Low-temperature sintering and properties of LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramics) materials based on CaO-BaO-Al₂O₃-B₂O₃-SiO₂ glass and various fillers such as Al₂O₃, silica glass, christobalite, AlN, ZrO₂, MgO·SiO₂, TiO₂ were investigated. The results show that densification, crystallization, microstructures and dielectric properties of the composites are found to strongly depend on the type of filler. The densification process of glass/ceramic composites with various fillers is mainly from 600 °C to 925 °C, and the initial compacting temperature of samples is 600 °C. The initial rapid densification of samples starts at its glass softening temperature. LTCC compositions containing Al₂O₃, silica glass, AlN and MgO·SiO₂ fillers start to have the crystallization peaks at 890, 903, 869 and 844 °C, respectively. The crystallization peaks are believed as correlated to the crystallization of CaAl₂SiO₈, β-SiO₂, Ca2Al₂SiO7 and β-SiO₂. The composite ceramic with Al₂O₃, silica glass and TiO₂ ceramic have a better dense structure and better smooth fracture surface. Sample for Al₂O₃ has the lowest dielectric loss tanδ value of 0.00091, whereas the sample for MgO·SiO₂ has the highest dielectric loss tanδ value of 0.02576. The sample for TiO₂ has the highest dielectric constant value of 14.46, whereas the sample for AlN has the lowest dielectric constant value of 4.61.

A high speed steel composite roll billet was fabricated, which is regular in shape, smooth in surface, slight in trace, compact in internal structure, free of slag inclusion, shrinkage cavity, cracks and other flaws, and good in macro quality of junction surface using a vertical continuous casting machine. The interface zone microstructure of bimetallic in billet of high speed steel composite roll was analyzed by metallurgical microscope (OM), X-ray diffractmeter (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS). The results indicate that the microstructure of roll billet is composed of chilled solidified layer, dendrite zone, interfacial zone of bimetal and core material zone. The microstructure of outer shell material is composed of martensite + bainite + residual austenite + some small labyrinth-shape, small-short lath-shape, or dollop-shape eutectic carbides. The microstructure of core material is slice-shape pearlite and a little ferrite along boundary of cells. The interface region microstructure of bimetallic composite roll consists of diffusion region, chilled solidified layer and columnar grain region.

A process of purification of coal-based coke powder as anode for Li-ion batteries was attempted. The process started with the treatment of coke powder with dilute hydrofluoric acid solution, followed by united-acid-leaching using sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. The effects of altering the hydrofluoric acid addition, hydrofluoric acid concentration, contact time, temperature and acid type were investigated. A minimum ash content of 0.35% was obtained when proper conditions were applied. The electrochemical performance of purified coke powder shows greatly improved electrochemical performance. The as-purified coke powder presented an initial reversible capacity of 257.4 mAh/g and a retention rate of 95% after 50 cycles. The proposed purification process paves a way to prepare a promising anode material with good performance with low cost of coke powder for Li-ion batteries.

Mar-M247 is a nickel-based alloy which is well known as difficult-to-machine material due to its characteristics of high strength, poor thermal diffusion and work hardening. Calculation of shear stress by an analytical force model to indicate the effect of coating material, cutting speed, feed rate on tool life and surface roughness was conducted experimentally. Cutting tests were performed using round inserts, with cutting speeds ranging from 50 to 300 m/min, and feed rates from 0.1 to 0.4 mm/tooth, without using cooling liquids. The behavior of the TiN and TiCN layers using various cutting conditions was analyzed with orthogonal machining force model. Cutting results indicate that different coated tools, together with cutting variables, play a significant role in determining the machinability when milling Mar-M247.

The novel covalently modified glassy carbon electrode with poly(xylitol) was prepared using an electropolymerization technique for the simultaneous determination of uric acid (UA), xanthine (XA) and hypoxanthine (HX). This new electrode presents an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of UA, XA and HX by cyclic voltammetry (CV) method. The oxidation peaks of the three compounds were well defined and had enhanced the peak currents. The separation potentials of the oxidation peak potentials for UA-XA and XA-HX were 380 and 370 mV in CV, respectively. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method, the calibration curves in the ranges of 5–55, 1.3–75.3 and 4–59 μmol/L were obtained for HX, XA and UA, respectively. The lowest detection limits (S/N=3) were 4.5, 0.75 and 3.75 μmol/L for HX, XA and UA, respectively. The practical application of the modified electrode was demonstrated by the determination of UA, XA, HX in human urine samples.

The calcined magnesite was utilized as a kind of MgO bearing additive to produce MgO bearing pellets. The effects of MgO on densification and consolidation of pellets were investigated. The experimental results show that, at the same process parameters, the porosity and pore size distribution of green pellets have no evident relation with the MgO bearing additive, pore size of green pellets is between 15 μm and 35 μm and the porosity of green pellets is about 34%. There is a densification and consolidation phenomenon during the induration process; the pore size and porosity of product pellets decrease gradually; and the structure of product pellets becomes dense. MgO makes a negative effect on the densification and consolidation of product pellets, the densification ratio of pellets decreases from 46.3% to 28.6% with the addition of MgO bearing additive from 0 to 2.0 %. The porosity and the pore size of product pellets increase gradually with the increase of MgO content; When the mass fraction of MgO bearing additive increases from 0 to 2.0%, the pore size of product pellet increases and the pore size distributes in a large range. Also, the porosity increases from 18.61% to 24.06%.

