Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Phenomenal Modifier'

We are able to perceive temporally structured events, like change, motion and persistence. These events do have temporal properties like duration, temporal order and simultaneity. In addition, many philosophers hold that, contrary to space, these temporal properties do not exhaust our temporal experience. Time itself, they hold, is felt as enjoying a transient character over and above these relations. Our awareness of temporal properties and the alleged flowing character of time are the object of analysis of this dissertation. Many philosophical problems and issues arise in this respect, among which the Paradox of Temporal Experience, the requirement of accommodating temporal transparency and the troubles for the B-Theory because of the so-called "Argument from Phenomenology". In addressing all of them, I will propose a full-blown tenseless account of temporal perception, implemented via retentionalism. It is a completely new proposal, since the received view runs against this very hypothesis, especially if the latter is accompanied by a naive realist conception of experience. In other words, I will show that no reference to any temporal location is within our perceptual contents. Moreover, In respect of the idea of a perceived flow, I will propose that this relies on a mistake. There is nothing like the perception of time passage. Finally, It is worth to point out that, within the overall field of philosophy of perception, our ability to perceive time is an unicum. While it is often said that our acts of perception do not share the properties of the perceived objects, it is still the case that temporal perception occurs in time. This is very interesting because temporal properties of perception come to have a role at explaining our ability to be acquainted with temporal properties in the environment. Finally, temporal perception has a lot of connections with other inquiries such metaphysics and cognitive science which will be explored in various extent.

Brazing and soldering, as advanced manufacturing processes, are of significant importance to industrial applications. It is widely accepted that joining by brazing or soldering is possible if a liquid metal wets the solids to be joined. Wetting, hence spreading and capillary action of liquid metal (often called filler) is of significant importance. Good wetting is required to distribute liquid metal over/between the substrate materials for a successful bonding. Topographically altered surfaces have been used to exploit novel wetting phenomena and associated capillary actions, such as imbibitions (a penetration of a liquid front over/through a rough, patterned surface). Modification of surface roughness may be considered as a venue to tune and control the spreading behavior of the liquids. Modeling of spreading of liquids on rough surface, in particular liquid metals is to a large extent unexplored and constitutes a cutting edge research topic. In this dissertation the imbibitions of liquid metal has been considered as pertained to the metal bonding processes involving brazing and soldering fillers. First, a detailed review of fundamentals and the recent progress in studies of non-reactive and reactive wetting/capillary phenomena has been provided. An imbibition phenomenon has been experimentally achieved for organic liquids and molten metals during spreading over topographically modified intermetallic surfaces. It is demonstrated that the kinetics of such an imbibition over rough surfaces follows the Washburn-type law during the main spreading stage. The Washburn-type theoretical modeling framework has been established for both isotropic and anisotropic non-reactive imbibition of liquid systems over rough surfaces. The rough surface domain is considered as a porous-like medium and the associated surface topographical features have been characterized either theoretically or experimentally through corresponding permeability, porosity and tortuosity. Phenomenological records and empirical data have been utilized to verify the constructed model. The agreement between predictions and empirical evidence appears to be good. Moreover, a reactive wetting in a high temperature brazing process has been studied for both polished and rough surfaces. A linear relation between the propagating triple line and the time has been established, with spreading dominated by a strong chemical reaction.

In the article the results of analyze of laser ultrasound generation in inhomogeneous semiconductors plate is presented. The case of strong absorption of electromagnetic fields is considered. It is shown that in this case submicron surface layer thermal properties influence on thermal distribution evolution. The case of thin infinite plate considered. Peculiarities of excitation and propagation of elastic waves in such media regarding gives the possibility to obtain dispersive equation for laser ultrasound wave-vectors. It is shown that such processes in 1D case can be described. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/35156

