The through-thickness corrosion inhomogeneity of 7050-T7451 Al alloy thick plate was studied using immersion tests, potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), slow strain rate testing (SSRT) technique combined with optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the through-thickness corrosion resistance is ranked in the order of T/2>surface>T/4. And the 75 mm-thick 7050 alloy plate presents better corrosion resistance than the 35 mm-thick plate. The results are discussed in terms of the combined effect of recrystallization and cooling rate in quenching. Alloy with lower volume fraction of recrystallization and smaller grain aspect ratio displays better corrosion resistance. The lower corrosion resistance caused by the slower cooling rate results from the higher coverage rate of grain boundary precipitates and larger width of precipitate free zone.

A spiro-type quaternary ammonium salt, spiro-(1,1′)-bipyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate (SBP-BF₄) was successfully prepared by an economical and efficient three-step process comprising the cyclization reaction of 1,4-dibromobutane and pyrrolidine, and subsequent ion exchange pathway with KOH followed by neutralization reaction via HBF₄ in the system of ethanol solution. ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, FI-IR and XPS analyses showed the structure of SBP-BF₄. The as-obtained SBP-BF₄ was dissolved in AN and used as the electrolyte for supercapacitor. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that, compared with commercial electrolyte TEMA-BF₄/AN, SBP-BF₄/AN exhibits high ionic conductivity, lower resistance and improved cycling performance, which is due to its smaller ion size and stable symmetry structure.

The effects of adding alloy element zinc on the static and dynamic mechanical properties of copper-zinc alloy were investigated. Tensile and low cycle fatigue behaviors of the C11000 copper and H63 copper-zinc alloy were obtained by using a miniature tester that combined the functions of in situ tensile and fatigue testing. A piezoelectric actuator was adopted as the actuator for the fatigue testing, and the feasibility of the fatigue actuator was verified by the transient harmonic response analysis based on static tensile preload and dynamic sinusoidal load. The experimental results show that the yield strength and tensile strength of the C11000 copper are improved after adding 37% (mass fraction) zinc, and H63 copper-zinc alloy presents more obvious cyclic hardening behavior and more consumed irreversible plastic work during each stress cycle compared with C11000 copper for the same strain controlled cycling. Additionally, based on the Manson-Coffin theory, the strain-life equations of the two materials were also obtained. C11000 copper and H63 copper-zinc alloy show transition life of 16832 and 1788 cycles, respectively.

The difference of sintering crunodes of metal powders and fibers is discussed. The mathematical model of the surface diffusion described by the difference in mean curvature is defined as a Hamilton-Jacobi-type equation, and the model is numerically solved by the level set method. The three-dimensional numerical simulations of two metal powders and fibers (the fiber angle is 0° or 90°) are implemented by this mathematical model, respectively. The numerical simulation results accord with the experimental ones. The sintering neck growth trends of metal powders and metal fibers are similar. The sintering neck radius of metal fibers is larger than that of metal powders. The difference of the neck radius is caused by the difference of geometric structure which makes an important influence on the curvature affecting the migration rate of atoms.

In order to explore drum instability problems of thinning spinning ultra thin-walled tubes with large diameter-to-hickness ratio, experiments of thinning spinning ultra thin-walled tubes with different clearances between the mandrel and the tube were carried out. The phenomena of drum instability were analyzed. Drum instability mechanism was studied. The important influence of the mandrel-locked ring on stable thinning spinning was found. Besides, two important parameters, namely drum ratio and drum stiffness, were proposed to characterize the drum instability of spinning ultra thin-walled tubes with large diameter-to-thickness ratio. What’s more, numerical simulations were applied to explore the influences of different clearance ratios and diameter-to-thickness ratios on the drum instability. As a result, it is found that the mandrel-locked ring is the key to the stability and precision of spinning; drum ratio can reflect the degree of the deformation of the tubes; drum stiffness is a comprehensive index to measure the influences of the tube’s own parameters on the spinning instability; both the clearance ratio and diameter-thickness ratio have significant influences on the drum ratio and drum stiffness.

