Prediction of nodes mobility in 3-D space

Recently, mobility prediction researches attracted increasing interests, especially for mobile networks where nodes are free to move in the three-dimensional space. Accurate mobility prediction leads to an efficient data delivery for real time applications and enables the network to plan for future tasks such as route planning and data transmission in an adequate time and a suitable space. In this paper, we proposed, tested and validated an algorithm that predicts the future mobility of mobile networks in three-dimensional space. The prediction technique uses polynomial regression to model the spatial relation of a set of points along the mobile node’s path and then provides a time-space mapping for each of the three components of the node’s location coordinates along the trajectory of the node. The proposed algorithm was tested and validated in MATLAB simulation platform using real and computer generated location data. The algorithm achieved an accurate mobility prediction with minimal error and provides promising results for many applications

Fractional pennes' bioheat equation: Theoretical and numerical studies

Accepted for publication in Fractional calculus and applied analysisOriginally published in the journal Fract. Cal. Appl. Anal. Vol. 18 No. 4 / 2015 / pp.1080–1106 / DOI 10.1515/fca-2015-0062. The original publication is available at: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/fca.2015.18.issue-4/fca-2015-0062/fca-2015-0062.xml?rskey=sWWcn0&result=1In this work we provide a new mathematical model for the Pennes’ bioheat equation, assuming a fractional time derivative of single order. Alternative versions of the bioheat equation are studied and discussed, to take into account the temperature-dependent variability in the tissue perfusion, and both finite and infinite speed of heat propagation. The proposed bio heat model is solved numerically using an implicit finite difference scheme that we prove to be convergent and stable. The numerical method proposed can be applied to general reaction diffusion equations, with a variable diffusion coefficient. The results obtained with the single order fractional model, are compared with the original models that use classical derivatives.The authors L.L. Ferras and J. M. Nobrega acknowledge financial funding by FEDER through the COMPETE 2020 Programme and by FCT- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the projects UID/CTM/50025/2013 and EXPL/CTM-POL/1299/2013. L.L. Ferras acknowledges financial funding by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the scholarship SFRH/BPD/100353/2014. M. Rebelo acknowledges financial funding by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the project UID/MAT/00297/2013

Engineering Fluid Dynamics 2019-2020

This book contains the successful submissions to a Special Issue of Energies entitled “Engineering Fluid Dynamics 2019–2020”. The topic of engineering fluid dynamics includes both experimental and computational studies. Of special interest were submissions from the fields of mechanical, chemical, marine, safety, and energy engineering. We welcomed original research articles and review articles. After one-and-a-half years, 59 papers were submitted and 31 were accepted for publication. The average processing time was about 41 days. The authors had the following geographical distribution: China (15); Korea (7); Japan (3); Norway (2); Sweden (2); Vietnam (2); Australia (1); Denmark (1); Germany (1); Mexico (1); Poland (1); Saudi Arabia (1); USA (1); Serbia (1). Papers covered a wide range of topics including analysis of free-surface waves, bridge girders, gear boxes, hills, radiation heat transfer, spillways, turbulent flames, pipe flow, open channels, jets, combustion chambers, welding, sprinkler, slug flow, turbines, thermoelectric power generation, airfoils, bed formation, fires in tunnels, shell-and-tube heat exchangers, and pumps

Interfaces and interfacings: posthuman ecologies, bodies and identities

This dissertation posits a posthuman theory for a technologically-driven ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) world, specifically theorizing cognition, intentionality and interface. The larger aim of this project is to open up discussions about human and technological relations and how these relations shape our understanding of what it means to be human. Situating my argument within posthuman and rhetorical theories, I discuss the metaphorical cyborg as a site of resistance, the everyday cyborg and its relations to technology through technogenesis and technology extension theories, and lastly the posthuman cyborg resulting from advances in biotechnology. I argue that this posthuman cyborg is an enmeshed network of biological and informatic code with neither having primacy. Building upon Anthony Miccoli, I see the interface (the space in between) as a functional myth, as humans are mutually constituted by material, biological, technological and social substrates of a networked ecology. I, then, reconfigure Kenneth Burke’s identification theory for the technological age and argue that the posthuman subject consubstantiates with the substrates, (or substances), to continuously invent a fluid intersubjectivity in a networked ecology. This project, then, explores both metaphorical and technological interfaces to better understand each. I argue that interfacing is a more thorough term to understand how humans, technologies, objects, spaces, language and code interact and thus constitute what we conceptualize as “human” and “reality.” This framework dismantles the interface as a space in between in favor of a networked ecology of dynamic relations. Then, I examine technological interfaces and their development as they have moved from the desktop to touchscreens to spaces wherein the body becomes a literal interface and site of interaction. These developments require rhetoric and composition scholars to interrogate not only the discourse of technologies but the interfaces themselves if we are to fully understand how human users come to identify with technologies that shape not only our communication but also our sense of subjectivity, autonomy, agency and intentionality. To make my claims clearer, I analyze science fiction representations of interfaces to chart more accessible means through which to understand the larger philosophical arcs in posthuman theory, intentionality as well as artificial intelligence. Using the films, then, this work seeks to elucidate the complexities of relations in the networked ecologies that define how we understand ourselves and the world in which we live

