Mathematical modeling and process simulation of perlite grain expansion in a vertical electrical furnace

Expanded perlite is a lightweight material with remarkable thermal and acoustic insulation properties, rendering it widely useful in the construction and manufacturing industries. Currently applied perlite expansion technology suffers numerous technical disadvantages, which adversely affect product quality and limit the range of its applications. To overcome these established drawbacks, a new perlite expansion process has been designed on the basis of a vertical electrically heated expansion furnace. The novel furnace enables precise control of experimental conditions, in order to allow for efficient adjustment of particle residence time and internal temperature. The quality of expanded perlite strongly depends on raw material thermophysical properties as well as furnace operating conditions, and the experimental investigation of the isolated effect of each parameter on expanded product quality is technically cumbersome and extremely time-consuming and expensive.A mathematical model for perlite grain expansion has been developed in order to perform a detailed numerical investigation of process efficiency, toward the optimization of the expansion process in the novel pilot-scale furnace. The dynamic model consists of ordinary differential equations for both air and particle heat and momentum balances, as well as nonlinear algebraic equations for both air and perlite melt thermophysical and transport properties, probing the air temperature distribution within the vertical electrical furnace as well as the particle velocity, temperature and size along its trajectory inside the heating chamber. The effect of raw material physical properties (raw feed origin, initial particle size, effective water content) as well as operating parameters (air inlet temperature and flowrate, furnace wall temperature) on evolution of the particle state variables is presented and discussed. Model results indicate perlite expansion is strongly affected by raw ore feed origin, size and water content. Moreover, operating conditions affect expansion considerably, and furnace wall temperature has the strongest effect on the final particle expansion ratio attained. The new dynamic model is instrumental towards achieving a detailed comprehension of perlite expansion in the vertical electrical furnace towards multi-parametric sensitivity analysis, process optimization and efficient control.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of yarn behavior in a modified ring spinning system

In the paper, yarn dynamical behavior and twist distribution in a modified ring spinning system are investigated. Equations of motion and twist wave propagation are used to obtain the numerical solutions of yarn path, yarn tension and twist distribution in steady state. It is observed that yarn path in the twisting zone has several classic modes corresponding to the yarn tension, and all of the yarn paths are approximately planar curves rather than spatial curves. The angular velocities of yarn at the twisting device are given as well as the twist of yarn in the modified ring spinning system. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the yarn paths and twist distributions under consideration. The theoretical and experimental results have a good agreement.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of telephone cord buckles of elastic films

An annular sector model for the telephone cord buckles of elastic thin films on rigid substrates is established, in which the von Krman plate equations in polar coordinates are used for the elastic thin film and a discrete version of the Griffith criterion is applied to determine the shape and scale of the parameters. A numerical algorithm combining the Newmark-β scheme and the Chebyshev collocation method is designed to numerically solve the problem in a quasi-dynamic process. Numerical results are presen...     

Mathematical simulation of a reflux mass-transfer process

We study a numerical-analytic method of solving an initial-boundary value problem for a quasilinear system of differential equations of parabolic type with initial condition given by the Dirac delta function. One figure. Bibliography: 6 titles. Translated fromProblemy Matematicheskoi Fiziki, 1998, pp. 209–213.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of domain wall motion in magnetic nanostrips with crystallographic defects

We investigate field and current driven domain wall propagation in magnetic nanostrips in the framework of the modified Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation including spin-torque effects. We focus our attention on a nonlinear “dry-friction” dissipation model useful for describing the effect of structural defects such as inclusions, impurities or dislocations. The analytical and numerical results herein obtained are compared and their physical implications are discussed.     

A computer simulation of a rail network

A computer simulation of a rail segment is presented. The goal is to provide a capability for scheduling and routing with respect to predetermined objectives. The simulation is founded on a decomposition of the given line segment into fundamental units representing node to node subsegments with each node being an interlocking of the real system. A decision subroutine is activated every time a train reaches a node; all feasible options are then examined with respect to the current configuration of the system. Ultimately, it is hoped the simulation will have on-line monitoring capabilities.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of CO2 transport through hollow-fiber membranes

Chemical absorption of carbon dioxide was studied theoretically using hollow-fiber membrane contactors in this work. A 2D mathematical model was developed to study CO₂ transport through hollow-fiber membrane contactors. The model considers axial and radial diffusion in the membrane contactor. It also considers convection in the tube and shell side with chemical reaction. The finite element method (FEM) was used to solve the model equations. Modeling predictions were validated with the experimental data obtained from literature for CO₂ absorption in amine aqueous solutions as solvent. The modeling predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data for different values of gas and liquid velocities. The liquid solvents considered for this study include aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) and potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃). The simulation results indicated that amine aqueous solutions were better than K₂CO₃ aqueous solution for CO₂ absorption. Also simulation results revealed that the removal of CO₂ with aqueous solution of MEA was the highest among the amines solvents. The hollow-fiber membrane contactors showed a great potential in the area of CO₂ absorption.     

