Optimal design for rubber concrete layered periodic foundations based on the analytical approximations of band gaps and mapping relations

The seismic performance of rubber concrete-layered periodic foundations are significantly influenced by their design,in which the band gaps play a paramount role.Aiming at providing better designs for these foundations,this study first proposes and validates the analytical formulas to approximate the bounds of the first few band gaps.In addition,the mapping relations linking the frequencies of different band gaps are presented.Furthermore,an optimal design method for these foundations is developed,which is validated through an engineering example.It is demonstrated that ensuring the superstructure’s resonance zones are completely covered by the corresponding periodic foundation’s band gaps can achieve satisfactory vibration attenuation effects,which is a good strategy for the design of rubber concrete layered periodic foundations.

Optimal Design of High-Speed Partial Flow Pumps using Orthogonal Tests and Numerical Simulations

To investigate the influence of structural parameters on the performances and internal flow characteristics of partial flow pumps at a low specific speed of 10000 rpm,special attention was paid to the first and second stage impeller guide vanes.Moreover,the impeller blade outlet width,impeller inlet diameter,blade inclination angle,and number of blades were considered for orthogonal tests.Accordingly,nine groups of design solutions were formed,and then used as a basis for the execution of numerical simulations(CFD)aimed at obtaining the efficiency values and heads for each design solution group.The influence of impeller geometric parameters on the efficiency and head was explored,and the“weight”of each factor was obtained via a range analysis.Optimal structural parameters were finally chosen on the basis of the numerical simulation results,and the performances of the optimized model were verified accordingly(yet by means of CFD).Evidence is provided that the increase in the efficiency and head of the optimized model was 12.11%and 23.5 m,respectively,compared with those of the original model.

Optimal design of the fillet weld fastening the wind turbine column

This paper deals with the optimal design of the fillet weld of wind turbine column subjected to bending moment.Under the premise of determined the force acting on the column,in order to further optimize the fillet weld,the minimum volume of corner seam was determined in the case of non-linear design constraints.The constraints relate to the maximal stresses and fatigue of welding seam.A numerical solution to this problem is given by genetic optimization algorithm.The optimisation calculation result indicated that the active condition(constraint)was the stress from the static load.Useful and meaningful information is provided for the engineering field.

Relative Efficiencies of Optimal Designs in Four Dimensions Constructed Using Balanced Incomplete Block Designs

Experimentally, the best design gives estimates of the desired effects and contrasts with maximum precision. Efficiency as a discriminating factor enables comparison of designs. The goal of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is the determination of the best settings of the in-put variables for a maximum (or a minimum) response within a region of interest, R. This calls for fitting a model that adequately represents the mean response since such a model, is then used to locate the optimum. D-, A-, E- and T-Optimal designs of a rotatable design of degree two in four dimensions constructed using balanced incomplete block designs (BIBD) when the number of replications is less than three times the number of pairs of treatments occur together in the design and their relative efficiencies to general designs are presented. D-optimal design had 88 runs after replicating the factorial part twice and the axial part thrice with an optimal variance of 0.6965612 giving an efficiency of 97.7% while for A- and T-optimal designs they are formed with 112 runs each obtained by replicating the factorial part two times and axial part six times. Their optimal variances are 0.05798174 and 1.29828 respectively, with efficiency of 71.8% for A-optimal and 87.5% for T-optimal design. E-optimal design was found to be the most efficient design with an only 32 runs comprising only of the factorial part and with an optimal variance of 0.4182000, attaining an efficiency of approximately 1%. This study proposes the adoption of the E-optimal design in estimating the parameters of a rotatable second-order degree model constructed using BIBD for less costs and time saving.

OPTIMAL DESIGN OF DUAL STATOR-WINDING INDUCTION GENERATOR WITH PWM CONVERTER

To minimize the reactive power of the converter of the control winding in the novel dual stator-winding induction generator based on the PWM converter, design features of the induction generator with a rectified load are proposed. The optimization method of excited capacitors to minimize the reactive power of the control winding at a variable speed is given. The calculation capacity of the machine with a diode bridge rectifier load is proposed. To achieve global searching, the integrated method with the improved real-coded genetic algorithm and the twodimensional finite element method （FEM） is introduced. Design results of the sample show that reactive power can be reduced by the method, and the converter capacity can be decreased to 1/3 of output rated power at the speed ratio of 1 ： 3, thus reducing the volume and the mass of the inverter.

