The New Semi-Experimental Method for Simulation of Turbine Flow Meters Rotation in the Transitional Flow

The new semi-experimental method for simulation of the turbine flow meters rotation in the transitional flow has been developed. The method is based on the experimentally established exponential low of changing of dimensionless relative turbine gas meter rotation frequency and meter inertia time constant. For experimental evaluation of the meter time constant special facility has been developed. The facility ensures instant switching of turbine meter under test from one channel to the other channel with different flow rate and measuring the meter response. The developed method can be used for evaluation and predication of the turbine meters response and dynamic error in the transitional flow with any arbitrary law of flow rate changing. The examples of the method application are presented.

Lattice Boltzmann Method for Turbulent Heat Transfer in Wavy Channel Flows

The hydrodynamic and thermal lattice Boltzmann methods are applied to investigate the turbulent convective heat transfer in the wavy channel flows. In this study, the turbulent phenomena are modeling by large-eddy simulations with the Smagorinsky model. As a benchmark, the laminar and turbulent backward-facing step flows are simulated first. The results give good agreement with other numerical and experimental data. For wavy channel flows, the distribution of Nusselt number and the skin-friction coefficients are calculated to evaluate the heat transfer effect and the drag force. It indicates that the vortices at the trough would affect the magnitude of drag and weaken the heat convection effects on the wavy surface. In turbulent cases, if the amplitude of the wavy boundary is large enough, the secondary vortices would be generated at troughs and contribute to the heat convection. Finally, the effects of different Re on the turbulent transport phenomena are discussed.

Considering Assembly Operations and Product Structure for Manufacturing Cell Formation

This paper considers the integration of assembly operations and product structure to Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) design so that to correct the drawbacks of previous researches in the literature. For this purpose, a new mathematical model is developed which dedicates machining and assembly operations to manufacturing cells while the objective function is to minimize the intercellular movements resulting due to both of them. A linearization method is applied to achieve optimum solution through solving aforementioned nonlinear model by common programming language such as Lingo. Then, using different examples and comparing the results, the importance of integrating assembly considerations is demonstrated.

Nickel on Inner Surface and Stainless Steel on Outer Surface for Functionally Graded Cylindrical Shell

Study is on the vibration of thin cylindrical shells made of a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. The effects of the FGM configuration are studied by studying the frequencies of FG cylindrical shells. In this case FG cylindrical shell has Nickel on its inner surface and stainless steel on its outer surface. The study is carried out based on third order shear deformation shell theory. The objective is to study the natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume fractions and the effects of configurations of the constituent materials on the frequencies. The properties are graded in the thickness direction according to the volume fraction power-law distribution. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, the influence of the constituent various volume fractions on the frequencies.

Improving Injection Moulding Processes Using Experimental Design

Moulded parts contribute to more than 70% of components in products. However, common defects particularly in plastic injection moulding exist such as: warpage, shrinkage, sink marks, and weld lines. In this paper Taguchi experimental design methods are applied to reduce the warpage defect of thin plate Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and are demonstrated in two levels; namely, orthogonal arrays of Taguchi and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Eight trials have been run in which the optimal parameters that can minimize the warpage defect in factorial experiment are obtained. The results obtained from ANOVA approach analysis with respect to those derived from MINITAB illustrate the most significant factors which may cause warpage in injection moulding process. Moreover, ANOVA approach in comparison with other approaches like S/N ratio is more accurate and with the interaction of factors it is possible to achieve higher and the better outcomes.

The Influence of Water Ingress to Aircraft Cabin Components

The accomplished study is based on the appointment and identification of ageing effects and according to this absorption of moisture of aircraft cabin components over the life-cycle. In the first step of the study ceiling panels from same age and from the same aircraft cabin have been examined according to weight changes depending on the position in the aircraft cabin. In the second step of the study different aged ceiling panels have been examined concerning deflection, weight changes and the acoustic sound transmission loss. To prove the assumption of water absorption within the study and with the theoretical background from literature and scientific papers, an older test panel was exposed extreme thermal conditions (humidity and temperature) within a climate chamber to show that there is a general ingress of water to cabin components and that this ingress of water leads to the change of different mechanical properties.

A Hybrid Overset Algorithm for Aerodynamic Problems with Moving Objects

A two-dimensional moving mesh algorithm is developed to simulate the general motion of two rotating bodies with relative translational motion. The grid includes a background grid and two sets of grids around the moving bodies. With this grid arrangement rotational and translational motions of two bodies are handled separately, with no complications. Inter-grid boundaries are determined based on their distances from two bodies. In this method, the overset concept is applied to hybrid grid, and flow variables are interpolated using a simple stencil. To evaluate this moving mesh algorithm unsteady Euler flow is solved for different cases using dual-time method of Jameson. Numerical results show excellent agreement with experimental data and other numerical results. To demonstrate the capability of present algorithm for accurate solution of flow fields around moving bodies, some benchmark problems have been defined in this paper.

