In 1991/92, the University of Beira Interior (UBI) established Portugal's first permanent and official civilian Aeronautics program, a 5-year Licenciatura Degree in Aeronautics Engineering. In addition, a Doctorate Degree in Aeronautics Engineering was established in 1993/94, and a Master's Degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering in 1999/2000. By 2007/08, a European intergovernmental reform (Bologna Process) was implemented to achieve the European Higher Education Area to allow students, graduates, and specialized staff working in higher education to benefit from mobility and equal access to high-quality higher education without obstacles. The essential bases are mutual recognition of degrees, transparency (readable and comparable degrees organized in a 3-Cycle structure), and European quality assurance cooperation, emphasizing competency development over knowledge transmission. The degree system was made official in Portugal by Decree-Law nº. 74/2006. According to the expressed perspective, the reformulation of Aeronautical Engineering Studies at UBI followed the adoption of formal structures, corresponding to 6 Semesters for Licenciatura (180 ECTS = 1st Cycle); 4 Semesters for Master's (120 ECTS = 2nd Cycle), and 6 Semesters for Doctorate (180 ECTS = 3rd Cycle). After its implementation, the requirements to accomplish the reformulation created significant national difficulties leading to successive adaptations exposed in six amendments to Decree-Law nº. 74/2006. A Master's and Doctorate Degree in Portugal legally requires the support of an R&D Unit with a minimum classification of Very Good or Excellent in an evaluation process carried out by foreign experts, with concepts and procedures recognized by the international scientific community. The Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Center (AEROG) is a member of the Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transport, and Aeronautics (LAETA). LAETA received an Excellent Overall Quality Grade from the International Evaluation Panel.

Natural flight has always been the source of imagination for the Human being, but reproducing the propulsive systems used by animals is indeed complex. New challenges in today’s society have made biomimetics gain a lot of momentum because of the high performance and versatility these systems possess when subjected to the low Reynolds numbers effects. The main objective of the present work is the computational study of the influence of the number of Reynolds, angle of attack, frequency and amplitude of the oscillatory movement of a NACA0012 airfoil in the aerodynamic performance for a constant angle of attack over time. The thrust and power coefficients are obtained which together are used to calculate the propulsive efficiency. The simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent with a RANS approach for Reynolds numbers between 8500 and 34000, reduced frequencies between 1 and 5, and Strouhal numbers from 0.1 to 0.4. The influence of the (constant over time) angle of attack was also studied in the range of 0º to 10º. The results indicate optimal operational conditions for the different Reynolds numbers and unprecedented results of the influence of the angle of attack on the aerodynamic coefficients and the propulsive efficiency is widely explored.

A avaliação da qualidade do ambiente interior, particularmente do ambiente doméstico, por ser aquele em que o ser humano passa a maior parte do seu tempo, reveste-se de particular importância. Esta qualidade é modulada por um conjunto de fatores entre os quais se encontram os contaminantes ambientais com potencial tóxico, que têm vindo a ser quantificados de forma consistente no pó doméstico, uma matriz com grande capacidade integradora. Este trabalho, que utiliza o mercúrio como caso de estudo, integra-se no âmbito de um projeto pioneiro e multidisciplinar, em que se pretende estudar por um período de sessenta dias, seis habitações particulares localizadas na cidade da Covilhã, para compreender de que forma as características do imóvel e os hábitos dos habitantes podem influenciar a qualidade do ambiente interior e consequentemente a saúde dos residentes. Os níveis de mercúrio total nas amostras de pó doméstico variaram entre 138,7 ppb e 1075,5 ppb, com um só dos imóveis a transcender o valor máximo permissível estabelecido pela Portaria Nº1450/2007. Estabelece-se uma comparação com os valores registados para outros estudos similares e traça-se um plano de ação para o pleno desenvolvimento do estudo.

The transport sector plays a crucial aspect in society and economic evolution. However, improper energy management has negatively impacted health and the environment. Thus, the use of sustainable and green fuels in the aeronautical industry has been implemented due to environmental concerns and the depletion of fossil fuels. The introduction of biofuels, a renewable energy source in the transportation sector, has shown advantages in terms of pollutant reduction. Recently, the addition of nanoparticles in the combustion of biofuel has been studied with the purpose of enhancing its combustion characteristics. Consequently, the present work evaluates nanofuel single droplet in a falling droplet method. In this way, the fiber suspension effect was neglected, and droplets in a size of 250 μm were evaluated. To this end, a comparison between pure biofuel and a nanofuel at two furnace temperatures (T = 800 ºC and T = 1000 ºC) was performed. The results reveal that disruptive burning phenomena occur when aluminum nanoparticles are added to the biofuel. Consequently, a micro-explosion determines the end of the droplet lifetime, mainly affected by the furnace temperature.

Um dos vetores de atuação no âmbito do controlo de perdas de água em redes de distribuição de água (RDA) é a adoção de políticas de controlo ativo de perdas, as quais habitualmente incluem a realização de campanhas no terreno para localização de fugas não reportadas recorrendo a equipamentos acústicos. Porém, estas atividades exigem equipamentos e recursos humanos especializados. Além disso, a extensão das redes faz com que sejam atividades morosas e, em determinadas circunstâncias de ruído ambiente, apenas realizáveis durante a noite. Nesta comunicação apresenta-se uma metodologia para localização aproximada de fugas de água não reportadas suportada por modelos de simulação de RDA e medições de algumas grandezas hidráulicas. A metodologia consiste em tirar proveito das medições efetuadas no período noturno, no qual os consumos domésticos são insignificantes e os não domésticos significativos podem ser monitorizados. Os resultados desta metodologia são as condutas com maior probabilidade de terem fugas e estimativas dos respetivos caudais. A utilização desta metodologia pretende aumentar a eficiência do trabalho das equipas que realizam as inspeções acústicas, reduzindo o esforço despendido, pois, perante os resultados, podem ser conduzidas para partes específicas da RDA onde se espera que efetivamente existam fugas (pelo menos as de maior dimensão).

