Sag in drying coatings: Prediction and real time measurement with particle tracking

Sag is a coating phenomenon characterized by gravity-driven flow after deposition; excessive amounts of sag can lead to coating defects. In this work, a new method for evaluating and quantifying sag is investigated. The motion of micron-sized Lycopodium spores on an inclined coating surface is tracked during drying, and the resulting surface velocity data is used to determine sag length. This in situ particle tracking method is minimally invasive and permits real time measurements. Measured sag lengths and real time surface velocities in aqueous polyvinyl alcohol solution coatings compare well with a theoretical model. The model is also used to develop a predictive sag regime map, which anticipates the extent of sag given coating properties and process-specific parameters. This map also identifies viable processing windows and aids in intelligent coating design given specific process constraints. The predictions of the sag regime map are compared against experimental sag results from polyvinyl alcohol solution coatings as well as four commercial latex paints, revealing good agreement for coatings with Newtonian or ‘Newtonian-like’ rheologies.     

Utilizing sensor data to model students’ creativity in a digital environment

While creativity is essential for developing students’ broad expertise in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, many students struggle with various aspects of being creative. Digital technologies have the unique opportunity to support the creative process by (1) recognizing elements of students’ creativity, such as when creativity is lacking (modeling step), and (2) providing tailored scaffolding based on that information (intervention step). However, to date little work exists on either of these aspects. Here, we focus on the modeling step. Specifically, we explore the utility of various sensing devices, including an eye tracker, a skin conductance bracelet, and an EEG sensor, for modeling creativity during an educational activity, namely geometry proof generation. We found reliable differences in sensor features characterizing low vs. high creativity students. We then applied machine learning to build classifiers that achieved good accuracy in distinguishing these two student groups, providing evidence that sensor features are valuable for modeling creativity.     

Studying local liquid velocity in liquid–solid packed bed using the newly developed X-ray DIR technique

Combination of X-ray Digital Industrial Radiography (DIR) and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) techniques for local liquid velocity measurement (V_LL) has been newly developed and successfully applied for trickle bed reactor (TBR). The technique was validated against newly developed fiber optical probe technique. This work attempts to highlight the applicability of this newly developed technique on a liquid–solid packed bed reactor. In this work, liquid was represented by water and solids were represented by EPS beads. The EPS beads were chosen because of its low density property. Three superficial liquid velocities (V_SL) were applied to the system. The experiment was replicated four times. The digital industrial radiography (DIR) consists of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital detector and X-ray source. Results of this work suggest that the technique has been successfully applied and comparable with previous work that has been done in the literature. It also suggests that there will be a maximum measurable interstitial liquid velocity when it travel inside the packed bed. The measured V_LL can have a maximum range that is between 4 and 4.7 times that of its V_SL. For V_SL=0.42±±2%, the V_LL-Max is in between 1.7 cm/s and 1.9 cm/s, V_SL=0.84±±2%, the V_LL-Max is in between 3.6 cm/s and 4.0 cm/s, and for V_SL=1.11±±2%, the V_LL-Max is in between 4.3 cm/s and 4.8 cm/s.     

Study on maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic array in irregular shadow

Traditional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods can hardly find global maximum power point (MPP) because output characteristics curve of photovoltaic (PV) array may have multi local maximum power points in irregular shadow, and thus easily fall into the local maximum power point. To address this drawback, Considering that sliding mode variable structure (SMVS) control strategy have such advantages as simple structure, fast response and strong robustness, and P&O method have the advantages of simple principle and convenient implementation, so a new algorithm combining SMVS control method and P&O method is proposed, besides, PI controller is applied to reduce system chattering caused by switching sliding surface. It is applied to MPPT control of PV array in irregular shadow to solve the problem of multi-peak optimization in partial shadow. In order to verity the rationality of the proposed algorithm, the experimental circuit is built, which achieves MPPT control by means of the proposed algorithm and P&O method. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional P&O algorithm, the proposed algorithm can fast track the global MPP, tracking speed increases by 60% and the relative error decreased by 20%. Moreover, the system becomes more stable near the MPP, the fluctuations of output power is greatly reduced, and thus make full use of solar energy.     

