Bayesian inference for parameters estimation using experimental data

A finite element (FE) model is developed for a curved cable-stayed footbridge located in Terni (Umbria Region, Central Italy) which accounts for uncertainties in geometry, material properties, and boundary conditions as well as limited knowledge on the behavior of connections and other components. Ambient vibration tests (AVTs) are carried out to identify the main dynamic parameters which are used for model updating in the Bayesian framework. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the main mechanical parameters affecting natural frequencies and mode shapes to be used as updating parameters. Finally, the posterior probability distributions of the selected updating parameters is estimated and used to assess the accuracy of the FE-based model. The importance of using a proper informative reference data set in the updating framework is assessed using different observations together with the importance of reliable surrogate models able to reduce the computational costs related to the whole framework.     

Optimization of bone scaffold structures using experimental and numerical data

Optimization of bone scaffold structures is performed on the basis of homogenized orthotropic elastic properties of trabecular bone tissue and three-scale numerical model. The orthotropic effective material properties are calculated using a finite element method numerical model of bone microstructure with numerical homogenization algorithm and serve as a template of surgically removed bone tissue. The evolutionary algorithm is used to optimize patient-specific, periodic structure of the bone scaffold, possessing parameters similar to the removed bone and so allowing the bone tissue to heal and rebuild faster. The proposed methodology can be used to design bone scaffolds manufactured from biodegradable biopolymers using fused deposition modeling methods.     

An experimental investigation of a method to obtain isoclinic data from isochromatic data

If the photoelastic model has a line of symmetry and is made from a stress frozen sheet, then it is shown how the isoclinics can be obtained from isochromatic measurements only. The accuracy is investigated with experimental examples. The method should have applications in transient problems and where the sandwich method is used.     

阈值改进整数小波与LZW算法相结合的水声数据压缩方法

提出一种阈值改进整数小波与基于字典编码的LZW(Lempel-Ziv-Welch)算法相结合的数据压缩方法,该方法旨在减少水声数据传输量的同时尽可能地达到高保真。数据压缩过程中,先对水声数据进行整数小波变换,再对变换后的高频系数采用改进的小波阈值算法和阈值函数进行处理,提高了数据压缩倍数和信噪比,降低了误差。最后通过LZW将处理后的系数进行编码输出,进一步提升压缩效果。文中给出了相应的数据压缩算法流程。实际舰船辐射噪声数据的压缩处理结果表明,该方法能有效提高信号信噪比、减少信号失真并能获得更大的压缩倍数。     

改进锤击法试验模态分析技术的研究

介绍了基于自主开发的信号采集分析系统（VTCL_DSP）、试验模态分析系统（VTCL_MDT）软件和以NI-USB9215A信号采集器、三向加速度传感器为核心的硬件而搭建的锤击法试验模态分析系统。引入了测量点响应矢量概念,采用定时长采集和变时基提取技术获取触发过程的激励力和响应信号。探讨了单点激励多点三向量响应模态试验分析方法来获得结构的完整模态振型的优点。给出了某SUV动力总成和某跑车白车身模态分析的应用实例,结果表明,系统具有较高的实用性,对试验模态的改进有推动作用。     

An assessment of numerical techniques to find energy-minimizing microstructures associated with nonconvex potentials

Microstructural patterns emerge ubiquitously during phase transformations, deformation twinning, or crystal plasticity. Challenges are the prediction of such microstructural patterns and the resulting effective material behavior. Mathematically, the experimentally observed patterns are energy-minimizing sequences produced by an underlying non-(quasi)convex strain energy. Therefore, identifying the microstructure and effective response is linked to finding the quasiconvex, relaxed energy. Due to its nonlocal nature, quasiconvexification has traditionally been limited to (semi-)analytical techniques or has been dealt with by numerical techniques such as the finite element method (FEM). Both have been restricted to primarily simple material models. We here contrast three numerical techniques—FEM, a Fourier-based spectral formulation, and a meshless maximum-entropy (max-ent) method. We demonstrate their performance by minimizing the energy of a representative volume element for both hyperelasticity and finite-strain phase transformations. Unlike FEM, which fails to converge in most scenarios, the Fourier-based spectral formulation (FFT) scheme captures microstructures of intriguingly high resolution, whereas max-ent is superior at approximating the relaxed energy. None of the methods are capable of accurately predicting both microstructures and relaxed energy; yet, both FFT and max-ent show significant advantages over FEM. Numerical errors are explained by the energy associated with microstructural interfaces in the numerical techniques compared here.     

