Combustion optimization model for NO<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> reduction with an improved particle swarm optimization

Abstract: This paper focuses on the combustion optimization to cut down NO _x emission with a new strategy. Firstly, orthogonal experimental design (OED) and chaotic sequences are introduced to improve the performance of particle swarm optimization (PSO). Then, a predicting model for NO _x emission is established on support vector machine (SVM) whose parameters are optimized by the improved PSO. Afterwards, a new optimization model considering coal quantity and air quantity along with the traditional optimization variables is established. At last, the operating parameters are optimized by the improved PSO to cut down the NO _x emission. An application on 600MW unit shows that the new optimization model can cut down NO _x emission effectively and maintain the load balance well. The NO _x emission optimized by the improved PSO is lowest among some state-of-the-art intelligent algorithms. This study can provide important guides for the low NO _x combustion in the power plant.     

Lattice-based group signature with verifier-local revocation

Among several post quantum primitives proposed in the past few decades, lattice-based cryptography is considered as the most promising one, due to its underlying rich combinatorial structure, and the worst-case to average-case reductions. The first lattice-based group signature scheme with verifier-local revocation(VLR) is treated as the first quantum-resistant scheme supported member revocation, and was put forward by Langlois et al. This VLR group signature(VLR-GS) has group public key size of O(nm log N log q), and a signature size of O(tm log N log q log β). Nguyen et al. constructed a simple efficient group signature from lattice, with significant advantages in bit-size of both the group public key and the signature. Based on their work, we present a VLR-GS scheme with group public key size of O(nm log q) and signature size of O(tm log q). Our group signature has notable advantages: support of membership revocation, and short in both the public key size and the signature size.     

Sliding mode robust fault-tolerant control for uncertain systems with time delay

Considering the modeling uncertainties and external disturbance, a kind of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control method for time delay system with actuator fault is proposed. The upper-bound of the uncertainties is considered as a known constant, while the upper-bound of the actuator fault is unknown. A sufficient condition for the existence of an integral sliding mode dynamics is given in terms of linear matrix inequality(LMI). A novel adaptive law is given to estimate the unknown upper-bound of faults. On this basis, a type of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control law is designed to guarantee the asymptotic stability and the H_∞ performance index of the system. Finally, the simulation on quad-rotor semi-physical platform demonstrates the reliability and validity of the method.     

Research on Nonlinear Dynamic Simulation and Fatigue Reliability Life Prediction for Synthesis Transmission System of Self-Propelled Gun

Aiming to the puzzle that the inner load of nonlinear synthesis transmission system is difficult to obtain, a new kind of virtual prototype establishment and simulation method is put forward. The influence on nonlinear vibration with flexible rotor, bearing backlash is analyzed based on a virtual prototype. To validate the virtual prototype of nonlinear gear transmission system, the corresponding test platform is established. The consistency between simulation results and test results proves that the simulation results of the virtual prototype can be used to calculate the fatigue reliability life of key components. A new kind of fatigue reliability life prediction method of gear system considering multi-random parameter distribution is put forward based on the fatiguestatistic theory. Considering the periodicity of gear meshing, linear interpolation method is adopted to obtain the stress-time course of random load spectrum based on the gear’s complicated torque provided by virtual prototype. The gear’s P-S_a-S_m-N curved cluster can be simulated based on material’s P-S-N curve. The simulation process considers the parameter distributions of stress concentration coefficients, dimension coefficients and surface quality treatment coefficients, and settles the puzzle that traditional test methods cannot acquire the gear’s fatigue life of all reliability levels. This method can provide the distribution function and the interval of fatigue reliability life of gear’s danger region, and has a guide meaning for the gear maintenance periods determination and reliability evaluation.     

