17,245 research outputs found
Meso-scale FDM material layout design strategies under manufacturability constraints and fracture conditions
In the manufacturability-driven design (MDD) perspective, manufacturability of the product or system is the most important of the design requirements. In addition to being able to ensure that complex designs (e.g., topology optimization) are manufacturable with a given process or process family, MDD also helps mechanical designers to take advantage of unique process-material effects generated during manufacturing. One of the most recognizable examples of this comes from the scanning-type family of additive manufacturing (AM) processes; the most notable and familiar member of this family is the fused deposition modeling (FDM) or fused filament fabrication (FFF) process. This process works by selectively depositing uniform, approximately isotropic beads or elements of molten thermoplastic material (typically structural engineering plastics) in a series of pre-specified traces to build each layer of the part. There are many interesting 2-D and 3-D mechanical design problems that can be explored by designing the layout of these elements. The resulting structured, hierarchical material (which is both manufacturable and customized layer-by-layer within the limits of the process and material) can be defined as a manufacturing process-driven structured material (MPDSM). This dissertation explores several practical methods for designing these element layouts for 2-D and 3-D meso-scale mechanical problems, focusing ultimately on design-for-fracture. Three different fracture conditions are explored: (1) cases where a crack must be prevented or stopped, (2) cases where the crack must be encouraged or accelerated, and (3) cases where cracks must grow in a simple pre-determined pattern. Several new design tools, including a mapping method for the FDM manufacturability constraints, three major literature reviews, the collection, organization, and analysis of several large (qualitative and quantitative) multi-scale datasets on the fracture behavior of FDM-processed materials, some new experimental equipment, and the refinement of a fast and simple g-code generator based on commercially-available software, were developed and refined to support the design of MPDSMs under fracture conditions. The refined design method and rules were experimentally validated using a series of case studies (involving both design and physical testing of the designs) at the end of the dissertation. Finally, a simple design guide for practicing engineers who are not experts in advanced solid mechanics nor process-tailored materials was developed from the results of this project.U of I OnlyAuthor's request
Multi-Objective Trust-Region Filter Method for Nonlinear Constraints using Inexact Gradients
In this article, we build on previous work to present an optimization
algorithm for nonlinearly constrained multi-objective optimization problems.
The algorithm combines a surrogate-assisted derivative-free trust-region
approach with the filter method known from single-objective optimization.
Instead of the true objective and constraint functions, so-called fully linear
models are employed, and we show how to deal with the gradient inexactness in
the composite step setting, adapted from single-objective optimization as well.
Under standard assumptions, we prove convergence of a subset of iterates to a
quasi-stationary point and if constraint qualifications hold, then the limit
point is also a KKT-point of the multi-objective problem
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A family of total Lagrangian Petrov-Galerkin Cosserat rod finite element formulations
The standard in rod finite element formulations is the Bubnov-Galerkin
projection method, where the test functions arise from a consistent variation
of the ansatz functions. This approach becomes increasingly complex when highly
nonlinear ansatz functions are chosen to approximate the rod's centerline and
cross-section orientations. Using a Petrov-Galerkin projection method, we
propose a whole family of rod finite element formulations where the nodal
generalized virtual displacements and generalized velocities are interpolated
instead of using the consistent variations and time derivatives of the ansatz
functions. This approach leads to a significant simplification of the
expressions in the discrete virtual work functionals. In addition, independent
strategies can be chosen for interpolating the nodal centerline points and
cross-section orientations. We discuss three objective interpolation strategies
and give an in-depth analysis concerning locking and convergence behavior for
the whole family of rod finite element formulations.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.0559
People make Places
For centuries Glasgow, as a bucolic fishing village and ecclesiastical centre on the banks of the River Clyde, held little of strategic significance. When success and later threats came to the city, it was as a consequence of explosive growth during the industrial era that left a significant civic presence accompanied by social and environmental challenges. Wartime damage to the fabric of the city and the subsequent implementation of modernist planning left Glasgow with a series of existential threats to the lives and the health of its people that have taken time to understand and come to terms with.
In a few remarkable decades of late 20th century regeneration, Glasgow began to be put back together. The trauma of the second half of the 20th century is fading but not yet a distant memory. Existential threats from the climate emergency can provoke the reaction “what, again?” However, the resilience built over the last 50 years has instilled a belief that a constructive, pro-active and creative approach to face this challenge along with the recognition that such action can be transformational for safeguarding and improving people’s lives and the quality of their places. A process described as a just transition that has become central to Glasgow’s approach.
Of Scotland’s four big cities, three are surrounded by landscape and sea only Glasgow is surrounded by itself. Even with a small territory, Glasgow is still the largest of Scotland’s big cities and by some margin. When the wider metropolitan area is considered, Glasgow is – like Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool – no mean city.
People make Places begins with a review of the concept and complexities of place, discusses why these matter and reviews the growing body of evidence that place quality can deliver economic, social and environmental value. The following chapters focus on the history and evolution of modern Glasgow in four eras of 19th and early 20th century industrialisation, de- industrialisation and modernism in mid 20th century, late 20th century regeneration and a 21st century recovery towards transition and renaissance, and document the process, synthesis and the results of a major engagement programme and to explore systematic approaches to place and consensus building around the principal issues.
The second half of the work reflects on a stocktaking of place in contemporary Glasgow, looking at the city through the lenses of an international, metropolitan and everyday city, concluding with a review of the places of Glasgow and what may be learned from them revealing some valuable insights presented in a series of Place Stories included.
