589 research outputs found
Experiments on transformation thermodynamics: Molding the flow of heat
It has recently been shown theoretically that the time-dependent heat
conduction equation is form-invariant under curvilinear coordinate
transformations. Thus, in analogy to transformation optics, fictitious
transformed space can be mapped onto (meta-)materials with spatially
inhomogeneous and anisotropic heat-conductivity tensors in the laboratory
space. On this basis, we design, fabricate, and characterize a micro-structured
thermal cloak that molds the flow of heat around an object in a metal plate.
This allows for transient protection of the object from heating, while
maintaining the same downstream heat flow as without object and cloak.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Hall-effect sign-inversion in a realizable 3D metamaterial
In 2009, Briane and Milton proved mathematically the existence of
three-dimensional isotropic metamaterials with a classical Hall coefficient
which is negative with respect to that of all of the metamaterial constituents.
Here, we significantly simplify their blueprint towards an architecture
composed of only a single constituent material in vacuum/air, which can be seen
as a special type of porosity. We show that the sign of the Hall voltage is
determined by a separation parameter between adjacent tori. This qualitative
behavior is robust even for only a small number of metamaterial unit cells. The
combination of simplification and robustness brings experimental verifications
of this striking sign-inversion into reach.Comment: 9 figures, 7 page
On three-dimensional dilational elastic metamaterials
Dilational materials are stable three-dimensional isotropic auxetics with an
ultimate Poisson's ratio of -1. We design, evaluate, fabricate, and
characterize crystalline metamaterials approaching this ideal. To reveal all
modes, we calculate the phonon band structures. On this basis, using cubic
symmetry, we can unambiguously retrieve all different non-zero elements of the
rank-4 effective metamaterial elasticity tensor, from which all effective
elastic metamaterial properties follow. While the elastic properties and the
phase velocity remain anisotropic, the effective Poisson's ratio indeed becomes
isotropic and approaches -1 in the limit of small internal connections. This
finding is also supported by independent static continuum-mechanics
calculations. In static experiments on macroscopic polymer structures
fabricated by three-dimensional printing, we measure Poisson's ratios as low as
-0.8 in good agreement with theory. Microscopic samples are also presented.Comment: 8 figure
Phonon band structures of three-dimensional pentamode metamaterials
Three-dimensional pentamode metamaterials are artificial solids that
approximately behave like liquids, which have vanishing shear modulus.
Pentamodes have recently become experimental reality. Here, we calculate their
phonon band structures for various parameters. Consistent with static continuum
mechanics, we find that compression and shear waves exhibit phase velocities
that can realistically be different by more than one order of magnitude.
Interestingly, we also find frequency intervals with more than two octaves
bandwidth in which pure single-mode behavior is obtained. Herein, exclusively
compression waves exist due to a complete three-dimensional band gap for shear
waves and, hence, no coupling to shear modes is possible. Such single-mode
behavior might, e.g., be interesting for transformation-elastodynamics
architectures.Comment: 5 figure
Bedeutsame Momente im Coaching
Auf der Grundlage einer differenzierten Kritik an der aktuellen Coaching-Forschung wird in diesem Open-Access-Buch eine Landkarte für die künftige Ausrichtung der Coaching-Prozessforschung vorgestellt. Als weiteres Ergebnis seiner Arbeit stellt Robert Wegener ein methodisches Verfahren zur Untersuchung «bedeutsamer Momente» vor. Ziel des Verfahrens ist es, dem Gegenstand Coaching und insbesondere dessen dynamischem und komplexem Charakter in besonderer Weise Rechnung zu tragen. Ausgangspunkt dafür ist das theoretische Verständnis «bedeutsamer Momente» im Coaching, das Wegener mit einer eigenen Coaching-Definition und verschiedenen psychotherapiebezogenen Forschungsrichtungen herleitet und für die Entwicklung und Erprobung seines Forschungsdesigns konsequent verwendet. Dieses Buch bildet eine erste Grundlage für eine programmatisch angelegte Forschung über «bedeutsame Momente» im Coaching
Altus Galaxy: Readers' Preferences for Six Categories of News Stories
Questionable readership, the rise of military underground publications, and the end of the draft and dawn of the all-volunteer era prompted Air Force commanders, information officers and editors to question the values of their base newspapers in the early 1970s. During this period, I was editor of the Altus Galaxy, one of the Air Force's 150 base newspapers. As a "gatekeeper," I frequently was sweet-talked, cajoled, badgered, shoved and tugged by fellow Air Force members, and even their wives, "to get their story in the paper." Faced with deadlines, a limited staff and not enough editorial space, I often wondered what news was interesting and valuable to my audience, and what--barring directives from higher up--should receive top priority. This exploratory study was aimed at finding out readers' preferences for different types of news stories in the Altus Galaxy, Altus Air Force Base's newspaper.Mass Communicatio
Transfer of Reinforcement Learning-Based Controllers from Model- to Hardware-in-the-Loop
The process of developing control functions for embedded systems is
resource-, time-, and data-intensive, often resulting in sub-optimal cost and
solutions approaches. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has great potential for
autonomously training agents to perform complex control tasks with minimal
human intervention. Due to costly data generation and safety constraints,
however, its application is mostly limited to purely simulated domains. To use
RL effectively in embedded system function development, the generated agents
must be able to handle real-world applications. In this context, this work
focuses on accelerating the training process of RL agents by combining Transfer
Learning (TL) and X-in-the-Loop (XiL) simulation. For the use case of transient
exhaust gas re-circulation control for an internal combustion engine, use of a
computationally cheap Model-in-the-Loop (MiL) simulation is made to select a
suitable algorithm, fine-tune hyperparameters, and finally train candidate
agents for the transfer. These pre-trained RL agents are then fine-tuned in a
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) system via TL. The transfer revealed the need for
adjusting the reward parameters when advancing to real hardware. Further, the
comparison between a purely HiL-trained and a transferred agent showed a
reduction of training time by a factor of 5.9. The results emphasize the
necessity to train RL agents with real hardware, and demonstrate that the
maturity of the transferred policies affects both training time and
performance, highlighting the strong synergies between TL and XiL simulation
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