On the Coupled Electromechanical Behavior of Artificial Materials with Chiral-Shell Elements

In the present work we investigate both the elastic and electric properties of a chiral material. We consider a composite structure made from a polymer matrix and anisotropic inclusions of GaAs taking into account piezoelectric and dielectric properties of the composite material. The principal task of the work is the estimation of the functional properties of the composite material.

Kinematic Optimal Design on a New Robotic Platform for Stair Climbing

Stair climbing is one of critical issues for field robots to widen applicable areas. This paper presents optimal design on kinematic parameters of a new robotic platform for stair climbing. The robotic platform climbs various stairs by body flip locomotion with caterpillar type main platform. Kinematic parameters such as platform length, platform height, and caterpillar rotation speed are optimized to maximize stair climbing stability. Three types of stairs are used to simulate typical user conditions. The optimal design process is conducted based on Taguchi methodology, and resulting parameters with optimized objective function are presented. In near future, a prototype is assembled for real environment testing.

Aircraft Gas Turbine Engines Technical Condition Identification System

In this paper is shown that the probability-statistic methods application, especially at the early stage of the aviation gas turbine engine (GTE) technical condition diagnosing, when the flight information has property of the fuzzy, limitation and uncertainty is unfounded. Hence is considered the efficiency of application of new technology Soft Computing at these diagnosing stages with the using of the Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks methods. Training with high accuracy of fuzzy multiple linear and non-linear models (fuzzy regression equations) which received on the statistical fuzzy data basis is made. Thus for GTE technical condition more adequate model making are analysed dynamics of skewness and kurtosis coefficients' changes. Researches of skewness and kurtosis coefficients values- changes show that, distributions of GTE work parameters have fuzzy character. Hence consideration of fuzzy skewness and kurtosis coefficients is expedient. Investigation of the basic characteristics changes- dynamics of GTE work parameters allows to draw conclusion on necessity of the Fuzzy Statistical Analysis at preliminary identification of the engines' technical condition. Researches of correlation coefficients values- changes shows also on their fuzzy character. Therefore for models choice the application of the Fuzzy Correlation Analysis results is offered. For checking of models adequacy is considered the Fuzzy Multiple Correlation Coefficient of Fuzzy Multiple Regression. At the information sufficiency is offered to use recurrent algorithm of aviation GTE technical condition identification (Hard Computing technology is used) on measurements of input and output parameters of the multiple linear and non-linear generalised models at presence of noise measured (the new recursive Least Squares Method (LSM)). The developed GTE condition monitoring system provides stage-bystage estimation of engine technical conditions. As application of the given technique the estimation of the new operating aviation engine temperature condition was made.

Finite Element Investigation of Transmission Conditions for Non-Monotonic Temperature Interphases

Imperfect transmission conditions modeling a thin reactive 2D interphases layer between two dissimilar bonded strips have been extracted. In this paper, the soundness of these transmission conditions for heat conduction problems are examined by the finite element method for a strong temperature-dependent source or sink and non-monotonic temperature distributions around the faces..

Optimization of Inverse Kinematics of a 3R Robotic Manipulator using Genetic Algorithms

In this paper the direct kinematic model of a multiple applications three degrees of freedom industrial manipulator, was developed using the homogeneous transformation matrices and the Denavit - Hartenberg parameters, likewise the inverse kinematic model was developed using the same method, verifying that in the workload border the inverse kinematic presents considerable errors, therefore a genetic algorithm was implemented to optimize the model improving greatly the efficiency of the model.

Analysis of the Communication Methods of an iCIM 3000 System within the Frame of Research Purpose

Current trends in manufacturing are characterized by production broadening, innovation cycle shortening, and the products having a new shape, material and functions. The production strategy focused on time needed change from the traditional functional production structure to flexible manufacturing cells and lines. Production by automated manufacturing system (AMS) is one of the most important manufacturing philosophies in the last years. The main goals of the project we are involved in lies on building a laboratory in which will be located a flexible manufacturing system consisting of at least two production machines with NC control (milling machines, lathe). These machines will be linked to a transport system and they will be served by industrial robots. Within this flexible manufacturing system a station for the quality control consisting of a camera system and rack warehouse will be also located. The design, analysis and improvement of this manufacturing system, specially with a special focus on the communication among devices constitute the main aims of this paper. The key determining factors for the manufacturing system design are: the product, the production volume, the used machines, the disposable manpower, the disposable infrastructure and the legislative frame for the specific cases.

Ride Control of Passenger Cars with Semi-active Suspension System Using a Linear Quadratic Regulator and Hybrid Optimization Algorithm

A semi-active control strategy for suspension systems of passenger cars is presented employing Magnetorheological (MR) dampers. The vehicle is modeled with seven DOFs including the, roll pitch and bounce of car body, and the vertical motion of the four tires. In order to design an optimal controller based on the actuator constraints, a Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is designed. The design procedure of the LQR consists of selecting two weighting matrices to minimize the energy of the control system. This paper presents a hybrid optimization procedure which is a combination of gradient-based and evolutionary algorithms to choose the weighting matrices with regards to the actuator constraint. The optimization algorithm is defined based on maximum comfort and actuator constraints. It is noted that utilizing the present control algorithm may significantly reduce the vibration response of the passenger car, thus, providing a comfortable ride.

