The French intelligence act : resonances with the USA patriot act

International audienceThis paper is a study in political philosophy. In the wake of the January 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the French parliament adopted an Intelligence Act. Some considered the Act, passed in May and June of the same year, balanced, justified, and necessary. Others rejected it as an ill-conceived erosion of freedom. Does this Act blatantly undermine the democratic balance between the need for security and the demand for civil rights and liberties? The public might have expected the French Intelligence Act of 2015 to give rise to a serious, frank, and open debate about the means for combating terrorism without imposing measures that appear detrimental to citizen privacy. Instead, on July 23, just months after the terrorist attacks, the Constitutional Council, which François Hollande, the President of the Republic, had asked to convene about the constitutionality of this law, delivered its verdict: the Intelligence Act in no way violates the principles of the Republic. Some compare the situation in France to that in the United States in 2001, when a set of emergency laws under the acronym USA PATRIOT Act were hastily promulgated several weeks after the criminal attacks of September 11, 2001. Is the Intelligence Act in France essentially a French Patriot Act

Modélisation physique et numérique par la méthode des éléments finis de frontière de la distribution du potentiel et du champ électrique le long d'un isolateur standard de poste 735 KV recouvert de glace

L'objectif principal de cette recherche était de calculer les distributions du potentiel et du champ électrique le long d'un isolateur de poste standard recouvert de glace accumulée en régime humide. En particulier, cette recherche visait à accroître les connaissances sur les phénomènes précédant les contournements électriques des isolateurs de poste qui se produisent généralement en période de fonte. Comme il était très difficile de mesurer de façon précise la distribution du potentiel et surtout du champ électrique le long d'un isolateur de poste glacé, l'utilisation d'une méthode numérique par l'intermédiaire d'un logiciel commercial s'est avérée être une des meilleures solutions compte tenu de la difficulté des mesures. À cet effet, la Méthode des Éléments Finis de Frontière était la mieux adaptée aux contraintes imposées par le problème. De plus, cette méthode numérique avait été appliquée avec succès dans le calcul du potentiel et du champ électrique autour des isolateurs pollués dont le comportement électrique est semblable de celui des isolateurs recouverts de glace. Par conséquent, des simulations numériques ont été entreprises en 2-D et 3-D. Les simulations 2-D ont servi principalement de base et de soutien aux simulations tridimensionnelles puisqu'il a fallu commencer par une modélisation simple de l'isolateur de poste recouvert de glace compte tenu du fait qu'il n'existait pas, à notre connaissance, d'études numériques portant sur le sujet de cette recherche. La modélisation 2-D de l'isolateur recouvert de glace s'est faite suivant le plan de symétrie séparant l'isolateur et le dépôt de glace en deux parties égales puisqu'il a été supposé que la glace s'accumulait sur la moitié de l'isolateur. Ainsi, les simulations 2-D ont permis de mettre en évidence l'influence d'un film d'eau conducteur et de sa conductivité, l'influence de la position d'un intervalle d'air le long de l'isolateur, l'influence de la longueur de l'intervalle d'air et la présence d'un arc électrique partiel le long d'un intervalle d'air sur les distributions du potentiel et du champ électrique le long d'un isolateur de poste recouvert de glace. Cependant, la comparaison des résultats numériques aux résultats expérimentaux a démontré que la modélisation 2-D n'était pas tout à fait adaptée à la géométrie de l'isolateur puisque l'erreur relative moyenne était d'environ 22,5 %, d'où la nécessité d'effectuer les simulations en 3-D afin d'améliorer la précision des résultats. Pour les simulations 3-D et pour des fins de simplification, il a été supposé que la glace s'était accumulée sur la totalité de l'isolateur, c'est-à-dire sur 360°. Cette considération faite, la modélisation d'une portion de 15° de l'isolateur de poste recouvert de glace a suffi à simuler le comportement général de ce dernier. La comparaison des résultats numériques aux résultats expérimentaux ont permis de démontrer la validité du modèle tridimensionnel. Ainsi, une erreur relative moyenne entre les résultats expérimentaux et numériques de 2,6 % a été obtenue démontrant ainsi la fiabilité et la pertinence de la M.E.F.F dans la prédiction de la distribution du potentiel et du champ électrique le long d'une géométrie aussi compliquée qu'est un isolateur de poste recouvert de glace. Les simulations 3-D pour une période d'accumulation et pour deux périodes de fonte ont été réalisées d'après les observations expérimentales réalisées en chambre climatique et à partir desquelles les différents modèles ont été élaborés. De plus, l'étude de l'influence des intervalles d'air ainsi que la présence d'un arc électrique partiel sur la distribution du potentiel et du champ électrique a été entreprise. Les simulations d'une période d'accumulation ont permis de démontrer que la position des intervalles d'air était principalement déterminée par la distribution du potentiel et du champ électrique le long de l'isolateur de poste propre. En effet, pour l'isolateur propre, une chute de tension importante a été observée le long des trois premières jupes situées près de l'électrode H.T, c'est-à-dire exactement à l'endroit précis où se sont formés les intervalles d'air. De plus, ces simulations ont permis de mettre en évidence l'influence du film d'eau ainsi que la quantité en eau servant à l'accumulation qui est principalement responsable de la création de l'intervalle d'air situé entre la dernière jupe et l'électrode à la terre. En période de fonte, la présence d'un film d'eau très conducteur à la surface du dépôt de glace entraîne une forte chute de tension le long des différents intervalles d'air. Pour de fortes conductivités du film d'eau, environ 96 % de la tension appliquée se retrouve aux bornes des différents intervalles d'air et ce, indépendamment de leur nombre et de leur longueur. Cependant, plus la longueur est importante, plus le champ électrique moyen le long des intervalles d'air, Egm, diminue. Lorsque la chute de parties de glace survient, cela modifie considérablement les distributions du potentiel et du champ électrique le long de l'isolateur glacé. En comparant les deux périodes de fonte simulées, on a pu observer que le nombre d'intervalles d'air présents après la chute de glace avait un rôle important dans le processus de redistribution de la tension appliquée le long des intervalles d'air, pouvant ainsi inhiber ou provoquer le contournement de l'isolateur. Cette remarque est aussi valide dans le cas où un arc électrique partiel est présent le long d'un des intervalles d'air. Pour un dépôt de glace présentant deux intervalles d'air situés respectivement près des électrodes, la position d'un troisième intervalle d'air intercalé entre ces deux derniers n'a pas d'influence sur le champ électrique moyen Egm. C'est uniquement la chute de tension le long de chaque intervalle d'air qui se modifie en fonction de la position du troisième intervalle d'air. De plus, il a été démontré que pour une même distance d'arc répartie sur un, deux et trois intervalles d'air, le champ électrique moyen le long des intervalles d'air, Egm, variait peu

