Topological spines: a structure-preserving visual representation of scalar fields

We present topological spines--a new visual representation that preserves the topological and geometric structure of a scalar field. This representation encodes the spatial relationships of the extrema of a scalar field together with the local volume and nesting structure of the surrounding contours. Unlike other topological representations, such as contour trees, our approach preserves the local geometric structure of the scalar field, including structural cycles that are useful for exposing symmetries in the data. To obtain this representation, we describe a novel mechanism based on the extraction of extremum graphs--sparse subsets of the Morse-Smale complex that retain the important structural information without the clutter and occlusion problems that arise from visualizing the entire complex directly. Extremum graphs form a natural multiresolution structure that allows the user to suppress noise and enhance topological features via the specification of a persistence range. Applications of our approach include the visualization of 3D scalar fields without occlusion artifacts, and the exploratory analysis of high-dimensional functions.     

The impact of false warnings on partial and full lane departure warnings effectiveness and acceptance in car driving

In the past, lane departure warnings (LDWs) were demonstrated to improve driving behaviours during lane departures but little is known about the effects of unreliable warnings. This experiment focused on the influence of false warnings alone or in combination with missed warnings and warning onset on assistance effectiveness and acceptance. Two assistance unreliability levels (33 and 17%) and two warning onsets (partial and full lane departure) were manipulated in order to investigate interaction. Results showed that assistance, regardless unreliability levels and warning onsets, improved driving behaviours during lane departure episodes and outside of these episodes by favouring better lane-keeping performances. Full lane departure and highly unreliable warnings, however, reduced assistance efficiency. Drivers’ assistance acceptance was better for the most reliable warnings and for the subsequent warnings. The data indicate that imperfect LDWs (false warnings or false and missed warnings) further improve driving behaviours compared to no assistance.

Practitioner Summary: This study revealed that imperfect lane departure warnings are able to significantly improve driving performances and that warning onset is a key element for assistance effectiveness and acceptance. The conclusion may be of particular interest for lane departure warning designers.     

3D posture estimation using geodesic distance maps

This paper presents a novel technique for three-dimensional (3D) human motion capture using a set of two non-calibrated cameras. The user’s five extremities (head, hands and feet) are extracted, labeled and tracked after silhouette segmentation. As they are the minimal number of points that can be used in order to enable whole body gestural interaction, we will henceforth refer to these features as crucial points. Features are subsequently labelled using 3D triangulation and inter-image tracking. The crucial point candidates are defined as the local maxima of the geodesic distance with respect to the center of gravity of the actor region that lie on the silhouette boundary. Due to its low computational complexity, the system can run at real-time paces on standard personal computers, with an average error rate range between 4% and 9% in realistic situations, depending on the context and segmentation quality.

Définition théorique des paramètres en fort niveau d’un multipôle actif non linéaire

In this paper, large signal non linear P parameters are rigorously defined, allowing the characterization of non linear active n-port circuits in the frequency domain with the aim of computer aided design of power microwave devices. No a priori conditions bind the parameters to the variables describing the input signal. However the following rules apply to the parameters: they may be function of any input variables of the n-port circuit; the expression of the large-signal parameters should become identical to the expression of the linear parameters characterizing the n-port circuit under linear operating conditions when the values of the input variables tend to zero. An application of the definition to afet is demonstrated.     

AC motor drive systems with a reduced-switch-count converter

This paper presents two reduced-switch-count AC drive systems. One of the configurations was conceived to operate with a two-phase motor and the other one with a three-phase motor. The drive systems provide both bidirectional power flow and power factor control. Pulsewidth modulation techniques for the converter control are discussed. Experimental results are presented.     

