Vibration Control of A Flexible Marine Riser System Subject to Input Dead Zone and Extraneous Disturbances

An observer-based adaptive backstepping boundary control is proposed for vibration control of flexible offshore riser systems with unknown nonlinear input dead zone and uncertain environmental disturbances.The control algorithm can update the control law online through real-time data to make the controller adapt to the environment and improve the control precision.Specifically,based on the adaptive backstepping framework,virtual control laws and Lyapunov functions are designed for each subsystem.Three direction interference observers are designed to track the timevarying boundary disturbance.On this basis,the inverse of the dead zone and linear state transformation are used to compensate for the original system and eliminate the adverse effects of the dead zone.In addition,the stability of the closed-loop system is proven by Lyapunov stability theory.All the system states are bounded,and the vibration offset of the riser converges to a small area of the initial position.Finally,four examples of flexible marine risers are simulated in MATLAB to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

New Dead⁃zone Compensation Approach for Proportional Flow Valve

To solve the dead⁃zone in the output flow curve of the proportional flow valve without displacement sensor,a dead⁃zone compensation approach is proposed in this paper.Instead of detection and feedback of the valve spool position,the proposed approach adopted the pressure drop across the valve metering orifice to accomplish the dead⁃zone compensation.The first step was to test and get the_(max)imum output flow,Q_(max),at a preset reference pressure drop,such asΔP_(0).The next step was to construct the target compensation flow curve,which is a line through(0,0)and(ΔP_(0),Q_(max)).Then a compensation law was designed to approach the target curve.However,the research results show that the above strategy caused over⁃compensation once the actual pressure drop deviated fromΔP_(0).Thus a correction coefficient,β,was presented to correct the initial compensation law as the pressure drop deviated fromΔP_(0).For example,the test results indicate that the corrected compensation approach could reduce the dead⁃zone from 53.9%to 3.5%at a pressure drop of 1 MPa;as the pressure drop was increased to 5 MPa,the dead⁃zone was reduced from 51.7%to 3.5%.Therefore,the following conclusions can be drawn:the proposed compensation approach is feasible,which can effectively reduce the dead⁃zone and improve the output flow static performance of the proportional flow valve without spool displacement feedback.

Drained rock volume around hydraulic fractures in porous media:planar fractures versus fractal networks

This study applies the Lindenmayer system based on fractal theory to generate synthetic fracture networks in hydraulically fractured wells.The applied flow model is based on complex analysis methods,which can quantify the flow near the fractures,and being gridless,is computationally faster than traditional discrete volume simulations.The representation of hydraulic fractures as fractals is a more realistic representation than planar bi-wing fractures used in most reservoir models.Fluid withdrawal from the reservoir with evenly spaced hydraulic fractures may leave dead zones between planar fractures.Complex fractal networks will drain the reservoir matrix more effectively,due to the mitigation of stagnation flow zones.The flow velocities,pressure response,and drained rock volume(DRV)are visualized for a variety of fractal fracture networks in a single-fracture treatment stage.The major advancement of this study is the improved representation of hydraulic fractures as complex fractals rather than restricting to planar fracture geometries.Our models indicate that when the complexity of hydraulic fracture networks increases,this will suppress the occurrence of dead flow zones.In order to increase the DRV and improve ultimate recovery,our flow models suggest that fracture treatment programs must find ways to create more complex fracture networks.

FINITE-TIME TRACKING CONTROL FOR MOTOR SERVO SYSTEMS WITH UNKNOWN DEAD-ZONES

A finite-time tracking control scheme is proposed in this paper based on the terminal sliding mode principle for motor servo systems with unknown nonlinear dead-zone inputs.By using the differential mean value theorem,the dead-zone is represented as a time-varying system and thus the inverse compensation approach is avoided.Then,an indirect terminal sliding mode control(ITSMC)is developed to guarantee the finite-time convergence of the tracking error and to overcome the singularity problem in the traditional terminal sliding mode control.In the proposed controller design,the unknown nonlinearity of the system is approximated by a simple sigmoid neural network,and the approximation error is diminished by employing a robust term.Comparative experiments on a turntable servo system are conducted to show the superior performance of the proposed method.

