Triad-displaced ULAs configuration for non-circular sources with larger continuous virtual aperture and enhanced degrees of freedom

Non-uniform linear array(NULA)configurations are well renowned due to their structural ability for providing increased degrees of freedom(DOF)and wider array aperture than uniform linear arrays(ULAs).These characteristics play a significant role in improving the direction-of-arrival(DOA)estimation accuracy.However,most of the existing NULA geometries are primarily applicable to circular sources(CSs),while they limitedly improve the DOF and continuous virtual aperture for noncircular sources(NCSs).Toward this purpose,we present a triaddisplaced ULAs(Tdis-ULAs)configuration for NCS.The TdisULAs structure generally consists of three ULAs,which are appropriately placed.The proposed antenna array approach fully exploits the non-circular characteristics of the sources.Given the same number of elements,the Tdis-ULAs design achieves more DOF and larger hole-free co-array aperture than its sparse array competitors.Advantageously,the number of uniform DOF,optimal distribution of elements among the ULAs,and precise element positions are uniquely determined by the closed-form expressions.Moreover,the proposed array also produces a filled resulting co-array.Numerical simulations are conducted to show the performance advantages of the proposed Tdis-ULAs configuration over its counterpart designs.

Spray Characteristics of Non-Circular Nozzle in Air-Assisted Injection System

In order to analyze the spray characteristics of non-circular nozzle holes based on the air-assisted spray system, the spray characteristics of circular and non-circular nozzles were studied under the pressure of 0.2-0.6 MPa and the spray volume of 1000-5000 mL/h. Elliptical nozzle and triangular nozzle are classified as non-circular geometries. The spray cone angle was measured by processing the spray image captured by a CCD camera. The measured spray cone angles of the circular nozzles were analyzed, and the axis switching phenomenon of minor plane of elliptical nozzle was found during the test. Among the three shapes of nozzles, the elliptical nozzle had the largest spray cone angle, and the triangular nozzle had the smallest. The velocity field obtained depended on the PIV system. The results show that for axial velocity, elliptical orifice spray has greater kinetic energy and smaller droplet size under the same working parameters. Compared with the circular and elliptical nozzles, triangular orifice reached maximum spray velocity the fastest, but its velocity decay was the fastest. For radial velocity, away from the axis, the spray velocity of the elliptical orifice was less affected by the injection parameters, and the velocity was less than that of circular orifice and triangle orifice. Increasing air pressure will weaken radial propagation. The increase of liquid spraying rate had no remarkable effect on the increase of spraying rate. The results of particle size analysis show that the particle size of the non-circular orifice is reduced compared with that of the circular orifice, which promotes the breakup of droplets to a certain extent and enhances the atomization effect.

Design and Experimental Research on Seedling Pick-Up Mechanism of Planetary Gear Train with Combined Non-circular Gear Transmission

Currently, transplanting mechanisms for dryland plug seedlings in China are mainly semiautomatic and have low efficiency. The rotary seedling pick-up mechanism with a planetary gear train for non-uniform intermittent transmission, and a concave and convex locking arc device, has a large rigid impact. To solve these problems, according to the design requirements for a dryland plug seedling transplanting mechanism, a rotary seedling pick-up mechanism of a planetary gear train with combined non-circular gear transmission of incomplete eccentric circular and noncircular gears was proposed. This has the characteristics of two-times greater fluctuation of the transmission ratio in a cycle, and can achieve a non-uniform continuous drive. Through analysis of the working principle of the seedling pick-up mechanism, its kinematics model was established. The human–computer interaction optimization method and self-developed computer-aided analysis and optimization software were used to obtain a set of parameters that satisfy the operation requirements of the seedling pick-up mechanism. According to the optimized parameters, the structure of the seedling pick-up mechanism was designed, a virtual prototype of the mechanism was created, and a physical prototype was manufactured. A virtual motion simulation of the mechanism was performed, high-speed photographic kinematics tests were conducted, and the kinematic properties of the physical prototype were investigated, whereby the correctness of the theoretical model and the optimized design of the mechanism were verified. Further, laboratory seedling pick-up tests were conducted. The success ratio of seedling pick-up was 93.8% when the seedling pick-up efficiency of the mechanism was 60 plants per minute per row, indicating that the mechanism has a high efficiency and success ratio for seedling pick-up and can be applied to a dryland plug seedling transplanter.