In order to study the bending behavior of aluminum alloy 7050 thick plate during snake hot rolling, several coupled thermo-mechanical finite element (FE) models were established. Effects of different initial thicknesses, pass reductions, speed ratios and offset distances on the bending value of the plate were analyzed. ‘Quasi smooth plate’ and optimum offset distance were defined and quasi smooth plate could be acquired by adjusting offset distance, and then bending control equation was fitted. The results show that bending value of the plate as well as the extent of the increase grows with the increase of pass reduction and decrease of initial thickness; the bending value firstly increases and then keeps steady with the ascending speed ratio; the bending value can be reduced by enlarging the offset distance. The optimum offset distance varies for different rolling parameters and it is augmented with the increase of pass reduction and speed ratio and the decrease of initial thickness. A proper offset distance for different rolling parameters can be calculated by the bending control equation and this equation can be a guidance to acquire a quasi smooth plate. The FEM results agree well with experimental results.

A line contact model of elastic coated solids is presented based on the influence coefficients (ICs) of surface displacement and stresses of coating-substrate system and the traditional contact model. The ICs of displacement and stresses are obtained from their corresponding frequency response functions (FRF) by using a conversion method based on fast Fourier transformation (FFT). The contact pressure and the stress field in the subsurface are obtained by employing conjugate gradient method (CGM) and discrete convolution fast Fourier transformation (DC-FFT). Comparison of the contact pressure and subsurface stresses obtained by the numerical method with the exact analytical solutions for Hertz contact is conducted, and the results show that the numerical solution has a very high accuracy and verify the validity of the contact model. The effect of the stiffness and thickness of coatings is further numerically studied. The result shows that the effects on contact pressure and contact width are opposite for hard and soft coatings and are intensified with the increase of coating thickness; the locations of crack initiation and propagation are different for soft and hard coatings; the risk of cracks and delaminations of coatings can be brought down by improving the lubrication condition or optimizing the non-dimensional parameter h/b_h. This research offers a tool to numerically analyze the problem of elastic coated solids in line contact and make the blindness and randomness of trial-type coating design less.

Numerical simulations of gas-liquid two-phase flow and alumina transport process in an aluminum reduction cell were conducted to investigate the effects of anode configurations on the bath flow, gas volume fraction and alumina content distributions. An Euler-Euler two-fluid model was employed coupled with a species transport equation for alumina content. Three different anode configurations such as anode without a slot, anode with a longitudinal slot and anode with a transversal slot were studied in the simulation. The simulation results clearly show that the slots can reduce the bath velocity and promote the releasing of the anode gas, but can not contribute to the uniformity of the alumina content. Comparisons of the effects between the longitudinal and transversal slots indicate that the longitudinal slot is better in terms of gas-liquid flow but is disadvantageous for alumina mixing and transport process due to a decrease of anode gas under the anode bottom surface. It is demonstrated from the simulations that the mixing and transfer characteristics of alumina are controlled to great extent by the anode gas forces while the electromagnetic forces (EMFs) play the second role.

Electrolytic manganese residue (EMR), a high volume byproduct resulting from the electrolytic manganese industry, was used as a cheap and abundant chemical source for preparing MnO₂ and EMR-made calcium silicate hydrate (EMR-CSH). The MnO₂ is successfully synthesized from the metal cations extracted from EMR, which can effectively recycle the manganese in the EMR. By the combination of XRD, SEM and EDX analysis, the as-prepared MnO₂ is found to exhibit a single-phase with the purity of 90.3%. Furthermore, EMR-CSH is synthesized from EMR via hydrothermal method. Based on the detailed analyses using XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDX and BET surface area measurement, the product synthesized under the optimum conditions (pH 12.0 and 100 °C) is identified to be a calcium silicate hydrate with a specific surface area of 205 m²/g incorporating the slag-derived metals (Al and Mg) in its structure. The as-synthesized material shows good adsorption properties for removal of Mn²⁺ and phosphate ions diluted in water, making it a promising candidate for efficient bulk wastewater treatment. This conversion process, which enables us to fabricate two different kinds of valuable materials from EMR at low cost and through convenient preparation steps, is surely beneficial from the viewpoint of the chemical and economical use of EMR.

