Inertial migration of single particle in a square microchannel over wide ranges of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Re</Emphasis> and particle sizes

Inertial migration of particles has been widely used in inertial microfluidic systems to passively manipulate cells/particles. However, the migration behaviors and the underlying mechanisms, especially in a square microchannel, are still not very clear. In this paper, the immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM) was introduced and validated to explore the migration characteristics and the underlying mechanisms of an inertial focusing single particle in a square microchannel. The grid-independence analysis was made first to highlight that the grid number across the thin liquid film (between a particle and its neighboring channel wall) was of significant importance in accurately capturing the migrating particle’s dynamics. Then, the inertial migration of a single particle was numerically investigated over wide ranges of Reynolds number (Re, from 10 to 500) and particle sizes (diameter-to-height ratio a/H, from 0.16 to 0.5). It was interesting to find that as Re increased, the channel face equilibrium (CFE) position moved outward to channel walls at first, and then inflected inwards to the channel center at high Re (Re?>?200). To account for the physical mechanisms behind this behavior, the secondary flow induced by the inertial focusing single particle was further investigated. It was found that as Re increased, two vortices appeared around the particle and grew gradually, which pushed the particle away from the channel wall at high Re. Finally, a correlation was proposed based on the numerical data to predict the critical length L_c (defined to describe the size of fluid domain that was strongly influenced by the particle) according to the particle size a/H and Re.     

Social influence determination on big data streams in an online social network

Social networks have become a good place to promote products and also to campaign for causes. Maximizing the spread of information in an online social network at a least cost has attracted the attention of publicist’s. In general, influence user ranking methods are derived either by a network’s topological features or by user features but not both. Existing Influence Maximization Problem (IMP) operates as a modification of greedy algorithms that cannot scale streaming data. Which are time consuming and cannot handle large networks because it requires heavy Monte-Carlo simulation. This is also an NP hard problem in both linear threshold and independent cascade models. Our proposed work aims to address IMP through a Rank-based sampling approach in the Map-Reduce environment. This novel technique combines user and topological features of the network enabling it to handle real-time streaming data. Our experiment of influenced rank-based sampling approach to influence maximization is compared to the greedy approach with and without sampling that exhibits an accuracy of 82%. Performance analysis in terms of running time is reduced from O(n ³) to O(k n). Where ‘k’ is the size of the sample dataset and ‘n’ is the number of user’s.     

An Improved Extended Active Observer for Adaptive Control of A <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">−</Emphasis>DOF Robot Manipulator

A novel algorithm for simultaneous force estimation and friction compensation of constrained motion of robot manipulators is presented. This represents an extension of the improved extended active observer (IEAOB) algorithm reported earlier and proposes a higher order IEAOB or N?th order IEAOB (IEAOB ?N) for a n?DOF robot manipulator. Central to this observer is the use of extra system states modeled as a Gauss-Markov (GM) formulation to estimate the force and disturbances including robot inertial parameters and friction. The stability of IEAOB ?N is verified through stability analysis. The IEAOB-1 is validated by applying it to a Phantom Omni haptic device against a Nicosia observer, disturbance observer (DOB)/reaction torque observer (RTOB), and nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO), respectively. The results show that the proposed IEAOB-1 is superior to the compared observers in terms of force estimation. Then, the performance of the IEAOB ? N is experimentally studied and compared to the IEAOB-1. Results demonstrate that the IEAOB ? N has an improved capability in tracking nonlinear external forces.     

Dynamic Modeling and Experimental Validation of a 3-PRR Parallel Manipulator with Flexible Intermediate Links

This paper presents the development of structural dynamic equations of motion for a 3-PRR parallel manipulator with three flexible intermediate links, based on the assumed mode method. Lagrange’s equation is used to derive the dynamic model of the manipulator system. Flexible intermediate links are modeled as Euler–Bernoulli beams with pinned–pinned boundary conditions. Dynamic equations of motion of a 3-PRR parallel manipulator with three flexible links are developed by adopting the assumed mode method. The effect of concentrated rotational inertia at both ends of intermediate links is included in this model. Numerical simulations of vibration responses, coupling forces and inertial forces are presented. The corresponding frequency spectra analysis is performed using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Experimental modal tests are performed to validate the theoretical model through comparison and analysis of modal characteristics of the flexible manipulator system.     

