Experimental Study and Model Analysis of the Performance of IPMC Membranes with Various Thickness

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite （IPMC） is a new electro-active polymer, which has the advantages of light weight, flexibility, and large stroke with low driving voltage. Because of these features, IPMC can be applied to bionic robotic actuators, artificial muscles, as well as dynamic sensors. However, IPMC has the major drawback of low generative blocking force. In this paper, in order to enhance the blocking force, the Nation membranes with thickness of 0.22 mm, 0.32 mm, 0.42 mm, 0.64 mm and 0.8 mm were prepared by casting from liquid solution. By employing these Nation membranes, IPMCs with varying thickness were fabricated by electroless plating. The elastic modulus of the casted Nation membranes were obtained by a nano-indenter, and the current, the displacement and the blocking force were respectively measured by the apparatus for actuation test. Finally, the effects of the thickness on the performance of IPMC were analyzed with an electromechanical model. Experimental study and theory analysis indicate that as the thickness increases, the elastic modulus of Nation membrane and the blocking force of IPMC increase, however, the current and the displacement decrease.

Shrinkage and Expansive Strain of Concrete with Fly Ash and Expansive Agent

The effects of fly ash and MgO-type expansive agent on the shrinkage and expan-sive strain of concrete with high magnesia cement were investigated. The results show that high volumes of fly ash may reduce the shrinkage strain of concrete and inhibit the expansive strain of concrete with MgO-type expansive agent, but can not eliminate the shrinkage of concrete. MgO-type expansive agent may produce expansive strain and compensate the shrinkage strain of concrete, re-lieve the cracking risk, but the hydration product of magnesia tends to get together in paste and pro-duce expansive cracking of concrete with high magnesia content according to SEM observation.

Control system design of flying-wing UAV based on nonlinear methodology

In this paper, A fluid vector rudder flying-wing UAV is employed as the design object, so as to study the nonlinear design method and flight validation. For the maneuvering flight control, this paper presents a control structure. This control structure included the inner loop linearization decoupling methods to eliminate the known negative coupling and the outer loop backstepping methods for trajectory tracking control. The stability of the control structure has been proved in this paper. Compared with the traditional backstepping control method, this controller increases the inner loop decoupling structure and retains the aerodynamic damping term which makes the linearized system a weak nonlinear system.This structure can not only reduce the conservatism of the outer loop controller design, but also is convenient for engineering implementation. Simulation and flight validation results show that the proposed control scheme is effective.

Applications of scale-adaptive simulation technique based on one-equation turbulence model

A modified scale-adaptive simulation （SAS） technique based on the Spalart- Allmaras （SA） model is proposed. To clarify its capability in prediction of the complex turbulent flow, two typical cases are carried out, i.e., the subcritical flow past a circular cylinder and the transonic flow over a hemisphere cylinder. For comparison, the same cases are calculated by the detached-eddy simulation （DES）, the delayed-detached eddy simulation （DDES）, and the XY-SAS approaches. Some typical results including the mean pressure coefficient, velocity, and Reynolds stress profiles are obtained and compared with the experiments. Extensive calculations show that the proposed SAS technique can give better prediction of the massively separated flow and shock/turbulent-boundary-layer interaction than the DES and DDES methods. Furthermore, by the comparison of the XY-SAS model with the present SAS model, some improvements can be obtained.

Effect of cerium on microstructure,wetting and mechanical properties of Ag-Cu-Ti filler alloy

Effect of cerium on microstructure,mechanical and wetting properties of Ag-Cu-Ti filler alloy was researched with optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.The results indicated that addition of cerium accelerated alloying of the filler alloy,enlarged supercooled region,caused microstructural refinement and dispersed distribution of intermetallic compounds.It resulted in the increase in microhardness and shear strength of Ag-Cu-Ti filler alloy.At the same time,cerium improved wet...

