2 research outputs found
Reduced-Order Equivalent-Circuit Models Of Thermal Systems Including Thermal Radiation
We established a general, automatic, and versatile procedure to derive an equivalent circuit for a thermal system using temperature data obtained from FE simulations. The EC topology was deduced from the FE mesh using a robust and general graph-partitioning algorithm. The method was shown to yield models that are independent of the boundary conditions for complicated 3D thermal systems such as an electronic chip. The results are strongly correlated with the geometry, and the EC can be extended to yield variable medium-order models. Moreover, a variety of heat sources and boundary conditions can be accommodated, and the EC models are inherently modular. A reliable method to compute thermal resistors connecting different regions was developed. It appropriately averages several estimates of a thermal resistance where each estimate is obtained using data obtained under different boundary or heating conditions. The concept of fictitious heat sources was used to increase the number of simulation datasets. The method was shown to yield models that are independent of the BCs for complicated 2-D thermal systems such as a 2D cavity. A reliable method to compute thermal resistors connecting different regions was developed. In general, the number of regions required for getting an accurate reduced-order model depends on the complexity of the system to be modeled. We have extended the reduced-order modeling procedure to include a view-factor based thermal radiation heat transfer model by including voltage controlled current sources in the equivalent circuit
Algorithms for Optimizing Search Schedules in a Polygon
In the area of motion planning, considerable work has been done on guarding
problems, where "guards", modelled as points, must guard a polygonal
space from "intruders". Different variants
of this problem involve varying a number of factors. The guards performing
the search may vary in terms of their number, their mobility, and their
range of vision. The model of intruders may or may not allow them to
move. The polygon being searched may have a specified starting point,
a specified ending point, or neither of these. The typical question asked
about one of these problems is whether or not certain polygons can be
searched under a particular guarding paradigm defined by the types
of guards and intruders.
In this thesis, we focus on two cases of a chain of guards searching
a room (polygon with a specific starting point) for mobile intruders.
The intruders must never be allowed to escape through the door undetected.
In the case of the two guard problem, the guards must start at the door
point and move in opposite directions along the boundary of the
polygon, never crossing the door point. At all times, the
guards must be able to see each other. The search is complete once both
guards occupy the same spot elsewhere on the polygon. In the case of
a chain of three guards, consecutive guards in the chain must always
be visible. Again, the search starts at the door point, and the outer
guards of the chain must move from the door in opposite directions.
These outer guards must always remain on the boundary of the polygon.
The search is complete once the chain lies entirely on a portion of
the polygon boundary not containing the door point.
Determining whether a polygon can be searched is a problem in the area
of visibility in polygons; further to that, our work is related
to the area of planning algorithms. We look for ways to find optimal schedules that minimize
the distance or time required to complete the search. This is done
by finding shortest paths in visibility diagrams that indicate valid
positions for the guards. In the case of
the two-guard room search, we are able to find the shortest distance
schedule and the quickest schedule. The shortest distance schedule
is found in O(n^2) time by solving an L_1 shortest path problem
among curved obstacles in two dimensions. The quickest search schedule is
found in O(n^4) time by solving an L_infinity shortest path
problem among curved obstacles in two dimensions.
For the chain of three guards, a search schedule minimizing the total
distance travelled by the outer guards is found in O(n^6) time by
solving an L_1 shortest path problem among curved obstacles in two dimensions