Interactive system for placement and coordination of overcurrent protective devices

In this paper, an expert and interactive system for developing protection system for overhead and radial distribution feeders is proposed. In this system the protective devices can be allocated through heuristic and an optimized way. In the latter one, the placement problem is modeled as a mixed integer non-linear programming, which is solved by genetic algorithm (GA). Using information stored in a database as well as a knowledge base, the computational system is able to obtain excellent conditions of selectivity and coordination for improving the feeder reliability indices. Tests for assessment of the algorithm efficiency were carried out using a real-life 660-nodes feeder. © 2006 IEEE.

Identification of structural damage in flexible structures using system norm and neural networks

Nowadays there is great interest in damage identification using non destructive tests. Predictive maintenance is one of the most important techniques that are based on analysis of vibrations and it consists basically of monitoring the condition of structures or machines. A complete procedure should be able to detect the damage, to foresee the probable time of occurrence and to diagnosis the type of fault in order to plan the maintenance operation in a convenient form and occasion. In practical problems, it is frequent the necessity of getting the solution of non linear equations. These processes have been studied for a long time due to its great utility. Among the methods, there are different approaches, as for instance numerical methods (classic), intelligent methods (artificial neural networks), evolutions methods (genetic algorithms), and others. The characterization of damages, for better agreement, can be classified by levels. A new one uses seven levels of classification: detect the existence of the damage; detect and locate the damage; detect, locate and quantify the damages; predict the equipment's working life; auto-diagnoses; control for auto structural repair; and system of simultaneous control and monitoring. The neural networks are computational models or systems for information processing that, in a general way, can be thought as a device black box that accepts an input and produces an output. Artificial neural nets (ANN) are based on the biological neural nets and possess habilities for identification of functions and classification of standards. In this paper a methodology for structural damages location is presented. This procedure can be divided on two phases. The first one uses norms of systems to localize the damage positions. The second one uses ANN to quantify the severity of the damage. The paper concludes with a numerical application in a beam like structure with five cases of structural damages with different levels of severities. The results show the applicability of the presented methodology. A great advantage is the possibility of to apply this approach for identification of simultaneous damages.

Active control in flexible plates with piezoelectric actuators using linear matrix inequalities

The study of algorithms for active vibrations control in flexible structures became an area of enormous interest, mainly due to the countless demands of an optimal performance of mechanical systems as aircraft, aerospace and automotive structures. Smart structures, formed by a structure base, coupled with piezoelectric actuators and sensor are capable to guarantee the conditions demanded through the application of several types of controllers. The actuator/sensor materials are composed by piezoelectric ceramic (PZT - Lead Zirconate Titanate), commonly used as distributed actuators, and piezoelectric plastic films (PVDF-PolyVinyliDeno Floride), highly indicated for distributed sensors. The design process of such system encompasses three main phases: structural design; optimal placement of sensor/actuator (PVDF and PZT); and controller design. Consequently, for optimal design purposes, the structure, the sensor/actuator placement and the controller have to be considered simultaneously. This article addresses the optimal placement of actuators and sensors for design of controller for vibration attenuation in a flexible plate. Techniques involving linear matrix inequalities (LMI) to solve the Riccati's equation are used. The controller's gain is calculated using the linear quadratic regulator (LQR). The major advantage of LMI design is to enable specifications such as stability degree requirements, decay rate, input force limitation in the actuators and output peak bounder. It is also possible to assume that the model parameters involve uncertainties. LMI is a very useful tool for problems with constraints, where the parameters vary in a range of values. Once formulated in terms of LMI a problem can be solved efficiently by convex optimization algorithms.