Study on Oxidation Activity of CuCeZrO<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> Doped with K for Diesel Engine Particles in NO/O<Subscript>2</Subscript>

CuCeZrO_x and KCuCeZrO_x catalysts were synthesized and coated on the blank diesel particulate filter (DPF) substrate and a particulate matter (PM) loading apparatus was used for soot loading. The catalytic performances of soot oxidation were evaluated by temperature programmed combustion (TPC) test and characterization tests were conducted to investigate the physicochemical properties of the catalysts. The reaction mechanism in the oxidation process was analyzed with diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that CuCeZrO_x catalyst exhibited high activities of soot oxidation at low temperature and the best results have been attained with Cu_0.9Ce_0.05Zr_0.05O_x over which the maximum soot oxidation rate decreased to 410 °C. Characterization tests have shown that catalysts containing 90% Cu have uniformly distributed grains and small particle sizes, which provide excellent oxidation activity by providing more active sites and forming a good bond between the catalyst and the soot. The low-temperature oxidation activity of soot could be further optimized due to the excellent elevated NO’s conversion rate by partially substituting Cu with K. The maximum particle oxidation rate can be easily realized at such a low temperature as 347°C.     

Serum levels of RBP4 might not be determined by diabetes mellitus but by kidney function and renal replacement therapy

It has been reported that retinol-binding protein 4(RBP4) is associated to adiposity,insulin resistance,and type 2 diabetes.Meanwhile,circulating RBP4 levels are also affected by renal function.The aim of the present study is to investigate whether serum levels of RBP4 are primarily associated with different stages of chronic kidney disease(CKD) or type 2 diabetes,if there is more potential relevance between RBP4 and renal replacement therapy.The serum levels of RBP4 were assessed by commercial competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)kit in 212 patients with the CKD stages 1—5 and in 24 healthy controls,while its correlation with clinical and metabolic parameters was analyzed.The serum level of RBP4 had a strong correlation with estimated glomerular filtration rate(e GFR)(P 0.001).Stratified by e GFR and treatment,no more differences in RBP4 serum concentration were detected between type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic subjects [CKD stages 1—5,non-dialysis(ND),hemodialysis(HD) and peritoneal dialysis(PD);P 0.05 for all].The elevation of RBP4 become higher in HD than in PD and ND in CKD5 patients(P = 0.008 and P = 0.04,respectively),while there was no significant difference between PD and ND groups.Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated three independent predictors of e GFR(β =-0.676,P 0.001),C-reactive protein(CRP)(β =-0.573,P 0.001) and creatine(β = 0.509,P = 0.024) in the study population.The study results demonstrated that the serum level of RBP4 was negatively related to the e GFR,whether diabetes mellitus(DM) affected the blood concentration of RBP4 or not.And the serum level of RBP4 exhibited significant difference in different renal replacement therapies.     

Robust Fuzzy Sampled-Data Control for Dynamic Positioning Ships

A robust H∞sampled-data stabilization problem for nonlinear dynamic positioning(DP) ships with Takagi-Sugeno(T-S) fuzzy models is discussed in this paper. Input delay approach is used to convert the sampleddata DP ship system to a fuzzy system with time-varying delay. Adequate conditions are derived to determine the system's asymptotical stability and achieve H∞performance via Lyapunov stability theorems. Then, the fuzzy sampled-data controller is obtained by analyzing the stabilization condition. Simulation result shows that the proposed method and the designed controller for a DP ship are effective so that the DP ship can maintain the desired position, heading and velocities in the existence of varying environment disturbances.     

The numerical simulation of a towing cylinder based on immersed body boundary method

An immersed body boundary method is adopted to track the motions of a towing cylinder, and a homogenous multiphase Eulerian-Eulerian fluid approach is used to capture the free surface. The Reynolds average Navier-Stockes (RANS) solver is applied to all gird nodes to deal with different velocities of the nodes that are in the body boundary, near the boundary and out of the boundary and their effect on the fluid. The towing cylinder resistance at different submerged depths in the tank is presented. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data, and the method is verified and validated. Finally, the hydrodynamic characters of the cylinder are discussed further. The numerical and experimental results show that at high speeds, the deeper the cylinder submerges, the lower resistance it suffers. The resistance coefficient trough is obtained at Froude number in the range of 0.3 < F r < 0.4. These phenomena can provide some suggestions on the small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design.     

