Delay compensated control of the Stefan problem and robustness to delay mismatch

This paper presents a control design for the one‐phase Stefan problem under actuator delay via a backstepping method. The Stefan problem represents a liquid‐solid phase change phenomenon which describes the time evolution of a material's temperature profile and the interface position. The actuator delay is modeled by a first‐order hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE), resulting in a cascaded transport‐diffusion PDE system defined on a time‐varying spatial domain described by an ordinary differential equation (ODE). Two nonlinear backstepping transformations are utilized for the control design. The setpoint restriction is given to guarantee a physical constraint on the proposed controller for the melting process. This constraint ensures the exponential convergence of the moving interface to a setpoint and the exponential stability of the temperature equilibrium profile and the delayed controller in the norm. Furthermore, robustness analysis with respect to the delay mismatch between the plant and the controller is studied, which provides analogous results to the exact compensation by restricting the control gain.     

Real‐time thermal states monitoring of absorber tube for parabolic trough solar collector with non‐uniform solar flux

With the world energy shortage problem becoming increasingly prominent, more and more attentions have been paid to the development of renewable energies. Among these sources, solar energy has received extensive attention with its excellent characteristics. The thermal state affects the safety of the solar heat collection system. In this paper, real‐time monitoring of the input heat flux on the inside wall and the temperature field simultaneously of an absorber tube for parabolic trough solar collector were studied. Based on the measured temperatures on the outside wall, the fuzzy adaptive Kalman filter coupled with weighted recursive least squares algorithm (WRLSA) was employed to monitor the heat states of the absorber tube inversely, in which WRLSA was used to acquire the heat flux while fuzzy adaptive Kalman filter was adopted to monitor the temperature field. The method showed strong robustness to resist the ill‐posedness. Accurate monitoring results also can be acquired when there are random disturbances of the heat transfer condition on the inner wall.     

风速时间序列混沌判定方法比较研究

混沌识别是对非线性时间序列进行混沌预测的前提。针对时间序列风速确定性与随机性相结合的复杂非线性特征,研究了不同的混沌识别方法,并对风速时间序列进行混沌特征识别。应用随机噪声、周期运动及经典混沌系统的时间序列对所选方法进行可靠性验证。对美国国家风能研究中心M2测风塔实测时间序列风速数据进行非线性混沌特征识别。结果表明:风速时间序列具有明显的混沌特征;各风速时间序列表现出不同程度的混沌特征;各混沌识别方法对风速时间序列混沌特征的表达形式不同,互为补充,相互验证。     

航空发动机进气总温传感器测温误差研究

航空发动机进口总温测量的准确性是优化发动机控制率、保障发动机飞行安全的关键因素之一。针对影响传感器测量准确性的响应时间、恢复系数，通过空气动力学和热力学理论，分析出具体的影响因素，设计了多种结构模型，并通过热风洞试验、FloEFD软件建模和热流体仿真，从材料及结构上系统地提出了优化途径和改善办法并进行了验证，尤其是分析了双余度传感器的响应一致性误差并提出改善方法。研究结果为同类传感器的设计提供了参考和借鉴。     

数据驱动的机床等待过程节能方法研究

为了降低机床等待过程中的能耗，提出了一种实时数据驱动的机床等待时间预测与节能控制方法。首先，建立了射频识别驱动的生产进度评估方法，并以生产进度数据作为输入，构建了基于堆栈降噪自编码的机床等待时间预测模型；其次，依据预测的机床等待时间，提出了机床状态切换方法，以降低机床能耗；最后，通过一个电梯零部件制造车间的案例分析，表明该方法的预测误差仅为4.1%，同时将机床等待过程能耗降低了57%，实现了制造车间的节能减排。     

Genetic algorithm to simultaneously optimise stope sequencing and equipment dispatching in underground short-term mine planning under time uncertainty

