HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE CALCULATION AND OPTIMIZATION FOR DESIGN OF BEAM & SLIDE-REST GUIDEWAYS IN HEAVY DUTY CNC VERTICAL TURNING MILL

Aiming at the approximate error of commonly used methods on calculation of hydrostatic pressures of closed hydrostatic guideways with multiple pockets, a more accurate solution is proposed. Taking design of beam ＆ slide-rest guideways for a heavy duty CNC vertical turning mill as an example, under an assumption that stiffnesses of guideways and their jointing structure are sufficiently large, the pressures of the pockets can be attained by adding a co-planarity equation that constrains pocket centers. Then, an optimization model is built to minimize the highest pocket pressure under additional constraints that are posed on the highest seal margin pressure, the highest levitating pressure of the pockets, and the maximum deformation of the guideways. The optimization problem is solved sequentially by using the methods of design of experiments and adaptive simulated annealing on iSIGHT software platform. The results show significant improvements to the original design. Optimized maximum hydrostatic pressure meets the requirement of hydraulic system.

Investigation on a vertical radial flow adsorber designed by a novel parallel connection method

Due to the increasing global demand for industrial gas, the development of large-scale cryogenic air separation systems has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Increasing the height of the adsorption bed in a vertical radial flow adsorber used in cryogenic air separation systems may efficiently increase the treatment capacity of the air in the adsorber. However, uniformity of the flow distribution of the air inside the adsorber would be deteriorated using the height-increasing method. In order to reduce the non-uniformity of the flow distribution caused by the excessive height of adsorption bed in a vertical radial flow adsorber, a novel parallel connection method is proposed in the present work. The experimental apparatus is designed and constructed; the Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) technique is used to develop a CFD-based model, which is used to analyze the flow distribution, the static pressure drop and the radial velocity in the newly designed adsorber. In addition, the geometric parameters of annular flow channels and the adsorption bed thickness of the upper unit in the parallelconnected vertical radial flow adsorber are optimized, so that the upper and lower adsorption units could be penetrated by air simultaneously. Comparisons are made between the height-increasing method and the parallel connection method with the same adsorber height. It is shown that using the parallel connection method could reduce the difference between the maximum and minimum radial static pressure drop by 86.2% and improve the uniformity by 80% compared with those of using the height-increasing method. The optimal thickness ratio of the upper and lower adsorption units is obtained as 0.966, in which case the upper and lower adsorption units could be penetrated by air simultaneously, so that the adsorbents in adsorption space could be used more efficiently.

Productivity analysis of horizontal wells intercepted by multiple finite-conductivity fractures

Horizontal wells in the anisotropic reservoirs can be stimulated by hydraulic fracturing in order to create multiple finite-conductivity vertical fractures. Several methods for evaluating the productivity of the horizontal wells have been presented in the literature. With such methods, however, it is still difficult to obtain an accurate result. This paper firstly presents the dimensionless conductivity theory of vertical fractures. Then models for calculating the equivalent wellbore radius and the skin factor due to flow convergence to the well bore are proposed after analyzing the steady-state flow in porous reservoirs. By applying the superposition principle to the pressure drop, a new method for evaluating the productivity of horizontal wells intercepted by multiple finite-conductivity fractures is developed. The influence of fracture conductivity and fracture half length on the horizontal well productivity is quantitatively analyzed with a synthetic case. Optimum fracture number and fracture space are further discussed in this study. The results prove that the method outlined here should be useful to design optimum fracturing of horizontal wells.

Game-theoretical Models of a Two-echelon Supply Chain Involving Two Substitutable Products

This paper considers tripartite pricing issues in a two-echelon supply chain involving duopolistic manufacturers and a single retailer.Firstly,a tripartite competitive model is conducted,in which both a Stackelberg game and a Bertrand game occur simultaneously.It is shown that the manufacturer who possesses a higher sales quantity gains more profits than the other one.Secondly,a definition of optimal vertical pricing alliance is proposed when cooperation exists between the retailer and some manufacturer.We conduct two-player games when partial cooperation exists among the three participants.It is demonstrated that the total profit of the alliance is higher than the sum profit of the corresponding two participants in the tripartite competition model,and meanwhile the profit of the manufacturer who is not in the alliance suffers a loss.Further,a criterion is given to judge which manufacturer the retailer will choose to cooperate in order to maximize the total increased profits.From the perspective of game theory,we examine the stability of the vertical alliance with considering the dominance of the retailer.Finally,a numerical illustration is designed to examine the judging criteria of which manufacturer is the member of the optimal alliance under different potential market demands.

Light weighting opportunities and material choice for commercial vehicle frame structures from a design point of view

This paper focuses on an estimation of light weighting opportunities for the frame structure of com- mercial road vehicles. This estimation is based on simpli- fied static load cases which play a predominant role for the dimensioning of a frame structure and therefore these simplifications are not putting the general validity of the conclusions into question. A comparison of different ma- terials under this scenario shows that light metals do not show any weight reduction advantage in comparison to steel while a material-independent topology optimization has more weight reduction potential for the frame structure than a simple change of materials. Considering the con- straints of part complexity which is directly linked with production and assembly cost, the ladder frame structure has become the current state of the art design. Thus the paper also puts a spotlight on basic rules of node design and vertical load induction in order to keep the weight of such a design as low as possible. Practical examples from manufacturers show that the weight of a commercial vehicle could be reduced by 10%, and main parts of the frame structure could be reduced by 30% using high strength steel in combination with innovative production methods like roll forming.