TollSim: Simulation and evaluation of toll stations

This work presents a stochastic simulation model and experimentation for a toll system developed for a highly concurred highway toll in Venezuela, followed by a discussion of performance and economic indicators. Although mathematical models for resource problems have been developed, their use is not widespread, particularly in developing countries were toll systems are manually operated. The main objective of TollSim is to start building an infrastructure and infostructure to be used in a decision support system for management of traffic related issues in a technologically excluded region. The model was developed using an object‐oriented approach and implemented in MODSIM‐III, SIMGRAPHICSII and SIMDRAW.     

Damage detection and artificial healing of asphalt concrete after trafficking with a load simulator

Artificial healing of asphalt concrete by induction heating requires the addition of electrically conductive and/or magnetic materials into the asphalt mixture. Hence, bitumen can be heated up by an alternating electromagnetic field, decreasing therefore its viscosity and allowing it to flow for closing cracks and recover bonding among the mineral aggregates.In this work, a recent performance oriented study of this innovative approach to prove the feasibility of the healing concept at large scale is presented. This work was focused on the analysis of 1.8 m long test slabs damaged by the Model Mobile Load Simulator MMLS3. It is known that visible cracks cannot be completely healed by this technique and therefore, recovery of the mechanical performance is not significant. For this reason, inductive heating must be applied not later than the initiation of micro-cracks to allow them to be promptly closed avoiding their propagation.In order to monitor the damage level of a number of the test slabs during the loading phase, a digital image correlation system was used in this work. This optical method allowed us to see the accumulated damage as well as to select the right moment to accomplish the healing process. In addition, this method was useful to confirm that the strength was recovered after a healing process and hence, an increase of life of the asphalt pavement might be obtained. Finally, it was demonstrated that healing by induction heating can be a feasible alternative for maintenance purposes when used before irreversible damage of the pavement.     

Structural design of carbon/epoxy bio‐inspired wind turbine blade using fluid/structure simulation

The purpose of this paper is to present the structural design procedure of a low‐speed, horizontal axis, bio‐inspired wind turbine blade made of carbon/epoxy. The methodology initiates with the mechanical characterization of the carbon fiber composite material. An aerodynamic simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method is performed in order to obtain the pressure distribution profile of the blade. This result is coupled with a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to carry out an iterative design process through a Fluid‐Structure Interaction (FSI) simulation. Different stacking sequences of laminates are evaluated to find a configuration which allows balance between aerodynamic and dynamic inertial loads, ensuring an almost undeformed geometry during wind turbine's operation. The final structural design of the blade consists in six regions with different laminates. These are balanced and symmetric with distinct thickness characteristics and stacking sequences, which vary in three different orientations: 0^°, ± 45^° and 90^°, achieving a minimum deflection at the tip close to 3.11 cm, and a total weight of 3.6 kg of a 1.8 m radius blade, even with the restrictions imposed by the non‐conventional geometry. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New 3D Finite Difference Method for Thermal Contrast Enhancement in Slabs Pulsed Thermography Inspection

The Finite Difference Thermal Contrast (FDTC) is a new technique based on the approximation to the discretization of the Fourier heat propagation model in 3D, in order to be applied on a sequence of infrared images to enhance contrast for automatic detection and characterization of flaws in composite slabs. This contrast enhancement is performed by the calculus of relative error between predicted and real temperature over the heated surface only and for each pixel, in such a way that defective regions will exhibit greater errors than sound ones. Thermal sequences from a simulated Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) slab with air-filled defects, and from a real CFRP slab sample with Teflon squared defects, are used to evaluate and compare the enhancement obtained from FDTC, Normalized Contrast (NC) and Modified Differential Absolute Contrast (m-DAC). In spite of the need of executing an additional background compensation in case of real slabs, results show that the proposed technique offers a better contrast between defects and background than the other techniques (about 33 % less residuary thermal non-uniformity with the adjusted version—FDTCa), mainly because of the more energy of the resulting thermal profiles. Also, as this technique does not estimate the temperature distribution along depth axis, but approximates temperature after a spatial step only, it can run faster than other thermal reconstruction methods like the classic 3D thermal filtering.