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The non-convex complementarity constraints present a fundamental computational challenge in energy constrained optimization problems. In this work, we present a new, linear, and robust battery optimization formulation that sidesteps the need for battery complementarity constraints and integers and prove analytically that the formulation guarantees that all energy constraints are satisfied which ensures that the optimized battery dispatch is physically realizable. In addition, we bound the worst-case model mismatch and discuss conservativeness. Simulation results further illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

s Recently, super gas wet and gas wet surfaces have been extensively attended in petroleum industry, as supported by the increasing number of publications in the last decade related to wettability alteration in gas condensate reservoirs. In many cases, contact angle measurement has been employed to assess the wettability alteration. Even though contact angle measurement seems to be a straightforward approach, there exist many misuses of this technique and consequently misinterpretation of the corresponding results. In this regard, a critical inspection of the most recent updated concepts and the intervening parameters in the contact angle based wettability evaluation of liquid-solid-gas systems could aid to provide some remediation to alleviate this problem. To this end, this work presents a survey on the accurate terms and rigorous protocols based on the community of surface science and chemistry. As a preliminary step, advancing, receding, static, and the most stable contact angle terminology are defined. The study is followed by the definition of the contact angle hysteresis effect. The application of surface free energy in the selection of the best gas wet agent is then analyzed. Afterward, the impact of the size-dependent behavior of drop on contact angle is discussed. Finally, a sessile drop experiment is explained to achieve the defined parameters. For future contributions to petroleum industry journals, like this journal, this work could offer an easy use of the conceptual framework for analyzing the results and comparative evaluations in chemical wettability modifier agents.

Cooling enhances the energy conversion efficiency and output of photovoltaic (PV) panels. In this work, the effects of natural convection, forced convection, and evaporative cooling on the performance of polycrystalline PV panels were investigated. The output and efficiency of a cooled PV panel were monitored and compared to those of an uncooled PV panel under the same conditions. The cooling was conducted using an insulated channel installed below a PV panel. Natural convection cooling was investigated for various channel air gaps (H = 30, 60, 90, and 120 mm). Natural convection currents in the cooling channels were capable of cooling the panel with wide air gaps. In forced convection cooling, the air was introduced by fans installed at the bottom opening of the cooling channel with various air velocities (ua = 1, 2, and 3 m/s). Evaporative natural convection cooling was performed by a wetted fabric along the lower surface of the cooling channel, whereas evaporative forced convection cooling by pushing air along the wetted lower surface of the channel. The experimental data showed that the panel efficiency and output increased due to cooling. The experimental results of natural convection cooling revealed that the use of an air gap of 120 mm to cool the solar panel contributed to an increase in the panel daily energy production and efficiency by 1.7% and 1.2%, respectively. For forced convection cooling, using air at a speed of 3 m/s increased the daily energy production by 4.4% and the efficiency by 4%. Natural convection evaporative cooling increased the daily energy production and the efficiency by 3.6% and 2.7%, respectively. Forced convection evaporative cooling contributed, at a speed of 2 m/s, to an increase in the daily energy production by 3.8% and an increase in efficiency of 3.8%.

The tool and die applications are preferred the unconventional machining processes as they are popular in machining the difficult to cut type complex contour/ profile. The complex profile machined on hard material. Some special materials like Stainless Steel 12X18H10T withstand its inherent properties even it exposes at higher temperature. This investigation aims to expand its application by investigating its machinability in Electro Chemical machining process for surface finish. The process parameters like gap between work material and tool, discharge current, concentration of electrolyte and applied voltage at three levels. The Taguchi approach is used for optimizing the process parameters and confirmation runs also conducted for developing the mathematical modelling. For optimizing number of experiment the Taguchi L9 is utilized for this investigation.

In the present paper, we have studied the dependence of thermal conductivity on shape, size and dimension of nanomaterial. By using the quantitative expression of melting temperature, the expression for thermal conductivity is deduced in this work. Kapitza resistance term is also considered in the study to better explain the thermal conductivity variation in nanomaterials with scattering effect on thermal properties. The thermal conductivity is found to decreased as size of nanomaterials decease. The variation in thermal conductivity with size is calculated for nanowire, nanofilm, spherical, regular tetrahedral particle, regular octahedral particle, and regular icosahedral particle shapes. The results calculated in the present work are compared with the available experimental results to judge the validity of the present model.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs), as one of the most promising candidates for efficient energy storage devices with high energy, power density and high safety, have attracted increasing attention. However, searching for suitable cathode materials with fast diffusion kinetics and exploring their magnesium storage mechanisms remains a great challenge. CuS submicron spheres, made by a facile low-temperature synthesis strategy, were applied as the high-performance cathode for RMBs in this work, which can deliver a high specific capacity of 396 mAh g−1 at 20 mA g−1 and a remarkable rate capacity of 250 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1. The excellent rate performance can be assigned to the nano needle-like particles on the surface of CuS submicron spheres, which can facilitate the diffusion kinetics of Mg2+. Further storage mechanism investigations illustrate that the CuS cathodes experience a two-step conversion reaction controlled by diffusion during the electrochemical reaction process. This work could make a contribution to the study of the enhancement of diffusion kinetics of Mg2+ and the reaction mechanism of RMBs.

