A control allocation algorithm based on pseudo-inverse method was proposed for the over-actuated system of four in-wheel motors independently driving and four-wheel steering-by-wire electric vehicles in order to improve the vehicle stability. The control algorithm was developed using a two-degree-of-freedom (DOF) vehicle model. A pseudo control vector was calculated by a sliding mode controller to minimize the difference between the desired and actual vehicle motions. A pseudo-inverse controller then allocated the control inputs which included driving torques and steering angles of the four wheels according to the pseudo control vector. If one or more actuators were saturated or in a failure state, the control inputs are re-allocated by the algorithm. The algorithm was evaluated in Matlab/Simulink by using an 8-DOF nonlinear vehicle model. Simulations of sinusoidal input maneuver and double lane change maneuver were executed and the results were compared with those for a sliding mode control. The simulation results show that the vehicle controlled by the control allocation algorithm has better stability and trajectory-tracking performance than the vehicle controlled by the sliding mode control. The vehicle controlled by the control allocation algorithm still has good handling and stability when one or more actuators are saturated or in a failure situation.

A nonlinear impact damping model of single-degree-of-freedom spur cylindrical gear with backlash and time-varying stiffness was established. Systematic analyses of the dynamic responses were performed. First, the nonlinear damping coefficient was considered as a constant parameter with two types of compliance exponent, meanwhile, dynamic factors were adopted to depict the dynamic characteristics. Second, the bifurcation graphs were plotted, where the damping coefficient was obtained along with the impact velocity and coefficient of restitution. The results show that light and heavy load conditions have an effect on the responses when the compliance exponent is integer. On the contrary, when the compliance exponent is non-integer, the dynamic responses are slightly affected, namely the system is more stable than the former situation.

In order to describe and control the stress distribution and total deformation of bladed disk assemblies used in the aeroengine, a highly efficient and precise method of probabilistic analysis which is called extremum response surface method (ERSM) is produced based on the previous deterministic analysis results with the finite element model (FEM). In this work, many key nonlinear factors, such as the dynamic feature of the temperature load, the centrifugal force and the boundary conditions, are taken into consideration for the model. The changing patterns with time of bladed disk assemblies about stress distribution and total deformation are obtained during the deterministic analysis, and at the same time, the largest deformation and stress nodes of bladed disk assemblies are found and taken as input target of probabilistic analysis in a scientific and reasonable way. Not only their reliability, historical sample, extreme response surface (ERS) and the cumulative probability distribution function but also their sensitivity and effect probability are obtained. Main factors affecting stress distribution and total deformation of bladed disk assemblies are investigated through the sensitivity analysis of the model. Finally, compared with the response surface method (RSM) and the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), the results show that this new approach is effective.

Experimentation data of perspex glass sheet cutting, using CO₂ laser, with missing values were modelled with semi-supervised artificial neural networks. Factorial design of experiment was selected for the verification of orthogonal array based model prediction. It shows improvement in modelling of edge quality and kerf width by applying semi-supervised learning algorithm, based on novel error assessment on simulations. The results are expected to depict better prediction on average by utilizing the systematic randomized techniques to initialize the neural network weights and increase the number of initialization. Missing values handling is difficult with statistical tools and supervised learning techniques; on the other hand, semi-supervised learning generates better results with the smallest datasets even with missing values.

In order to solve fretting instability problem of gear shaft shoulder due to torsional vibration in mechanical system, the mathematical model of fretting instability vibration of gear shaft shoulder was established by adopting the method of combining kinematics and tribology, and the numerical analysis was applied to the fretting instability mechanism of gear shaft shoulder by introducing the friction instability damping ratio. The numerical results show that the main factors causing the unstable and vibrating gear shaft shoulder are the large tightening torque and too large static friction coefficient. The reasonable values of the static friction coefficient, the amount of interference and tightening torque can effectively mitigate the fretting instability phenomenon of gear shaft shoulder. The experimental results verify that damping plays a significant role in eliminating the vibration of gear shaft control system.