Enhanced co-tolerance and co-sensitivity from long-term metal exposures of heterotrophic and autotrophic components of fluvial biofilms

Understanding the interactive effects of multiple stressors on ecosystems has started to become a major concern. The aim of our study was therefore to evaluate the consequences of a long-term exposure to environmental concentrations of Cu, Zn and As on the pollution induced community tolerance (PICT) of lotic biofilm communities in artificial indoor channels. Moreover, the specificity of the PICT was assessed by evaluating the positive and negative co-tolerance between these metals. Photosynthetic efficiency and substrate-induced respiration (SIR), targeting the autotrophic and heterotrophic communities respectively were used in short-term inhibition bioassays with Cu, Zn and As to assess sensitivities of preexposed biofilms to the metals tested. Diversity profiles of a phototrophic, eukaryotic and prokaryotic community in biofilms following the different treatments were determined and analyzed with principal component analysis. The results demonstrated that pre-exposure to metals induced structural shifts in the community and led to tolerance enhancements in the phototrophic and heterotrophic communities. On the other hand, whatever the functional parameter used (i.e. photosynthesis and SIR), communities exposed to Cu were more tolerant to Zn and vice versa. Furthermore, only phototrophic communities pre-exposed to As developed tolerance to Cu but not to Zn, whereas no co-tolerance between Cu and As was observed in the heterotrophic communities. Finally, phototrophic and heterotrophic communities exposed to Cu and Zn became more sensitive to As, reflecting a negative co tolerance between these metals. Overall, our findings support the fact that although the mode of action of the different metals is an important driver for the structure and thus the tolerance of the communities, it appears that the detoxification modes are the most important factors for the occurrence of positive or negative co-tolerance

Design and development of an experimental setup of electrically powered spinning rotor blades in icing wind tunnel and preliminary testing with surface coatings as hybrid protection solution

