Design optimization of a torpedo shell structure

An optimized methodology to design a more robust torpedo shell is proposed. The method has taken into account reliability requirements and controllable and uncontrollable factors such as geometry, load, material properties, manufacturing processes, installation, etc. as well as human and environmental factors. The result is a more realistic shell design. Our reliability optimization design model was developed based on sensitivity analysis. Details of the design model are given in this paper. An example of a torpedo shell design based on this model is given and demonstrates that the method produces designs that are more effective and reliable than traditional torpedo shell designs. This method can be used for other torpedo system designs.     

An investigation of the performance of an electronic in-line pump system for diesel engines

WIT Electronic Fuel System Co., Ltd. has developed a new fuel injector, the Electronic In-line Pump （EIP） system, designed to meet China＇s diesel engine emission and fuel economy regulations. It can be used on marine diesel engines and commercial vehicle engines through different EIP systems. A numerical model of the EIP system was built in the AMESim environment for the purpose of creating a design tool for engine application and system optimization. The model was used to predict key injection characteristics under different operating conditions, such as injection pressure, injection rate, and injection duration. To validate these predictions, experimental tests were conducted under the conditions that were modeled. The results were quite encouraging and in agreement with model predictions. Additional experiments were conducted to study the injection characteristics of the EIP system. These results show that injection pressure and injection quantity are insensitive to injection timing variations, this is due to the design of the constant velocity cam profile. Finally, injection quantity and pressure vs. pulse width at different cam speeds are presented, an important injection characteristic for EIP system calibration.     

Estimation of wave-induced ship hull bending moment from ship motion measurements

A time-domain technique for estimating wave-induced ship hull bending moment from ship motion measurements is presented. This technique is developed to improve hull response monitoring systems. Artificial neural networks are used to model the time-domain relationship between the wave-induced vertical bending moment and the coupled heave and pitch motions. The application of the proposed technique is validated using experimental data.     

Geometric calibration algorithm of polarization camera using planar patterns

Polarization pattern provides additional information besides spectral signatures. It can be used in many applications, such as navigation, defect detection and object identification. A novel polarization camera composed of four synchronized cameras is proposed, and it can realize real-time polarization measurement. This study particularly concentrates on the geometric calibration of the system. The projection model is analyzed and the multi-camera calibration algorithm is proposed. Firstly, each camera is calibrated separately using planar patterns, and then the geometric calibration algorithms are performed. Due to the geometrical constraint, a global optimization method results in smaller estimation uncertainties. A mean rotation error of 0.025° and a mean translation error of 0.26mm are achieved after geometric calibration. The images are rectified to establish a correspondence among cameras and are combined to acquire the polarization measurement. The polarization pattern of the skylight is measured by the system and the results are consistent with the previous studies.     

Research of legal affair simulation based on Petri net

Legal affair simulation is on the basis of information technology, and can simulate legal scene. College students do legal experiments with virtual reality scene. This helps to train college students. Petri net has not only strict math definition to analyze the dynamic behavior of models, but also intuitive graphic expression. Petri net is used to model for legal process. Reduction rules of Petri net are used to analyze the correctness of the system. At last Java Business Process Management (JBPM) technology is used to realize legal affair simulation models, models are transformed into flow charts. Simulation software deduces processes of legal affair. Many college students have improved their ability with the software, the fact proves that the method is effective.     

Magnetic field tuning characteristics of bimodal ultrasonic motor stator

The magnetic field tuning characteristics of an ultrasonic motor (USM) stator are discussed. The stator consists of two piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT) plates and one sandwiched-in Terfenol-D plate. The dimensions of the stator are carefully adjusted to specifically discuss the influence of the magnetic field on the frequency difference between the longitudinal and bending modes of the stator. The frequency difference discussed in this paper is usually small and mainly caused by uneven materials, machining errors and changes in external conditions (temperature, pre-stress or load). The longitudinal and bending modes of the stator are simultaneously excited by an external electric field to generate the elliptic motion trajectories of the driving points. A direct current (DC) magnetic field is applied to decrease the difference between the two mode frequencies of the fabricated stator. In experiments, the dependences of the two mode frequencies and their difference on DC magnetic fields are all investigated. The experimental results indicate that the difference between the longitudinal and bending mode frequencies of the PZT/Terfenol-D/PZT composite stator can be tuned by changing the intensity of the external DC magnetic field.     

