Analysis of melting behavior of PCMs in a cavity subject to a non-uniform magnetic field using a moving grid technique

Melting flow and heat transfer of electrically conductive phase change materials subjecting to a non-uniform magnetic field are addressed in a square enclosure. The top and bottom walls of the cavity are adiabatic, and the sidewalls are isothermal at different temperatures. The temperature of the hot wall is higher than the fusion temperature of PCM (T_f), and the cold wall is at the fusion temperature or lower. At the initial time, the cavity is filled with a solid saturated PCM. In the vicinity to the hot wall, there is an external line-source magnet, inducing a magnetic field. The location of the magnetic source (Y₀) can be changed along the hot wall. The cavity domain is divided into two parts of the liquid domain and the solid domain. The moving grid method is utilized to track the phase change interface at the exact fusion temperature of T_f. The governing equations for continuity, flow and heat transfer associated with the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) moving mesh technique are solved using the finite element method. The results are investigated for the melting behavior of PCM by the study of Hartmann number (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 50) and the location of the magnetic source (0 ≤ Y₀ ≤ 1). Outcomes show that the effect of the magnetic field on the melting behavior of PCM is negligible at the initial stages of the melting (Fo < 1.15). However, after the initial stages of the melting, the effect of the presence of a magnetic field becomes significant. Moreover, the location of the magnetic source induces a feeble effect on the melting front at the initial melting stages, but its effect on the shape of the melting front increases by the increase of the non-dimensional time. The location of the magnetic source also significantly affects the streamlines patterns. Changing the position of the magnetic source from the bottom of the cavity (Y₀ = 0.2) to the almost middle of the cavity (Y₀ = 0.6) would decrease the required non-dimensional time of full melting from Fo = 10.4 to Fo = 9.0.     

First principles versus artificial neural network modelling of a solar desalination system with experimental validation

ABSTRACT

The present study mainly focuses on enhancing the performance of solar still unit using solar energy through cylindrical parabolic collector and solar panels. A 300 W solar panel is used to heat saline water by thermal elements outside the solar still unit. Solar panels are cooled during the hot hours of the day; thus, reducing their temperature may lead to an increase in solar panel efficiency followed by an increase in the efficiency of the solar still unit. The maximum amount of freshwater used in the experiment was 2.132 kg/day. The experiments were modelled using ANNs. Based on neural network simulation results, there is a significant correlation between experimental data and neural network modelling. This paper compares experimental data with data obtained from mathematical modelling and ANNs. As a conclusion, the artificial neural network prediction has been more accurate than the simplified first principles model presented.     

Uniqueness and stability of the minimizer for a binary functional arising in an inverse heat conduction problem

The local well-posedness of the minimizer of an optimal control problem is studied in this paper. The optimization problem concerns an inverse problem of simultaneously reconstructing the initial temperature and heat radiative coefficient in a heat conduction equation. Being different from other ordinary optimization problems, the cost functional constructed in the paper is a binary functional which contains two independent variables and two independent regularization parameters. Particularly, since the status of the two unknown coefficients in the cost functional are different, the conjugate theory which is extensively used in single-parameter optimization problems cannot be applied for our problem. The necessary condition which must be satisfied by the minimizer is deduced. By assuming the terminal time T is relatively small, an L² estimate regarding the minimizer is obtained, from which the uniqueness and stability of the minimizer can be deduced immediately.     

Singular perturbations in the interaction representation

A general method for treating highly singular perturbations V of self-adjoint operators H in Hilbert space is applied to the case of perturbations of $\text{(?}\text{id}\text{dx}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{n}}$ in L₂ ($\text{R}$¹ by (multiplications by) distributions. A self-adjoint operator H_V that agrees with H + V in the usual sense when V is sufficiently regular, and is moreover a continuous function of V, within the class of distributions under consideration, in the strong operator topology for unbounded self-adjoint operators, is shown to exist. This operator H_V need not be semi-bounded, or determined by a sesquilinear form associated with H + V. The method proceeds by construction of the corresponding unitary propagator in the interaction representation, essentially e^?itHVe^itH, which is shown to be expressible as a uniformly convergent perturbative series for small times.     

