BP neural network model for material distribution prediction based on variable amplitude anti-blocking screening DEM simulations

The material feeding changing of combine harvester is easy to cause accumulation and blockage of the vibrating screen,which seriously affects the harvest operation.In order to alleviate such accumulation and blockages on the vibrating screen surface,the guide chute rotation angle of the improved variable amplitude screening mechanism was selected as the target variable,and EDEM-RecurDyn was employed to simulate the anti-blocking process of the variable amplitude under a changing feeding quantity(0.5 kg/s abnormal,0.2 kg/s normal)of materials(rice grain and stem mixture).A BP(an error back propagation algorithm)neural network was designed and the prediction model of the material distribution was subsequently constructed on the variable screening surface under different chute angles during abnormal feeding.The results revealed a continuous decrease in the quality and time of the material blockage at the front end of the screen surface with the increasing guide chute angle.At the guide chute angle of 20°-45°and adjustment time of 3-6 s,the blocked and accumulated materials at the front-end screen surface was be moved back to Grid 6 for screening.However,overtime,the screen surface materials continued to move back under the chute angle of 40°-45°,which had a great impact on the screening performance.At the guide chute angle of 30°-35°and adjustment time of 4 s,the materials on the screen surface were evenly distributed in Grid 1-6.This was able to alleviate the accumulation and blockage of the screen surface materials.The R of the material distribution prediction model(BP neural network)on the screen surface was determined as 0.97,indicating the high reliability and accuracy of the material distribution model on the screen surface based on the BP neural network.This work provides an important reference for the variable amplitude intelligent control of screen surface material anti-blocking.

Numerical simulation of fatigue crack propagation in heterogeneous geomaterials under varied loads using displacement discontinuity method

Heterogeneous brittle geomaterials are highly susceptible to cyclic loads.They contain inherent flaws and cracks that grow under fatigue loads and lead to failure.This study presents a numerical model for analyzing fatigue in these materials based on the two-dimensional(2D)boundary element method and linear elastic fracture mechanics.The process is formulated by coupling the displacement discontinuity method with the incorporation technique of dissimilar regions and the governing equations of fatigue.The heterogeneous media are assumed to consist of materials with different properties,and the interfaces are assumed to be completely bonded.In addition,the domains include multiple cracks exposed to constant and variable amplitude cyclic loads.The stress intensity factor is a crucial parameter in fatigue analysis,which is determined using the displacement field around crack tips.An incremental crack growth scheme is applied to calculating the fatigue life.The growth rate values are employed to estimate the length of crack extension when there are multiple cracks.The interaction between cracks is considered,which also includes the coalescence phenomenon.Finally,various structures under different cyclic loads are examined to evaluate the accuracy of this method.The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach in modeling fatigue crack growth and life estimation.The behavior of life curves for the heterogeneous domain was as expected.These curves illustrate the breakpoints caused by utilizing discrete incremental life equations.At these points,the trend of the curves changed with the material properties and fatigue characteristics of the new material around the crack tips.

Modification of Wirsching’s Model for Fatigue Reliability Analysis

First, Wirsching's model, which is widely employed in fatigue reliability anlysis of marine and offshore structures, is analysed systematically. It is found that the very important random variable A in Wirsching's model can not be directly determined from fatigue experiment because of the irreversibility of fatigue test, and in fact, what Wirsching studied from testing results is not A but a of the statistical Miner's rule. Second, by use of the statistical Miner's rule, a modified Wirsching's model is proposed. Thirdly and more importantly, based on the two-dimensional probabilistic Miner's rule, a new model is established for fatigue reliability analysis of structural components subjected to specified cyclic loading of variable amplitude or stochastic time history. In the end, an example is presented, from which it will be seen that this new model is very convenient to use and feasible to engineering practice.

PROBABILISTIC MINER’S RULE IN FATIGUE RELIABILITY

Firstly, constant amplitude P-S_a-S_m-N_c surface family is established.Secondly, four basic assumptions, i.e., monotonically increasing, non-coupling, separability andnonintersecting of fatigue damage accumulation are proposed from the viewpoint of both damagemechanics and fracture mechanics. Then the individual isodamage D-S_a-S_m-N surface under constantamplitude loading is constructed and the two-dimensional individual Miner's rule is derived.Consequently, the two-dimensional probabilistic Miner's rule (TPMiner) is established and proved fora population subjected to variable amplitude loading. Finally, with successfully experimentverification, TPMiner proves be to very useful and feasible in fatigue reliability theory.

Simplification approaches for multi-level load spectra by using equivalent damage rule

Reasonable and effective fatigue load spectrum is key of aircraft structural fatigue test.Two kinds of load spectra simplification approaches based on statistical consistent fatigue damage model are proposed in the paper.One method is to simplify the original multi-level load spectra to spectral load with fewer level and was verified by the experimental data of five levels and seven levels load spectra.The equivalent damage here is not equivalent fatigue life,but equivalent number of spectral blocks.Moreover,it was proved that a section of low stress load cannot be converted into the highest stress load considering equivalent damage.The other is to convert the life distribution under multi-level load spectra into that of constant amplitude spectrum according to a certain principle,that is,equivalent damage is achieved through equivalent fatigue life,and two groups of three levels spectral data were used for experimental verification.The results show that equivalent damage simplification approach of multi-level load spectra is feasible,and it achieve that the damage of one loading block before and after the simplification is equal in probability statistics.The life distribution of load simplified as constant amplitude spectrum is consistent with test data.The simplification method presented in this paper can be generalized and is a predictive engineering method which does not depend on experimental data.