Effects of Sinusoidal Vibration of Crystallization Roller on Composite Microstructure of Ti/Al Laminated Composites by Twin-Roll Casting

A new,innovative vibration cast-rolling technology of “electromagnetic stirring+dendrite breaking+asynchronous rolling” was proposed with the adoption of sinusoidal vibration of crystallization roller to prepare Ti/Al laminated composites,and the effect of sinusoidal vibration of crystallization roller on composite microstructure was investigated in detail.The results show that the metallurgical bonding of titanium and aluminum is realized by mesh interweaving and mosaic meshing,instead of transition bonding by forming metal compound layer.The meshing depth between titanium and aluminum layers (6.6μm) of cast-rolling materials with strong vibration of crystallization roller (amplitude 0.87 mm,vibration frequency 25 Hz) is doubled compared with that of traditional cast-rolling materials (3.1μm),and the composite interfacial strength(27.0 N/mm) is twice as high as that of traditional cast-rolling materials (14.9 N/mm).This is because with the action of high-speed superposition of strong tension along the rolling direction,strong pressure along the width direction and rolling force,the composite linearity evolves from "straight line" with traditional casting-rolling to "curved line",and the depth and number of cracks in the interface increases greatly compared with those with traditional cast-rolling,which leads to the deep expansion of the meshing area between interfacial layers and promotes the stable enhancement of composite quality.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE THERMO-MECHANICAL PROCESS FOR BEAM BLANK CONTINUOUS CASTING

The aim of this study was to simulate the solidification process of beam blank continuous casting, and then find the reasons for the typical defects of the beam blank. A two-dimensional transient coupled finite element model has been developed to compute the temperature and stress profile in beam blank continuous casting. The enthalpy method was used in the heat conduction equation. The thermo-mechanical property in the mushy zone was taken into consideration in this calculation. It is shown that at the mold exit the thickness of the shell had its maximum value at the flange tip and its minimum value at the fillet. The temperature had a great fluctuation on the surface of the beam blank in the secondary cooling zone. At the unbending point, the surface temperature of the web was in the brittleness temperature range under the present condition. To ensure the quality, it is necessary to weaken the intensity of secondary cooling. At the mold exit the equivalent stress and strain have higher values at the flange tip and at the web. From the spray 1 to the unbending point, the maximum values of stress and strain gradually moved to the internal section of the flange tip and the web. However, whenever, there were bigger stress and strain values near the flange tip and the web than in the other parts, it must be very easy to generate cracks at those positions. Now, online verification of this simulation has been developed, which has proved to be very useful and efficient to instruct the practical production of beam blank continuous casting.

MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF CYLINDERS BEING UPSET BETWEEN SPHERICAL CONCAVE PLATEN AND CONCAVE SUPPORTING PLATE

Mechanical analysis of cylinders being upset between spherical concave platen and concave supporting plate is conducted. Rigid-plastic mechanical models for cylinders are presented. When the ratio of height to diameter, is larger than 1, there exists two-dimensional tensile stress in the deformed body, when the ratio is smaller than 1, there exists shear stress in static hydraulic zone. The former breaks through the theory that there is three-dimensional compressive stress irrespective of any ratio of height to diameter. The latter satisfactorily explains the mechanism of layer-like cracks in disk-shaped forgings and the flanges of forged gear axles. The representation of the two models makes the upsetting, theory into correct and perfect stage.

Research on Suspension Gravity Compensation System of Lunar Rover with Magnetic Levitation Servo

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional sling suspension method,such as complex structure of suspension truss,large running resistance,and low precision of position servo system,a gravity compensation method of lunar rover based on the combination of active suspension and active position following of magnetic levitation is proposed,and the overall design is carried out.The dynamic model of the suspension module of microgravity compensation system was established,and the decoupling control between the constant force component and the position servo component was analyzed and verified.The constant tension control was achieved by using hybrid force/position control.The position following control was realized by using fuzzy adaptive PID(proportional⁃integral⁃differential)control.The stable suspension control was realized based on the principle of force balance.The simulation results show that the compensation accuracy of constant tension could reach more than 95%,the position deviation was less than 5 mm,the position deviation angle was less than 0.025°,and the air gap recovered stability within 0.1 s.The gravity compensation system has excellent dynamic performance and can meet the requirements of microgravity simulation experiment of lunar rover.

