MODELING, VALIDATION AND OPTIMAL DESIGN OF THE CLAMPING FORCE CONTROL VALVE USED IN CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

Associated dynamic performance of the clamping force control valve used in continuously variable transmission （CVT） is optimized. Firstly, the structure and working principle of the valve are analyzed, and then a dynamic model is set up by means of mechanism analysis. For the purpose of checking the validity of the modeling method, a prototype workpiece of the valve is manufactured for comparison test, and its simulation result follows the experimental result quite well. An associated performance index is founded considering the response time, overshoot and saving energy, and five structural parameters are selected to adjust for deriving the optimal associated performance index. The optimization problem is solved by the genetic algorithm （GA） with necessary constraints. Finally, the properties of the optimized valve are compared with those of the prototype workpiece, and the results prove that the dynamic performance indexes of the optimized valve are much better than those of the prototype workpiece.

Modeling the dynamic optimal advertising in stochastic condition

An effort to model the dynamic optimal advertising was made with the uncertainty of sales responses in consideration. The problem of dynamic advertising was depicted as a Markov decision process with two state variables. When a firm launches an advertising campaign, it may predict the probability that the campaign will obtain the sales réponse. This probability was chosen as one state variable. Cumulative sales volume was chosen as another state variable which varies randomly with advertising. The only decision variable was advertising expenditure. With these variables, a multi-stage Markov decision process model was formulat ed. On the basis of some propositions the model was analyzed. Some analytical results about the optimal strategy have been derived, and their practical implications have been explained.

Modeling and Optimization of Solar Collector Design for the Improvement of Solar-Air Source Heat Pump Building Heating System

To enhance system stability,solar collectors have been integrated with air-source heat pumps.This integration facilitates the concurrent utilization of solar and air as energy sources for the system,leading to an improvement in the system’s heat generation coefficient,overall efficiency,and stability.In this study,we focus on a residential building located in Lhasa as the target for heating purposes.Initially,we simulate and analyze a solar-air source heat pump combined heating system.Subsequently,while ensuring the system meets user requirements,we examine the influence of solar collector installation angles and collector area on the performance of the solar-air source heat pump dual heating system.Through this analysis,we determine the optimal installation angle and collector area to optimize system performance.

Resilience assessment and optimization method of city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period

The post-earthquake emergency period,which is a sensitive time segment just after an event,mainly focuses on saving life and restoring social order.To improve the seismic resilience of city road networks,a resilience evaluation method used in the post-earthquake emergency period is proposed.The road seismic damage index of a city road network can consider the influence of roads,bridges and buildings along the roads,etc.on road capacity after an earthquake.A function index for a city road network is developed,which reflects the connectivity,redundancy,traffic demand and traffic function of the network.An optimization model for improving the road repair order in the post-earthquake emergency period is also developed according to the resilience evaluation,to enable decision support for city emergency management and achieve the best seismic resilience of the city road network.The optimization model is applied to a city road network and the results illustrate the feasibility of the resilience evaluation and optimization method for a city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period.

A Composite Transformer-Based Multi-Stage Defect Detection Architecture for Sewer Pipes

Urban sewer pipes are a vital infrastructure in modern cities,and their defects must be detected in time to prevent potential malfunctioning.In recent years,to relieve the manual efforts by human experts,models based on deep learning have been introduced to automatically identify potential defects.However,these models are insufficient in terms of dataset complexity,model versatility and performance.Our work addresses these issues with amulti-stage defect detection architecture using a composite backbone Swin Transformer.Themodel based on this architecture is trained using a more comprehensive dataset containingmore classes of defects.By ablation studies on the modules of combined backbone Swin Transformer,multi-stage detector,test-time data augmentation and model fusion,it is revealed that they all contribute to the improvement of detection accuracy from different aspects.The model incorporating all these modules achieves the mean Average Precision(mAP)of 78.6% at an Intersection over Union(IoU)threshold of 0.5.This represents an improvement of 14.1% over the ResNet50 Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network(R-CNN)model and a 6.7% improvement over You Only Look Once version 6(YOLOv6)-large,the highest in the YOLO methods.In addition,for other defect detection models for sewer pipes,although direct comparison with themis infeasible due to the unavailability of their private datasets,our results are obtained from a more comprehensive dataset and have superior generalization capabilities.