Ces travaux de thèse présentent une étude du mécanisme de compatibilisation induit par des nanoparticules d’argile dans les mélanges de polymères en utilisant la rhéologie. Pour cela, de la montmorillonite, la laponite et l’halloysite, modifiées ou non, ont été ajoutées à des mélanges PMMA/PS. Les résultats de rhéologie linéaire en cisaillement ont montré que le mécanisme de compatibilisation, particulièrement le phénomène de coalescence, dépendait beaucoup de la localisation des nanoparticules. La montmorillonite modifiée, présente à l’interface entre les polymères, est la plus efficace à inhiber la coalescence et est aussi efficace qu’un copolymère à bloc de haute masse molaire. Ceci est particulièrement intéressant car les nanoparticules d’argile représentent un coût moindre comparé aux copolymères à bloc. Dans ces travaux, une attention spéciale a été portée aux relaxations présentes dans les mélanges. En utilisant la rhéologie linéaire en cisaillement, un effet Marangoni a été mis en évidence pour la première fois dans le cas de nanoparticules d’argile modifiées présentes à l’interface. Enfin, les mélanges soumis à un flux élongationnel puis relaxation ont montré que la relaxation des gouttes de phase dispersée après une importante déformation était plus rapide par ajout d’argiles dispersées dans la matrice et ralentie par des argiles mieux dispersées soit à l’interface, soit dans l’ensemble du mélange
In this thesis, the compatibilization mechanism induced by clay nanoparticles in polymer blends was investigated using rheology. To do so, montmorillonite, laponite and halloysite, modified or not, were added to PMMA/PS blends. Linear shear rheology showed that the compatibilization mechanism, especially the coalescence phenomenon, was greatly influenced by the localization of clay nanoparticles. Modified montmorillonite, which was located at the interface, was shown to be the most efficient at inhibiting coalescence among clays and as efficient as a block copolymer with a high molecular mass. The latter is particularly interesting as nanoparticles are cheaper than block copolymers. In this work, special attention was given to relaxations happening in blends. Using linear shear rheology, Marangoni stresses due to a gradient in compatibilizer concentration at the interface was evidenced for the first time in the case of organically modified clay nanoparticles when located at the interface. Finally, submitting blends to elongational flow and subsequent relaxation showed that the relaxation of the droplets after high deformations was faster in the case of clays dispersed in the matrix and slowed down by the interfacial tension in the case of a better dispersion of clays at the interface or in the whole blend

Gas stirring is currently the most commonly used method of homogenizing liquid steel in commercial processes. However, due to the harsh environment during the process, physical models built out of e.g. plexiglass have been used to easier understand the complex phenomenon occurring in the process. The models are also used to optimize stirring conditions and estimate mixing times. Instead of liquid steel, water has been used for modelling, to increase safety and reduce costs. The water models are usually scaled down to sizes that are easier to handle. Scaling correctly requires fulfilling commonly used criteria and dimensionless numbers. This report investigated the accuracy of these dimensionless numbers and the relations commonly used for scaling. Existing studies and relations were evaluated, and the theoretically best suitable scaling equations were tested. Three bottom blown vessels were built, in order to test the existing relations. By applying scaling criteria and calculating gas flow rates accordingly, the correlation between theoretical mixing time and measured mixing time could be investigated. This thesis concluded that the correlation between the measured mixing times was not significant, however, by implementing the scale factor λ1/2 a better approximation seems to be given.
Gasomrörning är för tillfället den vanligaste metoden som används för att homogenisera flytande stål i kommersiella processer. På grund av de svåra förhållandena under processen har fysiska modeller, byggda av exempelvis plexiglas, använts. Detta för att enklare förstå de komplexa fenomen som uppstår under processen. Modellerna används också för att optimera omrörningsförhållandena och för att uppskatta blandningstider. Istället för flytande stål har vatten använts vid modellering för att öka säkerheten och minska kostnaderna. Vattenmodellerna är vanligtvis nedskalade till storlekar som är lättare att hantera. En korrekt skalning kräver att vanliga kriterier och dimensionslösa tal uppfylls. Denna rapport undersökte noggrannheten för dessa dimensionslösa tal samt relationer som vanligtvis används vid skalning. Befintliga studier och relationer utvärderades och de teoretiskt mest lämpliga skalningsekvationerna testades. Tre stycken kärl med bottenblåsning byggdes för att testa dessa relationer. Genom att tillämpa skalningskriterier och beräkna gasflödeshastigheterna, kunde korrelationen mellan de teoretiska och uppmätta blandningstiderna undersökas. Denna avhandling drog slutsatsen att korrelationen mellan de uppmätta blandningstiderna inte var signifikant. Dock verkade en bättre approximation fås när skalfaktorn λ1/2 implementerades.