Catalytic Combustion of Lean Methane Assisted by Electric Field over Pd/Co<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> Catalysts at Low Temperature

A series of Pd/Co₃O₄ catalysts were prepared by Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis (SHS) method in this study, and electric field was applied for catalytic combustion of lean methane over Pd/Co₃O₄ catalysts at low temperature. When electric field was applied, the catalytic combustion performance of Pd/Co₃O₄ catalysts was greatly improved, and the application of electric field could reduce the load of active element Pd to some extent while maintaining the same efficiency. Based on experimental tests and the analysis results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H₂-temperature-programmed reduction (H₂-TPR) and in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in-situ DRIFTS), the mechanism of catalytic oxidation of CH₄ over Pd/Co₃O₄ catalysts in electric field was proposed. The catalytic combustion of CH₄ occurs only when the temperature is higher than 250 °C normally, but when electric field was applied, the whole process of CH₄ oxidation was promoted significantly and the reaction temperature was reduced. Electric field could promote the reduction of the support Co₃O₄ to release the lattice oxygen, resulting in the increase of PdO_x and the surface chemisorbed oxygen, which could provide more active sites for the low-temperature oxidation of CH₄. Furthermore, electric field could accelerate the dehydroxylation of CoOOH to further enhance the activity of the catalysts.     

Performance analysis of AF relaying based on water-filling power allocation over Nakagami-<Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis> fading

This paper investigates exact performance of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay system based on water-filling power allocation in Nakagami-m fading environment, where m is a nonnegative integer plus one half. We first offer the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a destination. Then outage probability, moments of SNR, higher-order statistics of the capacity are explicitly conducted. Especially, average symbol error rate (SER) under an additive white generalized Gaussian noise (AWGGN) is developed for water-filling power allocation scheme. While the average SER subjected by an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) can be regarded as a special case. Finally, all theoretical formulas are truly attested by various simulation results.     

First-principle investigation of the structural stability and electronic property of precipitates on the Cu-rich side of Cu-Ni-Si alloys

The energetic and electronic structures of precipitates on the Cu-rich side of Cu-Ni-Si alloys were investigated by using the first-principle calculations based on plane-wave pseudopotential method. The negative formation heats and the cohesive energies of these precipitates were estimated with electronic structure calculations, and their structural stability was also analyzed. The results show that δ-Ni₂Si, γ-Ni₅Si₂ and β-Ni₃Si precipitates all have great alloying ability and structural stability, which, after comparing their density of states (DOS), is found attributed to the pseudogap effect near the Fermi level (E _F) and strong hybridization between the Ni-3d and Si-3p states. Compared with the other two precipitates, the δ-Ni₂Si precipitate has the greatest structural stability, which is resulted from its lower DOS at E _F and the main bonding peaks slightly moving to the low energy region.     

Five-axis interpolation of continuous short linear trajectories for 3[PP]S-<Emphasis Type="Italic">XY</Emphasis> hybrid mechanism by dual Bezier blending

A novel five-axis real-time interpolation algorithm for 3[PP]S-XY hybrid mechanism is proposed in this paper. In the algorithm, the five-axis tool path for controlling this hybrid mechanism is separated into two sub-paths. One sub-path describes the movement of 3[PP]S parallel kinematic mechanism module, and the other one describes the movement of XY platform. A pair of cubic Bezier curves is employed to smooth the corners in those two sub-paths. Based on the homogenous Jacobian matrix of 3[PP]S mechanism, a relationship between the position errors of every driving joint in hybrid mechanism and the position deviation of the tool tip center point at the moving platform is established. This relationship is used to estimate the approximation error for the corners smoothing according to the accuracy requirement of tool tip center in interpolation. Due to the high computational efficiency of this corner smoothing method, it is integrated into the look-ahead module of computer numerical control (CNC) system to perform online tool path smoothing. By performing the speed planning based on a floating window scheme, a jerk limited S-shape speed profile can be generated efficiently. On this basis, a realtime look-ahead scheme, which is comprised of path-smoothing and feedrate scheduling, is developed to acquire a speed profile with smooth acceleration. A monotonic cubic spline is employed for synchronization between those two smoothed sub-paths in tool path interpolation. This interpolation algorithm has been integrated into our own developed CNC system to control a 3PRS-XY experimental instrument (P, R and S standing for prismatic, revolute and spherical, respectively). A club shaped trajectory is adopted to verify the smoothness and efficiency of the five-axis interpolator for hybrid mechanism control.     