In order to study ice protection systems for rotating blades, a new experimental setup has been developed at the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory (AMIL). This system consists of two small-scale rotating blades in a refrigerated icing wind tunnel where atmospheric icing can be simulated. Power is brought to the blades through a slip ring, through which the signals of the different sensors that are installed on the blades also pass. As demonstrated by the literature review, this new setup will address the need of small-scale wind tunnel testing on electrically powered rotating blades. To test the newly designed apparatus, preliminary experimentation is done on a hybrid ice protection system. Electrothermal protection is combined with different surface coatings to measure the impact of those coatings on the power consumption of the system. In anti-icing mode, the coatings tested did not reduce the power consumption on the system required to prevent ice from accumulating on the leading edge. The coatings however, due to their hydrophobic/superhydrophobic nature, reduced the power required to prevent runback ice accumulation when the leading edge was protected. One of the coatings did not allow any runback accumulation, limiting the power to protect the whole blades to the power required to protect solely the leading edge, resulting in a potential 40% power reduction for the power consumption of the system. In de-icing mode, the results with all the substrates tested showed similar power to achieve ice shedding from the blade. Since the coatings tested have a low icephobicity, it would be interesting to perform additional testing with icephobic coatings. Also, a small unheated zone at the root of the blade prevented complete ice shedding from the blade. A small part of the ice layer was left on the blade after testing, meaning that a cohesive break had to occur within the ice layer, and therefore impacting the results. Improvements to the setup will be done to remedy the situation. Those preliminary testing performed with the newly developed test setup have demonstrated the potential of this new device which will now allow, among other things, to measure heat transfer, force magnitudes, ice nucleation, and thermal equilibrium during ice accretion, with different innovative thermal protection systems (conductive coating, carbon nanotubes, impulse, etc.) as well as mechanical systems. The next step, following the improvements, is to measure forced convection on a thermal ice protection system with and without precipitation and to test mechanical ice protection systems

Numerical and experimental investigation of the design of a piezoelectric de-icing system for small rotorcraft part 3/3 : numerical model and experimental validation of vibration-based de-icing of a flat plate structure

The objective of this research project is divided in four parts: (1) to design a piezoelectric actuator-based de-icing system integrated to a flat plate experimental setup and develop a numerical model of the system with experimental validation, (2) use the experimental setup to investigate actuator activation with frequency sweeps and transient vibration analysis, (3) add an ice layer to the numerical model and predict numerically stresses at ice breaking with experimental validation, and (4) bring the concept to a blade structure for wind tunnel testing. This paper presents the third part of the investigation in which an ice layer is added to the numerical model. Five accelerometers are installed on the flat plate to measure acceleration. Validation of the vibration amplitude predicted by the model is performed experimentally and the stresses calculated by the numerical model at cracking and delamination of the ice layer are determined. A stress limit criteria is then defined from those values for both normal stress at cracking and shear stress at delamination. As a proof of concept, the numerical model is then used to find resonant modes susceptible to generating cracking or delamination of the ice layer within the voltage limit of the piezoelectric actuators. The model also predicts a voltage range within which the ice breaking occurs. The experimental setup is used to validate positively the prediction of the numerical model

Extended evaluation of icephobic coating regarding their field of application

Atmospheric ice that adheres to structures and accumulates is a critical issue in numerous northern areas. Even the availability of different de-icing methods, they consume a great quantity of energy or necessitate elaborate infrastructure. However, using coatings with icephobic properties could be the “ideal” solution. This paper proposes a definition of icephobicity in line with the ice adhesion test methods used. The general way to assess this property is described using a global approach, the first step of which is a screening test campaign with many different candidate coatings evaluated in terms of their adhesion reduction factor (ARF). Further tests are recommended, after the best candidate coatings are identified, in an extensive test campaign performed under simulated icing, and outdoor conditions prevailing in the real environment of the targeted application. Finally, a specific example of a test campaign in which the icephobic coatings are used to Arctic offshore conditions is described

Numerical and experimental investigation of the design of a piezoelectric de-icing system for small rotorcraft part 2/3 : investigation of transient vibration during frequency sweeps and pptimal piezoelectric actuator excitation

The objective of this research project is divided in four parts: (1) to design a piezoelectric actuator based de-icing system integrated to a flat plate experimental setup, develop a numerical model of the system and validate experimentally; (2) use the experimental setup to investigate actuator activation with frequency sweeps and transient vibration analysis; (3) add an ice layer to the numerical model, predict numerically stresses at ice breaking and validate experimentally; and (4) implement the concept to a blade structure for wind tunnel testing. This paper presents the second objective of this study, in which the experimental setup designed in the first phase of the project is used to study transient vibration occurring during frequency sweeps. Acceleration during different frequency sweeps was measured with an accelerometer on the flat plate setup. The results obtained showed that the vibration pattern was the same for the different sweep rate (in Hz/s) tested for a same sweep range. However, the amplitude of each resonant mode increased with a sweep rate decrease. Investigation of frequency sweeps performed around different resonant modes showed that as the frequency sweep rate tends towards zero, the amplitude of the mode tends toward the steady-state excitation amplitude value. Since no other transient effects were observed, this signifies that steady-state activation is the optimal excitation for a resonant mode. To validate this hypothesis, the flat plate was installed in a cold room where ice layers were accumulated. Frequency sweeps at high voltage were performed and a camera was used to record multiple pictures per second to determine the frequencies where breaking of the ice occur. Consequently, the resonant frequencies were determined from the transfer functions measured with the accelerometer versus the signal of excitation. Additional tests were performed in steady-state activation at those frequencies and the same breaking of the ice layer was obtained, resulting in the first ice breaking obtained in steady-state activation conditions as part of this research project. These results confirmed the conclusions obtained following the transient vibration investigation, but also demonstrated the drawbacks of steady-state activation, namely identifying resonant modes susceptible of creating ice breaking and locating with precision the frequencies of the modes, which change as the ice accumulates on the structure. Results also show that frequency sweeps, if designed properly, can be used as substitute to steady-state activation for the same results

