Proyectos

In this project, we plan to study the hydrodynamic wave-vortex interaction problem from an experimental point of view using different setups. The aim is to gain further understanding about the influence of vorticity on the propagation of waves and, to a lesser extend, to study how the vorticity field is modified by the presence of waves. Specifically, we plan to study the influence of a vortex field on a sloshing wave, to track the wave scattering, damping and dissipation. Then, we will study the influence of vorticity on wave-turbulence, in order to see how the wave statistics (wave spectrum, height distributions) and properties (dispersion relation, dissipation mechanisms) are affected by vorticity. Finally we will study how an array of vortices induced by a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability can generate surface waves and the back-reaction of the waves on the vortices. The proposed research is based on the collaboration efforts from the long- standing scientific relation between french and chilean experimental nonlinear laboratories: the Matter-out-of- equilibrium laboratory (LMFE) of the Physics Department from the Universidad de Chile and the Nonlinear Physics group from the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l''Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, France. The expected outcomes of this proposal are: i) to consolidate and expand our french collaboration network including new research labotarories (Laboratoire de Matière et Systèmes Complèxes, Paris, France and Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, Université de Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, France), ii) to co-sign two (2) research publications in Q1 journals, iii) to train postdocs and graduate students in experimental acoustical and optical techniques to measure temporal or spatiotemporal surface wave deformations.

Stochastic Optimization and Chance Constraints with Applications to Energy (SOCCAE)

Objetivo general: mejorar la toma de decisiones respecto al manejo de los recursos hídricos subterráneos durante sequias mediante una plataforma web en acceso libre con un modelo 3D de las reservas de agua subterránea en la Cuenca del Limari. Objetivos específicos: (i) crear un modelo 3D de los acuíferos del valle del Limarí a través de sondajes de resonancia magnética; (ii) desarrollar una plataforma web de acceso libre con el modelo 3D, sus productos asociados como mapa de reservas y costo de extracción, medidas de mitigación de la sequía, capas de informaciones sobre derechos de agua y perforación, y un foro para que los usuarios suban informaciones; (iii) capacitar a los usuarios finales y tomadores de decisiones en la utilización de la plataforma.

Dislocations are the main source of plastic behavior of metals, however, it is very difficult to quantitatively study their influence. In order to improve this situation, it is proposed to use its interaction with elastic waves as a non-invasive probe in Aluminum and Steel 304L at different strain-rates. The long-term objective of the research presented in this proposal is to obtain a standardized methodology for the characterization of materials by means of ultrasonic tests. The proposed technique is based on in-situ measurements of wave pulse propagation in rectangular samples (with ASTM Standard) under standard tensile tests, with maximum deformations of the order of 3% to 7%, which includes both the elastic regime and the plastic, additionally considers traction speeds between 0.001 mm / s and 0.5 mm / s. The results are contrasted with measurements of ultrasonic resonance spectroscopy (RUS) and density measurements of dislocations by XRD of pieces of the material obtained from the test pieces under traction study, which will be carried out in collaboration with Prof. Claudio Aguilar of the University Santa Maria. We will also explore a correlation of the results with the microstructural characterization using TEM images On the other hand, it is proposed to implement non-linear measures in-situ during tensile tests, which have been shown to be much more sensitive to the presence of dislocations of a material. The non-linear measurements are based on the application of a continuous ultrasonic wave and the analysis is performed on the amplitude of the first harmonic A2ω as a function of the amplitude of incident mode Aω, those that are related of the form A2ω = βAω, with β a non-linear parameter. For this analysis it is proposed to develop the theory, until now non-existent, between the non-linear parameter and the density of dislocations in collaboration with Prof. Fernando Lund of the Physics Department of the FCFM of the University of Chile. Emphasis will then be placed on in situ measurements, where a quantitative and continuous relationship between the density of dislocations and the stress applied during a tensile test has recently been found, as well as an indication of universality and independence of the initial condition once that the system enters the plastic deformation regime.

In general, machine learning aims to learn a model from the input data in order to make reliable and repeatable decisions. The learning of a model is either done automatically or semiautomatically. While deep learning can be used to automatically learn a model from arbitrary raw data, the number of successful application domains is still very restricted. This proposal is concerned with supervised learning - a machine-learning technique that aims at learning a model from input-output examples. A crucial task in supervised learning is the engineering of the features. Features are used to extract the relevant information from the raw data in order to learn a classifier that is based on the extracted data. A classifier is a function that partitions the input data into different categories. Feature engineering is a time-consuming process that includes a lot of trial and error, and stepwise addition or deletion of features. We aim at automating that process and learn a classifier based on some automatically generated features.

Esta Propuesta de Instalación se da en el contexto de una Universidad nueva que se encuentra en pleno periodo de conformación de su planta académica; el Dr. Diego Muñoz Carpintero será el primer experto en el área de control automático del Instituto de Ciencias de la Ingeniería y la Universidad, complementado de este modo la planta docente y de investigación en Ingeniería Eléctrica. La Universidad y el Instituto de Ciencias de la Ingeniería consideran como aspectos centrales de su misión una vocación de excelencia académica y profesional, y de responsabilidad social con un sentido de pertenencia regional. Respecto del último punto, es prioritaria la investigación relevante para las actividades principales de la región, minera y agroindustrial, y en temáticas de relevancia local y global, como energía, sustentabilidad, y en ciencias físicas y matemáticas. La selección del investigador para este concurso cumple todos los criterios de excelencia en investigación, docencia, y de relevancia de su investigación en un contexto regional y global. La propuesta de investigación se centra en temas de electro-movilidad y eficiencia energética. En particular, abordará problemáticas relacionadas con vehículos eléctricos (EVs): ruteo de flotas de EVs para maximización de vida útil de las baterías, control tolerante a fallas de EVs, diseño de estrategias de control de servicios auxiliares brindadas por estaciones de carga de EVs, y el diseño y análisis de estrategias de control y optimización para estos problemas. La investigación en estos temas posee relevancia local por su impacto en sustentabilidad y utilidad para las principales actividades económicas de la región (minería y agroindustrial), y también poseen relevancia global por enmarcarse en las tendencias globales de conversión al uso de energías limpias y eficientes. Finalmente, existen sinergias entre este proyecto de investigación y el perfil del Dr. Muñoz, con otros proyectos y el perfil de otros académicos del Instituto.

