Stochastic defect diffusion model for relaxation effects in crystalline polyethylene

It is suggested that some relaxation processes observed in crystalline polyethylene are consequences of the diffusive motion of a particular defect called a point dislocation or twist dispiration loop along the polyethylene stems in lamellar crystals. The motion of the defect, characterized by a diffusion coefficient and a mobility, is described by solutions of the Smoluchowski diffusion equation with boundary conditions that constrain the defect to move along routes that produce experimentally observable results. The fact that passage of the defect causes both a 180° rotation of the chain and moves an extra CH₂ group in the direction of the chain axis is important to the interpretation of the data according to this model. The diffusion coefficient for a defect is estimated to be around 2 × 10^?9 cm² s^?1 at 70°C. This value is shown to be reasonable both from the viewpoint of detailed computer modelling of defect motion and contemporary ideas about scaling.     

Dynamics of fluid circulation in coupled free and heterogeneous porous domains

Fluid flow in coupled free and porous domain, particularly when the porous medium is heterogeneous, is encountered in many hydro-environmental conditions, e.g., leakage from underground pipe, combined groundwater lake-subsurface interactions. One of the most difficult problems in the study of coupled flow behaviour has been the development of a universally applicable modelling scheme for combining the flow regimes. This is because the free/porous interfacial properties (e.g., shear-stress; velocity slip) that govern the coupled flow behaviour are difficult to determine experimentally under hydro-environmental conditions. On the other hand, the implications of various forms of heterogeneity in the porous media properties can be very different on the fluid-flow behaviour. Difficulties may also arise in direct coupling of the model equations that govern the fluid flow in the individual regions (e.g., Navier-Stokes for free-flow region and the Darcy's equation for the porous flow region). Consequently, models of coupled free and porous flow for hydro-environmental conditions are not very well developed at the moment. While there are some indications that fluids in coupled free and porous domains may circulate (i.e., development of flow cells), there is a lack of appropriate 3D analysis on how heterogeneities in porous media may affect such flow patterns. In this paper, we aim to analyse how porous media heterogeneity affects the dynamics of flow circulation in the porous side of a coupled free and porous domain. For this purpose, we analyse flow patterns in several model domains made up of two porous layers with differing permeabilities. The governing model equations are discretised and solved using the standard finite volume method on a staggered cell-centred mesh. The temporal discretisation is done using the explicit method. An in-house graphical user interface (GUI) has been created specifically to aid in the visualisation of otherwise complex flow patterns. The GUI contains many post-processing options and provides a comprehensive tool for the analysis of hydrodynamics and contaminant motion (not discussed in this paper) in coupled free and porous flow domains. This GUI is described in this paper briefly. The effects of altering the aspect ratio (i.e., multi-scale) of the domain on the coupled flow pattern have also been discussed.     

Comparing the revised NIOSH lifting equation to the psychophysical,biomechanical and physiological criteria used in its development

The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic and comprehensive comparison between the recommended weights of lift (RWL) from the revised NIOSH lifting equation, and the specific biomechanical, psychophysical and physiological criteria that were stated to be used in the equation's development. A composite acceptable load (CAL) table was developed for the 216 conditions presented in the female lifting table of Snook and Ciriello (1991). Each CAL value was calculated to correspond to the most conservative load of the three design criteria. The RWLs caused lumbar compression forces close to the biomechanical limit of 3400 N for lifts below knuckle height, but resulted in compression forces that are much lower at higher lifting heights. At moderate lifting frequencies, the average RWL would be acceptable to more than 95% of female workers according to the psychophysical criterion. At the highest frequencies, the RWL was found to be an average of 63% of the CAL values based on the integration of the psychophysical and physiological criteria. It is recommended that ergonomists acknowledge the very conservative nature of the revised NIOSH lifting equation when using it to evaluate occupational lifting tasks.     

