Free convection about cylinders of elliptic cross section embedded in a porous medium

Numerical solutions are presented for the free convection boundary layers over cylinders of elliptic cross section embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The transformed conservation equations of the nonsimilar boundary layers are solved numerically by an efficient finite-difference method. The theory was applied to a number of cylinders and the results compared very well with published analytical solutions. The results are of use in the design of underground electrical cables, power plant steam, and water distribution lines, among others.

Obtenção de uma porcelana dielétrica a partir de matérias-primas do Rio Grande do Norte

The dielectric porcelain is usually obtained by mixing various raw materials proportions and is used in the production of electronic equipment for various applications, from capacitors of high and low Power to insulators for low, medium, high and extra high voltage, which are used in distribution lines and transmission of electricity.This work was directed to the s tudy of technological properties of technic porcelain, made from raw materials extracted from pegmatites found in the regions of Seridó and the Alto Oeste of Rio Grande do Norte, which are made of kaolin, quartz and feldspar, abundant and high quality in these regions. The technic ceramics were obtained by mixing in appropriate levels, kaolin, feldspar, quartz and clay, the last item from a pottery in the city of Sao Gonçalo do Amarante, Rio Grande do Norte. During the development the following characterizations correlated to raw materials were made: laser particle sizing, x-ray diffraction, DTA and TG. The compositions studied were formed by uniaxial pressing at a pressure of 50 MPa and sintered at temperatures ranging from 1150 to 1350ºC and levels (times) of sintering between 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The characterization of the samples were taken from the analysis of weight loss, linear shrinkage, porosity, stoneware curve, bulk density, flexural strength of three points, SEM and X-ray diffraction, TMA, Dielectric and cross Resistivity. The studied materials can be employed in producing the objects used in electrical engineering such as: insulators for low, medium and high-voltage electrical systems, command devices, bushing insulation for transformers, power capacitors, spark plugs, receptacles for fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs and others

Accountability in Smart Microgrids Based on Conservative Power Theory

Smart microgrids offer a new challenging domain for power theories and metering techniques because they include a variety of intermittent power sources which positively impact on power flow and distribution losses but may cause voltage asymmetry and frequency variation. In smart microgrids, the voltage distortion and asymmetry in presence of poly-phase nonlinear loads can be also greater than in usual distribution lines fed by the utility, thus affecting measurement accuracy and possibly causing tripping of protections. In such a context, a reconsideration of power theories is required since they form the basis for supply and load characterization. A revision of revenue metering techniques is also suggested to ensure a correct penalization of the loads for their responsibility in generating reactive power, voltage asymmetry, and distortion. This paper shows that the conservative power theory provides a suitable background to cope with smart grids characterization and metering needs. Simulation and experimental results show the properties of the proposed approach.

Consumo e custo de energia elétrica na cultura de citros irrigado por gotejamento e microaspersão, com três lâminas de água

The objective of this work was to analyze the consumption, electric energy cost, and economic results of irrigated citrus (Citrus sinensis). The treatments consisted of a dripping irrigation system with one and two lateral distribution lines, a micro sprinkler irrigation system and a treatment without irrigation. For each irrigation system, three water depths were used: 100%, 75% and 50% of Etc (citrus evapotranspiration). The electric energy cost for two tariff groups, Group A and Group B, was studied. For Group A, the expenses with energy were determined for the Conventional Binomial Structure tariff, the Hour-seasonal tariff (green and blue) and the special tariff for nocturnal irrigation. The kWh cost for the tariff systems were obtained from the website of CPFL (São Paulo State Power and Light Company, Brazil). The best relation between the electric energy consumption (kWh.ha -1) and productivity (t.ha -1) occurred in the treatment irrigated with 50% of the Etc. The irrigated treatments increased productivity. The biggest productivity was observed in the irrigation treatments with 50% of the Etc when compared to the ones with 100% of the Etc. The blue and green Hour-seasonal tariff system of Group A (nocturnal irrigation) was the best option. A biggest economic turnover occurred in the treatments irrigated with 50% of the Etc.