When agricultural goods begin to be transported by those temperatures where value added products can be transported, cold room assessments in industrial applications must be validated. Computational feedback can improve the process consistency. Data on coolant and boundary dynamics can be evaluated by means of computer fluid dynamics (CFD). Air speed and air temperature are the distribution parameters in this analysis. When the vegetable temperature is preserved with less variations in the storage room, as well as the required air distribution, the best effects of proper preservations are achieved. With proper air circulation, temperature difference is minimised. Air speed is necessary to protect the cold storage of agricultural products. This project's main objective was to observe the decrease in temperature when PCMs are used within the cold storage space. Most of the experimental results demonstrated that in the event of regular openings of doors, also in the context of electricity failures using PCM, the temperature retained inside the cool space was 1–4.5 °C lower than without PCM, even in the cases of electrical failures using PCM. The present study focuses on applying guidelines to enhance cold room technology for improved outcomes in cold storage. Present work discussed about the reference methods and the techniques used in previous literature with future recommendations.

The aim of this work is to study the rigidity problem for Steiner's inequality for the anisotropic perimeter, that is, the situation in which the only extremals of the inequality are vertical translations of the Steiner symmetral that we are considering. Our main contribution consists in giving conditions under which rigidity in the anisotropic setting is equivalent to rigidity in the Euclidean setting. Such conditions are given in term of a restriction to the possible values of the normal vectors to the boundary of the Steiner symmetral (see Corollary 1.17, and Corollary 1.18).

In this work, multi-variable derivative-free optimization algorithms for unconstrained optimization problems are developed. A novel procedure for approximating the gradient of multi-variable objective functions based on non-commutative maps is introduced. The procedure is based on the construction of an exploration sequence to specify where the objective function is evaluated and the definition of so-called gradient generating functions which are composed with the objective function such that the procedure mimics a gradient descent algorithm. Various theoretical properties of the proposed class of algorithms are investigated and numerical examples are presented.

The generalized exponential rational function (GERF) method is used in this work to obtain analytic wave solutions to the Kudryashov-Sinelshchikov (KS) equation. The KS equation depicts the occurrence of pressure waves in mixtures of liquid-gas bubbles while accounting for thermal expansion and viscosity. By applying the GERF method to the KS equation, we obtain analytic solutions in terms of trigonometric, hyperbolic, and exponential functions, among others. These solutions include solitary wave solutions, dark-bright soliton solutions, singular soliton solutions, singular bell-shaped solutions, traveling wave solutions, rational form solutions, and periodic wave solutions. We discuss the two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics of some obtained solutions under the accurate range space by selecting appropriate values for the involved arbitrary parameters to make this research more praiseworthy. The obtained analytic wave solutions specify the GERF method’s dependability, capability, trustworthiness, and efficiency.

Torrefaction is a pretreatment method that converts biomass to a fuel-like substance that can replace coal for sustainable power generation. In this work, a thermodynamic-based process simulation model was developed to simulate the gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB), with torrefaction as pretreatment, to determine the optimum conditions; equivalence ratio, reactor temperature, torrefaction medium concentration, steam-to-biomass (S/B) ratio and system configuration were studied to determine their influence on hydrogen concentration, higher heating value (HHV), syngas ratio and cold gas efficiency (CGE). The highest hydrogen yield was obtained at an S/B ratio of 1.3 at 800 °C, with a syngas ratio of 2.5 and a CGE of 84%. Concentration of torrefaction medium showed no effect on hydrogen concentration due to the simplicity of the model used, but work is in progress in this direction. Therefore, steam gasification is more suitable than air gasification in hydrogen production.

In this work, the kinetics of the growth of austenite grains upon heating, the features of the processes of dynamic and static recrystallization occurring at various temperature-deformation modes of plastic deformation are investigated. Phase transformations have been studied during continuous cooling of hotdeformed austenite in low-alloy “Arc”-steel with a yield point of at least 420 MPa. The studies carried out made it possible to determine the thermal deformation parameters that ensure the formation of a finely dispersed homogeneous ferrite-bainitic structure, on the basis of which technological recommendations for industrial production were developed and sheet products were manufactured. Presented are the structure and properties of sheet metal from shipbuilding “Arc”-strength category 420 MPa.

The long-period stacking ordered phases (LPSOs) in Mg−Ni−Y system have been attracting great interest as effective strengthening components because of their unique structural characteristics and deformation mechanism. However, the phase relationships in LPSOs are complicated and unclear, which restricts the design of advanced magnesium-based alloys. The aim of the present work is to experimentally determine the phase equilibria relationships focusing on LPSOs and establish the thermodynamic description for Mg−Ni−Y system. Four types of LPSOs, that is, 14H, 12R, 18R and 10H, are confirmed through equilibrated alloys and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The formation enthalpies of LPSOs (14H, 12R, 18R and 10H) are calculated based on density functional theories (DFT) calculations. A new ternary compound, termed as τ phase, is observed for the first time which is likely to be the distorted structure of 12R as determined from the TEM image which shows a 12-layer closed packing plane distance of 3.252 nm and a shear angle of 83.2° between (0002) and (10 1 ¯ 0) planes. Based on the determined phase equilibria relationship, the Mg−Ni−Y system is assessed and a self-consistent description is obtained where the LPSOs are modeled as the stoichiometric compounds. The comparison between the calculation result and experimental data suggests the accuracy of the present thermodynamic database in the Mg-rich corner.

