A revisit to the design of switched observers for switched linear systems with unknown inputs

This paper revisits the problem of designing switched observers for switched linear systems with unknown inputs. By performing a state and output coordinates transformation that decouples the unknown input, a novel piecewise time-varying Lyapunov function is introduced to analyze the stability of the switched error dynamics. Compared with the existing time-invariant Lyapunov function method, the proposed time-varying Lyapunov function method is more suitable to exploit the structural characteristics of switched linear systems. New conditions are derived that guarantee the exponential stability of the switched error dynamics. These conditions are formulated in term of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). By solving a set of LMIs, the switched observers can be designed. Two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

On-chip fabrication of magnetic alginate hydrogel microfibers by multilayered pneumatic microvalves

Alginate hydrogel has widespread applications in tissue engineering, cancer therapy, wound management and drug/cell/growth factor delivery due to its biocompatibility, hydrated environment and desirable viscoelastic properties. However, the lack of controllability is still an obstacle for utilizing it in the fabrication of 3D tissue constructs and accurate targeting in mass delivery. Here, we proposed a new method for achieving magnetic alginate hydrogel microfibers by dispersing magnetic nanoparticles in alginate solution and solidifying the magnetic alginate into hydrogel fiber inside microfluidic devices. The microfluidic devices have multilayered pneumatic microvalves with hemicylindrical channels to fully stop the fluids. In the experiments, the magnetic nanoparticles and the alginate solution were mixed and formed a uniform suspension. No aggregation of magnetic nanoparticles was found, which is crucial for flow control inside microfluidic devices. By regulating the flow rates of different solutions with the microvalves inside the microfluidic device, magnetic hydrogel fibers and nonmagnetic hydrogel fibers were fabricated with controlled sizes. The proposed method for fabricating magnetic hydrogel fiber holds great potential for engineering 3D tissue constructs with complex architectures and active drug release.     

Multidisciplinary design modeling and optimizationfor satellite with maneuver capability

According to the mission of a satellite with maneuver capability, the collaborative optimization (CO) method was introduced for the satellite system design, and the related multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) model was established. The possessing and needed velocity increments Δv and Δv _{n e e d} were taken as the measurement of maneuvering capability of the studied satellite, which were then combined with total mass of the satellite to form the optimization objective in the systematic level of the MDO problem. The design variables and constraints of the MDO problem dealt with disciplines or subsystems as guidance, navigation and control (GNC), power, and structure, and corresponding engineering analysis models were also built. A program system to solve the MDO problem wasdeveloped by integrating a non-nested CO method, the commercial and user-supplied codes on framework software iSIGHT. The result showed that the satellite performance could be obviously improved, which also indicates MDO technique is feasible and effective for the spacecraft design problem. The modeling and optimization procedure of the work can be referred for further research and engineering design.     

A reanalysis method for local modification and the application in large-scale problems

A novel reanalysis method, named independent coefficients (IC) method is suggested in this study. This method is proposed to reanalyze structures with local modification which leads to a low-rank change in the stiffness matrix. IC method requires only initial solution as input, and can determine the independent coefficients for each degree of freedoms (DOFs) influenced by structural modifications. Since any extra operations such as decomposition of the initial stiffness matrix is not involved in computation procedure, the IC is a “cheap” algorithm and can be an alternative choice for reanalysis. In order to verify the performance of IC method, several large scale numerical examples are tested. The results demonstrate that the IC method has high accuracy as well as efficiency when the modification is local. The cases involving beyond 1,500,000 DOFs and 3,000,000 DOFs show that IC method has low demands on computer storage, and large scale problems can be easily reanalyzed by this method.     

个险再保险信息管理系统的设计与研究

再保险是保险人将其承担的保险业务,以承保形式,部分转移给其他保险人。再保险业务的网络化和信息化管理,很大程度上满足了现代再保险业务管理的需求,推动了再保险公司管理的发展。介绍个险再保险信息管理系统的需求背景,描述系统的总体设计。在系统总体实现方面详细阐述了软件开发平台、相关设备性能容量需求分析和再保险业务风险评估模型。最后对相关设备性能容量进行了评估。     

Numerical study of particle dispersion in the wake of gas-particle flows past a circular cylinder using discrete vortex method

A numerical investigation on the particle dispersion in the wake of particle-laden gas flows past a circular cylinder at Reynolds number of 10⁵ is presented. In the numerical method, the Discrete Vortex Method with the diffusion velocity model is employed to calculate the unsteady gas flow fields and a Lagrangian approach is applied to track individual particles. A dispersion function is defined to represent the dispersion scale of the particle. The distributions of gas velocities and vortex blobs, the trajectories and dispersion functions as well as distributions for particles with various Stokes numbers ranging from 0.01 to 1000 are obtained. The numerical results show that: (1) very small sized particles with St = 0.01 can distribute both in the vortex core and around the vortex periphery, whereas intermediate sized particles with St = 1.0, 10 are distributed around the vortex periphery, and very large sized particles with St = 1000 do not feel the gas flow; (2) only at small Stokes number (St = 0.01, 0.1) the particles do not impact with the cylinder; (3) the particle's dispersion intensity decreases precipitously as St is increased from 0.01 to 10.     

