Hydrogen-based direct reduction of industrial iron ore pellets:Statistically designed experiments and computational simulation

As part of efforts to reduce anthropogenic CO_(2) emissions by the steelmaking industry,this study investigated the direct reduction of industrially produced hematite pellets with H_(2) using the Doehlert experimental design to evaluate the effect of pellet diameter(10.5-16.5 mm),porosity(0.36-0.44),and temperature(600-1200℃).A strong interactive effect between temperature and pellet size was observed,indicating that these variables cannot be considered independently.The increase in temperature and decrease in pellet size considerably favor the reduction rate,while porosity did not show a relevant effect.The change in pellet size during the reduction was negligible,except at elevated temperatures due to crack formation.A considerable decrease in mechanical strength at high temperatures suggests a maximum process operating temperature of 900℃.Good predictive capacity was achieved using the modified grain model to simulate the three consecutive non-catalytic gas-solid reactions,considering different pellet sizes and porosities,changes during the reaction from 800 to 900℃.However,for other temperatures,different mechanisms of structural modifications must be considered in the modeling.These results represent significant contributions to the development of ore pellets for CO_(2)-free steelmaking technology.

Optimization of Center of Gravity Position and Anti-Wave Plate Angle of Amphibious Unmanned Vehicle Based on Orthogonal Experimental Method

When the amphibious vehicle navigates in water,the angle of the anti-wave plate and the position of the center of gravity greatly influence the navigation characteristics.In the relevant research on reducing the navigation resistance of amphibious vehicles by adjusting the angle of the anti-wave plate,there is a lack of scientific selection of parameters and reasonable research of simulation results by using mathematical methods,and the influence of the center of gravity position on navigation characteristics is not considered at the same time.To study the influence of the combinations of the angle of the anti-wave plate and the position of the center of gravity on the resistance reduction characteristics,a numerical calculation model of the amphibious unmanned vehicle was established by using the theory of computational fluid dynamics,and the experimental data verified the correctness of the numerical model.Based on this numerical model,the navigation characteristics of the amphibious unmanned vehicle were studied when the center of gravity was located at different positions,and the orthogonal experimental design method was used to optimize the parameters of the angle of the anti-wave plate and the position of the center of gravity.The results show that through the parameter optimization analysis based on the orthogonal experimental method,the combination of the optimal angle of the anti-wave plate and the position of the center of gravity is obtained.And the numerical simulation result of resistance is consistent with the predicted optimal solution.Compared with the maximum navigational resistance,the parameter optimization reduces the navigational resistance of the amphibious unmanned vehicle by 24%.

Clinical/Behavioral Monitoring of Rodents and Rabbits Undergoing Scientific Experiments

Background: We currently have international and national guidelines regarding the assessment and monitoring of clinical signs and humane endpoints in animals used in teaching and research, which make the performance of these activities mandatory for any experiment and professional working in this area. Assigning the severity of a research experiment is the result of an analysis of records of observations of the animal’s behavior, and clinical signs. The aim of this study was to describe the importance of carrying out a severity assessment associated with clinical and behavioral monitoring of rodents and rabbits during experimentation to maintain the welfare of these animals undergoing scientific research. Methods: The literature search was carried out using the following terms: “Monitoring”;“Humane endpoints”;“Animal welfare”, “Rodents”;“Rabbits”, and as connectors “and”;“or”, in the following databases: PubMed;LILACS/BIREME and SciELO. Results: A total of 987 articles were identified in the databases, and 20 of these studies were included in this review. Conclusions: Humane endpoint protocols and procedure severity tables are of the utmost importance, both from an ethical point and to refine the results of research conducted on laboratory animals. They should be drawn up jointly by the teams responsible for the project and the maintenance of the animals during the research period, and the data obtained should be published so that the scientific community can have access to it, helping to disseminate these practices, as well as helping to draw up new procedures. Monitoring and evaluating the welfare and clinical condition of animals undergoing scientific research procedures is the responsibility of the professors, researchers, veterinarians, and animal facility coordinators. The Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals must monitor all the activities conducted with the animals, by inspecting the experimental procedures and the physical environment of the laboratory animal facility where the animals are housed.