Comparative Analysis of Characteristics of the Coupled and Decoupled Parallel Mechanisms

The existence of coupling makes the parallel mechanism possess some special advantages over the serial mechanism, while it is just the coupling that brings about the parallel mechanism some limitations, such as complex workspace, high nonlinear relationship between input and output, difficulties in static and dynamic analysis, and the development of control system, which restricts its application fields. The decoupled parallel mechanism is currently one of the research focuses of the mechanism fields, while the study on the different characteristics between the deeoupled and coupled parallel mechanisms has not been reported. Therefore, this paper performs the systematic comparative analysis of the 3-RPUR and the 3-CPR parallel mechanisms. The features of the two mechanisms are described and their movement forms are analyzed with screw theory. The inverse and forward displacement solutions are solved and the Jacobian matrices are obtained. According to the Jacobian matrices and by using the theory of physical model of the solution space, the workspace, dexterity, velocity, payload capability, and stiffness of the mechanisms are analyzed with plotting the indices atlases. The research results prove that the effects of the coupling on the parallel mechanism are double-side, and then the adoption of the decoupled parallel mechanism should be determined by the requirements of the concrete application situation. The contents of this paper should be useful for the type synthesis and practical application of the parallel mechanism.

Type Synthesis and Characteristic Analysis of a Family of 2-DOF Rotational Decoupled Parallel Mechanisms

It is widely used for the rotational parallel mechanism in the field of spatial orientation. While owing to the existence of coupling, the forward kinematic solution and the control of the general rotational parallel mechanism are especially difficult. If decoupling can be realized, the kinematic analysis of the mechanism will be very simple. Presently, the research of the parallel mechanism is focused on the inverse solution and structure optimization, and there is a lack of rotation decoupled parallel mechanisms （DPMs）. So this paper proposes a family of 2 degree of freedom （DOF） rotational DPMs based on the four-bar linkage mechanism, and performs a characteristic analysis. This family of DPMs is composed of a moving platform, a fixed base and three limbs. Taking U_RRU SPU DPM as an example, the motion feature of this DPM is analyzed with the constraint screw method, and its mobility is calculated by using the Modified Kutzbach-Grtibler criterion. The inverse and forward displacement problems of the proposed parallel mechanism are solved. The decoupled feature of the proposed parallel mechanism is validated by the deduction of the expression of the Jaeobian matrix. Three kinds of singularity conditions of this DPM are discussed, and the atlases of the output parameter concerning different geometric parameters are plotted with the theory of the physical model of the solution space. The proposition and characteristic analysis of the novel rotational DPMs in this paper should be useful for further research and application of the parallel mechanisms.

Development and Calibration of a Hyperstatic Six-component Force/Torque Sensor

The six-component force/torque sensor has become one kind of the most important sensors with the ability of measuring all the external forces and torques. A novel hyperstatic six-component force/torque sensor based on the Stewart platform structure, which can be used for the force measurement of the robot wrist, is proposed, and its structural optimal design, finite element analysis and calibration experimentation is presented. The characteristic of the sensor structure is analyzed in comparison with the traditional Stewart platform-based sensor. The mathematical expression of the sensor＇s force mapping matrix is introduced. The condition number and generalized amplifying coefficient defined by singular values of force Jacobian matrix are used to evaluate the performances of isotropy and sensitivity of the sensor respectively. The optimal design of the sensor structure is performed with the objective of achieving high measurement sensitivity and good isotropy. The sensor prototype is fabricated, and the static and dynamic characteristics of the sensor are analyzed with finite element analysis software package ANSYS. The calibration device is manufactured, and the data acquisition and processing system is developed. The theoretical and experimental study of the static calibration of the sensor prototype is carried out. The results of simulation analysis and calibration experimentation prove the feasibility of the hyperstatic sensor structure, and the contents of this paper possess theoretical significance and engineering value for the further research and practical application of the six-component force sensor.