Formation of inverse Chladni patterns in liquids at microscale: roles of acoustic radiation and streaming-induced drag forces

While Chladni patterns in air over vibrating plates at macroscale have been well studied, inverse Chladni patterns in water at microscale have recently been reported. The underlying physics for the focusing of microparticles on the vibrating interface, however, is still unclear. In this paper, we present a quantitative three-dimensional study on the acoustophoretic motion of microparticles on a clamped vibrating circular plate in contact with water with emphasis on the roles of acoustic radiation and streaming-induced drag forces. The numerical simulations show good comparisons with experimental observations and basic theory. While we provide clear demonstrations of three-dimensional particle size-dependent microparticle trajectories in vibrating plate systems, we show that acoustic radiation forces are crucial for the formation of inverse Chladni patterns in liquids on both out-of-plane and in-plane microparticle movements. For out-of-plane microparticle acoustophoresis, out-of-plane acoustic radiation forces are the main driving force in the near-field, which prevent out-of-plane acoustic streaming vortices from dragging particles away from the vibrating interface. For in-plane acoustophoresis on the vibrating interface, acoustic streaming is not the only mechanism that carries microparticles to the vibrating antinodes forming inverse Chladni patterns: In-plane acoustic radiation forces could have a greater contribution. To facilitate the design of lab-on-a-chip devices for a wide range of applications, the effects of many key parameters, including the plate radius R and thickness h and the fluid viscosity μ, on the microparticle acoustophoresis are discussed, which show that the threshold in-plane and out-of-plane particle sizes balanced from the acoustic radiation and streaming-induced drag forces scale linearly with R and \(\sqrt \mu\), but inversely with \(\sqrt h\).     

Corotational mixed finite element formulation for thin-walled beams with generic cross-section

The corotational technique is adopted here for the analysis of three-dimensional beams. The technique exploits the technology that applies to a two-noded element, a coordinate system which continuously translates and rotates with the element. In this way, the rigid body motion is separated out from the deformational motion. In this paper, a mixed formulation are adopted for the derivation of the local element tangent stiffness matrix and nodal forces. The mixed finite element formulation is based on an incremental form of the two-field Hellinger–Reissner variational principle to permit elasto-plastic material behavior. The local beam kinematics is based on a low-order nonlinear strain expression using Bernoulli assumption. The present formulation captures both the Saint–Venant and warping torsional effects of thin-walled open cross-sections. Shape functions that satisfy the nonlinear local equilibrium equations are selected for the interpolation of the stress resultants. In particular, for the torsional forces and the twist rotation degree of freedom, a family of hyperbolic interpolation functions is adopted in lieu of conventional polynomials. Governing equations are expressed in a weak form, and the constitutive equations are enforced at each integration cross-section along the element length. A consistent state determination algorithm is proposed. This local element, together with the corotational framework, can be used to analyze the nonlinear buckling and postbuckling of thin-walled beams with generic cross-section. The present corotational mixed element solution is compared against the results obtained from a corotational displacement-based model having the same beam kinematics and corotational framework. The superiority of the mixed formulation is clearly demonstrated.     

Inertial motion tracking using sensor saturation compensation with <Emphasis Type="Italic">l</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript> norm regularization

A smoother is proposed for inertial sensor-based motion tracking, where the sensor saturation is compensated. The sensor saturation estimation term is added using l ₁ norm regularization techniques to the standard smoothing problem. The proposed algorithm is in the form of a quadratic optimization problem. Three slightly different methods are proposed, where the geometric models on sensor saturation are slightly different. Through simulation and experiments, it is shown that the proposed method effectively compensates the sensor saturation.     

Torsional vibrations of composite bars of variable cross-section by BEM

In this paper a boundary element method is developed for the nonuniform torsional vibration problem of doubly symmetric composite bars of arbitrary variable cross-section. The composite bar consists of materials in contact, each of which can surround a finite number of inclusions. The materials have different elasticity and shear moduli and are firmly bonded together. The beam is subjected to an arbitrarily distributed dynamic twisting moment, while its edges are restrained by the most general linear torsional boundary conditions. A distributed mass model system is employed which leads to the formulation of three boundary value problems with respect to the variable along the beam angle of twist and to the primary and secondary warping functions. These problems are solved employing a pure BEM approach that is only boundary discretization is used. Both free and forced torsional vibrations are considered and numerical examples are presented to illustrate the method and demonstrate its efficiency and wherever possible its accuracy. The discrepancy in the analysis of a thin-walled cross-section composite beam employing the BEM after calculating the torsion and warping constants adopting the thin tube theory demonstrates the importance of the proposed procedure even in thin-walled beams, since it approximates better the torsion and warping constants and takes also into account the warping of the walls of the cross-section.     

