Structural health monitoring system based on multi-agent coordination and fusion for large structure

In practical applications of structural health monitoring technology, a large number of distributed sensors are usually adopted to monitor the big dimension structures and different kinds of damage. The monitored structures are usually divided into different sub-structures and monitored by different sensor sets. Under this situation, how to manage the distributed sensor set and fuse different methods to obtain a fast and accurate evaluation result is an important problem to be addressed deeply. In the paper, a multi-agent fusion and coordination system is presented to deal with the damage identification for the strain distribution and joint failure in the large structure. Firstly, the monitoring system is adopted to distributedly monitor two kinds of damages, and it self-judges whether the static load happens in the monitored sub-region, and focuses on the static load on the sub-region boundary to obtain the sensor network information with blackboard model. Then, the improved contract net protocol is used to dynamically distribute the damage evaluation module for monitoring two kinds of damage uninterruptedly. Lastly, a reliable assessment for the whole structure is given by combing various heterogeneous classifiers strengths with voting-based fusion. The proposed multi-agent system is illustrated through a large aerospace aluminum plate structure experiment. The result shows that the method can significantly improve the monitoring performance for the large-scale structure.     

Fully coupled LES-DEM of particle interaction and agglomeration in a turbulent channel flow

Coupled large eddy simulation and the discrete element method are applied to study turbulent particle–laden flows, including particle dispersion and agglomeration, in a channel. The particle–particle interaction model is based on the Hertz–Mindlin approach with Johnson–Kendall–Roberts cohesion to allow the simulation of van der Waals forces in a dry air flow. The influence of different particle surface energies, and the impact of fluid turbulence, on agglomeration behaviour are investigated. The agglomeration rate is found to be strongly influenced by the particle surface energy, with a positive relationship observed between the two. Particle agglomeration is found to be enhanced in two separate regions within the channel. First, in the near-wall region due to the high particle concentration there driven by turbophoresis, and secondly in the buffer region where the high turbulence intensity enhances particle–particle interactions.     

Ni2V2O7 dandelion microsphere for a high-performance electrocatalyst in water splitting

Water splitting is an effective way to produce hydrogen to solve the energy crisis problem, and inorganic metal compounds are widely used in electrocatalysis field due to efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we synthesize Ni₂V₂O₇ dandelion microsphere from nickel nitrate and vanadium pentoxide by “one-step hydrothermal” way, which exhibits large specific surface area of 102.74 m² g⁻¹. The as-prepared Ni₂V₂O₇ microsphere shows good electrocatalysis performances including OER overpotential of 358 mV and good stability, as well as HER overpotential of 195 mV. Furthermore, the Ni₂V₂O₇ microsphere electrode is assembled to Ni₂V₂O₇ microsphere//Ni₂V₂O₇ microsphere system, showing the water splitting voltage of 1.50 V at 10 mA cm⁻² by two-electrode method, which is much lower than those of commercial RuO₂//Pt/C system and most of spinel oxides electrocatalysts. Our work opens up a new and facile avenue for fabricating inorganic microsphere electrocatalyst in hydrogen production field.     

Compiler compatible 5.66 Mb/mm2 8T 1R1W register file in 14 nm FinFET technology

1-read/1-write (1R1W) register file (RF) is a popular memory configuration in modern feature rich SoCs requiring significant amount of embedded memory. A memory compiler is constructed using the 8T RF bitcell spanning a range of instances from 32 b to 72 Kb. An 8T low-leakage bitcell of 0.106 μm² is used in a 14 nm FinFET technology with a 70 nm contacted gate pitch for high-density (HD) two-port (TP) RF memory compiler which achieves 5.66 Mb/mm² array density for a 72 Kb array which is the highest reported density in 14 nm FinFET technology. The density improvement is achieved by using techniques such as leaf-cell optimization (eliminating transistors), better architectural planning, top level connectivity through leaf-cell abutment and minimizing the number of unique leaf-cells. These techniques are fully compatible with memory compiler usage over the required span. Leakage power is minimized by using power-switches without degrading the density mentioned above. Self-induced supply voltage collapse technique is applied for write and a four stack static keeper is used for read Vmin improvement. Fabricated test chips using 14 nm process have demonstrated 2.33 GHz performance at 1.1 V/25 °C operation. Overall V_min of 550 mV is achieved with this design at 25 °C. The inbuilt power-switch improves leakage power by 12x in simulation. Approximately 8% die area of a leading 14 nm SoC in commercialization is occupied by these compiled RF instances.     