The dissolution mechanism of hemimorphite in NH₃-(NH₄)₂SO₄-H₂O system at 298.15 K was investigated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The results show that hemimorphite is soluble in NH₃-(NH₄)₂SO₄-H₂O system and its residue exists in the form of an amorphous SiO₂ layer on the hemimorphite surface. The XPS data also indicate that the Si 2p3/2 and O 1s spectra of the hemimorphite are broadened and shift to higher binding energies and their binding energies are closer to silica with an increase of total ammonia and time. Solubility of hemimorphite in NH₃-(NH₄)₂SO₄-H₂O system was measured by means of isothermal solution method at 298.15 K based on the study of the dissolution mechanism of hemimorphite. The results show that the solubility of zinc in solution increases firstly and then decreases with the increase of c_T(NH₃) (total ammonia concentration) at different NH₃/NH₄⁺ ratios. The solubility of silicon in solution decreases from 0.0334 mol/kg in c_T(NH₃)=4.1245 mol/kg NH₃-(NH₄)₂SO₄-H₂O solution to 0.0046 mol/kg in c_T(NH₃)=7.6035 mol/kg NH₃-(NH₄)₂SO₄-H₂O solution.

Enantioselective extraction of hydrophobic clorprenaline (CPE) enantiomers from organic phase to aqueous phases with sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD) as the selector was investigated with insight into a number of important process variables, such as the type of organic solvent, concentration of selector, pH, and temperature. Equilibrium of the extraction system was modeled using a reactive extraction model with a homogeneous aqueous phase reaction. The important parameters of this model were determined experimentally. The physical distribution coefficients for molecular and ionic CPE were determined as 0.3 and 8.93, respectively. The equilibrium constants of the complexation reaction with SBE-β-CD were determined as 152 and 110 L/mol for R- and S-CPE, respectively. Results show that the experimental data agree with the model predictions perfectly. Comprehensively considering the experiment and model, the extraction conditions are optimized and the best extraction conditions are: pH of 6.0, SBE-β-CD concentration of 0.04 mol/L, and temperature of 5 °C, providing the enantioselectivity (α) of 1.25, the fraction of R-CPE (φ_R) in aqueous phase of 0.71 and performance factor (p_f) of 0.025.

The preparation process of amorphous nanometer boron powders through combustion synthesis was investigated, and the effects of the reactant ratio, the heating agent and the milling rate on the activity and particle size of amorphous boron powders were studied. The results show that the boron powders exist in the form of an amorphous phase which has the crystallinity lower than 30.4%, and the particle size of boron powder decreases with an increase of the high-energy ball milling rate. The purity of amorphous boron powder is 94.8% and particle sizes are much smaller than 100 nm when the mass ratio of B₂O₃/Mg/KClO₃ is 100:105:17 and the ball milling time is 20 min with the milling rate of 300 r/min. At the same time, the amorphous boron nano-fibers appear in the boron powders.

In order to improve the process precision of an XY laser annealing table, a geometric error modeling, and an identification and compensation method were proposed. Based on multi-body system theory, a geometric error model for the laser annealing table was established. It supports the identification of 7 geometric errors affecting the annealing accuracy. An original identification method was presented to recognize these geometric errors. Positioning errors of 5 lines in the workspace were measured by a laser interferometer, and the 7 geometric errors were identified by the proposed algorithm. Finally, a software-based error compensation method was adopted, and a compensation mechanism was developed in a postprocessor based on LabVIEW. The identified geometric errors can be compensated by converting ideal NC codes to actual NC codes. A validation experiment has been conducted on the laser annealing table, and the results indicate that positioning errors of two validation lines decreased from ±37 μm and ±33 μm to ±5 μm and ±4.5 μm, respectively. The geometric error modeling, identification and compensation method presented in this work can be straightforwardly extended to any configurations of 2-dimensional worktable.

To provide theoretical basis for square honeycombs used as crashworthy structures, energy-absorption properties of metal square honeycombs and the size optimization were performed. Specific energy absorption (SEA) was defined as the energy absorbed by the honeycomb structure per unit volume. This parameter was often used for determining the crashworthiness of thin-walled structures. In order to find the most optimized metal square honeycomb structure with the maximum SEA and the lowest peak stress, the cell length and the foil thickness of the metal honeycombs were optimized, with a low peak stress and a high SEA set as the two primary objectives. The pre-processing software Patran was used to build FE models, and the explicit solver LS-DYNA was employed to perform the crashworthiness analyses. The results show that the square honeycomb exhibits good energy absorption performance in some cases. The geometry is effective using 16.8% less buffer structure volume than the hexagonal honeycombs with a peak stress limitation of 1.21 MPa.

To make sure that the nodule collector can walk on the soft sediments of seafloor effectively, suspension principle of deep-ocean nodule collector is proposed. The supporting and driving mechanisms are separated to avoid collector sinking. The supporting mechanism is a streamlined body with large and smooth supporting area. The grounding pressure is reduced to 0.5–1 N/cm² to make sure that the sinkage is limited. The impellers serve as the driving mechanism to supply enough driving power. The position between the supporting mechanism and the driving mechanism can be adjusted according to the operating condition to decrease the walking resistance and to increase driving efficiency. The test results indicate that the collector can walk on the surface of the soft sediments with the limited sinkage. The traction forces were up to 800 kg and the sinkage of the impeller was under the limitation.

