NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF COMBUSTION PROCESS IN REACTIVITY CONTROLLED COMPRESSION IGNITION (RCCI) ENGINE

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Analysis on Factors Affecting the Self-Repair Capability of SMA Wire Concrete Beam

Crack expansion of concrete is the initial damage stage of structures, which may cause greater damage to structures subject to long-term loads or under extreme conditions. In recent years, the application of intelligent materials to crack self-repair has become a hotspot among researchers. In order to study the influence of factors on the self-repair capability of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire concrete beam, both theoretical and experimental methods were employed for analysis. For the convenience of experiment, composite materials (epoxy cement mortar and silicone polymer clay) instead of concrete were used. The SMA wires were externally installed on and internally embedded in epoxy resin cement mortar beams and silicone polymer clay beams. Comparison of crack repair situation between two installation methods turns out that both methods possess their own advantages and disadvantages and should be employed according to the actual situation. The influence of unbonded length on the self-repair capability of embedded type SMA wire beams and the necessary minimum unbonded length to achieve self-repair function were studied. The results state clearly that the longer the unbonded length is, the better the crack repair situation is

Influence of rivet to sheet edge distance on fatigue strength of self-piercing riveted aluminium joints

Self-piercing riveting (SPR) is one of the main joining methods for lightweight aluminium automotive body structures due to its advantages. In order to further optimise the structure design and reduce the weight but without compromising strength, reduction of redundant materials in the joint flange area can be considered. For this reason, the influence of rivet to sheet edge distance on the fatigue strengths of self-piercing riveted joints was studied. Five edge distances, 5 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm, 11.5 mm and 14.5 mm, were considered. The results showed that the SPR joints studied in this research had high fatigue resistance and all specimens failed in sheet material along joint buttons or next to rivet heads. For lap shear fatigue tests, specimens failed in the bottom sheet at low load amplitudes and in the top sheet at high load amplitudes except for specimens with very short edge distance of 5 and 6 mm; whereas, for coach-peel fatigue tests, all specimens failed in the top sheet. For both lap shear and coach-peel fatigue tests, specimens with an edge distance of 11.5 mm had the best fatigue resistance. It was found that for coach-peel fatigue, length of crack developing path before specimens lost their strengths was the main factor that determined the fatigue life of different specimens; for lap shear fatigue, the level of stress concentration and subsequent crack initiation time was the main factor that determined the fatigue life

Event-Triggered Multi-Lane Fusion Control for 2-D Vehicle Platoon Systems with Distance Constraints

This paper investigates the event-triggered fixedtime multi-lane fusion control for vehicle platoon systems with distance keeping constraints where the vehicles are spread in multiple lanes. To realize the fusion of vehicles in different lanes, the vehicle platoon systems are firstly constructed with respect to a two-dimensional (2-D) plane. In case of the collision and loss of effective communication, the distance constraints for each vehicle are guaranteed by a barrier function-based control strategy. In contrast to the existing results regarding the command filter techniques, the proposed distance keeping controller can constrain the distance tracking error directly and the error generated by the command filter is coped with by adaptive fuzzy control technique. Moreover, to offset the impacts of the unknown system dynamics and the external disturbances, an unknown input reconstruction method with asymptotic convergence is developed by utilizing the interval observer technique. Finally, two relative threshold triggering mechanisms are utilized in the proposed fixed-time multi-lane fusion controller design so as to reduce the communication burden. The corresponding simulation results also verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy

Rapamycin sensitizes T-ALL cells to dexamethasone-induced apoptosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glucocorticoid (GC) resistance is frequently seen in acute lymphoblastic leukemia of T-cell lineage (T-ALL). In this study we investigate the potential and mechanism of using rapamycin to restore the sensitivity of GC-resistant T-ALL cells to dexamethasone (Dex) treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cell proliferation was detected by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)- 2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis was used to analyze apoptosis and cell cycles. Western blot analysis was performed to test the expression of the downstream effector proteins of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), the cell cycle regulatory proteins, and apoptosis associated proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>10 nM rapamycin markedly increased GC sensitivity in GC-resistant T-ALL cells and this effect was mediated, at least in part, by inhibition of mTOR signaling pathway. Cell cycle arrest was associated with modulation of G₁-S phase regulators. Both rapamycin and Dex can induce up-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors of p21 and p27 and co-treatment of rapamycin with Dex resulted in a synergistic induction of their expressions. Rapamycin did not obviously affect the expression of cyclin A, whereas Dex induced cyclin A expression. Rapamycin prevented Dex-induced expression of cyclin A. Rapamycin had a stronger inhibition of cyclin D1 expression than Dex. Rapamycin enhanced GC-induced apoptosis and this was not achieved by modulation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression, but synergistically up-regulation of pro-apoptotic proteins like caspase-3, Bax, and Bim, and down-regulation of anti-apoptotic protein of Mcl-1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data suggests that rapamycin can effectively reverse GC resistance in T-ALL and this effect is achieved by inducing cell cycles arrested at G₀/G₁phase and activating the intrinsic apoptotic program. Therefore, combination of mTOR inhibitor rapamycin with GC containing protocol might be an attracting new therapeutic approach for GC resistant T-ALL patients.</p

Distributed fault detection and estimation in cyber-physical systems subject to actuator faults

The fault detection and estimation problems for the physical layer network in the cyber-physical systems with unknown external disturbances are investigated in this study. Both bias fault and loss of efficiency scenarios are considered for the actuators. Based on the adaptive threshold method and sliding mode observer approach, a distributed fault detection observer (DFDO) is constructed for each physical layer node to detect the occurrence of actuator faults. Then a relative global estimation error system is defined for the distributed fault estimation observer (DFEO). Compared with the existing results, the proposed DFEO can provide the estimation for not only the actuator bias faults but also the actuators’ efficiency factors under the impact of exogenous disturbance with two gain dynamic update processes. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the given DFDO and the DFEO are examined by Lyapunov stability method and the simulation results

Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Tracking Control of Nonaffine Nonlinear Systems with Actuator Failure

This paper proposes an adaptive fault-tolerant control scheme for nonaffine nonlinear systems. A model approximation method which is a solution that bridges the gap between affine and nonaffine control systems is developed firstly. A joint estimation approach is based on unscented Kalman filter, in which both failure parameters and states are simultaneously estimated by means of the argument state vector composed of the unknown faults and states. Then, stability analysis is given for the closed-loop system. Finally, the proposed approach is verified using a three-degree-of-freedom simulation of a typical fighter aircraft and the significantly improved system response demonstrates the practical potential of the theoretic results obtained