ADAPTIVE HARMONIC CANCELLATION APPLIED IN ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC SERVO SYSTEM WITH ANN

The method for harmonic cancellation based on artificial neural network (ANN)is proposed. The task is accomplished by generating reference signal with frequency that should beeliminated from the output. The reference input is weighted by the ANN in such a way that it closelymatches the harmonic. The weighted reference signal is added to the fundamental signal such thatthe output harmonic is cancelled leaving the desired signal alone. The weights of ANN are adjustedby output harmonic, which is isolated by a bandpass filter. The above concept is used as a basis forthe development of adaptive harmonic cancellation (AHC) algorithm. Simulation results performedwith a hydraulic system demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed AHC control scheme.

Model-based trajectory tracking control for an electrohydraulic lifting system with valve compensation strategy

The natural frequency of the electrohydraulic system in mobile machinery is always very low,which brings difficulties to the controller design.To improve the tracking performance of the hydraulic system,mathematical modeling of the electrohydraulic lifting system and the rubber hose was accomplished according to an electrohydraulic lifting test rig built in the laboratory.Then,valve compensation strategy,including spool opening compensation (SOC) and dead zone compensation (DZC),was designed based on the flow-pressure characteristic of a closed-centered proportional valve.Comparative experiments on point-to-point trajectory tracking between a proportional controller with the proposed compensations and a traditional PI controller were conducted.Experiment results show that the maximal absolute values of the tracking error are reduced from 0.039 m to 0.019 m for the slow point-to-point motion trajectory and from 0.085 m to 0.054 m for the fast point-to-point motion trajectory with the proposed compensations.Moreover,tracking error of the proposed controller was analyzed and corresponding suggestions to reduce the tracking error were put forward.

ADAPTIVE FEED-FORWARD COMPENSATOR FOR HARMONIC CANCELLATION IN ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC SERVO SYSTEM

Since the dead zone phenomenon occurs in electro-hydraulic servo system, the output of the system corresponding to a sinusoidal input contains higher harmonic besides the fundamental input, which causes harmonic distortion of the output signal. The method for harmonic cancellation based on adaptive filter is proposed. The task is accomplished by generating reference signals with frequency that should be eliminated from the output. The reference inputs are weighted by the adaptive filter in such a way that it closely matches the harmonic. The output of the adaptive filter is a harmonic replica and is injected to the fundamental signal such that the output harmonic is cancelled leaving the desired signal alone, and the total harmonic distortion （THD） is greatly reduced. The weights of filter are adjusted on-line according to the control error by using least-mean-square （LMS） algorithm. Simulation results performed with a hydraulic system demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed adaptive feed-forward compensator （AFC） control scheme

Prediction of the position of coal particles in an air dense medium fluidized bed system

An air dense medium fluidized bed separator(ADMFBS) is used for dry beneficiation of coal using ultrafine magnetite particles as a pseudo-fluid medium. In this process, the coal particle gains additional weight due to coating on its surface and deposition at dead zone area by fine magnetite particles.Hence, the effective density of coal particle increases and the position of coal particle changes accordingly. In this work, an attempt was made to predict the position of coal particle in non-bubbling condition dense medium fluidized bed system. Coal particles of different shape such as cubical, rectangular prism,spherical and triangular prism with different projected area and density were used. The results show that the position of coal particle in air dense medium fluidized bed follows descending order with respect to the increase of density, projected area of coal particle and different shapes(i.e., triangular prism, cubical,rectangular prism and spherical). Empirical mathematical correlations were developed to predict the position of coal particle.

Analysis and Design of the Control Strategy of Three-roll Rewinder

By dividing the rewinding process of a three-roll rewinder into three zones, mathematical equations were formulated and diagrams were drawn to determine the structure factors of the rewinder, such as the diameters and spatial distribution of the rewinding rolls. The qualitative and quantitative analysis results show that the roll gap of the first two rewinding rolls and the angle between the line that connects the center points of the first two rewinding rolls and the vertical line play an important role in determining the ideal log diameter, which is related to the production capacity of the rewinder. Additionally, the ideal roll gap has a significant effect on the spatial distribution of the three rewinding rolls, the rewinding dead zone, and the rewinding quality of the log, which should be taken into full consideration when designing and improving rewinders to enhance production efficiency and satisfy ultra-high quality requirements.