The reliability of electromechanical product is usually determined by the fault number and working time traditionally. The shortcoming of this method is that the product must be in service. To design and enhance the reliability of the electromechanical product, the reliability evaluation method must be feasible and correct. Reliability evaluation method and algorithm were proposed. The reliability of product can be calculated by the reliability of subsystems which can be gained by experiment or historical data. The reliability of the machining center was evaluated by the method and algorithm as one example. The calculation result shows that the solution accuracy of mean time between failures is 97.4% calculated by the method proposed in this article compared by the traditional method. The method and algorithm can be used to evaluate the reliability of electromechanical product before it is in service.

The structure and working principle of a two-cylinder four-stroke single-piston hydraulic free piston engine (HFPE) were introduced. The basic vibration equation of free piston assembly (FPA) was established based upon the energy conversion between the injected fuel and the friction together with the load. Both the theoretical and numerical results show that the vibration system of FPA is a nonlinear conservative autonomous system in one cycle. The FPA vibration is symmetric with constant amplitude when FPA is only driven by the compression pressure in the compression accumulator and that in the combustion chamber. When considering the friction and load, FPA could still achieve a stable vibration after a few cycles’ adjustment whether the input energy is equal to the consumed energy or not. The vibration characteristics are different when FPA vibrates in the compression stroke and the expansion stroke, which is the unique feature of the single-piston HFPE.

The stability and stabilization of a class of nonlinear discrete time delayed systems (NDTDS) with time-varying delay and norm-bounded nonlinearity are investigated. Based on discrete time Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional method, a sufficient delay-dependent condition for asymptotic stability of nonlinear systems is offered. Then, this condition is used to design a new efficient delayed state feedback controller (DSFC) for stabilization of such systems. These conditions are in the linear matrix inequality (LMI) framework. Illustrative examples confirm the improvement of the proposed approach over the similar cases. Furthermore, the obtained stability and stabilization conditions will be extended to uncertain discrete time delayed systems (UDTDS) with polytopic parameter uncertainties and also with norm-bounded parameter uncertainties.

The motivation of this work is to obtain single PI/PID tuning formula for different types of processes with enhanced disturbance rejection performance. The proposed tuning formula consistently gives better performance in comparison to several well-known methods at the same degree of robustness for stable, integrating and unstable processes. For the selection of the closed-loop time constant (τ_c), a guideline is provided over a broad range of time-delay/time-constant ratios on the basis of the peak of maximum sensitivity (M_s). An analysis has been performed for the uncertainty margin with the different process parameters for the robust controller design. It gives the guideline of the M_s-value settings for the PI controller designs based on the process parameters uncertainty. Furthermore, a relationship has been developed between M_s-value and uncertainty margin with the different process parameters (k, τ and θ). Simulation study has been conducted for the broad class of processes and the controllers are tuned to have the same degree of robustness by measuring the maximum sensitivity, M_s, in order to obtain a reasonable comparison.

Based on the theory of unsteady hydrodynamic lubrication and relevant mathematic and physical methods, a basic model was developed to analyze the unsteady lubrication film thickness, pressure stress and friction stress in the work zone in strip rolling. The distribution of pressure stress and friction stress in the work zone was obtained. A numerical simulation was made on a 1850 cold rolling mill. The influence of back tension stress and reduction on the distribution of pressure stress and friction stress between the roll gaps was qualitatively analyzed by numerical simulation. The calculated results indicate that the higher the back tension, the lower the pressure stress and the friction stress in the work zone, and the largest friction stresses are obtained at the inlet and outlet edges. The pressure and friction gradients are rather small at high back tension. The pressure-sensitive lubricant viscosity increases exponentially with the increase of pressure. The unsteady lubrication phenomenon in the roll bite is successfully demonstrated.