A relaxed-PPA contraction method for sparse signal recovery

Sparse signal recovery is a topic of considerable interest, and the literature in this field is already quite immense. Many problems that arise in sparse signal recovery can be generalized as a convex programming with linear conic constraints. In this paper, we present a new proximal point algorithm (PPA) termed as relaxed-PPA (RPPA) contraction method, for solving this common convex programming. More precisely, we first reformulate the convex programming into an equivalent variational inequality (VI), and then efficiently explore its inner structure. In each step, our method relaxes the VI-subproblem to a tractable one, which can be solved much more efficiently than the original VI. Under mild conditions, the convergence of the proposed method is proved. Experiments with l ₁ analysis show that RPPA is a computationally efficient algorithm and compares favorably with the recently proposed state-of-the-art algorithms.     

Observer-based adaptive neural iterative learning control for a class of time-varying nonlinear systems

In this paper an adaptive iterative learning control scheme is presented for the output tracking of a class of nonlinear systems. An observer is designed to estimate the tracking errors. A mixed time domain and s-domain representation is constructed to derive an error model with relative degree one for our purpose. And time-varying radial basis function neural network is employed to deal with system uncertainty. A new signal is constructed by using a first-order filter, which removes the requirement of strict positive real (SPR) condition and identical initial condition of iterative learning control. Based on property of hyperbolic tangent function, the system tracing error is proved to converge to the origin as the iteration tends to infinity by constructing Lyapunov-like composite energy function, while keeping all the closed-loop signals bounded. Finally, a simulation example is presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Dry milling of the ultra-high-strength steel 30CrMnSiNi2A with coated carbide inserts

The ultra-high-strength steel (UHSS) plays an important role in the mechanical industry because of their special performances. The machinability of 30CrMnSiNi2A steel was studied in dry milling with two different coated tools in the present work. This paper introduced that 30CrMnSiNi2A steel was a kind of difficult-to-machine materials. The results showed that the cutting force components of feed direction and cutting width direction, i.e. F x and F y , increased slightly with increasing the cutting speed and feed rate. The values of axial force component F z were much larger than F x and F y , and increased obviously with increasing the milling speed. The workpiece surface had the minimum roughness at the cutting speed of 150 m/min. The physical vapor deposition (PVD) coated ((Ti, Al)N-TiN) insert was more suitable for machining 30CrMnSiNi2A steel than the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coated (Ti(C, N)-Al 2 O 3 ) insert. Moreover, the main failure modes of PVD-coated insert were micro-chipping and coating spalling. The wear modes of CVD-coated insert were ploughing, coating spalling, and cratering. The serious adhesive wear and the abrasion with some adhesion were the main wear mechanism of PVD- and CVD-coated inserts, respectively.     

Microwave hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures in aqueous solution

ZnO nanostructures were prepared in aqueous solution by microwave hydrothermal synthesis. Xray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to characterize ZnO nanostructures (ZNs). The effects of pH, reaction temperature and reaction time on yield of ZnO were investigated. The yield of ZnO increased significantly with the increase of pH value, reaction temperature and reaction time. High yield and well crystallinity of ZNs could be obtained at 120°C for 60min by microwave hydrothermal synthesis. The spherical and rugby-like ZNs were obtained at 120°C without triethanolamine (TEA) and with TEA (mass ratio, $r = m_{Zn^{2 + } }$ : m _TEA = 1: 1), respectively. The concentration of Zn(OH) ₄ ^?2 ions in the reaction solution and TEA had an important effect on the nucleation and morphology of ZnO nanostructures. Mechanism for the formation of ZnO nanostructures was proposed.     