Flow Field of Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactor with Venturi Inlet Configuration

Different two-equation k-ε models were used to simulate the gas flow field generated by a new type of circulating fluidized bed reactor with venturi gas distributor. The numerical results were compared with the experimental data. It has been shown that the simulation results from the standard k-ε model have the best match with the experimental data. Based on this model, the gas flow field in the venturi diffuser and riser was analyzed by the concept of velocity nonuniformity and dead zone percentage. Both the nonuniformity of gas velocity and the dead zone percentage reach the maximum at the venturi outlet due to the effect of the vortex. At the same time, it provides a good platform for the further optimization of the inlet configuration of circulating fluidized bed reactor.

Direct Model Predictive Control of Noninverting Buck-boost DC-DC Converter

In this paper, direct model predictive control(DMPC) of the noninverting buck-boost DC-DC converter with magnetic coupling between input and output is proposed. Unlike most of the other converters, the subject converter has the advantage of exhibiting minimum phase behavior in the boost mode. However, a major issue that arises in the classical control of the converter is the dead zone near the transition of the buck and boost mode. The reason for the dead zone is practically unrealizable duty cycles, which are close to zero or unity, of pulse width modulation(PWM) near the transition region. To overcome this issue, we propose to use DMPC. In DMPC, the switches are manipulated directly by the controller without the need of PWM.Thereby, avoiding the dead zone altogether. DMPC also offers several other advantages over classical techniques that include optimality and explicit current constraints. Simulations of the proposed DMPC technique on the converter show that the dead zone has been successfully avoided. Moreover, simulations show that the DMPC technique results in a significantly improved performance as compared to the classical control techniques in terms of response time, reference tracking, and overshoot.

A Modified PFD Based PLL with Frequency Dividers in 0.18-µm CMOS Technology

This paper introduces a modified design of CMOS dynamic Phase Frequency Detector (PFD). The proposed PFD circuit (PPFD) is designed, simulated and the results obtained are analyzed. In order to reduce dead zone, internal signal routing is used in the PPFD circuit. To extend, Phase Locked Loop (PLL) is designed and it is verified with two different Frequency Divider (FD) circuits. There is a decrease in area of the PPFD circuit with 16 transistors and dissipates power of 40.8 pW for 1.2 V power supply. The pre-layout simulation result shows that the PPFD circuit has an elimination of a dead zone. Further, it works with the high speed and reduced power operated in the reference frequency of 50 MHz and the feedback frequency up to 4 GHz.

TOFD detection of shallow subsurface defects in aluminum alloy thin plates by half-skip mode-converted wave

Aluminum alloy is widely applied to the aerospace field.However,the inspection of thin plates using Time-of-Flight Diffraction(TOFD)technique is restricted by the near-surface dead zone because of the coupling between diffracted longitudinal wave and lateral wave.The halfskip mode-converted wave is introduced to decrease dead zone and detect defects in aluminum alloy thin plates by increasing ray path and propagation time.The quantitative correlation for the diffracted shear wave from longitudinal back-wall wave is deduced in combination with the acoustic path,realizing the accurate location of shallow subsurface defects.Simulated and experimental results indicate that the dead zone is decreased by 38% by the half-skip mode-converted wave,and the location errors are within 5% for the aluminum alloy plate with a thickness of 7.0 mm.Compared to other alternative TOFD techniques,half-skip mode-converted wave has better response amplitude and positioning accuracy,demonstrating strong applicability in TOFD inspection of thin plates.