Rare-earth calcium oxyborate crystals (RECa4O(BO3)3, RECOB, RE: rare-earth elements) is a kind of multifunctional crystal materials. In this work, the temperature dependent behaviors of the electro-elastic constants for NdCOB crystal were investigated over the temperature range of –80–200 oC, and their temperature coefficients were evaluated. It is found that NdCOB possesses minimal variation of relative dielectric permittivities (

The fundamental understanding of the effects of rare earth (RE) on the phase transformation of Fe-based alloys is essential in the development of advanced RE-containing high strength steels. In this work, we investigated the effects of La and Ce on the martensitic phase transformation of Fe in terms of the driving force and minimum energy path (MEP) using the first-principles calculations. The calculations of formation energy show that the RE substitution increases the stabilization of fcc-Fe and decreases that of bcc-Fe, thus decrease the driving force of phase transformation. Meanwhile, the analysis based on the generalized solid-state nudged elastic band (G-SSNEB) method indicates that in the RE-containing systems, an additional energy barrier appears when the phase transformation proceeds along the Bain transition path to c/a ratio of 1.14 in the FM state, which is associated with a sudden decrease in magnetization due to the hybridization between the orbitals of the RE atoms and those of the nearest neighbor Fe atoms. The results of potential-energy surfaces (PES) confirm that magnetic ordering and lattice volume change simultaneously with the Bain transition, and in comparison with pure Fe, the variation between the onset and the end structural volumes of the phase transformation is slight for the RE-containing Fe systems.

Estimating oil recovery factors and oil reserves depend primarily on vertical, areal, and displacement efficiencies. This work presents a new accurate correlation to estimate the efficiency of the vertical sweep relevant to water/oil ratio (WOR), reservoir permeability variation (V), and water to oil mobility ratio (M). This correlation covers the mobility ratio of (0 ≤ M ≤ 10) and permeability variation of (0.3 ≤ V ≤ 0.8). The proposed mathematical correlation to estimate the efficiency of vertical sweep in the above range achieves a high correlation coefficient of 0.9999 with an average percentage error of −0.05 %, an average absolute percentage error of 0.53 %, and a standard deviation of 1.37 %. Furthermore, new graphical and mathematical correlations were proposed to determine the efficiency of vertical sweep and the correlating parameter (Y) covering a wide range of 0 ≤ M ≤ 50 and 0.1 ≤ V ≤ 0.9. These correlations achieve a high determination coefficient of 0.99 with an average percentage error of −0.039 %, an average absolute percentage error of 2.49 %, root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.018 and a standard deviation of 3.5. In addition to the proposed correlations, this work presents an artificial neural network model to calculate vertical sweep efficiency for the wide data range as a direct function of M, WOR, and V, with high accuracy as deduced from the calculated statistical error analysis. To the best of our knowledge, no published mathematical correlation covers this range of data presented in this work to calculate the vertical sweep efficiency.

In this work, a generalized unsteady magnetohydrodynamic transport of a rate type fluid near an unbounded upright plate is analyzed under Newtonian heating and non-uniform velocity conditions. The vertical plate is suspended in a porous medium and is encountering the radiation effects. Three different fractional models for Maxwell fluid are established by using the modern definitions of Atangana–Baleanu, Caputo–Fabrizio, and Caputo fractional operators. Triple fractional analysis is conducted to reach out to the solutions of consequent flow and energy equations. Laplace transform and Stehfest’s numerical algorithm are jointly applied to solve each fractional model. Shear stress and heat transfer rate are measured at the solid–fluid interface in the form of skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number respectively. The physical significance of associated parameters in velocity and energy boundary layers is investigated and graphs are provided to discuss the relevant physical arguments. A tabular analysis is performed to demonstrate the influence of physical parameters on shear stress and heat transfer rate. An empirical comparison between fractional and classical solutions indicates that fractional operators provide a better explanation of the physical features of the model. It is also analyzed that for Newtonian heating and non-uniform velocity conditions, the Atangana–Baleanu fractional operator is the finest fractional model to describe the memory effect of velocity and energy distribution. The velocity of a Maxwell fluid is always higher for constant velocity condition as compared to the ramped velocity condition. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate declines for increasing values of the fractional parameter α and a minimum value is witnessed for the classical model but, it follows an inverse trend when the radiation parameter R d increases.

This work focuses on the stability analysis of positive Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy descriptor systems with time-varying delays. An equivalent augmented system is constructed to investigate the positivity and stability of T-S fuzzy descriptor time-delay systems. By using this transformed system, a necessary and sufficient positivity condition is first derived for systems, which can be verified by linear programming (LP). Then, based on the positivity of T-S fuzzy descriptor systems, a sufficient condition is put forward for the asymptotic stability of systems with bounded and unbounded time-varying delays. Finally, several examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the obtained results.

