Shape control on probability density function in stochastic systems

A novel strategy of probability density function （PDF） shape control is proposed in stochastic systems. The control er is designed whose parameters are optimal y obtained through the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm. The parameters of the control er are viewed as the space position of a particle in particle swarm optimization algorithm and updated continual y until the control er makes the PDF of the state variable as close as possible to the expected PDF. The proposed PDF shape control technique is compared with the equivalent linearization technique through simulation experiments. The results show the superiority and the effectiveness of the proposed method. The control er is excellent in making the state PDF fol ow the expected PDF and has the very smal error between the state PDF and the expected PDF, solving the control problem of the PDF shape in stochastic systems effectively.

Exact mesh shape design of large cable-network antenna reflectors with flexible ring truss supports

An exact-designed mesh shape with favorable surface accuracy is of practical significance to the performance of large cable-network antenna reflectors. In this study, a novel design approach that could guide the generation of exact spatial parabolic mesh configurations of such reflector was proposed. By incorporating the traditional force density method with the standard finite element method, this proposed approach had taken the deformation effects of flexible ring truss supports into consideration, and searched for the desired mesh shapes that can satisfy the requirement that all the free nodes are exactly located on the objective paraboloid. Compared with the conventional design method,a remarkable improvement of surface accuracy in the obtained mesh shapes had been demonstrated by numerical examples. The present work would provide a helpful technical reference for the mesh shape design of such cable-network antenna reflector in engineering practice.

Determining the relationship between chemical composition and size, shape and effective density of airborne fine particles through concurrent use of inertial and optical based measurements

This study presents the development of a medium flow, multiple slit based PM2.5 （particle aerodynamic diameter 〈2.5 μm） inertial impactor. Its performance was compared with that of a light scattering based optical particle sizer in a field study and in controlled lab based experiments using polydisperse dolomite powder as test aerosol. The impactor＇s optimum nozzle configuration had a cutoff size of 2.51 μm （aero- dynamic diameter） at an operating flow rate of 215 L/rain with a pressure drop of 0.35 kPa across the impactor stage. Because the apparent particle density of an ambient aerosol depends on the physical properties and the chemical composition of the particles, the PM2.5 mass concentration was measured with an optical particle sizer and an inertial impactor over a weekday and a weekend day in a field study during which the effective particle shape factor and density were in tandem modified in order to com- pare the results from the two sampling techniques. The correlation of the two instrument results tended towards 1：1 with increasing values of shape factor （irregular shaped） and effective particle density. This observation was supported through chemical investigations of the collected mass, which showed a higher percentage contribution from elements which are mostly of crustal nature （namely, Ca, Fe, and Mg）.

Multiple extended target tracking algorithm based on Gaussian surface matrix

In this paper, we consider the problem of irregular shapes tracking for multiple extended targets by introducing the Gaussian surface matrix（GSM） into the framework of the random finite set（RFS） theory. The Gaussian surface function is constructed first by the measurements, and it is used to define the GSM via a mapping function. We then integrate the GSM with the probability hypothesis density（PHD） filter, the Bayesian recursion formulas of GSM-PHD are derived and the Gaussian mixture implementation is employed to obtain the closed-form solutions. Moreover, the estimated shapes are designed to guide the measurement set sub-partition, which can cope with the problem of the spatially close target tracking. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively estimate irregular target shapes and exhibit good robustness in cross extended target tracking.

Effect of Powder Particle Shape on the Properties of In Situ Ti–TiB Composite Materials Produced by Selective Laser Melting

This work studied the preparation of starting powder mixture influenced by milling time and its effect on the particle morphology （especially the shape） and, consequently, density and compression properties of in situ Ti-TiB composite materials produced by selective laser melting （SLM） technology. Starting powder composite system was prepared by mixing 95 wt% commercially pure titanium （CP-Ti） and 5 wt% titanium diboride （TiB2） powders and subsequently milled for two different times （i.e. 2 h and 4 h）. The milled powder mixtures after 2 h and 4 h show nearly spherical and irregular shape, respectively. Subsequently, the resultant Ti-5 wt% TiB2 powder mixtures were used for SLM processing. Scanning electron microscopy image of the SLM-processed Ti-TiB composite samples show needle-shape TiB phase distributed across the Ti matrix, which is the product of an in-situ chemical reaction between Ti and TiB2 during SLM. The Ti-TiB composite samples prepared from 2 h and 4 h milled Ti-TiB2 powders show different relative densities of 99.5% and 95.1%, respectively. Also, the compression properties such as ultimate strength and compression strain for the 99.5% dense composite samples is 1421 MPa and 17.8%, respectively, which are superior to those （883 MPa and 5.5%, respectively） for the 95.1% dense sample. The results indicate that once Ti and TiB2 powders are connected firmly to each other and powder mixture of nearly spherical shape is obtained, there is no additional benefit in increasing the milling time and, instead, it has a negative effect on the density （i.e. increasing porosity level） of the Ti-TiB composite materials and their mechanical properties.