Design and characteristics of series–series and series–parallel topologies fed from constant-voltage fixed-frequency supply

Characteristics of series–series and series–parallel topologies when fed from a constant-voltage fixed-frequency supply have been studied. Characterization helps understanding the fundamentals of the topologies and helps in selection of particular topology for a particular application. For studying the characteristics a prototype of IPT coils has been developed in the laboratory. Parameters of the coil have been found using finite-element analysis software JMAG. Characteristics have been simulated in MATLAB Simulink and results obtained have been compared with those obtained from the hardware implementation of the characteristic. It has been shown in this paper that series–series topology has ideal current-source characteristics and series–parallel topology has ideal voltage-source characteristics.     

Cost optimization for series–parallel execution of a collection of intersecting operation sets

A collection of intersecting sets of operations is considered. These sets of operations are performed successively. The operations of each set are activated simultaneously. Operation durations can be modified. The cost of each operation decreases with the increase in operation duration. In contrast, the additional expenses for each set of operations are proportional to its time. The problem of selecting the durations of all operations that minimize the total cost under constraint on completion time for the whole collection of operation sets is studied. The mathematical model and method to solve this problem are presented. The proposed method is based on a combination of Lagrangian relaxation and dynamic programming. The results of numerical experiments that illustrate the performance of the proposed method are presented. This approach was used for optimization multi-spindle machines and machining lines, but the problem is common in engineering optimization and thus the techniques developed could be useful for other applications.     

Integrated configurable equipment selection and line balancing for mass production with serial–parallel machining systems

Solving equipment selection and line balancing problems together allows better line configurations to be reached and avoids local optimal solutions. This article considers jointly these two decision problems for mass production lines with serial–parallel workplaces. This study was motivated by the design of production lines based on machines with rotary or mobile tables. Nevertheless, the results are more general and can be applied to assembly and production lines with similar structures. The designers’ objectives and the constraints are studied in order to suggest a relevant mathematical model and an efficient optimization approach to solve it. A real case study is used to validate the model and the developed approach.     

Uncertain process–based reliability and maintenance modeling for systems under mutually dependent degradation and shock processes

For the systems that experience competing failure processes, an uncertain process–based degradation model is developed to describe the systems. The competing degradation process is composed of internal continuous degradation and external shocks, and the mutual dependence between them is considered. When the magnitude of the internal degradation exceeds the threshold, the soft failure occurs. While for the shock processes involving the randomness and the subjective information, we adopt the uncertain random renewal reward process to characterize it. Hard failure occurs when the damage of the shock process exceeds the strength threshold of the system. By using the belief reliability metric, the reliability of the degraded system is defined as the chance measure that neither soft failure nor hard failure occurs. And the effect of the degradation-shock dependence on the system reliability is performed by the parametric studies. Then the proposed degradation model is introduced into the preventive maintenance strategy to minimize the average maintenance cost. Using the microelectromechanical systems as an example, the effectiveness of the constructed degradation model and maintenance strategy is illustrated, and the proposed model can characterize the system degradation process in a superior way to the stochastic process model. These methods can be applied to other similar degraded systems and provide support for maintenance decisions.     

A co-located partitions strategy for parallel CFD–DEM couplings

In this work, a new partition-collocation strategy for the parallel execution of CFD–DEM couplings is investigated. Having a good parallel performance is a key issue for an Eulerian-Lagrangian software that aims to be applied to solve industrially significant problems, as the computational cost of these couplings is one of their main drawback. The approach presented here consists in co-locating the overlapping parts of the simulation domain of each software on the same MPI process, in order to reduce the cost of the data exchanges. It is shown how this strategy allows reducing memory consumption and inter-process communication between CFD and DEM to a minimum and therefore to overcome an important parallelization bottleneck identified in the literature. Four benchmarks are proposed to assess the consistency and scalability of this approach. A coupled execution on 280 cores shows that less than 0.1% of the time is used to perform inter-physics data exchange.     

Efficient parallel algorithms for elastic–plastic finite element analysis

This paper presents our new development of parallel finite element algorithms for elastic–plastic problems. The proposed method is based on dividing the original structure under consideration into a number of substructures which are treated as isolated finite element models via the interface conditions. Throughout the analysis, each processor stores only the information relevant to its substructure and generates the local stiffness matrix. A parallel substructure oriented preconditioned conjugate gradient method, which is combined with MR smoothing and diagonal storage scheme are employed to solve linear systems of equations. After having obtained the displacements of the problem under consideration, a substepping scheme is used to integrate elastic–plastic stress–strain relations. The procedure outlined controls the error of the computed stress by choosing each substep size automatically according to a prescribed tolerance. The combination of these algorithms shows a good speedup when increasing the number of processors and the effective solution of 3D elastic–plastic problems whose size is much too large for a single workstation becomes possible.     