[proyecto ejecutado en 4 años, por haberse acogido a extensión de pandemia] Fluid impacts are present in a large variety of situations. For instance, the craters formed by rain--drops impacting the soil are relevant in agricultural applications. Also, wave--impact can damage coastal structures, and impact of sloshing--waves may produce over--turning of trucks or vessels that transport fluids. Therefore, the relevance (I would say the impact) of fluid impact goes from industry to environmental sciences. And also because of its beauty and scientific challenges, fluid impact is currently (and largely) studied by communities of physicist and applied mathematicians. As the field of fluid impact is vast, we focus in one particular problem: the bottle flip challenge, as (1) it provides more contoured problems to be tackled experimentally during the time limits of this proposal; (2) it could give insights about other relevant and applied problems; (3) as it already received press coverage worldwide, it is likely to have a large visibility of the results obtained. The bottle flip challenge is a game consisting in spinning a plastic bottle partially filled with water, in order to make it landing vertically after completing a single turn, or more. In recent years the challenge received huge attention in social media and some press coverage including Las Ultimas Noticias. In our opinion, such effervescence for a physical phenomenon relies in the counter-intuitiveness of the trick: as the bottle is turning, one expect it to continue turning until falling down, instead of the abrupt and stable stop in a vertical position that actually occurs. Some of the videos, magazine publication and the available physics article (Dekker et al., 2018), focus their attention in the conservation of angular momentum and the variations of momentum of inertia to explain the successful landing. Dekker et al. recognize that the physics of water sloshing is highly complex in itself and approached the problem by the side of classical mechanics. What we propose here, is indeed to take the challenge of fluid dynamics to carry conserved-quantities explanations to a greater depth. Our starting point is a high--speed camera recording of a successful throw and landing. There, one can observe at least two key fluid-dynamical events that contribute to the vertical stabilization of the bottle: (1) the impact of a water jet into the wall, strongly reducing the bottle-angular-momentum during the free traveling of the system, and (2) a violent redistribution of water taking place at landing, where water captures an important amount of the kinetic energy carried by the bottle. After describing these two key events, we can already summarize this proposal as a committed experimental study of both events, plus an effort to translate these ideas into a (engineering inspired) sloshing dynamics application. We propose first to study the landing stage asking the following question (Question 1): for a container partially filled with fluid, can fluid motion act as a shock-absorber for the impact? We propose to perform an experiment where the bottle is rotated on its vertical axis before it is released (also vertically). Then we will study the effect of fluid motion, by simply defining a restitution coefficient (valid at landing impact) and to see when the loss of bottle-energy is maximized. Bottle-energy loss implies fluid-energy absorption: a balance that will be experimentally checked. Maximal loss of bottle-energy indeed ensures greater bottle stability at landing. Then, we will focus on the effect of water--jet--impact asking Question 2: On which circumstances jet-impact may stabilize a freely rotating container? On one side, we will perform experiments of bottle throwing just as the challenge proposes (that is, throwing the bottle by hand). Also, we will construct a quasi-2D experiment, to perform computer-controlled rotations of the bottle in order to produce jet--impact on the bottle walls. In both cases, we will study angular momentum transfer and deviations from bottles without impact by filming with a high-speed camera and applying mass conservation models. In order to return to the general problem of fluid impact, our final question (3) is Can we take advantage of jet-impact to stabilize any moving container? Here we will apply the previous knowledge to the study a classical configuration exhibiting wave impact: a container subjected to horizontal excitation. After characterizing impact conditions in the solid container, we will study the consequences (in wall acceleration for instance) of having a freely moving wall.

Levantar el proyecto Tagua Tagua

La experiencia internacional (Israel, Holanda, España) muestra que la recarga artificial de acuíferos es una herramienta eficaz para lograr gestionar la cantidad y calidad del recurso hídrico considerando integralmente las fuentes superficiales, subterráneas y su interacción. La presente iniciativa tiene como propósito diseñar un piloto de Recarga artificial para el acuífero de Pan de Azúcar y Elqui Bajo. Esto significa seleccionar la localización óptima con criterios hidrogeológicos (capacidad de almacenamiento, niveles piezométricos, velocidad de recarga, transmisibilidad, modelo hidrogeológico de recarga, etc), hidrogeoquímicos (calidad del agua, interacción suelo-agua, factores antrópicos, etc), socio-económicos (salud de la población, productividad, empleo, etc) y ambientales (aspectos ambientales, impactos ambientales). Una vez seleccionada la localización, está será caracterizada. Para ello se utilizará información bibliográfica general y específica disponible. Parte importante de esta información ha sido generada por el equipo UCN que en los últimos años ha ejecutado proyectos estudiando los acuíferos costeros en la región. También se generará información complementaria, con campañas de caracterización y monitoreo, necesaria para la aplicación de los criterios establecidos. Con la información de caracterización se determinará la técnica de infiltración más adecuada a partir de criterios técnicos-científicos. Para esto se modelará hidrogeológicamente la efectividad en el corto, mediano y largo plazo de la infiltración definida. Finalmente, se realizará el diseño ingenieril a nivel de detalle de la planta piloto que permita la inyección artificial el acuífero.