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.

In-Plane Impact Dynamics Analysis of Re-Entrant Honeycomb with Variable Cross-Section

Due to the unique deformation characteristics of auxetic materials(Poisson’s ratioμ<0),they have better shock resistance and energy absorption properties than traditional materials.Inspired by the concept of variable crosssection design,a new auxetic re-entrant honeycomb structure is designed in this study.The detailed design method of re-entrant honeycomb with variable cross-section(VCRH)is provided,and five VCRH structures with the same relative density and different cross-section change rates are proposed.The in-plane impact resistance and energy absorption abilities of VCRH under constant velocity are investigated by ABAQUS/EXPLICIT.The results show that the introduction of variable cross-section design can effectively improve the impact resistance and energy absorption abilities of auxetic re-entrant honeycombs.The VCRH structure has better Young’s modulus,plateau stress,and specific energy absorption(SEA)than traditional re-entrant honeycomb(RH).The influence of microstructure parameters(such as cross-section change rateα)on the dynamic impact performance of VCRH is also studied.Results show that,with the increase in impact velocity andα,the plateau stress and SEA of VCRH increase.A positive correlation is also found between the energy absorption efficiency,impact load uniformity andαunder both medium and high impact speeds.These results can provide a reference for designing improved auxetic re-entrant honeycomb structures.

An adaptive method for high-resolution topology design

For the purpose of achieving high-resolution optimal solutions this paper proposes a nodal design variablebased adaptive method for topology optimization of continuum structures. The analysis mesh-independent density field, interpolated by the nodal design variables at a given set of density points, is adaptively refined/coarsened accord- ing to a criterion regarding the gray-scale measure of local regions. New density points are added into the gray regions and redundant ones are removed from the regions occupied by purely solid/void phases for decreasing the number of de- sign variables. A penalization factor adaptivity technique is employed-to prevent premature convergence of the optimiza- tion iterations. Such an adaptive scheme not only improves the structural boundary description quality, but also allows for sufficient further topological evolution of the structural layout in higher adaptivity levels and thus essentially enables high-resolution solutions. Moreover, compared with the case with uniformly and finely distributed density points, the proposed adaptive method can achieve a higher numerical efficiency of the optimization process.

Discrete Optimization on Unsteady Pressure Fluctuation of a Centrifugal Pump Using ANN and Modified GA

Pressure fluctuation due to rotor-stator interaction in turbomachinery is unavoidable,inducing strong vibration in the equipment and shortening its lifecycle.The investigation of optimization methods for an industrial centrifugal pump was carried out to reduce the intensity of pressure fluctuation to extend the lifecycle of these devices.Considering the time-consuming transient simulation of unsteady pressure,a novel optimization strategy was proposed by discretizing design variables and genetic algorithm.Four highly related design parameters were chosen,and 40 transient sample cases were generated and simulated using an automatic program.70%of them were used for training the surrogate model,and the others were for verifying the accuracy of the surrogate model.Furthermore,a modified discrete genetic algorithm(MDGA)was proposed to reduce the optimization cost owing to transient numerical simulation.For the benchmark test,the proposed MDGA showed a great advantage over the original genetic algorithm regarding searching speed and effectively dealt with the discrete variables by dramatically increasing the convergence rate.After optimization,the performance and stability of the inline pump were improved.The efficiency increased by more than 2.2%,and the pressure fluctuation intensity decreased by more than 20%under design condition.This research proposed an optimization method for reducing discrete transient characteristics in centrifugal pumps.

Aerodynamic optimization and mechanism design of flexible variable camber trailing-edge flap

Trailing-edge flap is traditionally used to improve the takeoff and landing aerodynamic performance of aircraft.In order to improve flight efficiency during takeoff,cruise and landing states,the flexible variable camber trailing-edge flap is introduced,capable of changing its shape smoothly from 50% flap chord to the rear of the flap.Using a numerical simulation method for the case of the GA（W）-2 airfoil,the multi-objective optimization of the overlap,gap,deflection angle,and bending angle of the flap under takeoff and landing configurations is studied.The optimization results show that under takeoff configuration,the variable camber trailing-edge flap can increase lift coefficient by about 8% and lift-to-drag ratio by about 7% compared with the traditional flap at a takeoff angle of 8°.Under landing configuration,the flap can improve the lift coefficient at a stall angle of attack about 1.3%.Under cruise state,the flap helps to improve the lift-todrag ratio over a wide range of lift coefficients,and the maximum increment is about 30%.Finally,a corrugated structure–eccentric beam combination bending mechanism is introduced in this paper to bend the flap by rotating the eccentric beam.