Charging Ahead with E-Buses: Benefits, Costs, and Transition Roadmap

This paper reaches a recommendation for the 10-year e-bus transition roadmap for New York City. The lifecycle model of emission reduction demonstrates the ecological and financial impacts of a complete transition from the current diesel bus fleet to an all-electric bus fleet in New York City by 2033. This study focuses on the NOx pollution, which is the highest among all major cities by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and greenhouse gases (GHG) with annual emissions of over five million tons. Our model predicts that switching to an all-electric bus fleet will cut GHG emissions by over 390,000 tons and NOx emissions by over 1300 tons annually, in addition to other pollutants such as VOCs and PM 2.5. yielding an annual economic benefit of over 75.94 million USD. This aligns with the city mayor office’s initiative of achieving total carbon neutrality. We further model an optimized transition roadmap that balances ecological and long-term benefits against the costs of the transition, emphasizing feasibility and alignment with the natural replacement cycle of existing buses, ensuring a steady budgeting pattern to minimize interruptions and resistance. Finally, we advocate for collaboration between government agencies, public transportation authorities, and private sectors, including electric buses and charging facility manufacturers, which is essential for fostering innovation and reducing the costs associated with the transition to e-buses.

Optimisation of Thermal Comfort of Building in a Hot and Dry Tropical Climate: A Comparative Approach between Compressed Earth/Concrete Block Envelopes

Compressed earth blocks (CEB) are an alternative to cement blocks in the construction of wall masonry. However, the optimal architectural construction methods for adequate thermal comfort for occupants in hot and arid environments are not mastered. This article evaluates the influence of architectural and constructive modes of buildings made of CEB walls and concrete block walls, to optimize and compare their thermal comfort in the hot and dry tropical climate of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Two identical pilot buildings whose envelopes are made of CEB and concrete blocks were monitored for this study. The thermal models of the pilot buildings were implemented in the SketchUp software using an extension of EnergyPlus. The models were empirically validated after calibration against measured thermal data from the buildings. The models were used to do a parametric analysis for optimization of the thermal performances by simulating plaster coatings on the exterior of walls, airtight openings and natural ventilation depending on external weather conditions. The results show that the CEB building displays 7016 hours of discomfort, equivalent to 80.1% of the time, and the concrete building displays 6948 hours of discomfort, equivalent to 79.3% of the time. The optimization by modifications reduced the discomfort to 2918 and 3125 hours respectively;i.e. equivalent to only 33.3% for the CEB building and 35.7% for the concrete building. More study should evaluate thermal optimizations in buildings in real time of usage such as residential buildings commonly used by the local middle class. The use of CEB as a construction material and passive means of improving thermal comfort is a suitable ecological and economical option to replace cementitious material.

Supply-based optimal scheduling of oil product pipelines

Oil product pipelines have features such as transporting multiple materials, ever-changing operating conditions, and synchronism between the oil input plan and the oil offloading plan. In this paper, an optimal model was established for a single-source multi-distribution oil pro- duct pipeline, and scheduling plans were made based on supply. In the model, time node constraints, oil offloading plan constraints, and migration of batch constraints were taken into consideration. The minimum deviation between the demanded oil volumes and the actual offloading volumes was chosen as the objective function, and a linear programming model was established on the basis of known time nodes＇ sequence. The ant colony optimization algo- rithm and simplex method were used to solve the model. The model was applied to a real pipeline and it performed well.

Optimal Groundwater Development in Coastal Aquifers Near Beihai, China

Groundwater resources occur in a multi aquifer system in the alluvial coastal plain near Beihai, China. The aquifers receive recharge from precipitation, canal and reservoir infiltration, and discharge through subterranean drainage into the sea and through artificial pumping. A quasi three dimensional finite element model has been used to simulate the spatial and temporal distribution of groundwater levels in the aquifers. Various input parameters were considered in the simulation model. A linear optimization model has been developed for groundwater development within the coastal aquifers. The objective function of the model is to maximize the total groundwater pumpage from the confined aquifer. The control of sea water intrusion is examined by the restriction of the water levels at points along the coast and of the pumping rates in coastal management cells. The response matrix used in the optimization model was generated from the simulation model by forecasting drawdown produced by pumping at a unit impulse discharge. Groundwater development can be primarily optimized by the alteration of the pumping rates of the existing wells.

Nonlinear optimal model and solving algorithms for platform planning problem in battlefield

Platform planning is one of the important problems in the command and control(C2) field. Hereto, we analyze the platform planning problem and present nonlinear optimal model aiming at maximizing the task completion qualities. Firstly, we take into account the relation among tasks and build the single task nonlinear optimal model with a set of platform constraints. The Lagrange relaxation method and the pruning strategy are used to solve the model. Secondly, this paper presents optimization-based planning algorithms for efficiently allocating platforms to multiple tasks. To achieve the balance of the resource assignments among tasks, the m-best assignment algorithm and the pair-wise exchange(PWE)method are used to maximize multiple tasks completion qualities.Finally, a series of experiments are designed to verify the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithms.