Variabilidade Espacial da Umidade do Solo em Irrigação por Gotejamento Sob Cultivo Protegido

Foi estudada a variabilidade espacial da umidade do solo num sistema de irrigação por gotejamento em uma estufa (5,0 x 20,0m) na Fazenda Experimental São Manuel, da Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Foi estabelecida a malha de amostragem no espaçamento de 1,0 x 0,5m, acrescida de quatro adensamentos de 0,25m. Foram utilizados dados da umidade do solo em 178 pontos. A análise da dependência espacial foi obtida com o auxílio do Programa GS+. Foi construído o variograma experimental e definido o modelo de ajuste, de modo que a curva que melhor se ajustou aos pontos obtidos representasse a magnitude, alcance e intensidade da variabilidade espacial da variável estudada. A umidade do solo apresentou distribuição espacial anisotrópica. Para a direção 0°, pode-se notar uma dependência espacial caracterizada como alta, com o alcance de aproximadamente 3,30m, no sentido do comprimento da estufa. Entretanto, no sentido da largura da estufa, não foi possível ajustar modelos. Utilizando a representação gráfica da superfície, a área estudada apresentou um maior teor de água na parte inicial e menor na parte final das linhas de distribuição de água. A krigagem mostrou-se um bom interpolador para mapeamento da umidade do solo.

Pós-processamento de formas de ondas oriundas de descargas atmosféricas no Centro de Estudos de Descargas Atmosféricas e Alta Tensão (CENDAT) – IEE/USP

Atmospheric Discharges are responsible for several lost in the electrical system therefore it´s done studies to find ways to reduce the problem caused by discharges. This branch of engineering is necessary the gathering, stock and analysis of large quantity of data to validate or refuse the many studies produced about it The CENDAT proposed a project to collect data on induced voltages in distribution lines and current waveform of the lightning, but a difficulty that arose was the accumulation of data due to lack of manpower available to catalog all the data collected. Thinking in this difficulty, the engineer Acacio Silva Neto CENDAT´s researcher with trainees began to develop a program to solve this problem. This work keeps the development of this program in order to solve the problem of accumulation of data

Cinética de degradação do sistema resina epóxi/fibra de carbono

With the increasing demand for electricity, the retraining of transmission lines is necessary despite environmental restrictions and crossings in densely populated areas to build new transmission and distribution lines. Solution is reuse the existent cables, replacing the old conductor cables for new cables with higher capacity power transmission, and control of sag installed. The increasing demand for electrical power has increased the electric current on the wires and therefore, it must bear out temperatures of 150°C or more, without the risk of the increasing sag beyond the established limits. In the case of long crossings or densely populated areas, sag is due to high weight of the cable on clearance. The cable type determines the weight, sag, height and the towers dimensions, which are the items that most influence the investment of the transmission line. Hence, to reduce both cost of investment and maintenance of the line, the use of a lighter cable can reduce both number and the height of the towers, with financial return on short and long term. Therefore, in order to increase the amount of transmitted energy and reduce the number of built towers and sag, is recommended in the current work substitute the current core material (steel or aluminium) for alternatives alloys or new materials, in this case a composite, which has low density, elevated stiffness (elasticity module), thus apply the pultruded carbon fiber with epoxy resin as matrix systems and perform the study of the kinetics of degradation by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), according to their respective standards

Perda de carga em reduções concêntricas de PVC

In the pumping pipelines the located load losses are very important since they have direct influence on hydraulic design of an irrigation system, especially regarding the concentric reducers used in the distribution lines. Hence this work was conducted in the Laboratório de Hidráulica do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Uberaba. We analyzed 03 concentric reducers PVC 75 x 50 mm, 50 mm and 35 x 35 x 1 "operating at different flow rates. The performance of the tests with the variation of flow in every situation possible to obtain equations to estimate the loss. The equation models presented a high setting, thus enabling the determination of the localized head loss in a situation closer to field reality. For the reduction of 75 x 50 x 35 mm and 50 mm at a flow rate 16.97 m³ h-1 the pressure drop reduction was obtained respectively 0.9263 and 2.7408 mca. To the reduction of 35 x 1 "at a flow rate of 6.02 m³ h-1 was obtained 2.9304 mca pressure drop reduction. The located losses produced by these reductions are relatively high and should be considered with great discretion in hydraulic design of the irrigation system.