A nonlinear Hu–Washizu variational formulation and related finite-element implementation for spatial beams with arbitrary moderate thick cross-sections

A nonlinear three-dimensional finite beam element based on a Hu–Washizu variational formulation is presented. In addition to the standard beam strains, based on kinematic assumptions, further deformation modes are introduced. These additional modes allow for (a) the consideration of a complete three-dimensional stress field, providing an interface for arbitrary three-dimensional material models, and (b) the consideration of cross-section warping, whose shape might shift during the elastic or inelastic deformation. Beside the fact that the resulting finite element formulation is locking free (full Gauss integration in length direction) and remarkable robustness (even for very large load steps), these additional degrees of freedom do not increase the total number of global unknowns of a beam structure. Each element node exhibits the common 3 translational and 3 rotational degrees of freedom. The additional degrees of freedom are eliminated on element level via static condensation. As a consequence, e.g. a bi-moment can not be applied at a free end. This restricts the applicability of the formulation to a class of problems where the influence of the bi-moment is negligible. It is shown that global acting polynomial ansatz functions are not suitable to describe warping of cross-sections with an arbitrary shape. For this reason a new concept based on local ansatz functions is presented. The general criteria to design the warping ansatz functions are discussed in detail. Several examples with moderate thick cross-sections are investigated.     

On generalized Melvin’s solutions for Lie algebras of rank 2

We consider a class of solutions in multidimensional gravity which generalize Melvin’s well-known cylindrically symmetric solution, originally describing the gravitational field of a magnetic flux tube. The solutions considered contain the metric, two Abelian 2-forms and two scalar fields, and are governed by two moduli functions H₁(z) and H₂(z) (z = ρ², ρ is a radial coordinate) which have a polynomial structure and obey two differential (Toda-like) master equations with certain boundary conditions. These equations are governed by a certain matrix A which is a Cartan matrix for some Lie algebra. The models for rank-2 Lie algebras A₂, C₂ and G₂ are considered. We study a number of physical and geometric properties of these models. In particular, duality identities are proved, which reveal a certain behavior of the solutions under the transformation ρ → 1/ρ; asymptotic relations for the solutions at large distances are obtained; 2-form flux integrals over 2-dimensional regions and the corresponding Wilson loop factors are calculated, and their convergence is demonstrated. These properties make the solutions potentially applicable in the context of some dual holographic models. The duality identities can also be understood in terms of the Z₂ symmetry on vertices of the Dynkin diagram for the corresponding Lie algebra.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">κ</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">PMP</Emphasis>: Enhancing Physics-based Motion Planners with Knowledge-Based Reasoning

Physics-based motion planning is a challenging task, since it requires the computation of the robot motions while allowing possible interactions with (some of) the obstacles in the environment. Kinodynamic motion planners equipped with a dynamic engine acting as state propagator are usually used for that purpose. The difficulties arise in the setting of the adequate forces for the interactions and because these interactions may change the pose of the manipulatable obstacles, thus either facilitating or preventing the finding of a solution path. The use of knowledge can alleviate the stated difficulties. This paper proposes the use of an enhanced state propagator composed of a dynamic engine and a low-level geometric reasoning process that is used to determine how to interact with the objects, i.e. from where and with which forces. The proposal, called κ-PMP can be used with any kinodynamic planner, thus giving rise to e.g. κ-RRT. The approach also includes a preprocessing step that infers from a semantic abstract knowledge described in terms of an ontology the manipulation knowledge required by the reasoning process. The proposed approach has been validated with several examples involving an holonomic mobile robot, a robot with differential constraints and a serial manipulator, and benchmarked using several state-of-the art kinodynamic planners. The results showed a significant difference in the power consumption with respect to simple physics-based planning, an improvement in the success rate and in the quality of the solution paths.     