Direct reduction is an emerging technology for ferric bauxite utilization. However, because of sodium volatilization, its sodium carbonate consumption is considerably higher than that in ordinary bauxite processing technology. TG-DSC and XRD were applied to detecting phase transformation and mass loss in direct reduction to reveal the mechanism on sodium volatilization. The results show that the most significant influence factor of ferric bauxite on sodium volatilization in direct reduction system is its iron content. Sodium volatilization is probably ascribed to the instability of amorphous substances structure. Amorphous substances are the intermediate-products of the reaction, and the volatilization rate of sodium increases with its generating rate. These amorphous substances are volatile, thus, more sodium is volatilized with its generation. A small amount of amorphous substances are generated in the reaction between Na₂CO₃ and Al₂O₃; thus, only 3.15% of sodium is volatilized. Similarly, the volatilization rate is 1.87% in the reaction between Na₂CO₃ and SiO₂. However, the volatilization rate reaches 7.64% in the reaction between Na₂CO₃ and Fe₂O₃ because of the generation of a large amount of amorphous substances.

The surface states of pyrite (FeS₂) were theoretically investigated using first principle calculation based on the density functional theory (DFT). The results indicate that both the (200) and (311) surfaces of pyrite undergo significant surface atom relaxation after geometry optimization, which results in a considerable distortion of the surface region. In the normal direction, i.e., perpendicular to the surface, S atoms in the first surface layer move outward from the bulk, while Fe atoms move toward the bulk, forming an S-rich surface. The surface relaxation processes are driven by electrostatic interaction, which is evidenced by a relative decrease in the surface energy after surface relaxation. Such a relaxation process is visually interpreted through the qualitative analysis of molecular mechanics. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis reveals that only sulfur atom is visible on the pyrite surface. This result is consistent with the DFT data. Such S-rich surface has important influence on the flotation properties of pyrite.

Reduction roasting-acid leaching process was utilized to process high-iron-content manganese oxide ore using black charcoal as reductant. The results indicate that, compared with the traditional reductant of anthracite, higher manganese extraction efficiency is achieved at lower roasting temperature and shorter residence time. The effects of roasting parameters on the leaching efficiency of Mn and Fe were studied, and the optimal parameters are determined as follows: roasting temperature is 650 °C, residence time is 40 min, and black charcoal dosage is 10% (mass fraction). Under these conditions, the leaching efficiency of Mn reaches 82.37% while that of Fe is controlled below 7%. XRD results show that a majority of MnO₂ and Fe₂O₃ in the raw ore are reduced to MnO and Fe₃O₄, respectively.

A new nonlinear transverse-torsional coupled model with backlash and bearing clearance was proposed for planetary gear set. Meanwhile, sun gear and planet’s eccentricity errors, static transmission error, and time-varying meshing stiffness were taken into consideration. The differential governing equations of motion were solved by employing variable step-size Rung-Kutta numerical integration method. The behavior of dynamic load sharing characteristics affected by the system parameters including input rate, sun gear’s supporting stiffness and eccentricity error, planet’s eccentricity error, sun gear’s bearing clearance, backlashes of sun-planet and planet-ring meshes were investigated qualitatively and systematically. Some theoretical results are summarized at last which extend the current understanding of the dynamic load sharing behavior of planet gear train, enrich the related literature and provide references for the design of planetary gear train.

Large-module rack of the Three Gorges shiplift is manufactured by casting and machining, which is unable to avoid slag inclusions and surface cracks. To ensure its safety in the future service, studying on crack propagation rule and the residual life estimation method of large-module rack is of great significance. The possible crack distribution forms of the rack in the Three Gorges shiplift were studied. By applying moving load on the model in FRANC3D and ANSYS, quantitative analyses of interference effects on double cracks in both collinear and offset conditions were conducted. The variation rule of the stress intensity factor (SIF) influence factor, R_K, of double collinear cracks changing with crack spacing ratio, R_S, was researched. The horizontal and vertical crack spacing threshold of double cracks within the design life of the shiplift were obtained, which are 24 and 4 times as large as half of initial crack length, c₀, respectively. The crack growth rates along the length and depth directions in the process of coalescence on double collinear cracks were also studied.