Many industry processes can be described as Hammerstein-Wiener nonlinear systems. In this work, an improved constrained model predictive control algorithm is presented for Hammerstein-Wiener systems. In the new approach, the maximum and minimum of partial derivative for input and output nonlinearities are solved in the neighbourhood of the equilibrium. And several parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions, each one corresponding to a different vertex of polytopic descriptions models, are introduced to analyze the stability of Hammerstein-Wiener systems, but only one Lyapunov function is utilized to analyze system stability like the traditional method. Consequently, the conservation of the traditional quadratic stability is removed, and the terminal regions are enlarged. Simulation and field trial results show that the proposed algorithm is valid. It has higher control precision and shorter blowing time than the traditional approach.

A slotting method for cosine gears was proposed by using the involute cutter based on the conjugate theories of digital surface and gear meshing. The slotting model between the cosine tooth surface represented by discrete points and the cutter figuration determined by analytic function was built for their geometrical relationship and conjugate motion during the machining process. Conjugate points in the cutter section corresponding to the discrete points on the cosine gear tooth surface and the conjugate movements were solved. By using the flexible control of the CNC procedure, the active control of the cutting trace of the slotting cutter was accomplished and the envelop forming of the cosine gear was obtained. Based on the software C++ and Matlab, the computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system of the cosine gear was developed, and the simulation of the slotting process was accomplished. Several examples were provided to illustrate the approach. The result of the simulation demonstrates that the proposed slotting method is feasible.

As the spring equation is limited to the accuracy of mill stiffness and the linearity of the mill spring curve, the traditional gaugemeter automatic gauge control (GM-AGC) system based on spring equation cannot meet the requirements of practical production. In allusion to this problem, a kind of novel GM-AGC system based on mill stretch characteristic curve was proposed. The error existing in calculating strip thickness by spring equation were analyzed first. And then the mill stretch characteristic curve which could effectively eliminate the influence of mill stiffness was described. The novel GM-AGC system has been applied successfully in a hot strip mill, the application results show that the thickness control precision is improved significantly, with the novel GM-AGC system, over 98.6% of the strip thickness deviation of 3.0 mm class can be controlled within the target tolerances of ±20 μm.

To design a hyperchaotic generator and apply chaos into secure communication, a linear unidirectional coupling control is applied to two identical simplified Lorenz systems. The dynamical evolution process of the coupled system is investigated with variations of the system parameter and coupling coefficients. Particularly, the influence of coupling strength on dynamics of the coupled system is analyzed in detail. The range of the coupling strength in which the coupled system can generate hyperchaos or realize synchronization is determined, including phase portraits, Lyapunov exponents, and Poincaré section. And the critical value of the system parameter between hyperchaos and synchronization is also found with fixed coupled strength. In addition, abundant dynamical behaviors such as four-wing hyperchaotic, two-wing chaotic, single-wing coexisting attractors and periodic orbits are observed and chaos synchronization error curves are also drawn by varying system parameter c. Numerical simulations are implemented to verify the results of these investigations.

The novel method to analyze metallic structure corrosion status was proposed in the presence of stray current in DC mass transit systems. Firstly, the characteristic parameter and the influence parameters for the corrosion status were determined. Secondly, an experimental system was established for simulating the corrosion process within the stray current interference. Then, a predictive model for the corrosion status was built, using a support vector machine (SVM) method and experimental data. The data were divided into two sets, including training set and testing set. The training set was used to generate the SVM model and the testing set was used to evaluate the predictive performance of the SVM model. The results show that the relationship between the characteristic parameter and the influence parameters is nonlinear and the SVM model is suitable for predicting the corrosion status.

A high-precision pseudo-noise ranging system is often required in satellite-formation missions. But in an actual PN ranging system, digital signal processing limits the ranging accuracy, only level up with meter-scale. Using non-integer chip to sample time ratio, noncommensurate sampling was seen as an effective solution to cope with the drawback of digital effects. However, researchers only paid attention to selecting specific ratios or giving a simulation model to verify the effectiveness of the noncommensurate ratios. A qualitative analysis model is proposed to characterize the relationship between the range accuracy and the noncommensurate sampling parameters. Moreover, a method is also presented which can be used to choose the noncommensurate ratio and the correlation length to get higher phase delay distinguishability and lower range jitter. The simulation results indicate the correctness of our analyses and the optimal ranging accuracy can be up to centimeter-level with the proposed approach.

Researchers face many class prediction challenges stemming from a small size of training data vis-a-vis a large number of unlabeled samples to be predicted. Transductive learning is proposed to utilize information about unlabeled data to estimate labels of the unlabeled data for this condition. This work presents a new transductive learning method called two-way Markov random walk (TMRW) algorithm. The algorithm uses information about labeled and unlabeled data to predict the labels of the unlabeled data by taking random walks between the labeled and unlabeled data where data points are viewed as nodes of a graph. The labeled points correlate to unlabeled points and vice versa according to a transition probability matrix. We can get the predicted labels of unlabeled samples by combining the results of the two-way walks. Finally, ensemble learning is combined with transductive learning, and Adboost.MH is taken as the study framework to improve the performance of TMRW, which is the basic learner. Experiments show that this algorithm can predict labels of unlabeled data well.