The concluding chapter sets out the findings of the investigation and analysis reviewing place goals, challenges and opportunities for Glasgow over the decades to 2030 and 2040 and ends with some recommendations about what Glasgow might do better to combine place thinking and climate awareness and setting out practical steps to mobilise Glasgow’s ‘place ecosystem’
Dual dynamic programming for stochastic programs over an infinite horizon
We consider a dual dynamic programming algorithm for solving stochastic
programs over an infinite horizon. We show non-asymptotic convergence results
when using an explorative strategy, and we then enhance this result by reducing
the dependence of the effective planning horizon from quadratic to linear. This
improvement is achieved by combining the forward and backward phases from dual
dynamic programming into a single iteration. We then apply our algorithms to a
class of problems called hierarchical stationary stochastic programs, where the
cost function is a stochastic multi-stage program. The hierarchical program can
model problems with a hierarchy of decision-making, e.g., how long-term
decisions influence day-to-day operations. We show that when the subproblems
are solved inexactly via a dynamic stochastic approximation-type method, the
resulting hierarchical dual dynamic programming can find approximately optimal
solutions in finite time. Preliminary numerical results show the practical
benefits of using the explorative strategy for solving the Brazilian
hydro-thermal planning problem and economic dispatch, as well as the potential
to exploit parallel computing.Comment: 45 pages. New experiments for hierarchical problem and writing
update
The effect of hypoxia on Daphnia magna performance and its associated microbial and bacterioplankton community: A scope for phenotypic plasticity and microbiome community interactions upon environmental stress?
The depletion of oxygen as a result of increased stratification and decreased oxygen solubility is one of the most significant chemical changes occurring in aquatic ecosystems as a result of global environmental change. Hence, more aquatic organisms will be exposed to hypoxic conditions over time. Deciphering the effects of hypoxia on strong ecological interactors in this ecosystem’s food web is critical for predicting how aquatic communities can respond to such an environmental disturbance. Here (sub-)lethal effects of hypoxia and whether these are genotype specific in Daphnia, a keystone species of freshwater ecosystems, are studied. This is especially relevant upon studying genetic responses with respect to phenotypic switches upon environmental stress. Further, we investigated the effect of hypoxia on the Daphnia microbial community to test if the microbiome plays a role in the phenotypic switch and tolerance to hypoxia. For this, two Daphnia genotypes were exposed for two weeks to either hypoxia or normoxia and host performance was monitored together with changes in the host associated and free-living microbial community after this period. We detected phenotypic plasticity for some of the tested Daphnia performance traits. The microbial community of the bacterioplankton and Daphnia associated microbial community responded via changes in species richness and community composition and structure. The latter response was different for the two genotypes suggesting that the microbiome plays an important role in phenotypic plasticity with respect to hypoxia tolerance in Daphnia, but further testing (e.g., through microbiome transplants) is needed to confirm this
Interview with Wolfgang Knauss
An oral history in four sessions (September 2019–January 2020) with Wolfgang Knauss, von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Emeritus. Born in Germany in 1933, he speaks about his early life and experiences under the Nazi regime, his teenage years in Siegen and Heidelberg during the Allied occupation, and his move to Pasadena, California, in 1954 under the sponsorship of a local minister and his family. He enrolled in Caltech as an undergraduate in 1957, commencing a more than half-century affiliation with the Institute and GALCIT (today the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of Caltech). He recalls the roots of his interest in aeronautics, his PhD solid mechanics studies with his advisor, M. Williams, and the GALCIT environment in the late 1950s and 1960s at the dawn of the Space Age, including the impact of Sputnik and classes with NASA astronauts. He discusses his experimental and theoretical work on materials deformation, dynamic fracture, and crack propagation, including his solid-propellant fuels research for NASA and the US Army, wide-ranging programs with the US Navy, and his pioneering micromechanics investigations and work on the time-dependent fracture of polymers in the 1990s.
He offers his perspective on GALCIT’s academic culture, its solid mechanics and fluid mechanics programs, and its evolving administrative directions over the course of five decades, as well as its impact and reputation both within and beyond Caltech. He describes his work with Caltech’s undergraduate admissions committee and his scientific collaborations with numerous graduate students and postdocs and shares his recollections of GALCIT and other Caltech colleagues, including C. Babcock, D. Coles, R.P. Feynman, Y.C. Fung, G. Neugebauer, G. Housner, D. Hudson, H. Liepmann, A. Klein, G. Ravichandran, A. Rosakis, A. Roshko, and E. Sechler.
Six appendices contributed by Dr. Knauss, offering further insight into his life and career, also form part of this oral history and are cross-referenced in the main text
Reduction of Petri net maintenance modeling complexity via Approximate Bayesian Computation
This paper is part of the ENHAnCE ITN project (https://www.h2020-enhanceitn.eu/) funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SklodowskaCurie grant agreement No. 859957. The authors would like to thank the Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF), a charitable foundation in the U.K. helping to protect life and property by supporting engineeringrelated education, public engagement, and the application of research. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of these organizations which have enabled the research reported in this paper.The accurate modeling of engineering systems and processes using Petri nets often results in complex graph
representations that are computationally intensive, limiting the potential of this modeling tool in real life
applications. This paper presents a methodology to properly define the optimal structure and properties of
a reduced Petri net that mimic the output of a reference Petri net model. The methodology is based on
Approximate Bayesian Computation to infer the plausible values of the model parameters of the reduced model
in a rigorous probabilistic way. Also, the method provides a numerical measure of the level of approximation
of the reduced model structure, thus allowing the selection of the optimal reduced structure among a set
of potential candidates. The suitability of the proposed methodology is illustrated using a simple illustrative
example and a system reliability engineering case study, showing satisfactory results. The results also show
that the method allows flexible reduction of the structure of the complex Petri net model taken as reference,
and provides numerical justification for the choice of the reduced model structure.European Commission 859957Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF), a charitable foundation in the U.K
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