Analytical method to find the optimal parameters for gas detectors based on correlation spectroscopy using a Fabry-Perot interferometer

Several designs of infrared sensors use a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) to modulate the incident light. In this work we analyze the particular case where the FPI fringes are matched with very well defined rovibrational absorption lines of a target molecule such as CO(2), CO, N(2)O, or CH(4). In this kind of sensor, modulation is induced by scanning the FPI cavity length over one half of the reference wavelength. Here we present an analytical method based on the Fourier transform, which simplifies the procedure to determine the sensor response. Furthermore, this method provides a simple solution to finding the optimal FPI cavity length and mirror reflectivity. It is shown that FPI mirrors with surprisingly low reflectivity (<50%) are generally the optimum choice for target gases at atmospheric pressure. Finally, experimental measurements and simulation results are presented.     

An advanced numerical method for computing elastodynamic fracture parameters in functionally graded materials

A new meshless method for computing the dynamic stress intensity factors (SIFs) in continuously non-homogeneous solids under a transient dynamic load is presented. The method is based on the local boundary integral equation (LBIE) formulation and the moving least squares (MLS) approximation. The analyzed domain is divided into small subdomains, in which a weak solution is assumed to exist. Nodal points are randomly spread in the analyzed domain and each one is surrounded by a circle centered at the collocation point. The boundary-domain integral formulation with elastostatic fundamental solutions for homogeneous solids in Laplace-transformed domain is used to obtain the weak solution for subdomains. On the boundary of the subdomains, both the displacement and the traction vectors are unknown generally. If modified elastostatic fundamental solutions vanishing on the boundary of the subdomain are employed, the traction vector is eliminated from the local boundary integral equations for all interior nodal points. The spatial variation of the displacements is approximated by the MLS scheme.     

一种改进的基于两单胞模型的三维角联锁机织复合材料弹性性能数值预测方法及实验验证

为准确预测三维角联锁机织复合材料的宏观弹性性能,对基于CT图像几何参数实测数据建立的内单胞和面单胞细观实体模型进行数值分析,其中面单胞模型采用组合面单胞形式,并开展了三维角联锁机织超高分子量聚乙烯(UHMWPE)纤维/聚氨酯复合材料的经向拉伸实验。结果表明:基于两单胞模型预测该复合材料的宏观弹性模量与实验结果吻合较好,组合面单胞的经向拉伸模量小于内单胞;经向拉伸时复合材料在经纱间接触面处、纬纱沿宽度方向的端部和经纱与基体的交界面处易出现应力集中现象;当纬纱层数小于30层时,应该考虑表面区域对复合材料整体力学性能的影响。      

利用改进的EKF滤波技术识别成层土集总参数模型的参数

根据非线性系统状态参数估计理论和土-结构系统的实际地震动记录，利用多项式一阶近似来代替EKF滤波技术中的求导线性化过程，来估计土双自由度集总参数模型中各参数值。这是一种比较新的参数在线实时辨识技术，具有运算简单、计算精度较高的优点。以美国Alaska州Anchorage市中心一栋14层办公大楼为算例，结果显示地基土集总参数模型的参数递推结果相当可靠。整个方法易于在MATLAB操作平台上实现。     

An improved electrokinetic method to consolidate porous materials

Consolidation is considered one of the major restoration treatments applied on cultural heritage. This kind of treatment is focused on to preserve the external weathered layers of stone reducing their degradation caused by external alteration agents (mainly water and soluble salts). However the consolidation using commercial products have some limitations, such as: (1) low penetrability; (2) no chemical and mineralogical affinity with the material to treat and (3) release of toxic compounds (VOCs), during the solvent evaporation. In the last years, a new consolidation method based on electrokinetic techniques was developed. This method allows filling some pores by the precipitation of an inorganic compound. As a result the method allows increasing the penetration depth of current consolidation treatments. However, this method needs to be improved since: (1) no special care is taking in controlling the pH of the solutions in contact with the porous material, which can damage it and (2) it is difficult to determine in which area the consolidation takes place. In this study an electrokinetic consolidation method, which has two steps between which the current is reversed, is proposed to solve all of these problems. The results show that the proposed treatment achieves better results in terms of penetrability and durability of current consolidation treatments, and moreover prevent that the treated material to be exposed to extreme pH values.     

