Search results

Operating procedure synthesis (OPS) has been used to generate plant operating procedures for chemical plants. However, the application of AI planning to this domain has been rarely considered, and when it has the scope of the system used has limited it to solving “toy” problems. This paper describes the application of state‐of‐the‐art AI planning techniques to the generation of operating procedures for chemical plant as part of the INT‐OP project at the Universities of Salford and Loughborough. The CEP planner is outlined and its application to a double effect evaporator test rig is discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to the issues involved in domain modelling, requiring the description of the domain, development of AI planning operators, the definition of safety restrictions, and the definition of the problem. There is then a presentation of the results, lessons learned and problems still remaining.

Turbomachinery, including pumps, are mainly designed to extract/produce energy from/to the flow. A major challenge in the numerical simulation of turbomachinery is the inlet flow rate, which is routinely treated as a known boundary condition for simulation purposes but is properly a dependent output of the solution. As a consequence, the results from numerical simulations may be erroneous due to the incorrect specification of the discharge flow rate. Moreover, the transient behavior of the pumps in their initial states of startup and final states of shutoff phases has not been studied numerically. This paper aims to develop a coupled procedure for calculating the transient inlet flow rate as a part of the solution via application of the control volume method for linear momentum. Large eddy simulation of a four-blade axial hydraulic pump is carried out to calculate the forces at every time step. The sharp interface immersed boundary method is used to resolve the flow around the complex geometry of the propeller, stator and the pipe casing. The effect of the spurious pressure fluctuations, inherent in the sharp interface immersed boundary method, is damped by local time-averaging of the forces. The developed code is validated by comparing the steady-state volumetric flow rate with the experimental data provided by the pump manufacturer. The instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields are also studied to reveal the flow pattern and turbulence characteristics in the pump flow field.

The authors use control volume analysis for linear momentum to simulate the discharge rate as part of the solution in a large eddy simulation of an axial hydraulic pump. The linear momentum balance equation is used to update the inlet flow rate. The sharp interface immersed boundary method with dynamic Smagorinsky sub-grid stress model and a proper wall model is used.

The steady-state volumetric flow rate has been computed and validated by comparing to the flow rate specified by the manufacturer at the simulation conditions, which shows a promising result. The instantaneous and time averaged flow fields are also studied to reveal the flow pattern and turbulence characteristics in the pump flow field.

An approach is proposed for computing the volumetric flow rate as a coupled part of the flow solution, enabling the simulation of turbomachinery at all phases, including the startup/shutdown phase. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first large eddy simulation of a hydraulic pump to calculate the transient inlet flow rate as a part of the solution rather than specifying it as a fixed boundary condition. The method serves as a numerical framework for simulating problems incorporating complex shapes with moving/stationary parts at all regimes including the transient start-up and shut-down phases.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an implicit scheme, accurate to the second order, for solving full Navier‐Stokes equations for three dimensional problems, using parallel algorithm.

Parallel solution to the 3‐D incompressible full Navier‐Stokes equations is presented, based on two fractional steps in time and finite element in space. The accuracy of the scheme is second order in both time and space domains. Large time‐step sizes, with Courant‐Friedrichs‐Lewy (CFL) numbers much larger than unity, are taken since the momentum equation is solved implicitly. A fourth order artificial viscosity term is added. In order to stabilize the numerical solution, fourth order artificial viscosity term is used for high Reynolds number flows. The domain decomposition technique is implemented for parallel solution to the problem with matching and non‐overlapping sub‐domains. It is aimed to study both a 3D free and mixed convection problems using the developed scheme. The segregate solution for temperature field is calibrated by a 3‐D free convection problem. Then the flow case where the forced convection is one order of magnitude higher than the free convection is studied.

It is observed that the long time solution to the flow field shows oscillatory behaviour as the Reynolds number of the flow doubled while keeping the ratio of the forced to free convection fixed. The solution using a parallel algorithm gives satisfactory results, in terms of computation time and accuracy, for the natural convection problem in cubic cavity, and, the forced cooling of a room with chilled ceiling having a parabolic geometry as presented at the end. It is observed that doubling the Reynolds number, while keeping all the parameters unchanged, varies the flow behaviour completely.

A code previously developed and published by the author only solved momentum equation and studied the velocity field. In this study, full Navier Stokes equation is solved and the code is calibrated with a well‐known 3D free‐convection for two different Rayleigh number cases and then 3D mixed convection problem is studied for two cases. Re=2000 case results, solved both by the scheme in this study and by commercial code, presented an interesting physics of the problem. For Re=2000 case, continuous cooling of the room is not possible. Doubling the Reynolds number, raising it from 1000 to 2000, while keeping all the parameters unchanged, varies the flow behaviour completely.

A new approach called the “variational theory of complex rays” (VTCR) is developed for calculating the vibrations of weakly damped elastic structures in the medium‐frequency range. Here, the emphasis is put on the most fundamental aspects. The effective quantities (elastic energy, vibration intensity, etc.) are evaluated after solving a small system of equations which does not derive from a finite element discretization of the structure. Numerical examples related to plates show the appeal and the possibilities of the VTCR.

One major challenge in turbulent flow applications is to control the recirculation zone behind the backward‐facing step (BFS). One simple idea to do so is to modify the original BFS geometry, of course, without causing adverse or undesirable impacts on the original characteristics of the primary stream. The main objective of this work is to examine the solidity of the recirculation zone behind several different geometries which are slightly to moderately different from the original BFS geometry.

