Predição da incrustação em um trocador de calor baseada em redes neurais artificiais

A serious problem that affects an oil refinery s processing units is the deposition of solid particles or the fouling on the equipments. These residues are naturally present on the oil or are by-products of chemical reactions during its transport. A fouled heat exchanger loses its capacity to adequately heat the oil, needing to be shut down periodically for cleaning. Previous knowledge of the best period to shut down the exchanger may improve the energetic and production efficiency of the plant. In this work we develop a system to predict the fouling on a heat exchanger from the Potiguar Clara Camarão Refinery, based on data collected in a partnership with Petrobras. Recurrent Neural Networks are used to predict the heat exchanger s flow in future time. This variable is the main indicator of fouling, because its value decreases gradually as the deposits on the tubes reduce their diameter. The prediction could be used to tell when the flow will have decreased under an acceptable value, indicating when the exchanger shutdown for cleaning will be needed

Commissioning of the CMS experiment and the cosmic run at four tesla

The CMS Collaboration conducted a month-long data-taking exercise known as the Cosmic Run At Four Tesla in late 2008 in order to complete the commissioning of the experiment for extended operation. The operational lessons resulting from this exercise were addressed in the subsequent shutdown to better prepare CMS for LHC beams in 2009. The cosmic data collected have been invaluable to study the performance of the detectors, to commission the alignment and calibration techniques, and to make several cosmic ray measurements. The experimental setup, conditions, and principal achievements from this data-taking exercise are described along with a review of the preceding integration activities. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.

Desenvolvimento de um sistema de medição de baixo custo para a monitoração de alimentadores aéreos de distribuição de energia elétrica da classe 15 KV

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Utilização de modelos de falhas e observadores de estado em estruturas reticuladas

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Discurso e classe: mobilidade social refletida no discurso do empresariado calçadista de Franca - SP

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O estudo da influência do ciclo de partidas e paradas no estator de geradores síncronos

Os geradores síncronos se submetem a diferentes situações de paradas para desligamento forçado, desligamento por condições externas, desligamento programado para manutenção corretiva e preventiva. As diferentes variações de temperatura em que se submete o gerador síncrono, precisamente, ao seu estator, afeta o seu isolamento, que não acompanha essas constantes variações, devido ter um coeficiente de dilatação diferente. No presente trabalho busca-se identificar uma tendência de progressão do envelhecimento do isolamento de seus enrolamentos estatóricos em máquinas que sofrem repetitivas partidas e paradas e que ficam com sua reserva de energia desligada por muitas horas. O estudo foi aplicado nos cinco geradores síncronos da usina hidrelétrica de Balbina, pertencente ao grupo Eletrobrás, que apresenta tal problema. Esse estudo vem comprovar os ensaios de análise de descargas parciais dos geradores síncronos realizados periodicamente para diagnosticar problemas nos seus enrolamentos estatóricos que apresentam diferentes magnitudes e confirmar a hipótese de que máquinas que apresentam maiores magnitudes de descargas parciais em seus estatores são as que se submetem maiores quantidades de partidas e paradas e horas com energia de reserva desligada.

Bolsa família em Ananindeua: estudo de caso de devolução do benefício

O presente estudo objetiva compreender o fenômeno da devolução voluntária à transferência de renda condicionada “Bolsa Família”. Tal estudo tem como base a teoria crítico-dialética,utiliza as categorias de Política social, Assistência social, emancipação/autonomia, cidadania, transferência de renda e pobreza. O método adotado é o dialético, a partir do qual se adotará o estudo de caso com entrevistas em profundidade. Os dados obtidos foram tratados através de análise de conteúdo com que consiste em “uma técnica de investigação que tem por finalidade a descrição objetiva, sistemática e quantitativa do conteúdo manifesto da comunicação” a partir de procedimentos sistemáticos e objetivos de descrição do conteúdo das mensagens, indicadores (quantitativos ou não) que permitam a inferência de conhecimentos relativos às condições de produção/recepção (variáveis inferidas) dessas mensagens e os aspectos quantitativos do método. O Programa Bolsa Família trouxe benefícios ao público alvo, o volume de informações não deixa dúvidas, porém os casos estudados indicam que a devolução do benefício deste Programa não se deu de forma espontânea, mas estimulada, sem que os beneficiários estivessem efetivamente emancipados.Assim, não houve desistência voluntária e sim bloqueio, orientação e saída induzida. Algumas famílias foram detectadas pelo sistema do programa e foram automaticamente bloqueadas, por estarem fora do padrão de renda para continuar recebendo o benefício; outras foram detectadas no momento do recadastramento.Quanto a esse desligamento, o posicionamento das pessoas entrevistadas se dividiu entre aqueles que entendiam que ainda precisavam muito do benefício para continuar o melhoramento de suas vidas; e aqueles que, mesmo não tenham pedido o desligamento de forma espontânea à coordenação do programa, concordaram com os procedimentos institucionais realizados, por entenderem que outras pessoas mais necessitadas precisam da oportunidade gerada por essa política.

