Biomimetic Polymer Nanostructures by Injection Molding

The nanometer scale topography of self‐assembling structural protein complexes in animals is believed to induce favorable cell responses. An important example of such nanostructured biological complexes is fibrillar collagen that possesses a cross‐striation structure with a periodicity of 69 nm and a peak‐to‐valley distance of 4–6 nm. Bovine collagen type I was assembled into fibrillar structures in vitro and sedimented onto solid supports. Their structural motif was transferred into a nickel replica by physical vapor deposition of a small‐grained metal layer followed by galvanic plating. The resulting inverted nickel structure was found to faithfully present most of the micrometer and nanometer scale topography of the biological original. This nickel replica was used as a die for the injection molding of a range of different thermoplastic polymers. Total injection molding cycle times were in the range of 30–45 seconds. One of the polymer materials investigated, polyethylene, displayed poor replication of the biological nanotopographical motif. However, the majority of the polymers showed very high replication fidelity as witnessed by their ability to replicate the cross‐striation features of less than 5 nm height difference. The latter group of materials includes poly(propylene), poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(L ‐lactic acid), polycaprolactone, and a copolymer of cyclic and linear olefins (COC). This work suggests that the current limiting factor for the injection molding of nanometer scale topography in thermoplastic polymers lies with the grain size of the initial metal coating of the mold rather than the polymers themselves.

     

Adaptive receding horizon control for constrained MIMO systems

An adaptive control algorithm for open-loop stable, constrained, linear, multiple input multiple output systems is presented. The proposed approach can deal with both input and output constraints, as well as measurement noise and output disturbances. The adaptive controller consists of an iterative set membership identification algorithm, that provides a set of candidate plant models at each time step, and a model predictive controller, that enforces input and output constraints for all the plants inside the model set. The algorithm relies only on the solution of standard convex optimization problems that are guaranteed to be recursively feasible. The experimental results obtained by applying the proposed controller to a quad-tank testbed are presented.     

Modularized design for cooperative control and plug-and-play operation of networked heterogeneous systems

In this paper, a cooperative control analysis and design method is investigated for heterogeneous dynamical systems that may be of arbitrary relative degree or nonminimum-phase or both. To achieve consensus or cooperative stability, a negative value of input-feedforward passivity index is used to accommodate and analyze such systems, and the magnitude of the index value is also used as the impact coefficient to quantify the impacts of heterogeneous dynamics of these systems on their networked operations. Physical-system-level designs are explicitly carried out to make individual linear and nonlinear systems (which are either feedback linearizable or nonminimum phase of certain form) become passivity-short and to embed one pure integrator into their input–output dynamics. The network-level distributed control can simply be chosen without any knowledge of the heterogeneous dynamics but with only information of an upper bound on their impact coefficients. It is shown, using the impact equivalence principle, that these controls separately designed but implemented together always ensure either local or global consensus and that a global non-trivial consensus emerges if and only if the information network has at least one globally reachable node or is varying but cumulatively connected. The proposed methodology of fully modularized designs unravels complexity of analyzing and designing cyber–physical systems and enables their plug-and-play into networked operations.     

Motion-based method for estimating time required to attach self-adhesive insulators

A self-adhesive insulator is a component of a home appliance that is used to suppress vibration or prevent humidity affecting the internal parts of the appliance. There is a wide range of types and designs available, allowing them to be applied to areas having different shapes. At the design stage, once an insulator design has been developed sufficiently to identify its dimensions and features, the attaching time and baseline cost must be estimated with reasonable accuracy to enable a comparison of vendor quotes. However, the current estimation method is not sufficiently accurate in terms of the baseline cost. This paper presents a motion-based time-estimating scheme with which the time required for the attachment of such insulators can be calculated more accurately. The scheme has been developed by analyzing the motions needed to attach 350 insulators and then designating representative motions and their time values. For this purpose, a modular arrangement of predetermined time standards (MODAPTS) is adopted. Motion-based time-estimation method is useful in terms of simplicity and accuracy. It enables design engineers to estimate the time required for the attachment based only on a drawing of the insulator and a few MODAPTS rules. Estimates made with this method should vary from the actual value by no more than 9.5%.     

