Modelling,simulation and identification of an engine air path electromechanical actuator

This paper deals with the modelling and the identification of an electromechanical Diesel engine actuator. The studied Bosch GPA-S actuator is designed for swirl/tumble flaps to control the air amount entering into the cylinder. This study aims to design a complete simulator that reproduces, with sufficient accuracy, the actuator dynamics taking into account the effects of the friction phenomenon. Hence, an overview of the actuator structure and its operation principle is first given. Then, its mathematical model as well as the nonlinearity, related to its behaviour, is discussed. Next, three identification procedures, which allow estimating both the system parameters and the friction model coefficients, are introduced. Finally, simulation results, using MATLAB, and experimental results, using LabVIEW, are presented demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.     

Influence of protein and lipid concentration of the test lubricant on the wear of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene

To gain a better understanding of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear mechanism in the physiological environment, the effects of protein and lipid constituents of synovial fluid on the specific wear rate of UHMWPE were examined experimentally. The multidirectional sliding pin-on-plate wear tester was employed to simulate the simplified sliding condition of hip joint prostheses. Bovine serum γ-globulin and synthetic l--DPPC were used as model protein and lipid constituents of synovia, respectively. Results of the wear test indicated that the UHMWPE wear rate primarily depended on the protein concentration of the test lubricant. Lipids acted as a boundary lubricant and reduced polyethylene wear in the low protein lubricants. However, the polyethylene wear rate increased with increasing lipid concentrations if the protein concentration was within the physiological level. Increased interactions between protein and lipid molecules and lipid diffusion to polyethylene surface might be responsible for the increased wear.     

Al–Si cast alloys under isothermal and thermomechanical fatigue conditions

This work presents a survey of the isothermal and anisothermal fatigue behavior of aluminum casting alloys obtained from different processes. Experimental results have shown that porosity, especially large and irregular pores, provides the main factor in decreasing fatigue properties of the tested alloys. In materials with similar porosity levels, other microstructural factors became relevant such as, matrix morphology and the amount of alloying elements. Fractographic analyses showed that fatigue cracks preferentially start to propagate in microcracks or interdendritic shrinkage usually located next to the surface. In most cases, propagation takes place in the eutectic phase, although in the thixoformed material, a transition from transgranular to intergranular mode was observed in the crack propagation mode.     

New high concentration–high temperature hydrogenation method for slow strain rate tensile tests

The aim of the present paper is to propose an innovative hydrogenation method based on metal hydride dissociation.By heating metal hydride, high pressure of molecular hydrogen is generated, which can be used to promote diffusion through the steel, resulting in very high atomic hydrogen concentration.This new hydrogenation method was tested on a F82H steel, a Reduced Activation Ferritic/Martensitic (RAFM) steel developed for nuclear fusion application, where high temperature Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) is a matter of serious concern.The main goal of this study is to propose a methodology to perform tensile tests on steel at high temperature and high hydrogen contents.The technique is easy and cheap. Furthermore, by using different metal hydrides and tuning temperatures, different hydrogen concentrations can be tested.     

Correlating microstructural features with wear resistance of dual phase steel

In order to explore the tribological potential of the dual phase (DP) steel as a wear resistant material, the wear characteristics of the dual phase (DP) steel have been investigated with varying amounts of martensite from 43 to 81 vol pct, developed by varying holding time at the intercritical annealing temperature of 780 °C. Dry sliding wear tests have been conducted on DP steels using a pin-on-disk machine under different normal loads of 61.3, 68.5, 75.7 and 82.6 N and at a constant sliding speed of 1.20 m/s. At these loads, the mechanism of wear is mainly delamination, which has been confirmed by SEM micrographs of the subsurface and wear debris of the samples. Wear and friction properties have been found to be improved with increasing martensite volume fraction in dual phase steels.     

Validating an object placement planner for robotic pick-and-place tasks

This paper proposes an object placement planner for a grasped object during pick-and-place tasks. The proposed planner automatically determines the pose of an object that is stably placed near a user-assigned point on the environment surface. In our proposed method, first the polygon models of both the object and the environment are clustered, with each cluster being approximated by a planar region. The position/orientation of an object placed on the environment surface can be determined by selecting a pair of clusters: one from the object and the other from the environment. We furthermore conduct several tests to determine the position/orientation of the object, namely the Convexity Test, the Contact Test and the Stability Test. We demonstrate that, by using the polygon model of the environment that is obtained by means of conversion of the point cloud, we can determine the position/orientation of an object and can thereby realize a pick-and-place task.     

Partner selection in a virtual enterprise under uncertain information about candidates

Partner selection is a major issue in the formation of a virtual enterprise. In practice, in the partner selection process, the information about the candidates and their performances are incomplete and uncertain. Vague sets theory is one of the methods used to deal with uncertain information. In this paper, a new method based on vague sets is proposed to deal with the partner selection problem in the formation of a virtual enterprise while the factors of satisfaction degree, due date, cost and the precedence of tasks are taken into account. On the basis of the agreement index of satisfaction degree, the formulated partner selection problems are interpreted so as to maximize the minimum agreement index. To solve the problem, an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed. Finally, the simulation of a numerical example demonstrates that the method is effective.     

An SNS-based model for finding collaborative partners

This paper proposes a model, Recommendation of Appropriate Partners (RAP), used on a Social Networking Service (SNS) for locating appropriate “helpers” for users based on individual users’ Chain of Friends (CoF) relationships. Using the RAP model, individual users can participate in a collaborative online community in remote locations, whereby helpers are willing to help other users solve their tasks/problems, and it is intended that both the users and helpers gain knowledge from these interactive online sessions. An example of the RAP-based system was implemented to invite Program Committee members to an international conference. The system was evaluated and the experimental results show that our model is very effective for discovering collaboration partners and finding users with similar interests in order to create communities for providing future and longer-term helping exchange.