Water mass reconstruction by Nd isotopic analysis from Mid Atlantic oceanic sediments

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Analise de defeitos em motores através de vibração mecânica: estudo de caso

Revolving machines are among the most used equipment in general industry and therefore expenditures on this equipment class are a significant portion of the total amount spent by the company. If there is an unscheduled stop of some of this equipment, industrial plants can lose huge amounts of money caused by interrupted production and parts delay. Others may increase significantly maintenance costs due to consequences elsewhere not affected before. Even plant and people safety can be in danger if there is an operation interruption without a backup system start. This work is focused on a rotating system case study which is monitored by vibration analysis that shows that is possible to determine when is the most appropriate time for equipment intervention without any reliability loss just by using a simple and cheap system which is not much used because professionals are not aware to its utility. Industrial facilities were evaluated by fail detection and historical analysis in some equipment in order to show feasibility of vibration analysis through a before-during-after process. The plant evaluated is part of a chemical multinational located in Guaratinguetá-SP. At this time, that plant had around 650 critical equipment monthly monitored and no unscheduled shutdown was registered in one year period due to equipment monitoring

A estética da imagem na TV digital

This text reflects on the techniques and the process of image production and its artistic composition to digital television in high defini- tion, whereas the 4:3 and 16:9 formats will exist until shutdown of the analog signal. Within this period, consumers of television programming that have analog receivers will continue to see the images in 4:3 format. That fact determines that the productions in high definition, while capturing images with larger viewing area and have high contrast ratio (>1000:1) must be main- tain the elements of visual storytelling within the smallest area and with the contrast ratio of the analog tv (30:1), at the risk of distorting visually the messages produced by the directors.

Estudo comparativo da proteção da rede secundária de uma distribuidora de energia elétrica utilizando chave fusível e seccionalizador monofásico

The objective of this work is to conduct a comparative study between the fuse key and the single-phase seccionalizador, which are protective equipment used in an electricity distribution networks. This study has also the purpose to reduce the number of electrical power breakdown. Distribution networks are not free from faults, disturbances and failures, then the occurrence of adversities on the network, which may be transient or permanent faults, results in the interruption of electric power. Thus, there are protective systems of distribution networks, which aims to ensure that the electric system continues to function. The incidence of transient faults in the distribution network of this electricity company was used to generate immediate shutdown of customers due to the bad use of fuses as protective equipment by the reclosers. With the use of the fuse switch in the distribution network, there was the immediate shutdown of customers, however, using the single-phase seccionalizador as protective equipment by the reclosers, there are three attempts to restart the electricity power. As the attempts to restart the electricity power are able to eliminate a transient fault, not causing shutdown of any costumer, with the implementation of single-phase sectionalizers to replace the fuses, the number of company shutdowns due to transient faults was reduced by 47.6%

Estudo comparativo da proteção da rede secundária de uma distribuidora de energia elétrica utilizando chave fusível e seccionalizador monofásico

The objective of this work is to conduct a comparative study between the fuse key and the single-phase seccionalizador, which are protective equipment used in an electricity distribution networks. This study has also the purpose to reduce the number of electrical power breakdown. Distribution networks are not free from faults, disturbances and failures, then the occurrence of adversities on the network, which may be transient or permanent faults, results in the interruption of electric power. Thus, there are protective systems of distribution networks, which aims to ensure that the electric system continues to function. The incidence of transient faults in the distribution network of this electricity company was used to generate immediate shutdown of customers due to the bad use of fuses as protective equipment by the reclosers. With the use of the fuse switch in the distribution network, there was the immediate shutdown of customers, however, using the single-phase seccionalizador as protective equipment by the reclosers, there are three attempts to restart the electricity power. As the attempts to restart the electricity power are able to eliminate a transient fault, not causing shutdown of any costumer, with the implementation of single-phase sectionalizers to replace the fuses, the number of company shutdowns due to transient faults was reduced by 47.6%

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.