The problem of guaranteed cost control for the networked control systems (NCSs) with time-varying delays, time-varying sampling intervals and signals quantization was investigated, wherein the physical plant was continuous-time one, and the control input was discrete-time one. By using an input delay approach and a sector bound method, the network induced delays, quantization parameter and sampling intervals were presented in one framework in the case of the state and the control input by quantized in a logarithmic form. A novel Lyapunov function with discontinuity, which took full advantages of the NCS characteristic information, was exploited. In addition, it was shown that Lyapunov function decreased at the jump instants. Furthermore, the Leibniz-Newton formula and free-weighting matrix methods were used to obtain the guaranteed cost controller design conditions which were dependent on the NCS characteristic information. A numerical example was used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

In order to save energy consumption of two-way amplifier forward (AF) relaying with channel estimation error, an energy efficiency enhancement scheme is proposed in this work. Firstly, through the analysis of two-way AF relaying mode with channel estimation error, the resultant instantaneous SNRs at end nodes is obtained. Then, by using a high SNR approximation, outage possibility is acquired and its simple closed-form expression is represented. Specially, for using the energy resource more efficiently, a low-complexity power allocation and transmission mode selection policy is proposed to enhance the energy efficiency of two-way AF relay system. Finally, relay priority region is identified in which cooperative diversity energy gain can be achieved. The computer simulations are presented to verify our analytical results, indicating that the proposed policy outperforms direct transmission by an energy gain of 3 dB at the relative channel estimation error less than 0.001. The results also show that the two-way AF relaying transmission loses the two-way AF relaying transmission loses its superiority to direct transmission in terms of energy efficiency when channel estimation error reaches 0.03.

In order to characterize large fluctuations of the financial markets and optimize financial portfolio, a new dynamic asset control strategy was proposed in this work. Firstly, a random process item with variable jump intensity was introduced to the existing discrete microstructure model to denote large price fluctuations. The nonparametric method of LEE was used for detecting jumps. Further, the extended Kalman filter and the maximum likelihood method were applied to discrete microstructure modeling and the estimation of two market potential variables: market excess demand and liquidity. At last, based on the estimated variables, an assets allocation strategy using evolutionary algorithm was designed to control the weight of each asset dynamically. Case studies on IBM Stock show that jumps with variable intensity are detected successfully, and the assets allocation strategy may effectively keep the total assets growth or prevent assets loss at the stochastic financial market.

To improve the quality of ultrasonic elastography, by taking the advantage of code excitation and frequency compounding, a transmitting-side multi-frequency with coded excitation for elastography (TFCCE) was proposed. TFCCE adopts the chirp signal excitation scheme and strikes a balance in the selection of sub-signal bandwidth, the bandwidth overlap and the number of sub-strain image based on theoretical derivation, so as to further improve the quality of elastic image. Experiments have proved that, compared with the other optimizing methods, the elastographyic signal-to-niose ratio(R_e-SN) and contrast-to-noise ratio(R_e-CN) are improved significantly with different echo signal-to-noise ratios (R_eSN) and attenuation coefficients. When R_eSN is 50 dB, compared with short pulse, R_e-SN and R_e-CN obtained by TFCCE increase by 53% and 143%, respectively. Moreover, in a deeper investigation (85–95 mm), the image has lower strain noise and clear details. When the attenuation coefficient is in the range of 0-1 dB/(cm·MHz), R_e-SN and R_e-CN obtained by TFCCE can be kept in moderate ranges of 5<R_e-SN<6.8 and 11.4<R_e-CN<15.2, respectively. In particular, for higher tissue attenuation, the basic image quality cannot be ensured with short pulse excitation, while mediocre quality strain figure can be obtained by TFCCE. Therefore, the TFCCE technology can effectively improve the elastography quality and can be applied to ultrasonic clinical trials.

An ejector of low NO_x burner was designed for a gas instantaneous water heater in this work. The flowing and mixing process of the ejector was investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. A comprehensive study was conducted to understand the effects of the geometrical parameters on the static pressure of air and methane, and mole fraction uniformity of methane at the outlet of ejector. The distribution chamber was applied to balance the pressure and improve the mixing process of methane and air in front of the fire hole. A distribution orifice plate with seven distribution orifices was introduced at the outlet of the ejector to improve the flow organization. It is found that the nozzle exit position of 5 mm and nozzle diameter d >1.3 mm should be used to improve the flow organization and realize the well premixed combustion for this designed ejector.

A three-dimensional transient numerical simulation was conducted to study the pressure fluctuations in low-specific-speed centrifugal pumps. The characteristics of the inner flow were investigated using the SST k-ω turbulence model. The distributions of pressure fluctuations in the impeller and the volute were recorded, and the pressure fluctuation intensity was analyzed comprehensively, at the design condition, using statistical methods. The results show that the pressure fluctuation intensity increases along the impeller streamline from the leading edge to the trailing edge. In the impeller passage, the intensity near the shroud is much higher than that near the hub at the inlet. However, the intensity at the middle passage is almost equal to the intensity at the outlet. The pressure fluctuation intensity is the highest at the trailing edge on the pressure side and near the tongue because of the rotor-stator interaction. The distribution of pressure fluctuation intensity is symmetrical in the axial cross sections of the volute channel. However, this intensity decreases with increasing radial distance. Hence, the pressure fluctuation intensity can be reduced by modifying the geometry of the leading edge in the impeller and the tongue in the volute.

