Sensing, modeling and control for laser-based additive manufacturing

Laser-Based Additive Manufacturing (LBAM) is a promising manufacturing technology that can be widely applied to part preparation, surface modification, and Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF). A large number of parameters govern the LBAM process. These parameters are sensitive to the environmental variations, and they also influence each other. This paper introduces the research work in RCAM on improving the performance of the LBAM process. Metal powder delivery real-time sensing and control is studied to achieve a controllable powder delivery for fabrication of functionally graded material. A closed-loop control system based on infrared image sensing is built for control of the heat input and size of the molten pool in the LBAM process. The closed-loop control results show a great improvement in the geometrical accuracy of the built features. A three-dimensional finite element model is also established to explore the thermal behavior of the molten pool in the closed-loop controlled LBAM process.     

二维有限元自适应网格规划生成

在设计基准点、沿指定曲线等网格加密生成方式的基础上，根据二维区域几何特征和分析对象物理特性估计，通过选择合适的网格加密生成方式，作用于分析对象上，规划构造有限元自适应网格单元尺寸信息场，进而提出基于Delaunay部分的动态节点一单元一体化算法，实现几何特征和物理特性整体自适应的有限元网格自动生成。算例表明此方法可生成高质量、符合分析要求的有限元自适应网格。     

基于有限差分网格的发动机缸体铸件热应力模拟

对发动机气缸体铸件从浇注完到开箱落砂后的铸造过程应力场进行计算机数值模拟.为了实现形状复杂铸件的热应力分析,应用了有限差分网格向有限元网格的转换方法,得到缸体的有限元模型,并将该模型与经过大量简化后直接剖分得到的有限元模型进行了比较.在此有限元模型的基础上,采用FDM/FEM集成铸件热应力分析系统实现了对发动机缸体铸件热应力分析,模拟结果和实际生产情况相吻合.     

Experiment and simulation study of 3D magnetic field sensing for magnetic flux leakage defect characterisation

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing is widely used to detect and characterise defects in pipelines, rail tracks and other structures. The measurement of the two field components perpendicular to the test surface and parallel to the applied field in MFL systems is well established. However, it is rarely effective when the shapes of the specimens and defects with respect to the applied field are arbitrary. In order to overcome the pitfalls of traditional MFL measurement, measurement of the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field is proposed. The study is undertaken using extensive finite element analysis (FEA) focussing on the 3D distribution of magnetic fields for defect characterisation and employing a high sensitivity 3-axis magnetic field sensor in experimental study. Several MFL tests were undertaken on steel samples, including a section of rail track. The experimental and FEA test results show that data from not only the x- and z-axes but also y-axis can give comprehensive positional information about defects in terms of shape and orientation, being especially advantageous where the defect is aligned close to parallel to the applied field. The work concludes that 3D magnetic field sensing could be used to improve the defect characterisation capabilities of existing MFL systems, especially where defects have irregular geometries.     

薄板坯连铸浸入式水口结构数值模拟

使用有限元计算方法开展薄板坯连铸浸入式水口流场的研究 ,分别对水口不同浸入深度的流场分布、水口出口不同角度的流场分布进行计算。结果发现 :水口的浸入深度在 30 0mm时较为合理 ;水口的出口角度以R1 5、60°、45°为宜     

Continuous-time norm-constrained Kalman filtering

This paper considers continuous-time state estimation when part of the state estimate or the entire state estimate is norm-constrained. In the former case continuous-time state estimation is considered by posing a constrained optimization problem. The optimization problem can be broken up into two separate optimization problems, one which solves for the optimal observer gain associated with the unconstrained state estimates, while the other solves for the optimal observer gain associated with the constrained state estimates. The optimal constrained state estimate is found by projecting the time derivative of an unconstrained estimate onto the tangent space associated with the norm constraint. The special case where the entire state estimate is norm-constrained is briefly discussed. The utility of the filtering results developed are highlighted through a spacecraft attitude estimation example. Numerical simulation results are included.     

Squaring down of general MIMO systems to invertible uniform rank systems via pre- and/or post-compensators

Pre- and/or post-compensators are designed to square down a general MIMO system to a uniform rank system, the structure of which is almost similar to a SISO system. The method of squaring down either does not change the finite zero structure of the given MIMO system or simply adds additional finite zeros in the left half s-plane. The significance of such a squaring down lies in the simplicity of the structure of a uniform rank system lending itself for easy analysis and control design.     

Development of the meshless finite volume particle method with exact and efficient calculation of interparticle area

The Finite Volume Particle Method (FVPM) is a meshless method based on a definition of interparticle area which is closely analogous to cell face area in the classical finite volume method. In previous work, the interparticle area has been computed by numerical integration, which is a source of error and is extremely expensive. We show that if the particle weight or kernel function is defined as a discontinuous top-hat function, the particle interaction vectors may be evaluated exactly and efficiently. The new formulation reduces overall computational time by a factor between 6.4 and 8.2. In numerical experiments on a viscous flow with an analytical solution, the method converges under all conditions. Significantly, in contrast with standard FVPM and SPH, error depends on particle size but not on particle overlap (as long as the computational domain is completely covered by particles). The new method is shown to be superior to standard FVPM for shock tube flow and inviscid steady transonic flow. In benchmarking on a viscous multiphase flow application, FVPM with exact interparticle area is shown to be competitive with a mesh-based volume-of-fluid solver in terms of computational time required to resolve the structure of an interface.     

Local artificial boundary conditions for Schrödinger and heat equations by using high-order azimuth derivatives on circular artificial boundary

The aim of the paper is to design high-order artificial boundary conditions for the Schrödinger equation on unbounded domains in parallel with a treatment of the heat equation. We first introduce a circular artificial boundary to divide the unbounded definition domain into a bounded computational domain and an unbounded exterior domain. On the exterior domain, the Laplace transformation in time and Fourier series in space are applied to achieve the relation of special functions. Then the rational functions are used to approximate the relation of the special functions. Applying the inverse Laplace transformation to a series of simple rational function, we finally obtain the corresponding high-order artificial boundary conditions, where a sequence of auxiliary variables are utilized to avoid the high-order derivatives in respect to time and space. Furthermore, the finite difference method is formulated to discretize the reduced initial–boundary value problem with high-order artificial boundary conditions on a bounded computational domain. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the performance of our method.     

Modeling time criticality of information

In this paper, we continue the research on formal treatment of attributes of information, based on the computational approach. In this scenario, the usefulness of advisory information is measured by the decrease in complexity of a problem we need to solve. We propose to model the time criticality via usefulness of a piece of information which is received during the computation. As a modeling tool, we use deterministic finite automata.