Measurement uncertainty plays an important role in laser tracking measurement analyses. In the present work, the guides to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM) uncertainty framework (GUF) and its supplement, the Monte Carlo method, were used to estimate the uncertainty of task-specific laser tracker measurements. First, the sources of error in laser tracker measurement were analyzed in detail, including instruments, measuring network fusion, measurement strategies, measurement process factors (such as the operator), measurement environment, and task-specific data processing. Second, the GUM and Monte Carlo methods and their application to laser tracker measurement were presented. Finally, a case study involving the uncertainty estimation of a cylindricity measurement process using the GUF and Monte Carlo methods was illustrated. The expanded uncertainty results (at 95% confidence levels) obtained with the Monte Carlo method are 0.069 mm (least-squares criterion) and 0.062 mm (minimum zone criterion), respectively, while with the GUM uncertainty framework, none but the result of least-squares criterion can be got, which is 0.071 mm. Thus, the GUM uncertainty framework slightly underestimates the overall uncertainty by 10%. The results demonstrate that the two methods have different characteristics in task-specific uncertainty evaluations of laser tracker measurements. The results indicate that the Monte Carlo method is a practical tool for applying the principle of propagation of distributions and does not depend on the assumptions and limitations required by the law of propagation of uncertainties (GUF). These features of the Monte Carlo method reduce the risk of an unreliable measurement of uncertainty estimation, particularly in cases of complicated measurement models, without the need to evaluate partial derivatives. In addition, the impact of sampling strategy and evaluation method on the uncertainty of the measurement results can also be taken into account with Monte Carlo method, which plays a guiding role in measurement planning.

Existing pen and ink sketch technologies can be applied to general images, but they could not produce optimal output for images of traditional architecture, because most images consist of exquisite straight lined patterns in traditional architecture, such as root tiles and window bars. The lines of roofs and eaves need to be described delicately to express pen and ink sketch most effectively. Therefore, by proposing a method to create white noise for light and shade of input images, to extract input vector directions from the white noise, and to determine the direction and length of stroke, a new expression technique is proposed for pen and ink sketch that could best reflect the characteristics of traditional architecture.

A new method is presented for the segmentation of pulmonary parenchyma. The proposed method is based on the area calculation of different objects in the image. The main purpose of the proposed algorithm is the segment of the lungs images from the computer tomography (CT) images. The original image is binarized using the bit-plane slicing technique and among the different images the best binarized image is chosen. After binarization, the labeling is done and the area of each label is calculated from which the next level of binarized image is obtained. Then, the boundary tracing algorithm is applied to get another level of binarized image. The proposed method is able to extract lung region from the original images. The experimental results show the significance of the proposed method.

A new complementary metal oxide semiconductor UV/blue-extended photodiode was presented for light detection in the UV/blue spectral range. Photoelectric characteristics of this presented photodiode were studied by numerical modeling and device simulation. Technology computer aided design simulation was done first to analyze its photoelectric characteristics. The structure characteristic and depletion situation of space between two adjacent P⁺ anodes were discussed. The reverse characteristic, spectral response characteristic and DC characteristic were discussed in detail. For the numerical modeling, dead layer effect is considered in the building of analytical mode. Dead layer is a space in which the boron doping profile decreases towards the surface due to high doping effects and boron redistribution, which affects the sensitivity of photodiode in the UV range seriously. Reverse characteristics and spectral response characteristics were modeled and analyzed typically. At last, silicon test results were given and compared with the simulated result, which shows reasonable match for each.

Breadth-first search (BFS) is an important kernel for graph traversal and has been used by many graph processing applications. Extensive studies have been devoted in boosting the performance of BFS. As the most effective solution, GPU-acceleration achieves the state-of-the-art result of 3.3×10⁹ traversed edges per second on a NVIDIA Tesla C2050 GPU. A novel vertex frontier based GPU BFS algorithm is proposed, and its main features are three-fold. Firstly, to obtain a better workload balance for irregular graphs, a virtual-queue task decomposition and mapping strategy is introduced for vertex frontier expanding. Secondly, a global deduplicate detection scheme is proposed to remove reduplicative vertices from vertex frontier effectively. Finally, a GPU-based bottom-up BFS approach is employed to process large frontier. The experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm can achieve 10% improvement over the state-of-the-art method on diverse graphs. Especially, it exhibits 2–3 times speedup on low-diameter and scale-free graphs over the state-of-the-art on a NVIDIA Tesla K20c GPU, reaching a peak traversal rate of 11.2×10⁹ edges/s.

