Algebraic Solution for the Forward Displacement Analysis of the General 6-6 Stewart Mechanism

The solution for the forward displacement analysis（FDA） of the general 6-6 Stewart mechanism（i.e., the connection points of the moving and fixed platforms are not restricted to lying in a plane） has been extensively studied, but the efficiency of the solution remains to be effectively addressed. To this end, an algebraic elimination method is proposed for the FDA of the general 6-6 Stewart mechanism. The kinematic constraint equations are built using conformal geometric algebra（CGA）. The kinematic constraint equations are transformed by a substitution of variables into seven equations with seven unknown variables. According to the characteristic of anti-symmetric matrices, the aforementioned seven equations can be further transformed into seven equations with four unknown variables by a substitution of variables using the Grobner basis. Its elimination weight is increased through changing the degree of one variable, and sixteen equations with four unknown variables can be obtained using the Grobner basis. A 40th-degree univariate polynomial equation is derived by constructing a relatively small-sized 9 × 9 Sylvester resultant matrix. Finally, two numerical examples are employed to verify the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively improve the efficiency of solution and reduce the computational burden because of the small-sized resultant matrix.

Forward Displacement Analysis of a Class of the 6-6 Stewart Platforms

A special form of the Stewart platform is presented in which the top platform and base platform are similar and corresponding vertices are connected by six prismatic joints.A closed-from solution for the forward displacement analysis of this mechanism is developed.When the six vertices of the top platform are in a quadratic curve,this mechanism becomes singular.This new theoretical result is confirmed with a numerical example.

ANALYSIS OF SURFACE CRACK ON FORWARD EXTRUDING BAR DURING AXISYMMETRIC CUP-BAR COMBINED EXTRUSION PROCESS

In this paper, the kinematically admissible velocity field with surface crack on forward extruding bar is put forward during the axisymmetric cup-bar combined extrusion process, in accordance with the results of model experiments.On the basis of velocity field, the necessary condition for surface crack formation on the forward extruding bar is derived, with the help of upper bound theorem and the minimum energy principle. Meanwhile, the relationships between surface crack formation and combination of reduction in area for the part of forward and backward extursions relative residual thickness of billet (T/R0),frictional factor (m) or relative land length of ram and chamber are calculated during the extrusion process. Therefore, whether the surface crack on forward exturding bar occurs can be predicted before extruding the lower-plasticity metals for axisymmetric cup-bar combined extrusion process.The analytical results agree very well with experimental results of aluminium alloy LY12 (ASTM 2024) and LC4 (ASTM 7075).

Error Analysis of Three Degree-of-Freedom Changeable Parallel Measuring Mechanism

A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) planar changeable parallel mechanism is designed by means of control of different drive parameters. This mechanism possesses the characteristics of two kinds of parallel mechanism. Based on its topologic structure, a coordinate system for position analysis is set-up and the forward kinematic solutions are analyzed. It was found that the parallel mechanism is partially decoupled. The relationship between original errors and position-stance error of moving platform is built according to the complete differential-coefficient theory. Then we present a special example with theory values and errors to evaluate the error model, and numerical error solutions are gained. The investigations concentrating on mechanism errors and actuator errors show that the mechanism errors have more influences on the position-stance of the moving platform. It is demonstrated that improving manufacturing and assembly techniques can greatly reduce the moving platform error. The small change in position-stance error in different kinematic positions proves that the error-compensation of software can improve considerably the precision of parallel mechanism.

Fourth-Order Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis of an OECD/NEA Reactor Physics Benchmark: I. Mathematical Expressions and CPU-Time Comparisons for Computing 1^st-, 2^nd- and 3^rd-Order Sensitivities

This work extends to fourth-order previously published work on developing the adjoint sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the numerical model of a polyethylene-reflected plutonium (acronym: PERP) OECD/NEA reactor physics benchmark. The PERP benchmark comprises 7477 imprecisely known (uncertain) model parameters which have nonzero values. These parameters are as follows: 180 microscopic total cross sections;7101 microscopic scattering sections;60 microscopic fission cross sections;60 parameters that characterize the average number of neutrons per fission;60 parameters that characterize the fission spectrum;10 parameters that characterize the fission source;and 6 parameters that characterize the isotope number densities. Previous works have used the adjoint sensitivity analysis methodology to compute exactly and efficiently all of the 7477 first-order and 27,956,503 second-order sensitivities of the PERP benchmark’s leakage response to all of the benchmark’s uncertain parameters. These works showed that largest response sensitivities involve the total microscopic cross sections, which motivated the recent computation of all of the (180)3 third-order sensitivities of the PERP leakage response with respect to these total microscopic cross sections. It turned out that some of these 3rd-order cross sections were far larger than the corresponding 2nd-order ones, thereby having the largest impact on the uncertainties induced in the PERP benchmark’s response. This finding has motivated the development of the original 4th-order formulas presented in this work, which are valid not only for the PERP benchmark but can also be used for computing the 4th-order sensitivities of response of any nuclear system involving fissionable material and internal or external neutron sources. Subsequent works will use the adjoint-based mathematical expressions obtained in this work to compute exactly and efficiently the numerical values of the largest fourth-order sensitivities of the PERP benchmark’s response to the total microscopic cross section and use them for a pioneering fourth-order uncertainty analysis of the PERP benchmark’s response.

On the electrophysiology of the atrial fast conduction system:an uncertain quantification study

Cardiac modeling entails the epistemic uncertainty of the input parameters,such as bundles and chambers geometry,electrical conductivities and cell parameters,thus calling for an uncertainty quantification(UQ)analysis.Since the cardiac activation and the subsequent muscular contraction is provided by a complex electrophysiology system made of interconnected conductive media,we focus here on the fast conductivity structures of the atria(internodal pathways)with the aim of identifying which of the uncertain inputs mostly influence the propagation of the depolarization front.Firstly,the distributions of the input parameters are calibrated using data available from the literature taking into account gender differences.The output quantities of interest(Qols)of medical relevance are defined and a set of metamodels(one for each Qol)is then trained according to a polynomial chaos expansion(PCE)in order to run a global sensitivity analysis with non-linear variance-based SoboF indices with confidence intervals evaluated through the bootstrap method.The most sensitive parameters on each Qol are then identified for both genders showing the same order of importance of the model inputs on the electrical activation.Lastly,the probability distributions of the Qols are obtained through a forward sensitivity analysis using the same trained metamodels.It results that several input parameters-including the position of the internodal pathways and the electrical impulse applied at the sinoatrial node一have a little influence on the Qols studied.Vice-versa the electrical activation of the atrial fast conduction system is sensitive on the bundles geometry and electrical conductivities that need to be carefully measured or calibrated in order for the electrophysiology model to be accurate and predictive.

Application of Dynamic Slicing in Test Data Generation

The program slicing technique is employed to calculate the current values of the variables at some interest points in software test data generation. This paper introduces the concept of statement domination to represent the multiple nests, and presents a dynamic program slice algorithm based on forward analysis to generate dynamic slices. In the approach, more attention is given to the statement itself or its domination node, so computing program slices is more easy and accurate, especially for those programs with multiple nests. In addition, a case study is discussed to illustrate our algorithm. Experimental results show that the slicing technique can be used in software test data generation to enhance the effectiveness.