Reduced order dynamic model of the flat-plate solar collector

Padé approximation techniques are applied to obtain a reduced order dynamic model for the partial differential system representing the dynamic behaviour of the flat-plate solar collector. According to a prespecified accuracy, the collector is divided into n sections. At any position along each section the reduced order dynamic model is decoupled second order state equation, the input of which is the output of the preceding section. Numerical solutions obtained from the reduced order dynamic model are in very close agreement with the exact solution. Moreover, the computational efforts as well as the computer storage requirements are considerably reduced in comparison with other methods.The results obtained from the dynamic model are compared with those based on a simple steady-state model. The comparison reveals that the steady-state expression may only be used for collectors having a low thermal inertia and a high fluid-stream heat capacity.     

Optimal Control of a Parabolic Equation with Dynamic Boundary Condition

We investigate a control problem for the heat equation. The goal is to find an optimal heat transfer coefficient in the dynamic boundary condition such that a desired temperature distribution at the boundary is adhered. To this end we consider a function space setting in which the heat flux across the boundary is forced to be an L ^p function with respect to the surface measure, which in turn implies higher regularity for the time derivative of temperature. We show that the corresponding elliptic operator generates a strongly continuous semigroup of contractions and apply the concept of maximal parabolic regularity. This allows to show the existence of an optimal control and the derivation of necessary and sufficient optimality conditions.     

Self Balanced Differential Evolution

Differential Evolution (DE) is a well known and simple population based probabilistic approach for global optimization. It has reportedly outperformed a few Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) and other search heuristics like the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) when tested over both benchmark and real world problems. But, DE, like other probabilistic optimization algorithms, sometimes behave prematurely in convergence. Therefore, in order to avoid stagnation while keeping a good convergence speed for DE, two modifications are proposed: one is the introduction of a new control parameter, Cognitive Learning Factor (CLF) and the other is dynamic setting of scale factor. Both modifications are proposed in mutation process of DE. Cognitive learning is a powerful mechanism that adjust the current position of individuals by a means of some specified knowledge. The proposed strategy, named as Self Balanced Differential Evolution (SBDE), balances the exploration and exploitation capability of the DE. To prove efficiency and efficacy of SBDE, it is tested over 30 benchmark optimization problems and compared the results with the basic DE and advanced variants of DE namely, SFLSDE, OBDE and jDE. Further, a real-world optimization problem, namely, Spread Spectrum Radar Polly phase Code Design, is solved to show the wide applicability of the SBDE.     

Green's function solution of the time-dependent solar collector problem

The Green's function for the time-dependent solar collector problem is derived and examined. It is found that the influence of a point source of irradiance propagates with the speed of the heat transfer fluid. This result contradicts some earlier work.An analytical expression is derived for the output fluid temperature in terms of the irradiance as a function of position and time. Fluctuations in ambient and input fluid temperatures are also considered.     

A fast local search method for minimum energy broadcast in wireless ad hoc networks

Local search methods are often used to reduce the power consumption of broadcast routing in wireless networks. For a classic method, sweep, the best available time complexity result is O(|V|⁴). We present an O(|V|²)-time method, which exhaustively removes unnecessary transmissions yielding a solution comparable to that of sweep.     

k-Interchange procedures for local search in a precedence-constrained routing problem