A vehicle stopping method using an electric brake until a traction motor is stopped is studied. At the moment of vehicle stop, electric brake is changed to control mode where torque is reduced at a low speed. Gradient is controlled by estimating the load torque of motor, thereby traction motor is not rotated after stop. In addition, coasting operation and brake test are performed from normal-opposite operation and start using a small-scale model comprising the inertial load equipment and the power converter. Further, traction motor is made to be equipped with a suspension torque. Pure electric braking that makes traction motor stop by an air brake at the time of stop is also implemented. Constant torque range and constant power range are expanded during braking so that braking force is secured with the electric brakes even in high speed region. Therefore, vehicle reduction effect can be expected by reducing parts related with an air brake which is not used frequently by using a pure electric brake in the M car in wide speed region. Further, maintenance of brake system can be reduced. Besides, ride comfort of passenger in the electric rail car, energy efficiency improvement, and noise reduction effect can be additionally expected. Further, an improved brake method that uses only an electric brake till motor stop is proposed by comparing those in the blending brake that uses an air brake while reducing brake torque at vehicle stop.

The changes in vibration, sound, and sound quality with changes in the driving voltage of a power seat motor from 12.5 to 14.5 V were measured and analyzed, which was used in real vehicles. BSR (buzz, squeak, rattle), which occurs for the power seat mechanism during sliding operation, was also evaluated. In addition, the results were expressed in terms of sound quality metrics, which measure the RPM change and sound level versus voltage to analyze their statistical correlation. Furthermore, vibration measurement and analysis were conducted simultaneously to determine the noisiest conditions and the source of the noise. The changes in RPM and voltage of a motor, in addition to vibration and noise, were measured at the same time to determine how noise, RPM, and voltage are interrelated.

Distributed/parallel-processing system like sun grid engine (SGE) that utilizes multiple nodes/cores is proposed for the faster processing of large sized satellite image data. After verification, distributed process environment for pre-processing performance can be improved by up to 560.65% from single processing system. Through this, analysis performance in various fields can be improved, and moreover, near-real time service can be achieved in near future.

A novel technique called the bitmap lattice index (BLI) is proposed, which combines the advantages of a wireless broadcasting environment with a road network. Existing road networks are based on the on-demand method: a server’s workload increases as the query request increases when a server sends a client information. To solve this problem, we propose the BLI. The BLI denotes an object and a node as 0 and 1 in the Hilbert curve (HC) map. The BLI can identify the position of a node and an object through bit information; it can also reduce the broadcasting frequency of a server by reducing the size of the index, thereby decreasing the access latency and query processing times. Moreover, the BLI is highly effective for data filtering, as it can identify the positions of both an object and a node. In a road network, if filtering is done via the Euclidean distance, it may result in an error. To prevent this, we add another validation procedure. The experiment is conducted by applying the BLI to kNN query, and the technique is assessed by a performance evaluation experiment.

A scheduling scheme is proposed to reduce execution time by means of both checkpoint sharing and task duplication under a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture. In the scheme, the checkpoint executed by each peer (i.e., a resource) is used as an intermediate result and executed in other peers via its duplication and transmission. As the checkpoint is close to a final result, the reduction of execution time for each task becomes higher, leading to reducing turnaround time. To evaluate the performance of our scheduling scheme in terms of transmission cost and execution time, an analytical model with an embedded Markov chain is presented. We also conduct simulations with a failure rate of tasks and compare the performance of our scheduling scheme with that of the existing scheme based on client-server architecture. Performance results show that our scheduling scheme is superior to the existing scheme with respect to the reduction of execution time and turnaround time.

Two popular traditional join algorithms and their parallel versions are introduced. When designing join algorithms in serial computing environment, decomposing inner relation is considered as the right direction to save disk I/Os. However, two different decomposition algorithms are compared, such as inner vs. outer decomposition first algorithms for tuple-based and block-based nested loop joins, showing that the proposed approach is 20% better than general approach. Also lemmas are proved, when we have to use the outer decomposition first parallel join algorithms.