A voltage disturbances prototype for testing electrical generators connected to microgrids

The search for new energy models arises as a necessity to have a sustainable power supply. The inclusion of distributed generation sources (DG) allows to reduce the cost of facilities, increase the security of the grid or alleviate problems of congestion through the redistribution of power flows. In remote microgrids it is needed in a particular way a safe and reliable supply, which can cover the demand for a low cost; due to this, distributed generation is an alternative that is being widely introduced in these grids. But the remote microgrids are especially weak grids because of their small size, low voltage level, reduced network mesh and distribution lines with a high ratio R/X. This ratio affects the coupling between grid voltages and phase shifts, and stability becomes an issue of greater importance than in interconnected systems. To ensure the appropriate behavior of generation sources inserted in remote microgrids -and, in general, any electrical equipment-, it is essential to have devices for testing and certification. These devices must, not only faithfully reproduce disturbances occurring in remote microgrids, but also to behave against the equipment under test (EUT) as a real weak grid. This also makes the device commercially competitive. To meet these objectives and based on the aforementioned, it has been designed, built and tested a voltage disturbances generator, in order to provide a simple, versatile, full and easily scalable device to manufacturers and laboratories in the sector.

Contribuições para estratégia de controle aplicada à geração fotovoltaica interconectada à rede elétrica

Generation systems, using renewable sources, are becoming increasingly popular due to the need for increased use of electricity. Currently, renewables sources have a role to cooperate with conventional generation, due to the system limitation in delivering the required power, the need for reduction of unwanted effects from sources that use fossil fuels (pollution) and the difficulty of building new transmission and/or distribution lines. This cooperation takes place through distributed generation. Therefore, this work proposes a control strategy for the interconnection of a PV (Photovoltaic) system generation distributed with a three-phase power grid through a connection filter the type LCL. The compensation of power quality at point of common coupling (PCC) is performed ensuring that the mains supply or consume only active power and that his currents have low distorcion. Unlike traditional techniques which require schemes for harmonic detection, the technique performs the harmonic compensation without the use of this schemes, controlling the output currents of the system in an indirect way. So that there is effective control of the DC (Direct Current) bus voltage is used the robust controller mode dual DSMPI (Dual-Sliding Mode-Proportional Integral), that behaves as a sliding mode controller SM-PI (Sliding Mode-Proportional Integral) during the transition and like a conventional PI (Proportional Integral) in the steady-state. For control of current is used to repetitive control strategy, which are used double sequence controllers (DSC) tuned to the fundamental component, the fifth and seventh harmonic. The output phase current are aligned with the phase angle of the utility voltage vector obtained from the use of a SRF-PLL (Synchronous Reference Frame Phase-Locked-Loop). In order to obtain the maximum power from the PV array is used a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm without the need for adding sensors. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system.

Obtenção de uma porcelana dielétrica a partir de matérias-primas do Rio Grande do Norte

The dielectric porcelain is usually obtained by mixing various raw materials proportions and is used in the production of electronic equipment for various applications, from capacitors of high and low Power to insulators for low, medium, high and extra high voltage, which are used in distribution lines and transmission of electricity.This work was directed to the s tudy of technological properties of technic porcelain, made from raw materials extracted from pegmatites found in the regions of Seridó and the Alto Oeste of Rio Grande do Norte, which are made of kaolin, quartz and feldspar, abundant and high quality in these regions. The technic ceramics were obtained by mixing in appropriate levels, kaolin, feldspar, quartz and clay, the last item from a pottery in the city of Sao Gonçalo do Amarante, Rio Grande do Norte. During the development the following characterizations correlated to raw materials were made: laser particle sizing, x-ray diffraction, DTA and TG. The compositions studied were formed by uniaxial pressing at a pressure of 50 MPa and sintered at temperatures ranging from 1150 to 1350ºC and levels (times) of sintering between 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The characterization of the samples were taken from the analysis of weight loss, linear shrinkage, porosity, stoneware curve, bulk density, flexural strength of three points, SEM and X-ray diffraction, TMA, Dielectric and cross Resistivity. The studied materials can be employed in producing the objects used in electrical engineering such as: insulators for low, medium and high-voltage electrical systems, command devices, bushing insulation for transformers, power capacitors, spark plugs, receptacles for fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs and others

The relationship between the distribution of genetically distinct inbred lines and upper lethal temperature in Lasaea rubra

Lasaea rubra is an inbreeding bivalve species, living at most heights on rocky shores. Freshly collected animals from different shore heights showed significantly different upper median lethal temperatures (MLTs), with upper shore animals having higher MLTs than lower shore specimens. Experiments with animals acclimated for at least one month to a single temperature (15°C) demonstrated that these differences in upper MLT were unaffected by thermal acclimation. Electrophoretic investigation showed that the differences in thermal response had a genetic basis. Homogeneous populations of the high-water inbred line (‘Inbred line A’) had a higher MLT than homogeneous populations of ‘Inbred line C’ which was found on the middle and lower shore. No differences were detected between the MLTs of separate populations of Inbred lines A or C. A third inbred line (‘Inbred line B’) was found on the middle shore, but no homogeneous populations were found. However, indirect evidence suggests that Inbred line B has a thermal response intermediate between those of Inbred lines A and C. Study of populations made up of mixtures of inbred lines confirmed the relationship between upper MLTs and genetic composition of the population.