We develop k-interchange procedures to perform local search in a precedence-constrained routing problem. The problem in question is known in the Transportation literature as the single vehicle many-to-many Dial-A-Ride Problem, or DARP. The DARP is the problem of minimizing the length of the tour traveled by a vehicle to service N customers, each of whom wishes to go from a distinct origin to a distinct destination. The vehicle departs from a specified point and returns to that point upon service of all customers. Precedence constraints in the DARP exist because the origin of each customer must precede his/her destination on the route. As in the interchange procedure of Lin for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), a k-interchange is a substitution of k of the links of an initial feasible DARP tour with k other links, and a DARP tour is k-optimal if it is impossible to obtain a shorter tour by replacing any k of its links by k other links. However, in contrast to the TSP where each individual interchange takes O(1) time, checking whether each individual DARP interchange satisfies the origin-destination precedence constraints normally requires O(N²) time. In this paper we develop a method which still finds the best k-interchange that can be produced from an initial feasible DARP tour in O(N^k) time, the same order of magnitude as in the Lin heuristic for the TSP. This method is then embedded in a breadth-first or a depth-first search procedure to produce a k-optimal DARP tour. The paper focuses on the k = 2 and k = 3 cases. Experience with the procedures is presented. in which k-optimal tours are produced by applying a 2-opt or 3-opt search to initial DARP tours produced either randomly or by a fast O(N²) heuristic. The breadth-first and depth-first search modes are compared. The heuristics are seen to produce very good or near-optimal DARP tours.     

An inverse non-Fourier heat conduction problem approach for estimating the boundary condition in electronic device

This study is intended to provide an inverse method for estimating the unknown boundary condition T(0,y,t) in a non-Fourier heat conduction electronic device. In this study, finite-difference methods are employed to discretize the problem domain, and then a linear inverse model is constructed to identify the unknown boundary condition. The present approach is to rearrange the matrix forms of the differential governing equations and to estimate the unknown conditions. Then, the linear least-squares method is adopted to obtain the solution.The results show that one measuring point is sufficient to estimate the unknown boundary condition T(0,y,t) without measurement errors. When considering the measurement errors, the magnitudes of the discrepancies in the boundary condition T(0,y,t) are directly proportional to the size of measurement errors. Due to the complicated reflection and interaction of the thermal waves, this phenomenon reflects the fact that the inverse non-Fourier heat conduction problem is different from the inverse Fourier heat conduction problem.In contrast to the traditional approach, the advantage of applying this method in inverse analysis is that no prior information is needed on the functional form of the unknown quantities. In addition, no initial guess is required and the calculation can be done in only one iteration.     

Numerical simulation of magnetohydrodynamic buoyancy-induced flow in a non-isothermally heated square enclosure

Numerical simulation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) buoyancy-induced heat transfer and fluid flow has been analyzed in a non-isothermally heated square enclosure using finite volume method. The bottom wall of enclosure were heated and cooled with a sinusoidal function and top wall was cooled isothermally. Vertical walls of the enclosure were adiabatic. Effects of Rayleigh number (Ra = 10⁴, 10⁵ and 10⁶), Hartman number (Ha = 0, 50 and 100) and amplitude of sinusoidal function (n = 0.25, 0.5 and 1) on temperature and flow fields were analyzed. It was observed that heat transfer was decreased with increasing Hartmann number and decreasing value of amplitude of sinusoidal function.     

Nonlinear dynamic response for functionally graded shallow spherical shell under low velocity impact in thermal environment

Based on Giannakopoulos’s 2-D functionally graded material (FGM) contact model, a modified contact model is put forward to deal with impact problem of the functionally graded shallow spherical shell in thermal environment. The FGM shallow spherical shell, having temperature dependent material property, is subjected to a temperature field uniform over the shell surface but varying along the thickness direction due to steady-state heat conduction. The displacement field and geometrical relations of the FGM shallow spherical shell are established on the basis of Timoshenko–Midlin theory. And the nonlinear motion equations of the FGM shallow spherical shell under low velocity impact in thermal environment are founded in terms of displacement variable functions. Using the orthogonal collocation point method and the Newmark method to discretize the unknown variable functions in space and in time domain, the whole problem is solved by the iterative method. In numerical examples, the contact force and nonlinear dynamic response of the FGM shallow spherical shell under low velocity impact are investigated and effects of temperature field, material and geometrical parameters on contact force and dynamic response of the FGM shallow spherical shell are discussed.     

Upper bounds of the rates of decay for solutions of the Boussinesq equations

In this paper,upper bounds of the L2-decay rate for the Boussinesq equations are considered.Using the L2 decay rate of solutions for the heat equation,and assuming that the solutions of the Boussinesq equations are smooth,we obtain the upper bounds of L2 decay rate for the smooth solutions and difference between the solutions of the Boussinesq equations and those of the heat system with the same initial data.The decay results may then be obtained by passing to the limit of approximating sequences of solutions.The main tool is the Fourier splitting method.     

