Abelian networks III. The critical group

The critical group of an abelian network is a finite abelian group that governs the behavior of the network on large inputs. It generalizes the sandpile group of a graph. We show that the critical group of an irreducible abelian network acts freely and transitively on recurrent states of the network. We exhibit the critical group as a quotient of a free abelian group by a subgroup containing the image of the Laplacian, with equality in the case that the network is rectangular. We generalize Dhar's burning algorithm to abelian networks, and estimate the running time of an abelian network on an arbitrary input up to a constant additive error.Comment: supersedes sections 7 and 8 of arXiv:1309.3445v1. To appear in the Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

Optimal Rotary Wind Turbine Blade Modeling with Bond Graph Approach for Specific Local Sites

The wind turbine blade is an important component for harnessing wind energy. It plays a vital role in wind turbine operation. In this work, a study was conducted to investigate the dynamic behavior of an optimal rotary wind turbine blade with a bond graph approach simulated with MATLAB/Simulink. The model is considered as a twisted Rayleigh beam which is made of several sections of the type SG6043 airfoil. This type of airfoil is suitable for low wind conditions, and each section is subjected to aerodynamic loads that are computed using the blade element momentum theory. The bond graph model was developed based on the law of conservation of mass and energy in the systems, and then the model was converted to the MATLAB/Simulink toolbox; results were validated with SG6043 airfoil data and real wind data collected from selected specific sites of Abomsa, Metehara, and Ziway areas in Ethiopia.publishedVersio

The impact of local masses and inertias on the dynamic modelling of flexible manipulators

After a brief review of the recent literature dealing with flexible multi-body modelling for control design purpose, the paper first describes three different techniques used to build up the dynamic model of SECAFLEX, a 2 d.o.f. flexible in-plane manipulator driven by geared DC motors : introduction of local fictitious springs, use of a basis of assumed Euler-Bernouilli cantilever-free modes and of 5th order polynomial modes. This last technique allows to take easily into account local masses and inertias, which appear important in real-life experiments. Transformation of the state space models obtained in a common modal basis allows a quantitative comparison of the results obtained, while Bode plots of the various interesting transfer functions relating input torques to output in-joint and tip mea-surements give rather qualitative results. A parametric study of the effect of angular configuration changes and physical parameter modifications (including the effect of rotor inertia) shows that the three techniques give similar results up to the first flexible modes of each link when concentrated masses and inertias are present. From the control point of view, “pathological” cases are exhibited : uncertainty in the phase of the non-colocated transfer functions, high dependence of the free modes in the rotor inertia value. Robustness of the control to these kinds of uncertainties appears compulsory

Sandpile models

This survey is an extended version of lectures given at the Cornell Probability Summer School 2013. The fundamental facts about the Abelian sandpile model on a finite graph and its connections to related models are presented. We discuss exactly computable results via Majumdar and Dhar's method. The main ideas of Priezzhev's computation of the height probabilities in 2D are also presented, including explicit error estimates involved in passing to the limit of the infinite lattice. We also discuss various questions arising on infinite graphs, such as convergence to a sandpile measure, and stabilizability of infinite configurations.Comment: 72 pages - v3 incorporates referee's comments. References closely related to the lectures were added/update