Redundancy in Communication Networks for Smart Grids

Traditional electric power grids are currently undergoing fundamental changes: Representative examples are the increase in the penetration of volatile and decentralized renewable-energy sources and the emerging distributed energy-storage systems. These changes are not viable without the introduction of automation in grid monitoring and control, which implies the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in power systems. Consequently, there is a transition toward smart grids. IEEE defines smart grid as follows: "The integration of power, communications, and information technologies for an improved electric power infrastructure serving loads while providing for an ongoing evolution of end-use applications" . The indispensable components of the future smart grids are the communication networks. Many well-established techniques and best practices, applied in other domains, are revisited and applied in new ways. Nevertheless, some gaps still need to be bridged due to the specific requirements of the smart-grid communication networks. Concretely, a challenging objective is to fulfill reliability and low-delay requirements over the wide-area networks, commonly used in smart grids. The main ``playground" for the work presented in this thesis is the smart-grid pilot of the EPFL campus. It is deployed on the operational $20kV$ medium-voltage distribution network of the campus. At the time of the writing of this thesis, the real-time monitoring of this active distribution network has been already put in place, as the first step toward the introduction of control and protection. The monitoring infrastructure relies on a communication network that is a representative example of the smart-grid communication networks. Keeping all this in mind, in this thesis, the main topic that we focus on, is the assurance of data communication over redundant network-infrastructure in industrial environments. This thesis consists of two parts that correspond to the two aspects of the topic that we address. In the first part of the thesis, we evaluate existing, well-established, technologies and solutions in the context of the EPFL smart-grid pilot. We report on the architecture of the communication network that we built on our campus. In addition, we go into more detail by reporting on some of the characteristics of the devices used in the network. We also discuss security aspects of the MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) which is one of the proposed technologies in the context of smart grids. In the second part of this thesis, we propose new solutions. While designing our campus smart-grid network, we analyzed the imposed requirements and recognized the need for a solution for reliable packet delivery within stringent delay constraints over a redundant network-infrastructure. The existing solutions for exploiting network redundancy, such as the parallel redundancy protocol (PRP), are not viable for IP-layer wide-area networks, a key element of emerging smart grids. Other solutions (MPLS-TP for example) do not meet the stringent delay requirement. To address this issue, we present a transport-layer solution: the IP-layer parallel redundancy protocol (iPRP). In the rest of the thesis, we analyze the methods for implementing fail-independent paths that are fundamental for the optimal operation of iPRP, in SDN-based networks. We also evaluate the benefits of iPRP in wireless environments. We show that, with a help of iPRP, the performance of the communication based on the Wi-Fi technology can be significantly improved