L2 disturbance attenuation for highly dissipative nonlinear spatially distributed processes via HJI approach

For many practical industrial spatially distributed processes (SDPs), their dynamics are usually described by highly dissipative nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). In this paper, we address the L₂ disturbance attenuation problem of nonlinear SDPs using the Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs (HJI) approach. Firstly, by collecting an ensemble of PDE states, Karhunen–Loève decomposition (KLD) is employed to compute empirical eigenfunctions (EEFs) of the SDP based on the method of snapshots. Subsequently, these EEFs together with singular perturbation (SP) technique are used to obtain a finite-dimensional slow subsystem of ordinary differential equation (ODE) that accurately describes the dominant dynamics of the PDE system. Secondly, based on the slow subsystem, the L₂ disturbance attenuation problem is reformulated and a finite-dimensional H_∞ controller is synthesized in terms of the HJI equation. Moreover, the stability and L₂-gain performance of the closed-loop PDE system are analyzed. Thirdly, since the HJI equation is a nonlinear PDE that has proven to be impossible to solve analytically, we combine the method of weighted residuals (MWR) and simultaneous policy update algorithm (SPUA) to obtain its approximate solution. Finally, the simulation studies are conducted on a nonlinear diffusion-reaction process and a temperature cooling fin of high-speed aerospace vehicle, and the achieved results demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed control method.     

基于祖冲之类方法的多体动力学方程保能量保约束积分

针对一类多体动力学问题导出的微分 代数方程,提出一种保能量、保约束的算法.该算法基于祖冲之类方法和欧拉中点保辛差分,利用祖冲之类方法保证在时间格点上精确满足约束方程,避免约束违约问题;并进一步证明该算法在时间格点上可以精确保能量.数值算例进一步验证该算法的可靠性.     

Compressibility of the polymer crystal

Results for the compressibilities of a wide range of polymer crystals along the fibre- and the transverse crystal axes are presented. Good agreement is found between the theoretical and the experimental results of different authors.     

Preconditioning the solution of the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation by recycling Krylov subspaces

Spectral preconditioners are based on the fact that the convergence rate of the Krylov subspace methods is improved if the eigenvalues of the smallest magnitude of the system matrix are ‘removed’. In this paper, two preconditioning strategies are studied to solve a set of linear systems associated with the numerical integration of the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation. Both strategies can be implemented using the matrix–vector product as the main operation and succeed at reducing the total number of iterations needed to solve the set of systems.     

Methodology to resolve the transport equation with the discrete ordinates code TORT into the IPEN/MB-01 reactor

Resolution of the steady-state Neutron Transport Equation in a nuclear pool reactor is usually achieved by means of two different numerical methods: Monte Carlo (stochastic) and Discrete Ordinates (deterministic). The Discrete Ordinates method solves the Neutron Transport Equation for a set of selected directions, obtaining a set of directional equations and solutions for each equation which are the angular flux. In order to deal with the energy dependence, an energy multi-group approximation is commonly performed, obtaining a set of equations depending on the number of energy groups. In addition, spatial discretization is also required and the problem is solved by sweeping the geometry mesh. However, special cross-sections are required due to the energy and directional discretization, thus a methodology based on NJOY99 code capabilities has been used. Finally, in order to demonstrate the capability of this method, the 3D discrete ordinates code TORT has been applied to resolve the IPEN/MB-01 reactor.     

I3WSN: Industrial Intelligent Wireless Sensor Networks for indoor environments

Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) technologies have been successfully applied to a great variety of outdoor scenarios but, in practical terms, little effort has been applied for indoor environments, and even less in the field of industrial applications. This article presents an intelligent SWE application for an indoor and industrial scenario, with the aim of improving and increasing the levels of human safety. The base low-level architecture is built on top of wireless sensor networks (WSN) connected to a Sensor Observation Service (SOS). Higher layers in the architecture include services that make real time decisions based on the collected data. Both simulation and experimental results are presented. The paper shows the viability of our approach in terms of performance, scalability, modularity and safety.