Global practical stabilization of the double integrator system with an imperfect sensor and subject to a bounded disturbance

This paper is concerned with global practical stabilization of the double integrator system with an imperfect sensor and subject to an additive bounded output disturbance.The imperfect sensor nonlinearity possesses the nonlinear characteristics of saturation and dead zone.Because of the presence of output dead zone and the additive disturbance,the states cannot be expected to driven into an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the origin.To solve the global practical stabilization problem,we proposes a low gain-based linear dynamic output feedback law,under which the first state enters and remains in a bounded set whose size is depended on the bound of disturbance and the range of dead zone and the second state enters and remains in a pre-specified arbitrarily small set,both in finite time.Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed control method.

CFD analysis for mixing performance of different types of household biodigesters

Household biodigesters are self-mixing anaerobic digesters used mostly in rural areas of developing countries as a reliable source of clean cooking energy.For an efficient anaerobic digestion process,the mixing of slurry inside the digester is regarded as one of the most important parameters.In this study,the mixing of slurry in three different designs of household digesters,namely the fixed-dome digester(GGC 2047 model),plug-flow digester and prefabricated plastic digester,are investigated and compared using compu-tational fluid dynamics.A 3D transient simulation is performed using a multiphase volume of fluid(VOF)model in Ansys^(■)Fluent release 16.0.The rheological properties of the feedstock are considered identical for all three digesters.The volume of the plug-flow and prefabricated plastic digesters is designed to be 1 m^(3) while the volume of the GGC 2047 digester was 6 m^(3) as the standard size of the household digester.The regions inside the digester where the velocity of slurry is<0.02 m/s are regarded as dead zones and the obtained results were analysed and compared using velocity patterns and dead-zone formation.It is found that the prefabricated plastic digester model has a relatively higher percentage of dead volume(74.6%)and the plug-flow digester has the lowest per-centage(54%)of dead volume among digesters that were compared in this study.The study will serve as the basis for designers and researchers to improve the design of household digesters for better mixing performances.

Robust Semi-Global Leaderless Consensus and Containment Control of Identical Linear Systems with Imperfect Actuators

This paper investigates both the robust semi-global leaderless consensus problem and the robust semi-global containment control problem for a group of identical linear systems with imperfect actuators. The imperfect actuators are characterized by nonlinearities such as saturation and dead zone and there input output relationships are not precisely known. The dynamics of follower agents are also affected by the input additive disturbances. Low-and-high gain feedback consensus protocols are constructed to solve these problems. More specifically, it is shown that robust semi-global leaderless consensus can be achieved over a connected undirected graph and robust semi-global containment control can be achieved when each follower agent has access to the information of at least one leader agent. Numerical simulation illustrates the theoretical results.

Three-dimensional temperature prediction in cylindrical turning with large-chamfer insert based on a modified slip-line field approach

Chamfered inserts have found broader applications in metal cutting process especially in high-performance machining of hard-to-cut materials for their excellent edge resistance and cutting toughness.However,excessive heat generation and resulting high cutting temperature eventually cause severe tool wear and poor surface integrity,which simultaneously limits the optimal selection of machining parameters.In the present study,an analytical thermal–mechanical model is proposed for the prediction of the three-dimensional(3-D)temperature field in cylindrical turning with chamfered round insert based on a modified slip-line field approach.First,an innovative discretization method is introduced in a general 3-D coordinate system to provide a comprehensive demonstration of the irregular cutting geometry and heat generation zones.Then,a plasticity-theory-based slip-line field model is developed and employed to determine the intensities and geometries of every elementary heat sources in Primary Deformation Zones(PDZ),Secondary Deformation Zones(SDZ)and Dead Metal Zones(DMZ).At last,a 3-D analytical model is suggested to calculate the temperature increases caused by the entire heat sources and associated images.The maximum cutting temperature region predicted is found existing upon the chip-tool contact area rather than the tool edge.Moreover,the rationalities of cutting parameters employed are analyzed along with theoretical material removal rates and ensuing maximum cutting temperatures.The results indicate that the cutting conditions with large depth of cut and high cutting speed are more desirable than those with high feed rates.The proposed models are respectively verified through a series of 3-D Finite Element(FE)simulations and dry cutting experiments of Inconel 718 with chamfered round insert.Satisfactory agreement has been reached between the predictions and simulations as well as the measurements,which confirms the correctness and effectiveness of the presented analytical model.