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.     

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 equations of the first kind, which can be transformed to the Volterra integral equations of the first kind. With the application of the Laplace transformation, the general solutions of the deflections and bending moments for the Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams as well as the rotation and shear force for the Timoshenko beams are obtained explicitly with several unknown constants. Considering the boundary conditions and extra constitutive constraints, the characteristic equations are obtained explicitly for the Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams under different boundary conditions, from which one can determine the critical buckling loads of nanobeams. The effects of the nonlocal parameters and buckling order on the buckling loads of nanobeams are studied numerically, and a consistent toughening effect is obtained.     

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.     

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.     

基于UKF的GPS/SINS伪距(伪距率)组合导航系统设计

采用位置、速度组合的GPS/SINS组合导航系统由于GPS各量测量之间的相关性,影响了组合导航的整体精度.为了提高组合导航的精度和可靠性,采用了直接利用GPS接收机原始测量信息伪距、伪距率的组合方式.UKF(Unscented Kalman Filter)是针对非线性模型的滤波方法,它避免了对非线性方程线性化的过程,具有较高的精度和较好的鲁棒性.将UKF滤波方法应用于伪距、伪距率的组合导航系统中,并将UKF与卡尔曼滤波和自适应滤波方法进行了仿真比较研究.实验结果表明,UKF位置、航向估计的精度都要优于卡尔曼滤波和自适应滤波,使整个导航系统具有更高的精度和可靠性.     

厚度与加载速率对铁素体钢断裂韧性影响的SP压杆法实验研究

采用SP压杆实验方法,在常温下研究小圆薄片断裂韧性的厚度效应及加载速率对断裂特性的影响.实验结果表明,随着厚度的增加,断裂变形能增加,断裂部分的外表面因双向应力状态表现出微突起,微突起四周存在微小裂纹;随着加载速度的增加,断裂变形能增加,剪切断裂表面表现出从密集韧窝到韧窝连接成片特征.考虑试件变形过程中不同部分的能量耗散,从SP试件的整体断裂变形能得到试件的断裂韧性的宏观表达,断裂韧性随着厚度的增加而增加,随着加载速度的增加而减少.采用临界塑性断裂应变作为裂纹起裂判据,单位面积的能量耗散率作为裂纹扩展和失效判据的断裂模型,用有限元方法对SP压杆实验进行模拟,得到与实验结果比较相符的模拟结果.     

An adaptive artificial viscosity for the displacement shallow water wave equation

The numerical oscillation problem is a difficulty for the simulation of rapidly varying shallow water surfaces which are often caused by the unsmooth uneven bottom,the moving wet-dry interface, and so on. In this paper, an adaptive artificial viscosity(AAV) is proposed and combined with the displacement shallow water wave equation(DSWWE) to establish an effective model which can accurately predict the evolution of multiple shocks effected by the uneven bottom and the wet-dry interface. The effec...     

Elastoplastic homogenization of particulate composites complying with the Mohr–Coulomb criterion and undergoing isotropic loading

This work aims at determining the overall response of a two-phase elastoplastic composite to isotropic loading. The composite under investigation consists of elastic particles embedded in an elastic perfectly plastic matrix governed by the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion and a non-associated plastic flow rule. The composite sphere assemblage model is adopted, and closed-form estimates are derived for the effective elastoplastic properties of the composite either under tensile or compressive isotropic loading.In the case when elastic particles reduce to voids, the composite in question degenerates into a porous elastoplastic material. The results obtained in the present work are of interest, in particular, for soil mechanics.     

Minimum Control Energy of Spatial Beam with Assumed Attitude Adjustment Target

The dynamic analysis on the ultra-large spatial structure can be simplified drastically by ignoring the flexibility and damping of the structure.However,these simplifications will result in the erroneous estimate on the dynamic behaviors of the ultra-large spatial structure.Taking the spatial beam as an example,the minimum control energy defined by the difference between the initial total energy and the final total energy in the assumed stable attitude state of the beam is investigated by the structure-preserving method proposed in our previous studies in two cases:the spatial beam considering the flexibility as well as the damping effect,and the spatial beam ignoring both the flexibility and the damping effect.In the numerical experiments,the assumed simulation interval of three months is evaluated on whether or not it is long enough for the spatial flexible damping beam to arrive at the assumed stable attitude state.And then,taking the initial attitude angle and the initial attitude angle velocity as the independent variables,respectively,the minimum control energies of the mentioned two cases are investigated in detail.From the numerical results,the following conclusions can be obtained.With the fixed initial attitude angle velocity,the minimum control energy of the spatial flexible damping beam is higher than that of the spatial rigid beam when the initial attitude angle is close to or far away from the stable attitude state.With the fixed initial attitude angle,ignoring the flexibility and the damping effect will underestimate the minimum control energy of the spatial beam.     

