Smart computing approach for design and scale-up of conical spouted beds with open-sided draft tubes

Open-sided draft tubes provide an optimal gas distribution through a cross flow pattern between the spout and the annulus in conical spouted beds.The design,optimization,control,and scale-up of the spouted beds require precise information on operating and peak pressure drops.In this study,a multi-layer perceptron(MLP)neural network was employed for accurate prediction of these hydrodynamic characteristics.A relatively huge number of experiments were accomplished and the most influential dimensionless groups were extracted using the Buckingham-pi theorem.Then,the dimensionless groups were used for developing the MLP model for simultaneous estimation of operating and peak pressure drops.The iterative constructive technique confirmed that 4-14-2 is the best structure for the MLP model in terms of absolute average relative deviation(AARD%),mean square error(MSE),and regression coefficient(R²).The developed MLP approach has an excellent capacity to predict the transformed operating(MSE=0.00039,AARD%=1.30,and R²=0.76099)and peak(MSE=0.22933,AARD%=11.88,and R2=0.89867)pressure drops.     

Effective enhanced model for a large deformable soft pneumatic actuator

Soft pneumatic actuators have been widely used for implementing sophisticated and dexterous movements,due to numerous fascinating features compared with their rigid counterparts.Relatively speaking,modeling and analysis of an entire soft pneumatic actuator considering contact interaction between two adjacent air chambers is extremely rare,which is exactly what we are particularly interested in.Therefore,in order to establish an accurate mechanical model and analyze the overall configuration and stress distribution for the soft pneumatic actuator with large deflection,we consider the contact interaction of soft materials rather than hard materials,to produce an effective enhanced model for soft contact of a large deformable pneumatic actuator.In this article,a multiple-point contact approach is developed to circumvent the mutual penetration problem between adjacent air chambers of the soft actuator that occurs with the single-point contact approach employed in linear elastic rigid materials.In contrast to the previous simplified rod-based model that did not focus on contact interaction which was adopted to clarify the entire deformation of the actuator,the present model not only elaborates nonlinear large deformation and overall configuration variations,but also accurately delineates stress distribution law inside the chamber structure and the stress concentration phenomenon.By means of a corresponding static experiment,a comparison of the simulation results with experimental data validates the effectiveness and accuracy of this model employing a multiple-point contact approach.Excellent simulation of the actual bending deformation of the soft actuator is obtained,while mutual penetration is successfully circumvented,whereas the model with single-point contact cannot achieve those goals.Finally,as compared with the rod-based model,the results obtained using the proposed model are more consistent with experimental data,and simulation precision is improved.     

Axially variable-length solid element of absolute nodal coordinate formulation

An axially variable-length solid element with eight nodes is proposed by integrating the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation and the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF). In addition to the nodal positions and slopes of eight nodes, two material coordinates in the axial direction are used as the generalized coordinates. As a consequence, the nodes in the ALE-ANCF are not associated with any specific material points and the axial length of the solid element can be varied over time. These two material coordinates give rise to a variable mass matrix and an additional inertial force vector. Computationally efficient formulae of the additional inertial forces and elastic forces, as well as their Jacobians, are also derived. The dynamic equation of a flexible multibody system (FMBS) with variable-length bodies is presented. The maximum and minimum lengths of the boundary elements of an FMBS have to be appropriately defined to ensure accuracy and non-singularity when solving the dynamic equation. Three numerical examples of static and dynamic problems are given to validate the variable-length solid elements of ALE-ANCF and show their capability.     

Application of micro-morphology in the physical characterization of urban road dust

Urban road dust was collected from Vellore City,Tamil Nadu,India,and analyzed.Scanning electron microscopy(SEM)was used to examine road dust from nine sampling locations in the study region.SEM image analysis was used to identify various shape factors of collected dust particles.The equivalent spherical diameter of most particles was between 10μm and 30μm.Fine particles had greater concentrations at locations with higher traffic flow.Particles were categorized into four classes based on their shape factors,viz.,spherical,mineral,elongated,or irregular.Spherical particles had the smallest mean equivalent diameter(1.95μm)and mineral particles had the largest diameter(33.3μm).Spherical particles made up the smallest portion of road dust(0-12%)in the study region and mineral particles made up the largest(45-65%).Elongated and irregular particles,each made up 23-30%of road dust.Electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis was used to identify the elemental composition of dust particles.Spherical particles were mostly from combustion sources and mineral particles were largely of crustal origin.No individual source was found for irregular and elongated particles.Biological debris was the major source of irregular particles.     

