A two-component high-ductility adhesive (acrylic and catalyst based), SikaFast® - 5211 NT, was used to bond single overlap joints with mild steel adherends and 25 mm of overlap. One joint configuration used treated bonding surfaces while the other was did not employ treatment of the adherend surfaces, with the aim of studying the influence of the material surface treatment. The specimens were tensile tested in a INSTRON® universal testing machine and the non-treated surface have shown a strength four times lower than the treated surface. Several analytical methods were used to predict joint strength, with two methods achieving reasonably accurate failure load predictions.

Successive editions of Henriot’s treatise on gears, and an AFNOR document, present an approximate procedure for the choice of profile shift values for the pinion and wheel when a center distance value is imposed in a cylindrical gear pair. That procedure aims at achieving an approximate balancing of the maximum specific sliding values of the pinion and of the wheel. The method involves a loosely defined choice of an auxiliary parameter, but no information is available relating this choice with the level of attainment of the intended balancing of maximum specific sliding values. This assessment, if needed, requires a subsequent analysis for verification.
Since no information is available evaluating the procedure, the purpose of this work is to provide a thorough rigorous analysis of the method, highlighting its qualities but also its shortcomings.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has potential applications in protective coatings, single photon emitters and as substrate for graphene electronics. In this paper, we report on the growth of h-BN by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using ammonia borane as the precursor. Use of CVD allows controlled synthesis over large areas defined by process parameters, e.g. temperature, time, process chamber pressure and gas partial pressures. Furthermore, independently grown graphene and h-BN layers are put together to realize enhancement in electronic properties of graphene.

Knowledge of elastic and damping properties of materials is very relevant for the analysis and design of components, as they are relevant parameters in the performance of structural materials. The impulse excitation technique is a renowned dynamic technique for measuring dynamic elastic properties as Young´s modulus, shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio, as well as damping properties. This paper provides a review on the applicability of the impulse excitation technique in the analysis of elastic and damping properties of different types of materials.

The purpose of this project is to measure the temperature through a thermistor inserted into a properly sized circuit.
This implementation was designed to be possible, given the characteristics of the used sensor, a measurement in the range of -5 to 270 oC, although the temperatures of interest of this application are between 18 and 35 oC.
For the analysis of this measure, as well as for the control, an application was developed in MatLab. This software allows, not only programming and processing the acquired signal, but also serves as a graphical interface where it is possible to monitor the entire process in real time. For the acquisition of the analog signal, was uses an Arduino UNO board.
Inside of the MatLab environment, a screen has been developed that allows visualizing the temperature evolution in real time, as well as verifying if it is inside the stipulated limit. The developed application also allows the system to stop and store test data in a file for later calculations.
For a better framing, this circuit can be considered as a system developed for temperature control of a typical classroom.
That being said, the is then to control the temperature, stipulating limit values, to visualize its evolution in real time through an indicator and a graph and to collect data for later calculations.

The fault management process consists of several sub-tasks: fault location, fault isolation and service restoration. This work presents an assessment and evaluation of the practical aspects of the Medium Voltage (MV) Fault Locator at the Portuguese Distribution System primary substation. Eighty samples of incidents occurred at different MV network with different characteristics in Portugal were used to determine the time saving on the restoration process as well as the improvement on the quality of services indices. An economical assessment based of the use of the MV Distribution Network Fault Locator available in the Portuguese Primary Substation was done and discussed.

The DC/DC boost converter is described as a time variant system. State-Space is one of the methods used to approach a time variant system to an invariant time linear system. The present document focuses on a comparative approach of output voltage regulation and system stability and performance. For this document, there were made MatLab tests of PI and PD controllers, with and without fuzzy control.

Knowledge of the humidity transport inside materials and building construction elements present a high role in the characterization of their behavior in service. It is a vary complex phenomena, where monolithic elements are considered since the existence of interface or layers contributes to the change of the moisture transport across the interface. This work presents an experimental analysis of the moisture transport considering the interface ceramic bricks. This preliminary experimental work consists of quantifying, analyzing and deepening the knowledge of hydric resistance in the interface of "contact" through ceramic brick test samples with different densities. In addition, this work also comprises an attempt to create a prediction model for the hydric resistance. The results describe the influence of hydric resistance in the interface as a function of the distance from the interface to the water plane.