Numerical modelling of ice-covered insulator flashover : the influence of arc velocity and arc propagation criteria

This paper investigates the influence of arc velocity and propagation criteria on the parameters of a dynamic numerical mono-arc model used to predict flashover voltage of ice-covered insulators. For that purpose, a generic algorithm has been developed which, coupled with a Finite Element commercial software, permits us to solve the mono-arc Obenaus equation. The versatility of the proposed algorithm allows to implement three different arc propagation criteria and five different arc velocity criteria, as well as to compute the corresponding flashover voltage, arc velocity and leakage current. Moreover, this algorithm permits to propose a new arc velocity criterion based on numerical calculation instead of analytical formulation as proposed in literature

Development of a new bi-arc dynamic numerical model for modeling AC flashover processes of EHV ice-covered insulators

This paper presents the development of a new bi-arc dynamic numerical model for predicting AC critical flashover voltage (FOV) of ice-covered extra-high voltage (EHV) insulators. The proposed model is based on a generic calculation algorithm coupled with commercial finite element method software designed to solve the Obenaus/Rizk model. The proposed model allows one to implement the Nottingham and Mayr approaches and compare the results obtained as a function of the arcing distance, the freezing water conductivity, and the initial arc length. The validation of the model demonstrated high accuracy in predicting the FOV of ice-covered post-type insulators and its capability to simulate the interaction of the two partial arcs during the flashover process. In particular, the results showed that the Nottingham approach is sensibly more accurate than the Mayr one, especially in simulating the dynamic behavior of the partial arcs during the flashover process. Based on the encouraging results obtained, a multi-arc calculation algorithm was proposed using the bi-arc dynamic numerical model as a basis. The basic idea, which consists in dividing the multi-arc model in several bi-arc modules, was not implemented and validated but will serve as a promising concept for future work

Numerical and experimental investigation of the design of a piezoelectric de-icing system for small rotorcraft part 1/3 : development of a flat plate numerical model with experimental validation

The objective of this research project is divided in four parts: (1) to design a piezoelectric actuator-based de-icing system integrated to a flat plate experimental setup and develop a numerical model of the system with experimental validation, (2) use the experimental setup to investigate actuator activation with frequency sweeps and transient vibration analysis, (3) add ice layer to the numerical model and predict numerically stresses for different ice breaking with experimental validation, and (4) bring the concept to a blade structure for wind tunnel testing. This paper presents the first objective of this study. First, preliminary numerical analysis was performed to gain basic guidelines for the integration of piezoelectric actuators in a simple flat plate experimental setup for vibration-based de-icing investigation. The results of these simulations allowed to optimize the positioning of the actuators on the structure and the optimal phasing of the actuators for mode activation. A numerical model of the final setup was elaborated with the piezoelectric actuators optimally positioned on the plate and meshed with piezoelectric elements. A frequency analysis was performed to predict resonant frequencies and mode shapes, and multiple direct steady-state dynamic analyses were performed to predict displacements of the flat plate when excited with the actuators. In those steady-state dynamic analysis, electrical boundary conditions were applied to the actuators to excite the vibration of the plate. The setup was fabricated faithful to the numerical model at the laboratory with piezoelectric actuator patches bonded to a steel flat plate and large solid blocks used to mimic perfect clamped boundary condition. The experimental setup was brought at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) for testing with a laser vibrometer to validate the numerical results. The experimental results validated the model when the plate is optimally excited with an average of error of 20% and a maximal error obtained of 43%. However, when the plate was not efficiently excited for a mode, the prediction of the numerical data was less accurate. This was not a concern since the numerical model was developed to design and predict optimal excitation of structures for de-icing purpose. This study allowed to develop a numerical model of a simple flat plate and understand optimal phasing of the actuators. The experimental setup designed is used in the next phase of the project to study transient vibration and frequency sweeps. The numerical model is used in the third phase of the project by adding ice layers for investigation of vibration-based de-icing, with the final objective of developing and integrating a piezoelectric actuator de-icing system to a rotorcraft blade structure