Application of Smith Predictor Based on Single Neural Network in Cold Rolling Shape Control

Flatness is one of the most important criterion factors to evaluate the quality of the steel strip. To improve the strip＇ s flatness quality, the most frequently used methodology is to employ the closed-loop automatic shape control system. However, in the shape control system, the shape-meter is always installed at the down way of the exit of the cold rolling mill and can not sense the changes of the strip flatness in the rolling gap directly. This kind of installation results in the delay of the feedback in the control system. Therefore, the stability and response performance of the system are strongly affected by the delay. At present, there is still no mature way to design controllers for systems with time delay. Although the conventional PID controller used in most practical applications has the capability to compensate the delay, the effect of the compensation is limited, especially for the systems with long time delay. Smith predictor, as a compensator for solving this problem, is now widely used in industry systems. However, the request of highly precise model of the system and the poor adaptive performance to the changes of related parameters limit the application of the Smith predictor in practice. In order to overcome the drawbacks of the Smith predictor, a new Smith predictor based on single neural network PID （SNN-PID） is proposed. Because the single neural network is employed into the Smith predictor to improve the controller＇s self-adaptability, the adaptive capability to the varying parameters of the system is improved. Meanwhile, for the purpose of solving the problems such as time-consuming and complicated calculation of the neural networks in real time, the learning coefficient of neural network is divided into several stages as usually done in expert control system. Therefore, the control system can obtain fast response due to the improved calculation speed of the neural networks. In order to validate the performance of the proposed controller, the experiment is conducted on the shape control system in a 300 mm four-high reversing cold rolling mill. The experimental results show that the SNN-PID with Smith predictor controller can effectively compensate the delay effects and achieve better control performance than the conventional PID controller.

A NOVEL APPROACH FOR THE PREDICTION OF SURFACE PROFILE OF OUTGOING WORKPIECE AND THE CALCULATION OF MEAN ROLL RADIUS IN ALLOY BAR ROLLING

In alloy bar rolling process, the component of alloyed steel influenced the spread coefficient greatly, therefore, the component influence coefficient m of different alloyed steel has been determined firstly to calculate the maximum spread. Then the curvature radius of stress free surface and the ＂critical point on the contact boundary＂ have been solved, the surface profile of outgoing workpiece has been obtained. Furthermore, the formula of the equivalent contact section area has been proposed and the mean roll radius has been calculated. The bar rolling experiment and the rigid-plastic FEM （finite element method） simulation have been carried out to verify the novel approach. Compared with experimental data and simulation results, the novel approach can be used in setting processing parameter and design of finishing groove.

Numerical simulation of involutes spline shaft in cold rolling forming

Design of forming dies and whole process of simulation of cold rolling involutes spline can be realized by using of CAD software of PRO-E and CAE software of DEFORM-3D. Software DEFORM-3D provides an automatic and optimized remeshing function, especially for the large deformation. In order to use this function sufficiently, simulation of cold rolling involutes spline can be implemented indirectly. The relationship between die and workpiece, forming force and characteristic of deformation in the forming process of cold rolling involutes spline are analyzed and researched. Meanwhile, reliable proofs for the design of dies and deforming equipment are provided.

Design of Fault Diagnosis Observer for HAGC System on Strip Rolling Mill

By building mathematical model for HAGC （hydraulic automation gauge control） system of strip rolling mill, treating faults as unknown inputs induced by model uncertainty, and analyzing fault direction, an unknown input fault diagnosis observer group was designed. Fault detection and isolation were realized through making ob- server residuals robust to specific faults but sensitive to other faults. Sufficient existence conditions and design of the observers were given in detail. Diagnosis observer parameters for servo-valve, cylinder, roller and body rolling mill were obtained resoectively. The effectiveness of this diagnosis method was oroved bv actual data simulations.

RIGID-PLASTIC MECHANICAL MODEL FOR THE FORGING METHOD WITH HORIZONTAL V-SHAPED ANVIL

In order to decrease the anisotropy of mechanical properties, the rigid-plastic mechanical model for the forging method with horizontal V-shaped anvil is presented. The forging method, through the change of anvils shape, is able to control fibrous tissue direction, to improve the anisotropy of mechanical properties of axial forgings, to realize uniform forging. Therefore, the forging method can overcome the defect that conventional forging methods produce. The mechanism of the forging method with horizontal V-shaped anvil and the process of metal deformation are analyzed. The agreement of theoretical analysis with experimental study verifies the fact that the forging method with horizontal V-shaped anvil can control effectively the mechanical properties of axial forgings.

