Ana Luísa Fonseca

The scientific activity developed in the last years has been mostly directed for two main technological applications: – vacuum metrology and cork characterization studies. Both contributions were developed using vacuum technology. 

Concerning vacuum metrology, the work developed to fill several gaps in calibrations services that did not exist in Portugal. Within the same subject, related to the European project EMPIR, advances have been achieved about the development of a new ionization gauge. The first results about a numerical simulation of an ionisation gauge using SIMION were published in an international journal. 

Regarding cork characterization studies, besides the last publications (modeling the pressure inside cork under vacuum), other studies have been developed: for more than 18 mounts the gas permeation of cork stoppers in real bottling conditions was measured, for different cork stoppers types; part of this studies allowed to evaluate the role of the glass and stopper interface for controlling gas transfer in bottling conditions, using non treated and treated surface cork. The influence of the bottling storing position on gas permeability was also investigated. Moreover, the effect of temperature in the gas transport through the cork was also determined. The cork transport mechanisms and other studies have been accomplished by Cefitec but it is necessary to promote the resolution of TCA mitigation, contributing, for instance, to the reduction of the use of synthetic stoppers. This group has already done some preliminary results experiments concerning this topic however there are many questions that are still open.