Optimal design of sintered Ce_9Nd_(21)Fe_(bal)B_1 magnets with a low-melting-point (Ce,Nd)-rich phase

A systemic investigation was done on the chemistry and crystal structure of boundary phases in sintered Ce9Nd21FebalB1 （wt%） magnets. Ce2Fe14B is believed to be more soluble in the rare-earth （RE）-rich liquid phase during the sintering process. Thus, the grain size and oxygen content were controlled via low-temperature sintering, resulting in high coercivity and maximum energy products. In addition, Ce formed massive agglomerations at the triple-point junctions, as confirmed by elemental mapping results. Transmission electron micros- copy （TEM） images indicated the presence of （Ce,Nd）Ox phases at grain boundaries. By controlling the composition and optimizing the preparation process, we successfully obtained Ce9Nd21FebalBx sintered magnets; the prepared magnets exhibited a residual induction, coerciv- ity, and energy product of 1.353 T, 759 kA/m, and 342 kJ/m3, respectively.

Accurate energy model for WSN node and its optimal design

With the development of CMOS and MEMS technologies, the implementation of a large number of wireless distributed micro-sensors that can be easily and rapidly deployed to form highly redundant, self-configuring, and ad hoc sensor networks. To facilitate ease of deployment, these sensors operate on battery for extended periods of time. A particular challenge in maintaining extended battery lifetime lies in achieving communications with low power. For better understanding of the design tradeoffs of wireless sensor network （WSN）, a more accurate energy model for wireless sensor node is proposed, and an optimal design method of energy efficient wireless sensor node is described as well. Different from power models ever shown which assume the power cost of each component in WSN node is constant, the new one takes into account the energy dissipation of circuits in practical physical layer. It shows that there are some parameters, such as data rate, carrier frequency, bandwidth, Tsw, etc, which have a significant effect on the WSN node energy consumption per useful bit （EPUB）. For a given quality specification, how energy consumption can be reduced by adjusting one or more of these parameters is shown.

Optimal Design for an End Face Engagement Worm Gear with Multiple Worm-wheel Meshing

To solve the problem for lacking a special mechanical transmission that could provide multiple outputs with high transmission efficiency and good lubrication in the modem industrial, a novel worm gear, named end face engagement worm gear, with multiple worm-wheel meshing is proposed for the first time. The essential parameters for the worm gear are optimized to enhance lubrication and meshing properties. Moreover, analysis of variance（ANOVA） is applied to determine the optimum levels and to determine the influence of parameters. The ANOVA results show that the novel end face engagement worm gear with multiple worm wheels provides high lubrication（the lubrication angle is more than 89~） and meshing performance（the induce normal curvature is less than 0.0002 mm ＇）. The interaction between center distance and roller slant distance most strongly influences the lubrication angle（contributed 51.6%）, followed by the parameters of center distance（contributed 25.0%）, roller slant distance（contributed 16.4%）, tooth angle of gear, gear ratio, and roller radius. In addition, roller radius most strongly influences the induced normal curvature（contributed 39.4%）, followed by roller slant distance（contributed 15.2%）, tooth angle of the gear（contributed 9.0%）, center distance, and gear ratio. The proposed worm gear helps to enrich the no-backlash high precision worm drive and the optimal design method can provide a useful reference on performance improvement of other worm gear.

Optimal design of butterfly-shaped linear ultrasonic motor using finite element method and response surface methodology

A new method for optimizing a butterfly-shaped linear ultrasonic motor was proposed to maximize its mechanical output. The finite element analysis technology and response surface methodology were combined together to realize the optimal design of the butterfly-shaped linear ultrasonic motor. First, the operation principle of the motor was introduced. Second, the finite element parameterized model of the stator of the motor was built using ANSYS parametric design language and some structure parameters of the stator were selected as design variables. Third, the sample points were selected in design variable space using latin hypercube Design. Through modal analysis and harmonic response analysis of the stator based on these sample points, the target responses were obtained. These sample points and response values were combined together to build a response surface model. Finally, the simplex method was used to find the optimal solution. The experimental results showed that many aspects of the design requirements of the butterfly-shaped linear ultrasonic motor have been fulfilled. The prototype motor fabricated based on the optimal design result exhibited considerably high dynamic performance, such as no-load speed of 873 ram/s, maximal thrust of 27.5 N, maximal efficiency of 43%, and thrust-weight ratio of 45.8.

Optimal Design of Multiple Stress Constant Accelerated Life Test Plan on Non-rectangle Test Region

For optimal design of constant stress accelerated life test（CSALT） with two-stress, if the stresses could not reach the highest levels simultaneously, the test region becomes non-rectangular. For optimal CSALT design on non-rectangle test region, the present method is only focused on non-rectangle test region with simple boundary, and the optimization algorithm is based on experience which can not ensure to obtain the optimal plan. In this paper, considering the linear-extreme value model and the optimization goal to minimize the variance of lifetime estimate under normal stress, the optimal design method of two-stress type-I censored CSALT plan on general non-rectangular test region is proposed. First, two properties of optimal test plans are proved and the relationship of all the optimal test plans is determined analytically. Then, on the basis of the two properties, the optimal problem is simplified and the optimal design method of two-stress CSALT plan on general non-rectangular test region is proposed. Finally, a numerical example is used to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method, The result shows that the proposed method could obtain the optimal test plan on non-rectangular test regions with arbitrary boundaries. This research provides the theory and method for two-stress optimal CSALT planning on non-rectangular test regions.