Sensorimotor self-learning model based on operant conditioning for two-wheeled robot

Traditional control methods of two-wheeled robot are usually model-based and require the robot’s precise mathematic model which is hard to get. A sensorimotor self-learning model named SMM TWR is presented in this paper to handle these problems. The model consists of seven elements: the discrete learning time set, the sensory state set, the motion set, the sensorimotor mapping, the state orientation unit, the learning mechanism and the model’s entropy. The learning mechanism for SMM TWR is designed based on the theory of operant conditioning (OC), and it adjusts the sensorimotor mapping at every learning step. This helps the robot to choose motions. The leaning direction of the mechanism is decided by the state orientation unit. Simulation results show that with the sensorimotor model designed, the robot is endowed the abilities of self-learning and self-organizing, and it can learn the skills to keep itself balance through interacting with the environment.     

Compensation of pressure enthalpy effects on temperature fields for throttling of high-pressure real gas

For the pressure enthalpy of high pressure pneumatics, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation based on ideal gas assumption fails to obtain the real temperature information. Therefore, we propose a method to compensate the pressure enthalpy of throttling for CFD simulation based on ideal gas assumption. Firstly, the pressure enthalpy is calculated for the pressure range of 0.101 to 30 MPa and the temperature range of 190 to 298 K based on Soave-Redlich-Kwong (S-R-K) equation. Then, a polynomial fitting equation is applied to practical application in the above mentioned range. The basic idea of the compensation method is to convert the pressure enthalpy difference between inlet air and nodes into the compensation temperature. In the above temperature and pressure range, the compensated temperature is close to the real one, and the relative temperature drop error is below 10%. This error is mainly caused by the velocity difference of the orifice between the real and ideal gas models. Finally, this compensation method performs an icing analysis for practical high pressure slide pilot valve.     

Approximate method for reliability assessment of complex phased mission systems

Phased-mission systems (PMSs) have wide applications in engineering practices, such as manmade satellites. Certain critical parts in the system, such as cold standby, hot standby and functional standby, are designed in redundancy architecture to achieve high reliability performance. State-space models such as Markov process have been used extensively in previous studies for reliability evaluation of PMSs with dynamic behaviors. The most popular way to deal with the dynamic behaviors is Markov process, but it is well known that Markov process is limited to exponential distribution. In practice, however, the lifetime of most machinery products can follow non-exponential distributions like the Weibull distribution which cannot be handled by the Markov process. In order to solve this kind of problem, we present a semi-Markov model combined with an approximation algorithm to analyze PMS reliability subjected to non-exponential failures. Furthermore, the accuracy of the approximation algorithm is investigated by comparing to an accurate solution, and a typical PMS (attitude and orbit control system) is analyzed to demonstrate the implementation of the method.     

Design of car battery protection device based on torsion spring

In recent years, electric vehicles are developing rapidly in automotive industry. When involved in accidents, if the batteries of electric cars break, it is likely to cause a short circuit and start a fire. Aimed at this issue, a car battery protection device based on torsion spring has been designed. The car battery protection device can deform in a particular pattern in a collision accident. Impact energy of the accident is absorbed by the deformation, which can significantly reduce impact force on the batteries. Meanwhile, based on the principle of maximum energy absorption, some crucial parameters of the device can be determined. Furthermore, an impact simulation conducted on ANSYS software shows that maximum safety factors can be obtained when the material of car battery protection device is carbon steel. The analysis of “safe space” in the car battery protection device shows that the device can prevent battery damage effectively in general circumstances, which means the reliability of the device has been verified. Therefore, when applied to electric vehicles, the car battery protection device, which can prevent secondary accidents, significantly improves the vehicle security in accidents.