Design optimization of supersonic jet pumps using high fidelity flow analysis

Supersonic jet pumps are simple devices with no moving parts, where a high velocity (primary) flow is used to pump a second fluid. In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is combined with an optimization framework in order to develop a tool for the rapid generation of jet pump designs. A key feature of the problem formulation is the transformation of the jet pump design parameters in terms of geometric ratios. This approach dramatically reduces the number of unrealistic designs covered by the Design of Experiments. Optimal Latin Hypercubes for surrogate model building and model validation points are constructed using a permutation genetic algorithm and design points are evaluated using CFD. Surrogate models of primary and entrained flow rates are built using a Moving Least Squares approach. A series of optimizations for various pump sizes are performed using a genetic algorithm and Sequential Quadratic Programming, with responses calculated from the surrogates. This approach results in a set of optimized designs, from which pumps for a wide range of flow rates can be interpolated.     

Probability densities for conditional statistics in the cubic sensor problem

This paper applies the techniques of Malliavin’s stochastic calculus of variations to Zakai’s equation for the one-dimensional cubic sensor problem in order to study the existence of densities of conditional statistics. Let {X _t} be a Brownian motion observed by a cubic sensor corrupted by white noise, and let denote the unnormalized conditional estimate of φ(X _i ). If φ₁,...,φ _n are linearly independent, and if , it is shown that the probability distribution of admits a density with respect to Lebesgue measure for anyn. This implies that, at any fixed time, the unnormalized conditional density cannot be characterized by a finite set of sufficient statistics. Research supported in part by NSF Grant No. MCS-8301880 and by the Institute for Mathematics and It Applications, Minneapolis, Minnesota.     

A parallel Monte Carlo search algorithm for the conformational analysis of polypeptides

In recent years several approaches have been proposed to overcome the multiple-minima problem associated with nonlinear optimization techniques used in the analysis of molecular conformations. One such technique based on a parallel Monte Carlo search algorithm is analyzed. Experiments on the Intel iPSC/2 confirm that the attainable parallelism is limited by the underlying acceptance rate in the Monte Carlo search. It is proposed that optimal performance can be achieved in combination with vector processing. Tests on both the IBM 3090 and Intel iPSC/2-VX indicate that vector performance is related to molecule size and vector pipeline latency.     

A Universal Method of Scientific Inquiry

A paradigm of scientific discovery is defined within a first-order logical framework. Within this paradigm, the concept of successful scientific inquiry is formalized and investigated. Among other results, it is shown that a simple method of scientific inquiry is universal in the sense that it leads to success on every problem for which success is in principle possible.     

Interaction Between a Linearly Polarized Electromagnetic Plane and a Double Spherical Shell

An exact solution inside, outside, and within two arbitrary concentric spherical shells is presented for an impinging monochromatic linearly polarized electromagnetic wave. Specifically, the solution was found for a double-shell spherical acrylic plastic enclosure irradiated with 2450-MHz microwaves. The enclosure is used as an environmentally controlled exposure chamber for experimental animals during microwave irradiation. The analysis shows that an air foamed material, such as styrofoam, would be a better material than either Plexiglas or Teflon, provided it is sufficiently durable.     

ON THE DYNAMICS OF THE COMBUSTION OF SINGLE CHAR PARTICLES

Diffusion and reaction models of varying complexity are used to study the stability of the combustion of single char particles. In contrast to past studies which have considered only the reaction of carbon with oxygen, both the heterogeneous reactions of carbon with oxygen and carbon dioxide and the homogeneous oxidation of carbon monoxide are taken into account in the formulation of the mathematical models. Emphasis is placed on the investigation of the feasibility of occurrence of oscillatory combustion. Our results show that high rates of the C-O₂ reaction and high concentration of O₂ in the ambient favor the occurrence of multiple steady states and oscillatory solutions, but the appearance of oscillatory instability is suppressed by the homogeneous reaction in the gas phase and the presence of CO and CO₂ in the ambient. The parametric investigation of the problem reveals, in agreement with the results of past studies, that the heat capacity of the porous solid, the Lewis number, and the thickness of the stagnant film are three key parameters for the occurrence of the oscillatory response of the system. Reasonably large values of solid heat capacity practically eliminate the possibility of oscillatory combustion, but an appropriate combination of large values of stagnant film thickness and small Lewis numbers may offset the effect of solid heat capacity     

Flow patterns and mass transfer rates in fluidized bed ion exchange equipment

The axial mixing of ion exchange resin and liquid in fluidized beds is modelled by a series of well-mixed cells for the resin and an equal or larger number of mixed cells for the liquid. Concentration breakthrough curves are calculated using this mixing model, assuming finite mass transfer kinetics and irreversible equilibrium. The model is used to describe mixing patterns and kinetics in static fluidized beds (no resin flow); the information so obtained can be used to design continuous and periodic flow counter-current fluidized bed ion exchange systems.     

Numerical characterization and experimental verification of an in-plane MEMS-actuator with thin-film aluminum heater

In this paper, a novel concept of a thermo-mechanical MEMS actuator using aluminum thin-film heaters on a thermal oxide for electrical insulation is presented. The actuator is part of an universal tensile testing platform for thermo-mechanical material characterization of one dimensional materials on a micro- and nano-scopic scale under different environmental conditions, as varying temperatures, pressure, moisture or even vacuum and is realised in BDRIE technology. It is shown, that the actuator concept fulfills the requirements for the use in a tensile loading stage along with heterogeneously integrated nanofunctional elements, following a specimen centered approach in line with bottom-up self-assembly processes. Simulation and experiment agree very well in the thermal and mechanical domain and allow subsequent optimisation of the actuator performance.     

Single frame correction of motion artifacts in PMD-based time of flight cameras

One of the leading time of flight imaging technologies for depth sensing is based on Photonic Mixer Devices (PMD). In PMD sensors each pixel samples the correlation between emitted and received light signals. Current PMD cameras compute eight correlation samples per pixel in four sequential stages to obtain depth with invariance to signal amplitude and offset variations. With motion, PMD pixels capture different depths at each stage. As a result, correlation samples are not coherent with a single depth, producing artifacts. We propose to detect and remove motion artifacts from a single frame taken by a PMD camera. The algorithm we propose is very fast, simple and can be easily included in camera hardware. We recover depth of each pixel by exploiting consistency of the correlation samples and local neighbors of the pixel. In addition, our method obtains the motion flow of occluding contours in the image from a single frame. The system has been validated in real scenes using a commercial low-cost PMD camera and high speed dynamics. In all cases our method produces accurate results and it highly reduces motion artifacts.