Initial support distance of a non-circular tunnel based on convergence constraint method and integral failure criteria of rock

For deep tunnel projects,selecting an appropriate initial support distance is critical to improving the self-supporting capacity of surrounding rock.In this work,an intuitive method for determining the tunnel’s initial support distance was proposed.First,based on the convergence-confinement method,a three-dimensional analytical model was constructed by combining an analytical solution of a non-circular tunnel with the Tecplot software.Then,according to the integral failure criteria of rock,the failure tendency coefficients of hard surrounding rock were computed and the spatial distribution plots of that were constructed.On this basis,the tunnel’s key failure positions were identified,and the relationship between the failure tendency coefficient at key failure positions and their distances from the working face was established.Finally,the distance from the working face that corresponds to the critical failure tendency coefficient was taken as the optimal support distance.A practical project was used as an example,and a reasonable initial support distance was successfully determined by applying the developed method.Moreover,it is found that the stability of hard surrounding rock decreases rapidly within the range of 1.0D(D is the tunnel diameter)from the working face,and tends to be stable outside the range of 1.0D.

Kinematic Modeling and Characteristic Analysis of Eccentric Conjugate Non-circular Gear & Crank-Rocker & Gears Train Weft Insertion Mechanism

A novel weft insertion mechanism named eccentric conjugate non-circular gear & crank-rocker & gears train weft insertion mechanism was proposed in order to better meet the requirements of rapier loom's weft insertion mechanism as well as reduce the manufacturing difficulty. Meanwhile, based on the working principle of this mechanism, kinematical mathematic models of this mechanism were established and an aided analysis and simulation software was compiled. The influences of eccentricity ratio, deformation coefficient, and other important parameters on the kinematics characteristics of this mechanism were analyzed by using the software. A group of preferable parameters which could meet the requirements of weft insertion technology were obtained by means of human-computer interactive optimization method. The maximum velocity, maximum acceleration, and variation of acceleration of this mechanism are smaller than those of the conjugate cam weft insertion mechanism applied on TT96 rapier loom under the conditions of the same unilateral total stroke of rapier head and the same rotary speed of loom spindle; meanwhile the other demands of weaving technology can be met by this novel weft insertion mechanism.

Key Technologies and Applications of the Design and Manufacturing of Non-Circular TBMs

With the rapid development of the exploitation of underground space, more and more large- or super- large-diameter tunnel-boring machines （TBMs） are being employed to construct underground space projects. At present, because conventional circular TBMs cannot completely meet the requirements of underground space exploitation regarding the cross-section and space-utilization ratio, non-circular TBMs. which are the tunneling equipment for an ideal cross-section, have become the new market growth point. This paper first presents the technical features and development status of non-circular TBMs. Next, in reference to typical projects and technological innovation, this paper investigates key techniques including shield design optimization, multi-cutterhead excavation, special-shaped segment erection, and soil conditioning in loess strata for a rectangular pipe-jacking machine and a horseshoe-shaped TBM, in order to provide a set of feasible solutions for the design, manufacture, and construction of non-circular TBMs. Relevant engineering practice shows that non-circular TBMs with customized design and manufacture have great advantages in terms of construction schedule, settlement control, and space utilization.

Review of the Equilibrium Fitting for Non-Circular Tokamak

As the equilibrium fitting code (EFIT) is developing to perform the magnetic andthe kinetic-magnetic analysis for tokamak device operation, it can be not only run in either thefitting mode or the equilibrium mode but also control operation of modern experimental fusiondevice. In this paper the history of EFIT code and its capabilities are described in section 2. Abrief description of the off-line EFIT code and the development of the real-time EFIT (RTEFlT)code is shown in section 3 and 4 respectively. In the last section the summary of this paper isgiven.

A NOVEL SEMI-ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR SOLVING ACOUSTIC RADIATION FROM LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED INFINITE NON-CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL SHELLS IN WATER

Based on the extended homogeneous capacity high precision integration method and the spectrum method of virtual boundary with a complex radius vector, a novel semi-analytical method, which has satisfactory computation efectiveness and precision, is presented for solving the acoustic radiation from a submerged infnite non-circular cylindrical shell stifened by longitudinal ribs by means of the Fourier integral transformation and stationary phase method. In this work, besides the normal interacting force, which is commonly adopted by some researchers, the other interacting forces and moments between the longitudinal ribs and the non-circular cylindrical shell are considered at the same time. The efects of the number and the size of the cross-section of longitudinal ribs on the characteristics of acoustic radiation are investigated. Numerical results show that the method proposed is more efcient than the existing mixed FE-BE method.