Mathematical modeling and fuzzy control of a flexible-link robot arm

In this paper, the Timoshenko theory is applied to investigate a new mathematical model for the “shoulder-elbow-like” single flexible-link robot arm with dampings. Detailed analysis and derivation are given to support the mathematical modeling of this particular flexible mechanism. A new design of a fuzzy-logic-based (PI + D)² control scheme is developed for both vibration suppression and set-point tracking. Computer simulation results for the modeling are performed to observe the significant vibration modes, and simulation results for the control scheme demonstrate that the controllers perform very well for the tracking based on this flexible-link model. A newly developed method for stability analysis using the “two-straight-lines” criterion is also presented.     

Mathematical modeling of a reverse-process in a multibed catalytic reactor

An effective algorithm is presented for mathematical modeling of unsteady-state processes of heat and mass transfer in a multibed catalytic reactor that operates at periodic changes of the direction of the flow of an inlet gas.     

Mathematical modeling and simulation of flow in domains separated by leaky semipermeable membrane including osmotic effect

In this paper, we propose a mathematical model for flow and transport processes of diluted solutions in domains separated by a leaky semipermeable membrane. We formulate transmission conditions for the flow and the solute concentration across the membrane which take into account the property of the membrane to partly reject the solute, the accumulation of rejected solute at the membrane, and the influence of the solute concentration on the volume flow, known as osmotic effect.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of two-phase flows using Fourier pseudospectral and front-tracking methods: The proposition of a new method

In the present work, an extension of the Fourier Pseudospectral Method coupled with the Immersed Boudary Method for non-periodic problems (IMERSPEC) applied to numerical simulation of two-phase flow was developed. The proposed method was originally developed for single-phase, incompressible flow. Here, the method is extended to two-phase flows using the front-tracking method (IMERSPEC-FT) to model fluid-fluid interfaces. The proposed method was verified and validated through results involving spurious currents, mass conservation and numerical experiments analysis for rising bubbles. IMERSPEC-FT is shown to be a promising scheme for the two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD).     

Mathematical modeling of plant morphogenesis

Current trends in biology call for analysis of the bulk information accumulated through mathematical simulations of biological processes aiming at revealing certain regularities and verifying hypotheses and predictions. Evolution of organisms is of special interest to mathematical modeling because it integrates a great body of different processes varying over time and over space. In this paper, models of biological processes as related to plant development are reviewed. The models are classified, and approaches to problems that are most intricate from the simulation standpoint, as well as relevant mathematical methods, are described.     

Mathematical modeling of church growth

The possibility of using mathematics to model church growth is investigated using ideas from population modeling. It is proposed that a major mechanism of growth is through contact between religious enthusiasts and unbelievers, where the enthusiasts are only enthusiastic for a limited period. After that period they remain church members but less effective in recruitment. This leads to the general epidemic model which is applied to a variety of church growth situations. Results show that even a simple model like this can help understand the way in which churches grow, particularly in times of religious revival.     

Mathematical modeling of real-world images

The problem of finding appropriate mathematical objects to model images is considered. Using the notion of acompleted graph of a bounded function, which is a closed and bounded point set in the three-dimensional Euclidean spaceR ₃, and exploring theHausdorff distance between these point sets, a metric spaceIM _D of functions is defined. The main purpose is to show that the functionsf∈IM _D, defined on the squareD=[0,1]², are appropriate mathematical models of real world images. The properties of the metric spaceIM _D are studied and methods of approximation for the purpose of image compression are presented. The metric spaceIM _D contains the so-calledpixel functions which are produced through digitizing images. It is proved that every functionf∈IM _D may be digitized and represented by a pixel functionp _n, withn pixels, in such a way that the distance betweenf andp _n is no greater than 2n ^?1/2. It is advocated that the Hausdorff distance is the most natural one to measure the difference between two pixel representations of a given image. This gives a natural mathematical measure of the quality of the compression produced through different methods.     

Mathematical modeling of demographic processes

The article examines a mathematical model that describes the dynamics of the total population and its age structure. Time-dependent birth and death rates are assumed. The mathematical model is a first-order partial differential equation. The analytical solution makes it possible to determine the age distribution at each time instant depending on the birth and death functions and the initial distribution. The model can be used for demographic planning and forecasting. It has been applied to analyze the demographics of Russia. Translated from Prikladnaya Matematika i Informatika, No. 28, pp. 50–65, 2008.     

Mathematical modeling of infiltration metasomatism in a porous medium

We construct a mathematical model describing the processes of dissolution and redeposition of minerals in a medium with a nonhomogeneous distribution of acidity. The dynamics of extraction of a mineral from a leaching solutions is investigated. We show that filtration of solutions through reduced acidity regions induces deposition, increasing the concentration of the target mineral in the solid phase; in high pH regions, on the other hand, the mineral dissolves. The stratum may retain certain reserves of the target mineral after leaching depending on the size of the reduced pH region and its proximity to the extraction borehole. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Matematika i Informatika, No. 26, pp. 5–17, 2007.     

Mathematical and computer modelling of the Pareto principle

The well-known Pareto principle states that approximately 80% of wealth was concentrated in about 20% of a population. Two problems have been reported on the abuse of the 80/20 phenomenon: (1) the measure deviates from 80/20 in many applications of the principle; under what condition, then, will the 80/20 rule be true? And, (2) if the 80/20 measure is correct at the time of analysis, will it be true over time? In this paper, we address these two problems by conducting mathematical modelling and computer simulations of the Pareto principle. Several significant factors influencing the phenomenon are identified.