A hybrid Jaya algorithm for reliability–redundancy allocation problems

This article proposes an efficient improved hybrid Jaya algorithm based on time-varying acceleration coefficients (TVACs) and the learning phase introduced in teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO), named the LJaya-TVAC algorithm, for solving various types of nonlinear mixed-integer reliability–redundancy allocation problems (RRAPs) and standard real-parameter test functions. RRAPs include series, series–parallel, complex (bridge) and overspeed protection systems. The search power of the proposed LJaya-TVAC algorithm for finding the optimal solutions is first tested on the standard real-parameter unimodal and multi-modal functions with dimensions of 30–100, and then tested on various types of nonlinear mixed-integer RRAPs. The results are compared with the original Jaya algorithm and the best results reported in the recent literature. The optimal results obtained with the proposed LJaya-TVAC algorithm provide evidence for its better and acceptable optimization performance compared to the original Jaya algorithm and other reported optimal results.     

Local Gibbs–Markov–Young structures for non-invertible systems

We study non-uniformly expanding systems on a compact Riemannian manifold admitting critical sets. Under some general conditions, we construct a Gibbs–Markov–Young structure on a disk whose centre's preimages are dense in the manifold. The result has the following application: in a previous study, the authors showed that the decay of correlations implies the existence of tower structure whose return time decays at the same rate. However, for technical reasons, they have to assume that the density function for the absolutely continuous measure is bounded away from 0. Now we remove this constraint and provide the arguments for the more general results.     

Organic host–guest systems for blue emission

The photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs) and lifetimes of the 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) blue emitter and of the acceptor–donor system, DPH and p-terphenyl (P3), are investigated embedded in the nanochannels of a perhydrotriphenylene (PHTP) matrix. In the co-inclusion system, light emission takes place from DPH, due to the efficient resonant energy transfer (RET) from the P3 donor molecules. The host matrix stabilizes the guest molecules against photooxidation degradation. The largest quantum yield, up to 100%, has been found in the co-inclusion compound (IC), where excitations are localized at the emissive acceptor sites.     

Human factors methods for early evaluation of control room systems – guidelines for use in practice

Formative human factors (HF) evaluation is an important activity in control room design. Its purpose is to provide design feedback in the development process, preferably early so as to lower the risk of late and sub-optimal design changes. Early evaluation requires assessment of higher level design decisions due to the gradual specificity of design decisions made as the development process progresses. There is also a need to further develop HF methods that are applicable in practice. The purpose of this article is to seek understanding of, and base guidelines on, the practical use of HF methods for formative assessment of higher level design decisions in control rooms. Evaluations in three development projects at a Swedish nuclear power plant were studied, identifying 18 method guidelines. The guidelines related to: 1) the method’s ability to define, adapt, focus and balance; 2) execution of the evaluation workshops; 3) the communicative purpose of the evaluation activity. Comparing the identified guidelines with literature showed similarities, but also highlighted unique guidelines. The compiled results can be used to further develop methods for early formative evaluation of control rooms in practice.     

PVD thermal barrier coating systems for Mo–Si–B alloys

Abstract

Oxidation protective layers with chemical compositions of Mo–70Al, Mo–46Si–24B, Mo–37Si–15B and Mo–47Si–24Al (at.-%) were deposited on Mo–9Si–8B specimens by magnetron sputtering. After pre-oxidation of the coated samples, ceramic topcoats of yttria partially stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and gadolinium zirconate (GZO) were applied using electron-beam physical vapour deposition. Both as-deposited YSZ and GZO topcoats exhibited good adhesion to the pre-oxidised bond coats. The different thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems were exposed to air at 1000 °C for periods between 20 and 100 h. The YSZ topcoat was tightly-adherent to the borosilicate scale grown on the Mo–46Si–24B bond coat after 20 h of exposure. Similar results were obtained for GZO topcoats deposited on Mo–46Si–24B and Mo–37Si–15B bond coats. The TBC system consisting of GZO topcoat and Mo–47Si–24Al bond coat, which formed a mixed scale of silica and mullite-like oxides, survived 100 h at 1000 °C. However, after this exposure time, the bond coats were approaching their lifetime due to the low layer thickness (5–10 μm). Oxidation of the Mo–Si–B substrate at unprotected areas around the suspension hole of the samples caused severe deterioration of the Mo–70Al bond coat and substantial degradation of the outer region of the GZO topcoat due to chemical reactions with MoO₃.     