Aspekte der Transformation von Fernwärmesystemen: Verteilung, Quellen und Senken

Das Pariser Abkommen von 2016 verpflichtet 196 Vertragsparteien, die globale Erwärmung auf deutlich unter 2 °C zu begrenzen und bis Mitte des 21. Jahrhunderts Treibhausgasneutralität zu erreichen. Deutschland verabschiedete 2019 das Bundesklimaschutzgesetz mit dem Ziel der Treibhausgasneutralität bis 2045. 2022 betrug der Anteil Erneuerbarer Energien am deutschen Bruttoendenergieverbrauch 20 %, im Stromsektor 46 % und in der Wärmebereitstellung nur 17 %, obwohl dort 70 % der Primärenergie genutzt werden. Fernwärmesysteme könnten durch ihre Speicher- und Verteilfunktion erneuerbare Energien integrieren, jedoch liegt ihr Anteil dort nur bei 18 %. Die Umstellung dieser Systeme auf Klimaneutralität ist durch das Kohleverstromungsbeendigungsgesetz dringender geworden. Die fossile Wärmeerzeugungsstruktur und hohen Netztemperaturen müssen den Anforderungen Erneuerbarer Energien angepasst werden. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Transformation von Fernwärmesystemen, mit besonderem Fokus auf Wärmequellen und die Wärmeverteilung und nutzt dabei veröffentlichte Daten zu Fernwärmesystemen, Gebäuden, industriellen Betrieben sowie statistischen Daten zur Bevölkerung und Wärmeversorgung. Sie gibt eine Übersicht über Fernwärmesysteme in Deutschland und bewertet das Potenzial solarthermischer Wärme, industrieller Abwärme und Abwasserwärme. Außerdem untersucht sie die thermo-hydraulischen Auswirkungen der Absenkung der Netztemperaturen bei gleichzeitiger Integration Erneuerbarer Energien. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Fernwärmesysteme nach Netzlängen klassifiziert werden können und ein erhebliches Potenzial zur Integration Erneuerbarer Energien besteht. Die Absenkung der Netztemperaturen kann ohne größere Einschränkungen erfolgen. Engpässe lassen sich durch dezentrale Wärmequellen reduzieren oder durch zusätzliche Druckerhöhung beseitigen

A method for system of systems definition and modeling using patterns of collective behavior

The Department of Defense ship and aircraft acquisition process, with its capability-based assessments and fleet synthesis studies, relies heavily on the assumption that a functional decomposition of higher-level system of systems (SoS) capabilities into lower-level system and subsystem behaviors is both possible and practical. However, SoS typically exhibit “non-decomposable” behaviors (also known as emergent behaviors) for which no widely-accepted representation exists. The presence of unforeseen emergent behaviors, particularly undesirable ones, can make systems vulnerable to attacks, hacks, or other exploitation, or can cause delays in acquisition program schedules and cost overruns in order to mitigate them. The International Council on Systems Engineering has identified the development of methods for predicting and managing emergent behaviors as one of the top research priorities for the Systems Engineering profession. Therefore, this thesis develops a method for rendering quantifiable SoS emergent properties and behaviors traceable to patterns of interaction of their constitutive systems, so that exploitable patterns identified during the early stages of design can be accounted for. This method is designed to fill two gaps in the literature. First, the lack of an approach for mining data to derive a model (i.e. an equation) of the non-decomposable behavior. Second, the lack of an approach for qualitatively and quantitatively associating emergent behaviors with the components that cause the behavior. A definition for emergent behavior is synthesized from the literature, as well as necessary conditions for its identification. An ontology of emergence that enables studying the emergent behaviors exhibited by self-organized systems via numerical simulations is adapted for this thesis in order to develop the mathematical approach needed to satisfy the research objective. Within the confines of two carefully qualified assumptions (that the model is valid, and that the model is efficient), it is argued that simulated emergence is bona-fide emergence, and that simulations can be used for experimentation without sacrificing rigor. This thesis then puts forward three hypotheses: The first hypothesis is that self-organized structures imply the presence of a form of data compression, and this compression can be used to explicitly calculate an upper bound on the number of emergent behaviors that a system can possess. The second hypothesis is that the set of numerical criteria for detecting emergent behavior derived in this research constitutes sufficient conditions for identifying weak and functional emergent behaviors. The third hypothesis states that affecting the emergent properties of these systems will have a bigger impact on the system’s performance than affecting any single component of that system. Using the method developed in this thesis, exploitable properties are identified and component behaviors are modified to attempt the exploit. Changes in performance are evaluated using problem-specific measures of merit. The experiments find that Hypothesis 2 is false (the numerical criteria are not sufficient conditions) by identifying instances where the numerical criteria produce a false-positive. As a result, a set of sufficient conditions for emergent behavior identification remains to be found. Hypothesis 1 was also falsified based on a worst-case scenario where the largest possible number of obtainable emergent behaviors was compared against the upper bound computed from the smallest possible data compression of a self-organized system. Hypothesis 3, on the other hand, was supported, as it was found that new behavior rules based on component-level properties provided less improvement to performance against an adversary than rules based on system-level properties. Overall, the method is shown to be an effective, systematic approach to non-decomposable behavior exploitation, and an improvement over the modern, largely ad hoc approach.Ph.D