Single- and multiobjective evolutionary optimization assisted by Gaussian random field metamodels

This paper presents and analyzes in detail an efficient search method based on evolutionary algorithms (EA) assisted by local Gaussian random field metamodels (GRFM). It is created for the use in optimization problems with one (or many) computationally expensive evaluation function(s). The role of GRFM is to predict objective function values for new candidate solutions by exploiting information recorded during previous evaluations. Moreover, GRFM are able to provide estimates of the confidence of their predictions. Predictions and their confidence intervals predicted by GRFM are used by the metamodel assisted EA. It selects the promising members in each generation and carries out exact, costly evaluations only for them. The extensive use of the uncertainty information of predictions for screening the candidate solutions makes it possible to significantly reduce the computational cost of singleand multiobjective EA. This is adequately demonstrated in this paper by means of mathematical test cases and a multipoint airfoil design in aerodynamics.     

International Working Group on Assurance Cases (for Security)

Critical systems are aptly named - from electric power to water and gas to the telephone system and the Internet, they're all critical to some aspect of our daily lives. We're a networked society and as such, it's important to both know whether critical systems are trustworthy and be able to communicate, review, and debate the level of trust achieved in them. In the safety domain, explicit safety cases are increasingly required by law, regulations, and standards. In this article, we outline what a small, international group of experts, spanning various disciplines in safety, security, reliability, and critical infrastructure, been doing with the International Working Group on Assurance Cases (for Security), what we hope to achieve, and where we go next.     

Performance engineering and topological design of metro WDM opticalnetworks using computer simulation

This paper demonstrates the use of computer simulation for topological design and performance engineering of transparent wavelength-division multiplexing metropolitan-area networks. Engineering of these networks involves the study of various transport-layer impairments such as amplifier noise, component ripple, chirp/dispersion, optical crosstalk, waveform distortion due to filter concatenation, fiber nonlinearities, and polarization effects. A computer simulation methodology composed of three main simulation steps is derived and implemented. This methodology obtains performance estimations by applying efficient wavelength-domain simulations on the entire network topology, followed by time-/frequency-domain simulations on selected paths of the network and finally Q-budgeting on an identified worst case path. The above technique provides an efficient tool for topological design and network performance engineering. Accurate simulation models are presented for each of the performance impairments, and the computer simulation methodology is used for the design and engineering of a number of actual metro network architectures     

Mode coupling contribution to radiation losses in curvatures for high and low numerical aperture plastic optical fibers

We have studied the optical power losses due to multiple curvatures in polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) plastic optical fibers (POFs) of different numerical apertures (NAs) and attenuation. The fibers were tested for several configurations in order to assess the influence of different types of curved-to-straight fiber transitions in the amount of power radiation. We found that losses are below the standards for all tested fiber types, and thus, they are a suitable choice for local area network (LAN) applications. In addition, our results revealed the presence of modal interactions as confirmed using an experimental procedure to estimate the mode coupling strength for the same fibers.     

Integrated chaos generators

This paper surveys the different design issues, from mathematical model to silicon, involved in the design of analog CMOS integrated circuits for the generation of chaotic behavior     

Use of weibull statistics to quantify property variability in TiAl alloys

Tensile experiments have been performed on specimens of four different investment-cast TiAl-based alloys with variations in casting conditions. The average ductilities obtained in these experiments vary between approximately 0.8 to 2.0 pct plastic strain to failure in tension. By using the three-parameter form of the Weibull relation, with the 0.2 pct offset yield strength as the minimum failure strength, the resulting variability in the data can be quantified and is found to be similar for those alloys with similar microstructural scale (grain size). Large variations in lamellar volume fraction, segregation, and phase distribution have a minor influence on property variability, compared to changes in the scale of the grain structure caused by either variations in cooling rate during casting or the addition of grain refiners.     

Distribution of properties from sampling inhomogeneous materials by line transects

A theory related to the statistics of the structure and properties of inhomogeneous materials has been proposed, dealing with the distribution of properties from sampling of inhomogeneous structures by line transects. It is demonstrated that the empirical cumulative distribution functions of the intercepts from the microstructural constituents and their variances are important fingerprints of the inhomogeneous structures.Simulated sampling of the images of the microstructure by line transects has been proposed as a powerful method for characterization the distribution of properties of inhomogeneous structures. One of the advantages of the method based on the expected values of the order statistics of the intercepts is that the probability bounds of the property are determined without prior knowledge of the functional relationship between the property and the intercepts from the structural constituents.The concept intercept variance has an important application in determining the minimum transect length that stabilizes the variation of the intercept at a low value. Additionally, the concept ‘intercept variance’ can be used for topological optimization of the microstructure regarding the risk of intercepting a large amount of the weaker constituent. Equations regarding the variance of the intercepted fraction characterizing transect lengths with a specified distribution have also been derived.     

Efficient mixed Timoshenko–Mindlin shell elements

The precise representation of rigid body motions in the displacement patterns of curved Timoshenko–Mindlin (TM) shell elements is considered. This consideration requires the development of the strain–displacement relationships of the TM shell theory with regard to their consistency with the rigid body motions. For this purpose a refined TM theory of multilayered anisotropic shells is elaborated. The effects of transverse shear deformation and bending‐extension coupling are included. The fundamental unknowns consist of five displacements and eight strains of the face surfaces of the shell, and eight stress resultants. On the basis of this theory the simple and efficient mixed models are developed. The elemental arrays are derived using the Hu–Washizu mixed variational principle. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the high accuracy and effectiveness of the developed 4‐node shell elements and to compare their performance with other finite elements reported in the literature. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Whitening of sidelobe powers by pattern switching in radar array antenna

Presented here is a concept for nearly eliminating bias errors in reflectivity and velocity estimates due to power received through antenna sidelobes of pulse Doppler radars. The antenna pattern is switched from pulse to paise among specially designed patterns, with near identical main lobes, but with sidelobes having randomly distributed phases and amplitudes. The sidelobe signal then becomes incoherent without affecting the coherency of the main lobe signal. The whitened sidelobe signal does not bias the mean velocity estimate computed by Doppler processing, and an unbiased estimate of reflectivity can be computed with the knowledge of the mean whitened power level. Pattern design criteria and a method for the design of optimum patterns are developed for a linear array. The extent of sidelobe reduction by way of whitening has been studied in detail for special case of only two patterns switched randomly using a pseudonoise sequence. Pattern switching realizes an effectively low sidelobe pattern without sacrifice of main lobe resolution. A possible extension to two-dimensional arrays is suggested.