CD8 T cells recognize complexes of MHC class I and peptide on the surface of target cells. MHC class I antigen presentation is a long pathway, in which proteins are degraded by proteasomes to generating oligopeptides, which may be further trimmed by aminopeptidases in the cytosol. Peptides are transported into the ER, where they may be further trimmed by ER lumenal aminopeptidases and bind to newly-synthesized MHC class I complexes. Proteins degraded by the proteasome are generally tagged with ubiquitin by a combination of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes and ubiquitin ligases. UBC9 is one ubiquitin conjugating enzyme, which does not conjugate ubiquitin, but instead conjugates small ubiquitin-like molecules (SUMO) to target protein. UBC9 has been found to regulate the functions of many proteins in vivo, most importantly by modifying nuclear transportation and function. Curing [During] my thesis work, I studied the function of UBC9 in MHC class I antigen presentation. UBC9 over-expression in COS cells co-expressing ovalbumin markedly increased presentation SIINFEKL (the immunodominant epitope from ovalbumin in the context of H-2Kb), and UBC9 overexpression increased cell surface H-2Kbin general, suggesting that Ubc9 increased MHC class I antigen presentation by increasing peptide supply. UBC9 did not increase synthesis or degradation of ovalbumin. In transient transfection experiments, Ubc9 increased presentation of SIINFEKL precursors that did, and that did not, depend on proteasomes for processing, as well as SIINFEKL precursors targeted to the ER, bypassing cytosolic processing altogether. However, a C-terminal extended precursor of SIINFEKL, which requires only proteasomal processing before presentation, was the most markedly affected by UBC9 overexpression. This suggested that UBC9 was affecting the pattern of cleavages made by proteasomes in ways that enhance the generation of the C-terminus of SIINFEKL. Because presentation of SIINFEKL itself (which requires no further proteolytic processing) was also enhanced, UBC9 must also affect steps in the class I pathway that occur after the generation of the mature epitopes. UBC9 did not affect the rate of peptide degradation in cytosolic extracts or in intact cells. These findings suggested that UBC9 might have multiple effects on the MHC class I antigen presentation pathway. Immunofluorescent microscopy demonstrated that UBC9 increased the expression of the beta subunits of immunoproteasomes (LMP2, LMP7, and MECL1) as well as of TAP1 and tapasin. In contrast, UBC9 expression did not increase levels of calnexin, calreticulin, ERp57, or Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). Similarly, levels of leucine aminopeptidase were not increased in UBC9-transfected cells. Therefore, UBC9 overexpression increases the levels of some but not all components of the class I pathway. UBC9 overexpression increased protein levels of MECL1, LMP2 or LMP7 that were under the control of viral promoters, and levels of MECL1 mRNA were similar in control vector and UBC9 transfected cells. Therefore, UBC9 did not increase the level of expression of these subunits through increased transcription. Pulse-chase experiments showed that UBC9 overexpression reduced the degradation of MECL1. Therefore, UBC9 increases the levels of at least some of these components of the MHC class I antigen presentation pathway by increasing their stability. To know the biological significance of UBC9 in MHC class I antigen presentation, I used small interfering RNA (siRNA) to knock down UBC9. Though UBC9 can be successfully knocked down by siRNA, the UBC9-negative cells became very sick, and were not suitable for the study of MHC class I antigen presentation. There are three forms of SUMO molecules in mammalian cells: SUMO-1, SUMO-2 and SUMO-3. My study suggested that SUMO-2 may be involved in UBC9's regulation of MHC class I antigen presentation, since mutant SUMO-2 blocked UBC9's ability to increase H-2Kb-SIINFEKL levels on the cell surface after the cells were loaded with ovalbumin. To further study the function of UBC9, I mutated the active amino acid Cys 93 of UBC9 to Ser (UBC9OH). Unexpectedly, this mutant form (UBC9OH) has very similar effects as wild-type UBC9, increasing Kb-SIINFEKL levels at the cells surface. This suggested that UBC9 protein regulates MHC class I antigen presentation pathway proteins by direct or indirect protein interaction, rather than (or as well as) by SUMO conjugation. Taking account of SUMO-2 results, I propose that wild-type UBC9 (either transfected or endogenous) conjugates SUMO-2 to its substrates, and then UBC9 (wild-type or mutant) interacts with its sumoylated targets, thus affecting protein functions. I also studied heat shock protein Hsp27, which is known to be a substrate for UBC9 in vivo. Hsp27 is expressed in a variety of tissues in the absence of stress, and may regulate actin dynamics. Hsp27 overexpression decreased generation of H-2Kb-SIINFEKL complexes from SIINFEKL precursors that did, and did not, require proteasomes for processing, or that were targeted to the ER. Hsp27 over-expression did not affect protein synthesis, and globally decreased cell surface H2-Kb and H2-Dblevels, but did not affect HLA-A0302 level. Hsp27 overexpression inhibits the presentation of ER-localized SIINFEKL. Taken together, my data suggested that HSP27 may inhibit MHC class I antigen presentation by affecting MHC class I molecules itself rather than peptide supply. After Hsp27 was eliminated with siRNA, the effects were very similar to those seen with Hsp27 overexpression. Levels of H-2Kb-SIINFEKL decreased, and overall cell surface H-2Kb and H-2Db levels decreased. It is possible that when Hsp27 is over-expressed, it acts as a dominant negative form, conferring a similar phenotype to Hsp27 knockdown. These observations suggest that Hsp27 plays an important role in MHC class I antigen presentation.