Influence of MgO-type Expansive Agent Hydration Behaviors on Expansive Properties of Concrete

The hydration behaviors and expansive properties of MgO-type expansive agent curing at different temperatures and environment were investigated.When the curing temperatures changed from 25℃ to 50℃,the conductivities of MgO samples increased from 40 to 80 μs/cm,and the hydrations of MgO were quickened up obviously.Through SEM observation,the hydration product of MgO cured at 50℃ for 28 day was about 2-3μm in length.The expansion of pastes with 5% of the MgO-type expansive agent was from 0.36% to 1.01% when the curing temperature changed from 25oC to 50℃.When 8% of the MgO-type expansive agent was added,the early shrinkage of concrete was reduced.The expansion ratio increased with the curing temperature,and the expansive cracking of concrete with MgO-type expansive agent might be decreased by blending fly ash.

Contact Analysis and Modeling of Standing Wave Linear Ultrasonic Motor

A contact model for describing the contact mechanics between the stator and slider of the standing wave linear ultrasonic motor was presented. The proposed model starts from the assumption that the vibration characteristics of the stator is not affected by the contact process. A modified friction models was used to analyze the contact problems. Firstly, the dynamic normal contact force, interface friction force, and steady-state characteristics were analyzed. Secondly, the influences of the contact layer material, the dynamic characteristics of the stator, and the pre-load on motor performance were simulated. Finally, to validate the contact model, a linear ultrasonic motor based on in-plane modes was used as an example. The corresponding results show that a set of simulation of motor performances based on the proposed contact mechanism is in good agreement with experimental results. This model is helpful to understanding the operation principle of the standing wave linear motor and thus contributes to the design of these types of motor.

Orbital-abrasion-assisted Electroforming of Non-rotating Parts

A novel technique of electroforming with orbital moving cathode was carried out for the fabrication of non-rotating thin-walled parts.This technique features a large number of insulating and insoluble hard particles as a real-time polishing to the cathode.When cathode moves,hard particles polish its surface and provide the nickel non-rotating parts with near-mirror finishing.Morphology,microstructure,surface roughness and micro hardness of deposits fabricated by novel method were studied in contrast with the sample produced by traditional electroforming methods.Theoretical analysis and experimental results showed that the novel technique could effectively remove the hydrogen bubbles and nodules,disturb the crystal nucleation,and refine the grains of layer.The mechanical properties were significantly improved over traditional method.The micro-hardness of the layer was in a uniform distribution ranging from 345 HV to 360 HV.It was confirmed that this technique had practical significance to non-rotating thin-walled parts.

Pattern synthesis optimization of 3-D ODAR based on improved GA using LSFE method

Pattern synthesis in 3-D opportunistic digital array radar(ODAR) becomes complex when a multitude of antennas are considered to be randomly distributed in a three dimensional space.In order to obtain an optimal pattern,several freedoms must be constrained.A new pattern synthesis approach based on the improved genetic algorithm(GA) using the least square fitness estimation(LSFE) method is proposed.Parameters optimized by this method include antenna locations,stimulus states and phase weights.The new algorithm demonstrates that the fitness variation tendency of GA can be effectively predicted after several "eras" by the LSFE method.It is shown that by comparing the variation of LSFE curve slope,the GA operator can be adaptively modified to avoid premature convergence of the algorithm.The validity of the algorithm is verified using computer implementation.

Intelligent technology-based control of motion and vibration using MR dampers

Due to their intrinsically nonlinear characteristics,development of control strategies that are implementable and can fully utilize the capabilities of semiactive control devices is an important and challenging task.In this study,two control strategies are proposed for protecting buildings against dynamic hazards,such as severe earthquakes and strong winds,using one of the most promising semiactive control devices,the magnetorheological (MR) damper.The first control strategy is implemented by introducing an inverse neural network (NN) model of the MR damper.These NN models provide direct estimation of the voltage that is required to produce a target control force calculated from some optimal control algorithms.The major objective of this research is to provide an effective means for implementation of the MR damper with existing control algorithms.The second control strategy involves the design of a fuzzy controller and an adaptation law.The control objective is to minimize the difference between some desirable responses and the response of the combined system by adaptively adjusting the MR damper.The use of the adaptation law eliminates the need to acquire characteristics of the combined system in advance. Because the control strategy based on the combination of the fuzzy controller and the adaptation law doesn't require a prior knowledge of the combined building-damper system,this approach provides a robust control strategy that can be used to protect nonlinear or uncertain structures subjected to random loads.