Polynomial algorithm for exact calculation of partition function for binary spin model on planar graphs

In this paper we propose and realize an algorithm for exact calculation of partition function for planar graph models with binary variables. The complexity of the algorithm is O(N ²) Experiments show good agreement with Onsager’s analytical solution for the two-dimensional Ising model of infinite size.     

Filtration of aerosol particles by cylindrical fibers within a parallel and staggered array

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013 reported that more than seven million unexpected losses every year are credited to air contamination. Because of incredible adaptability and expense viability of fibrous filters, they are broadly used for removing particulates from gasses. The influence of appropriate parameters, e.g., the fiber arrangement, solid volume fraction (SVF or α), fluid flow face velocity (mean inlet velocity), and filter thickness (I _x ), on pressure drop and deposition efficiency are researched. Furthermore, to study the effects of variation of the laminar flow regime and fiber’s cross-sectional shape on the deposition of particles, only a single square fiber has been placed in a channel. By means of finite volume method (FVM), the 2-D motion of 100–1000 nm particles was investigated numerically. The Lagrangian method has been employed and the Saffman’s lift, Drag, and Brownian forces have been considered to affect this motion. Contribution of increasing the Reynolds number to filtration performance increased with smaller fine aerosols to a level of 59.72 %. However, for over 500 nm, the Re = 100 has more efficient results up to 26.97 %. Remarkably, the single square fiber in Re = 200 regime performs similarly to the optimum choice of multi-fibrous filters. It was portrayed the parallel circular multi-fibrous filter with a ratio of horizontal-to-vertical distances between fibers, l/h = 1.143; α = 0.687, I _x  = 116.572, and h/d _f  = 1.0 is the most efficient filter’s structure. The increase in the ratio of vertical distances between fibers-to-fiber’s diameter (h/d _f ) and decrease in SVF or α, results in a drastically decrement of the filtration performance of both parallel and staggered structures. The obtained results have been validated with previous research findings.     

Motion planning and control of robotic manipulators on seaborne platforms

Robots on ships have to endure large inertial forces due to the non-inertial motion of the ship. The ship motion affects both the motion planning and control of the manipulator, and accurate predictions can improve performance substantially. It is thus important to investigate to what extent it is possible to predict the future motion of a ship. Based on these predictions, this paper presents a new approach to motion planning and control of such manipulators. It is shown that the effects of the non-inertial forces can be eliminated—in fact, the robot can even leverage the inertial forces to improve performance compared to robots on a fixed base. In particular it is shown that by including the inertial forces in the motion planning the wear and tear on the robot due to these forces can be reduced substantially. To perform realistic experiments a 9-DoF robot is used. The first five joints are used to generate the real ship motion, and the last four joints are used for motion planning. The dynamic coupling between the first five and the last four joints is thus exactly the same as the dynamic coupling between a ship and a manipulator, which allows for very realistic experiments.     

(1+4)-dimensional spherically symmetric black holes in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>)

New non-vacuum spherically symmetric solutions in (1+4)-dimensional space-time are derived using the field equations of f(T) theory, where T is the torsion scalar defined as \(T\mathop = \limits^{def} {T^\mu }_{\nu \rho }S_\mu ^{\nu \rho }\). The energy density, radial and transversal pressures in these solutions are shown to satisfy the energy conditions. Other interesting solutions are obtained under the constraint of vanishing radial pressure for different choices of f(T). Impositions are provided to reproduce the (1+4)-dimensional AdS-Schwarzschild solution. In the quadratic case, i.e., f(T) ∝ T ², other impositions are derived and have shown to satisfy the non-diagonal components of the field equations of f(T) theory. The physics relevant to the resulting models is discussed.     

Consensus gain conditions of stochastic multi-agent system with communication noise

This paper investigates the consensus gain conditions of the stochastic multi-agent system (SMAS) with communication noise. A new consensus stability condition of the SMAS is given when the consensus gain function c(t) does not satisfy the robustness condition of the consensus stability. Next we broaden the condition that the consensus-gain function c(t) always must be positive, and obtain the sufficient condition of the SMAS’s consensus stability when the consensus-gain function c(t)) is a negative constant. Finally, two simulation examples are given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed results.     