A new buyer-seller watermarking protocol without double embedding

AbstractCopy deterrence is a digital watermarking application which enables a seller to identify the buyers who obtain digital content legally but illegally redistribute it. However, in many buyer-seller watermarking protocols proposed for copy deterrence, the seller has to embed two watermarks into each copy of the digital content before it is sold. In this paper, we propose a new buyer-seller watermarking protocol in which the seller can reduce the number of the embedded watermarks from two to one. The proposed protocol also provides a more efficient solution to the unbinding problem than that of Lei et al’s scheme.     

Micro-Grinding Performance of Hard-Brittle Chip Materials in Precision Micro-Grinding Microgroove

The micro-structure on hard-brittle chip materials (HBCMs) surface can produce predominant functions and features. The micro-grinding with diamond wheel micro-tip is an efficient method to machine microstructure on HBCMs. However, different HBCMs and crystal orientation may have a significant influence on the micro-grinding performance. In this paper, the micro-grinding performance along different crystal orientation of HBCMs is investigated. First, a dressed 600^# diamond grinding wheel is used to micro-grind micro-structure on HBCMs. Then, the experiment of micro-grinding force test is completed. Finally, the quality of microgroove, the grinding ratio and the micro-grinding force are investigated and they are related to the crystal orientation of HBCMs. It is shown that the stronger resistance to the micro-crack propagation has the best quality of microgroove and the smallest grinding ratio. Moreover, the hardest single-crystal SiC has the best machinability and the micro-grinding force is 38.9%, 10.8% and 46.8% less than the one of sapphire, single-crystal Si and quartz glass, respectively. The direction to micro-grind easily is the crystal orientation 〈10\(\overline 1 \)0〉 for single-crystal SiC and sapphire. In addition, the micro-grinding force increases with the increase of the micro-grinding depth and feed rate and decreases with the increase of the grinding wheel speed.     

Heuristics for the identical machine scheduling problem with preventive maintenances

In this paper, two mixed integer programming models integrating production scheduling and preventive maintenances are proposed to derive the optimal solutions for the identical machine scheduling problem with unavailability constraints. In the first model, the maintenance activities are performed periodically and the objective is to minimize the makespan. In the second model, the maintenance activities are flexible and the machines’ continuous working time cannot exceed a maximum allowed time T; the objective is to minimize the total completion time of jobs. For the first problem, we propose a heuristic longest batch time (LBT) and prove that the worst case error bound of LBT is 2. For the second problem, we develop a heuristic modified smallest processing time (MSPT) based on some properties of the optimal solutions. Computational experiments show that both of the heuristics are effective and efficient compared with the results obtained by CPLEX and the other algorithms.     

Intelligent Vehicle Human-Simulated Steering Characteristics Access and Control Strategy

As the traditional control algorithm is over-dependent on accurate vehicle model in intelligent vehicle steering control, a human-simulated intelligent control method is proposed based on experienced driver steering characteristics. Intelligent vehicle unmanned steering system dynamics model and the driver model are set up. Through experienced drivers’ trial run experiment, the analysis is mainly conducted on the double lanes condition. After the transformation of coordinates on global positioning system (GPS) derivative, the path information of local coordinates is accessed. The ideal driver steering path is obtained through fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. The human-simulated intelligent controller is designed. Characteristic model is established according to the ideal and practical steering angle deviation and the deviation rate. Besides, the corresponding control rules and control modality set are designed. The joint simulation under CarSim joint/Simulink environment shows that the humanoid steering controller designed in this paper has better tracking performance than the model predictive control.