Efficient algorithm for 3D bimodulus structures

The bimodulus material is a classical model to describe the elastic behavior of materials with tension-compression asymmetry.Due to the inherently nonlinear properties of bimodular materials,traditional iteration methods suffer from low convergence efficiency and poor adaptability for large-scale structures in engineering.In this paper,a novel 3D algorithm is established by complementing the three shear moduli of the constitutive equation in principal stress coordinates.In contrast to the existing 3D shear modulus constructed based on experience,in this paper the shear modulus is derived theoretically through a limit process.Then,a theoretically self-consistent complemented algorithm is established and implemented in ABAQUS via UMAT;its good stability and convergence efficiency are verified by using benchmark examples.Numerical analysis shows that the calculation error for bimodulus structures using the traditional linear elastic theory is large,which is not in line with reality.     

Instability inspection of parametric vibrating rectangular Mindlin plates lying on Winkler foundations under periodic loading of moving masses

Parametric resonance is one of the most important issues in the study of dynamical behavior of structures. In this paper, dynamic instability of a moderately thick rectangular plate on an elastic foundation is investigated in the case of parametric and external resonances due to periodic passage of moving masses. The governing coupled partial differential equations (PDEs) of the system, with consideration of the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) or Mindlin plate theory, are presented and they are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with time-dependent coefficients using the Galerkin procedure. All inertial components of the moving masses are adopted in the dynamical formulation. Instability survey is carried out for three different loading trajectories considerably interested in many practical applications of the issue, i.e. rectilinear, diagonal and orbiting trajectories. In order to analyze the resonance conditions, the incremental harmonic balance (IHB) method is introduced to calculate instability boundaries, as well as external resonance curves in parameters plane. A comprehensive study is done to assess effects of thickness ratio and foundation stiffness on the resonance conditions. It is found that an increase in the plate's thickness ratio leads to a reduction in values of critical parameters. Moreover, it is observed that in creasing the foundation stiffness moves the in stability regions and resona nee curves to higher frequencies of the moving masses and also leads to further stability of the parametrically excited system at lower frequencies. Time response simulations done via Runge-Kutta method confirmed the results predicted by IHB method.     

Towards multi-fidelity simulation of flows around an underwater vehicle with appendages and propeller

Flow around a real-life underwater vehicle often happens at a high Reynolds number with flow structures at different scales from the boundary layer around a blade to that around the hull. This poses a great challenge for large-eddy simulation of an underwater vehicle aiming at resolving all relevant flow scales. In this work, we propose to model the hull with appendages using the immersed boundary method, and model the propeller using the actuator disk model without resolving the geometry of the blade. The proposed method is then applied to simulate the flow around Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) suboff. An overall acceptable agreement is obtained for the pressure and friction coefficients. Complex flow features are observed in the near wake of suboff. In the far wake, the core region is featured by a jet because of the actuator disk, surrounded by an annular region with velocity deficit due to the body of suboff.     

Theoretical analysis on elastic buckling of nanobeams based on stress-driven nonlocal integral model

Several studies indicate that Eringen’s nonlocal model may lead to some inconsistencies for both Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams, such as cantilever beams subjected to an end point force and fixed-fixed beams subjected a uniform distributed load. In this paper, the elastic buckling behavior of nanobeams, including both EulerBernoulli and Timoshenko beams, is investigated on the basis of a stress-driven nonlocal integral model. The constitutive equations are the Fredholm-type integral equati...     

Shear behaviours of cohesionless mixed soils using the DEM:The influence of coarse particle shape

The coarse particles in mixed soils can be cobbles or gravels,with the main difference being their roundness(an indicator describing particle shape characteristics at an intermediate scale).The influence of coarse particle shape(i.e.,roundness)on the macroscopic and microscopic shear behaviours of cohesionless mixed soils with various fines contents(FCs)was investigated via the discrete element method in this study.The shapes of coarse particles were formed using the rotation-invariant spherical harmonic method proposed by previous investigators.An equation was proposed to predict the initial void ratios of samples in this study.A decrease in the roundness of coarse particles can increase the peak friction angle(FC≤40%)and critical friction angle(FC≤30%).As the roundness of coarse particles decreases,the peak dilatancy angle initially increases and then decreases(FC≤20%).Furthermore,it was found that the roundness of coarse particles hardly affects the classification of cohesionless mixed soils,as determined by probing the percentage contributions of coarse-coarse,coarse-fine,and fine-fine contacts.When cohesionless mixed soils change from an underfilled structure to an interactive-underfilled structure at the critical state,the main forms of coarse-coarse contacts were discovered.Additionally,the force-fabric anisotropy mechanisms of the influences of the roundness and rolling resistance coefficient of coarse particles on the shear strengths of cohesionless mixed soils were found to be different.     