The purpose of this work is to develop a trajectory optimization method that generates a fuel optimal trajectory from a predefined 4D waypoint networks, where the arrival time is specified for each waypoint in the network. A single source shortest path algorithm is presented to generate the optimal flight trajectory that minimizes fuel burn. Generating such trajectories enables the airlines to cope with increasing fuel costs and to reduce aviation induced climate change, as emission is directly related to the amount of fuel burn. Two case studies were considered and the simulation results showed that flying a fuel optimal trajectory based on the proposed algorithm leads to a reduction of average fuel consumption on international flights by 2-4% compared with the conventional trip fuel.

In beyond 3G systems, one of the important factors is to address Radio access technology (RAT) selection and load balancing between heterogeneous networks to ensure high spectral efficiency in an era where spectral resources are at a premium. This work aims to address the feasibility of utilizing WiFi as complementary service for HSDPA, to prevent quality of service deterioration in the event of network overload in HSDPA during the busy period. The proposed RAT selection algorithm is based on the load of each system, and the results show that the outage probability can be improved by up to 45% relative to a stand-alone HSDPA system.

UNESCO territories are spaces of Education, Science and Culture, but also of Communication. Today, communication is an imperative of these territories, both as dissemination strategies and as a way of positioning in different development domains. In any case, knowing how to communicate its resources, differentiating elements or defining strategies, constitutes a competitive advantage that cannot be neglected at the present time. In other perspective, communication translates a strategy defined by the territories, visible in the way it communicates and in what is communicated. However, it’s not always easy to convey the values we want, much less when we speak about Science. The UNESCO Global Geoparks, as well-defined spaces where a community development strategy based on geology is built, are also areas of science. As such, communicating scientific knowledge, heritage resources, tangible and intangible values and culture itself are part of the daily life of a Geopark. Assuming the old maxim that we can only value what we know, the development of instruments, strategies and processes is fundamental, allowing the interpretation and dissemination of the geological heritage, but also of what is intended to be achieved with its valorisation, not only promoting greater attractiveness, but also a greater involvement of their communities, leading them to contribute in their own development. At Estrela Geopark, an aspirant to the UNESCO Global Geoparks network, communication plays a prominent role in its transverse development strategy. In each of its vital axes, tourism, science, education and sustainability, communication seeks to achieve three essential objectives: first, greater awareness of the Geopark brand and its own concept; secondly, greater dissemination of the territory; and thirdly, greater attractiveness, with more tourists, residents and investors. However, it`s not always easy to communicate science and scientific research. How to convey knowledge in an accessible, interesting and appealing way to the general public, whether visitors or residents? Aware of this difficulty, the Estrela Geopark betted early on interpretation as a central strategy for the whole communicative process. To interpret is the sine quo non condition for spreading knowledge, promoting geoconservation, achieving new forms of education and fostering our sense of belonging and pride. Throughout the last four years, several communication measures have been adopted, among which we highlight the "Portas do Geopark ", which are points of information and dissemination of heritage, and provide an entry into the territory. These "Portas" are the materialization of a dissemination strategy for the values of the Geopark throughout the 9 municipalities that compose this Aspiring with more than 2 thousand km2. Thus, 9 "Portas" and a tenth in the highest point of Continental Portugal, the Torre of Serra da Estrela, a place that receives approximately 2 million visitors per year, were created. In fact, communicating is much more than a simple way of transmitting knowledge, it`s a methodology that leverages the whole strategy of the Geopark, so that Estrela truly becomes a territory of Science, Education, Culture and Communication.

Sacadura Cabral was one of the two Portuguese navigators that crossed by air the South Atlantic in the beginning of the 20th century. From 1901 to 1915 Sacadura was at Mozambique and Angola where he developed geodetic and geographical missions of the greatest importance for Portuguese interest at Africa. With the Great World War requirements as a Navy Officer with 34 years old he decided to serve Portugal at the Aviation. In 1915 he went to France and obtained its pilot license. In 1916 Sacadura returned to Portugal and begun its instructor pilot career. He developed the “path corrector” which he created to compensate the drift caused by wind. In 1922 Sacadura made the First Air cross from Europe to South Atlantic. In 1923 he proposes himself to make an attempt to the First Air Circumnavigation Journey. He developed all its possible efforts to initiate this journey in March of 1924; however some delays had forced him to postpone the journey. Sacadura received important official medals and prizes, including the PhD Honoris Causa from the Universities of Lisbon and Oporto. In 1924 he died before he could carry out its Circumnavigation Air Journey.

This paper presents a tool for multi-service traffic engineering in UMTS FDD mode. For each of the WCDMA system scenarios, the power restrictions and a given mixture of symmetric applications are considered. The maximum number of supported codes was obtained by previous simulations, taking into account carrier-to-interference constraints, leading to a given available data rate per cell. Given the spread-factor, with the basic resource being considered of 15 kb/s, the various applications request a certain number of basic code channels. A standard algorithm was used to compute each application’s blocking probability, Pb, as a function of the fraction of active users in cells. In the urban1 scenario (20 % data at 40 kb/s plus 80% voice), using one carrier per cell, UMTS can support 26 speech users plus 7 data users for Pb = 2 %. If two carriers were used, it would support 60 speech users and 14 data users. In the urban2 scenario, as data at 320 kb/s is considered, system performance degrades, which can only be overcome by using three carriers per cells, which seems impracticable in an actual system. The consideration of terminal mobility leads to a slight decrease on the number of supported users.