Crimping is widely adopted in the production of large-diameter submerged-arc welding pipes. Traditionally, designers obtain the technical parameters for crimping from experience or by trial and error through experiments and the finite element (FE) method. However, it is difficult to achieve ideal crimping quality by these approaches. To resolve this issue, crimping parameter design was investigated by multi-objective optimization. Crimping was simulated using the FE code ABAQUS and the FE model was validated experimentally. A welding pipe made of X80 high-strength pipeline steel was considered as a target object and the optimization problem for its crimping was formulated as a mathematical model and crimping was optimized. A response surface method based on the radial basis function was used to construct a surrogate model; the genetic algorithm NSGA-II was adopted to search for Pareto solutions; grey relational analysis was used to determine the most satisfactory solution from the Pareto solutions. The obtained optimal design of parameters shows good agreement with the initial design and remarkably improves the crimping quality. Thus, the results provide an effective approach for improving crimping quality and reducing design times.

In order to consider the effects of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) on contact fatigue reliability of spur gear, an accurate and efficient method that combines with response surface method (RSM) and first order second moment method (FOSM) was developed for estimating the contact fatigue reliability of spur gear under EHL. The mechanical model of contact stress analysis of spur gear under EHL was established, in which the oil film pressure was mapped into hertz contact zone. Considering the randomness of EHL, material properties and fatigue strength correction factors, the proposed method was used to analyze the contact fatigue reliability of spur gear under EHL. Compared with the results of 1.5×10⁵ by traditional Monte-Carlo, the difference between the two failure probability results calculated by the above mentioned methods is 2.2×10⁻⁴, the relative error of the failure probability results is 26.8%, and time-consuming only accounts for 0.14% of the traditional Monte-Carlo method (MCM). Sensitivity analysis results are in very good agreement with practical cognition. Analysis results show that the proposed method is precise and efficient, and could correctly reflect the influence of EHL on contact fatigue reliability of spur gear.

Magnetorheological (MR) cell with multi-coil was designed to enlarge the range of controllable transmission torque by increasing the effective length. Individual input current was proposed to maximize its potential for reducing power consumption and generating large yield stress. Finite element analysis was performed to analyze magnetic field distribution, based on which a prototype MR cell was fabricated and tested to investigate the performance of various combinations of individual input currents. A good correlation was identified between experimental results and FEA predications. The results show that the power consumption can be reduced to 42.4%, maintaining large transmission torque, by distributing the total current (2 A) to three individual magnetic coils. In addition, optimal results of four input currents considering a multi-objective function are obtained by changing the weighting factor λ. The advantage of this design, such as lower power consumption and more control flexibility, makes it more competitive in engineering applications that require large energy consumption.

An iterative method is introduced successfully to solve the inverse kinematics of a 6-DOF manipulator of a tunnel drilling rig based on dual quaternion, which is difficult to get the solution by Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) based methods. By the intuitive expression of dual quaternion to the orientation of rigid body, the coordinate frames assigned to each joint are established all in the same orientation, which does not need to use the D-H procedure. The compact and simple form of kinematic equations, consisting of position equations and orientation equations, is also the consequence of dual quaternion calculations. The iterative process is basically of two steps which are related to solving the position equations and orientation equations correspondingly. First, assume an initial value of the iterative variable; then, the position equations can be solved because of the reduced number of unknown variables in the position equations and the orientation equations can be solved by applying the solution from the position equations, which obtains an updated value for the iterative variable; finally, repeat the procedure by using the updated iterative variable to the position equations till the prescribed accuracy is obtained. The method proposed has a clear geometric meaning, and the algorithm is simple and direct. Simulation for 100 poses of the end frame shows that the average running time of inverse kinematics calculation for each demanded pose of end-effector is 7.2 ms on an ordinary laptop, which is good enough for practical use. The iteration counts 2–4 cycles generally, which is a quick convergence. The method proposed here has been successfully used in the project of automating a hydraulic rig.