Oxy fuel combustion and conventional cycle (currently working cycle) in Kazeroon plant are modeled using commercial thermodynamic modeling software. Economic evaluation of the two models regarding the resources of transport and injection of carbon dioxide into oil fields at Gachsaran for enhanced oil recovery in the various oil price indices is conducted and indices net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return on investment (IRR) are calculated. The results of the two models reveal that gross efficiency of the oxy fuel cycle is more than reference cycle (62% compared to 49.03%), but the net efficiency is less (41.85% compared to 47.92%) because of the high-energy consumption of the components, particularly air separation unit (ASU) in the oxy fuel cycle. In this model, pure carbon dioxide with pressure of 20×10⁵ Pa and purity of 96.84% was captured. NO_X emissions also decrease by 4289.7 tons per year due to separation of nitrogen in ASU. In this model, none of the components of oxy fuel cycle is a major engineering challenge. With increasing oil price, economic justification of oxy fuel combustion model increases. With the price of oil at $ 80 per barrel in mind and $ 31 per ton fines for emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, IRR is the same for both models.

Thermogravimetric study of medical transfusion tube (MTT) waste containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was carried out using the thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) with N₂, at different heating rates of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 °C/min. The purpose is to obtain pyrolysis characteristics and kinetic parameters of medical waste. The experimental results indicate that the pyrolysis behavior of the MTT sample is in agreement with its main ingredient of PVC, appearing two stair stepping stages. The influence of the additives in MTT on pyrolysis behavior was also revealed, which could improve MTT pyrolysis at lower temperature in the first stage, and cause obvious unsmoothness and asymmetry of the second DTG peak. Four n-order kinetic models of Coats-Redfern, Ozawa, Kissinger and Freeman-carroll were used to get the kinetic parameters. Furthermore, a novel “two-step four-reaction model” was established to simulate the whole continuous process. The different methods and the kinetic parameters thus obtained were discussed and compared with each other in literatures. The reasons of deviation among kinetic values were tried to be elucidated. The new established model could more satisfactorily describe the pyrolysis process of MTT, being more mechanistic and conveniently serving for the engineering.

An integrated evaluation system under randomness and fuzziness was developed in this work to systematically assess the risk of groundwater contamination in a little town, Central China. In this system, randomness of the parameters and the fuzziness of the risk were considered simultaneously, and the exceeding standard probability of contamination and human health risk due to the contamination were integrated. The contamination risk was defined as a combination of “vulnerability” and “hazard”. To calculate the value of “vulnerability”, pollutant concentration was simulated by MODFLOW with random input variables and a new modified health risk assessment (MRA) model was established to analyze the level of “hazard”. The limit concentration based on environmental-guideline and health risk due to manganese were systematically examined to obtain the general risk levels through a fuzzy rule base. The “vulnerability” and “hazard” were divided into five categories of “high”, “medium-high”, “medium”, “low-medium” and “low”, respectively. Then, “vulnerability” and “hazard” were firstly combined by integrated evaluation. Compared with the other two scenarios under deterministic methods, the risk obtained in the proposed system is higher. This research illustrated that ignoring of uncertainties in evaluation process might underestimate the risk level.

To develop a better approach for spatial evaluation of drinking water quality, an intelligent evaluation method integrating a geographical information system (GIS) and an ant colony clustering algorithm (ACCA) was used. Drinking water samples from 29 wells in Zhenping County, China, were collected and analyzed. 35 parameters on water quality were selected, such as chloride concentration, sulphate concentration, total hardness, nitrate concentration, fluoride concentration, turbidity, pH, chromium concentration, COD, bacterium amount, total coliforms and color. The best spatial interpolation methods for the 35 parameters were found and selected from all types of interpolation methods in GIS environment according to the minimum cross-validation errors. The ACCA was improved through three strategies, namely mixed distance function, average similitude degree and probability conversion functions. Then, the ACCA was carried out to obtain different water quality grades in the GIS environment. In the end, the result from the ACCA was compared with those from the competitive Hopfield neural network (CHNN) to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the ACCA according to three evaluation indexes, which are stochastic sampling method, pixel amount and convergence speed. It is shown that the spatial water quality grades obtained from the ACCA were more effective, accurate and intelligent than those obtained from the CHNN.

The effects of different habits of the drivers on gear shifting strategies for manual powertrain were investigated. For the realization of simulation, the shifting habits of the drivers were conducted in the Advisor software to investigate and compare the emission rates. Simulation was developed based on the optimal gear shifting strategy and criteria and was validated both in fuel economy and emissions by analyzing the results in the various driving cycle and driving styles. To explore an optimal gear shifting strategy with best fuel economy and lowest emission for a manual transmission, a strategy was designed with a highest possible gear criterion as long as the torque requirement can be satisfied. Based on two different criteria, namely the engine working conditions and the driver’s intention, the governing parameters in decision making for gear shifting of manual transmission in conventional engine were discussed. It is also shown that the optimum gear shifting strategy is based on that both the engine state and the driver’s intention eliminates unnecessary shiftings that are present when the intention is overlooked. The optimum shifting habit and the best driving cycle in terms of minimum emissions and fuel consumption were proposed.

The drum shearer and high pressure water jet combined cutting system is an effective technology to cut hard coal-rock, but one problem of the technology is the choice of pick and nozzle location parameters. In order to solve the problem, the process and mechanism of combined cutting are studied and mining seepage catastrophe theory is used to construct the mathematic and physical model of combined cutting hard coal-rock. Based on the model and detailed analysis of combined cutting mechanism, the single pick and nozzle combined cutting test-bed is built to test the main pick and nozzle location parameters of drum shearer and water jet combined cutting system. Test results show that the best vertical distance between the pick-tip and nozzle center point is the sum of cutting thickness and proper target distance in the Y axial direction; the best horizontal distance is the length between pick-tip point and coal-rock surface bursting crack point in the X axial direction. The best incident angle of water jet should be the same as the bursting crack line’s angle in theory, but considering other important factors comprehensively, it is more reasonable when the incident angle of water jet is 90 °.