Non-linear oscillations assessment of the distribution static compensator operating in voltage control mode

This article deals with the non-linear oscillations assessment of a distribution static comensator ooperating in voltage control mode using the bifurcation theory. A mathematical model of the distribution static compensator in the voltage control mode to carry out the bifurcation analysis is derived. The stabiity regions in the Thevein equivalent plane are computed. In addition, the stability regions in the control gains space, as well as the contour lines for different Floquet multipliers are computed. The AC and DC capacitor impacts on the stability are analyzed through the bifurcation theory. The observations are verified through simulaation studies. The computation of the stability region allows the assessment of the stable operating zones for a power system that includes a distribution static compensator operating in the voltage mode.

Compilation of somatic mutations of the CDKN2 gene in human cancers : non-random distribution of base substitutions

The CDKN2 gene, encoding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16, is a tumour suppressor gene that maps to chromosome band 9p21-p22. The most common mechanism of inactivation of this gene in human cancers is through homozygous deletion; however, in a smaller proportion of tumours and tumour cell lines intragenic mutations occur. In this study we have compiled a database of over 120 published point mutations in the CDKN2 gene from a wide variety of tumour types. A further 50 deletions, insertions, and splice mutations in CDKN2 have also been compiled. Furthermore, we have standardised the numbering of all mutations according to the full-length 156 amino acid form of p16. From this study we are able to define several hot spots, some of which occur at conserved residues within the ankyrin domains of p16. While many of the hotspots are shared by a number of cancers, the relative importance of each position varies, possibly reflecting the role of different carcinogens in the development of certain tumours. As reported previously, the mutational spectrum of CDKN2 in melanomas differs from that of internal malignancies and supports the involvement of UV in melanoma tumorigenesis. Notably, 52% of all substitutions in melanoma-derived samples occurred at just six nucleotide positions. Nonsense mutations comprise a comparatively high proportion of mutations present in the CDKN2 gene, and possible explanations for this are discussed.

Generation and characterisation of Cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung cancer cell lines displaying a stem-like signature

Introduction: Inherent and acquired cisplatin resistance reduces the effectiveness of this agent in the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying this process may result in the development of novel agents to enhance the sensitivity of cisplatin. Methods: An isogenic model of cisplatin resistance was generated in a panel of NSCLC cell lines (A549, SKMES-1, MOR, H460). Over a period of twelve months, cisplatin resistant (CisR) cell lines were derived from original, age-matched parent cells (PT) and subsequently characterized. Proliferation (MTT) and clonogenic survival assays (crystal violet) were carried out between PT and CisR cells. Cellular response to cisplatin-induced apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were examined by FACS analysis. A panel of cancer stem cell and pluripotent markers was examined in addition to the EMT proteins, c-Met and β-catenin. Cisplatin-DNA adduct formation, DNA damage (γH2AX) and cellular platinum uptake (ICP-MS) was also assessed. Results: Characterisation studies demonstrated a decreased proliferative capacity of lung tumour cells in response to cisplatin, increased resistance to cisplatin-induced cell death, accumulation of resistant cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle and enhanced clonogenic survival ability. Moreover, resistant cells displayed a putative stem-like signature with increased expression of CD133+/CD44+cells and increased ALDH activity relative to their corresponding parental cells. The stem cell markers, Nanog, Oct-4 and SOX-2, were significantly upregulated as were the EMT markers, c-Met and β-catenin. While resistant sublines demonstrated decreased uptake of cisplatin in response to treatment, reduced cisplatin-GpG DNA adduct formation and significantly decreased γH2AX foci were observed compared to parental cell lines. Conclusion: Our results identified cisplatin resistant subpopulations of NSCLC cells with a putative stem-like signature, providing a further understanding of the cellular events associated with the cisplatin resistance phenotype in lung cancer. © 2013 Barr et al.