Reverse Design and Test of Non-circular Gear & Crank-Rocker & Gear Trains Weft Insertion Mechanism

For the purpose of obtaining satisfactory performance of the non-circular gear & crank-rocker & gear trains (NCCRG) weft insertion mechanism which was proposed in this paper, the ideal kinematic curve of this weft insertion mechanism was given, and the reverse solution models of this mechanism were established. A reverse design and simulation software was compiled based on Visual Basic 6.0 to obtain the mechanism parameters, including the pitch curves and tooth profiles of the non-circular gears. A test-bed of this mechanism was developed according to these parameters. The kinematic performance of this weft insertion mechanism was tested by high-speed video tape recorder with its corresponding video analytical software Blaster's MAS. And the test results were identical with the theoretical calculation. Compared with the conjugate cam weft insertion mechanism which is applied on TT96 rapier loom, under the condition of same weft insertion rate, the variation of acceleration of this mechanism is smaller. This novel weft insertion mechanism can meet the requirements of weft insertion on rapier looms with smooth and steady motion.

A Generalized Propagator Algorithm for Localization of Non-circular Sources Using Arbitrary Array Geometry

A propagator-based algorithm for direction of arrival(DOA)estimation of noncoherent one-dimensional(1-D)non-circular sources is presented such as binary phase shift keying(BPSK)and amplitude modulation(AM).The algorithm achieves DOA estimation through searching a 1-D spectrum,which is newly formed on the basis of the rank reduction criterion,and works well without knowledge of the non-circular phases.And then,a search-free implementation of the algorithm is also developed by using the polynomial rooting technique.According to the non-circular property,the algorithm can virtually enlarge the array aperture,thus significantly improving its estimation accuracy and enabling it to handle more sources than the number of sensors.Moreover,the algorithm requires no rotational invariance,so it can be applied to arbitrary array geometry and dispense with the high-complexity procedure of the eigen-decomposition of the correlation sample matrix.Finally,numerical simulations verify the performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Design and Experiment of Non-circular Combined Gear Train Beating-up Mechanism

The most important performance of a beating-up mechanism is that the dwelling time of the sley must ensure the completion of the weft insertion. To meet this requirement, a new non-circular combined gear train beating-up mechanism which is composed of two-stage planetary gear trains is proposed. The first-stage is a Fourier planetary gear train and the second-stage is a non-circular planetary gear train. For designing of this new mechanism, the ideal kinematic equations of the sley are constructed first. Then the kinematic model of the first-stage Fourier planetary gear train is established and the reverse solution for the pitch curves of the second-stage non-circular gears is deduced. With a computer-aided design program, the influences of several important parameters on the pitch curves of the second-stage non-circular gears are analyzed, and a set of preferable structural parameters are obtained. Finally, a test bed of this mechanism is developed and the experimental results show that this new beating-up mechanism can achieve the designed dwelling time, namely it can meet the requirements of beating-up process.

Free Vibration Analysis of Functionally Graded Plates with Multiple Circular and Non-circular Cutouts

Cutouts are inevitable in structures due to practical consideration.In order to investigate the free vibration of functionally graded plates with multiple circular and non-circular cutouts,finite element method is used.The volume fraction of the material constituents is assumed to follow a simple power law distribution.The parameters considered in this paper are as follows：cutout size,cutout location,number of cutouts and different boundary conditions.It should be mentioned that free vibration for FG plates（such as rectangular？skew？trapezoidal？circular plates） with multiple cutouts has not been studied yet and hence the results out coming from this paper may be used as bench marks for future works.

ESTIMATION OF 2-D DOA USING NON-CIRCULAR MUSIC METHOD FOR UNIFORM CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR ARRAYS

This paper extends the Non-Circular MUltiple SIgnal Classification(MUSIC)(NC-MUSIC) method for the common array geometries including Uniform Circular Arrays(UCAs) and Uniform Rectangular Arrays(URAs),which enables the algorithm to estimate 2-D Direction Of Arrival(DOA).A comparison between UCAs and URAs of NC-MUSIC is made in this paper.The simulations show that the NC-MUSIC method doubles the maximum estimation number of standard MUSIC.Using non-circular signals,the performance of URAs is improved remarkably while the improvement of UCAs is not so significantly.Moreover,the influence of arrays structures on the NC-MUSIC method is discussed.

TRAJECTORY GENERATION AND CONTROL FOR NON-CIRCULAR CNC TURNING

A trajectory generation method which is based on NURBS interpolation is studied to improve the fitting accuracy and smoothness of non-circular cross section and obtain higher accuracy of the final non-circular profile control. After using the NURBS, the most optimized and smooth trajectory for the linear actuator can be obtained. For the purpose of machining the non-circular cross section by CNC turning, the fast response linear actuator has been used. The control algorithm which is compound control of proportional-integral-differential （PID） and iterative learning control has been developed for non-circular profile generation. By using the NURBS interpolation and the compound control of PID and iterative learning control, the final motion accuracy of linear actuator has been improved, therefore, the machining accuracy of the non-circular turning can be improved.