This work aims to provide a relationship of how the key operational variables of frother type and impeller speed affect the size of bubble (D₃₂). The study was performed using pilot-scale equipment (0.8 m³) that is up to two orders of magnitude larger than equipment used for studies performed to date by others, and incorporated the key process variables of frother type and impeller speed. The results show that each frother family exhibits a unique CCC95-HLB relationship dependent on n (number of C-atoms in alkyl group) and m (number of propylene oxide group). Empirical models were developed to predict CCC95 from HLB associated with other two parameters α and β. The impeller speed-bubble size tests show that D₃₂ is unaffected by increased impeller tip speed across the range of 4.6 to 9.2 m/s (representing the industrial operating range), although D₃₂ starts to increase below 4.6 m/s. The finding is valid for both coalescing and non-coalescing conditions. The results suggest that the bubble size and bubble size distribution (BSD) being created do not change with increasing impeller speed in the quiescent zone of the flotation.

A single freedom degree model of drilling bit-rock was established according to the vibration mechanism and its dynamic characteristics. Moreover, a novel identification method of rock and soil parameters for vibration drilling based on the fuzzy least squares (FLS)-support vector machine (SVM) was developed, in which the fuzzy membership function was set by using linear distance, and its parameters, such as penalty factor and kernel parameter, were optimized by using adaptive genetic algorithm. And FLS-SVM identification on rock and soil parameters for vibration drilling was made by changing the input/output data from single freedom degree model of drilling bit-rock. The results of identification simulation and resonance column experiment show that relative error of natural frequency for some hard sand from identification simulation and resonance column experiment is 1.1% and the identification precision based on the fuzzy least squares-support vector machine is high.

The microscopic response characteristics of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are widely used for characterizing complex pore structures of rocks. Due to the prohibitive NMR experiment cost, numerical simulation was employed as an alternative approach to verify some theoretical aspects of NMR responses. Firstly, the basic principles of pore-scale NMR simulation based on random-walk method (RWM) were introduced. The RWM-simulated results were benchmarked with the analytical results for an ideal spherical pore model. Then, the effects of two numerical parameters, namely diffusion radius and walk numbers, were studied on the simulation accuracy. The simulation method is then applied to various pore models with different pore sizes and pore shapes filled with different fluids to study the microscopic NMR response characteristics. The numerical experiments are useful for understanding and interpreting NMR measurements and the simulation code provides a numerical tool to perform pixel-based digital rock analysis.

Based on some assumptions, the dynamic analysis model of anchorage system is established. The dynamic governing equation is expressed as finite difference format and programmed by using MATLAB language. Compared with theoretical method, the finite difference method has been verified to be feasible by a case study. It is found that under seismic loading, the dynamic response of anchorage system is synchronously fluctuated with the seismic vibration. The change of displacement amplitude of material points is slight, and comparatively speaking, the displacement amplitude of the outside point is a little larger than that of the inside point, which shows amplification effect of surface. While the axial force amplitude transforms considerably from the inside to the outside. It increases first and reaches the peak value in the intersection between the anchoring section and free section, then decreases slowly in the free section. When considering damping effect of anchorage system, the finite difference method can reflect the time attenuation characteristic better, and the calculating result would be safer and more reasonable than the dynamic steady-state theoretical method. What is more, the finite difference method can be applied to the dynamic response analysis of harmonic and seismic random vibration for all kinds of anchor, and hence has a broad application prospect.

Rain-wind-induced vibration of cable was studied based on previous research achievements. According to the quasi-steady assumption, the governing equation of vertical motion of the cable was derived and the criterion for unstable motion and occurrence mechanism was studied. A comparison was performed between the oscillation responses of the stay cable obtained from calculated model and previous results. The results indicate that the analysis model can reflect the main characteristics of wind-rain-induced vibrationt of the cable which is amplitude- and velocity-restricted, and it is probably related with the periodic vortex shedding of wake flow. It is essential for the occurrence of rain-wind-induced or wind-induced vibration of cable that the derivative of lift coefficient with respect to transient angle of attack is less than zero. When rain-wind-induced vibration occurs, the aerodynamic force has a dual function for the vibration, and the maximum amplitude of stayed-cable is determined by the relative value of aerodynamic exciting force and aerodynamic damping force.

The buckling behavior of single layer space structure is very sensitive. The joint rigidity, moreover, is one of the main factors of stability which may determine the entire failure behavior. Thus, the reasonable stiffness of joint system, which is neither total pin assumption nor perfect fix condition, is very important to apply to the real single layer space one. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to investigate the buckling behavior of single layer space structure, using the development of the upgraded stiffness matrix for the joint rigidity. To derive tangential stiffness matrix, a displacement function was assumed using translational and rotational displacement at the node. The geometrical nonlinear analysis was simulated not only with perfect model but also with imperfect one. As a result, the one and two free nodal numerical models were investigated using derived stiffness matrix. It was figured out that the buckling load increases in proportion to joint rigidity with rise-span ratio. The stability of numerical model is very sensitive with the initial imperfection, responding of bifurcation in the structure.

