Numerical limit analysis of perforated plates

Full limit analysis is preseted of a thin plate under plane stress, perforated with circular holes arranged in a regular penetration pattern. The material is assumed to be elastic–perfectly plastic and to obey the Huber–Mises yield condition together with its associated flow law. The finite element tangential stiffness method is employed. Triangular constant-strain elements are used, the load being generated by means of constant edge displacements at the periphery of a suitably selected subregion. Load-displacement diagrams are obtained for various edge displacement programs and then an interaction curve is constructed for the perforated plate considered. Each computational step is associated with a certain plastic zone which develops until the limit state configuration is reached. The plate is provided with equilateral triangular configuration of holes with arbitrary cutout coefficients. The interaction curves are plotted against the Huber–Mises yield condition for the plate without openings.     

Dielectric properties of /Agl-xKx/NbO3 solid solutions

The possibility of the occurrence of critical point in /Ag_l-xK_x/NbO₃ solid solutions is discussed.     

Physiologically based modeling of 3-D vascular networks and CT scan angiography

In this paper, a model-based approach to medical image analysis is presented. It is aimed at understanding the influence of the physiological (related to tissue) and physical (related to image modality) processes underlying the image content. This methodology is exemplified by modeling first, the liver and its vascular network, and second, the standard computed tomography (CT) scan acquisition. After a brief survey on vascular modeling literature, a new method, aimed at the generation of growing three-dimensional vascular structures perfusing the tissue, is described. A solution is proposed in order to avoid intersections among vessels belonging to arterial and/or venous trees, which are physiologically connected. Then it is shown how the propagation of contrast material leads to simulate time-dependent sequences of enhanced liver CT slices.     

Optimization of evaporative fluid coolersOptimisation des refroidisseurs de liquide évaporatifs

In the paper the optimization of geometrical and operating parameters for evaporative fluid coolers has been presented. The algorithm of optimizational calculations contains:

• the mathematical model of heat and mass transfer in evaporative fluid coolers;

• model of operating costs based, among others, on the Zalewski–Gryglaszewski relations developed by the authors for evaluation of air pressure drops in the heat exchanger;

• model of evaporative heat exchangers production costs.

Optimization problem formulated for non-linear objective functions with inequality and equality constraints has been solved using Schittkowski's method based on quadratic programming. Two optimization problems have been considered. A solution to the first problem consists in the design of a heat exchanger with such geometrical parameters which ensure its maximum heat capacity at minimal total costs. A result to the second optimization problem are such thermal and flow parameters which will ensure minimum operating costs.The results of optimization calculations presented in the paper are accompanied by their experimental verification.     

The complexity of mean flow time scheduling problems with release times

We study the problem of preemptive scheduling of n} jobs with given release times on m identical parallel machines. The objective is to minimize the average flow time. In this paper, show that when all jobs have equal processing times then the problem can be solved in polynomial time using linear programming. Our algorithm can also be applied to the open-shop problem with release times and unit processing times. For the general case (when processing times are arbitrary), we show that the problem is unary NP-hard. P. Baptiste and C. Dürr: Supported by the NSF/CNRS grant 17171 and ANR/Alpage. P. Brucker: Supported by INTAS Project 00-217 and by DAAD PROCOPE Project D/0427360. M. Chrobak: Supported by NSF grants CCR-0208856 and INT-0340752. S. A. Kravchenko: Supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.     

Byzantine robust trust establishment for mobile ad hoc networks

In a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), the nodes act both as traffic sources and as relays that forward packets from other nodes along multi-hop routes to the destination. Such networks are suited to situations in which a wireless infrastructure is unavailable, infeasible, or prohibitively expensive. However, the lack of a secure, trusted infrastructure in such networks make secure and reliable packet delivery very challenging. A given node acting as a relay may exhibit Byzantine behavior with respect to packet forwarding, i.e., arbitrary, deviant behavior, which disrupts packet transmission in the network. For example, a Byzantine node may arbitrarily choose to drop or misroute a certain percentage of the packets that are passed to it for forwarding to the next hop. In earlier work, we proposed a trust establishment framework, called Hermes, which enables a given node to determine the “trustworthiness” of other nodes with respect to reliable packet delivery by combining first-hand trust information obtained independently of other nodes and second-hand trust information obtained via recommendations from other nodes. A deficiency of the Hermes scheme is that a node can fail to detect certain types of Byzantine behavior, such as packet misforwarding directed at a particular source node. In this paper, we propose new mechanisms to make Hermes robust to Byzantine behavior and introduce a punishment policy that discourages selfish node behavior. We present simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in a variety of scenarios involving Byzantine nodes that are malicious both with respect to packet forwarding and trust propagation.     

Pressure distribution in an assembly of wooden cylinders with various aspect ratios under uniaxial confined compression

Understanding how forces propagate in granular assemblages is important for equipment design and process control in many technologies. Yet, it remains poorly understood. In this study, a cuboidal assembly comprising cylinders of various lengths (aspect ratios AR ranging from 0.9 to 3.6) were subjected to uniaxial confined compression tests. Samples were vertically compressed until the top platen exerted a pressure of 50 kPa on the uppermost particles. This maximum pressure corresponds to the hydrostatic pressure of an approximately 15 m high column of chopped wood that may be encountered in real storage structures. The nonlinear loading curves were obtained depended on the aspect ratios of the cylinders. The modulus of elasticity, calculated from the linear elastic part of the stress–strain curve, monotonically decreased from 10.2 to 8.6 MPa as the aspect ratio increased from 1.2 to 3.6. The elastic modulus and volume fraction exhibited similar trends as functions of the aspect ratio. The horizontal-to-vertical pressure ratio was calculated as the horizontal pressure exerted on the wider walls to the vertical pressure exerted on the top lid during loading–unloading cycles. For ARs up to 3.6, the pressure ratio was approximately 0.31; for the longest cylinders (AR = 3.6), it decreased to approximately 0.27, probably because the assumption of the representative chamber volume was invalidated at this AR.