Comparative Studies between Picard’s and Taylor’s Methods of Numerical Solutions of First Ordinary Order Differential Equations Arising from Real-Life Problems

To solve the first-order differential equation derived from the problem of a free-falling object and the problem arising from Newton’s law of cooling, the study compares the numerical solutions obtained from Picard’s and Taylor’s series methods. We have carried out a descriptive analysis using the MATLAB software. Picard’s and Taylor’s techniques for deriving numerical solutions are both strong mathematical instruments that behave similarly. All first-order differential equations in standard form that have a constant function on the right-hand side share this similarity. As a result, we can conclude that Taylor’s approach is simpler to use, more effective, and more accurate. We will contrast Rung Kutta and Taylor’s methods in more detail in the following section.

Fast First-Order Methods for Minimizing Convex Composite Functions

Two new versions of accelerated first-order methods for minimizing convex composite functions are proposed. In this paper, we first present an accelerated first-order method which chooses the step size 1/ Lk to be 1/ L0 at the beginning of each iteration and preserves the computational simplicity of the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm. The first proposed algorithm is a non-monotone algorithm. To avoid this behavior, we present another accelerated monotone first-order method. The proposed two accelerated first-order methods are proved to have a better convergence rate for minimizing convex composite functions. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed two accelerated first-order methods.

Thermoelastic Analysis of Non-uniform Pressurized Functionally Graded Cylinder with Variable Thickness Using First Order Shear Deformation Theory(FSDT) and Perturbation Method

Recently application of functionally graded materials（FGMs） have attracted a great deal of interest. These materials are composed of various materials with different micro-structures which can vary spatially in FGMs. Such composites with varying thickness and non-uniform pressure can be used in the aerospace engineering. Therefore, analysis of such composite is of high importance in engineering problems. Thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded cylinder with variable thickness under non-uniform pressure is considered. First order shear deformation theory and total potential energy approach is applied to obtain the governing equations of non-homogeneous cylinder. Considering the inner and outer solutions, perturbation series are applied to solve the governing equations. Outer solution for out of boundaries and more sensitive variable in inner solution at the boundaries are considered. Combining of inner and outer solution for near and far points from boundaries leads to high accurate displacement field distribution. The main aim of this paper is to show the capability of matched asymptotic solution for different non-homogeneous cylinders with different shapes and different non-uniform pressures. The results can be used to design the optimum thickness of the cylinder and also some properties such as high temperature residence by applying non-homogeneous material.

A POSTERIORI ERROR ESTIMATE OF THE DSD METHOD FOR FIRST-ORDER HYPERBOLIC EQUATIONS

A posteriori error estimate of the discontinuous-streamline diffusion method for first-order hyperbolic equations was presented, which can be used to adjust space mesh reasonably. A numerical example is given to illustrate the accuracy and feasibility of this method.

A New Modification of the Method of Lines for First Order Hyperbolic PDEs

A new modification of the Method of Lines is proposed for the solution of first order partial differential equations. The accuracy of the method is shown with the matrix analysis. The method is applied to a number of test problems, on uniform grids, to compare the accuracy and computational efficiency with the standard method.

P-and S-wavefield simulations using both the firstand second-order separated wave equations through a high-order staggered grid finite-difference method

In seismic exploration, it is common practice to separate the P-wavefield from the S-wavefield by the elastic wavefield decomposition technique, for imaging purposes. However, it is sometimes difficult to achieve this, especially when the velocity field is complex. A useful approach in multi-component analysis and modeling is to directly solve the elastic wave equations for the pure P- or S-wavefields, referred as the separate elastic wave equa- tions. In this study, we compare two kinds of such wave equations： the first-order （velocity-stress） and the second- order （displacement-stress） separate elastic wave equa- tions, with the first-order （velocity-stress） and the second- order （displacement-stress） full （or mixed） elastic wave equations using a high-order staggered grid finite-differ- ence method. Comparisons are given of wavefield snap- shots, common-source gather seismic sections, and individual synthetic seismogram. The simulation tests show that equivalent results can be obtained, regardless of whether the first-order or second-order separate elastic wave equations are used for obtaining the pure P- or S-wavefield. The stacked pure P- and S-wavefields are equal to the mixed wave fields calculated using the corre- sponding first-order or second-order full elastic wave equations. These mixed equations are computationallyslightly less expensive than solving the separate equations. The attraction of the separate equations is that they achieve separated P- and S-wavefields which can be used to test the efficacy of wave decomposition procedures in multi-com- ponent processing. The second-order separate elastic wave equations are a good choice because they offer information on the pure P-wave or S-wave displacements.