Experimental evaluation of new chitin–chitosan graft for duraplasty

Natural materials such as collagen and alginate have promising applications as dural graft substitutes. These materials are able to restore the dural defect and create optimal conditions for the development of connective tissue at the site of injury. A promising material for biomedical applications is chitosan—a linear polysaccharide obtained by the deacetylation of chitin. It has been found to be nontoxic, biodegradable, biofunctional and biocompatible in addition to having antimicrobial characteristics. In this study we designed new chitin–chitosan substitutes for dura mater closure and evaluated their effectiveness and safety. Chitosan films were produced from 3 % of chitosan (molar mass—200, 500 or 700?kDa, deacetylation rate 80–90%) with addition of 20% of chitin. Antimicrobial effictively and cell viability were analysed for the different molar masses of chitosan. The film containing chitosan of molar mass 200?kDa, had the best antimicrobial and biological activity and was successfully used for experimental duraplasty in an in vivo model. In conclusion the chitin–chitosan membrane designed here met the requirements for a dura matter graft exhibiting the ability to support cell growth, inhibit microbial growth and biodegradade at an appropriate rate. Therefore this is a promising material for clinical duroplasty.     

Unified structural–procedural approach for designing integrated manufacturing systems

A manufacturing system consists of a structure and distributed working procedures that include operating parameters. A new approach named unified structural–procedural approach (USPA) for designing the integrated structure and the distributed but integrated working procedures of a manufacturing system is included in this paper. The designed structure and working procedures bring about the efficiency desired by the target market on the ordered products even when the desired efficiency is turbulent. Here, the USPA approach is applied to redesign a real apparel factory. The USPA includes identification of the target market requirements, conception of the target manufacturing system, design of the system structure and working procedures. Conception of the target manufacturing system is done using pseudo-neural networks that exploit the improvements introduced by the higher performing firms throughout the industry. Design of the system structure is done using simulation models that bring forth building structural improvements whose implementation investments equate the saved inefficiency costs because the system structure is improved. The distributed working procedures are specified using flowcharts that include integrated values of the procedural parameters. The nature of these parameters are identified from available non-integrated operations management models and their integrated values obtained by using simulation models that evaluate their joint effect on product efficiency.     

An approach for the aging process optimization of Al–Zn–Mg–Cu series alloys

A new model based on least square support vector machines (LSSVM) and capable of forecasting mechanical and electrical properties of Al–Zn–Mg–Cu series alloys has been proposed for the first time. Data mining and artificial intelligence techniques of aluminum alloys are used to examine the forecasting capability of the model. In order to improve predictive accuracy and generalization ability of LSSVM model, a grid algorithm and cross-validation technique has been adopted to determine the optimal hyper-parameters of LSSVM automatically. The forecasting performance of the LSSVM model and the artificial neural network (ANN) has been compared with the experimental values. The result shows that the LSSVM model provides slightly better capability of generalized prediction compared to back propagation network (BPN) in combination with the gradient descent training algorithm. Considering its advantages of the computation speed, unique optimal solution, and generalization performance, the LSSVM model is therefore considered to be used as an alternative powerful modeling tool for the aging process optimization of aluminum alloys. Furthermore, a novel methodology hybridizing nondominated sorting-based multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and LSSVM has been proposed to make tradeoffs between the mechanical and electrical properties. A desirable nondominated solution set has been obtained and reported.     

A method for identifying customer orientations and requirements for product–service systems design

For manufacturers, developing product–service systems (PSSs) is getting more important because of the trends of servitisation and creating social value. A PSS is a social system where multiple actors mutually provide products and services. A PSS design, therefore, must take into account various actors as customers. However, existing methods provide an insufficient solution as to how various customers should be handled in an analysis to identify and accommodate various customer preferences and requirements. To tackle this issue, this article proposes a new method of identifying customers’ orientations and requirements for PSS design. The proposed method employs a combination of topic analysis, persona and scenario approaches. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated with its application to an urban development case. Through the demonstration, its practical benefits are concluded as follows: consistent and logical results of requirement analysis and insights into a new market for manufacturers.     