There is an increasing need for accurate models describing the electrical behaviour of individual biological cells exposed to electromagnetic fields. In this area of solving linear problem, the most frequently used technique for computing the EM field is the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. When modelling objects that are small compared with the wavelength, for example biological cells at radio frequencies, the standard Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method requires extremely small time-step sizes, which may lead to excessive computation times. The problem can be overcome by implementing a quasi-static approximate version of FDTD, based on transferring the working frequency to a higher frequency and scaling back to the frequency of interest after the field has been computed. An approach to modeling and analysis of biological cells, incorporating the Hodgkin and Huxley membrane model, is presented here. Since the external medium of the biological cell is lossy material, a modified Berenger absorbing boundary condition is used to truncate the computation grid. Linear assemblages of cells are investigated and then Floquet periodic boundary conditions are imposed to imitate the effect of periodic replication of the assemblages. Thus, the analysis of a large structure of cells is made more computationally efficient than the modeling of the entire structure. The total fields of the simulated structures are shown to give reasonable and stable results at 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2450MHz. This method will facilitate deeper investigation of the phenomena in the interaction between EM fields and biological systems. Moreover, the nonlinear response of biological cell exposed to a 0.9GHz signal was discussed on observing the second harmonic at 1.8GHz. In this, an electrical circuit model has been proposed to calibrate the performance of nonlinear RF energy conversion inside a high quality factor resonant cavity with known nonlinear device. Meanwhile, the first and second harmonic responses of the cavity due to the loading of the cavity with the lossy material will also be demonstrated. The results from proposed mathematical model, give good indication of the input power required to detect the weakly effects of the second harmonic signal prior to perform the measurement. Hence, this proposed mathematical model will assist to determine how sensitivity of the second harmonic signal can be detected by placing the required specific input power.

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There is an increasing need for accurate models describing the electrical behaviour of individual biological cells exposed to electromagnetic fields. In this area of solving linear problem, the most frequently used technique for computing the EM field is the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. When modelling objects that are small compared with the wavelength, for example biological cells at radio frequencies, the standard Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method requires extremely small time-step sizes, which may lead to excessive computation times. The problem can be overcome by implementing a quasi-static approximate version of FDTD, based on transferring the working frequency to a higher frequency and scaling back to the frequency of interest after the field has been computed. An approach to modeling and analysis of biological cells, incorporating the Hodgkin and Huxley membrane model, is presented here. Since the external medium of the biological cell is lossy material, a modified Berenger absorbing boundary condition is used to truncate the computation grid. Linear assemblages of cells are investigated and then Floquet periodic boundary conditions are imposed to imitate the effect of periodic replication of the assemblages. Thus, the analysis of a large structure of cells is made more computationally efficient than the modeling of the entire structure. The total fields of the simulated structures are shown to give reasonable and stable results at 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2450MHz. This method will facilitate deeper investigation of the phenomena in the interaction between EM fields and biological systems. Moreover, the nonlinear response of biological cell exposed to a 0.9GHz signal was discussed on observing the second harmonic at 1.8GHz. In this, an electrical circuit model has been proposed to calibrate the performance of nonlinear RF energy conversion inside a high quality factor resonant cavity with known nonlinear device. Meanwhile, the first and second harmonic responses of the cavity due to the loading of the cavity with the lossy material will also be demonstrated. The results from proposed mathematical model, give good indication of the input power required to detect the weakly effects of the second harmonic signal prior to perform the measurement. Hence, this proposed mathematical model will assist to determine how sensitivity of the second harmonic signal can be detected by placing the required specific input power.