Effect of Relative Velocity on the Optimal Velocity Model

In this letter, an improved optimal velocity model was proposed that assumes the effect of relative velocity deceases with the increment of gap between successive cars. Numerical simuation was carried out to test whether this model could depict the braking process correctly. The simuation results show good agreement with observed data.

Online complex nonlinear industrial process operating optimality assessment using modified robust total kernel partial M-regression

Although industrial processes often perform perfectly under design conditions, they may deviate from the optimal operating point owing to parameters drift, environmental disturbances, etc. Thus, it is necessary to develop efficacious strategies or procedure to assess the process performance online. In this paper, we explore the issue of operating optimality assessment for complex industrial processes based on performance-similarity considering nonlinearities and outliers simultaneously, and a general enforced online performance assessment framework is proposed. In the offline part, a new and modified total robust kernel projection to latent structures algorithm,T-KPRM, is proposed and used to evaluate the complex nonlinear industrial process, which can effectively extract the optimal-index-related process variation information from process data and establish assessment models for each performance grades overcoming the effects of outlier. In the online part, the online assessment results can be obtained by calculating the similarity between the online data from a sliding window and each of the performance grades. Furthermore, in order to improve the accuracy of online assessment, we propose an online assessment strategy taking account of the effects of noise and process uncertainties. The Euclidean distance between the sliding data window and the optimal evaluation level is employed to measure the contribution rates of variables, which indicate the possible reason for the non-optimal operating performance. The proposed framework is tested on a real industrial case: dense medium coal preparation process, and the results shows the efficiency of the proposed method comparing to the existing method.

Knowledge expression,numerical modeling and optimization application of ethylene thermal cracking:From the perspective of intelligent manufacturing

Applications of process systems engineering(PSE)in plants and enterprises are boosting industrial reform from automation to digitization and intelligence.For ethylene thermal cracking,knowledge expression,numerical modeling and intelligent optimization are key steps for intelligent manufacturing.This paper provides an overview of progress and contributions to the PSE-aided production of thermal cracking;introduces the frameworks,methods and algorithms that have been proposed over the past10 years and discusses the advantages,limitations and applications in industrial practice.An entire set of molecular-level modeling approaches from feedstocks to products,including feedstock molecular reconstruction,reaction-network auto-generation and cracking unit simulation are described.Multilevel control and optimization methods are exhibited,including at the operational,cycle,plant and enterprise level.Relevant software packages are introduced.Finally,an outlook in terms of future directions is presented.

Multi-objective coordination optimal model for new power intelligence center based on hybrid algorithm

In order to resolve the coordination and optimization of the power network planning effectively, on the basis of introducing the concept of power intelligence center (PIC), the key factor power flow, line investment and load that impact generation sector, transmission sector and dispatching center in PIC were analyzed and a multi-objective coordination optimal model for new power intelligence center (NPIC) was established. To ensure the reliability and coordination of power grid and reduce investment cost, two aspects were optimized. The evolutionary algorithm was introduced to solve optimal power flow problem and the fitness function was improved to ensure the minimum cost of power generation. The gray particle swarm optimization (GPSO) algorithm was used to forecast load accurately, which can ensure the network with high reliability. On this basis, the multi-objective coordination optimal model which was more practical and in line with the need of the electricity market was proposed, then the coordination model was effectively solved through the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm, and the corresponding algorithm was obtained. The optimization of IEEE30 node system shows that the evolutionary algorithm can effectively solve the problem of optimal power flow. The average load forecasting of GPSO is 26.97 MW, which has an error of 0.34 MW compared with the actual load. The algorithm has higher forecasting accuracy. The multi-objective coordination optimal model for NPIC can effectively process the coordination and optimization problem of power network.

Recycled Aggregate Pervious Concrete: Analysis of Influence of Water-Cement Ratio and Fly Ash under Single Action and Optimal Design of Mix Proportion

Pervious concrete is recommended,which is of great benefit to the ecological environment and human living environment.In this paper,the influences of five water-cement ratios and four fly ash contents to replace the cement by mass with a water-cement ratio of 0.30 on the properties of Recycled Aggregate Pervious Concrete(RAPC)were studied.Following this,based on the Grey relational-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution(TOPSIS)optimization method,the strength,permeability,abrasion loss rate,and material costs of RAPC were adopted as evaluation indices to establish a mix proportion optimization model.The results show that the increase of water-cement ratio and fly ash replacement level of RAPC leads to decreased compres-sive strength while an increase in the permeability and abrasion loss rate.According to test results based on the optimal model 0.30 was identified as the best mix proportion.In addition,ecological-economic analysis of RAPC raw materials was carried out by comparing different natural aggregates.The results of EE(embodied energy)and ECO 2e(embodied CO_(2) emission)pointed out that the combination of recycled aggregate and fly ash leads to sig-nificant ecological and economic benefits.