A multicommuted flow-based system for hydrogen peroxide determination by chemiluminescence detection using a photodiode

A simple, rapid, and automated assay for hydrogen peroxide in pharmaceutical samples was developed by combining the multicommutation system with a chemiluminescence (CL) detector. The detection was performed using a spiral flow-cell reactor made from polyethylene tubing that was positioned in front of a photodiode. It allows the rapid mixing of CL reagent and analyte and simultaneous detection of the emitted light. The chemiluminescence was based on the reaction of luminol with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by hexacyanoferrate(III). The feasibility of the flow system was ascertained by analyzing a set of pharmaceutical samples. A linear response within the range of 2.2-210 μmol l-1 H2O2 with a LD of 1.8 μmol l-1 H2O2 and coefficient of variations smaller than 0.8% for 1.0×10-5 mol l-1 and 6.8×10-5 mol l-1 hydrogen peroxide solutions (n=10) were obtained. Reagents consumption of 90 μg of luminol and 0.7 mg of hexacyanoferrate(III) per determination and sampling rate of 200 samples per hour were also achieved. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

On non-linear and non-ideal interactions in two vibrating problems

In practical situations, the dynamics of the forcing function on a vibrating system cannot be considered as given a priori, and it must be taken as a consequence of the dynamics of the whole system. In other words, the forcing source has limited power, as that provided by a DC motor for an example, and thus its own dynamics is influenced by that of the vibrating system being forced. This increases the number of degrees of freedom of the problem, and it is called a non-ideal problem. In this work, we considerer two non-ideal problems analyzed by using numerical simulations. The existence of the Sommerfeld effect was verified, that is, the effect of getting stuck at resonance (energy imparted to the DC motor being used to excite large amplitude motions of the supporting structure). We considered two kinds of non-ideal problem: one related to the transverse vibrations of a shaft carrying two disks and another to a piezoceramic bar transducer powered by a vacuum tube generated by a non-ideal source Copyright © 2007 by ASME.

Analysis of electric torque in single machine-infinite bus system using phase shifters

ResumoThe main idea of this work is based on the analysis of the electric torque through the acting of the PS in the power system, provided of a control for the compensation degree (PSC). A linear model of the single machine-infinite bus system is used with a PS installed (SMIB/PS system). The variable that represents the presence of PS in the net is associated to the phase displacement introduced in the terminal voltage of the synchronous machine by PS. For the input signals of the PSC are evaluated variations of the angular speed of the rotor, the current magnitude and the active power through the line where the PS is located. The simulations are accomplished to analyze the influence of the PS in the torque formation (synchronizing and damping), of the SMIB/PS system. The analysis are developed in the time and frequency domain.

LMI-based digital redesign of linear time-invariant systems with state-derivative feedback

A simple method for designing a digital state-derivative feedback gain and a feedforward gain such that the control law is equivalent to a known and adequate state feedback and feedforward control law of a digital redesigned system is presented. It is assumed that the plant is a linear controllable, time-invariant, Single-Input (SI) or Multiple-Input (MI) system. This procedure allows the use of well-known continuous-time state feedback design methods to directly design discrete-time state-derivative feedback control systems. The state-derivative feedback can be useful, for instance, in the vibration control of mechanical systems, where the main sensors are accelerometers. One example considering the digital redesign with state-derivative feedback of a helicopter illustrates the proposed method. © 2009 IEEE.

Dynamics of a piecewise-linear oscillator with limited power supply

We discuss dynamics of a vibro-impact system consisting of a cart with an piecewise-linear restoring force, which vibrates under driving by a source with limited power supply. From the point of view of dynamical systems, vibro-impact systems exhibit a rich variety of phenomena, particularly chaotic motion. In our analyzes, we use bifurcation diagrams, basins of attractions, identifying several non-linear phenomena, such as chaotic regimes, crises, intermittent mechanisms, and coexistence of attractors with complex basins of attraction. © 2009 by ASME.

Correlation of the hybrid layer thickness and resin tags length with the bond strength of a self-etching adhesive system.

The objective of this study was to measure the thickness of the hybrid layer (HLT), length of resin tags (RTL) and bond strength (BS) in the same teeth, using a self-etching adhesive system Adper Prompt L Pop to intact dentin and to analyze the correlation between HLTand RTL and their BS. Ten human molars were used for the restorative procedures and each restored tooth was sectioned in mesio-distal direction. One section was submitted to light microscopy analysis of HLT and RTL (400x). Another section was prepared and submitted to the microtensile bond test (0.5 mm/min). The fractured surfaces were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy to determine the failure pattern. Correlation between HLT and RTL with the BS data was analyzed by linear regression. The mean values of HLT, RTL and BS were 3.36 microm, 12.97 microm and 14.10 MPa, respectively. No significant relationship between BS and HLT (R2= 0.011, p>0.05) and between BS and RTL (R2= 0.038) was observed. The results suggested that there was no significant correlation between the HLT and RTL with the BS of the self-etching adhesive to dentin.