To increase the efficiency and reliability of the thermodynamics analysis of the hydraulic system, the method based on pseudo-bond graph is introduced. According to the working mechanism of hydraulic components, they can be separated into two categories: capacitive components and resistive components. Then, the thermal-hydraulic pseudo-bond graphs of capacitive C element and resistance R element were developed, based on the conservation of mass and energy. Subsequently, the connection rule for the pseudo-bond graph elements and the method to construct the complete thermal-hydraulic system model were proposed. On the basis of heat transfer analysis of a typical hydraulic circuit containing a piston pump, the lumped parameter mathematical model of the system was given. The good agreement between the simulation results and experimental data demonstrates the validity of the modeling method.

With the increasing necessities for reliable printed circuit board (PCB) product, there has been a considerable demand for high speed and high precision vision positioning system. To locate a rectangular lead component with high accuracy and reliability, a new visual positioning method was introduced. Considering the limitations of Ghosal sub-pixel edge detection algorithm, an improved algorithm was proposed, in which Harris corner features were used to coarsely detect the edge points and Zernike moments were adopted to accurately detect the edge points. Besides, two formulas were developed to determine the edge intersections whose sub-pixel coordinates were calculated with bilinear interpolation and conjugate gradient method. The last experimental results show that the proposed method can detect the deflection and offset, and the detection errors are less than 0.04° and 0.02 pixels.

Dynamics and vibration of control valves under flow-induced vibration are analyzed. Hydrodynamic load characteristics and structural response under flow-induced vibration are mainly influenced by inertia, damping, elastic, geometric characteristics and hydraulic parameters. The purpose of this work is to investigate the dynamic behavior of control valves in the response to self-excited fluid flow. An analytical and numerical method is developed to simulate the dynamic and vibrational behavior of sliding dam valves, in response to flow excitation. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed model, the simulation results are validated with experimental ones. Finally, to achieve the optimal valve geometry, numerical results for various shapes of valves are compared. Rounded valve with the least amount of flow turbulence obtains lower fluctuations and vibration amplitude compared with the flat and steep valves. Simulation results demonstrate that with the optimal design requirements of valves, vibration amplitude can be reduced by an average to 30%.

A quantum group signature (QGS) scheme is proposed on the basis of an improved quantum chaotic encryption algorithm using the quantum one-time pad with a chaotic operation string. It involves a small-scale quantum computation network in three phases, i.e. initializing phase, signing phase and verifying phase. In the scheme, a member of the group signs the message on behalf of the group while the receiver verifies the signature’s validity with the aid of the trusty group manager who plays a crucial role when a possible dispute arises. Analysis result shows that the signature can neither be forged nor disavowed by any malicious attackers.

The preparation of natural rubber based isotropic thick magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) was focused on by varying the percentage volume concentration of carbonyl iron powder and developing a test set up to test the dynamic properties. Effect of magnetic field on the damping ratio was studied on the amplification region of the transmissibility curve. The viscoelastic dynamic damping nature of the elastomer was also studied by analyzing the force-displacement hysteresis graphs. The results show that MR effect increases with the increase in magnetic field as well as carbonyl iron powder particle concentration. It is observed that softer matrix material produces more MR effect. A maximum of 125% improvement in the loss factor is observed for the MRE with 25% carbonyl iron volume concentration. FEMM simulation shows that as carbonyl iron particle distribution becomes denser, MR effect is improved. FEMM analysis also reveals that if the distance between the adjacent iron particles are reduced from 20 μm to 10 μm, a 40% increase in stored energy is observed.