Research of contour error compensation control for X-C non-circular grinding in polar coordinates

In the X-C linkage grinding of non-circular parts,the computation and control method of contour error in polar coordinates platform is different with that in the XY coordinates platform.To solve this problem,the analysis of the definition and computation methods for contour error and track error in polar coordinates platform will be made.Through the relative lead-lag relation of the linkage axes in the grinding process,the range of the estimation contour error is narrowed and a contour error calculation model is constructed.Then the contour compensation controllers along contour error direction and trajectory tracking error direction are designed respectively,and the error compensation decoupling matrix of the X-C linkage axes is given as well.In the end of this paper,we take the machining of the cylinder contour in Wankel rotary piston engine as an example.A simulation experiment of contour error compensation control based on relative lead-lag quantity is made.The result shows that the designed contour compensation controller can increase the contour machining accuracy effectively.

Matching between mechanics and thermodynamics among 4 individual strokes in a 4-stroke engine by non-circular gear mechanism

The relationship between engine mechanics and thermo-dynamics has been investigated by means of numerical simulation.The inherent mismatching between the mechanical behaviors and the thermodynamic process in internal combustion engine is identified,which is believed to be one of the important limiting factors of energy efficiency for conventional engines available in the current market.An approach for engine efficiency improvement through optimal matching between mechanics and thermodynamics(OMBMT)is proposed.An ideal matching model is defined and the conflicts due to the constraints among the mapping strokes in a 4-stroke engine are analyzed.A novel mechanical model is built for approaching optimal matching among all 4 individual strokes in a 4-stroke spark-ignition engine,which is composed of non-circular gears(NCG)and integrated with conventional slider crank engine mechanism.By means of digital mechanical model and numerical simulation,the matching gains among all 4 strokes are defined and calculated for quantifying the NCG engine efficiency improvement by comparing with a baseline engine.The potentials with the OMBMT implemented and the enhancements made by NCG mechanism for engines in terms of overall engine efficiency are reported.Based on the results achieved,it is recommended that the feasibility studies and the experimental validations should be conducted to verify the engine matching concept and effectiveness of the NCG mechanism engine model proposed,and the engine performance and NCG design parameters should be further optimized.

Calculating method of contact stress for non-circular gears

According to Hertz theory, the difference of contact stress for non-circular gears and equivalent gears is compared in the paper, a calculating method of contact stress for non-circular gears by using equivalent gears is researched, and computing formulas of power and rotation speed for equivalent gears are deduced. A numerical simulation of contact stress for non-circular gears has also been conducted based on the finite element method. By the comparison of fitting curves, the feasibility of using equivalent gears instead of non-circular gears to calculate the contact stress is testified.

Geodesic Acoustic Mode in Toroidally Axisymmetric Plasmas with Non-Circular Cross Sections

The geodesic acoustic mode （GAM）, first predicted by Winsor, Johnson and Dawson in an attempt to explain some experimentally observed low frequency oscillations in stellarators, is a special electrostatic fluid mode with low mode number and coupled with the so-called geodesic curvature of a toroidally confined plasma. The recent on this mode are due to the close relevance of the stabi- lization of drift turbulence by both the zonal flow and the GAM. Previously, the GAM was illustrated in very simple geometries,

Research on Design Method of Non-Circular Gear Pair with Double Generating Angles

In order to enhance the bearing capacity of non-circular gear pair, the non-circular gear pair with double generating angles is proposed based on the design idea of unsymmetrical gear with double pressure angles. The tooth profile is designed by generating cutting theory, the pure rolling mathematic model that the center line of unsymmetrical rack roll along non-circular pitch curve is built, the digital model of non-circular gear with double generating angles is created through the second development method of CAD software, and then the drive characteristic and tooth strength are analyzed. The results show that the design method for double generating angles non-circular gear proposed in this paper is feasible, which is significant to improve the bearing capacity of non-circular gear pair.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS IN TENON JOINT GAP BETWEEN TURBINE BLADE AND DISK

The now and heat transfer characteristics in tenon joint gap between turbine blade and disk have been investigated experimentally with a scale up model. The characteristics of flow and heat transfer in this speCial gap passage have been analyzed. The results are useful for beat transfer analysis in turbine design.