Numerical Simulation of the Flow Field around a 30° Inclined Flat Plate

This paper presents a CFD analysis of the flow around a 30° inclined flat plate of infinite span. Numerical predictions have been compared to experimental measurements, in order to assess the potential of the finite volume code of determining the aerodynamic forces acting on a flat plate invested by a fluid stream of infinite extent. Several turbulence models and spatial node distributions have been tested and flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the flat plate have been numerically investigated, allowing the development of a preliminary procedure to be used as guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and the corresponding turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a twodimensional inclined plate.

Application of Multi-objective Optimization Packages in Design of an Evaporator Coil

A novel methodology has been used to design an evaporator coil of a refrigerant. The methodology used is through a complete Computer Aided Design /Computer Aided Engineering approach, by means of a Computational Fluid Dynamic/Finite Element Analysis model which is executed many times for the thermal-fluid exploration of several designs' configuration by an commercial optimizer. Hence the design is carried out automatically by parallel computations, with an optimization package taking the decisions rather than the design engineer. The engineer instead takes decision regarding the physical settings and initializing of the computational models to employ, the number and the extension of the geometrical parameters of the coil fins and the optimization tools to be employed. The final design of the coil geometry found to be better than the initial design.

Fluid Structure Interaction Induced by Liquid Slosh in Partly Filled Road Tankers

The liquid cargo contained in a partly-filled road tank vehicle is prone to dynamic slosh movement when subjected to external disturbances. The slosh behavior has been identified as a significant factor impairing the safety of liquid cargo transportation. The laboratory experiments have been conducted for analyzing fluid slosh in partly filled tanks. The experiment results measured under forced harmonic excitations reveal the three-dimensional nature of the fluid motion and coupling between the lateral and longitudinal fluid slosh at resonance. Several spectral components are observed for the transient slosh forces, which can be associated with the excitation, resonance, and beat frequencies. The peak slosh forces and moments in the vicinity of resonance are significantly larger than those of the equivalent rigid mass. Due to the nature of coupling between sloshing fluid and vehicle body, the issue of the dynamic fluid-structure interaction is essential in the analysis of tank-vehicle dynamics. A dynamic pitch plane model of a Tridem truck incorporated the fluid slosh dynamics is developed to analyze the fluid-vehicle interaction under the straight-line braking maneuvers. The results show that the vehicle responses are highly associated with the characteristics of fluid slosh force and moment.

Collaborative Design System based on Object- Oriented Modeling of Supply Chain Simulation: A Case Study of Thai Jewelry Industry

The paper proposes a new concept in developing collaborative design system. The concept framework involves applying simulation of supply chain management to collaborative design called – 'SCM–Based Design Tool'. The system is developed particularly to support design activities and to integrate all facilities together. The system is aimed to increase design productivity and creativity. Therefore, designers and customers can collaborate by the system since conceptual design. JAG: Jewelry Art Generator based on artificial intelligence techniques is integrated into the system. Moreover, the proposed system can support users as decision tool and data propagation. The system covers since raw material supply until product delivery. Data management and sharing information are visually supported to designers and customers via user interface. The system is developed on Web–assisted product development environment. The prototype system is presented for Thai jewelry industry as a system prototype demonstration, but applicable for other industry.

Analytical Solution of Time-Harmonic Torsional Vibration of a Cylindrical Cavity in a Half-Space

In this article an isotropic linear elastic half-space with a cylindrical cavity of finite length is considered to be under the effect of a ring shape time-harmonic torsion force applied at an arbitrary depth on the surface of the cavity. The equation of equilibrium has been written in a cylindrical coordinate system. By means of Fourier cosine integral transform, the non-zero displacement component is obtained in the transformed domain. With the aid of the inversion theorem of the Fourier cosine integral transform, the displacement is obtained in the real domain. With the aid of boundary conditions, the involved boundary value problem for the fundamental solution is reduced to a generalized Cauchy singular integral equation. Integral representation of the stress and displacement are obtained, and it is shown that their degenerated form to the static problem coincides with existing solutions in the literature.

The Anti-Noise System for Rail Brakes on Hump Yards

The friction between two metal surfaces results in a high frequency noise (squealing) which also occurs during the braking of wagons with rail brakes in the process of shunting at a marshalling yard with a hump. At that point the noise level may exceed 130dB, which is extremely unpleasant for workers and inhabitants. In our research we developed a new composite material which does not change braking properties, is capable of taking extremely high pressure loads, reduces noise and is environmentally friendly. The noise reduction results had been very good and had shown a decrease of the high frequency noise almost completely (by 99%) at its source. With our technology we had also reduced general noise by more than 30dBA.