In this work we study the distance distribution computation problem. It has been widely used in many real-world applications, e.g., human genome clustering, cosmological model analysis, and parameter tuning. The straightforward solution for the exact distance distribution computation problem is unacceptably slow due to (i) massive data size, and (ii) expensive distance computation. In this paper, we propose a novel method to compute approximate distance distributions with error bound guarantees. Furthermore, our method is generic to different distance measures. We conduct extensive experimental studies on three widely used distance measures with real-world datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms sampling-based solution (without error guarantees) by up to three orders of magnitude.

In order to reduce the possibility of structural fatigue and increase the lifetime of conveying fluid pipe, transverse vibration must be effectively eliminated. In this work, using parallel nonlinear energy sinks (NESs), a passive vibration controller is proposed to dissipate the vibration energy of the conveying fluid pipe. A high-order model of the conveying fluid pipe-parallel NESs system, in the form of partial differential equation, is derived and then converted into a quadratic form model containing the gradient information of a convex function. Combining the energy disturbance technique and first order convexity characteristic, the exponential stability of the closed-loop system is proved, which addresses the effectiveness of the proposed parallel NESs. Then, numerical simulations are given to verify the theoretical results and to illustrate the advantages of parallel NESs comparing with single NES. Finally, the reliability of the proposed approach is preliminarily verified through experiment.

The distributed optimization problem is set up in a collection of nodes interconnected via a communication network. The goal is to find the minimizer of a global objective function formed by the addition of partial functions locally known at each node. A number of methods are available for addressing this problem, having different advantages. The goal of this work is to achieve the maximum possible convergence rate. As the first step towards this end, we propose a new method which we show converges faster than other available options. As with most distributed optimization methods, convergence rate depends on a step size parameter. As the second step towards our goal we complement the proposed method with a fully distributed method for estimating the optimal step size that maximizes convergence speed. We provide theoretical guarantees for the convergence of the resulting method in a neighborhood of the solution. Also, for the case in which the global objective function has a single local minimum, we provide a different step size selection criterion together with theoretical guarantees for convergence. We present numerical experiments showing that, when using the same step size, our method converges significantly faster than its rivals. Experiments also show that the distributed step size estimation method achieves an asymptotic convergence rate very close to the theoretical maximum.

The solution behavior of a second element in the primary phase (α(Mg)) is important in the design of high-performance alloys. In this work, three sets of features have been collected: a) interaction features of solutes and Mg obtained from first-principles calculation, b) intrinsic physical properties of the pure elements and c) structural features. Based on the maximum solid solubility values, the solution behavior of elements in α(Mg) are classified into four types, e.g., miscible, soluble, sparingly-soluble and slightly-soluble. The machine learning approach, including random forest and decision tree algorithm methods, is performed and it has been found that four features, e.g., formation energy, electronegativity, non-bonded atomic radius, and work function, can together determine the classification of the solution behavior of an element in α(Mg). The mathematical correlations, as well as the physical relationships among the selected features have been analyzed. This model can also be applied to other systems following minor modifications of the defined features, if required.

This paper reports on analysis of an experimental study that aimed to determine the apparent gas permeability in cracked concrete. There is a lack of research on this topic in the international literature, due to the difficulty of performing reliable experimental testing for gas permeability. The principal interest of this work is to present new and reliable experimental results. Analytical functions between the evolution of the apparent crack permeability and the apparent crack opening are also proposed. These functions appear to be relevant in consideration of Poiseuille theory.

This paper presents some new criteria for partial exponential stability of a slow-fast nonlinear system with a fast scalar variable using periodic averaging methods. Unlike classical averaging techniques, we construct an averaged system by averaging over this fast scalar variable instead of the time variable. We then show that partial exponential stability of the averaged system implies partial exponential stability of the original one. As some intermediate results, we also obtain a new converse Lyapunov theorem and some perturbation theorems for partially exponentially stable systems. We then apply our established criteria to study remote synchronization of Kuramoto-Sakaguchi oscillators coupled by a star network with two peripheral nodes. We analytically show that detuning the natural frequency of the central mediating oscillator can increase the robustness of the remote synchronization against phase shifts.

Raman spectroscopy is commonly used to estimate peak temperatures in rocks containing organic carbon. In geological settings such as fold-thrust belts, temperature constraints are particularly important as complex burial and exhumation histories cannot easily be modelled. Many authors have developed equations to determine peak tempertaures from Raman spectral parameters, most recently to temperatures as low as 75 °C. However, recent work has shown that Raman spectra can be affected by strain as well as temperature. Fold-thrust systems are often highly deformed on multiple scales, with deformation characterised by faults and shear zones, and therefore temperatures derived from Raman spectra in these settings may be erroneous. In this study, we investigate how the four most common Raman spectral parameters and ratios change through a thrust-stacked carbonate sequence. By comparing samples from relatively low-strain localities to those on thrust planes and in shear zones, we show maximum differences of 0.16 for I[d]/I[g] and 0.11 for R2, while FWHM[d] and Raman Band Separation show no significant change between low and high strained samples. Plausible frictional heating temperatures of faulted samples suggest that the observed changes in Raman spectra are not the result of frictional heating. We apply three equations used to derive the peak temperatures from Raman spectra to our data to investigate the implications on predicted temperatures between strained and unstrained samples. All three equations produce different temperature gradients with depth in unstrained samples. We observe that individual equations exhibit apparently varying sensitivities to strain, but calculated temperatures can be up to 140 °C different for adjacent strained and unstrained samples using the same temperature equation. These results have implications for how temperatures are determined in strained rock samples from Raman spectra.