Reaction performance of fluidized bed catalytic reactor of Group C+particles

Group C particles are often regarded as non-fluidizable but have proven to effectively fluidize with nanoparticle addition,which results in small bubbles and a high gas holdup in the dense phase during the experiments.Group C⁺particles provide an increased surface area for gas-solid contact and improve the reaction performance,especially for gas-phase catalytic reactions.On the basis of a previous study of the ozone decomposition reaction using Group C⁺particles,a two-phase model was used to evaluate the reactor contact efficiency,and was used to compare the partial oxidation performance of the n-butane to maleic anhydride reaction in fluidized-bed catalytic reactors of Group C⁺and Group A particles.The reactor with Group C⁺particles achieved a higher n-butane conversion and MAN yield compared with that using Group A particles,based on the identical catalyst quantity or on the same gas residence time.Therefore,the reactor with Group C⁺particles can achieve the same reaction conversion and yield with fewer catalysts or a smaller reactor size,or both.Therefore,the fluidized bed catalytic reactor of Group C⁺particles is expected to be of major significance in industrial processes,especially for gas-phase catalytic reactions.     

Thermomechanical properties of smart composites

The smart composite materials reinforced by SMA show a high performance and special deformation behavior. The thermomechanical constitutive formulas of the composites are derived by means of Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method and Mori-Tanaka's mean field concept. The interaction between the inclusion and crack and toughening mechanism are considered and the energy release rate of a crack in the smart composite is calculated. This work shows that there are the multiple mechanisms contributing to the toughening of the smart composite materials reinforced by SMA.This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

MESO-MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY REINFORCED SMART STRUCTURE WITH DAMAGE

The mechanical behaviors of shape memory alloy (SMA) wires reinforced smart structure with damage were analyzed through the variational principle, a governing equation for the structure was derived, mathematical expressions for the meso-displacement field, stress-strain field of typical element with damage were presented, and a failure criterion for interface failure between SMA wires and matrix was established under two kinds of actuation which are dead-load and temperature, where the temperature is included in effective free restoring strain. In addition, there are some other composing factors in the failure criterion such as the interface properties, dynamical properties of SMA, initial debonding length L-l etc. The results are significant to understand structural strength self-adapted control and failure mechanism of SMA wires reinforced smart structure with damage.     

Buckling and post-buckling of piezoelectric plates using finite element method

The finite element equations considering the geometrical nonlinearity of piezoelectric smart structures are derived based on the total Lagrange method under the assumption of weak coupling between electricity and mechanics. Buckling and post-buckling of piezoelectric-plate with various boundary conditions are investigated. The calculated results show that piezoelectric effects and external voltage can hardly affect the buckling and post-buckling characteristics of piezoelectric-plate under uniaxial pressure while the buckling caused by displacement in-plane has much to do with the electric field. The present work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 59635140).     

Effect of microstructure on the hardening and softening behaviors of polycrystalline shape memory alloys Part II: Numerical simulation under axisymmetrical loading

Based on the microstructure-based constitutive model established in Part I, a detailed numerical investigation on the role of each microstructure parameter in the kinematical and kinetic evolution of polycrystalline SMA under axisymmetrical tension loading is performed. Some macroscopic constitutive features of stress-induced martensite transformation are discussed. The subject supported by the Research Grant Committee (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China     

Damage imaging of reinforced concrete structures using electromagnetic migration algorithm

Reconstructing damage geometry with computationally efficient algorithms is of primary importance in establishing a robust structural health monitoring system (SHMS). In this paper electromagnetic migration, a linearized imaging algorithm, is adopted to image the damages in reinforced concrete structures. This algorithm is formulated in time-domain for 3-D inhomogeneous isotropic and lossy structures. In order to reduce the computational cost and to examine the damage resolution of this imaging algorithm, different imaging conditions are introduced. Numerical simulations in 2-D transverse magnetic (TM) wave for a reinforced concrete slab with multiple damages are performed to test the effectiveness of the algorithm. All synthetic sensor data, incident field, and migration field are computed via a finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method. It is concluded that the proposed imaging algorithm is capable of efficiently identifying the damages geometries, is robust against measurement noise, and may be employed in a SHMS.     

