7,077 research outputs found
Trajectory generation for road vehicle obstacle avoidance using convex optimization
This paper presents a method for trajectory generation using convex optimization to find a feasible, obstacle-free path for a road vehicle. Consideration of vehicle rotation is shown to be necessary if the trajectory is to avoid obstacles specified in a fixed Earth axis system. The paper establishes that, despite the presence of significant non-linearities, it is possible to articulate the obstacle avoidance problem in a tractable convex form using multiple optimization passes. Finally, it is shown by simulation that an optimal trajectory that accounts for the vehicle’s changing velocity throughout the manoeuvre is superior to a previous analytical method that assumes constant speed
Generation of optimal trajectories for Earth hybrid pole sitters
A pole-sitter orbit is a closed path that is constantly above one of the Earth's poles, by means of continuous low thrust. This work proposes to hybridize solar sail propulsion and solar electric propulsion (SEP) on the same spacecraft, to enable such a pole-sitter orbit. Locally-optimal control laws are found with a semi-analytical inverse method, starting from a trajectory that satisfies the pole-sitter condition in the Sun-Earth circular restricted three-body problem. These solutions are subsequently used as first guess to find optimal orbits, using a direct method based on pseudospectral transcription. The orbital dynamics of both the pure SEP case and the hybrid case are investigated and compared. It is found that the hybrid spacecraft allows savings on propellant mass fraction. Finally, it is shown that for sufficiently long missions, a hybrid pole-sitter, based on mid-term technology, enables a consistent reduction in the launch mass for a given payload, with respect to a pure SEP spacecraft
Improving the operating efficiency of the more electric aircraft concept through optimised flight procedures
The increasing awareness of the environmental risks and costs due to the growing demand in aviation has prompted both academic and industrial research into short-term and long-term technologies which could help address the challenges. Among these, the more electric aircraft has been identified as a key design concept which would make aircraft more environmentally friendly and cost effective in the long run. Moreover, the notion of free-flight and optimised trajectories has been identified as a key operational concept which would help curb the environmental effects of aircraft as well as reduce overall costs. The research in this paper presents a methodology in which these two concepts can be coupled to study the benefits of more electric aircraft (MEA) flying optimised trajectories. A wide range of issues from aircraft performance, engine performance, airframe systems operation, power off-take penalties, emission modelling, optimisation algorithms and optimisation frameworks has been addressed throughout the study. The case study is based on a popular short haul flight between London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol. The culmination of the study establishes the advantage of the MEA over conventional aircraft and also addresses the enhanced approach to the classical aircraft trajectory optimisation problem. The study shows that the operation procedures to achieve a minimum fuel burn are significantly different for a conventional aircraft and MEA. Trajectory optimisation reduced the fuel burn by 17.4% for the conventional aircraft and 12.2% for the more electric compared to the respective baseline cases. Within the constraints of the study, the minimum fuel burn trajectory for the MEA consumed 9.9% less fuel than the minimum fuel burn trajectory for the conventional aircraft
Deformation effects in the Si+C and Si+Si reaction Search
The possible occurence of highly deformed configurations is investigated in
the Ca and Ni di-nuclear systems as formed in the
Si+C,Si reactions by using the properties of emitted light
charged particles. Inclusive as well as exclusive data of the heavy fragments
and their associated light charged particles have been collected by using the
{\sc ICARE} charged particle multidetector array. The data are analysed by
Monte Carlo CASCADE statistical-model calculations using a consistent set of
parameters with spin-dependent level densities. Significant deformation effects
at high spin are observed as well as an unexpected large Be cluster
emission of a binary nature.Comment: 3 pages latex, 2 eps figures, paper presented in "wokshop on physics
with multidetector array (pmda2000)Calcutta, India (to be published at
PRAMANA, journal of Physics, India
Effect of dust shading on photovoltaic modules
This paper investigates the effect of dust on photovoltaic (PV) modules with respect to dust concentration and spectral transmittance. Dust samples were collected from Kuwait in the form of raw dust and accumulated dust on sample glasses at different tilt angles. The spectral transmittance was measured at the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) laboratory with a spectrophotometer. Total transmittance variation was identified for samples at different tilted positions, where the worst case was presented at a tilt angle of 30o with a non uniformity of 4.4% in comparison to 0.2% for the 90o tilt between the top, middle and bottom. Finally the data was translated to an effective spectral response for different technologies using spectral response data measured by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI). The measured data showed a decrease in transmittance at wavelengths <570 nm. This affects wide band-gap thin-film technologies more than crystalline silicon technologies and especially amorphous silicon which showed a 33% reduction in photocurrent when a dust concentration of 4.25 mg/cm2 was applied. In comparison, the crystalline silicon and CIGS technologies showed 28.6% and 28.5% reductions at the same dust density
Pairwise tests of purchasing power parity
Given nominal exchange rates and price data on N + 1 countries indexed by i = 0,1,2,…, N, the standard procedure for testing purchasing power parity (PPP) is to apply unit root or stationarity tests to N real exchange rates all measured relative to a base country, 0, often taken to be the U.S. Such a procedure is sensitive to the choice of base country, ignores the information in all the other cross-rates and is subject to a high degree of cross-section dependence which has adverse effects on estimation and inference. In this article, we conduct a variety of unit root tests on all possible N(N + 1)/2 real rates between pairs of the N + 1 countries and estimate the proportion of the pairs that are stationary. This proportion can be consistently estimated even in the presence of cross-section dependence. We estimate this proportion using quarterly data on the real exchange rate for 50 countries over the period 1957-2001. The main substantive conclusion is that to reject the null of no adjustment to PPP requires sufficiently large disequilibria to move the real rate out of the band of inaction set by trade costs. In such cases, one can reject the null of no adjustment to PPP up to 90% of the time as compared to around 40% in the whole sample using a linear alternative and almost 60% using a nonlinear alternative
Spin-1/2 J1-J2 model on the body-centered cubic lattice
Using exact diagonalization (ED) and linear spin wave theory (LSWT) we study
the influence of frustration and quantum fluctuations on the magnetic ordering
in the ground state of the spin-1/2 J1-J2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet (J1-J2
model) on the body-centered cubic (bcc) lattice. Contrary to the J1-J2 model on
the square lattice, we find for the bcc lattice that frustration and quantum
fluctuations do not lead to a quantum disordered phase for strong frustration.
The results of both approaches (ED, LSWT) suggest a first order transition at
J2/J1 0.7 from the two-sublattice Neel phase at low J2 to a collinear
phase at large J2.Comment: 6.1 pages 7 figure
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