On the cellular stress response to Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin

Staphylococcus aureus alpha-hemolysin was the first bacterial toxin recognized to form pores in the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells. It is secreted as a water-soluble monomer that upon contact with target membranes forms an amphiphatic heptameric beta-barrel which perforates the bilayer. As a consequence, red cells undergo colloidosmotic lyses, while some nucleated cells may succumb to necrosis or programmed cell death. However, most cells are capable of repairing a limited number of membrane lesions, and then respond with productive transcriptional activation of NF-kB. In the present study, by using microarray and semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), data from a previously performed serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) were extended and verified, revealing that immediate early genes (IEGs) such as c-fos, c-jun and egr-1 are strongly induced at 2-8 h after transient toxin treatment. Activating protein 1 (AP-1: c-Fos, c-Jun) binding activity was increased accordingly. As IEGs are activated by growth factors, these findings led to the discovery that -toxin promotes cell cycle progression of perforated cells in an EGFR-dependent fashion. Although the amount of c-fos mRNA rose rapidly after toxin treatment, c-Fos protein expression was observed only after a lag of about 3 h. Since translation consumes much ATP, which transiently drops after transient membrane perforation, the suspicion arised that membrane-perforation caused global, but temporary downregulation of translation. In fact, eIF2α became heavily phosphorylated minutes after cells had been confronted with the toxin, resulting in shutdown of protein synthesis before cellular ATP levels reached the nadir. GCN2 emerged as a candidate eIF2α kinase, since its expression rapidly increased in toxin-treated cells. Two hours after toxin treatment, GADD34 transcripts, encoding a protein that targets the catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) to the endoplasmic reticulum, were overexpressed. This was followed by dephosphorylation of eIF2α and resumption of protein synthesis. Addition of tautomycetin, a specific inhibitor of PP1, led to marked hyperphosphorylation of eIF2α and significantly reduced the drop of ATP-levels in toxin-treated cells. A novel link between two major stress-induced signalling pathways emerged when it was found that both translational arrest and restart were under the control of stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK) p38. The data provide an explanation for the indispensible role of p38 for defence against the archetypal threat of membrane perforation by agents that produce small transmembrane-pores.

Power Transient Analysis of Experimental Devices for Jules Horowitz Material Testing Reactor (JHR)

The objective of this thesis is the power transient analysis concerning experimental devices placed within the reflector of Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR). Since JHR material testing facility is designed to achieve 100 MW core thermal power, a large reflector hosts fissile material samples that are irradiated up to total relevant power of 3 MW. MADISON devices are expected to attain 130 kW, conversely ADELINE nominal power is of some 60 kW. In addition, MOLFI test samples are envisaged to reach 360 kW for what concerns LEU configuration and up to 650 kW according to HEU frame. Safety issues concern shutdown transients and need particular verifications about thermal power decreasing of these fissile samples with respect to core kinetics, as far as single device reactivity determination is concerned. Calculation model is conceived and applied in order to properly account for different nuclear heating processes and relative time-dependent features of device transients. An innovative methodology is carried out since flux shape modification during control rod insertions is investigated regarding the impact on device power through core-reflector coupling coefficients. In fact, previous methods considering only nominal core-reflector parameters are then improved. Moreover, delayed emissions effect is evaluated about spatial impact on devices of a diffuse in-core delayed neutron source. Delayed gammas transport related to fission products concentration is taken into account through evolution calculations of different fuel compositions in equilibrium cycle. Provided accurate device reactivity control, power transients are then computed for every sample according to envisaged shutdown procedures. Results obtained in this study are aimed at design feedback and reactor management optimization by JHR project team. Moreover, Safety Report is intended to utilize present analysis for improved device characterization.