Low dimensional sp3 carbon nanostructures have attracted increasing attention recently, due to their unique properties and appealing applications. Based on in silico studies, this work exploits the impacts from functional groups on the tensile properties of carbon nanothreads (NTH) – a new sp3 carbon nanostructure. It is found that functional groups will alter the local bond configuration and induce initial stress concentration, which significantly reduces the fracture strain/strength of NTH. Different functional types lead to different local bond re-configurations, and introduce different impacts on NTH. Further studies reveal that the tensile properties decreases generally when the content of functional groups increases. However, some NTHs with higher content of functional groups exhibit higher fracture strain/strength than their counterparts with lower percentage. Such observations are attributed to the synergetic effects from the sample length, self-oscillation, and distribution of functional groups. Simulations show that the tensile behaviour of NTH with the same functional percentage differs when the distribution pattern varies. Overall, ethyl groups are found to induce larger degradation on the tensile properties of NTH than methyl and phenyl groups. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the influence from functional groups, which should be beneficial to the engineering applications of NTH.

Granular matter can exhibit solid or liquid behavior, which contains complex physical mechanisms. In this work, we experimentally investigated the structural relaxation and avalanche dynamics of particle piles under vertical vibration. The influence of vibration parameters on the avalanche process was studied. The morphological features of avalanches were recorded and classified using high-speed camera. The effects of vibration parameters and particle properties on the relaxation mode are obtained. It is found that the evolution of particle pile height with time can be described by an exponential decay function. The relaxation rate and avalanche characteristics of four types of particles with different sizes are discussed. At the same acceleration level, for two larger particles, a smaller amplitude (A = 0.025 mm) leads to a faster relaxation rate, while for two smaller particles, a large amplitude (A = 0.500 mm) leads to a faster relaxation rate. The analogy powder surface tension is introduced to address the cohesion and flowability evolution of particles under vibration.

Liquid–solid fluidized beds (LSFB) modeling validation is crucial for establishing design rules and monitoring tools. However, it generally relies on comparing global variables, which overlook dynamic features that influence reaction outputs. This work aims to implement time series analysis tools to compare Radioactive Particle Tracking data with a simulation consisting of Computational Fluid Dynamics coupled with Discrete-Element Method. Experiments have been performed in a pilot-scale LSFB of calcium alginate spheres fluidized with a calcium chloride solution. The Diks’ test indicates that the simulation can capture the LSFB behavior. It also allows diagnosing flow regime transitions from the simulation. Trends of solid dispersion coefficients and mixing times predicted by the simulation are in good agreement with the experiments.

Poisson Voronoi (PV) tessellations as artificial microstructures are widely used in investigations of material deformation behaviors. However, a PV structure usually describes a relative homogeneous field. This work presents a simple numerical method for generating 2D/3D artificial microstructures based on hierarchical PV tessellations. If grains/particles of a phase cover a large size span, the concept of “artificial phases” can be used to create a more realistic size distribution. From case to case, detailed microstructural features cannot be directly achieved by commercial or free softwares, but they are necessary for a deep or thorough study of the material deformation behavior. PV tessellations created in our process can fulfill individual requirements from material designs. Another reason to use PV tessellations is due to the limited experimental data. Concerning the application of PV microstructures, four examples are given. The FE models and results will be presented in consecutive works, i.e. “part II: applications”., Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Projekt DEAL

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a promising technology that requires further work to improve productivity to be adopted more widely. One possible approach is to increase the laser power and scan ...

Microdroplets and their dispersion, with a large specific surface area and a short diffusion distance, have been applied in various unit operations and reaction processes. However, it is still a challenge to control the size and size distribution of microdroplets, especially for high-throughput generation. In this work, a novel ultra-high speed rotating packed bed (UHS-RPB) was invented, in which rotating foam packing with a speed of 4000–12000 r·min–1 provides microfluidic channels to disperse liquid into microdroplets with high throughput. Then generated microdroplets can be directly dispersed into a continuous falling film for obtaining a mixture of microdroplet dispersion. In this UHS-RPB, the effects of rotational speed, liquid initial velocity, liquid viscosity, liquid surface tension and packing pore size on the average size (d32) and size distribution of microdroplets were systematically investigated. Results showed that the UHS-RPB could produce microdroplets with a d32 of 25–63 μm at a liquid flow rate of 1025 L·h–1, and the size distribution of the microdroplets accords well with Rosin–Rammler distribution model. In addition, a correlation was established for the prediction of d32, and the predicted d32 was in good agreement with the experimental data with a deviation within ±15%. These results demonstrated that UHS-RPB could be a promising candidate for controllable preparation of uniform microdroplets.

