DETECTING LONG-TERM TRENDS IN TURBO-GENERATOR STATOR END-WINDING VIBRATIONS THROUGH NEURAL NETWORK MODELLING

The accurate assessment of remaining useful life based on condition monitoring variables is not a trivial task, since long-term trends are often obscured by short-term fluctuations. Short-term variations in such variables also tend to overshadow the long-term drift in magnitude. Stator end-winding vibrations are one of the key indicators of the remaining useful life of turbo-driven generators. In this paper, a technique is developed to separate long-term drifts in stator end-winding vibrations from short-term fluctuations. The technique rests on the fact that short-term variations in winding vibrations are largely affected by operational variables measured on a turbo generator, including load and temperature. These dependencies can be captured in a model reflecting the short-term behaviour of the vibration amplitudes. The long-term trend in vibration amplitude is, however, not governed by the same relationships. It is hence possible to extract the long-term trend from the overall behaviour by subtracting the short-term effects of operational variables from the overall behaviour. In this way, a reliable long-term trend is obtained, from which remaining life assessments could be made.     

Variations on a Proof of a Borderline Bourgain-Brezis Sobolev Embedding Theorem

This paper offers a variant of a proof of a borderline Bourgain-Brezis Sobolev embedding theorem on R~n. The authors use this idea to extend the result to real hyperbolic spaces H~n.     

Exploring the MRCI method for calculating interaction energies: application to the HeNe potential curve

A multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI) method is described, which is devised for the calculation of interaction energies of van der Waals complexes and applied to calculating the HeNe potential energy curve. The MRCI calculations make use of a generalized Pople-correction in order to account for the lack of size consistency. The orbital space is partitioned into three subspaces: the first active space (AS1), which contains the strongly occupied orbitals; the second active space (AS2), which contains the main intra-correlating orbitals; and the external space (ES). It is shown that, to keep the error below ± 0.2 K in the excitation scheme and the active orbital space it is sufficient to include only σ-orbitals in AS2 and to use an excitation scheme (labelled Qq-MRCI) that encompasses only up to quadruply excited configurations. The final active orbital space (AS2) turned out to be 2s(He), 2pσ(He), 3s(Ne), 3σ(Ne) and 3dσ(Ne). Other MRCI variants, in which most or all quadruply excited configurations were deleted from the CI expansion (Qt- and Tt-MRCI), were found to be inadequate. Using the Qq-MRCI scheme together with a 197-orbital ‘interaction optimized’ basis set (IO197), the MRCI interaction energy at R = 5.7 _a0 was calculated to be -21.12K. The corresponding values at the MP4 and CCSD(T) levels of theory are -20.06 K and -20.99 K, respectively, indicating that the MP4 method is inappropriate for highly accurate calculations on this system. Fitting the calculated data using a generalized Morse function, including an additional C₆/R⁶ term to account for a correct long-range behaviour of the potential, the MRCI well depth was calculated to be -21.16K at R_eq = 5.73a ₀. The MRCI and CCSD(T) potentials have the same quality and are found to be in good agreement with the Hartree-Fock dispersion (HFD-B) potential of Keil, M., Danielson, L. J., and Dunlop, P. J., 1991, J. Chem. Phys., 94, 296. It is concluded that, for basis IO197, the CCSD(T) method is sufficiently accurate for calculating the HeNe interaction. To recover the small, missing contributions (a few tenths of a Kelvin), MRCI should be used.     

Configurational effects of templating on the adsorption isotherms of templated porous materials

The porosity and pore geometry of disordered materials can be influenced by employing a removable template during synthesis. A theoretical and simulation study is reported of the configurational effects of template size and density on the adsorption isotherms of templated porous materials. To isolate the configurational (entropic) contributions, the adsorbate, matrix and template components are modelled as hard spheres. The replica Ornstein-Zernike equations proposed by Zhang, L. and Van Tassel, P. R. (2000) J. chem Phys., 112, 3006 are used within the Percus-Yevick approximation to calculate adsorption isotherms for differently sized adsorbate and template components. These theoretical results are compared with results from Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that adsorption is most enhanced whenever the size of the template is equal to or slightly larger than that of the adsorbate. Also, for systems of constant matrix density or constant matrix plus template density, increasing the density of template enhances the adsorption.     

AN APPROXIMATE PROJECTION SCHEME FOR INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW USING SPECTRAL ELEMENTS

An approximate projection scheme based on the pressure correction method is proposed to solve the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible flow. The algorithm is applied to the continuous equations; however, there are no problems concerning the choice of boundary conditions of the pressure step. The resulting velocity and pressure are consistent with the original system. For the spatial discretization a high-order spectral element method is chosen. The high-order accuracy allows the use of a diagonal mass matrix, resulting in a very efficient algorithm. The properties of the scheme are extensively tested by means of an analytical test example. The scheme is further validated by simulating the laminar flow over a backward-facing step.     