A Mixed-Variable Experimental Design Method

Mixed-variable problems are inevitable in engineering. However, few researches pay attention to discrete variables. This paper proposed a mixed-variable experimental design method (ODCD): first, the design variables were divided into discrete variables and continuous variables;then, the DVD method was employed for handling discrete variables, the LHD method was applied for continuous variables, and finally, a Columnwise-Pairwise Algorithm was used for the overall optimization of the design matrix. Experimental results demonstrated that the ODCD method outperforms in terms of the sample space coverage performance.

Designing an Experimental Device for Swinging Excitation Spray Cooling

In this paper,we introduce the design principle of the oscillating excited spray cooling experimental device.We then designed an oscillating excited spray cooling experimental device.By using the device,the swaying motion can be realized through the control system,and the motion of the droplet under different vibration frequencies can be observed.By measuring the liquid flow rate and pressure,the changes in liquid flow rate,pressure,and temperature with time under different vibration frequencies were studied.The trajectory of the droplet and the temperature distribution of the droplet under different vibration frequencies could be observed.The device has a simple structure,is easy to control,and can achieve continuous observation of the spray cooling process.

Orthogonal experiment design of EMI of security monitoring system in coal mines

Security monitoring system of coal mines is indispensable to ensure the safe and efficient production of colliery. Due to the special and narrow underground field of the coal mine, the electromagnetic interference can cause a series of misstatements and false positives on the monitoring system, which will severely hamper the safe production of coal industry. In this paper, first, the frequency characteristics of the interference source on the power line are extracted when equipment runs normally. Then the finite difference time domain method is introduced to analyze the effects of the electromagnetic interference parameters on the security monitoring signal line. And the interference voltage of the two terminal sides on the single line is taken as evaluating indexes. Finally, the electromagnetic interference parameters are optimized by orthogonal experimental design based on the MATLAB simulation on the normal operation of equipment.

Cavitation Optimization for a Centrifugal Pump Impeller by Using Orthogonal Design of Experiment

Cavitation is one of the most important performance of centrifugal pumps. However, the current optimization works of centrifugal pump are mostly focusing on hydraulic efficiency only, which may result in poor cavitation performance. Therefore, it is necessary to find an appropriate solution to improve cavitation performance with acceptable efficiency. In this paper, to improve the cavitation performance of a centrifugal pump with a vaned diffuser, the influence of impeller geometric parameters on the cavitation of the pump is investigated using the orthogonal design of experiment （DOE） based on computational fluid dynamics. The impeller inlet diameter D1, inlet incidence angle Aft, and blade wrap angle ~0 are selected as the main impeller geometric parameters and the orthogonal experiment of L9（3＂3） is performed. Three-dimensional steady simulations for cavitation are conducted by using constant gas mass fraction model with second-order upwind, and the predicated cavitation performance is validated by laboratory experiment. The optimization results are obtained by the range analysis method to improve cavitation performance without obvious decreasing the efficiency of the centrifugal pump. The internal flow of the pump is analyzed in order to identify the flow behavior that can affect cavitation performance. The results show that D1 has the greatest influence on the pump cavitation and the final optimized impeller provides better flow distribution at blade leading edge. The final optimized impeller accomplishes better cavitation and hydraulic performance and the NPSHR decreases by 0.63m compared with the original one. The presented work supplies a feasible route in engineering practice to optimize a centrifugal pump impeller for better cavitation performance.

