A cell-based smoothed finite element method for kinematic limit analysis

This paper presents a new numerical procedure for kinematic limit analysis problems, which incorporates the cell-based smoothed finite element method with second-order cone programming. The application of a strain smoothing technique to the standard displacement finite element both rules out volumetric locking and also results in an efficient method that can provide accurate solutions with minimal computational effort. The non-smooth optimization problem is formulated as a problem of minimizing a sum of Euclidean norms, ensuring that the resulting optimization problem can be solved by an efficient second-order cone programming algorithm. Plane stress and plane strain problems governed by the von Mises criterion are considered, but extensions to problems with other yield criteria having a similar conic quadratic form or 3D problems can be envisaged

An Analysis of the Effect of Ghost Force Oscillation on Quasicontinuum Error

The atomistic to continuum interface for quasicontinuum energies exhibits nonzero forces under uniform strain that have been called ghost forces. In this paper, we prove for a linearization of a one-dimensional quasicontinuum energy around a uniform strain that the effect of the ghost forces on the displacement nearly cancels and has a small effect on the error away from the interface. We give optimal order error estimates that show that the quasicontinuum displacement converges to the atomistic displacement at the optimal rate O($h$) in the discrete $\ell^\infty$ norm and O($h^{1/p}$) in the $w^{1,p}$ norm for $1 \leq p < \infty.$ where $h$ is the interatomic spacing. We also give a proof that the error in the displacement gradient decays away from the interface to O($h$) at distance O($h|\log h|$) in the atomistic region and distance O($h$) in the continuum region. E, Ming, and Yang previously gave a counterexample to convergence in the $w^{1,\infty}$ norm for a harmonic interatomic potential. Our work gives an explicit and simplified form for the decay of the effect of the atomistic to continuum coupling error in terms of a general underlying interatomic potential and gives the estimates described above in the discrete $\ell^\infty$ and $w^{1,p}$ norms.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Constructing minimum deflection fixture arrangements using frame invariant norms

This paper describes a fixture planning method that minimizes object deflection under external loads. The method takes into account the natural compliance of the contacting bodies and applies to two-dimensional and three-dimensional quasirigid bodies. The fixturing method is based on a quality measure that characterizes the deflection of a fixtured object in response to unit magnitude wrenches. The object deflection measure is defined in terms of frame-invariant rigid body velocity and wrench norms and is therefore frame invariant. The object deflection measure is applied to the planning of optimal fixture arrangements of polygonal objects. We describe minimum-deflection fixturing algorithms for these objects, and make qualitative observations on the optimal arrangements generated by the algorithms. Concrete examples illustrate the minimum deflection fixturing method. Note to Practitioners-During fixturing, a workpiece needs to not only be stable against external perturbations, but must also stay within a specified tolerance in response to machining or assembly forces. This paper describes a fixture planning approach that minimizes object deflection under applied work loads. The paper describes how to take local material deformation effects into account, using a generic quasirigid contact model. Practical algorithms that compute the optimal fixturing arrangements of polygonal workpieces are described and examples are then presented

Improved Bounds for Distributed Load Balancing

In the load balancing problem, the input is an $n$-vertex bipartite graph $G = (C \cup S, E)$ and a positive weight for each client $c \in C$. The algorithm must assign each client $c \in C$ to an adjacent server $s \in S$. The load of a server is then the weighted sum of all the clients assigned to it, and the goal is to compute an assignment that minimizes some function of the server loads, typically either the maximum server load (i.e., the $\ell_{\infty}$-norm) or the $\ell_p$-norm of the server loads. We study load balancing in the distributed setting. There are two existing results in the CONGEST model. Czygrinow et al. [DISC 2012] showed a 2-approximation for unweighted clients with round-complexity $O(\Delta^5)$, where $\Delta$ is the maximum degree of the input graph. Halld\'orsson et al. [SPAA 2015] showed an $O(\log{n}/\log\log{n})$-approximation for unweighted clients and $O(\log^2\!{n}/\log\log{n})$-approximation for weighted clients with round-complexity polylog$(n)$. In this paper, we show the first distributed algorithms to compute an $O(1)$-approximation to the load balancing problem in polylog$(n)$ rounds. In the CONGEST model, we give an $O(1)$-approximation algorithm in polylog$(n)$ rounds for unweighted clients. For weighted clients, the approximation ratio is $O(\log{n})$. In the less constrained LOCAL model, we give an $O(1)$-approximation algorithm for weighted clients in polylog$(n)$ rounds. Our approach also has implications for the standard sequential setting in which we obtain the first $O(1)$-approximation for this problem that runs in near-linear time. A 2-approximation is already known, but it requires solving a linear program and is hence much slower. Finally, we note that all of our results simultaneously approximate all $\ell_p$-norms, including the $\ell_{\infty}$-norm