Fuzzy stochastic generalized reliability studies on embankment systems based on first-order approximation theorem

In order to address the complex uncertainties caused by interfacing between the fuzziness and randomness of the safety problem for embankment engineering projects, and to evaluate the safety of embankment engineering projects more scientifically and reasonably, this study presents the fuzzy logic modeling of the stochastic finite element method （SFEM） based on the harmonious finite element （HFE） technique using a first-order approximation theorem. Fuzzy mathematical models of safety repertories were introduced into the SFEM to analyze the stability of embankments and foundations in order to describe the fuzzy failure procedure for the random safety performance function. The fuzzy models were developed with membership functions with half depressed gamma distribution, half depressed normal distribution, and half depressed echelon distribution. The fuzzy stochastic mathematical algorithm was used to comprehensively study the local failure mechanism of the main embankment section near Jingnan in the Yangtze River in terms of numerical analysis for the probability integration of reliability on the random field affected by three fuzzy factors. The result shows that the middle region of the embankment is the principal zone of concentrated failure due to local fractures. There is also some local shear failure on the embankment crust. This study provides a referential method for solving complex multi-uncertainty problems in engineering safety analysis.

First-order reversal curves of magnetic recording tapes

The interaction and its variation between magnetic grains in two kinds of magnetic recording tapes are investigated by first-order reversal curves （FORC） and the 5M method. The composition and microstructure of the samples are characterised by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. The FORC diagram can provide more accurate information of the interaction and its variation, but the 5M curves cannot. The positive interaction field and the large variation of the interaction field have opposite effects on the δM curve.

Finite Element Approach for the Solution of First-Order Differential Equations

The finite element method has established itself as an efficient numerical procedure for the solution of arbitrary-shaped field problems in space. Basically, the finite element method transforms the underlying differential equation into a system of algebraic equations by application of the method of weighted residuals in conjunction with a finite element ansatz. However, this procedure is restricted to even-ordered differential equations and leads to symmetric system matrices as a key property of the finite element method. This paper aims in a generalization of the finite element method towards the solution of first-order differential equations. This is achieved by an approach which replaces the first-order derivative by fractional powers of operators making use of the square root of a Sturm-Liouville operator. The resulting procedure incorporates a finite element formulation and leads to a symmetric but dense system matrix. Finally, the scheme is applied to the barometric equation where the results are compared with the analytical solution and other numerical approaches. It turns out that the resulting numerical scheme shows excellent convergence properties.

Numerical Analysis of Upwind Difference Schemes for Two-Dimensional First-Order Hyperbolic Equations with Variable Coefficients

In this paper, we consider the initial-boundary value problem of two-dimensional first-order linear hyperbolic equation with variable coefficients. By using the upwind difference method to discretize the spatial derivative term and the forward and backward Euler method to discretize the time derivative term, the explicit and implicit upwind difference schemes are obtained respectively. It is proved that the explicit upwind scheme is conditionally stable and the implicit upwind scheme is unconditionally stable. Then the convergence of the schemes is derived. Numerical examples verify the results of theoretical analysis.

An Efficient Method for Reliability-based Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Design for modem engineering system is becoming multidisciplinary and incorporates practical uncertainties; therefore, it is necessary to synthesize reliability analysis and the multidisciplinary design optimization （MDO） techniques for the design of complex engineering system. An advanced first order second moment method-based concurrent subspace optimization approach is proposed based on the comparison and analysis of the existing multidisciplinary optimization techniques and the reliability analysis methods. It is seen through a canard configuration optimization for a three-surface transport that the proposed method is computationally efficient and practical with the least modification to the current deterministic optimization process.

Reliability-based concurrent subspace optimization method

To avoid the high computational cost and much modification in the process of applying traditional reliability-based design optimization method, a new reliability-based concurrent subspace optimization approach is proposed based on the comparison and analysis of the existing multidisciplinary optimization techniques and reliability assessment methods. It is shown through a canard configuration optimization for a three-surface transport that the proposed method is computationally efficient and practical with the least modification to the current deterministic optimization process.

Structural Reliability Assessment by a Modified Spectral Stochastic Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin Method

This study presents a new tool for solving stochastic boundary-value problems. This tool is created by modify the previous spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method using the MLPG5 scheme. This modified spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method is selectively applied to predict the structural failure probability with the uncertainty in the spatial variability of mechanical properties. Except for the MLPG5 scheme, deriving the proposed spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin formulation adopts generalized polynomial chaos expansions of random mechanical properties. Predicting the structural failure probability is based on the first-order reliability method. Further comparing the spectral stochastic finite element-based and meshless local Petrov-Galerkin-based predicted structural failure probabilities indicates that the proposed spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method predicts the more accurate structural failure probability than the spectral stochastic finite element method does. In addition, generating spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin results are considerably time-saving than generating Monte-Carlo simulation results does. In conclusion, the spectral stochastic meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method serves as a time-saving tool for solving stochastic boundary-value problems sufficiently accurately.

An Optimization Model for the Strip-packing Problem and Its Augmented Lagrangian Method

This paper formulates a two-dimensional strip packing problem as a non- linear programming （NLP） problem and establishes the first-order optimality conditions for the NLP problem. A numerical algorithm for solving this NLP problem is given to find exact solutions to strip-packing problems involving up to 10 items. Approximate solutions can be found for big-sized problems by decomposing the set of items into small-sized blocks of which each block adopts the proposed numerical algorithm. Numerical results show that the approximate solutions to big-sized problems obtained by this method are superior to those by NFDH, FFDH and BFDH approaches.