Since a sensor node handles wireless communication in data transmission and reception and is installed in poor environment, it is easily exposed to certain attacks such as data transformation and sniffing. Therefore, it is necessary to verify data integrity to properly respond to an adversary’s ill-intentioned data modification. In sensor network environment, the data integrity verification method verifies the final data only, requesting multiple communications. An energy-efficient private information retrieval (PIR)-based data integrity verification method is proposed. Because the proposed method verifies the integrity of data between parent and child nodes, it is more efficient than the existing method which verifies data integrity after receiving data from the entire network or in a cluster. Since the number of messages for verification is reduced, in addition, energy could be used more efficiently. Lastly, the excellence of the proposed method is verified through performance evaluation.

A new approach was presented to eliminate the atmosphere-induced phase error utilizing only the single look complex (SLC) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image set. This method exploited the space-invariance characteristic of phase error components contained in image pixels and estimates the phase error using the weighted least-squares (WLS) filter. Actually, this sort of method can be classified as autofocus algorithm which was generally applied in airborne SAR 2-D imaging to compensate the phase error introduced by airplane’s nonideal motion. Real data processing, which is relevant to Honda center and Angel stadium of Anaheim test-sites and acquired by Envisat-ASAR during the period from June 2004 to October 2007, was carried out to evaluate this WLS estimation algorithm. Experimental results show that the phase error estimated from WLS filter is very accurate and the focusing quality along NSR dimension is improved prominently via phase correction, which verifies the practicability of this new method.

The performance of a patented water pumping model with steam-air power was presented, which operates automatically by direct contact cooling method. The main objective was to study feasibility of a pumping model for underground water. In this model, a heater installed within the heat tank represented sources of waste heat as energy input for finding appropriate conditions of the 10 L pump model. The system operation had five stages: heating, pumping, vapor flow, cooling, and water suction. The overall water heads of 3, 4.5, 6 and 7.5 m were tested. At the same time, it was found that the pump with 50% air volume is sufficient for pumping water to a desired level. In the experiment, the temperatures in the heating and pumping stages were 100–103 °C and 80–90 °C, respectively. The pressure in the pumping stage was 12–18 kPa, and the pressure in the suction stage was about −80 kPa, sufficient for the best performance. It could pump 170 L of water at a 2 m suction head, 120 L at a 3.5 m suction head, 100 L at a 5 m suction head, and 65 L at a 6.5 m suction head in 2 h. A mathematical model for larger pumps was also presented, which operates nearly the same as the present system. Economic analysis of the 10 L pump was also included.

The objective of the present work is to model the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) three dimensional flow of viscoelastic fluid passing a stretching surface. Heat transfer analysis is carried out in the presence of variable thermal conductivity and thermal radiation. Arising nonlinear analysis for velocity and temperature is computed. Discussion to importantly involved parameters through plots is presented. Comparison between present and previous limiting solutions is shown. Numerical values of local Nusselt number are computed and analyzed. It can be observed that the effects of viscoelastic parameter and Hartman number on the temperature profile are similar in a qualitative way. The variations in temperature are more pronounced for viscoelastic parameter K in comparison to the Hartman number M. The parameters N and ɛ give rise to the temperature. It is interesting to note that values of local Nusselt number are smaller for the larger values of ɛ.

A low-cost adsorbent modified kaolin clay (MKC) was synthesized and utilized for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution. Adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of adsorbent dosage, solution pH, Cr(VI) mass concentration, contact time, electrolyte, and temperature. It is found that the adsorption efficiency is high within a wide pH range of 2.5–11.5, and equilibrium is achieved within 180 min. Increases in temperature and electrolyte concentration decrease the adsorption. The adsorption follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The Langmuir isotherm shows better fit than Freundlich isotherm. The maximum uptake capacities calculated from the Langmuir model are 15.82, 15.55 and 15.22 mg/g at 298, 308 and 318 K, respectively. Thermodynamic parameters reveals the spontaneous and exothermic nature of the adsorption. The FTIR study indicates that hydroxyl groups, NH₄⁺ ions and NO₃⁻ ions on MKC surface play a key role in Cr(VI) adsorption. The Cr(VI) desorbability of 86.53% is achieved at a Na₂CO₃ solution. The results show that MKC is suitable as a low-cost adsorbent for Cr(VI) removal which has higher adsorption capacity and faster adsorption rate at pH close to that where pollutants are usually found in the environment.

