BRIDGING REDUCTIONISM AND HOLISM--MULTI-SCALE METHODOLOGY WITH APPLICATIONS TO PARTICLE-FLUID SYSTEMS

While science continues to extend to two extremes - micro-scale towards dimensions even smaller than elemental particles and mega-scale even beyond the universe, one recognizes that reductionism is not sufficient to solve many problems we encounter in engineering, which are likely characterized by nonlinearity, nonequilibrium and dissipative multi-scale structures. On the other hand, the common features of these nonlinear systems, such as bifurcation, state multiplicity and self-organization, have attracted much attention, leading to the approaches of the so-called complexity science which has become a focus not only in natural science and engineering science, but also in social science.However, no effective methodology has been established to understand these complex systems, though noticeable progress has been achieved in studying these systems, such as particle-fluid multi-phase systems. Multi-scale methodology has been considered as a promising methodology to tackle complex systems due to its capability in correlating phenomena at different scales. In this presentation, we shall review the development of the multi-scale methodology and its applications to particle-fluid systems, elucidating the essential relevance of complex systems and the challenging problems in chemical engineering.Multi-scale structure is considered to be the focus in studying complex systems, particularly, correlation between phenomena at different scales, compromise between different dominant mechanisms, coupling between spatial and temporal structural changes and critical phenomena occurring in these systems - these are the four critical issues in understanding complex systems. We first propose that by analyzing particle-fluid systems complex systems can be formulated as a multi-objective variational problem. Such an analytical multi-scale method will be reviewed in particular by analyzing the above four critical issues and by showing its 20-year development at IPE from a rough idea to modeling approaches, softwares and finally to industrial applications as well as its extension to different chemical and physical systems. The strategy of “from the particular to the general“ in developing this multi-scale methodology is emphasized and challenges to mathematicians and physicists are identified to show the necessity of transdisciplinary cooperation. This presentation will be concluded by prospects and suggestions.     

Application of canonical coordinates for solving single-freedom constraint mechanical systems

This paper introduces the canonical coordinates method to obtain the first integral of a single-degree freedom constraint mechanical system that contains conserva-tive and non-conservative constraint homonomic systems. The definition and properties of canonical coordinates are introduced. The relation between Lie point symmetries and the canonical coordinates of the constraint mechanical system are expressed. By this re-lation, the canonical coordinates can be obtained. Properties of the canonical coordinates and the Lie symmetry theory are used to seek the first integrals of constraint mechanical system. Three examples are used to show applications of the results.     

A unified analysis of a micro-beam, droplet and CNT ring adhered on a substrate: Calculation of variation with movable boundaries

In this study, we developed a general method to analytically tackle a kind of movable boundary problem from the viewpoint of energy variation. Having grouped the adhesion of a micro-beam, droplet and carbon nanotube (CNT) ring on a substrate into one framework, we used the developed line of reasoning to investigate the adhesion behaviors of these systems. Based upon the derived governing equations and transversality conditions, explicit solutions involving the critical parameters and morphologies for the three systems are successfully obtained, and then the parameter analogies and common characteristics of them are thoroughly investigated. The presented method has been verified via the concept of energy release rate in fracture mechanics. Our analyses provide a new approach for exploring the mechanism of different systems with similarities as well as for understanding the unity of nature. The analysis results may be beneficial for the design of nano-structured materials, and hold potential for enhancing their mechanical, chemical, optical and electronic properties.     

Fractal sets in control systems

In this paper the Hausdorff measure of sets of integral and fractional dimensions is introduced and applied to control systems.A new concept,namely,pseudo-self-similar set is also introduced.The existence and uniqueness of such sets are then proved,and the formula for calculating the dimension of self-similar sets is extended to the psuedo-self-similar case.Using the previous theorem,we show that the reachable set of a control system may have fractional dimensions.We hope that as a new approach the geometry of fractal sets will be a proper tool to analyze the controllability and observability of nonlinear systems.     