Resistance Characteristics of Hydraulic Oil through Isodiametric T-type Duct with Sharp Corners

Rational determination and reduction of local energy loss of oil flow at pipe junctions are of important significance to improve hydraulic pipeline＇s work efficiency, especially for complex hydraulic pipeline connected by isodiametric T-type ducts with sharp comers to get combined and divided flow. From this point of view, the formulae of resistance loss for combined flow and divided flow through isodiametric T-type duct with sharp comers as well as the correlations of resistance loss coefficients in the branches of the duct are derived using energy method. On this basis, resistance characteristics of hydraulic oil in the duct are obtained by numerical simulation of different flow modes, which are commonly applied in hydraulic pipelines, using computational fluid dynamics （CFD） method, and the reasons for the resistance loss are analyzed based on the pressure change mechanism in the flow field. A part of simulation results was validated with the reference data. The research shows that for combined flows the resistance loss of symmetrical is lower than that of unsymmetrical to obtain low speed in common branch, but to gain high speed is quite the contrary, for divided flows, the symmetrical is always a reasonable choice to reduce resistance loss. These conclusions can be applied to optimize the design of hydraulic pipeline.

Quantitative Prediction of Reduction in Large Pipe Setting Round Process

The control manner during the process to ensure the quality of pipe products mainly relies on the operator’s experience, so it is very necessary to study the setting round process and obtain its spring-back law. The setting round process is shaping an oval section pipe into circular section, so it is difficult to provide a quantificational analysis for its spring-back process because of the curvature inequality of pipe section neutral layer. However, the spring-back law of the circle-oval process can be easily predicted. The experimental method is firstly used to establish the equivalent effect between the setting round process and the circle-oval process. The setting round process can be converted into the circle-oval process. There are two difficulties in the theoretical analysis for the circle-oval process: elastic-plastic bending problem of curved beam; statically indeterminate problem. A quantitative analytic method for the circle-oval process is presented on the basis of combination of the spring-back law of plane curved beam with the element dividing idea in finite element method. The ovality after unloading versus the relative reduction is plotted with analytical and experimental results respectively, which shows a fair agreement. Finally, the method of quantitative prediction of reduction for large pipe setting round is given based on the equivalent effect and the analytical results. Five pipes, which are needed to be set round, are used to carry out experiment so as to verify this method. The results of verification experiment indicates that, in the experimental range, the residual ovality are all under 0.35% after the once only setting round with the theoretical prediction reductions. It is much less than the 1% requirement of pipe standard. Applying the established theoretical analysis is able to correct the pipe ovality with sufficient accuracy, which provides theoretical direction to plant use.

Finite Element Simulation of Hot Strip Continuous Rolling Process Coupling Microstructural Evolution

Using the nonlinear rigid-viscoplastic finite element method （FEM）, a finite element simulation of the hot strip continuous rolling process was done, which completely integrates different phenomena such as the metallurgical behavior of the strip and the thermo-mechanics in the strip based on the physical metallurgical microstructural evolution law. By combining with the process parameters of certain 2 050 mm hot strip rolling, an actual roll- ing process of low carbon steel SS400 was simulated using the FEM model. Based on the simulation results, the distributions of the strain field, the temperature field, and the microstructure were presented. Meanwhile, the simulated rolling force, temperature, and microstructure are in good agreement with the measured results.

FEM Simulation of Large Diameter Pipe Bending Using Local Heating

With the aid of elastic plastic large deformation finite element method （FEM）, an elastic plastic and cou pling thermo-mechanical model was built to calculate the bending process of the bent pipe, combining with local heating or cooling of the bent pipe. Based on the FEM simulation, the metal deformation during the bending process was analyzed in detail. The thinning and thickening ratio of the pipe wall thickness, the ovality of the cross section of the pipe and the spring back angle, etc. , are presented.