The radiative properties (absorptance, reflectance, and transmittance) of deep slits with five nanoscale slit profile variations at the transverse magnetic wave incidence were numerically investigated by employing the finite difference time domain method. For slits with attached features, their radiative properties can be much different due to the modified cavity geometry and dangled structures, even at wavelengths between 3 and 15 μm. The shifts of cavity resonance excitation result in higher transmittance through narrower slits at specific wavelengths and resonance modes are confirmed with the electromagnetic fields. Opposite roles possibly played by features in increasing or decreasing absorptance are determined by the feature position and demonstrated by Poynting vectors. Correlations among all properties of a representative slit array and the slit density are also comprehensively studied. When multiple slit types coexist in an array (complex slits), a wide-band transmittance or absorptance enhancement is feasible by merging spectral peaks contributed from each type of slits distinctively. Discrepancy among infrared properties of four selected slit combinations is explained while effects of slit density are also discussed.

The pressure solution model of granular aggregates was introduced into a FEM code which was developed for the analysis of thermo-hydro-mechanical (T-H-M) coupling in porous medium. Aimed at creating a hypothetical model of nuclear waste disposal in unsaturated quartz aggregate rock mass with laboratory scale, two 4-year computation cases were designed: 1) The porosity and permeability of rock mass are functions of the pressure solution; 2) The porosity and the permeability are constants. Calculation results show that the magnitude and distribution of stresses in the rock mass of these two calculation cases are roughly the same. And, the porosity and the permeability decrease to 43%–54% and 4.4%–9.1% of their original values after case 1 being accomplished; but the negative pore water pressures in cases 1 and 2 are respectively 1.0–1.25 and 1.0–1.1 times of their initial values under the action of nuclear waste. Case 1 exhibits the obvious effect of pressure solution.

First-principles calculations are performed to investigate the relaxation and electronic properties of sulfide minerals surfaces (MoS₂, Sb₂S₃, Cu₂S, ZnS, PbS and FeS₂) in presence of H₂O molecule. The calculated results show that the structure and electronic properties of sulfide minerals surfaces have been influenced in presence of H₂O molecule. The adsorption of the flotation reagent at the interface of mineral-water would be different from that of mineral surface due to the changes of surface structures and electronic properties caused by H₂O molecule. Hence, the influence of H₂O molecule on the reaction of flotation reagent with sulfide mineral surface will attract more attention.

The performance of a flotation circuit is largely the result of the operator’s response to visual clues. This includes manipulation of the gas input and how it is distributed to cells in a bank. A new gas dispersion technology was presented which was conducted to perform characterization tests in Outokumpu 30 m³ and 50 m³ flotation cells installed at Thompson Vale’s concentrator, and subsequent data analysis. The experimental program was designed to establish “as-found” baseline conditions for each cell of the two-parallel banks in the scavenger-cleaner and recleaner circuit, to select and characterize one typical cell in the two banks with either different frother concentrations or different air flow rates, and establish what variables can be manipulated in future characterization work. A three-parameter model was developed in order to link the bubble size and frother concentration. This relationship can be used to correlate gas dispersion change to improved metallurgical performance.

To shorten the bioleaching cycle of arsenic-containing gold concentrate, surfactants were used to promote the interaction between bacteria and ore to increase the arsenic leaching rate. Three different kinds of surfactants were used to evaluate the effects of surfactants on the growth of bacteria and arsenic leaching rate of arsenic-containing gold concentrate. The mechanism underlying surfactant enhancement was also studied. Results show that when relatively low-concentration surfactants are added to the medium, no significant difference is observed in the growth and Fe²⁺ oxidation ability of the bacteria compared with no surfactant in the medium. However, only the anionic surfactant calcium lignosulfonate and the nonionic surfactant Tween 80 are found to improve the arsenic leaching rates. Their optimum mass concentrations are 30 and 80 mg/L, respectively. At such optimum mass concentrations, the arsenic leaching rates are approximately 13.7% and 9.1% higher than those without the addition of surfactant, respectively. Mechanism research reveals that adding the anionic surfactant calcium lignosulfonate improves the percentage of bacterial adhesion on the mineral surface and decreases the surface tension in the leaching solution.