MINIMAL POLYNOMIAL MATRIX AND LINEAR MULTIVARIABLE SYSTEMS(Ⅰ)

part(Ⅰ)of this work is on the theory of minimal polynomial matrix and Part(Ⅱ)onthe applications of this theory to linear multivariable systems.In Part(Ⅰ).concepts of annihilating polynomial matrix and the minimal polynomialmatrix of a given linear transformation in a vector group are given and the concepts of thegenerating system and minimal generating system of an invariant subspace for a givenlinear transformation are given as well.After discussing the basic properties of theseconcepts the relations between them and the characteristic matrix corresponding to aninduced operator of a given linear transformation in any of its invariant subspace arestudied in detail.The characteristics of the minimal polynomial matrix for a given vectorgroup and the necessary and sufficient condition for the two generating systems to have thesame generating subspace is given.Using these results we can give the expression for the setof all B’s which makes the system x=Ax Bu a complete controllable system for a givenA.     

Effect of particle size distribution on particle based composite anode models

Particle based models of composite anodes are useful tools for exploring the behavior of SOFC systems. As part of our efforts to develop models for understanding fuel cells, we have been building models of Ni-YSZ composite anodes using experimentally measured particle size distributions. The objectives of this study were to characterize the percolation threshold and conductivity of these models in comparison to simpler mono dispersed and biphasic particle size distributions from the literature. We found that the average values for the onset of percolation and the measured conductivity of the models with experimentally measured particle size distributions are similar to those for the simple distributions and the experimentally measured distributions. For all of the configurations evaluated, the onset of percolation in the Nickel phase occurred at a solid fraction of Nickel between 20% and 25%. This corresponded almost exactly to the point at which the coordination number between Nickel phase particles reached 2.2. The significant finding was that the variation in the value for the conductivity, as measured by the standard deviation of the results, was several orders of magnitude higher than for the simpler systems. We explored the validity of our assumptions, specifically the assumption of random particle placement, by building a particle model directly from FIB-SEM data. In this reconstruction, it was clear that the location of particles was not random. Particles of the same type and size had much likelihood of contact higher than would indicated by random location.     

Simulating hydrodynamics of hot and large Group A particle systems at cold conditions to obtain data for scale-up

Scaling laws based on the concept of dimensional similitude are proposed to simulate the hydrodynamics of hot and large particle systems at conditions of cold and small particle systems. This technique uses the concept of dimensional similitude to accomplish this by maintaining certain dimensional groups constant in the large, hot and small, cold systems. However, there are certain limitations with this technique. One of them is that the particle size in the small, cold system is usually smaller than in the large, hot system. Because particle size is such a dominant parameter in fluidized systems, this can certainly affect the simulation.
An alternative method of simulating hot hydrodynamics in ambient-temperature Group A particle systems has been proposed. In this method, the same calculated drag force is maintained between the two systems. The drag force is varied by changing the gas density of the cold system so that it matches the drag force in the hot system.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STABILITY AND THE OPTIMALITY OF LINEAR SYSTEMS(Ⅱ)

Different from the inverse problem put forward by R.E.Kalman, another kind ofinverse problem of linear optimal control is proposed and discussed in[1] as follows:Givenan asymptotically stable linear constant system and a nonnegative quadratic performanceindex, when can a state-feedback be separated from the stable system so that this state-feedback control law is optimal for the given index? In this paper this problem is extended.Similar conclusions are obtained for linear discrete systems and linear time-variablesystems. According to these conclusions we can say that the correspondence between theasymptotically stable system and the optimal feedback system is the inherent character ofall kinds of linear systems.     

A SEMI-ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR THE VIBRATION OF AND SOUND RADIATION FROM A TWO-DIMENTIONAL BEAM-STIFFENED PLATE

A semi-analytical method based on space harmonics to investigate the vibration of and sound radiation from an infinite,fluid-loaded plate is presented.The plate is reinforced with two sets of orthogonally and equally spaced beam stiffeners,which are assumed to be line forces.The response of the stiffened plate to a convected harmonic pressure in the wave-number space is obtained by adopting the Green’s function and Fourier transform methods.Using the boundary conditions and space harmonic method,we establish the relationship between the stiffener forces and the vibration displacement of the plate.In this paper,the stiffener forces are expressed in terms of harmonic amplitudes of the plate displacement,which are calculated by using a numerical reduction technique.Finally,the Fourier inverse transform is employed to find expressions of the vibration and sound radiation in physical space.Agreements with existing results prove the validity of this approach and more numerical results are presented to show that this method converges rapidly.     