Controlling arrivals for a queueing system with an unreliable server: Newton-Quasi method

This paper deals with the control policy of a removable and unreliable server for an M/M/1/K queueing system, where the removable server operates an F-policy. The so-called F-policy means that when the number of customers in the system reaches its capacity K (i.e. the system becomes full), the system will not accept any incoming customers until the queue length decreases to a certain threshold value F. At that time, the server initiates an exponential startup time with parameter γ and starts allowing customers entering the system. It is assumed that the server breaks down according to a Poisson process and the repair time has an exponential distribution. A matrix analytical method is applied to derive the steady-state probabilities through which various system performance measures can be obtained. A cost model is constructed to determine the optimal values, say (F^∗, μ^∗, γ^∗), that yield the minimum cost. Finally, we use the two methods, namely, the direct search method and the Newton-Quasi method to find the global minimum (F^∗, μ^∗, γ^∗). Numerical results are also provided under optimal operating conditions.     

Cognitive learning in differential evolution and its application to model order reduction problem for single-input single-output systems

Differential evolution (DE) is a well known and simple population based probabilistic approach for global optimization over continuous spaces. It has reportedly outperformed a few evolutionary algorithms and other search heuristics like the particle swarm optimization when tested over both benchmark and real world problems. DE, like other probabilistic optimization algorithms, has inherent drawback of premature convergence and stagnation. Therefore, in order to find a trade-off between exploration and exploitation capability of DE algorithm, a new parameter namely, cognitive learning factor (CLF) is introduced in the mutation process. Cognitive learning is a powerful mechanism that adjust the current position of individuals by the means of some specified knowledge (previous experience of individuals). The proposed strategy is named as cognitive learning in differential evolution (CLDE). To prove the efficiency of various approaches of CLF in DE,?CLDE is tested over 25 benchmark problems. Further, to establish the wide applicability of CLF,?CLDE is applied to two advanced DE variants. CLDE is also applied to solve a well known electrical engineering problem called model order reduction problem for single input single output systems.     

Finite element analysis of a flat plate solar collector

An analysis based upon the two-dimensional finite element method is carried out to characterize the performance of solar collectors. The traditional one-dimensional models assume average temperature of the plate and the predictions from the one-dimensional models for collector efficiency yield higher values. The two-dimensional model yields predictions of the instantaneous collector performance without making assumptions of the average plate temperature. The two-dimensional model may be used to optimize the design of solar collectors.     

Heat Flow and Perimeter in \boldsymbol{{\mathbb{R}}^m}

Let Ω be an open set in Euclidean space ? ^m with finite perimeter ${\mathcal{P}}(\Omega),$ and with m-dimensional Lebesgue measure |Ω|. It was shown by M. Preunkert that if T(t) is the heat semigroup on L ²(? ^m ) then $H_{\Omega}(t):=\int_{\Omega}T(t)\textbf{1}_{\Omega}(x)dx=|\Omega|-\pi^{-1/2}{\mathcal{P}}(\Omega)t^{1/2}+o(t^{1/2}), \ t\downarrow 0$ . H _Ω(t) represents the amount of heat in Ω if Ω is at initial temperature 1 and if ? ^m ???Ω is at initial temperature 0. In this paper we will compare the quantitative behaviour of H _Ω(t) with the usual heat content Q _Ω(t) associated to the Dirichlet heat semigroup on Ω. We analyse the heat content for horn-shaped open sets of the form Ω(α, Σ)?=?{(x, x′)?∈?? ^m : x′?∈?(1?+?x)^???α Σ, x?>?0}, where α?>?0, and where Σ is an open set in ? ^m???1 with finite perimeter in ? ^m???1, which is star-shaped with respect to 0. For m?≥?3 we find that there are four regimes with very different behaviour depending on α, and a further two limiting cases where logarithmic corrections appear.