single mode waveguide parameters. The attenuation of simulated multimode waveguides are able to match the attenuation of fabricated waveguides with a root mean square error of 0.192 dB. Using the same process as the multimode waveguides, parameters needed to ensure a low link loss are found for single mode waveguides including maximum size, minimum cladding thickness, minimum waveguide separation, and minimum bend radius. To couple light out-of-plane to a transmitter or receiver, a structure such as a vertical interconnect assembly (VIA) is required. For multimode waveguides the optimal placement of a total internal reflection mirror can be found without prior knowledge of the waveguide length. The optimal placement is found to be either 60 µm or 150 µm away from the end of the waveguide depending on which metric a designer wants to optimize the average output power, the output power variance, or the maximum possible power loss. For single mode waveguides a volume grating coupler is designed to couple light from a silicon waveguide to a polymer single mode waveguide. A focusing grating coupler is compared to a perpendicular grating coupler that is focused by a micro-molded lens. The focusing grating coupler had an optical loss of over -14 dB, while the grating coupler with a lens had an optical loss of -6.26 dB.

Computer Aided Design Algorithmic Technique for Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit Design and Smart Home Embedded System Design

To tackle the challenges at circuit level and system level VLSI and embedded system design, this dissertation proposes various novel algorithms to explore the efficient solutions. At the circuit level, a new reliability-driven minimum cost Steiner routing and layer assignment scheme is proposed, and the first transceiver insertion algorithmic framework for the optical interconnect is proposed. At the system level, a reliability-driven task scheduling scheme for multiprocessor real-time embedded systems, which optimizes system energy consumption under stochastic fault occurrences, is proposed. The embedded system design is also widely used in the smart home area for improving health, wellbeing and quality of life. The proposed scheduling scheme for multiprocessor embedded systems is hence extended to handle the energy consumption scheduling issues for smart homes. The extended scheme can arrange the household appliances for operation to minimize monetary expense of a customer based on the time-varying pricing model.

Direct Write Fabrication of Waveguides and Interconnects for Optical Printed Wiring Boards

Current copper based circuit technology is becoming a limiting factor in high speed data transfer applications as processors are improving at a faster rate than are developments to increase on board data transfer. One solution is to utilize optical waveguide technology to overcome these bandwidth and loss restrictions. The use of this technology virtually eliminates the heat and cross-talk loss seen in copper circuitry, while also operating at a higher bandwidth. Transitioning current fabrication techniques from small scale laboratory environments to large scale manufacturing presents significant challenges. Optical-to-electrical connections and out-of-plane coupling are significant hurdles in the advancement of optical interconnects. The main goals of this research are the development of direct write material deposition and patterning tools for the fabrication of waveguide systems on large substrates, and the development of out-of-plane coupler components compatible with standard fiber optic cabling. Combining these elements with standard printed circuit boards allows for the fabrication of fully functional optical-electrical-printed-wiring-boards (OEPWBs). A direct dispense tool was designed, assembled, and characterized for the repeatable dispensing of blanket waveguide layers over a range of thicknesses (25-225 µm), eliminating waste material and affording the ability to utilize large substrates. This tool was used to directly dispense multimode waveguide cores which required no UV definition or development. These cores had circular cross sections and were comparable in optical performance to lithographically fabricated square waveguides. Laser direct writing is a non-contact process that allows for the dynamic UV patterning of waveguide material on large substrates, eliminating the need for high resolution masks. A laser direct write tool was designed, assembled, and characterized for direct write patterning waveguides that were comparable in quality to those produced using standard lithographic practices (0.047 dB/cm loss for laser written waveguides compared to 0.043 dB/cm for lithographic waveguides). Straight waveguides, and waveguide turns were patterned at multimode and single mode sizes, and the process was characterized and documented. Support structures such as angled reflectors and vertical posts were produced, showing the versatility of the laser direct write tool. Commercially available components were implanted into the optical layer for out-of-plane routing of the optical signals. These devices featured spherical lenses on the input and output sides of a total internal reflection (TIR) mirror, as well as alignment pins compatible with standard MT design. Fully functional OEPWBs were fabricated featuring input and output out-of-plane optical signal routing with total optical losses not exceeding 10 dB. These prototypes survived thermal cycling (-40°C to 85°C) and humidity exposure (95±4% humidity), showing minimal degradation in optical performance. Operational failure occurred after environmental aging life testing at 110°C for 216 hours.