A CRITERION FOR THE STABILITY OF MOTION OF NONLINEAR SYSTEM

As to an autonomous nonlinear system, the stability of the equilibrium state in a sufficiently small neighborhood of the equilibrium state can be determined by eigenvalues of the linear part of the nonlinear system provided that the eigenvalues are not in a critical case. Many methods may be used to detect the stability for a linear system. A lot of researches for determining the stability of a nonlinear system are completed by mathematicians and mechanicians but most of them are methods for the special forms of nonlinear systems. Till now, none of these methods can be conveniently applied to all nonlinear systems. The method introduced by this paper gives the necessary and sufficient conditions of the stability of a nonlinear system. The familiar Krasovski's method is a special case of this method     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for complex balancing in chemical kinetics

Summary In a recent publication (Horn & Jackson [1]) it was shown that complex balancing together with mass action type rate laws ensures certain stability properties of a kinetic system, thereby precluding sustained oscillations, bistability and other types of irregular dynamics. In this paper a necessary condition for complex balancing in general kinetics and necessary and sufficient conditions for complex balancing in mass action systems are derived. A theorem is stated which excludes the occurence of equilibria in certain composition regions of general kinetic systems. For mass action systems it is shown that it is sometimes true that the algebraic structure of the reactions suffices to ensure complex balancing, while in other cases complex balancing occurs only if certain relations between the rate constants are satisfied. The number of these relations, called the deficiency of the mass action system is determined by the algebraic structure of the set of reactions underlying that system.     

An iterative approach for nonproportionally damped systems

Modal analysis of nonproportionally damped linear dynamic systems is considered. Dynamic response of such systems can be expressed by a modal series in terms of complex modes. Normally state-space based methods or approximate perturbation methods are necessary for the computation of complex modes. In this paper, an iterative method to calculate complex modes from classical normal modes for general linear systems is proposed. A simple numerical algorithm is developed to implement the iterative method. The new method is illustrated using a numerical example.     

Minimum principles for the trajectories of systems governed by rate problems

Recently, Mielke and Ortiz [2007. A class of minimum principles for characterizing the trajectories of dissipative systems, ESAIM Control Optim. Calc. Var., in press] have proposed a variational reformulation of evolutionary problems that characterizes entire trajectories of a system as minimizers of certain energy-dissipation functionals. In this paper we present two examples of energy-dissipation functionals for which relaxations and optimal scalings can be rigorously derived. The first example concerns a one-dimensional bar characterized by a quadratic dissipation function and a bistable energy density; the second example concerns the coarsening kinetics of island growth in thin films exhibiting a preferred slope. In both cases, we present closed-form relaxations in the local limit of the problem and optimal scaling relations for the nonlocal problems. The relaxations rigorously characterize macroscopic properties of complex microstructural evolution by means of well-posed effective problems. The scaling relations rigorously characterize some average properties of the coarsening kinetics of the systems and lead to predictions on the growth exponents.     

Dynamics and Control of Initialized Fractional-Order Systems

Due to the importance of historical effects in fractional-order systems,this paper presents a general fractional-order system and control theorythat includes the time-varying initialization response. Previous studieshave not properly accounted for these historical effects. Theinitialization response, along with the forced response, forfractional-order systems is determined. The scalar fractional-orderimpulse response is determined, and is a generalization of theexponential function. Stability properties of fractional-order systemsare presented in the complex w-plane, which is a transformation of thes-plane. Time responses are discussed with respect to pole positions inthe complex w-plane and frequency response behavior is included. Afractional-order vector space representation, which is a generalizationof the state space concept, is presented including the initializationresponse. Control methods for vector representations of initializedfractional-order systems are shown. Finally, the fractional-orderdifferintegral is generalized to continuous order-distributions whichhave the possibility of including all fractional orders in a transferfunction.     