Field geological work, field engineering monitoring, laboratory experiments and numerical simulation were used to study the development characteristics of pore-fracture system and hydraulic fracture of No.3 coal reservoir in Southern Qinshui Basin. Flow patterns of methane and water in pore-fracture system and hydraulic fracture were discussed by using limit method and average method. Based on the structure model and flow pattern of post-fracturing high-rank coal reservoir, flow patterns of methane and water were established. Results show that seepage pattern of methane in pore-fracture system is linked with pore diameter, fracture width, coal bed pressure and flow velocity. While in hydraulic fracture, it is controlled by fracture height, pressure and flow velocity. Seepage pattern of water in pore-fracture system is linked with pore diameter, fracture width and flow velocity. While in hydraulic fracture, it is controlled by fracture height and flow velocity. Pores and fractures in different sizes are linked up by ultramicroscopic fissures, micro-fissures and hydraulic fracture. In post-fracturing high-rank coal reservoir, methane has level-three flow and gets through triple medium to the wellbore; and water passes mainly through double medium to the wellbore which is level-two flow.

A footing may get an eccentric load caused by earthquake or wind, thus the bearing capacity of footing subjected to eccentric load become a fundamental geotechnical problem. The conventional limit equilibrium method used for this problem usually evaluates the material properties only by its final strength. But the classical finite element method (FEM) does not necessarily provide a clear collapse mechanism associated with the yield condition of elements. To overcome these defects, a numerical procedure is proposed to create an explicit collapse mode combining a modified smeared shear band approach with a modified initial stress method. To understand the practical performance of sand foundation and verify the performance of the proposed procedure applied to the practical problems, the computing results were compared with the laboratory model tests results and some conventional solutions. Furthermore, because the proposed numerical procedure employs a simple elasto-plastic model which requires a small number of soil parameters, it may be applied directly to practical design works.

A methodology, termed estimation error minimization (EEM) method, was proposed to determine the optimal number and locations of sensors so as to better estimate the vibration response of the entire structure. Utilizing the limited sensor measurements, the entire structure response can be estimated based on the system equivalent reduction-expansion process (SEREP) method. In order to compare the capability of capturing the structural vibration response with other optimal sensor placement (OSP) methods, the effective independence (EI) method, modal kinetic energy (MKE) method and modal assurance criterion (MAC) method, were also investigated. A statistical criterion, root mean square error (RMSE), was employed to assess the magnitude of the estimation error between the real response and the estimated response. For investigating the effectiveness and accuracy of the above OSP methods, a 31-bar truss structure is introduced as a simulation example. The analysis results show that both the maximum and mean of the RMSE value obtained from the EEM method are smaller than those from other OSP methods, which indicates that the optimal sensor configuration obtained from the EEM method can provide a more accurate estimation of the entire structure response compared with the EI, MKE and MAC methods.

Most of modern tall buildings using lighter construction materials with high strength and less stiffness are more flexible, which occurs excessive wind-induced vibration, resulting in occupant discomfort and structural unsafety. It is necessary to predict wind-induced vibration response and find out a method to mitigate such an excessive wind-induced vibration at the preliminary design stage. Recently, many studies have been conducted in using actuator control force based on the linear quadratic optimum control algorithm. It was accepted as a common knowledge that the performance of passive tuned mass damper (TMD) could increase by incorporating a feedback active control force in the design of TMD, which is called active tuned mass damper (ATMD). However, the fact that ATMD is superior to TMD to reduce wind-induced vibration of a tall building is still a question. The effectiveness of TMD for mitigating the along-wind vibration of a tall building was investigated. Optimum parameters of tuning frequency and damping ratio for TMD under a random load which has a white noise spectra were used. Fluctuating along-wind load acting on a tall building treated as a stationary Gaussian random process was simulated numerically using the along-wind load spectra. And using this simulated along-wind load, along-wind responses of a tall building with and without TMD were calculated and the effectiveness of TMD in mitigating the along-wind response of a tall building was found out.