Methods that can efficiently model the effects of rock joints on rock mass behavior can be beneficial in rock engineering. The suitability of equivalent rock mass (ERM) technique based upon particle methods is investigated. The ERM methodology is first validated by comparing calculated and experimental data of lab triaxial compression test on a set of cylindrical rock mass samples, each containing a single joint oriented in various dip angles. The simulated results are then used to study the stress-strain nonlinearity and failure mechanism as a function of the joint dip angle and confining stress. The anisotropy and size effects are also investigated by using multi-scale cubic ERM models subjected to triaxial compression test. The deformation and failure behavior are found to be influenced by joint degradation, the micro-crack formation in the intact rock, the interaction between two joints, and the interactions of micro-cracks and joints.

Based on fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and damage mechanics, thermal-hydro-mechanical (THM) coupling damage model of brittle rock is established by analyzing THM coupling mechanism, where THM coupling damage variable D_THM is dominated by TH coupling damage variable D_TH, TM coupling damage variable D_TM and HM coupling damage variable D_HM, and D_TH is firstly expressed in term of dimensionless total thermal conductivity of the water Nu. Permeability test, uni-axial compression test and THM coupling test are conducted to measure the permeability, elastic modulus and THM coupling stress-strain curves of brittle rock. The tested values of THM coupling elastic modulus E_THM′ are in good agreement with the predicted values of THM coupling elastic modulus E_THM, which can verify the newly established THM coupling damage model.

A method of three-dimensional loaded slope stability for anisotropic and nonhomogeneous slopes was presented based on the upper-bound theorem of the limit analysis approach. The approach can be considered as a modification and extension of the solutions. The influences of friction angle, anisotropy factor, nonhomogeneous factor, slope angle, ratio of width to depth, and load on the slope crest were investigated. The results show that solutions are suitable to deal with the purely cohesive soils and frictional/cohesive soils, isotropic and anisotropic, homogeneous and nonhomogeneous, loaded and unloaded cases.

A systematic method was proposed to estimate the occurrence probability of defective piles (OPDP) from a site according to quality assurance inspection. The OPDP was firstly suggested as the criterion to weight the performance of a pile foundation. Its prior distribution and updating distribution were deduced to follow Beta distributions. To calibrate the OPDP, a dynamic estimation model was established according to the relationships between prior mean and variance and updating mean and variance. Finally, a reliability-control method dealing with uncertainties arising from quality assurance inspection was formalized to judge whether all the bored piles from a site can be accepted. It is exemplified that the OPDP can be substantially improved when more definite prior information and sampling formation become available. For the example studied herein, the Bayesian estimator of updating variance for OPDP is reduced from 0.0037 to 0.0014 for the first inspection, from 0.0014 to 0.0009 for the second inspection, and with less uncertainty by incorporating experience information.

The core of strength reduction method (SRM) involves finding a critical strength curve that happens to make the slope globally fail and a definition of factor of safety (FOS). A new double reduction method, including a detailed calculation procedure and a definition of FOS for slope stability was developed based on the understanding of SRM. When constructing the new definition of FOS, efforts were made to make sure that it has concise physical meanings and fully reflects the shear strength of the slope. Two examples, slopes A and B with the slope angles of 63° and 34° respectively, were given to verify the method presented. It is found that, for these two slopes, the FOSs from original strength reduction method are respectively 1.5% and 38% higher than those from double reduction method. It is also found that the double reduction method predicts a deeper potential slide line and a larger slide mass. These results show that on one hand, the double reduction method is comparative to the traditional methods and is reasonable, and on the other hand, the original strength reduction method may overestimate the safety of a slope. The method presented is advised to be considered as an additional option in the practical slope stability evaluations although more useful experience is required.

Based on the functional theory, catastrophe theory, simultaneity principle and the idea of strength reduction method (SRM), the bearing capacity functional and SRM of pile group foundation were established, and the criteria of ultimate load and the concept of safety storage coefficient (C_SS) were advanced. The inclined ultimate loads by the static loading test, load increment method (LIM) and SRM are compared. Theoretically, the ultimate load of piles does not change with the loading levels when it is calculated by SRM. When the one strength reduction parameter is applied in the calculation boundary, there are calculating errors because the bearing capacity action of soils happened in the finite zone. The inclined loadings are 108, 132 and 144 kN, and SSC are 1.07, 0.94 and 0.79, respectively, so the calculation values of ultimate loads are about 115.56, 124.08 and 113.76 kN, respectively. The error between calculations and observation values is less than 6%. But the error between calculations of LIM and observations is 20%. Because of the effect of inclined loading, the push-rotation phenomenon of screw pile group appears. Under this testing, the ultimate bearing capacity of piles is mostly determined by the horizontal ultimate bearing capacity, and the effect of the vertical component of inclined load should also be considered.