A parallel iterative partitioned coupling analysis system for large-scale acoustic fluid–structure interactions

In many engineering fields, dynamic response in fluid–structure interaction (FSI) is important, and some of the FSI phenomena are treated as acoustic FSI (AFSI) problems. Dynamic interactions between fluids and structures may change dynamic characteristics of the structure and its response to external excitation parameters such as seismic loading. This paper describes a parallel coupling analysis system for large-scale AFSI problems using iterative partitioned coupling techniques. We employ an open source parallel finite element analysis system called ADVENTURE, which adopts an efficient preconditioned iterative linear algebraic solver. In addition, we have recently developed a parallel coupling tool called ADVENTURE_Coupler to efficiently handle interface variables in various parallel computing environments. We also employ the Broyden method for updating interface variables to attain robust and fast convergence of fixed-point iterations. This paper describes key features of the coupling analysis system developed, and we perform tests to validate its performance for several AFSI problems. The system runs efficiently in a parallel environment, and it is capable of analyzing three-dimensional-complex-shaped structures with more than 20 million degrees-of-freedom (DOFs). Its numerical results also show good agreement with experimental results.     

Theoretical evaluation of equilibrium partition coefficients of solute elements in Fe–C–base quaternary and muIticomponent systems

Abstract

The coefficients of equilibrium partition of solute elements between austenite and liquid iron were evaluated thermodynamically for Fe–C–base quaternary systems. The validity of the calculation was examined in comparison with the measured coefficients of solute elements in some quaternary systems. The equilibrium partition coefficient of the third element i in an Fe–C–base quaternary system is affected by two factors: the effects of the fourth element j on the interaction between carbon and the third element and the interaction between the third and fourth elements. Most of the combinations of the third and fourth elements in Fe–C–i–j quaternary systems showed a relatively small interaction between the elements i and j except the combination of chromium and titanium, which exhibited an explicit influence of titanium on the partition coefficient of chromium. It was concluded that the partition coefficients in Fe–C–base multicomponent systems differed little from those in Fe–C–base ternary systems, with a few exceptions.

MST/220     

Modified drum–buffer–rope scheduling mechanism for a non-identical parallel machine flow shop with processing-time variation

The drum–buffer–rope (DBR) is a scheduling mechanism under the Theory of Constraints (TOC) philosophy. In DBR, ‘drum’ is a production schedule on the capacity-constrained resources (CCRs), which controls the speed of production for the whole system; ‘rope’ is a mechanism to release the required material to the CCRs; and ‘buffer’ is used to protect the CCRs from starvation due to statistical fluctuations. For a non-identical parallel machine flow-shop environment, estimating an efficient rope and time buffer for DBR implementation is not an easy task because of the complexity of non-identical parallel machine loading. This paper proposes a new scheduling method, which is called the modified DBR (MOD-DBR). It applies a backward finite capacity scheduling technique, including machine loadings and detail scheduling, instead of the rope mechanism in DBR. The scheduling performances of MOD-DBR are evaluated under variable processing time situations. The experimental results indicate that the MOD-DBR without a time buffer outperformed the DBR with a considerable level of buffer on the average flow time, while they have the same performance on tardiness, constraint resource utilization, and throughput.     

Partitioning and interpolation based hybrid ARIMA–ANN model for time series forecasting

Time series data (TSD) originating from different applications have dissimilar characteristics. Hence for prediction of TSD, diversified varieties of prediction models exist. In many applications, hybrid models provide more accurate predictions than individual models. One such hybrid model, namely auto regressive integrated moving average – artificial neural network (ARIMA–ANN) is devised in many different ways in the literature. However, the prediction accuracy of hybrid ARIMA–ANN model can be further improved by devising suitable processing techniques. In this paper, a hybrid ARIMA–ANN model is proposed, which combines the concepts of the recently developed moving average (MA) filter based hybrid ARIMA–ANN model, with a processing technique involving a partitioning–interpolation (PI) step. The improved prediction accuracy of the proposed PI based hybrid ARIMA–ANN model is justified using a simulation experiment. Further, on different experimental TSD like sunspots TSD and electricity price TSD, the proposed hybrid model is applied along with four existing state-of-the-art models and it is found that the proposed model outperforms all the others, and hence is a promising model for TSD prediction.