A new approach to the vakonomic mechanics

The aim of this paper was to show that the Lagrange–d’Alembert and its equivalent the Gauss and Appel principle are not the only way to deduce the equations of motion of the nonholonomic systems. Instead of them we consider the generalization of the Hamiltonian principle for nonholonomic systems with non-zero transpositional relations. We apply this variational principle, which takes into the account transpositional relations different from the classical ones, and we deduce the equations of motion for the nonholonomic systems with constraints that in general are nonlinear in the velocity. These equations of motion coincide, except perhaps in a zero Lebesgue measure set, with the classical differential equations deduced with the d’Alembert–Lagrange principle. We provide a new point of view on the transpositional relations for the constrained mechanical systems: the virtual variations can produce zero or non-zero transpositional relations. In particular, the independent virtual variations can produce non-zero transpositional relations. For the unconstrained mechanical systems, the virtual variations always produce zero transpositional relations. We conjecture that the existence of the nonlinear constraints in the velocity must be sought outside of the Newtonian mechanics. We illustrate our results with examples.     

系统科学方法论探索

众所周知,系统科学是适应科学方法论的变革而产生的新学科。系统科学研究自然界和人类社会各类复杂系统的共同特性,探索系统的生成、演化和涌现的普遍规律。系统科学与经典科学在方法论上有着本质的区别。经典科学注重还原分析,而系统科学强调整体把握。本文首先回顾我国在系统科学方法论上所取得的重要成果,接着简介作者从运筹学角度对描述方法所做的研究,然后着重探讨网络科学的研究方法对系统科学的借鉴作用。      

Generalization of a new parametric formulation of mechanics for systems with variable mass

In this paper a new parametric formulation of mechanics, formulated by the author himself and based on the separation of the double role of time (independent variable and a parameter) with the aid of a family of varied paths, is extended to the arbitrary rheonomic systems with variable mass. For such systems d'Alembert–Lagrange's principle, general Hamilton's principle, and the corresponding Hamiltonian formalism are formulated, as well as the energy relations with energy change law. The obtained results are illustrated by a simple, but characteristic example.     

Discrete Models of a Class of Isolation Systems

In this paper, a class of isolation systems with rigid limiters has been considered. For this class of systems, some general discrete-time models described by means of some impact Poincaré maps have been established. Two examples: a simple isolation system of one-stage and a real isolation system of two-stages have been investigated. The calculated results show that those models can reveal complex nonlinear behaviors. And even a small random perturbation may change the dynamical character of the system.     

非比例阻尼线性体系平稳随机地震响应计算的虚拟激励法

应用复振型分解方法,将非比例阻尼线性体系在地震作用下的动力方程求解问题转化为若干个广义复振子的求解与叠加问题。通过假定地震地面运动为一零均值的平稳随机激励,应用虚拟激励法原理,推导得到了广义复振子动力坐标的解析计算公式,进而得到了以复振型为基础的非比例阻尼线性体系随机地震响应计算的一般实数解析解答。算例证实了这种方法的可靠性及高效率。     

大规模颗粒系统的精确缩尺和粗粒化离散元方法

计算效率是制约工程尺度大规模颗粒系统离散元计算发展的重要因素,现有的粗粒化处理方法局限于特定应用并且缺少一般的理论依据。本文采用量纲分析方法,描述了在精确缩尺系统中各物理量应当满足的缩放定律;通过在粗粒化系统和原始系统的代表性体积单元之间建立质量、动量和能量的近似守恒关系,采用多尺度的描述方法得到了粗粒化系统与原始系统之间宏观和细观两种不同尺度的缩放关系,即双尺度粗粒化模型;精确缩尺系统中得到的缩放定律及离散元接触模型处理方法,完全适用于粗粒化系统中细观颗粒层面相关物理量的缩放,通过筒仓侧壁压力和休止角两个算例对精确缩尺模型在粗粒化系统中的有效性进行了验证。