DQEM for free vibration analysis of Timoshenko beams on elastic foundations

 A differential quadrature element method (DQEM) based on first order shear deformation theory is developed for free vibration analysis of non-uniform beams on elastic foundations. By decomposing the system into a series of sub-domains or elements, any discontinuity in loading, geometry, material properties, and even elastic foundations can be considered conveniently. Using this method, the vibration analysis of general beam-like structures is to be studied. The governing equations of each element, natural compatibility conditions at the interface of two adjacent elements and the external boundary conditions are developed in a systematic manner, using Hamilton's principle. The present DQEM is to be implemented to Timoshenko beams resting on partially supported elastic foundations with various types of boundary conditions under the action of axial loading. The general versality, accuracy, and efficiency of the presented DQEM are demonstrated having solved different examples and compared to the exact or other numerical procedure solutions. Received: 11 October 2002/Accepted: 26 November 2002     

Effective moduli and failure considerations for composites with periodic fiber waviness

A finite element micromechanical model for fibrous materials introduced in a previous work [J. Compos. Mater. 38 (4) (2004) 273] is used to further study the effects of periodic and localized fiber waviness. A periodic unit cell based on hexagonal fiber packing and sinusoidal fiber waviness was assumed as a representative volume element. Equivalent to this wavy-shaped unit cell, a straight unit cell but with wavy material-orientation is introduced. This type of homogenized continuum modeling simplifies the analysis since the wavy geometry with details of constituent materials is avoided. Thus, stiffness parameters associated with individual lamina with waviness are estimated when subject to the constraining effects of neighboring isotropic or straight fiber material layers. It is shown that the shear constraint of the added layers increases the effective moduli of the wavy layer by inhibiting the fiber straightening deformation mechanism. The local stress distribution is also examined and the potential for material failure is investigated. The methodology provides a platform to study the behavior of wavy fiber composites in a systematic manner.     

The Microstructural, Textural, and Mechanical Properties of Extruded and Equal Channel Angularly Pressed Mg-Li-Zn Alloys

The microstructural and textural evolution of the Mg-6Li-1Zn (LZ61), Mg-8Li-1Zn (LZ81), and Mg-12Li-1Zn (LZ121) alloys were investigated in the as-extruded condition and after being equal channel angularly pressed (ECAPed) for one, two, and four passes. The shear punch testing technique was employed to evaluate the room-temperature mechanical properties of the extruded and ECAPed materials. Microstructural analysis revealed that the grain refinement in both LZ61 and LZ121 alloys could be achieved after multipass ECAP through the continuous dynamic recovery and recrystallization process. For the LZ81 alloy, however, the occurrence of Li loss in the four passes of ECAP condition partly offsets the grain refining effect of the ECAP process by increasing grain size and volume fraction of the α phase. Textural studies in both LZ61 and LZ81 alloys indicated that the developed fiber texture after extrusion could be replaced by a typical ECAP texture, where the basal planes are mainly inclined about 45 deg to the extrusion axis. The increased volume fraction of the β phase in LZ81 significantly affected the α-phase texture by decreasing the intensity of the maximum orientations of the basal and prismatic planes in all deformation conditions, compared with the LZ61 alloy. It was also observed that the abnormal grain growth might be promoted by the strong texture developed in the extruded LZ121 alloy. This texture became more randomized when the number of ECAP passes increased. The SPT results showed that the shear yield stress, ultimate shear strength and normalized displacement in all studied alloys were improved through the grain refinement strengthening caused by ECAP. It was also established that increasing Li content decreased the shear strength and enhanced the shear elongation in all deformation conditions.     

Voice activity detection based on using wavelet packet

This paper, presents a robust voice activity detection (VAD) technique based on wavelet packet. In this technique sub-bands and their amplitudes are represented as the vectors for each sample time in order to find a new feature from the frequency and amplitude changes. On the other hand, the multi-resolution analysis property of the wavelet packet transform (WPT), the voiced, unvoiced, and transient components of speech can be distinctly discriminated. Then, a new feature extraction method is implemented based on observations of the angles between vectors. This feature extraction method retains most unvoiced sounds in a voice active frame. Experimental results show that the proposed WT feature parameter can extract the speech activity under poor SNR conditions and that it is also insensitive to variable-level of noise.     

Optimization of energy management and conversion in the water systems based on evolutionary algorithms

Neural Computing and Applications - In this article, an application of weed optimization algorithm (WOA) for reservoir operation was proposed. In addition, genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm...     

Tracking Performance of Least Squares MIMO Channel Estimation Algorithm

In this paper, the tracking performance analysis of the least squares (LS) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel estimation and tracking algorithm is presented. MIMO channel estimation is a novel application of the LS algorithm that presents near-optimum performance by Karami and Shiva in 2003 and 2006. In this paper, the mean square error (MSE) of tracking of the LS MIMO channel estimator algorithm is derived as a closed-form function of the Doppler shift, forgetting factor, channel rank, and the length of training sequences. In the analysis, all training symbols are considered as randomly generated equal-power vectors on the unit circle, or in other words, phase-shift keying (PSK) signaling. By evaluating this function, some insights into the tracking behavior of the LS MIMO channel estimator are achieved. Then, the calculated tracking error is compared with the tracking error derived from Monte Carlo simulation for quaternary-PSK-based training signals to verify the validation of the presented analysis. Finally, the optimum forgetting factor is derived to minimize the error function, and it is shown that the optimum forgetting factor is highly dependent on the training length, Doppler shift, and E_b/N_o. Also, it is concluded that in low E_b/N_o values, the number of transmitter antennas has negligible effect on the optimal value of the forgetting factor.     

Design redundant Chebyshev dictionary with generalized extreme value distribution for sparse approximation and image denoising

This paper illustrates a novel method for designing redundant dictionary from Chebyshev polynomials for sparse coding. Having an overcomplete dictionary in ${{\mathbb R}^{d \times N}:d < N}$ from N, orthogonal functions need to sample d times from orthogonal intervals. It is proved (“Appendix B”) that uniform distribution is not optimal for sampling. Experiments show that using non-uniform measures for dividing orthogonal intervals has some advantages in making incoherent dictionary with a mutual coherence closer to equiangular tight frames, which is appropriate for sparse approximation methods. In this paper, we first describe the dictionary design problem, then modify this design with any kind of distribution, and define an objective function respect to its parameters. Because of the abundant extremums in this objective function, genetic algorithm is used to find the best parameters. Experimental results show that generalized extreme value distribution has better performance among others. This type of dictionary design improves the performance of sparse approximation and image denoising via redundant dictionary. The advantages of this method of designing overcomplete dictionaries are going to be compared with uniform ones in sparse approximation areas.     

A Novel Detection Algorithm Efficient for Turbo Coded CDMA Signals in Detect and Forward Cooperative Channels

In this paper, a new detection algorithm is proposed for turbo coded Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signals in detect and forward cooperative channels. Use of user cooperation makes much improvement in the performance of CDMA systems. Due to the special structure of CDMA systems, cooperative schemes increase the sum and cutoff capacities of CDMA based wireless systems and improve the quality of user-partner link which enhances the overall performance of the system. In this paper, a new combining scheme is proposed that makes the receiver more robust against the decision errors in the partner link. This structure is simulated for punctured 1/2 rate 4 states turbo code in a channel with first order Markov time variation and different Rice factor variances. Through various simulations, it is shown when the channel estimates are available in the partner and receiver, the cooperation between users provides much diversity gain especially while using the new proposed combining algorithm.