A three-dimensional FE analysis of large deformations for impact loadings using tetrahedral elements

 A three-dimensional dynamic program for the anaysis of large deformations in contact-penetration problems is developed using the finite element Lagrangian method with explicit time integration. By incorporating a tetrahedral element, which allows a single-point integration without a special hourglass control scheme, this program can be more effective to the present problem. The position code algorithm is used to search contact surface. Eroding surfaces are also considered. The defense node algorithm was slightly modified for the calculation of contact forces. A study of obliquity effects on metallic plate perforation and ricochet processes in thin plates impacted by a sphere was conducted. It is well simulated that on separation of two parts of the sphere, the portion still within the crater tends to perforate, while the portion in contact with the plate surface ricochets. This deformation pattern is observed in experiments, especially at high obliquities. A long rod that impacts an oblique steel plate at high impact velocity was also simulated in order to study the dynamics of the rod caused by the three dimensional asymmetric contact. The agreement between simulated and experimental results is quite good. Fracture phenomena occuring at high obliquity deserves further investigations. Received: 20 February 2002 / Accepted: 20 September 2002     

On a large-gain theorem

The aim of this paper is to give a general quantitative requirement which the loop gain must satisfy in order to stabilize a given unstable (possibly nonlinear and time-varying) plant, namely that the gain must exceed one.     

兼使水流转向的非对称窄缝挑坎

讨论了兼有水流转向功能的一级非对称直线边壁窄缝的设计方法与水力特性，两边墙转向角之差即为水流转向角，两边墙转角相等时出口水流的水深和佛汝德数也分别相等。按在窄缝出口前形成完整幅射流的条件，讨论了兼有转向功能的非对称曲线边墙窄缝的设计方法与水力特性。比较了六种体型(三种对称、三种非对称)窄缝在八种工况对泄槽底板的冲击压强，实测结果表明，非对称性越强冲击压强越小。     

Precision equipment for symmetrical bending— Part 1. The loading system

The design and performance of precision bending equipment for testing straight beams with constant rectangular section under a pure bending moment is described. Part 1 deals with the loading arrangements and Part 2 with the rig for measuring beam deflection. The methods for recording deflection of strain gauges applied on the beam have been described elsewhere.^1–4
The reactions to the deadweight gravity loads are taken via ball bearings. The total bending moment inaccuracy, i.e. the sum of estimated systematic errors and random errors, the latter expressed as the 2Ga confidence interval about the mean (2G_cim), is about ± 25 x. 10^-4%, for 23 tests with a steel beam with 15 mm × 75 mm cross sectional dimensions, loaded to 1-1.5 mm/m strain.
The measuring rig stands on the beam via hardened and polished spherical segment feet and uses a capacitive transducer system with less than 5nm resolution. Various application tasks are described. The total inaccuracy of the measured deflection, i.e. apart from bending moment inaccuracy, is about ± 35 times 10^4% for about 10 reproduced, not repeated, tests with the same steel beam. The deflection for such a beam is of the order of 2 to 4 mm.     

Aspects of rapid crack propagation in silicon

Fracture experiments with silicon specimens in recent years have shown the need for a new approach to the analysis of rapidly propagating cracks in single crystals. Behaviour and phenomena have been revealed that fracture in these materials is rather different from the fracture of both amorphous and polycrystalline materials. We show that continuum mechanics is insufficient for analyzing crack propagation in single crystals since it is unable to consider atomistic‐scale phenomena. Accordingly, we describe basic phenomena associated with rapid crack propagation in silicon : (i) anisotropic velocity‐dependent R‐curve behaviour, as a key phenomenon dictating atomistic scale behaviour, (ii) crack deflection from one cleavage plane to another as a mesoscopic scale phenomenon in single‐crystal fracture, (iii) the Rayleigh surface wave speed as the limiting crack tip velocity is re‐examined, (vi) the lowest crack velocity in brittle crystals is examined, and finally (v) the interaction between crack path and preferred cleavage planes in single crystals is depicted.