Large-Eddy Simulation of Wind Turbine Wake and Aerodynamic Performance with Actuator Line Method

A hybrid method is presented to numerically investigate the wind turbine aerodynamic characteristics.The wind turbine blade is replaced by an actuator line model.Turbulence is treated using a dynamic one-equation subgrid-scale model in large eddy simulation.Detailed information on the basic characteristics of the wind turbine wake is obtained and discussed.The rotor aerodynamic performance agrees well with the measurements.The actuator line method large-eddy simulation(ALM-LES)technique demonstrates its high potential in providing accurate load prediction and high resolution of turbulent fluctuations in the wind turbine wakes and the interactions within a feasible cost.

Influence of absorbent on electromagnetic wave absorbing property of porous concrete

Influences of ferrite content and iron ore powder content on electromagnetic wave absorbing property of porous concrete are studied.The radar cross section(RSC)of samples was tested in a microwave anechoic chamber.Results show that the optimum content of ferrite is 15%,and the minimum,maximum and average reflectivity of the sample is-46.60 dB,-10.84 dB and-23.75 dB,respectively.And the sample's improved bandwidth is 8.2 GHz.The optimum content of iron ore powder is 20%,and the minimum,maximum and average reflectivity of the sample is-34.69 dB,-9.25 dB and-20.69 dB,respectively.And the sample's improved bandwidth is 6 GHz.In conclusion,appropriate ferrite and iron ore powder can improve wave absorbing property and widen wave absorption bandwidth of porous concrete.

Analysis of Unstarted Hypersonic Flow Unsteadiness Based on Schlieren Image Processing

The unstarted flow field in a hypersonic inlet model at a design point of Ma 6 is studied experimentally.The time-resolved spatial flow characteristics of the separation shock oscillation,which is induced by the unstarted flow,are analyzed based on a high-speed Schlieren system and an image processing method.The motion of the separation shock detected by the shock-detection algorithm is compared to the results of fast-response wall-pressure measurements,and good agreement is demonstrated by comparing the frequency components in the power spectral density contours between shock oscillation and pressure fluctuation.The hysteresis of the pressure and separation shock during oscillation cycles is observed from the time history of the shock motion,which means that the unsteady flow pattern of the unstarted hypersonic flow can be accurately clarified by time-resolved Schlieren image processing.These results convincingly demonstrate that the shock-detection technique is successfully applied to an unstarted hypersonic flow case.

Investigation on the Grindability of CSS-42L Stainless Steel

Plunge grinding experiments were carried out on CSS-42L stainless steel with the white fused alumina wheel.The grinding forces were measured with variations in accumulated material removal volume.Then the morphological features of worn grinding wheel were analyzed by optical microscopy and the grinding temperatures were measured with a thermocouple.For comparison,C45 steel was ground under the same conditions.The results indicated that the grinding forces of CSS-42L were at least twice that of C45 steel.When the accumulated removal volume overcame 375mm^3,strong adhesion was found between the abrasives and workpiece CSS-42L.Nevertheless,adhesion was hardly found after 800mm^3 workpiece C45 steel was removed.In order to enhance the machining property of CSS-42L,a brazed CBN wheel was incorporated into the grinding of CSS-42L,and the grinding forces and temperatures were found significantly decreased,whose maximum decreasing amplitude was about 70%and 80%,respectively.

Finite-difference time-domain studies of low-frequency stop band in superconductor-dielectric superlattice

The transmission coefficients of electromagnetic （EM） waves due to a superconductor-dielectric superlattice are numerically calculated. Shift operator finite difference time domain （SO-FDTD） method is used in the analysis. By using the SO-FDTD method, the transmission spectrum is obtained and its characteristics are investigated for different thicknesses of superconductor layers and dielectric layers, from which a stop band starting from zero frequency can be apparently observed. The relation between this low-frequency stop band and relative temperature, and also the London penetration depth at a superconductor temperature of zero degree are discussed, separately. The low-frequency stop band properties of superconductor-dielectric superlattice thus are well disclosed.