Yield surface approximation for lower and upper bound yield design of 3d composite frame structures

International audienceThe present contribution advocates an up-scaling procedure for computing the limit loads of spatial structures made of composite beams. The resolution of an auxiliary yield design problem leads to the determination of a yield surface in the space of axial force and bending moments. A general method for approximating the numerically computed yield surface by a sum of several ellipsoids is developed. The so-obtained analytical expression of the criterion is then incorporated in the yield design calculations of the whole structure, using second-order cone programming techniques. An illustrative application to a complex spatial frame structure is presented

Optimization heuristics for residential energy load management

The MS thesis is concerned with the problem of scheduling the daily energy loads in a multihouse environment from the point of view of an energy retailer. We assume that the residential users own a set of home appliances (washing machines, dishwashers, ovens, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, boilers, fridges, water purifiers, irons, TVs, personal computers and lights) that are supposed to be used during the day. Houses can also be equipped with Photo Voltaic (PV) panels, which produce energy in a discontinuous way, and batteries that allow the system to store and release energy when required. The day is subdivided into 96 timeslots of 15 minutes each. For each appliance, we suppose to know the load profile, that is, a set of successive timeslots with the corresponding amount of energy required. Given the load profile of each appliance, the time windows in which the appliances must be executed, the physical characteristics of the batteries, the energy amount produced by the PV systems, the problem is that of scheduling the various appliances (assigning their starting timeslots) so as to minimize an appropriate objective function while respecting the maximum capacity of the meters (usually 3 kW). We consider minimizing the total maximum peak. This Residential Energy Load Management Problem is a challenging extension of the classical Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP). Since the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation can be solved within reasonable computing time only for small instances, we developed various methods to tackle medium-to-large size instances: a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) to generate initial feasible solutions, a meta-heuristic à la Tabu Search (TS) to improve initial solutions, and other techniques based on the solution of reduced MILP problems. In the TS algorithm we proposed different types of moves (appliances shift, batteries charge or discharge…) to explore the neighbourhood. We have tested our methods on a data set of 180 realistic instances with different number of houses (20, 200 and 400), PV panels and batteries. The solutions provided by the heuristics are compared with those obtained by solving the MILP model by using a state-of-the-art solver. For instances without batteries all our heuristics yield high quality solutions – within 3% from the reference solution – in a short computing time for the largest instances. Heuristics that solve reduced MILPs achieved the same results even for instances with batteries

Upper bound limit analysis of plates using a rotation-free isogeometric approach

International audienceThis paper presents a simple and effective formulation based on a rotation-free isogeometric approach for the assessment of collapse limit loads of plastic thin plates in bending. The formulation relies on the kinematic (or upper bound) theorem and namely B-splines or non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS), resulting in both exactly geometric representation and high-order approximations. Only one deflection variable (without rotational degrees of freedom) is used for each control point. This allows us to design the resulting optimization problem with a minimum size that is very useful to solve large-scale plate problems. The optimization formulation of limit analysis is transformed into the form of a second-order cone programming problem so that it can be solved using highly efficient interior-point solvers. Several numerical examples are given to demonstrate reliability and effectiveness of the present method in comparison with other published methods

Optimal Sizing of Voltage Control Devices for Distribution Circuit with Intermittent Load

We consider joint control of a switchable capacitor and a D-STATCOM for voltage regulation in a distribution circuit with intermittent load. The control problem is formulated as a two-timescale optimal power flow problem with chance constraints, which minimizes power loss while limiting the probability of voltage violations due to fast changes in load. The control problem forms the basis of an optimization problem which determines the sizes of the control devices by minimizing sum of the expected power loss cost and the capital cost. We develop computationally efficient heuristics to solve the optimal sizing problem and implement real-time control. Numerical experiments on a circuit with high-performance computing (HPC) load show that the proposed sizing and control schemes significantly improve the reliability of voltage regulation on the expense of only a moderate increase in cost.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, submitted to HICSS'1

A Projection Approach to the Numerical Analysis of Limit Load Problems

International audienceThis paper proposes a numerical scheme to approximate the solution of (vectorial) limit load problems. The method makes use of a strictly convex perturbation of the problem, which corresponds to a projection of the deformation field under bounded deformation and incompressibility constraints. The discretized formulation of this perturbation converges to the solution of the original landslide problem when the amplitude of the perturbation tends to zero. The projection is computed numerically with a multi-steps gradient descent on the dual formation of the problem