Study on solder joint reliability of ceramic ball grid array component based on design of experiment method

Four process parameters, pad diameter, stencil thickness, ball diameter and stand-off were chosen as four control factors. By using an L25 （5^6 ） orthogonal array the ceramic ball grid array （ CBGA ） solder joints which have 25 different combinations of process parameters were designed. The numerical models of all the 25 CBGA solder joints were developed using the Sugrace Evolver. Utilizing the sugrace coordinate exported from the 25 CBGA solder joints numerical models, the finite element analysis models were set up and the nonlinear finite element analysis of the CBGA solder joints under thermal cycles were pegrormed by ANSYS. The thermal fatigue life of CBGA solder joint was calculated using Coffin-Manson equation. Based on the calculated thermal fatigue life results, the range analysis and the variance analysis were pegrormed. The results show that the fatigue life of CBGA solder joint is affected by the pad diameter, the stencil thickness, the ball diameter and the stand-off in a descending order, the best combination of process parameters results in the longest fatigue life is 0.07 mm stand-off, 0.125 mm stencil thickness of, 0.85 mm ball diameter and 0. 89 mm pad diameter. With 95% confidence the pad diameter has a significant effect on the reliability of CBGA solder joints whereas the stand-off, the stencil thickness and the ball diameter have little effect on the reliability of CBGA solder joints.

Application of orthogonal experimental design and Tikhonov regularization method for the identification of parameters in the casting solidification process

The inverse heat conduction method is one of methods to identify the casting simulation parameters. A new inverse method was presented according to the Tikhonov regularization theory. One appropriate regularized functional was established, and the functional was solved by the sensitivity coefficient and Newtonaphson iteration method. Moreover, the orthogonal experimental design was used to estimate the appropriate initial value and variation domain of each variable to decrease the number of iteration and improve the identification accuracy and efficiency. It illustrated a detailed case of AlSiTMg sand mold casting and the temperature measurement experiment was done. The physical properties of sand mold and the interracial heat transfer coefficient were identified at the meantime. The results indicated that the new regularization method was efficient in overcoming the ill-posedness of the inverse heat conduction problem and improving the stability and accuracy of the solutions.

Design of experiment study on hardness variations in friction stir welding of AM60 Mg alloy

Identification of process parameters,their effects and contributions to the outcomes of the system using experimental approach could be a daunting,time consuming,and costly course.Using proper statistical methods,i.e.,Taguchi method,could significantly reduce the number of required experiments and statistical significance of the parameter can be identified.Friction stir welding is one of those welding techniques with many parameters which have different effects on the quality of the welds.In friction stir welding the tool rotational speed(RPM)and transverse speed(mm/min)influence the strength(i.e.,hardness distribution)of the stirred zone.In this study,these two factors are investigated to determine the effect they will have on the hardness in the stirred zone of the friction stir welds and how the two factors are related to one another for as-cast magnesium alloy AM60 with nominal chemical composition of Mg-(5.5-6.5)Al-(0.24-0.6)Mn-0.22Zn-0.1Si.Experimental data was taken at three different tool rotational speeds and three different transverse speeds.The data obtained was then analyzed using a 32 factorial design to find the contribution of these parameters.It was determined that both tool rotational speed and transverse speed possess significant effects on the stir zone hardness.Also,the interactions between the two factors were statistically assessed.

Optimization of mechanical properties using D-optimal factorial design of experiment: Electromagnetic stir casting process of A357-SiC nanocomposite

Electromagnetic stir casting process of A357-Si C nanocomposite was discussed using the D-optimal design of experiment(DODOE) method. As the main objective, nine random experiments obtained by DX-7 software were performed. By this method, A357-Si C nanocomposites with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 wt.% Si C were fabricated at three different frequencies(10, 35 and 60 Hz) in the experimental stage. The microstructural evolution was characterized by scanning electron and optical microscopes, and the mechanical properties were investigated using hardness and roomtemperature uniaxial tensile tests. The results showed that the homogeneous distribution of Si C nanoparticles leads to the microstructure evolution from dendritic to non-dendritic form and a reduction of size by 73.9%. Additionally, based on DODOE, F-values of 44.80 and 179.64 were achieved for yield stress(YS) and ultimate tensile strength(UTS), respectively, implying that the model is significant and the variables(Si C fraction and stirring frequency) were appropriately selected. The optimum values of the Si C fraction and stirring frequency were found to be 1.5 wt.% and 60 Hz, respectively. In this case, YS and UTS for A357-Si C nanocomposites were obtained to be 120 and 188 MPa(57.7% and 57.9 % increase compared with those of the as-cast sample), respectively.