Optimal Design of Stewart Platform Safety Mechanism

A safety mechanism capable of moving at will within the range of its whole link lengths is designed based on the link space. Sixteen extreme poses are obtained in a Stewart platform. The singular points of the extreme poses are solved by using homotopy method as well as the judgment condition of singular points, and thereby the maximum link lengths are achieved. The rotation angles of joints and the distances between two neighboring links are analyzed in a calculation example in which that the mechanism moves among the extreme poses is assumed. Then an algorithm to test the safety mechanism is presented taking the constraint conditions into account. A safety mechanism having optimal properties of global movement is worked out by optimizing all structural parameters through minimizing the average condition number of extreme poses.

Optimal design theories of tuned mass dampers with nonlinear viscous damping

Optimal design theory for linear tuned mass dampers （TMD） has been thoroughly investigated, but is still under development for nonlinear TMDs. In this paper, optimization procedures in the time domain are proposed for design of a TMD with nonlinear viscous damping. A dynamic analysis of a structure implemented with a nonlinear TMD is conducted first. Optimum design parameters for the nonlinear TMD are searched using an optimization method to minimize the performance index. The feasibility of the proposed optimization method is illustrated numerically by using the Taipei 101 structure implemented with TMD. The sensitivity analysis shows that the performance index is less sensitive to the damping coefficient than to the frequency ratio. Time history analysis is conducted using the Taipei 101 structure implemented with different TMDs under wind excitation. For both linear and nonlinear TMDs, the comfort requirements for building occupants are satisfied as long as the TMD is properly designed. It was found that as the damping exponent increases, the relative displacement of the TMD decreases but the damping force increases.

Optimal Design of TMD Under Long-Term Nonstationary Wave Loading

Traditionally, the use of a tuned mass damper (TMD) is to improve the surviability of the primary structure under extraordinary loading environment while the design loading condition is described by either a harmonic function or a stationary random process that can be fully characterized by a power spectral density (PSD) function. Aiming at prolonging the fatigue life of an offshore platform, this study considers an optimal design of TMD for the platform under long-term nonstationary loading due to long-term random sea waves characterized by a probabilistic power spectral density (PPSD) function In principle, a PPSD could be derived based on numerous ordinary PSD functions; and each of them is treated as realization of the corresponding PPSD. This study provides a theoretical development for the optimal TMD design by minimizing the cost function to be the mean square value of the expected long term response. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the developed design procedure.

A New Rational-based Optimal Design Strategy of Ship Structure Based on Multi-level Analysis and Super-element Modeling Method

A new multi-level analysis method of introducing the super-element modeling method, derived from the multi-level analysis method first proposed by O. F. Hughes, has been proposed in this paper to solve the problem of high time cost in adopting a rational-based optimal design method for ship structural design. Furthermore,the method was verified by its effective application in optimization of the mid-ship section of a container ship. A full 3-D FEM model of a ship,suffering static and quasi-static loads, was used as the analyzing object for evaluating the structural performance of the mid-ship module, including static strength and buckling performance. Research results reveal that this new method could substantially reduce the computational cost of the rational-based optimization problem without decreasing its accuracy, which increases the feasibility and economic efficiency of using a rational-based optimal design method in ship structural design.

Optimal design of pressure vessel using an improved genetic algorithm

As the idea of simulated annealing (SA) is introduced into the fitness function, an improved genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to perform the optimal design of a pressure vessel which aims to attain the minimum weight under burst pressure con- straint. The actual burst pressure is calculated using the arc-length and restart analysis in finite element analysis (FEA). A penalty function in the fitness function is proposed to deal with the constrained problem. The effects of the population size and the number of generations in the GA on the weight and burst pressure of the vessel are explored. The optimization results using the proposed GA are also compared with those using the simple GA and the conventional Monte Carlo method.

Optimal design of vegetation in residential district with numerical simulation and field experiment

Vegetation plays a key role in improving wind environment of residential districts,and is helpful for creating a comfortable and beautiful living environment.The optimal design of vegetation for wind environment improvement in winter was investigated by carrying out field experiments in Heqingyuan residential area in Beijing,and after that,numerical simulation with SPOTE(simulation platform for outdoor thermal environment) experiments for outdoor thermal environment of vegetation was adopted for comparison.The conclusions were summarized as follows:1) By comparing the experimental data with simulation results,it could be concluded that the wind field simulated was consistent with the actual wind field,and the flow distribution impacted by vegetation could be accurately reflected;2) The wind velocity with vegetation was lower than that without vegetation,and the wind velocity was reduced by 46%;3) By adjusting arrangement and types of vegetation in the regions with excessively large wind velocity,the pedestrian-level wind velocity could be obviously improved through the simulation and comparison.