A novel approach for constructing robust Mamdani fuzzy system was proposed, which consisted of an efficiency robust estimator (partial robust M-regression, PRM) in the parameter learning phase of the initial fuzzy system, and an improved subtractive clustering algorithm in the fuzzy-rule-selecting phase. The weights obtained in PRM, which gives protection against noise and outliers, were incorporated into the potential measure of the subtractive cluster algorithm to enhance the robustness of the fuzzy rule cluster process, and a compact Mamdani-type fuzzy system was established after the parameters in the consequent parts of rules were re-estimated by partial least squares (PLS). The main characteristics of the new approach were its simplicity and ability to construct fuzzy system fast and robustly. Simulation and experiment results show that the proposed approach can achieve satisfactory results in various kinds of data domains with noise and outliers. Compared with D-SVD and ARRBFN, the proposed approach yields much fewer rules and less RMSE values.

As the ability of a single agent is limited while information and resources in multi-agent systems are distributed, cooperation is necessary for agents to accomplish a complex task. In the open and changeable environment on the Internet, it is of great significance to research a system flexible and capable in dynamic evolution that can find a collaboration method for agents which can be used in dynamic evolution process. With such a method, agents accomplish tasks for an overall target and at the same time, the collaborative relationship of agents can be adjusted with the change of environment. A method of task decomposition and collaboration of agents by improved contract net protocol is introduced. Finally, analysis on the result of the experiments is performed to verify the improved contract net protocol can greatly increase the efficiency of communication and collaboration in multi-agent system.

A least squares version of the recently proposed weighted twin support vector machine with local information (WLTSVM) for binary classification is formulated. This formulation leads to an extremely simple and fast algorithm, called least squares weighted twin support vector machine with local information (LSWLTSVM), for generating binary classifiers based on two non-parallel hyperplanes. Two modified primal problems of WLTSVM are attempted to solve, instead of two dual problems usually solved. The solution of the two modified problems reduces to solving just two systems of linear equations as opposed to solving two quadratic programming problems along with two systems of linear equations in WLTSVM. Moreover, two extra modifications were proposed in LSWLTSVM to improve the generalization capability. One is that a hot kernel function, not the simple-minded definition in WLTSVM, is used to define the weight matrix of adjacency graph, which ensures that the underlying similarity information between any pair of data points in the same class can be fully reflected. The other is that the weight for each point in the contrary class is considered in constructing equality constraints, which makes LSWLTSVM less sensitive to noise points than WLTSVM. Experimental results indicate that LSWLTSVM has comparable classification accuracy to that of WLTSVM but with remarkably less computational time.

In order to improve the throughput of cognitive radio (CR), optimization of sensing time and cooperative user allocation for OR-rule cooperative spectrum sensing was investigated in a CR network that includes multiple users and one fusion center. The frame structure of cooperative spectrum sensing was divided into multiple transmission time slots and one sensing time slot consisting of local energy detection and cooperative overhead. An optimization problem was formulated to maximize the throughput of CR network, subject to the constraints of both false alarm probability and detection probability. A joint optimization algorithm of sensing time and number of users was proposed to solve this optimization problem with low time complexity. An allocation algorithm of cooperative users was proposed to preferentially allocate the users to the channels with high utilization probability. The simulation results show that the significant improvement on the throughput can be achieved through the proposed joint optimization and allocation algorithms.

To evaluate the operator health risk exposed to whole-body vibration (WBV) while the electric-shovel loads the ore on the truck body, the semi-truck mathematical model and 3-D virtual prototype were built to simulate the high shockwave of truck cab under the shovel loading. Discrete element method was utilized to accurately estimate the impacting force on the truck body. Based on the ISO 2631-5 criteria, the S_ed is about 0.56 MPa in both models, which means that the dump operators have a high probability of adverse health effects over long-term exposure to these vibrations. The 4-DOF operator model was built to investigate the biodynamic response of seated-human body exposed to WBV in terms of the transmission of vibrations through the body. The results show that the response peak is in the frequency range of 4–6 Hz corresponding to the primary body resonant frequency.