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:36:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009
Este trabalho propõe analisar o fenômeno da terceirização desenvolvido ao longo das duas últimas décadas em Bio-Manguinhos. Trata-se de um estudo de caso realizado na unidade de produção de vacinas e reagentes para diagnóstico da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Inicialmente foi realizado um estudo de cenário, analisando a política de gestão do trabalho desenvolvida pelo Estado brasileiro para as instituições públicas. A seguir, a análise passou a verificar a inserção da Fiocruz nessas políticas, desde a sua criação e no decorrer de vigência de diferentes formas de contratação, alternando da extrema rigidez para a total flexibilidade sempre com foco na gestão do trabalho, e, como essas políticas se refletiram no desempenho de Bio-Manguinhos. Baseado no contexto da conformação do Estado e na análise do desempenho da unidade, o trabalho critica a falta de planejamento e de prospecção dessas políticas, que favoreça a inovação de processos, produtos e procedimentos e o desempenho pleno de uma unidade de produção de insumos para a saúde, tão necessários ao atendimento das necessidades da população brasileira. Critica também, a ausência de um modelo de Estado consolidado que sirva de arcabouço à formulação dessas políticas. Devido às fortes críticas dos órgãos de controle acerca da extrapolação dos limites da terceirização praticada nas últimas duas décadas e à falta de definição clara desses marcos legais, o trabalho apresenta uma metodologia baseada nas atribuições dos cargos do plano de carreiras da Fiocruz e culmina com a apresentação de uma matriz de atribuições passíveis de serem realizadas por contratação indireta. Conclui pela necessidade de convivência de dois quadros de trabalhadores: um permanente formado por servidores, estáveis e de carreira e outro flexível, executado por contratação indireta, de caráter eventual, temporário ou de apoio às atividades relacionadas à missão de Bio-Manguinhos. O trabalho ainda sugere a aplicação da mesma metodologia às demais unidades da Fiocruz e que a instituição afirme, frente aos órgãos de controle, quais atividades que ela precisa manter no quadro de servidores permanente e quais ela quer delegar a terceiros sem contudo, ferir a legislação vigente. Por fim, constata-se que a metodologia apresentada ameniza, mas não resolve o problema, dessa forma, recomenda-se à Fiocruz buscar mecanismos que altere o modelo de gestão pelo qual está submetida a fim de viabilizar as duas formas de incorporação de mão-de-obra.

This work investigated the effects of tailored, externally-applied magnetic fields on current transport and near-anode processes in the plasma discharge of a magnetoplasmadynamic thruster (MPDT). Electrical and plasma diagnostics were used to determine whether applied magnetic fields could mitigate the effects of the "onset" phenomena, including large-amplitude terminal voltage fluctuations and high anode fall voltages associated with unstable operation and anode erosion. A new MPDT was developed and operated with quasi-steady 1 ms pulses from 36 kW to 3.3 MW with argon propellant. Three magnetic configurations studied included self-field operation (without external electromagnets) and two applied poloidal magnetic fields. One configuration used magnetic field lines tangential to the anode lip (and intersecting the anode further upstream) and the other created a magnetic cusp intersecting the anode downstream.

The influence of the applied fields on the discharge current streamlines, current densities, and key plasma properties (electron temperature, number density, and plasma potential) was studied. Key findings included that the current pattern and current densities redistributed to follow the applied magnetic field lines. Also, the anode fall voltage was substantially reduced with both applied fields over a large range of currents (and eliminated at 8 kA). These results occurred because applied magnetic field lines intersecting the anode provided a high conductivity path and reduced the local electric field required to sustain the radial current densities. The applied fields reduced the amplitude and frequency of the terminal voltage fluctuations (up to 49%) over a broad range of currents and also decreased transients in the ion saturation current, which suggest reduction of current filamentation and surface-eroding anode spots. Additionally, the cusp field reduced mean terminal voltages over the entire range of discharge currents (up to 31%), and the tangential field lowered terminal voltages below 10.7 kA. These significant reductions in onset-related behaviors should lead to improved thruster lifetime and increased efficiency. These results suggest a distinctive and more effective approach to influencing the near-anode phenomena and mitigating the effects of onset with appropriately designed applied magnetic fields that differ from those used in the vast majority of conventional, so-called "applied-field MPD thrusters."