In order to study the strength failure and crack coalescence characteristics of cracked rocks, uniaxial compression experiments were conducted on cylindrical sandstone specimens, sampled from Longyou Grottoes of Zhejiang Province, China, with a single pre-cut crack soaking in different chemical solutions. Based on the results of uniaxial compressive test under different chemical solutions and velocities of flow, the effect of strength and deformation characteristics and main modes of crack coalescence for cracked rocks under chemical corrosion were analyzed. The results show that the pH value and velocity of the chemical solutions both have great influence on the sandstone sample’s uniaxial compressive strength and deformation characteristics. Cracked sandstone samples are tension-destructed under uniaxial compression, and the crack propagation directions are consistent with the loading direction. The phenomena of crack initiation, propagation and coalescence of sandstone are well observed. Four different crack types are identified based on the crack propagation mechanism by analyzing the ultimate failure modes of sandstone containing a single pre-cut fissure. The failure process of specimen in air is similar with the specimen under chemical solutions, however, the initial time of crack occuring in specimen under chemical solutions is generally earlier than that in the natural specimen, and the crack propagation and coalescence process of specimen under chemical solutions are longer than those of the natural specimen due to softening of structure of rock caused by hydro-chemical action. Immersion velocity of flow and chemical solutions does not have influence on the ultimate modes of crack coalescence.

A revised displacement discontinuity method (DDM) program is developed for the simulation of rock joint propagation and dilatancy analysis. The non-linear joint model used in the program adopts Barton-Bandis normal deformation model, Kulhaway shear deformation model and Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The joint propagation criterion is based on the equivalent stress intensity factor which can be obtained by regression analysis. The simulated rock joint propagation accords well with the existing knowledge. The closure and opening of joint is investigated by DDM, and it is shown that if the opening volume of propagated joint is larger than closure volume of the old joint, the joint dilatancy occurs. The dilatancy condition is mainly controlled by the normal stiffness of the rock joint. When the normal stiffness is larger than the critical value, joint dilatancy occurs. The critical normal stiffness of rock joint changes with the joint-load angle, and joint dilatancy is most possible to occur at 30°.

Cave roofs are used to support pile foundation in many engineering projects. Accurate stability analysis method of cave roof under pile tip is important in order to ensure the safety of the pile foundation structure. Firstly the mechanical model to analysis the stability of cave roof under pile tip is founded aiming to solve the problems that the simplified mechanical model has. Secondly, the boundary of cave roof is simply supposed to be supported according to the integrity of the rock mass in the boundary of cave roof. Thirdly, based on the theory of plates and shells, the simplified model is calculated and the theoretical calculation formula to determine the safe thickness of cave roof under pile tip can be obtained when the edges of the cave roof are simply supported. In the end, the analysis of the practical engineering project proves the feasibility and the rationality of the method which can be a new method to calculate the safe thickness of cave roof under pile tip.

Pressure plate instrument is employed during drying, and unconfined compressive strength test is performed on the unsaturated specimen. Curves of shear force versus shear displacement, and curves of saturation degree versus time are investigated. The results show that the specimens with similar curves of saturation degree versus time have nearly identical mechanical behavior. In particular, the uniform specimens should be chosen within the lower equilibrium saturation degree because steady test results are presented. Further, the conclusion is verified by the repeated test. Thus, the method for distinguishing the uniform unsaturated specimen is obtained. In the light of the method, an improved test process is proposed. The uniform specimens should be chosen by this method under the specific matric suction, and then shear tests are carried out on the chosen unsaturated specimen. Namely, initial value of unsaturated soil is not zero matric suction but a specific suction.

In order to deal with modeling problem of a pressure balance system with time-delay, nonlinear, time-varying and uncertain characteristics, an intelligent modeling procedure is proposed, which is based on artificial neural network (ANN) and input-output data of the system during shield tunneling and can overcome the precision problem in mechanistic modeling (MM) approach. The computational results show that the training algorithm with Gauss-Newton optimization has fast convergent speed. The experimental investigation indicates that, compared with mechanistic modeling approach, intelligent modeling procedure can obviously increase the precision in both soil pressure fitting and forecasting period. The effectiveness and accuracy of proposed intelligent modeling procedure are verified in laboratory tests.

In order to investigate the size effect and other effects on the stress-strain relationship of confined concrete, 42 specimens with different sizes and section shapes were placed under axial compression loading. Effects of key parameters such as size of specimens, tie configuration, transverse reinforcement ratio, and concrete cover were studied. The results show that for specimens with the same configuration and the same volumetric ratio of the transverse reinforcement, along with the increasing specimen size, the peak stress, peak strain and deformation of the post-peak show a down trend, however, the volumetric ratio of the transverse reinforcement is lowered, the decreasing of the peak stress is accelerated, but the decreasing of the deformation is slow down. For specimens with the same volumetric ratio but different configurations of transverse reinforcement, though the transverse reinforcement configuration becomes more complicated, the peak stress of the large size specimen does not improve more than that of the small size. However, the deformation occurs before the stress declines to 85% of peak stress, and the improvement with the grid pattern tie configuration is much greater due to size effect.

The temperature distributions of a prestressed concrete box girder bridge under the effect of cold wave processes were analyzed. The distributions were found different from those under the effect of solar radiation or nighttime radiation cooling and should not be simplified as one dimensional. A temperature predicting model that can accurately predict temperatures over the cross section of the concrete box girder was developed. On the basis of the analytical model, a two-dimensional temperature gradient model was proposed and a parametric study that considered meteorological factors was performed. The results of sensitivity analysis show that the cold wave with shorter duration and more severe temperature drop may cause more unfavorable influences on the concrete box girder bridge. Finally, the unrestrained linear curvatures, self-equilibrating stresses and bending stresses when considering the frame action of the cross section, were derived from the proposed temperature gradient model and current code provisions, respectively. Then, a comparison was made between the value calculated against proposed model and several current specifications. The results show that the cold wave may cause more unfavorable effect on the concrete box girder bridge, especially on the large concrete box girder bridge. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the thermal effect caused by cold wave during the design stage.