Petrographic analysis combined with various techniques, such as thin section identification, petro-physical property testing, mercury penetration, oil testing results, was used to assess basic reservoir characteristics of deep strata in Palaeogene in the northern steep slope zone of the Bonan sag, China. The formation mechanisms of high quality reservoirs in deep strata were discussed according to evolution characteristics of paleopressures and paleofluids in geological period. The deep reservoirs have poor physical properties and mainly develop extra-low porosity, extra-low and ultra-low permeability reservoirs. Reservoir spaces mainly consist of secondary pores and overpressure fractures. Early overpressure, early hydrocarbon filling and dissolution by early organic acids are the major formation mechanisms of high quality reservoirs. The conglomerate in inner fan which had a poor primary physical property mainly experienced strong compaction and calcareous matrix recrystallization. The physical properties of the inner fan were poor with weak dissolution because of poor mobility of fluid. The reservoirs mainly are type IV reservoirs and the distribution extends with the burial depth. The braided channel reservoirs in the middle fan had relative good primary physical properties and strong ability to resist compaction which favored the preservation of primary pores. Large amounts of the secondary porosities were created due to dissolution by early organic acids. A series of micro-fractures generated by early overpressures would be important migration pathways for hydrocarbon and organic acids. Furthermore, early overpressures had retarded maturation of organic matters and organic acids which had flowed into reservoirs already and could keep in acid environment for a long time. This process would contribute significantly to reinforcing the dissolution and enhancing the reservoir quality. The braided channel reservoirs were charged with high oil saturation preferentially by early hydrocarbon filling which could inhibit later cementation. Therefore, the braided channel reservoirs develop a great quantity of reservoir spaces with type I, type II and type III reservoirs in the majority in the deep strata. With the burial depth, distributions of type I and type II reservoirs are narrowed and distribution of type III reservoirs decreases first and then extends. The reservoirs both in outer fan and in interdistributary of the middle fan have extremely poor physical properties because of extensive carbonate cementation. The type of the reservoirs mainly is type IV.

Change in Arctic sea ice extent is one of the indicators of global climate changes. Spatio-temporal change and change patterns can be identified using various methods to facilitate human understanding global climate changes. Three empirical orthogonal function (EOF) techniques are discussed and applied to decades of sea-ice concentration (SIC) dataset in Arctic area for identifying independent patterns. It was found that: 1) discrepancies exist in magnitude and scope for each EOF pattern, however, the first two leading EOFs of variability possess high similarities in structure and shape; 2) Even though there are somewhat differences in amplitude of each PC mode, the first two leading PC modes maintain consistent in overall trend and periodicity; 3) There are significant discrepancies and inconsistencies in the third and fourth leading EOF and PC modes. The accuracies of three techniques are further validated in representing the physical phenomena of SIC anomaly patterns.

The factor of safety of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) structures can be analyzed either using limit equilibrium method (LEM) or strength reduction method (SRM) in finite element/difference method. In LEM, the strengths of the reinforcement members and soils are reduced with the same factor. While using the SRM, only soil strength is reduced during the calculation of the factor of safety. This causes inconsistence in calculating the factor of safety of the MSE structures. To overcome this, an iteration method is proposed to consider the strength reduction of the reinforcements in SRM. The method is demonstrated by using PLAXIS, a finite element software. The results show that the factor of safety converges after a few iterations. The reduction of strength has different effects on the factor of safety depending on the properties of the reinforcements and the soil, and failure modes.

A simplified method is presented for predicting consolidation settlement of soft ground improved by floating soil-cement column on the basis of double soil-layer consolidation theory. Combining the axisymmetric consolidation model and equal strain assumption, the governing equation was derived for the consolidation of clayey subsoil reinforced by soil-cement column. By modifying the boundary condition of the interface between the improved layer and underlying layer on seepage and pore-water pressure, the analytical solution of consolidation of soft ground improved by floating soil-cement column was developed under depth-dependent ramp load. The results of the parameter analysis of consolidation behavior show that the consolidation rate is closely related with the depth replacement ratio by the column and the permeability of upper layer. The influence of column-soil constrained modulus ratio and radius ratio of the influence zone to the column on consolidation is also affected by depth replacement ratio. The column-soil total stress ratio increases with time and approaches the final value accompanied with the dissipation of excess pore water pressure.