Investigation of the optimum differential gear ratio for real driving cycles by experiment design and genetic algorithm

Experiment statistical method and genetic algorithms based optimization method are used to obtain the optimum differential gear ratio for heavy truck that provides best fuel consumption when changing the working condition that affects its torque and speed range. The aim of the study is to obtain the optimum differential gear ratio with fast and accurate optimization calculation without affecting drivability characteristics of the vehicle according to certain driving cycles that represent the new working conditions of the truck. The study is carried on a mining dump truck YT3621 with 9 for- ward shift manual transmission. Two loading conditions, no load and 40 t, and four on road real driving cycles have been discussed. The truck powertrain is modeled using GT-drive, and DOE -post processing tool of the GT-suite is used for DOE analysis and genetic algorithm optimization.

Computer modeling of high-pressure leaching process of nickel laterite by design of experiments and neural networks

Due to the complex chemical composition of nickel ores, the requests for the decrease of production costs, and the increase of nickel extraction in the existing depletion of high-grade sulfide ores around the world, computer modeling of nickel ore leaching process be- came a need and a challenge. In this paper, the design of experiments （DOE） theory was used to determine the optimal experimental design plan matrix based on the D optimality criterion. In the high-pressure sulfuric acid leaching （HPSAL） process for nickel laterite in ＂Rudjinci＂ ore in Serbia, the temperature, the sulfuric acid to ore ratio, the stirring speed, and the leaching time as the predictor variables, and the degree of nickel extraction as the response have been considered. To model the process, the multiple linear regression （MLR） and response surface method （RSM）, together with the two-level and four-factor full factorial central composite design （CCD） plan, were used. The proposed re- gression models have not been proven adequate. Therefore, the artificial neural network （ANN） approach with the same experimental plan was used in order to reduce operational costs, give a better modeling accuracy, and provide a more successful process optimization. The model is based on the multi-layer neural networks with the back-propagation （BP） learning algorithm and the bipolar sigmoid activation function.

Application of experimental design in optimization of crude oil adsorption from saline waste water using raw bagasse

Experimental design was applied in the optimization of crude oil adsorption from saline waste water using raw bagasse.The application of response surface methodology(RSM) was presented with temperature,salinity of water,pH,adsorbent dose,and initial oil content as factors.A quadratic model could be used to approximate the mathematical relationship of crude oil removal on the five significant independent variables.Predicted values and experimental values are found to be in good agreement with R2 of 97.44%.The result of optimization shows that the maximum crude oil removal is equal to 67.38% under the optimal condition of temperature of 46.53 °C,salinity of 37.2 g/L,pH of 3,adsorbent dose of 9 g/L and initial oil content of 300×10-6.

Application of Monte-Carlo statistical experiments in design of ocean engineering - Estimating the parameters, models and probabilities

Recently, some results have been acquired with the Monte- Carlo statistical experiments in the design of ocean en gineering. The results show that Monte-Carlo statistical experiments can be widely used in estimating the parameters of wave statistical distributions, checking the probability model of the long- term wave extreme value distribution under a typhoon condition and calculating the failure probability of the ocean platforms.

An iterated local coordinate-exchange algorithm for constructing experimental designs for multi-dimensional constrained spaces

Iterated local search(ILS)is used to construct the optimal experimental designs for multi-dimensional constrained spaces,in which the inner loop is based on the stochastic coordinate-exchange(SCE)algorithm.Every time a local optimal solution is found by the SCE algorithm,the perturbation operator is applied to it,and then a new solution is explored in the areas where the exchange of coordinates may produce improvement,so as to retain the features and attributes of the current optimal solution and avoid the defects of random restart.We implement the iterated local coordinate-exchange algorithm for experimental designs in the multi-dimensional constrained spaces.In addition,sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the impacts of the parameters on the performance of the proposed algorithm.Also we compared the performance of the proposed algorithm to the SCE algorithm using the random restart strategy.The analysis shows that the proposed algorithm is better than the SCE algorithm in terms of efficiency and quality,especially in the experimental designs for high-dimensional constrained space.