An optimal switching heating control strategy based on minimum margin (OS-MM) is proposed for high efficiency, low energy consumption, and high-uniformity fine control in a large-scale vertical quench furnace. This work was stimulated by the need for solving the contradiction between the heating rate and temperature overshoot to achieve a rapid rise in temperature with no overshoot. Based on a three-dimensional (3-D) transient temperature field model of the quenching furnace, the temperature field optimization control problem is transformed into a boundary optimization control problem of rapid heating, whereby it is rigorously proved that the fastest rise in temperature is attained by the full-power heating, which satisfies the bang-bang characteristics. The key parameter that determines the overshoot in the full-power heating mode is introduced and defined as the minimum margin in the temperature-rising process. The analytical expression for solving the minimum margin is calculated by the eigenfunction expansion method and using the strong metal thermal inertia of the internal temperature field, the OS-MM method is designed to stop the heating in advance at a calculated switching point to optimize full-power heating, thus conserving energy by reducing its consumption. The results of simulation and industrial experiments show that this strategy greatly shortens the temperature adjusting time, significantly reduces energy consumption, and effectively improves the control performance indices, such as overshoot and static error in the temperature holding period of the thermal treatment process, as compared to the existing heating methods.

Multiphase electric drives offer attractive advantages over conventional three-phase systems. Some of the benefits are shared by all multiphase configurations, but the performance can be highly affected by the specific location of the stator windings. While the asymmetrical configuration has been traditionally a popular choice, the symmetrical disposition in even-phase machines has a main advantage: it is possible to generate - voltages without any contribution in different x-y subspaces. This work explains and demonstrates this feature for the general case of distributed-winding symmetrical n-phase machines, with n being an even number. Fortunately, direct controllers can benefit from this characteristic by exclusively selecting voltage states with only - voltage production. To illustrate this capability, a finite-control-set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) using these special voltage states is also suggested in this work for symmetrical six-phase electric drives. This approach provides a greater simplicity and much less current distortion than in standard FCS-MPC for the asymmetrical configuration. Comparative experimental results confirm the minimal x-y injection of symmetrical configurations thanks to the proposed control actions (i.e., voltage states).

In this work, we introduce the notion of dG-Choquet integral, which generalizes the discrete Choquet integral replacing, in the first place, the difference between inputs represented by closed subintervals of the unit interval [0,1] by a dissimilarity function; and we also replace the sum by more general appropriate functions. We show that particular cases of dG-Choquet integral are both the discrete Choquet integral and the d-Choquet integral. We define interval-valued fuzzy measures and we show how they can be used with dG-Choquet integrals to define an interval-valued discrete Choquet integral which is monotone with respect to admissible orders. We finally study the validity of this interval-valued Choquet integral by means of an illustrative example in a classification problem. © 2021 This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, under project PID2019-108392GB-I00 (AEI/10.13039/501100011033), by the project PJUPNA-1926 of the Public University of Navarre and by the project VEGA 1/0267/21 .

Since the multi-layered structures are widely used nowadays, and due to interesting applications of cylindrical shells, this study is dedicated to analyzing free vibrational behaviors of functionally graded saturated porous micro cylindrical shells with two nanocomposite skins. Based on Biot's assumptions, constitutive relations for the core are presented and effective properties of the skins are determined via the rule of mixture. A sinusoidal theory is used to capture the shear deformation effects, and to account for the scale effects, the modified couple stress theory is employed which suggests a material length-scale parameter for predicting the results in small-dimension. With the aid of extended form of Hamilton's principle for dynamic systems, differential equations of motion are extracted. Fourier series functions are used to obtain natural frequencies and after validating them, a set of parametric studies are carried out. The results show the significant effects of porosity and Skempton coefficient, pores placement patterns, CNTs addition and distribution patterns, temperature variations, material length-scale parameter and viscoelastic medium on the natural frequencies of the microstructure. The outcomes of this work could be used to design and manufacture more reliable micro cylindrical structures in thermo-dynamical environments.

This work investigates three nonlinear equations that describe waves on the oceans which are the Kadomtsev Petviashvili-modified equal width (KP-MEW) equation, the coupled Drinfel’d-Sokolov-Wilson (DSW) equation, and the Benjamin-Ono (BO) equation using the modified ( G ′ G 2 ) -expansion approach. The solutions of proposed equations by modified ( G ′ G 2 ) -expansion approach can be trigonometric, hyperbolic, or rational solutions. As a result, some new exact solutions are obtained and plotted.

Value iteration is a fixed point iteration technique utilized to obtain the optimal value function and policy in a discounted reward Markov Decision Process (MDP). Here, a contraction operator is constructed and applied repeatedly to arrive at the optimal solution. Value iteration is a first order method and therefore it may take a large number of iterations to converge to the optimal solution. Successive relaxation is a popular technique that can be applied to solve a fixed point equation. It has been shown in the literature that, under a special structure of the MDP, successive over-relaxation technique computes the optimal value function faster than standard value iteration. In this work, we propose a second order value iteration procedure that is obtained by applying the Newton-Raphson method to the successive relaxation value iteration scheme. We prove the global convergence of our algorithm to the optimal solution asymptotically and show the second order convergence. Through experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach., Comment: Accepted for publication at IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