Active control in rotating machinery using magnetic actuators with linear matrix inequalities (LMI) approach

The recent years have seen the appearance of innovative system for acoustic and vibration attenuation, most of them integrating new actuator technologies. In this sense, the study of algorithms for active vibrations control in rotating machinery became an area of enormous interest, mainly due to countless demands of an optimal performance of mechanical systems in aircraft, aerospace and automotive structures. In this way, this paper presents an approach that is numerically verified for active vibration control in a rotor using Active Magnetic Bearings (AMB). The control design in a discrete state-space formulation is carried out through feedback technique and Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI) approach. LMI is useful for system with uncertainties. The AMB uses electromagnetic forces to support a rotor without mechanical contact. By monitoring the position of the shaft and changing the dynamics of the system accordingly, the AMB keeps the rotor in a desired position. This unique feature has broadened for the applications of AMB and now they can be considered not only as a main support bearing in a machine but also as dampers for vibration control and force actuators. © 2009 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.

Linear scanning method based on the SAFT coarray

This work presents a method to obtain B-scan images based on linear array scanning and 2R-SAFT. Using this technique some advantages are obtained: the ultrasonic system is very simple; it avoids the grating lobes formation, characteristic in conventional SAFT; and subaperture size and focussing lens (to compensate emission-reception) can be adapted dynamically to every image point. The proposed method has been experimentally tested in the inspection of CFRP samples. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Swarm control designs applied to a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope system (MEMS)

This paper analyzes the non-linear dynamics of a MEMS Gyroscope system, modeled with a proof mass constrained to move in a plane with two resonant modes, which are nominally orthogonal. The two modes are ideally coupled only by the rotation of the gyro about the plane's normal vector. We demonstrated that this model has an unstable behavior. Control problems consist of attempts to stabilize a system to an equilibrium point, a periodic orbit, or more general, about a given reference trajectory. We also developed a particle swarm optimization technique for reducing the oscillatory movement of the nonlinear system to a periodic orbit. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Some remarks on bifurcation analysis of a nonlinear vibrating system excited by a shape memory alloy material (SMA)

In this paper, the dynamical response of a coupled oscillator is investigated, taking in consideration the nonlinear behavior of a SMA spring coupling the two oscillators. Due to the nonlinear coupling terms, the system exhibits both regular and chaotic motions. The Poincaré sections for different sets of coupling parameters are verified. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.

H ∞ state feedback control of discrete-time Markov jump linear systems through linear matrix inequalities

This paper addresses the H ∞ state-feedback control design problem of discretetime Markov jump linear systems. First, under the assumption that the Markov parameter is measured, the main contribution is on the LMI characterization of all linear feedback controllers such that the closed loop output remains bounded by a given norm level. This results allows the robust controller design to deal with convex bounded parameter uncertainty, probability uncertainty and cluster availability of the Markov mode. For partly unknown transition probabilities, the proposed design problem is proved to be less conservative than one available in the current literature. An example is solved for illustration and comparisons. © 2011 IFAC.

Restauração florestal visando à conservação de recursos hídricos por meio da combinação linear ponderada

This study evaluated using of Multicriteria Evaluation in a GIS, specifically by Weighted Linear Combination Method for generation of map of priority areas for forest restoration in the initial part of River Pardo Basin, SP, in order to water resources conservation. Aiming to define criteria and restrictions it was used Participatory Techniques, and the following factors had been selected: proximity of the hydrographic network, proximity of forest cover, slope and erodibility of soil. To calculate the weight to each factor it was used the decision-making process, known as Analytic Hierarchy Analysis, this method consists of a paired comparison of factors to determine the relative importance of each. According to Weighted Linear Combination, the very high priority areas have a more limited spatial distribution, with an apparent concentration around the water bodies, outlining a buffer to the river system. The proximity factor of the hydrographic network, and enables the connection forestry, contributed, along with the factor of proximity to forest cover, so there would be the definition of most of the areas with the highest priority in the basin, which concentrate the largest areas of forest and native riparian areas along the hydrographic.