博士
國立中央大學
地球物理研究所
99
Pattern informatics (PI) is developed by Rundle and Tiampo et al. in 2002 as a calculation method to evaluate seismic anomalies and is already applied in several researches to high seismicity regions, such as California and Japan. However, two fundamental premises of PI about statistical stability of seismicity are rarely concerned in previous researches. This disregard led to serious doubt about these published results. On the other hand, the contradiction between the fundamental premises of PI and real seismicity also results in further difficulty in applying PI to Taiwanese seismicity. We applied Thirumalai-Mountain (TM) metric to identify the effectively ergodic intervals in Taiwanese seismicity. Seismicity in the identified effectively ergodic intervals are stable in statistical distribution and can be used to evaluate seismic anomalies disregarding statistical fluctuations. Through several tests we concluded that the original PI is very sensitive to statistical fluctuations and can’t be improved merely by the assistance of TM metric. On the other hand, we modified the original PI by using average seismic rate change as statistical quantity and by introducing spatial normalization to cease the inherent difference of seismicity due to tectonic environment. A seismic activation process before the 1999 Chichi earthquake is proposed by Chen in 2003. We used the modified PI to identify the distribution of seismic anomalies corresponding to the seismic activation. The identified seismic anomalies marked most of the locations of the Chichi main shock and big aftershocks. To overcome the difficulty of identifying precursory phenomenon and parametric selection, we used a combination of modified PI and genetic algorithms (GA) to objectively confirm the existence of precursory seismic anomalies before big earthquakes without any manual selection, tuning, or tests. Once the seismic anomalies are obtained, we can further explore which underlying forecasting mechanisms result in these anomalies. This strategy is successfully applied to the research for the 2008 Wenchuan, China, earthquake and identified this catastrophic earthquake as another example of seismic activation.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are solid-state ceramic cells, typically operating between 1073 K and 1273 K. Because of high operating temperature, SOFCs are mostly applicable in stationary power generation. Among various configurations in which SOFCs exist, the planar configuration of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has the potential to offer high power density due to shorter current path. Moreover, the planar configuration of SOFC is simple to stack and closely resemble the stacking arrangement of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. However, due to high operating temperature, there are problems associated with the development and commercialization of planar SOFCs, such as requirement of high temperature gas seals, internal stresses in cell components, and high material and manufacturing costs. Mathematical modeling is an essential tool for the advancement of SOFC technology. Mathematical models can help in gaining insights on the processes occurring inside the fuel cell, and can also aid in the design and optimization of fuel cells by examining the effect of various operating and design conditions on performance. A multi-component and multi-dimensional mathematical model of SOFCs has been developed in this thesis research. One of the novelties of the present model is its treatment of electrodes. An electrode in the present model is treated as two distinct layers referred to as the backing layer and the reaction zone layer. Reaction zone layers are thin layers in the vicinity of the electrolyte layer where electrochemical reactions occur to produce oxide ions, electrons and water vapor. The other important feature of the present model is its flexibility in fuel choice, which implies not only pure hydrogen but also any reformate composition can be used as a fuel. The modified Stefan-Maxwell equations incorporating Knudsen diffusion are used to model multi-component diffusion in the porous backing and reaction zone layers. The coupled governing equations of species, charge and energy along with the constitutive equations in different layers of the cell are solved for numerical solution using the finite volume method and developed code written in the computer language of C++. In addition, the developed numerical model is validated with various experimental data sets published in the open literature. Moreover, it is verified that the electrode in an SOFC can be treated as two distinct layers referred to as the backing layer and the reaction zone layer. The numerical model not only predicts SOFC performance at different operating and design conditions but also provides insight on the phenomena occurring within the fuel cell. In an anode-supported SOFC, the ohmic overpotential is the single largest contributor to the cell potential loss. Also, the cathode and electrolyte overpotentials are not negligible even though their thicknesses are negligible relative to the anode thickness. Moreover, methane reforming and water-gas shift reactions aid in significantly reducing the anode concentration overpotential in the thick anode of an anode-supported SOFC. A worthwhile comparison of performance between anode-supported and self-supported SOFCs reveals that anode-supported design of SOFCs is the potential design for operating at reduced temperatures. A parametric study has also been carried out to investigate the effect of various key operating and design parameters on the performance of an anode-supported SOFC. Reducing the operating temperature below 1073 K results in a significant drop in the performance of an anode-supported SOFC; hence ionic conductivity of the ion-conducting particles in the reaction zone layers and electrolyte needs to be enhanced to operate anode-supported SOFCs below 1073 K. Further, increasing the anode reaction zone layer beyond certain thickness has no significant effect on the performance of an anode-supported SOFC. Moreover, there is a spatial limitation to the transport of oxide ions in the reaction zone layer, thereby reflecting the influence of reaction zone thickness on cell performance.