Particle size and content of RDX are the two main factors that affect the burning stability of RDX-based propellants. However, these effects and the corresponding mechanisms are still controversial. In this work, we investigated the physicochemical processes during burning and the corresponding mechanisms through the technologies of structure compactness analysis on the base of voidage measurement and theoretical interfacial area estimation, apparent burning rate measurement using closed vessel (CV) and extinguished burning surface characterization relying on interrupted closed vessel (ICV) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicate that the voidage increased with the increase of RDX content and particle size due to the increasing interfacial area and increasing interface gap size, respectively. The apparent burning rate increased with the increase of RDX particle size because of the decreasing RDX specific surface area on the burning surface, which could decrease the heat absorbing rates of the melting and evaporation processes of RDX in the condensed phase. Similarly, the apparent burning rate decreased with the increase of RDX content at pressures lower than around 55 MPa due to the increasing RDX specific surface area. Whereas, an opposite trend could be observed at pressures higher than around 55 MPa, which was attributed to the increasing heat feedback from the gas phase as the result of the increasing propellant energy. For propellants containing very coarse RDX particles, such as 97.8 and 199.4 μm average size, the apparent burning rate increased stably with a flat extinguished surface at pressures lower than around 30 MPa, while increased sharply above around 30 MPa with the extinguished surface becoming more and more rugged as the pressure increased. In addition, the turning degree of u-p curve increased with the increase of coarse RDX content and particle size, and could be reduced by improving the structure compactness.

Formation of galvanic cells between constituent phases is largely responsible for corrosion in Mg-based alloys. We develop a methodology to calculate the electrochemical potentials of intermetallic compounds and alloys using a simple model based on the Born-Haber cycle. Calculated electrochemical potentials are used to predict and control the formation of galvanic cells and minimize corrosion. We demonstrate the applicability of our model by minimizing galvanic corrosion in Mg-3wt%Sr-xZn alloy by tailoring the Zn composition. The methodology proposed in this work is applicable for any general alloy system and will facilitate efficient design of corrosion resistant alloys.

This work uses a computational fluid dynamics approach to evaluate the ability of the aft element of a slotted, natural-laminar-flow airfoil, designed for transonic applications, to function as a h...

This study is concerned with the stability analysis for the fuzzy-based sampled-data control (SDC) systems which is based on a fractional parameter-based refined looped Lyapunov functional (RLLF). To do this, with the help of the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy method, a SDC can be designed. To derive sufficient criteria, a RLLF with information about the sampling period is proposed. In the RLLF, a fractional parameter is introduced and it has more information on the splitted sampling intervals and delayed states with a fractional parameter. The derived criteria guarantee the asymptotic stability of the proposed system with a $H_{\infty}$ attenuation level. To validate the derived conditions, a state-space model of nonlinear permanent magnet synchronous motor is proposed. Besides, comparison examples are conducted for analyzing the less conservatism of the merit of the proposed methods. Finally, the simulation outcomes have illustrated the superiority of the work.

We develop efficient algorithms for determining the number of global cubic fields of given discriminant. They are based on earlier work of Hasse for cubic number fields. Our new ingredients allow to enlarge the range of computations considerably. For explicit calculations we used Magma.

In this work, thermodynamic and kinetic factors that affect formation and phase transformation process of different solid forms of levofloxacin hydrochloride were investigated in detail. Dynamic vapor sorption experiments (DVS) and varying temperature-powder X-ray diffraction (VT-PXRD) experiments were carried out to study moisture-dependent stability, thermal stability as well as the transformation process between Form I and Form II. Critical water activities of levofloxacin hydrochloride were determined in temperature range of 5.0–45.0 °C. Raman spectroscopy was applied to in situ monitor the temperature-induced phase transformation and the hydration process of levofloxacin hydrochloride, and one possible mechanism consisting of multiple chemical equilibria was proposed to analyze the effect of thermodynamic and kinetic factors on the formation and transformation of different solid forms. Results show that the anhydrate, Form II would transform to the monohydrate, Form I more easily with the increasing water content. And the transition point moves toward higher water contents as the temperature increases. The results suggested that, except for thermodynamic factors, kinetic factors also play an essential role in controlling the solid forms of polymorphic compounds.

In the current work, a solar-based energy plant that includes an organic Rankine cycle, an NH 3 − LiNO 3 operated refrigeration system, reverse osmosis desalination, and hydrogen production device are integrated, modeled, and optimized. A parametric examination is designed with Matlab software to show the impact of varying primary system variables on outputs like system total energy, exergy efficiency, and total exergy output. All processes have been carried out for different working fluids, namely iso-butane, Propane, n-octane, and the results are compared. Parametric analysis reveals that at solar radiation of 800 W/m2, which is reasonable for the sun in most of the Middle East, selecting n-Octane as a working media results in an increase in the hydrogen production rate of about 150%. This also confirms the importance of selecting the right working fluid for the ORC unit. Moreover, the influence of substantial decision variables on the hydrogen production, net out pout power, exergy efficiency indicated that multi-criteria optimization is necessary. The multi-objective optimization strategy suggests the TIP = 1753 kPa, Toil = 99 °C , η i s t u r = 0.9, η i s p u m p = 0.87, and AHeliostat = 2800 m2, for the optimum state of the studied system. Additionally, the scatter distribution and sensitivity analysis for optimum point introduced by multi-criteria optimization utilized for better understanding the optimization process.