Velocity anticipation in the optimal velocity model

In this paper, the velocity anticipation in the optimal velocity model （OVM） is investigated. The driver adjusts the velocity of his vehicle by the desired headway, which depends on both instantaneous headway and relative velocity. The effect of relative velocity is measured by a sensitivity function. A specific form of the sensitivity function is supposed and the involved parameters are determined by the both numerical simulation and empirical data. It is shown that inclusion of velocity anticipation enhances the stability of traffic flow. Numerical simulations show a good agreement with empirical data. This model provides a better description of real traffic, including the acceleration process from standing states and the deceleration process approaching a stopped car.

An optimal filter based MPC for systems with arbitrary disturbances

In this study, a linear model predictive control(MPC) approach with optimal filters is proposed for handling unmeasured disturbances with arbitrary statistics. Two types of optimal filters are introduced into the framework of MPC to relax the assumption of integrated white noise model in existing approaches. The introduced filters are globally optimal for linear systems with unmeasured disturbances that have unknown statistics. This enables the proposed MPC to better handle disturbances without access to disturbance statistics. As a result, the effort required for disturbance modeling can be alleviated. The proposed MPC can achieve offset-free control in the presence of asymptotically constant unmeasured disturbances. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can provide an improved disturbance ?rejection performance over conventional approaches when applied to the control of systems with unmeasured disturbances that have arbitrary statistics.

Detailed string stability analysis for bi-directional optimal velocity model

The class of bi-directional optimal velocity models can describe the bi-directional looking effect that usually exists in the reality and is even enhanced with the development of the connected vehicle technologies. Its combined string stability condition can be obtained through the method of the ring-road based string stability analysis. However, the partial string stability about traffic fluctuation propagated backward or forward was neglected, which will be analyzed in detail in this work by the method of transfer function and its H∞ norm from the viewpoint of control theory. Then, through comparing the conditions of combined and partial string stabilities, their relationships can make traffic flow be divided into three distinguishable regions, displaying various combined and partial string stability performance. Finally, the numerical experiments verify the theoretical results and find that the final displaying string stability or instability performance results from the accumulated and offset effects of traffic fluctuations propagated from different directions.

Optimal nitrogen fertilization of boreal conifer forest

Background： Forest fertilization offers a means to increase the production of renewable resources.Nitrogen is the most common fertilizer in boreal upland forests.There is plenty of research on the effect of nitrogen fertilization on volume growth, but less research on the optimal timing of fertilization and optimal management of fertilized stands.Methods： This study used simulation and optimization to analyze the profitability of fertilization, optimal management of fertilized stands and the effects of fertilization on cash flows and timber yields.The management of 100 stands representing the most common growing sites of Scots pine and Norway spruce was optimized.Results： Fertilization improved profitability in most of the analyzed stands.Profitability improved most in spruce stands growing on mesic site.Improving stem quality increased the economic benefit of fertilization.The timber yields of medium-aged conifer stands can be increased by almost 1 m^3·ha^（-1）·a^（-1）（15%） in sub-xeric pine and mesic spruce sites and about 0.5 m^3·ha^（-1）·a^（-1）（5%） in mesic pine and herb-rich spruce sites when the recommended nitrogen dose（150kg·ha^（-1）） is applied once in 30 years.Conclusions： Nitrogen fertilization of boreal conifer forest should be used mainly in spruce-dominated stands growing on medium sites.The gains are the highest in stands where the mean tree diameter is 16–20 cm and stand basal area is 14–20 m^2·ha^（-1）.

Spatial batch optimal design based on self-learning Gaussian process models for LPCVD processes

Low pressure chemical vapor deposition(LPCVD) is one of the most important processes during semiconductor manufacturing.However,the spatial distribution of internal temperature and extremely few samples makes it hard to build a good-quality model of this batch process.Besides,due to the properties of this process,the reliability of the model must be taken into consideration when optimizing the MVs.In this work,an optimal design strategy based on the self-learning Gaussian process model(GPM) is proposed to control this kind of spatial batch process.The GPM is utilized as the internal model to predict the thicknesses of thin films on all spatial-distributed wafers using the limited data.Unlike the conventional model based design,the uncertainties of predictions provided by GPM are taken into consideration to guide the optimal design of manipulated variables so that the designing can be more prudent Besides,the GPM is also actively enhanced using as little data as possible based on the predictive uncertainties.The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is successfully demonstrated in an LPCVD process.