Dynamics Modeling and Robust Trajectory Tracking Control for a Class of Hybrid Humanoid Arm Based on Neural Network

In order to solve the problem of trajectory tracking for a class of novel serial-parallel hybrid humanoid arm（HHA）, which has parameters uncertainty, frictions, disturbance, abrasion and pulse forces derived from motors, a multistep dynamics modeling strategy is proposed and a robust controller based on neural network（NN）-adaptive algorithm is designed. At the first step of dynamics modeling, the dynamics model of the reduced HHA is established by Lagrange method. At the second step of dynamics modeling, the parameter uncertain part resulting mainly from the idealization of the HHA is learned by adaptive algorithm. In the trajectory tracking controller, the radial basis function（RBF） NN, whose optimal weights are learned online by adaptive algorithm, is used to learn the upper limit function of the total uncertainties including frictions, disturbances, abrasion and pulse forces. To a great extent, the conservatism of this robust trajectory tracking controller is reduced, and by this controller the HHA can impersonate mostly human actions. The proof and simulation results testify the validity of the adaptive strategy for parameter learning and the neural network-adaptive strategy for the trajectory tracking control.

Kinetostatics Analysis of a Novel 6-DOF Parallel Manipulator with Three Planar Limbs and Equipped with Three Fingers

It is significant to develop a robot hand with high rigidity by a 6-DOF parallel manipulator（PM）.However,the existing6-DOF PMs include spherical joint which has less capability of pulling force bearing,less rotation range and lower precision under alternately heavy loads.A novel 6-DOF PM with three planar limbs and equipped with three fingers is proposed and its kinematics and statics are analyzed systematically.A 3-dimension simulation mechanism of the proposed manipulator is constructed and its structure characteristics is analyzed.The kinematics formulae for solving the displacement,velocity,acceleration of the platform,the active legs and the fingers are established.The statics formulae are derived for solving the active forces of PM and the finger mechanisms.An analytic example is given for solving the kinematics and statics of proposed manipulator and the analytic solved results are verified by the simulation mechanism.It is proved from the error analysis of analytic solutions and simulation solutions that the derived analytic formulae are correct and provide the theoretical and technical foundations for its manufacturing,control and application.

Quality Control on Crimping of Large Diameter Welding Pipe

Crimping is used in production of large diameter submerged-arc welding pipes. Many researches are focused on crimping in certain manufacturing mode of welding pipe. The application scopes of research achievements become limited due to lack of uniformity in theoretical analysis. In order to propose a crimping prediction method in order to control forming quality, the theory model of crimping based on elastic-plastic mechanics is established. The main technical parameters are determined by theoretical analysis, including length of crimping, base radius of punch, terminal angle of punch, base radius of die, terminal angle of die and horizontal distance between punch and die. In addition, a method used to evaluate the forming quality is presented, which investigates the bending angle after springback, forming force, straight edge length and equivalent radius of curvature. In order to investigate the effects of technical parameters on forming quality, a two-dimensional finite element model is established by finite element software ABAQUS. The finite element model is verified in that its shapes error is less than 5% by comparable experiments, which shows that their geometric precision meets demand. The crimping characteristics is obtained, such as the distribution of stress and strain and the changes of forming force, and the relation curves of technical parameters on forming quality are given by simulation analysis. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the effects of length of crimping, technical parameters of punch on forming quality are significant. In particular, the data from simulation analysis are regressed by response surface method （RSM） to establish prediction model. The feasible technical parameters are obtained from the prediction model. This method presented provides a new thought used to design technical parameters of crimping forming and makes a basis for improving crimping forming quality.

Effect of Additives on the Sintering of Amorphous Nano-sized Silicon Nitride Powders

Amorphous nano-sized silicon nitride powders were sintered by liquid phase sintering. The influences of the additives of Y2O3 and Al2O3 prepared by two different ways, the polyacrylamide gel method and the precipitation method, were investigated. The grain sizes of the additives prepared by the first method were finer than those of prepared by the latter method. When sintered at the same temperature, 1700 ℃, the average grain size of the silicon nitride is 0.3 um for the sample with the former additives, which is much finer than the one with the latter additives. The density of additives prepared by precipitation method is clearly lower than those of prepared by polyacrylamide gel method.