In the present work, the performance improvement of a waste heat recovery system is investigated by applying a fuel cell and thermoelectric generator. With the use of energy, exergy, exergo-economic, and environmental analyses (4E analysis), the performance of the improved system is evaluated. A mathematical simulation in the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) is developed for basic and modified systems. Comparative analysis is carried out to demonstrate the benefit of the suggested system. The logical and correct combination of appropriate subsystems can lead to the maximum exploitation of an energy source, which is the innovation of the present work. The comparison of suggested system (PR/FC-TEG) with the CHP system indicates that the net output power of the PR/FC-TEG system is 3881 kW compared with 958.4 kW for the CHP system. However adding fuel cell to the PR/FC-TEG system increase output power by about 2162 kW, and it imposes 4823 kW exergy destruction rate to the system. The exergy destruction rate of the PEM FC, regenerator, and vapor generator are about 88.96% of the total exergy destruction rate, which infers the importance of these components in the PR/FC-TEG system improvement. Parametric analysis on the PR/FC-TEG performance with changing four influencing parameters is performed. Results indicate that increasing the turbine 1 inlet temperature by about 1.1% increases the cost of generated electricity from 72.92 to 73.88 $/GJ and decreases the sustainability index from 1.68 to 1.65. The multi-objective optimization of the developed system can be a promising option for future study.

The quantized guaranteed cost static output feedback control problem is investigated for a class of discrete-time nonlinear networked control systems in this article. The Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model is put to use for the representation of considered nonlinear networked control systems, where local nonlinear models instead of local linear models are used in the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model. Two different dynamic quantizers are applied to quantize the control input and measurement output, respectively. Different from some previous work, a novel guaranteed cost performance function including the quantized control input is used in this article. Through using the S-procedure and introducing some auxiliary scalars, sufficient conditions for the design of guaranteed cost static output feedback controller and dynamic quantizers are obtained in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, the applicability of the proposed method is illustrated through the application in nonlinear mass-spring-damper mechanical system.

In our previous work, a partially decoupled process (PDP) was proposed for efficient conversion of ethane to increase the ethylene yield and a new structural reactor called forward-impinging-back reactor (FIB) was proposed for scale-up. In this work, the influence of changing the composition and temperature of the heat carrier was investigated by simulations with detailed chemistry to further increase of the C2 (C2H2 + C2H4) yield in the PDP of ethane. At ideal mixing conditions, the C2 yield is 75.3% without steam addition and it is 82.9% at steam addition ratio of β =1.4. In comparison, the C2 yield in an FIB reactor is 62.4% without steam addition and it increases to 78.5% with steam addition (β =1.4). The requirement of high mixing efficiency is diminished by steam addition, which is favorable for reactor scale-up.

This work looks into a matter of the adaptive fast finite-time tracking control for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems. To begin with, an adequate qualification is provided for the practical fast finite-time stability. Second of all, based upon this adequate qualification, a new adaptive fuzzy control scheme is presented. Due to the appearance of the stochastic disturbance, the criterions of the existing fast finite-time stability cannot be applied to the analysis of the stability of the stochastic nonlinear systems. In order to solve this issue, on the basis of Lemma 6, an original criterion of the fast finite-time stability is constructed firstly in Lemma 7 by using the theorem of integral mean value. Meanwhile, it would have a huge impact on the analysis of the fast finite-time stability for the stochastic nonlinear systems. Finally, a simulation example is carried out for evaluating the validity of the main result.

Pursuing long-term climate stabilisation scenarios subjects power, heat, industry, and transport sectors to undergo fundamental transitions towards fully renewable energy systems. Cost-efficient strategies involve the integration of energy vectors, introducing additional cross-sectoral electricity demand and flexibility for traditional power sectors. When performing cross-sectoral capacity expansion planning (CEP) analyses of low-carbon energy systems for decision making support, the underlying mathematical optimisation problems easily become intractable. To overcome the computational challenges of optimising real-world instances of future energy systems with adequate representations of temporal, spatial, and technological detail, this work investigates different modelling approaches for flexible heat pump systems at the power and heat sector interface of the long-term energy system model SCOPE SD. A comparative case study carried out for a net-neutral decarbonisation scenario in Europe and Germany highlights the implications of using model aggregation techniques. It is shown that the proposed modelling approaches can present computational benefits at only limited cost of result accuracy. However, poorly implemented grouping strategies can lead to high result inaccuracies and even a lack of performance improvements.

A solid-liquid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has attracted increasing research interest in relation to the development of regeneration energy based on water resources. The output of solid-liquid TENG remains unsolved, however, because of the low voltage output that impedes wide applications. To this end, in this work we developed a miniaturized microfluidic channel-based TENG device for highly efficient conversion of energy from the transport of a water droplet to an electrical output. We investigated an optimized design in a triboelectric material, the droplet transport and the electrostatic induction layer to provide a high voltage output and stable energy harvesting. The optimized device demonstrated maximum voltage amplitude 102 mV with an ultralow liquid consumption, 0.36 [Formula: see text], resulting in sample-energy conversion 283.33 mV/ [Formula: see text]. This novel device is expected potentially to address the limitations imposed by sample consumption in energy harvesting in the future.