In order to describe the three-stage creep behavior of compressed asphalt mastic, a visco-elastoplastic damage constitutive model is proposed in this work. The model parameters are treated as quadratic polynomial functions with respect to stress and temperature. A series of uniaxial compressive creep experiments are performed at various stress and temperature conditions in order to determine these parameter functions, and then the proposed model is validated by comparison between the predictions and experiments at the other loading conditions. It is shown that very small permanent deformation at low stress and temperature increases rapidly with elevated stress or temperature and the damage may initiate in the stationary stage but mainly develops in the accelerated stage. Compared with the visco-elastoplastic models without damage, the predictions from the proposed model is in better agreement with the experiments, and can better capture the rate-dependency in creep responses of asphalt mastic especially below its softening point of 47 °C.

The rheological behavior of phosphoric acid-water glass grout in different mixing ratios was studied. Grout made of water glass with Baume degree of 20° and 13.4% phosphoric acid by 1:1 volume ratio is found to be more effective in stopping water. Laboratory model test of water shutoff by grouting was conducted. Test results show that the diffusion length and water cutoff effect of the grout are significantly improved as the grout head is raised, due to the dilution of underground water, and it takes the grout longer than its gel time to cut off water.

The delay vehicles experience at signalized intersections is one of the most important indicators for measuring intersection performance. The interpretation of delay variability evolvement at intersections gives a comprehensive insight into arterial traffic operation. Thus, an analytical model is proposed to investigate delay variability at coordinated intersections. Two different flow rates are assumed for both effective red and green periods in cumulative curves, through which the effect of signal coordination is incorporated in delay estimation. Then, an analogy of Markov chain process is used to explore the mechanism of stochastic overflow queue at signalized intersections. Numerical case studies show that with the decrease of arrival proportions during green, the shape of delay distribution in both undersaturation and oversaturation cases shifts faster towards higher values, implying that the coordination effect between paired intersections has a great effect on the delay distribution. As for delay fluctuation range, favorable coordination is demonstrated to be able to weaken the variability of delay estimates especially for undersaturation conditions.

Comparative analyses were conducted to compare the effects of the behavioral characteristics of the drivers of taxis and private cars on the capacity and safety of signalized intersections. Data were collected at sixteen signalized intersections in the Nanjing area in China. The risk-taking behaviors of the drivers of taxis and private cars were compared. The results suggest that 19.9% of taxi drivers have committed at least one of the identified risky behaviors, which is 2.37 times as high as that of the drivers of private cars (8.4%). The traffic conflicts technique was used to estimate the safety effects of taxis and private cars. The overall conflict rate for taxis is 21.4% higher than that for private cars, implying that taxis are more likely to be involved in conflicts. Almost all of the identified traffic conflicts can be attributed to certain levels of risk-taking behaviors committed by either taxi drivers or the drivers of private cars, and taxi drivers are more likely to be at fault in a conflict. Failure to yield to right-of-way and improper lane change is the leading causes of the conflicts in which taxis are at-fault. The research team further studied the effects of taxis on the queue discharge characteristics at signalized intersections. The results show that the presence of taxis significantly reduces both start-up lost time and saturation headways. The effects of taxis on saturation flow rates are dependent on the proportion of taxis in the discharge flow, and the saturation flow rates increase with the increase in the proportion of taxis. The adjustment factors for various proportions of taxis for different turning movements are then calculated to quantitatively evaluate the effects of taxis on the capacity of signalized intersections.

The major objective of this work was to calculate evacuation capacity and solve the optimal routing problem in a given station topology from a network optimization perspective where station facilities were modelled as open finite queueing networks with a multi-objective set of performance measures. The optimal routing problem was determined so that the number of evacuation passengers was maximized while the service level was higher than a certain criterion. An analytical technique for modelling open finite queueing networks, called the iteration generalized expansion method (IGEM), was utilized to calculate the desired outputs. A differential evolution algorithm was presented for determining the optimal routes. As demonstrated, the design methodology which combines the optimization and analytical queueing network models provides a very effective procedure for simultaneously determining the service level and the maximum number of evacuation passengers in the best evacuation routes.