The implemented modifications cause complicated irregularities at the boundaries of the domain. The experience shows that the mesh distribution around these irregularities plays a critical role in the accuracy of the numerical solutions. To achieve the most accurate solutions with the least computational efforts, we use a robust hybrid strategy to distribute the computational grids in the domain. Additionally, a suitable numerical algorithm capable of handling hybrid grid topologies is properly extended to analyze the flow field. The current fully implicit method utilizes a physical pressure‐based upwinding scheme capable of working on hybrid mesh.

The extended algorithm is very robust and obtains very accurate solutions for the complex flow fields despite utilizing very coarse grid resolutions. Additionally, different proposed geometries revealed very similar separated regions behind the step and performed minor differences in the location of the reattachment points.

The current study is fulfilled two‐dimensionally. However, the measurements in testing regular BFS problems have shown that the separated shear layer behind the step is not affected by 3D influences provided that the width of channel is sufficiently wide. A similar conclusion is anticipated here.

The problem occurs in the pipe and channel expansions, combustion chambers, flow over flying objects with abrupt contraction on their external surfaces, etc.

A novel pressure‐based upwinding strategy is properly employed to solve flow on multiblocked hybrid grid topologies. This strategy takes into account the physics associated with all the transports in the flow field. To study the impact of shape improvement, several modified BFS configurations were suggested and examined. These configurations need only little additional manufacturing cost to be fabricated.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal main advantages of digital libraries in comparison with technology of common database for data-oriented fields of modern science. As an example, the subject domain “nanomaterials and nanotechnologies” with new features due to evolution of concepts and objects is presented.

An analysis of the information system ABCD as a basis for science-oriented digital library was fulfilled. Also, a survey of peculiarities of data in fast developing fields of science was prepared.

The results of this paper showed that functional capacities of ABCD satisfy requirements for complex collections and archives of scientific documents. Based on the ABCD tools and this concept, the digital library for storage and systematization of data and documents on nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for the power engineering was constructed. The library combines opportunities of bibliographic, full text and factual information systems.

This paper gives the foundation for creation of a library that combines services of bibliographic, full text and factual (numerical) information systems. Some analyses of ABCD tools were made before elsewhere, but they did not point on data peculiarities of complexly organized domains: semi-structured data, multitude formats (text, image and tables), interconnection of content with external sources located on other servers or in the Web.

This study aims to illuminate the currently poorly understood inflow of knowledge originating from project managers across the value chain of construction projects. The primary purpose is to identify the domains of knowledge that project managers’ need to share in their management activities, the skills they need to develop in their sharing practices and how these relate to each other across different phases of a construction project.

Knowledge domains, skills and the relationships between them were identified following an inductive methodology, a combination of grounded theory and case study, and through the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 21 project managers and participants within a single construction project.

The outcome is a novel framework that theorizes the dynamic interplay between knowledge domains and the skills that facilitate knowledge sharing (KS) for successful project work throughout the construction project.

The combined effects of task heterogeneity, knowledge interdependencies and temporariness require paying increased attention to how knowledge domains and KS skills impact project performance. This paper addresses gaps in developing an integrative understanding of the nature of the domains of knowledge that need to be shared in a project context, the key skills contributing to KS and more importantly, how they evolve and are interpreted and reinterpreted throughout the project and assist KS practice in projects.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of–the-art design methods for additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to improve functional performance.

In this survey, design methods for AM to improve functional performance are divided into two main groups. They are design methods for a specific objective and general design methods. Design methods in the first group primarily focus on the improvement of functional performance, while the second group also takes other important factors such as manufacturability and cost into consideration with a more general framework. Design methods in each groups are carefully reviewed with discussion and comparison.

The advantages and disadvantages of different design methods for AM are discussed in this paper. Some general issues of existing methods are summarized below: most existing design methods only focus on a single design scale with a single function; few product-level design methods are available for both products’ functionality and assembly; and some existing design methods are hard to implement for the lack of suitable computer-aided design software.

This study is a useful source for designers to select an appropriate design method to take full advantage of AM.

In this survey, a novel classification method is used to categorize existing design methods for AM. Based on this classification method, a comprehensive review is provided in this paper as an informative source for designers and researchers working in this field.

This paper aims to propose a fast and accurate simulation of large-scale induction heating problems by using nonlinear reduced-order models.

A projection space for model order reduction (MOR) is quickly generated from the first kernels of Volterra’s series to the problem solution. The nonlinear reduced model can be solved with time-harmonic phasor approximation, as the nonlinear quadratic structure of the full problem is preserved by the projection.

The solution of induction heating problems is still computationally expensive, even with a time-harmonic eddy current approximation. Numerical results show that the construction of the nonlinear reduced model has a computational cost which is orders of magnitude smaller than that required for the solution of the full problem.

Only linear magnetic materials are considered in the present formulation.

The proposed MOR approach is suitable for the solution of industrial problems with a computing time which is orders of magnitude smaller than that required for the full unreduced problem, solved by traditional discretization methods such as finite element method.

The most common technique for MOR is the proper orthogonal decomposition. It requires solving the full nonlinear problem several times. The present MOR approach can be built directly at a negligible computational cost instead. From the reduced model, magnetic and temperature fields can be accurately reconstructed in whole time and space domains.