Reliability Analysis of Systems with Common Cause Failure Based on Stress-Strength Interference Model

Many mechanical systems have the characteristics of multiple failure modes and complex failure mechanisms. On the basis of stress-strength interference (SSI) model, this paper takes the mechanical system with common cause failure (CCF) as the research object. The relationship between the stress distribution and the strength distribution is studied, and the failures of components are independent of each other under the deterministic stress. Then, the concept of conditional reliability is introduced to build the system reliability models under the action of one-stress and multi-stress for both series and parallel systems. Finally, the corresponding properties of the proposed methods are discussed to show their advantages.     

Economic Dispatch of Islanded Microgrid Considering a Cooperative Strategy Between Diesel Generator and Battery Energy Storage System

For the impact of intermittent resources’ high penetration on the economic dispatch of islanded microgrid, a new economic dispatch method is presented to minimize the overall generating cost for islanded microgrid, considering a cooperative strategy between diesel generator (hereinafter referred to as DE) and battery energy storage system (BESS). The optimum economic operation range of DE and the optimal set-point between DE and BESS are presented in the cooperative dispatch strategy, in which BESS is used fully to enable DE in a lower cost and higher efficient way. The results are analyzed under various operation conditions and also prove the validity of the proposed method.     

Reliability Analysis of Aero-Engine Main Fuel System Based on GO Methodology

To improve the reliability of an aero-engine main fuel system, the quantitative and qualitative reliability analysis of the system is conducted based on goal oriented (GO) methodology. The quantitative reliability analysis results and the minimum cut sets of the fuel system are obtained, respectively. These results are compared with the results of the FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) method, and the comparison result shows GO method is rational and applicable. Therefore, it is feasible to apply the GO method in the reliability analysis of an aero-engine main fuel system.     

Relative Attitude Dynamics and Control of Spacecraft Formation Flying Considering Flexible Panels

As a key technology for orbital applications, researches on spacecraft formation flying (SFF) attract more attention. However, most of existing researches about dynamics and control of SFF focus on rigid spacecrafts without considering the effect of flexible attachments (such as flexible panels). In this paper, relative attitude dynamics and active control of SFF for a flexible spacecraft (follower spacecraft) and a rigid spacecraft (target spacecraft) are investigated. Firstly, a dynamic model of the flexible spacecraft is established by the principle of angular momentum. Then, the equation of relative attitude dynamics between the flexible spacecraft and the rigid spacecraft is derived by the quaternion to represent the attitude relation of the two spacecrafts. Finally, an attitude feedback controller is designed for the SFF system, and its stability is proved by the Lyapunov stability theory. Simulation results indicate that the panel flexibility has an obvious influence on the dynamic behaviour of the system, the designed controller can effectively control the attitude of the two spacecrafts to achieve synchronization, and the elastic vibration of the panels may be suppressed simultaneously.     

Cyclostationary Modeling of Surface Electromyography Signal During Gait Cycles and Its Application for Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of permanent movement disorders that appear in early childhood. The electromyography (EMG) signal analysis and the gait analysis are two most commonly used methods in the clinic. In this paper, a cyclostationary model of the EMG signal is proposed. The model can combine the aforementioned two methods. The EMG signal acquired during the gait cycles is assumed to be cyclostationary due to the physiological characteristics of the EMG signal production. Then, the spectral correlation density is used to analyze the cyclic frequency (corresponding to the gait cycles) and spectral frequency (the frequency of EMG signal) in a waterfall representation of the two kinds of frequencies. The experiments show that the asymptomatic (normal) subjects and symptomatic subjects (with CP) can be distinguished from the spectral correlation density in a range of cyclic frequencies.     

Effect of Needle Coke on Gas Permeability of Ceramic Casting Molds

The permeability of a new investment casting mold system prepared by adding needle cokes has been investigated in this work. The permeability tests of the molds were carried out at the temperature of 25–1200 °C. The results showed that the addition of needle cork could significally increase the permeability of the molds by a factor of about 4 because the burning of needle cokes increased the porosities of the molds. Meanwhile, the needle coke modified molds exhibited higher green strength and greater thickness both on flat section and at sharp edges compared with the full fused silica mold. Taking account of the mold thickness, the needle coke modified molds had increased adjusted fracture load (AFL) by a factor of about 2 at the test temperature of 25–1200 °C. The addition of needle coke significally improved the permeability of the molds during both autoclaving and casting, and optimized the correlation between the permeability and green strength of the molds.     

The Analysis of Angle Resolution of Stress Vector Sensor Based on Optical Fiber Sensing Cable for High Speed Railway Traffic

With the development of high speed railway traffic, the structure health monitoring for high-speed rail is necessary due to the safety issue. Optical fiber sensing technology is one of the options to solve it. Stress vector information is the important index to make more reasonable judgments about railway safety. However, information sensed by lots of commercial optical sensors is scalar. According to the stress filed distribution of rail, this paper proposes a new type of stress vector sensor based on optical fiber sensing cable (OFSC) with a symmetrical seven optical fibers structure and analyzes the relations between angle resolution and distance between adjacent of optical fibers through finite-element software (ANSYS) simulation. Through reasonable distance configuration, the angle resolution of the OFSC can be improved, and thus stress vector information, including the stress magnitude and the angle of stress, can be more accurately obtained. The simulation results are helpful to configure OFSC for angle resolution improvement in actual practice, and increase the safety factor in high speed railway structure health monitoring.     

Research on Equipment Support Activity Process Simulation Based on Monte Carlo Method

The influencing factors of the equipment support activity process have the characteristics of nonlinearity, high dimension, many constraints, random uncertainty and fuzzy uncertainty. Monte Carlo method can solve the above problems commendably. This paper analyzes the main equipment support activity process and establishes the sampling plan and simulation model of the medium maintenance process based on Monte Carlo method, and the simulation result verifies a fact that the medium maintenance time can be effectively reduced when parallel operation on some procedures is used. It has a practical value and can give good advice to achieve the capability of equipment supportability.     

Damage Detection for Simply Supported Bridge with Bending Fuzzy Stiffness Consideration

The benchmark of a simply supported beam with damage and bending fuzzy stiffness consideration is established to be utilized for damage detection. The explicit expression describing the Rotational Angle Influence Lines (RAIL) of the arbitrary section in the benchmark is presented as the nonlinear relation between the moving load and the RAIL appeared, when the moving load is located on the damage area. The damage detection method is derived based on the Difference of the RAIL Curvature (DRAIL-C) prior to and following arbitrarily section damage in a simply supported beam with bending fuzzy stiffness consideration. The results demonstrate that the damage position can be located by the DRAIL-C graph and the damage extent can be calculated by the DRAIL-C curve peak. The simply supported box girder as a one-dimensional model and the simply supported truss bridge as a three-dimensional model with the bending fuzzy stiffness are simulated for the validity of the proposed method to be verified. The measuring point position and noise intensity effects are discussed in the simply supported box girder example. This paper provides a new consideration and technique for the damage detection of a simply supported bridge with bending fuzzy stiffness consideration.     

The effect of location,mobility and socio-demographic factors on task and time allocation of households

This paper investigates the role of location factors in task and time allocation at the household level. It is hypothesized that, if time constraints are less binding as a result of living in an urban area or owning more cars, spouses engage more often and longer in out-of-home activities and schedule their activities more independently. The hypotheses are tested with logistic and Cox regression models of activity participation and time allocation on a data set collected in the Amsterdam–Utrecht region in the Netherlands. Results suggest that the hypotheses are supported with respect to specific household activity scheduling decisions.