Novel approach of LY12 alloy brazing

The LY12 Al alloy was brazed with the adoption of the improved KF-CsF-AlF3 flux matching Ag-Al-Cu-Zn filler metal. The shear strength of brazed joint could reach 80% of that of the substrate and the tensile strength of butt brazed joint will be 70% of that of the substrate. This was the great progress against the traditional claim that Al alloy reinforced by heat treatment could not be brazed. The experimental results and theoretical analysis had proved that it was the key issue to remove the MgO oxide film below 503℃. The addition of rare earth La was the effective way to obtain better mechanical properties of the filler metal as well as brazed joints.     

Performance control for interconnection of identical systems: Application to PLL network design

In this paper, the problem of the control law design for interconnected identical systems ensuring the global stability and the global performance properties is under consideration. Inspired by the decentralized control law design methodology using the dissipativity input–output approach, the problem is reduced to the problem of satisfying two conditions: (i) the condition on the interconnection and (ii) the condition on the local subsystem dynamics. Both problems are efficiently solved applying a (quasi‐) convex LMI optimization and standard H_∞ synthesis. The proposed design methodology is applied to the control law design of a synchronous PLL network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Compact Keccak Hardware Architecture for Data Integrity and Authentication on FPGAs

ABSTRACT

Cryptographic hash functions play a crucial role in networking and communication security, including their use for data integrity and message authentication. Keccak hash algorithm is one of the finalists in the next generation SHA-3 hash algorithm competition. It is based on the sponge construction whose hardware performance is worth investigation. We developed an efficient hardware architecture for the Keccak hash algorithm on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Due to the serialization exploited in the proposed architecture, the area needed for its implementation is reduced significantly accompanied by higher efficiency rate. In addition, low latency is attained so that higher operating frequencies can be accessed. We use the coprocessor approach which exploits the use of RAM blocks that exist in most FPGA platforms. For this coprocessor, a new datapath structure allowing parallel execution of multiple instructions is designed. Implementation results prove that our Keccak coprocessor achieves high performance in a small area.     

Blending science and public policies for remediation of a degraded ecosystem: Jackfish Bay, north shore of Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada

The Jackfish Bay Remedial Action Plan is the first of Lake Superior's Areas of Concern (AOCs) to consider recognition as an Area in Recovery (AiR). As a result of a high degree of complexity and uncertainty, ecosystem recovery in Jackfish Bay has been determined using a combination of regulatory policies and scientific evidence and extensive public and expert-based decision making. As a result, the conceptualization of the AiR status in Jackfish Bay has been developed with the adaptive management and the ecosystem approach, which provide the basic principles of assessing, monitoring, and managing the Area of Concern. To determine the status of beneficial use impairments caused by effluent from the Terrace Bay Pulp Inc., three public advisory committees—an academic panel of experts, a government technical review committee, and the Jackfish Bay Public Area in Recovery Review Committee (PARRC)—reviewed relevant scientific data and documents, including peer-reviewed publications, to assess changes in pollution levels in Jackfish Bay and improvements to aquatic, biotic, and benthic environments of the bay. The public decision-making process concluded with recommendations by the PARRC to develop a systematic monitoring program so that the ecosystem recovery process in the bay could be assessed on a continued basis, leading to its eventual delisting as an AOC. The entire process provides an example of blending science and public policies for remediation of a degraded ecosystem on the Great Lakes.     

Optimal blank design based on finite element method for blades of large Francis turbines

Metal pressing process that is widely used in industries has advantages over casting process for producing large Francis turbine blades from thick plates. Prior to the pressing process, blank design is firstly performed to determine flat blanks. The traditional trial and error approach is not applicable to blade design for Francis turbines that are not standard due to hydraulic characteristics of power plant sites. The rapid development of computing technology makes it possible to obtain optimal flat blanks by numerical modelling and simulation. In this paper, inverse finite element approach is investigated for blank design and an elasto-plastic model has been built using the well-known commercial software ANSYS. Numerical simulations for blade unfolding models with thick shell elements, solid elements and shell elements have given results with negligible differences. Unfolding tests with simple geometries have been carried out and the numerical results agree well with the analytical solutions. A large and thick shape of a Francis turbine blade for a hydropower plant has been successfully unfolded by inverse FE model. Sensibility analysis shows that the middle surface of the flat blank is independent of blade thickness. For ensuring the machining of the blade after the pressing process, a new contour is obtained by extending the boundary of the flat blank provided by the numerical model. This research may provide a useful tool for optimal blank design of Francis turbine blades.     

坝王河羡塘至大井、小井河段开发方式研究

针对坝王河流域忽明忽暗、明伏交替、落水洞遍布、地下暗河系统发育等强喀斯特特点,拟对羡塘至大井、小井河段的开发采取分段开发的思路,上河段为合理规避河段喀斯特渗漏问题,采用长隧洞引水方式;下河段为避开地下暗河系统和渗漏河段,选择成库条件较为可靠的坝址和引水线路较短的开发方案.其工程经验可供类似流域开发借鉴.     

行动导向教学法在技校计算机教学中的应用

在以能力为本位的职业教育模式中,通过引入行动导向教学法来提高教学质量,加强对学生动手能力的培养是现实而可行的。文章结合《PHOTOSHOP》课程,探讨了行动导向教学法在技校计算机教学中的应用。     

Adaptive fuzzy tracking control of nonlinear time-delay systems with unknown virtual control coefficients

In this paper, a novel adaptive fuzzy control scheme is proposed for a class of uncertain single-input and single-output (SISO) nonlinear time-delay systems with the lower triangular form. Fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate unknown nonlinear functions, then the adaptive fuzzy tracking controller is constructed by combining Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals and the backstepping approach. The proposed controller guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness of all the signals in the closed-loop system, while the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of the origin. An advantage of the proposed control scheme lies in that the number of adaptive parameters is not more than the order of the systems under consideration. Finally, simulation studies are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design scheme.     

A Bayesian approach to estimate the marginal loss distributions in operational risk management

One of the main problems in operational risk management is the lack of loss data, which affects the parameter estimates of the marginal distributions of the losses. The principal reason is that financial institutions only started to collect operational loss data a few years ago, due to the relatively recent definition of this type of risk. Considering this drawback, the employment of Bayesian methods and simulation tools could be a natural solution to the problem. The use of Bayesian methods allows us to integrate the scarce and, sometimes, inaccurate quantitative data collected by the bank with prior information provided by experts. An original proposal is a Bayesian approach for modelling operational risk and for calculating the capital required to cover the estimated risks. Besides this methodological innovation a computational scheme, based on Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations, is required. In particular, the application of the MCMC method to estimate the parameters of the marginals shows advantages in terms of a reduction of capital charge according to different choices of the marginal loss distributions.