Magnetic properties of misch-metal partially substituted Nd–Fe–B magnets sintered by dual alloy method

The misch-metal （MM） partially substituted Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were fabricated by the dual alloy method, and the crystal structure, microstructure, and magnetic properties were analyzed comprehensively. X-ray diffraction （XRD） reveals that the increasing content of the MM has an inconsiderable effect on the crystallographic alignment of the magnets. Grains of the two main phases are uniformly distributed, and slightly deteriorate on the grain boundary. Due to the diffusion between the adjacent grains, the MM substituted Nd-Fe-B magnets contain three types of components with different Ce/La concentrations. Moreover, the first-order reversal curve （FORC） diagram is introduced to analyze the magnetization reversal process, coercivity mechanism, and distribution of reversal field in magnetic samples. The analysis indicates that there are two major reversal components, corresponding to the two different main phases. The domain nucleation and growth are determined to be the leading mechanism in controlling the magnetization reversal processes of the magnets sintered by the dual alloy method.

First-principles calculation of phase equilibria and phase separation of the Fe-Ni alloy system

Theoretical investigation of the phase equilibria of the Fe-Ni alloy has been performed by combining the FLAPW total energy calculations and the Cluster Variation Method through the Cluster Expansion Method. The calculations have proved the stabilization of the LIE phase at 1：3 stoichiometry, which is in agreement with the experimental result, and predicted the existence of L1 0 as a stable phase below 550 K; this L1 0 phase has been missing in the conventional phase diagram. The calculations are extended to the Fe-rich region that is characterized by a wide range phase separation and has drawn considerable attention because of the intriguing Invar property associated with a Fe concentration of 65%. To reveal the origin of the phase separation, a P-V curve in an entire concentration range is derived by the second derivative of free energy functional of the disordered phase with respect to the volume. The calculation confirmed that the phase separation is caused by the breakdown of the mechanical-stability criterion. The newly calculated phase separation line combined with the L1 0 and L12Eorder-disordered phase boundaries provides phase equilibria in the wider concentration range of the system. Furthermore, a coefficient of thermal expansion （CTE） is attempted by incorporating the thermal vibration effect through harmonic approximation of the Debye-Gruneisen model. The Invar behavior has been reproduced, and the origin of this anomalous volume change has been discussed.

Free vibration and critical speed of moderately thick rotating laminated composite conical shell using generalized differential quadrature method

The generalized differential quadrature method （GDQM） is employed to con- sider the free vibration and critical speed of moderately thick rotating laminated compos- ite conical shells with different boundary conditions developed from the first-order shear deformation theory （FSDT）. The equations of motion are obtained applying Hamilton＇s concept, which contain the influence of the centrifugal force, the Coriolis acceleration, and the preliminary hoop stress. In addition, the axial load is applied to the conical shell as a ratio of the global critical buckling load. The governing partial differential equations are given in the expressions of five components of displacement related to the points ly- ing on the reference surface of the shell. Afterward, the governing differential equations are converted into a group of algebraic equations by using the GDQM. The outcomes are achieved considering the effects of stacking sequences, thickness of the shell, rotating velocities, half-vertex cone angle, and boundary conditions. Furthermore, the outcomes indicate that the rate of the convergence of frequencies is swift, and the numerical tech- nique is superior stable. Three comparisons between the selected outcomes and those of other research are accomplished, and excellent agreement is achieved.

基于Kriging模型与FORM的钢板组合梁桥结构优化设计

考虑材料参数的不确定性以及设计变量多重约束条件的影响,提出了基于可靠性分析的钢板组合梁桥结构优化设计方法。首先,利用拉丁超立方试验设计(Latin hypercube design,LHD)构建试验组合方案,并通过有限元分析获取试验设计组合下的最大挠度响应值。基于获取的训练样本,构建能够表征结构最大挠度值与随机输入之间映射关系的Kriging代理模型。基于建立的代理模型,以钢结构截面积最小化为目标函数,建立符合规范要求与可靠度约束的优化数学模型,并采用一阶可靠性方法(first order reliability method,FORM),实现设计变量优化。通过比较具有相同设计变量上限,但下限分别为初始值的80%和70%两种优化设计方案,评估了两者在相同阈值以及不同阈值下设计变量的优化结果。最后对方案二在阈值为17 mm下的优化结果进行极限状态验算。结果表明:两个优化设计方案在阈值为17 mm下的优化结果更具合理性,并且方案二在同一阈值下具有更高的优化程度。随着阈值增加,优化程度增加,且腹板高度在较大阈值下对结果影响更大,而翼缘宽度在较小阈值下影响更大。

Precise integration method for solving singular perturbation problems

This paper presents a precise method for solving singularly perturbed boundary-value problems with the boundary layer at one end. The method divides the interval evenly and gives a set of algebraic equations in a matrix form by the precise integration relationship of each segment. Substituting the boundary conditions into the algebraic equations, the coefficient matrix can be transformed to the block tridiagonal matrix. Considering the nature of the problem, an efficient reduction method is given for solving singular perturbation problems. Since the precise integration relationship introduces no discrete error in the discrete process, the present method has high precision. Numerical examples show the validity of the present method.