A new class of nonlinear Rauch–Tung–Striebel cubature Kalman smoothers

In this paper, a new Rauch–Tung–Striebel type of nonlinear smoothing method is proposed based on a class of high-degree cubature integration rules. This new class of cubature Kalman smoothers generalizes the conventional third-degree cubature Kalman smoother using the combination of Genz׳s or Mysovskikh׳s high-degree spherical rule with the moment matching based arbitrary-degree radial rule, which considerably improves the estimation accuracy. A target tracking problem is utilized to demonstrate the performance of this new smoother and to compare it with other Gaussian approximation smoothers. It will be shown that this new cubature Kalman smoother enhances the filtering accuracy and outperforms the extended Kalman smoother, the unscented Kalman smoother, and the conventional third-degree cubature Kalman smoother. It also maintains close performance to the Gauss–Hermite quadrature smoother with much less computational cost.     

Fully distributed tracking control for non‐identical multi‐agent systems with matching uncertainty

This article addresses the fully distributed consensus tracking control problem of linear multi‐agent systems with parameter uncertainties. First, a new class of distributed protocol, based on the relative states of neighbors, is proposed. Theoretical analysis indicates that the considered problem can be solved if the control gain constant of the protocol is larger than the norm bound of the leader's nonlinear inputs. Furthermore, a distributed adaptive control protocol is proposed for the case without available global information. The distributed consensus tracking control problem of uncertain linear multi‐agent systems is solved based only on local information under the proposed adaptive protocol. Finally, an application in low‐Earth‐orbit satellite formation flying is provided to illustrate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel method for estimating the track-soil parameters based on Kalman and improved strong tracking filters

A tracked vehicle has been widely used in exploring unknown environments and military fields. In current methods for suiting soil conditions, soil parameters need to be given and the traction performance cannot always be satisfied on soft soil. To solve the problem, it is essential to estimate track-soil parameters in real-time. Therefore, a detailed mathematical model is proposed for the first time. Furthermore, a novel algorithm which is composed of Kalman filter (KF) and improved strong tracking filter (STF) is developed for online track-soil estimation and named as KF–ISTF. By this method, the KF is used to estimate slip parameters, and the ISTF is used to estimate motion states. Then the key soil parameters can be estimated by using a suitable soil model. The experimental results show that equipped with the estimation algorithm, the proposed model can be used to estimate the track-soil parameters, and make the traction performance satisfied with soil conditions.     

东营凹陷深部储层流度属性提取及应用

东营凹陷深部储层埋深大、储层薄,为干燥环境下沉积的红层,采用常规储层描述与预测方法难以取得好的效果。在流度属性表征方法计算公式详细推导和流度属性本质含义解剖的基础上,根据研究区岩石物理参数和流体置换的特征,建立了含油层和干层的理论模型,发现将储层主频作为优势频率提取的流度属性,具有很好的有利储层识别度,含油砂体的流度属性能量团比干层及其它地层的能量要强。对东营凹陷深部实际三维工区数据进行目标处理,过井剖面的有利储层得到很好展示;沿层流度属性切片,其储层厚度、储层流体类型及其分布范围与井点图吻合度很高,进一步验证了方法的有效性。研究成果拓展了流度属性的应用范围(以往仅局限于低频),也为深部储层预测开辟了一条新的途径,具有重要的理论意义和较好的推广价值。     

融合重检测机制的卷积回归网络目标跟踪算法

针对基于人工特征的背景感知相关滤波（CACF）算法在形变、运动模糊、低分辨率情形跟踪效果较差以及跟踪器遇到严重遮挡等情形容易陷入局部最优而导致跟踪失败的问题，提出一种融合重检测机制的卷积回归网络（CRN）目标跟踪算法。在训练阶段，将相关滤波作为CRN层融入进深度神经网络，使网络成为一个整体进行端到端训练；在跟踪阶段，通过残差连接融合不同网络层及其响应值，同时引入重检测机制使算法从潜在的跟踪失败中恢复，当响应值低于给定阈值时激活检测器。在数据集OTB-2013上的实验表明，所提算法在50个视频序列上精确度达到88.1%，相比原始CACF算法提高9.7个百分点，在具有形变、运动模糊等属性的视频序列上相比原始算法表现更优秀。