Optimal design of a novel cylindrical sandwich panel with double arrow auxetic core under air blast loading

The increasing threat of explosions on the battle field and the terrorist action requires the development of more effective blast resistance materials and structures.Curved structure can support the external loads effectively by virtue of their spatial curvature.In review of the excellent energy absorption property of auxetic structure,employing auxetic structure as core material in curved sandwich shows the potential to improve the protection performance.In this study,a novel cylindrical sandwich panel with double arrow auxetic(DAA) core was designed and the numerical model was built by ABAQUS.Due to the complexity of the structure,systematic parameter study and optimal design are conducted.Two cases of optimal design were considered,case1 focuses on reducing the deflection and mass of the structure,while case2 focuses on reducing the deflection and increasing the energy absorption per unit mass.Parameter study and optimal design were conducted based on Latin Hypercube Sampling(LHD)method,artificial neural networks(ANN) metamodel and the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm(NSGA-Ⅱ).The Pareto front was obtained and the cylindrical DAA structure performed much better than its equal solid panel in both blast resistance and energy absorption capacity.Optimization results can be used as a reference for different applications.

Optimal design and effectiveness evaluation for inerter-based devices on mitigating seismic responses of base isolated structures

The optimal design and effectiveness of three control systems,tuned viscous mass damper(TVMD),tuned inerter damper(TID)and tuned mass damper(TMD),on mitigating the seismic responses of base isolated structures,were systematically studied.First,the seismic responses of the base isolated structure with each control system under white noise excitation were obtained.Then,the structural parameter optimizations of the TVMD,TID and TMD were conducted by using three different objectives.The results show that the three control systems were all effective in minimizing the root mean square value of seismic responses,including the base shear of the BIS,the absolute acceleration of structural SDOF,and the relative displacement between the base isolation floor and the foundation.Finally,considering the superstructure as a structural MDOF,a series of time history analyses were performed to investigate the effectiveness and activation sensitivity of the three control systems under far field and near fault seismic excitations.The results show that the effectiveness of TID and TMD with optimized parameters on mitigating the seismic responses of base isolated structures increased as the mass ratio increases,and the effectiveness of TID was always better than TMD with the same mass ratio.The TVMD with a lower mass ratio was more efficient in reducing the seismic response than the TID and TMD.Furthermore,the TVMD,when compared with TMD and TID,had better activation sensitivity and a smaller stroke.

Optimal design for buckets layout based on muck removal analysis of TBM cutterhead

The layout of the buckets for tunnel boring machine(TBM)directly affects the muck removal efficiency of cutterhead during excavation.In order to improve the muck removal performance for TBM,the optimal design of bucket layout was investigated.The whole muck transfer process was simulated by discrete-element method(DEM),including the muck falling,colliding,pilling up,shoveling and transferring into the hopper.The muck model was established based on size distribution analysis of muck samples from the water-supply tunnel project in Jilin Province,China.Then,the influence of the bucket number and the interval angle between buckets on muck removal performance was investigated.The results indicated that,as the number of buckets increased from four to eight,the removed muck increased by 29%and the residual volume decreased by 40.5%,and the process became steadier.Different interval angles between buckets were corresponding to different removed muck irregularly,but the residual muck number increased generally with the angles.The optimal layout of buckets for the cutterhead in this tunnel project was obtained based on the simulation results,and the muck removal performance of the TBM was verified by the actual data in the engineering construction.

Optimal Design of a 3-Leg 6-DOF Parallel Manipulator for a Specific Workspace

Researchers seldom study optimum design of a six-degree-of-freedom（DOF） parallel manipulator with three legs based upon the given workspace.An optimal design method of a novel three-leg six-DOF parallel manipulator（TLPM） is presented.The mechanical structure of this robot is introduced,with this structure the kinematic constrain equations is decoupled.Analytical solutions of the forward kinematics are worked out,one configuration of this robot,including position and orientation of the end-effector are graphically displayed.Then,on the basis of several extreme positions of the kinematic performances,the task workspace is given.An algorithm of optimal designing is introduced to find the smallest dimensional parameters of the proposed robot.Examples illustrate the design results,and a design stability index is introduced,which ensures that the robot remains a safe distance from the boundary of sits actual workspace.Finally,one prototype of the robot is developed based on this method.This method can easily find appropriate kinematic parameters that can size a robot having the smallest workspace enclosing a predefined task workspace.It improves the design efficiency,ensures that the robot has a small mechanical size possesses a large given workspace volume,and meets the lightweight design requirements.