Host and Network Optimizations for Performance Enhancement and Energy Efficiency in Data Center Networks

Modern data centers host hundreds of thousands of servers to achieve economies of scale. Such a huge number of servers create challenges for the data center network (DCN) to provide proportionally large bandwidth. In addition, the deployment of virtual machines (VMs) in data centers raises the requirements for efficient resource allocation and find-grained resource sharing. Further, the large number of servers and switches in the data center consume significant amounts of energy. Even though servers become more energy efficient with various energy saving techniques, DCN still accounts for 20% to 50% of the energy consumed by the entire data center. The objective of this dissertation is to enhance DCN performance as well as its energy efficiency by conducting optimizations on both host and network sides. First, as the DCN demands huge bisection bandwidth to interconnect all the servers, we propose a parallel packet switch (PPS) architecture that directly processes variable length packets without segmentation-and-reassembly (SAR). The proposed PPS achieves large bandwidth by combining switching capacities of multiple fabrics, and it further improves the switch throughput by avoiding padding bits in SAR. Second, since certain resource demands of the VM are bursty and demonstrate stochastic nature, to satisfy both deterministic and stochastic demands in VM placement, we propose the Max-Min Multidimensional Stochastic Bin Packing (M3SBP) algorithm. M3SBP calculates an equivalent deterministic value for the stochastic demands, and maximizes the minimum resource utilization ratio of each server. Third, to provide necessary traffic isolation for VMs that share the same physical network adapter, we propose the Flow-level Bandwidth Provisioning (FBP) algorithm. By reducing the flow scheduling problem to multiple stages of packet queuing problems, FBP guarantees the provisioned bandwidth and delay performance for each flow. Finally, while DCNs are typically provisioned with full bisection bandwidth, DCN traffic demonstrates fluctuating patterns, we propose a joint host-network optimization scheme to enhance the energy efficiency of DCNs during off-peak traffic hours. The proposed scheme utilizes a unified representation method that converts the VM placement problem to a routing problem and employs depth-first and best-fit search to find efficient paths for flows.

Arquiteturas do trigo: espaços de silagem no Alentejo, do século XIX à atualidade

O presente trabalho de investigação apresenta um estudo sistemático da expressão arquitetónica que teve na região do Alentejo a implantação agro-industrial da cultura do trigo, em especial, durante a "Campanha do Trigo", iniciada em 1929 e prosseguida durante o Estado Novo, até 1969. Para tanto, procede ao mapeamento dos elementos edificados, em ligação com os processos de produção, silagem e moagem industrial do trigo, bem como ao seu transporte, estabelecendo uma análise comparativa com outras regiões e países, com o intuito de revelar o impacto destes equipamentos nos diversos territórios e paisagens. Assim, procura-se compreender as relações que se estabeleceram entre a forma arquitetónica do silo (cujo desenho resulta fundamentalmente de uma resposta programática intrinsecamente ligada à sua função primordial - armazenamento do cereal) e os lugares, onde se implantaram e com os quais se procuraram articular, e as paisagens, com as quais perspetivaram dialogar. Para tal, procede-se a descrição do estado atual de cada exemplar das denominadas "arquiteturas do trigo", com o objetivo de gerar, num primeiro nível, o entendimento de cada caso em particular e, posteriormente, estabelecer, por efeito de comparação, um confronto, quer entre os diferentes contextos em que se inserem, quer entre as suas caraterísticas formais, de modo a tirar ilações que possibilitem problematizar o seu uso futuro, equacionando diferentes perspetivas de atuação sobre o edificado. Finalmente procura-se introduzir uma discussão segundo diferentes orientações e posicionamentos, de modo a invocar perspetivas de atuação sobre os silos, que se adequem a cada situação específica, a cada contexto e a cada lugar. É no confronto entre as abordagens enunciadas, que se evidencia, mais do que a pertinência, a emergência social e cultural de uma ação diligente, quer ao nível particular de cada peça silar, quer do sistema, do qual era parte integrante a linha de caminho de ferro, que através do seu traçado permitia interligar todas as peças silares e garantir o seu funcionamento a escala industrial; ABSTRACT: This research presents a systematic study of architectural expression of wheat crop agro-industrial development, in particular the "Wheat Campaign", started in 1929 and continue during the "New State", until 1969. We first proceed to map the built elements related to production processes, silage and wheat industrial grinding, as well as the ways of transportation, establishing a comparative analysis with other countries and regions, in order to reveal the impact of these objects in various territories and landscapes. We seek to understand the relationships between the architectural form of the silo (whose design is mainly a result of an intrinsically programmatic response linked to its primary function - cereal storage) and the places where they are implemented and the landscapes which they sought to communicate and articulate. Secondly, we describe the current status of each copy of the "wheat architectures" in Alentejo, with the main objective of attain, at first, the understanding of each particular case and, then, to establish a connection between the different contexts in which they operate and their formal characteristics, in order to conceive and discuss their future use, equating different perspectives of action in the buildings. Finally seeks to introduce a discussion according to different orientations and positions in order to invoke prospects for action on the grain elevators that are appropriate to each specific situation, every context and every place. It is the clash between the stated approaches, which shows more than the relevance, it shows social and cultural emergence of a diligent action on the particular level of each grain elevator on the system, which was an integral part of the railway, which through its tracing allowed to interconnect all grain elevators and assure its operation on an industrial scale