Direct numerical inversion method for kinetic ellipsometric data. II. Implementation and experimental verification

A direct numerical inversion method is applied to the monitoring of thin-film growth. Several improvements of the method, including a correction for weakly absorbing materials, are presented. The method has been successfully applied to the inversion of the growth of constant-refractive-index layers andused for the process calibration of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of silicon oxynitrides. The validity of this calibration has been successfully tested on a linear index gradient and quintic matching layer between a polycarbonate substrate and a scratch-resistant coating.     

A simple method to assess detonation temperature without using any experimental data and computer code

Detonation temperature of C(a)H(b)N(c)O(d) explosives can be predicted from a, b, c, d and calculated gas phase heat of formation of explosives without using any assumed detonation products and experimental data. Two new correlations are introduced for calculation of detonation temperature of aromatic and non-aromatic explosive compounds so that it is shown here how simply calculated heat of formation by additivity rule and atomic composition are only necessary data for this simple prediction. Calculated detonation temperatures by the introduced correlations for both pure and explosive formulations show good agreement with respect to measured detonation temperatures and complicated computer codes. The average mean absolute error in detonation temperature is within about 7.0%.     

An improved method for R-peak detection by using Shannon energy envelope

R-peaks in electrocardiogram (ECG) play a vital role in diagnosis of heart rhythm irregularities and also estimating heart rate variability. However, almost all existing R-peak detectors suffer from the non-stationary of both QRS morphology and noise. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a four-stage improved method to detect R-peak using Shannon energy envelope. In the first stage, noise is suppressed and QRS complex is enhanced by using band pass filter, first order differentiation, and amplitude normalization. In the second stage, Shannon energy envelope is extracted. In the third stage, peak is estimated without considering any threshold amplitude. In the final stage, true R-peaks are detected. Our proposed R-peak detection method is validated using 48 first channel ECG records of the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database with the accuracy of 99.84%, sensitivity of 99.95% and positive predictability of 99.88%. Our proposed method outperforms other well-known methods in case of pathological ECG signals.     

An experimental cum numerical technique to determine dynamic interlaminar fracture toughness

A method combining experimental and finite element analysis is developed to determine interlaminar dynamic fracture toughness. An interlaminar crack is propagated at very high speed in a double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen made of two steel strips which are bonded together by epoxy with a precrack of about 40 mm length. The face of the front cantilever is bonded to a large solid block and a special fixture is designed to apply impact load to the rear cantilever through a load bar. In the load bar, a compressive square shaped elastic stress pulse is generated by impacting it with a striker bar which is accelerated in an air gun. The rear cantilever is screwed to the load bar; when the incident compressive pulse reaches the specimen, a part of the energy is reflected into the load bar and the rest of it passes to the specimen. By monitoring the incident and the reflected pulses in the load bar through strain gauges, deflection of cantilever-end is determined. The crack velocity is determined by three strain gauges of 0.2 mm gauge length bonded to the side face of the rear cantilever. Further, the first strain gauge, bonded very close to the tip of the precrack, and the crack velocity determine the initiation time of crack propagation.

The experimental results are used as input data in a finite element (FE) code to calculate J-integral by the gradual release of nodal forces to model the propagation of the interlaminar crack. The initiation fracture toughness and propagation fracture toughness are evaluated for an interlaminar crack propagating with a velocity in the range of 850 to 1785 m/s. The initiation toughness and propagation toughness were found to vary between 90–200 J/m² and 2–13 J/m², respectively.     

An improved method of MCXO

To improve the MCXO performance and simplify its structure, a new MCXO design method has been developed. Through deleting pulses of clock signal of a microcomputer and shifting its phase, the frequency-temperature stability of MCXO can be made satisfactory, and the DDS chip, which is often used in high performance MCXO, can be eliminated. Several different MCXOs have been made with this method and different performance specifications can be obtained. According to the simplicity, in a wide temperature range from -40 to +80 degrees C, the frequency-temperature stability of the MCXOs can be from +/-3x10(-8) to +/-2x10(-7).     

一种利用模态测量数据修正刚度矩阵的新方法

模型修正即为利用模态测量数据修正存在但不准确的有限元模型。本文在假定有限元模型的质量矩阵与刚度矩阵均为对称非负定矩阵,并且质量矩阵是精确的情况下,提出了一种修正刚度矩阵的新方法。该方法借助于矩阵的Kronecker积与拉直算子,把需修正的变量分离出来直接对其进行修正运算,得到了满足特征方程与正交性条件的最逼近有限元刚度矩阵的唯一修正矩阵。该方法不仅保证了修正矩阵带状稀疏的特点,而且修正过程简单易行。数值例子验证了该方法的有效性。