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The function of displacements of external contour points of a friction pair hub that could provide minimization of stress state of a hub was determined on the basis of minimax criterion. The problem is to decrease stress state at that place where it is important. The rough friction surface model is used. To solve a problem of optimal design of friction unit the closed system of algebraic equations is constructed. Increase of serviceability of friction pair parts may be controlled by design-engineering methods, in particular by geometry of triboconjugation elements. Minimization of maximum circumferential stress on contact surface of friction unit is of great importance in the design stage for increasing the serviceability of friction pair. The obtained function of displacements of the hub’s external contour points provides the serviceability of friction pair elements. The calculation of friction pair for oil-well sucker-rod pumps is considered as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harmony Search (HS) method is an emerging metaheuristic optimization algorithm, which has been employed to cope with numerous challenging tasks during the past decade. In this paper, the essential theory and applications of the HS algorithm are first described and reviewed. Several typical variants of the original HS are next briefly explained. As an example of case study, a modified HS method inspired by the idea of Pareto-dominance-based ranking is also presented. It is further applied to handle a practical wind generator optimal design problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a technique for identifying dynamic loads acting on a structure based on impulse response of the structure, also referred to as the system Markov parameters, and structure response measured at optimally placed sensors on the structure. Inverse Markov parameters are computed from the forward Markov parameters using a linear prediction algorithm and have the roles of input and output reversed. The applied loads are then reconstructed by convolving the inverse Markov parameters with the system response to the loads measured at optimal locations on the structure. The structure essentially acts as its own load transducer. It has been noted that the computation of inverse Markov parameters, like most other inverse problems, is ill-conditioned which causes their convolution with the measured response to become quite sensitive to errors in system modeling and response measurements. The computation of inverse Markov parameters (and thereby the quality of load estimates) depends on the locations of sensors on the structure. To ensure that the computation of inverse Markov parameters is well-conditioned, a solution approach, based on the construction of D-optimal designs, is presented to determine the optimal sensor locations such that precise load estimates are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel linear observer with an extension dealing with polytopic uncertainties in a vehicle dynamic system to identify the side-slip angle. The performance optimization issue is addressed by the minimization of H∞ norm of the system considering the estimation error as an output and the steer angle as an input. Contrary to the standard robust optimal design approaches, we use a convex inner approximation technique to reduce the order of the observer and this enables us to derive suboptimal, fixed-order, and efficiently practicable estimators. Moreover, the numerical examples performed on two-track nonlinear model of the system are provided to illustrate the impacts of design parameters on the optimization results and the efficiency of the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the classic feeder-bus network design problem (FBNDP), which can be described as follows: for the passenger travel demand between rail stations and bus stops on a given urban transit network, it designs the optimal feeder bus routes and frequencies so as to minimize the passengers' travel expense and the operator's cost. We extended the demand pattern of M-to-1 in most existing researches to M-to-M. We comprehensively considered the passenger travel cost, which includes the waiting and riding cost on the bus, riding cost on rail, and transfer cost between these two transportation modes, and presented a new genetic algorithm that determines the optimal feeder-bus operating frequencies under strict constraint conditions. The numerical examples under different demand patterns have been experienced and analysed, which showed the robustness and efficiency of the presented algorithm. We also found that the distribution pattern of the travel demand has a significant influence on the feeder-bus network construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]