An efficient method for designing variable digital filters

The digital filters with adjustable frequency-domain characteristics are called variable filters. Variable filters are useful in the applications where their characteristics are required to be changeable during the course of signal processing. Generally speaking, the variable frequency responses of a variable filters are the functions of a set of spectral parameters defining the desired frequencyUomain characteristics. In this paper, we first sample the given variable maghtode specifications and use them to construct a multi-dimensional (M - D) specification array, then propose an outer product expansion method for expanding it as the sum of the outer products of vectors. Using the outer product expansion, we can simplify the difficult problem of desighng a variable filter as the easy one that only needs constant 1 - D filter designs and 1 - D polynoIhal approximations. The method can obtain variable filters having arbitrary desired variable magnitude characteristics with a high design acctiracy.

A low-frequency pure metal metamaterial absorber with continuously tunable stiffness

To address the incompatibility between high environmental adaptability and deep subwavelength characteristics in conventional local resonance metamaterials,and overcome the deficiencies in the stability of existing active control techniques for band gaps,this paper proposes a design method of pure metal vibration damping metamaterial with continuously tunable stiffness for wideband elastic wave absorption.We design a dual-helix narrow-slit pure metal metamaterial unit,which possesses the triple advantage of high spatial compactness,low stiffness characteristics,and high structural stability,enabling the opening of elastic flexural band gaps in the low-frequency range.Similar to the principle of a sliding rheostat,the introduction of continuously sliding plug-ins into the helical slits enables the continuous variation of the stiffness of the metamaterial unit,achieving a continuously tunable band gap effect.This successfully extends the effective band gap by more than ten times.The experimental results indicate that this metamaterial unit can be used as an additional vibration absorber to absorb the low-frequency vibration energy effectively.Furthermore,it advances the metamaterial absorbers from a purely passive narrowband design to a wideband tunable one.The pure metal double-helix metamaterials retain the subwavelength properties of metamaterials and are suitable for deployment in harsh environments.Simultaneously,by adjusting its stiffness,it substantially broadens the effective band gap range,presenting promising potential applications in various mechanical equipment operating under adverse conditions.

Genetic Optimization via Diverse Crossover Intelligence

An intelligent crossover methodology within the genetic algorithm (GA) is explored within both mathematical and finite element arenas improving both design and solution convergence time. This improved intelligent crossover outperforms the traditional genetic algorithm combined with a rule-based approach utilizing domain specific knowledge developed by Webb, et al. [1]. The encoding of the improved crossover consists of two chromosome strings within the genetic algorithm where the first string represents the design or solution string, and the second string represents chromosome crossover string intelligence. This improved crossover methodology saves the best population members or designs evaluated from each generation and applies crossover chromosome intelligence to the best saved population members paired with globally selected parents. Enhanced features of this crossover methodology employ the random selection of the best designs from the prior generation as a potential parent coupled with alternating intelligence pairing methods. In addition to this approach, two globally selected parents possess the ability to mate utilizing crossover chromosome string intelligence maintaining the integrity of a global GA search. Overall, the final population following crossover employs both global and best generation design chromosome strings to maximize creativity while enhancing the solution search. This is a modification to a conventional GA that can be translated into GA encoding. This technique is explored initially through a Base 10 mathematical application followed by the examination of plate structural optimization considering stress and displacement constraints. Results from crossover intelligence are compared with the conventional genetic algorithm and from Webb, et al. [1] which illustrates the outcome of a two phase genetic optimization algorithm.

Aquatic unmanned aerial vehicles(AquaUAV):Bionic prototypes,key technologies,analysis methods,and potential solutions

Some research on aircraft is largely inspired by birds.Among them,aerial-aquatic amphibians with trans-media locomotion capabilities have greatly promoted the development of aquatic unmanned aerial vehicles(Aqua UAV).In this article,the studies of Aqua UAV are sorted out by their biological counterpart and summarized in chronological order from 2005 to 2021.To further understand the key technologies of Aqua UAV,we focus on the structural compatibility design of wing and aerial-aquatic propulsion methods by analyzing their advantages and disadvantages.In addition,the analysis methods of kinematics and dynamics performance of Aqua UAV for simulation and experiment are involved in the process of studying the kinematics,lift/drag,and propulsion of prototypes.Finally,we present several challenges and propose some potential solutions to improve the ability of Aqua UAV in the future.