Hand gesture recognition using Leap Motion via deterministic learning

With the development of multimedia technology, traditional interactive tools, such as mouse and keyboard, cannot satisfy users’ requirements. Touchless interaction has received considerable attention in recent years with benefit of removing barriers of physical contact. Leap Motion is an interactive device which can be used to collect information of dynamic hand gestures, including coordinate, acceleration and direction of fingers. The aim of this study is to develop a new method for hand gesture recognition using jointly calibrated Leap Motion via deterministic learning. Hand gesture features representing hand motion dynamics, including spatial position and direction of fingers, are derived from Leap Motion. Hand motion dynamics underlying motion patterns of different gestures which represent Arabic numbers (0-9) and capital English alphabets (A-Z) are modeled by constant radial basis function (RBF) neural networks. Then, a bank of estimators is constructed by the constant RBF networks. By comparing the set of estimators with a test gesture pattern, a set of recognition errors are generated. The average L₁ norms of the errors are taken as the recognition measure according to the smallest error principle. Finally, experiments are carried out to demonstrate the high recognition performance of the proposed method. By using the 2-fold, 10-fold and leave-one-person-out cross-validation styles, the correct recognition rates for the Arabic numbers are reported to be 94.2%, 95.1% and 90.2%, respectively, for the English alphabets are reported to be 89.2%, 92.9% and 86.4%, respectively.     

Transit cosmological models with domain walls in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R,T</Emphasis>) gravity

We study the physical behavior of the transition of a 5D perfect fluid universe from an early decelerating phase to the current accelerating phase in the framework of f(R, T) theory of gravity in the presence of domain walls. The fifth dimension is not observed because it is compact. To determine the solution of the field equations, we use the concept of a time-dependent deceleration parameter which yields the scale factor a(t) = sinh^1/n(αt), where n and α are positive constants. For 0 < n ≤ 1, this generates a class of accelerating models, while for n > 1 the universe attains a phase transition from an early decelerating phase to the present accelerating phase, consistent with the recent observations. Some physical and geometric properties of the models are also discussed.     

Exact dynamic stiffness matrix of non-symmetric thin-walled beams on elastic foundation using power series method

Exact dynamic element stiffness matrix for the flexural–torsional free vibration analysis of the shear deformable thin-walled beam with non-symmetric cross-section on two-types of elastic foundation is newly presented using power series method based on the technical computing program Mathematica. For this, the shear deformable beam on elastic foundation theory is developed by introducing Vlasov's assumption and applying Hellinger–Reissner principle. This beam includes the shear deformation effects due to the shear forces and the restrained warping torsion and due to the coupled effects between them, and rotary inertia effects and the flexural–torsional coupling effects due to the non-symmetric cross-sections. And then equations of motion and force–deformation relations are derived from the energy principle and explicit expressions for displacement parameters are derived based on power series expansions of displacement components and the exact dynamic element stiffness matrix is determined using force–deformation relationships. In order to verify the accuracy of this study, the numerical solutions are presented and compared with the analytical solutions and the finite element solutions using the isoparametric beam elements. Particularly the influences of the coupled shear deformation on the vibrational behavior of non-symmetric beam on elastic foundation are investigated.     

Aggregate location recommendation in dynamic transportation networks

Travel planning and location recommendation are increasingly important in recent years. In this light, we propose and study a novel aggregate location recommendation query (ALRQ) of discovering aggregate locations for multiple travelers and planning the corresponding travel routes in dynamic transportation networks. Assuming the scenario that multiple travelers target the same destination, given a set of travelers’ locations Q, a set of potential aggregate location O, and a departure time t, the ALRQ finds an aggregate location o ∈ O that has the minimum global travel time \({\sum }_{q \in Q} T(q,o,t)\), where T(q,o,t) is the travel time between o and q with departure time t. The ALRQ problem is challenging due to three reasons: (1) how to model the dynamic transportation networks practically, and (2) how to compute ALRQ efficiently. We take two types of dynamic transportation networks into account, and we define a pair of upper and lower bounds to prune the search space effectively. Moreover, a heuristic scheduling strategy is adopted to schedule multiple query sources. Finally, we conducted extensive experiments on real and synthetic spatial data to verify the performance of the developed algorithms.