IMPACT BEHAVIOR OF POLYVINYL ALCOHOL FIBER REINFORCED CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES BEAMS

The paper presents results of an investigation conducted to study the impact resistance of polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced cementitious composite (PVA-FRCC) beams containing silica fume and fly ash. PVA-FRCC beam specimens of size 100 × 100 × 400 mm were tested under impact loading. The specimen incorporated four different volume fractions i.e. 0, 0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0% of corrugated PVA fibers. Silica fume and fly ash were added for the specimens containing PVA fibers volume fraction of 2.0%. The drop-weight type impact tests were conducted on the test specimens and the number of blows of the hammer required to induce first visible crack and ultimate failure of the specimen were recorded. The results are presented in terms of number of blows required, impact ductility as well as impact energy at first crack and ultimate failure. It has been observed that specimen containing 2.0% PVA fibers gave the best performance under impact loading, and that impact resistance was improved after silica fume and fly ash were added.     

A new design of dual-constituent triangular lattice metamaterial with unbounded thermal expansion

Triangular lattice metamaterials composed of bi-layer curved rib elements (called the Lehman-Lakes lattice) possess unbounded thermal expansion, high stiffness and impossibility of thermal buckling, which are highly desirable in many engineering structural applications subjected to large fluctuations in temperature. However, the requirement of such lattice metamaterial is that it must be a hinged joint in order to achieve the bending deformation upon heating freely, which directly leads to poor manufacturability, especially in small dimensions. In this study, a new design of dual-constituent triangular lattice metamaterial (DTLM) with good manufacturability is proposed to achieve the identical unbounded thermal expansion. In this lattice, a special bi-layer curved rib element where layer one is partially covered by layer two is presented, where the hinge joints are not necessary because the flexural rigidity in the single-layer part is much smaller than that in the bi-layer part, and the desirable thermal bending deformation can be achieved. A sample fabricated by additive manufacturing is given in order to show the good manufacturability;simultaneously, the multifunctional performance of the tailored DTLM with zero, large positive or negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) can remain excellent, as well as the Lehman-Lakes lattice. Examples illustrate that the DTLM with zero CTE has about 34.2% improvement in stiffness and meanwhile has 17% reduction in weight compared with the Lehman-Lakes lattice. The stiffness of the DTLM has a moderate reduction when achieving the same large positive or negative CTE. In addition, the thermomechanical properties of the DTLM are given by the closed-form analytical solution and their effectiveness is verified by the detailed numerical simulation.     

Band gap analysis of periodic structures based on cell experimental frequency response functions (FRFs)

An approach is proposed to estimate the transfer function of the periodic structure, which is known as an absorber due to its repetitive cells leading to the band gap phenomenon. The band gap is a frequency range in which vibration will be inhibited. A transfer function is usually performed to gain band gap. Previous scholars regard estimation of the transfer function as a forward problem assuming known cell mass and stiffness matrices. However, the estimation of band gap for irregular or complicated cells is hardly accurate because it is difficult to model the cell exactly. Therefore, we treat the estimation as an inverse problem by employing modal identification and curve fitting. A transfer matrix is then established by parameters identitled through modal analysis. Both simulations and experiments have been performed. Some interesting conclusions about the relationship between modal parameters and band gap have been achieved.     

Orientation-Dependent Morphology and Evolution of Interfacial Dislocation Networks in Ni-Based Single-Crystal Superalloys:A Molecular Dynamics Simulation

In this paper,the morphology and evolution of interfacial dislocation networks of(100),(110)and(111)interphases of Ni-based single-crystal superalloys are studied by molecular dynamics(MD)simulations.Three-dimensional cubic-type and sandwich-type models are chosen to explore the orientation-dependent morphology of dislocation networks,and their respective advantages and disadvantages are compared.From the simulations,it is observed that various lattice orientations and model types lead to different morphologies of dislocation networks.Based on the analysis of average atomic energy and dislocation characteristics,the(100)orientation model has a more regular dislocation network,lower energy and better stability than the(110)and(111)orientation models after MD relaxation,which are supported by previous experimental and numerical simulations.Moreover,the cubic-type model has lower energy and better stability than the sandwich-type model.This will be helpful for choosing a more appropriate and reasonable model for simulating the interfacial dislocation networks of Ni-based single-crystal superalloys.     

Regular perturbation solution of Couette flow(non-Newtonian)between two parallel porous plates: a numerical analysis with irreversibility

The unavailability of wasted energy due to the irreversibility in the process is called the entropy generation.An irreversible process is a process in which the entropy of the system is increased.The second law of thermodynamics is used to define whether the given system is reversible or irreversible.Here,our focus is how to reduce the entropy of the system and maximize the capability of the system.There are many methods for maximizing the capacity of heat transport.The constant pressure gradient or motion of the wall can be used to increase the heat transfer rate and minimize the entropy.The objective of this study is to analyze the heat and mass transfer of an Eyring-Powell fluid in a porous channel.For this,we choose two different fluid models,namely,the plane and generalized Couette flows.The flow is generated in the channel due to a pressure gradient or with the moving of the upper lid.The present analysis shows the effects of the fluid parameters on the velocity,the temperature,the entropy generation,and the Bejan number.The nonlinear boundary value problem of the flow problem is solved with the help of the regular perturbation method.To validate the perturbation solution,a numerical solution is also obtained with the help of the built-in command NDSolve of MATHEMATICA 11.0.The velocity profile shows the shear thickening behavior via first-order Eyring-Powell parameters.It is also observed that the profile of the Bejan number has a decreasing trend against the Brinkman number.Whenηi→0(i=1,2,3),the Eyring-Powell fluid is transformed into a Newtonian fluid.