ABSTRACT

The main issue in short-term planning optimisation for underground mining is organising the mining process with limited resources in the form of equipment and materials to satisfy production targets and stable feed grade requirements. In this paper, an integrated optimisation model is proposed based on an individual generation algorithm and an improved Genetic Algorithm to simultaneously optimise stope extraction sequencing and timing, extracted ore grade and equipment dispatching. The model objectives are to shorten the time gap between the stope mining processes and the overall working time. When the uncertainty of equipment working time is taken into account in a short-term scheduling model, the Monte Carlo simulation is applied to evaluate the risk of not meeting the production target. A modification strategy is defined to evaluate equipment failure. Consequently, any available equipment is automatically reassigned to the mining site to replace the broken-down equipment. A case study is used to validate the model in the Sanshandao gold mine of China to formulate an optimal monthly schedule. Compared with the conventional approach, the new model could reduce the variance of ore tonnage and feed grade and improve the equipment allocation efficiency. Discussions are presented to address the uncertainty.     

碳酸盐岩裂缝性储层常规测井评价方法

哈萨克斯坦K油田石炭系KT-Ⅱ段储层为开阔台地相中低孔、特低渗灰岩储层，裂缝对改善储层的渗流能力至关重要，前人研究的利用常规测井资料评价碳酸盐岩储层裂缝的方法由于受裂缝产状、饱和度、泥浆侵入深浅等多方面因素的影响，存在确定性差、容易误判的缺陷。基于研究区目的层段有限的取心和电成像测井资料，结合孔隙型储层和裂缝-孔隙型储层测井响应特征，提出了利用补偿中子确定基块岩石电阻率与基块声波时差，再比较二者与深侧向电阻率、声波时差的差异特征，进而综合识别储层不同产状裂缝发育段，最后建立了裂缝孔隙度、次生孔隙度、裂缝渗透率、总渗透率等储层参数的测井解释模型，实现了利用常规测井资料对碳酸盐岩油藏储层的裂缝识别及参数定量评价。该方法应用的测井综合评价成果与取心物性分析、生产动态情况能够更好地匹配，为该类油藏的合理高效开发提供了依据。     

On the thermal conductivity of bimodal SiC/A356 composites fabricated via powder metallurgy route

The present study investigates the thermal conductivity of bimodal SiC particulate distribution in aluminum matrix composites fabricated via powder metallurgy route. The effects of the SiC_p reinforcement size distribution and processing parameters such as sintering time and temperature on the thermal conductivity have been examined. The Box–Behnken experimental array was employed to identify the effects of selected variables on the thermal conductivity of the composite. A reasonable augmentation in the thermal conductivity was observed with an increase in sintering time and %volume fraction of fine SiC particulates. It has been demonstrated that the matrix doped with fine SiC particulates (37?µm) occupied interstitial positions and formed continuous SiC–matrix network resulting in minimizing the micropores that contributed for good thermal conductivity, that is, 235?W/mK. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were conducted to evaluate the microstructure architecture and interfacial phase formation.     

Investigation of seasonal variations of Beijing pavement condition data using unevenly spaced dynamic panel data model

Beijing municipal highway administration started to collect pavement condition data on its major expressways since 2006. It is advised in the Chinese practice standard that data collection shall be conducted on annual basis. However, pavement data are usually collected at different seasons of the year, which may cause significant seasonal variations in the observed condition. Moreover, for some reasons, data are missing for some of the pavement sections at certain years, which could bring up difficulties in performance model estimation and inference. These concerns have been simply neglected in past practice. This study proposed an unevenly spaced dynamic panel data model to investigate the seasonal patterns of a performance indicator called Ride Quality Index (RQI). A quasi-differencing approach was adopted for the estimation. Data collected from the 5th Ring Road of Beijing were used in the case study. It was found that RQI data collected during the fall season are expected to be lower than that collected during the spring or summer seasons. Findings from this research would be helpful to pavement engineers in using unevenly spaced pavement condition data for future condition estimation.     

The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.