Growth of CeO2 Films on Sapphire and MgO by rf Magnetron Sputtering

pitaxial CeO₂ films on (1102) sapphire and (100) MgO were grown by rf magnetron sputtering. Substrate temperature, total pressure, and oxygen-to-argon mole ratio were varied to explore the optimal deposition condition. The X-ray diffraction spectra indicate that the degree of crystallinity of the deposited CeO₂ films depends on the oxygen- to-argon mole ratio and the substrate temperature. Atomic force microscopy images of the films on sapphire and MgO showed that substrate temperature and total pressure affect surface roughness. The best film surface is smooth with a 0.89 nm root-mean-square roughness. The quality of the films on MgO showed a strong dependence on substrate pretreatments. Epitaxial CeO₂ films could be grown on pre- annealed or pre-etched MgO if substrate temperatures reached higher than 790^deg;C. Additionally, the effect of ion bombardment at low total pressures on the crystallinity of the films was examined by growing the films outside the plasma region. Experimental results indicate that the ion bombardment does not prevent the films from preferred orientation.     

Color and Selected Properties of PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 Glasses

The density; molar volume; thermal expansion coefficient; dissolution rate in water, HC1, and NaOH; glass transition and crystallization temperatures; and the absorption edge in the ultraviolet-visible and infrared were measured for PbO─BiO1.5─GaO1.5 glasses. The range of compositions investigated was x PbO (100 − (x + y) )BiO_1.5. yGaO_1.5 for x between 20 and 60 cat% and y of 20, 25, 30, and 35 cat%. The glass-forming tendency increased with increased GaO_1.5 and decreased with increased PbO or BiO_1.5. The compositional dependence of these properties was consistent with the weight, size, charge, and bond strength of the cations. The Ga^{3 +} ions in these glasses are believed to act primarily as network-forming cations, whereas the majority of the Bi³⁺ and Pb²⁺ ions behave as network-modifying cations. It is suggested that a small friction of the lead ions are present as Pb⁴⁺. Depending upon melting conditions, these glasses ranged in color from brown to yellow. Various attempts, including containerless melting, were made to obtain colorless glasses, but no conditions were found which totally eliminated the color. The least color (pale yellow) was obtained when the glasses were melted in an air or nitrogen atmosphere in an alumina or gold crucible.     

Novel Method To Optimize the Structure of Reticulated Porous Ceramics

A novel method has been developed for the fabrication of silicon nitride reticulated porous ceramics (RPCs) with regulated structure, using polyurethane sponge as the template. This technique includes two centrifuging steps. In the first stage, the polyurethane sponges are coated with thin slurry through high-speed centrifuging. After the slurry on sponges dried, a high-strength green body without filled cells is obtained. In the second stage, because of improved adhesion between the body and the slurry after the first coating, the body with uniformly thick strut is produced by recoating the as-prepared green body with thixotropic slurry and centrifuging again. The loading content of slurry and the pore diameter of the RPCs body greatly depend on the slurry viscosity in the process of recoating. The strut diameter and pore diameter of the RPCs are effectively optimized by modulating the slurry viscosity.     

Damping of vinyl acetate–n‐butyl acrylate copolymers

A photopolymerization process at room temperature was devised to copolymerize vinyl acetate (VAc) and n‐butyl acrylate (BA) mainly to prepare rubber‐like damping sheet bearing pressure‐sensitive adhesive property in this study. The investigations using both the differential scanning calorimeter and rheometric dynamic analysis show the existence of two glass transition temperatures for each copolymer. The scanning electron microscopic pictures reveal that the degree of microphase separation increases with increasing annealing time at 70°C. It was suggested that the rubbery domain (formed by the PBA blocks) disperses in the glassy domain (constituted by the PVAc blocks), making an effective damping entity. Excellent damping was observed for the copolymer samples, with the tanδ peak values as high as 1.76–1.80 at a certain temperature range and with tanδ> 0.3 at quite wide temperature ranges. In addition, the copolymers containing more VAc tend to have the higher damping. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1396–1403, 2004