Monomer casting nylon-6-b-polyether amine copolymers: Synthesis and properties

MC nylon-6-b-polyether amine copolymers were prepared with macro-initiator based on amino-terminated polyether amine functionalized with isocyanate via in-situ polymerization. It was found that the introduction of polyether amine delayed the polymerization process of caprolactam by increasing apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor, resulting in the decrease of molecular weight of nylon-6. The motion of molecular chain of the copolymers was easy because of the decreased hydrogen bonds and weakened inter-molecular forces. The physical entanglement of molecular chains of the copolymers was significant and strong which increased the entanglement density. Only the nylon-6 phase crystallized in the copolymers and the crystal grain size, spherulite size and crystallinity of the copolymers decreased. A small amount of γ crystal formed at high polyether amine content. The copolymers presented obvious strain hardening behavior in stress-strain curves and the loss factor dramatically increased while the glass transition temperature and storage module decreased. The fracture surface of the copolymers became rough and presented hairy structure, indicating that the toughening mechanism of the copolymers corresponded to the multi-layer crack extension mechanism.     

A multi-start central force optimization for global optimization

Central force optimization (CFO) is an efficient and powerful population-based intelligence algorithm for optimization problems. CFO is deterministic in nature, unlike the most widely used metaheuristics. CFO, however, is not completely free from the problems of premature convergence. One way to overcome local optimality is to utilize the multi-start strategy. By combining the respective advantages of CFO and the multi-start strategy, a multi-start central force optimization (MCFO) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The performance of the MCFO approach is evaluated on a comprehensive set of benchmark functions. The experimental results demonstrate that MCFO not only saves the computational cost, but also performs better than some state-of-the-art CFO algorithms. MCFO is also compared with representative evolutionary algorithms. The results show that MCFO is highly competitive, achieving promising performance.     

Fabrication and frequency response of a complex ultrasonic transducer for multilayer evaluation

To characterize the thickness of a corrosive fluid system's coated facilities, such as pipes, tubes, tanks, and structural members, a complex ultrasonic transducer capable of measuring multilayered parts was fabricated and the time and frequency responses were evaluated. The target transducer was constructed with two active dual elements made from tape-cast PbNb₂O₆ sheets and an additional thin-film active element made from sol–gel spin-coated Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ films. After adjusting the properties of each active element, a complex transducer was assembled after matching the impedance of each element and considering the minimal interference between the active layers. The impulse response of the assembled complex transducer shows excellent characteristics. Moreover, the assembled transducer's capability of accurately measuring the thickness assures that it can be directly applied to related industries.     

一种改进的自适应图像颜色迁移算法

颜色迁移是图像处理中一个重要的研究课题,它要解决问题是:基于图像A和图像B,合成一幅新的图像B,使其具有A的颜色和B的形状;提出了一种改进的自适应图像颜色迁移算法,它可以更好地利用图像的局部信息,并在算法中引入了正交化分析,进一步减少了颜色空间各通道间的相关性,实现对图像A和图像B的图像颜色最优的迁移过程。     

堆场疏浚泥颗粒分选特性初步量化方法

为了准确评估堆场存储能力和合理选择疏浚泥处理工艺,以泥沙运动学为理论基础,将疏浚泥颗粒分为d0.005 mm、0.005 mm≤d≤0.01 mm和d0.01 mm 3个粒组,分析了各粒组相对含量的沿程变化规律,明确了堆场疏浚泥分选的主要原因是d0.01 mm粒组与0.005 mm≤d≤0.01 mm粒组的相对运动;以分选系数量化堆场疏浚泥分选的显著程度,以偏离系数量化原泥颗粒组成对堆场疏浚泥分选的影响,分析了分选系数、偏离系数分布与堆场疏浚泥土性分布的关系,提出了堆场疏浚泥分选特性的初步量化方法。研究结果表明:随着离吹填口距离的增大,分选系数沿程减小,呈幂函数分布,堆场疏浚泥分选性沿程减弱,吹填口附近分选系数最大,颗粒分选显著,粒度差异大,退水口附近分选系数趋近于零,分选不明显,颗粒分布均匀;偏离系数沿程先减小后增大,呈勺形分布,反映堆场前、后段疏浚泥土性与原泥相差较大,而堆场中段疏浚泥土性与原泥接近;分选系数、偏离系数的沿程分布与堆场疏浚泥土性分区具有良好的相关性。     

IFC-based integration tool for supporting information exchange from architectural model to structural model

With the purpose of enhancing effective collaboration between architects and structural engineers in the building design field, an integration tool was developed for supporting information exchange from architectural model to structural model. The PKPM (Bopomofo acronym, a Chinese building design software) structural model and an industry foundation classes (IFC) data model were adopted and analyzed to design the framework of the integration tool. The technique of mixed program languages (C++ and FORTRAN) was applied to developing the tool software, and the connectivity relationships and intersection nodes between the structural elements were optimized and simplified. A case study was implemented to illustrate the method to use the integration tool for information exchange from IFC-format architectural model to PKPM structural model. The results show that the tool can extract the information of architectural model and form a corresponding structural model. The presented method can help to enhance the modeling efficiency at the structural design phase.     

量子竞争决策算法及其在旅行商问题中的应用*

提出一种新型优化算法——量子竞争决策算法,在竞争决策的基础上,将进化博弈论中博弈者不断学习和调整来提高竞争力的思想引入到优化中,使竞争者具有自进化能力,同时充分利用量子进化计算中量子比特、叠加态等理论,增加竞争群体的多样性,缩小群体规模。通过对典型的TSP实验计算和与其他算法比较,均取得了较好的效果,算法具有较强的全局优化能力。     

New Robust Stability Criteria for Lur’e Systems with Time-varying Delays and Sector-bounded Nonlinearities

This paper deals with a robust stability problem for uncertain Lur’e systems with time-varying delays and sector-bounded nonlinearities. An improved delay-dependent robust stability criterion is proposed via a modified Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) approach. Firstly, a modified LKF consisting of delay-dependent matrices and double-integral items under two delay subintervals is constructed, thereby making full use of the delay and its derivative information. Secondly, the stability criteria can be expressed as convex linear matrix inequality (LMI) via the properties of quadratic function application. Thirdly, to further reduce the conservatism of stability criteria, the quadratic generalized free-weighting matrix inequality (QGFMI) is used. Finally, some numerical examples, including the Lur’e system and the general linear time-delayed system, are presented to show the improvement of the proposed approach.