Reasons for bottlenecks in very large-scale system of systems development

ContextSystem of systems (SoS) is a set or arrangement of systems that results when independent and useful systems are to be incorporated into a larger system that delivers unique capabilities. Our investigation showed that the development life cycle (i.e. the activities transforming requirements into design, code, test cases, and releases) in SoS is more prone to bottlenecks in comparison to single systems.ObjectiveThe objective of the research is to identify reasons for bottlenecks in SoS, prioritize their significance according to their effect on bottlenecks, and compare them with respect to different roles and different perspectives, i.e. SoS view (concerned with integration of systems), and systems view (concerned with system development and delivery).MethodThe research method used is a case study at Ericsson AB.ResultsResults show that the most significant reasons for bottlenecks are related to requirements engineering. All the different roles agree on the significance of requirements related factors. However, there are also disagreements between the roles, in particular with respect to quality related reasons. Quality related hinders are primarily observed and highly prioritized by quality assurance responsibles. Furthermore, SoS view and system view perceive different hinders, and prioritize them differently.ConclusionWe conclude that solutions for requirements engineering in SoS context are needed, quality awareness in the organization has to be achieved end to end, and views between SoS and system view need to be aligned to avoid sub optimization in improvements.     

线性多智能体系统一致性问题的部分稳定性方法（英文）

A linear transformation is proposed to deal with the consensus problem of high-order linear multi-agent systems(LMASs).In virtue of the linear transformation, the consensus problem is equivalently translated into a partial stability problem. We discuss three issues of the LMASs under a generalized linear protocol: 1) to find criteria of consensus convergence; 2) to calculate consensus function; 3) to design gain matrices in the linear consensus protocol. Precisely, we provide a necessary and sufficient criterion of consensus convergence in terms of Hurwitz stability of a matrix and give an analytical expression of the consensus function. In addition, we set up a relation between the gain matrices in the protocol and the convergence time and consensus accuracy of the agents, and then design the gain matrices with respect to a pre-specified convergence time and a required consensus accuracy.     

Kinetics of the methanation of carbon dioxide over a supported Ni-La2O3 catalyst

The kinetics of the methanation of carbon dioxide was investigated using an alumina supported Ni-La₂O₂ catalyst in a differential and integral reactor. In the differential reactor the molar ratio of H₂ to CO₂ was varied from 0.6 to 30. In the integral reactor the rates were measured with up to 90% conversion. Both reactor tests were carried out at temperatures between 513 and 593 K. The experimental results were described by a Langmuir-Hinshelwood type equation. The kinetics can be explained by assuming equilibrium of dissociative carbon dioxide and hydrogen adsorption, and assuming hydrogenation of surface carbon as the rate determining step.     

用预分解技术改造Φ4×60m预热器窑的又一成功实例

介绍南京水泥工业设计研究院用预分解生产技术对山东水泥厂Φ4×60m预热器窑烧成系统进行的成功技术改造。技改设计指标为：熟料产量保证指标1500t／d，争取指标1700t／d，熟料热耗＜3762kJ／kg，熟料28d抗压强度＞60MPa。整个工程停产施工耗时仅用48d，烧成系统技改共耗资约3000万元。技改后一次点火投料成功，且点火当月即实现72h达标考核，所有设计指标均达标。     

凹凸棒粘土用作高水速凝注浆悬浮剂

以凹凸棒粘土作为高水速凝固化充填材料的悬浮稳定剂，考察了不同制浆机械对凹凸棒粘土制浆率的影响。采用高剪切混合乳化机预制的1％凹凸棒粘土浆配制高水速凝固化充填材料甲、已料单浆可获得满意的悬浮稳定效果。其充填体结石抗压强度早期发展迅速，后期持续增长。采用此工艺，注浆料的材料成本仅增加2％。