Experimentally Determining Bloch Parameters of Hamiltonian for Single-Qubit Systems

By considering the identification problem of unknown but fixed Hamiltonian H = S0σ0 ＋∑i=x,y,z Siσi where σi （i = x, y, z） are pauli matrices and σ0=I, we explore the feasibility and limitation of empirically determining the Hamiltonian parameters for quantum systems under experimental conditions imposed by projective measurements and initialization procedures. It may be unsurprising to physicists that one can not obtain the knowledge of So no matter what kind of projective measurements and initialization are permitted, but the observation draws our attention to the importance of the parameter identifiability under different experimental condition. It has also been revealed that one can obtain the knowledge of ｜Sz｜ and Sx^2＋Sy^2 at most when only the projective measurement {｜0/（0｜, ｜1/（1｜} is permitted to perform on and initialize the qubit. Further more, we demonstrated that it is feasible to distinguish ｜Sx｜, ｜Sy｜, and ｜Sz｜ even without any a priori information about Hamiltonian if at least two kinds of projective measurement or initialization procedures are permitted. It should be emphasized that both projective measurements and initialization procedures play an important role in quantum system identification.

Analyzing Laser-Welded NiTi-NiTi-Joints for Actuator Applications Using Design of Experiments

One promising joining method for NiTi-SMA （shape memory alloy）-components is laser welding. This joining technology bears huge potential regarding process automation and mechanical properties as well as durability, especially within the field of small- and medium-sized actuators. However, there is still need for research due to unsolved issues influencing the microstructure and thus effecting mechanical properties as well as SMA-characteristics of these joints. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is the evaluation of quality parameters of NiTi-NiTi-wire-joints. For this purpose, design of experiments with a fractional factorial design is used for the investigation, because of its high potential to decrease experimental effort. This paper provides a basis for future research in the field of SMA-actuators and joining.

Design of Calibration Experiments for Identification of Manipulator Elastostatic Parameters

The paper is devoted to the elastostatic calibration of industrial robots, which is used for precise machining of large-dimensional parts made of composite materials. In this technological process, the interaction between the robot and the workpiece causes essential elastic deflections of the manipulator components that should be compensated by the robot controller using relevant elastostatic model of this mechanism. To estimate parameters of this model, an advanced calibration technique is applied that is based on the non-linear experiment design theory, which is adopted for this particular application. In contrast to previous works, it is proposed a concept of the user-defined test-pose, which is used to evaluate the calibration experiments quality. In the frame of this concept, the related optimization problem is defined and numerical routines are developed, which allow generating optimal set of manipulator configurations and corresponding forces/torques for a given number of the calibration experiments. Some specific kinematic constraints are also taken into account, which insure feasibility of calibration experiments for the obtained configurations and allow avoiding collision between the robotic manipulator and the measurement equipment. The efficiency of the developed technique is illustrated by an application example that deals with elastostatic calibration of the serial manipulator used for robot-based machining.

Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization of Satellite Launch Vehicle Using Latin Hypercube Design of Experiments

The design of new Satellite Launch Vehicle （SLV） is of interest, especially when a combination of Solid and Liquid Propulsion is included. Proposed is a conceptual design and optimization technique for multistage Low Earth Orbit （LEO） bound SLV comprising of solid and liquid stages with the use of Genetic Algorithm （GA） as global optimizer. Convergence of GA is improved by introducing initial population based on the Design of Experiments （DOE） Technique. Latin Hypercube Sampling （LHS）-DOE is used for its good space filling properties. LHS is a stratified random procedure that provides an efficient way of sampling variables from their multivariate distributions. In SLV design minimum Gross Lift offWeight （GLOW） concept is traditionally being sought. Since the development costs tend to vary as a function of GLOW, this minimum GLOW is considered as a minimum development cost concept. The design approach is meaningful to initial design sizing purpose for its computational efficiency gives a quick insight into the vehicle performance prior to detailed design.