Wake Numerical Simulation of Wind Field Based on Two Modified Wind Engineering Models

With the assumption of the Park model that the wake region is in linear expansion and the cross-wind is in multinomial and Gaussian distribution in wake region,one develops the Park-polynomial model and the ParkGaussian model to numerically simulate the wake flow field for a single wind turbine.Compared with the measured data of wind farm and the wind tunnel test,it shows that the prediction precision of wake field has been improved obviously under the modified initial wake radius.Moreover,both of the newly modified two models could well simulate the wind velocity in wake region,because the predicted results is approximately consistent with the test result,and the cross-wind distribution conforms to that of the real flow field.The two models have still inherited many advantages of engineering models,such as simple form,easy-to-code,and high computational efficiency.Particularly,the Park-Gaussian model is the best in overall performance among them.

Identification of the key thermal points on machine tools by grouping and optimizing variables

The grouping and optimization approach to identify the key thermal points on machine tools is studied.To solve the difficulty in grouping because of the high correlated variables from distinct groups,the variables grouping technique is improved.Temperature variables are sorted according to their relativities with the thermal errors.The representative temperature variables are determined by analyzing the variable correlation in sort order and removing the other variables in the same group.Considering the diverse effect of importing the different variables on thermal error model,the method of variable combination optimization is improved.Regression models made up of different combination of representative temperature variables are evaluated by the index of both the determined coefficient and the average residual squares to select the combination of the temperature variables.For the machine tools with complicated structures which need more initial temperature measuring points the improvement is demanded.The improved approach is applied to a precision horizontal machining center to identify the key thermal points.Experimental results show that the proposed approach is capable of avoiding the high correlation among the different groups' variables,effectively reducing the number of the key thermal points without depressing the prediction accuracy of the thermal error model for machine tools.

Multiscale edge detection of noisy images using wavelets

The classical edge detectors work fine with the high quality pictures, but often are not good enough for noisy images because they cannot distinguish edges of different significance. The paper presented a novel approach to multiscale edge detection for noisy images using wavelet transforms based on Lipschitz regularity coefficients and a cascade algorithm. The relationship between wavelet transform and Lipschitz regularity was established. The proposed wavelet based edge detection algorithm combined the coefficients of wavelet transforms along with a cascade algorithm which significantly improves the result. The comparison between the proposed method and the classical edge detectors was carried out. The algorithm was applied to various images and its performance was discussed. The results of edge detection of contaminated images using the proposed algorithm show that it works better than the classical edge detectors.

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of a Novel Heterometallic Complex [Na_2Cu_2Gd_2(pdc)_4(H_2O)_(14)·2H_2O]

A novel heterometallic complex [Na2Cu2Gd2（pdc）4（H2O）14·2H2O] （H3pdc = 1H- pyrazole-3,5-dicarboxylic acid） has been synthesized and characterized by 1R spectra, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray analysis. The crystal belongs to the monoclinic system, space group P2 1/c with a = 7.9521（18）, b = 12.251（3）, c = 22.293（5） A, β = 110.173（5）°, V= 2038.5（8） A^3, Mr = 1388.13, Z = 2, F（000） = 1352, Dc = 2.261 g/cm^3,/2 = 4.380 mm^-1, the final R = 0.0409 and wR = 0.0622 for 2453 observed reflections with I 〉 2σ（I）. The structural analysis shows that the Na^I, Cu^II and Gd^II ions are linked together by two kinds of bridging ligands （pdc^3- and H2O） to form a main moiety [Na2Cu2Gd2（pdc）4（H2O）14], which can be regarded as a centrosymmetric dimmer of [NaCuGd（pdc）2（H2O）7]. Many hydrogen bonds exist in the complex to build a 3D supramolecular framework.

Experimental Analysis of A Cooling System for Wind-Driven Generator Stator

A novel cooling system with cooling channels is proposed for the stator of 3MW wind-driven generator.An experimental platform is built to investigate the performance of the cooling system with different loads.At30%,50% or 80% generator loads,the temperatures meet the design requirement.However,it is a little over the requirement at 100%load,duo to experimental errors and some unknown thermal resistances.In the test at 100%load,the developing trends of the parameters of these two generators are similar and only minor differences occurs when they reach steady state our work can be benefit for the design and improvement of MW wind-driven generator cooling solutions.