Interval parameter perturbation method for evaluating the bounds on natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters

For structural parameters with uncertainties, interval mathematics can, in the case where the probabilistic distribution density of uncertain variables is unavailable, deal with the influence of uncertainties in structural parameters on the response of structures. In order to evaluate the region containing natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters, the interval parameter perturbation method is presented in this paper. The advantage of the present method is its computational efficiency in evaluating the region containing natural frequencies. A numerical example is used to illustrate the efficiency of the method proposed. The project is supported by National Youth Natural Science Foundation of China and National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China.     

Constitutive relation of discontinuous reinforced metal-matrix composites

A micromechanical model is developed to simulate the mechanical behaviors of discontinuous reinforced composites. The analysis for a representative unit cell is based on the assumption of a periodic array of aligned reinforcements. The minimum energy principle is used to determine the unknown coefficients of the displacement field of the unit cell. The constitutive behavior of composites is studied to obtain the relationship between the main variables of matrix and reinforcements. It is concluded that the flow strength of composites is strongly influenced by volume fraction, aspect ratio of reinforcement, and the strain hardening exponent of matrix. An analytical constitutive relation of composites is obtained. The predicted results are in agreement with the existing experimental and numerical results. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19704100) and National Science Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJ951-1-20)     

Effect of microstructure on the hardening and softening behavIors of polycrystalline shape memory alloys Part I: Micromechanics constitutive modeling

The effects of microstructure and its evolution on the macroscopic superelastic stress-strain response of polycrystalline Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) are studied by a microstructure-based constitutive model developed in this paper. The model is established on the following basis: (1) the transformation conditions of the unconstrained single crystal SMA microdomain (to be distinguished from the bulk single crystal), which serve as the local criterion for the derivation of overall transformation yield conditions of the polycrystal; (2) the micro- to macro-transition scheme by which the connection between the polycrystal aggregates and the single crystal microdomain is established and the macroscopic transformation conditions of the polycrystal SMA are derived; (3) the quantitative incorporation of three microstructure factors (i.e., nucleation, growth and orientation distribution of martensite) into the modeling. These microstructural factors are intrinsic of specific polycrystal SMA systems and the role of each factor in the macroscopic constitutive response is quantitatively modeled. It is demonstrated that the interplay of these factors will result in different macroscopic transformation kinematics and kinetics which are responsible for the observed macroscopic stress-strain hardening or softening response, the latter will lead to the localization and propagation of transformation bands in TiNi SMA. The project supported by the Research Grant Committee (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Provincial Natural Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China     

The effective properties of piezocomposites, part II: The effective electroelastic moduli

Since piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been widely used as smart materials and smart structures, it is more and more important to obtain the closed-from solutions of the effective properties of piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions. Based on the closed-from solutions of the electroelastic Eshelby's tensors obtained in the part I of this paper and the generalized Budiansky's energy-equivalence framework, the closed-form general relations of effective electroelastic moduli of the piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions are given. The relations can be applicable for several micromechanics models, such as the dilute solution and the Mori-Tanaka's method. The difference among the various models is shown to be the way in which the average strain and the average electric field of the inclusion phase are evaluated. Comparison between predicted and experimental results shows that the theoretical values in this paper agree quite well with the experimental results. These expression can be readily utilized in analysis and design of piezocomposites. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

LINEAR ACTIVE STRUCTURES AND MODES （ Ⅰ ） — BASIC CONCEPTS AND PROPERTIES

Some basic concepts about the active structures were firstly explained, and the main subjects to study in the field of active structure dynamics were synthesized. For the linear active structures, the annotations on the modes were done in detail. The physical meanings of the right and left eigenvectors were explained. The right eigenvectors are the modal shapes and the modal responses of an active structure depend on the left ones. The adjoint structure of an active structure was defined and the reciprocity theorem was interpreted. For two active structures, which are adjoint to each other and with the reciprocal gain-matrices, the right and left eigenvector are reciprocal The relationship between an active structure and the corresponding passive structure is expressed with the transfer functions, which is employed to resolve the estimation problems.