Predictor-Corrector Methods for Periodic Second-Order Initial-Value Problems

Predictor-corrector methods are constructed for the accuraterepresentation of the eigenmodes in the solution of second-orderdifferential equations without first derivatives. These methodshave (algebraic) order 4 and 6, and phase errors of orders upto 10. For linear and weakly nonlinear problems where homogeneoussolution components dominate, the methods proposed in this paperare considerably more accurate than conventional methods.     

Improving the Stability of Predictor-Corrector Methods by Residue Smoothing

Residue smoothing is usually applied in order to acceleratethe convergence of iteration processes. Here, we show that residuesmoothing can also be used in order to increase the stabilityregion of predictor-corrector methods. We shall concentrateon increasing the real stability boundary. The iteration parametersand the smoothing operators are chosen such that the stabilityboundary becomes as large as c(m, q)m²4^g where m is the numberof right-hand side evaluations per step, q the number of smoothingoperations applied to each right-hand side evaluation, and c(m,q) a slowly varying function of m and q, of magnitude 1.3 ina typical case. Numerical results show that, for a variety oflinear and nonlinear parabolic equations in one and two spatialdimensions, these smoothed predictor-corrector methods are atleast competitive with conventional implicit methods.     

Maintenance optimization on parallel production units

The optimal preventive-maintenance schedule for a productionsystem consisting of N identical parallel production units isinvestigated. The lifetimes of the units are IFR-distributed,i.e. with an increasing failure rate, and are supposed to bestatistically independent. The relevant costs are due to productionlosses, which are increasing and convex in the number of unitsthat are out of operation simultaneously. Actual maintenancecosts (either preventive or corrective) are supposed to be negligibleas compared to the costs due to these production losses. First we consider the apparently trivial case of geometric (discrete-time)or exponential (continuous-time) lifetime distributions forthe units. In this situation, preventive maintenance cannotimprove the condition of a unit. Hence, apparently the onlyrelevant policy is to do corrective maintenance on failed units.However, the analysis reveals that this conclusion is not correct.It turns out that taking non-failed units out of operation deliberatelycan be better than restricting to corrective maintenance only. We first show that, in the case of geometrically distributedlifetimes and unit repair times, the optimal preventive–maintenancepolicy is characterized by a single control limit K. Wheneverthe number of working units is less than or equal to K, no unitsare taken out of operation, while i – K units are setapart whenever i ( > K) units are operational. Next we consider the case with exponentially distributed lifetimesand repair times. Moreover, we assume that the repair capacityis limited, in the sense that only s ( N) units can be underrepair simultaneously. We show that, also in this case, it canbe optimal to take a working unit out of operation until thenext decision epoch (which is either a failure epoch or a repaircompletion epoch). It is shown that the optimal policy has aweak monotonicity property: the number of units which remainin operation increases with the number of available units. However,it is not necessarily true that, under the optimal policy, thenumber of units in standby position increases with the numberof available units. Numerical examples are presented which illustrate that, fora wide range of parameter values, the easiest policy (only performcorrective maintenance on failed units) performs rather wellas compared to the overall optimal policy. Finally we consider the possible extension to the practicallymore interesting case of non-exponential lifetime distributions.In particular, we assume that the lifetimes are composed oftwo non-identical exponential phases. A unit in its first lifephaseis called ‘good’, while a unit in its second phaseis called "doubtful". In this situation, one has the optionto put a good or doubtful unit in standby position until thenext decision epoch or to perform preventive maintenance ona doubtful unit. The latter brings a unit back from the doubtfulinto the good state. An indication is given of the problemsthat arise in generalizing the results obtained for the exponentialcase.     

THE PRIMARY REACTION IN THE PHOTOREDUCTION OF PROTOCHLOROPHYLLIDE MONITORED BY NANOSECOND FLUORESCENCE MEASUREMENTS

Abstract— Time resolved fluorescence measurements, carried out on protochlorophyllide reductase enriched membranes from oat ( Avena sativa ), are described. A fast (1 ns at 293 K) decaying fluorescence component is assigned to the photoactive NADPH-protochlorophyllide-enzyme complex, while a slower (5 ns) component is ascribed to non-photoactive protochlorophyllide. The results are interpreted in terms of a new fast primary step in the light requiring step of chlorophyll synthesis. The temperature dependence of the rate of this reaction has been studied by measuring the decay time of the fast fluorescence component at various temperatures from 77 to 293 K. Complete spectra of the kinetic fluorescence components have been measured at 293, 160 and 77 K.