The construction of waste rock dumps on existing tailing ponds has been put into practice in China to save precious land resources. This work focuses on the safety assessment of the Daheishan molybdenum mine waste rock dump under construction on two adjoining tailings ponds. The consolidation of the tailings foundation and the filling quality of the waste rock are investigated by the transient electromagnetic method through detecting water-rich areas and loose packing areas, from which, the depth of phreatic line is also estimated. With such information and the material parameters, the numerical method based on shear strength reduction is applied to analyzing the overall stability of the waste rock dump and the tailings ponds over a number of typical cross sections under both current and designed conditions, where the complex geological profiles exposed by site investigation are considered. Through numerical experiments, the influence of soft lenses in the tailings and possible loose packing areas in the waste rock is examined. Although large displacements may develop due to the soft tailings foundation, the results show that the waste rock dump satisfies the safety requirements under both present and designed conditions.

The spiral assembly steel structure, a newly developed retaining wall for the rapid excavation of small-sized foundation pits in unsaturated soil, is presented. This new type of retaining structure is prefabricated in the factory and is assembled on site in the excavation of a pit. This retaining structure is composed of several prefabricated steel structural units, in which the adjacent steel structural units are joined with connectors. Each steel structural unit has one steel pipe in the radial direction and is welded to a single piece of steel plate. After full installation in situ, the retaining structure becomes a cylindrical steel structure. With the protection afforded by this new type of retaining structure, excavation work can be completed within 24 h to a depth up to 5 m. In order to verify the reliability and effectiveness of this new retaining structure, field construction tests were conducted in Beijing, China. The test construction was monitored. The monitoring program included measuring stress in the structure, lateral earth pressure, and lateral deformation of the surrounding soil. The monitoring data from the field test were compared with the theoretical results. The results show that the proposed new structure is reliable and effective.

Reinforced concrete (RC) load bearing wall is widely used in high-rise and mid-rise buildings. Due to the number of walls in plan and reduction in lateral force portion, this system is not only stronger against earthquakes, but also more economical. The effect of progressive collapse caused by removal of load bearing elements, in various positions in plan and stories of the RC load bearing wall system was evaluated by nonlinear dynamic and static analyses. For this purpose, three-dimensional model of 10-story structure was selected. The analysis results indicated stability, strength and stiffness of the RC load-bearing wall system against progressive collapse. It was observed that the most critical condition for removal of load bearing walls was the instantaneous removal of the surrounding walls located at the corners of the building where the sections of the load bearing elements were changed. In this case, the maximum vertical displacement was limited to 6.3 mm and the structure failed after applying the load of 10 times the axial load bored by removed elements. Comparison between the results of the nonlinear dynamic and static analyses demonstrated that the “load factor” parameter was a reasonable criterion to evaluate the progressive collapse potential of the structure.

The rigid body limit equilibrium method (RBLEM) and finite element method (FEM) are two widely used approaches for rock slope’s stability analysis currently. RBLEM introduced plethoric assumptions; while traditional FEM relied on artificial factors when determining factor of safety (FOS) and sliding surfaces. Based on the definition of structure instability that an elasto-plastic structure is not stable if it is unable to satisfy simultaneously equilibrium condition, kinematical admissibility and constitutive equations under given external loads, deformation reinforcement theory (DRT) is developed. With this theory, plastic complementary energy (PCE) can be used to evaluate the overall stability of rock slope, and the unbalanced force beyond the yield surface could be the identification of local failure. Compared with traditional slope stability analysis approaches, the PCE norm curve to strength reduced factor is introduced and the unbalanced force is applied to the determination of key sliding surfaces and required reinforcement. Typical and important issues in rock slope stability are tested in TFINE(a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element program), which is further applied to several representatives of high rock slope’s stability evaluation and reinforcement engineering practice in southwest of China.

Fatigue is usually the cause for the cracks identified at bridge elements in service. With an increase in the introduction of corrugated steel web girders in recent highway bridge construction, the understanding of the fatigue behaviour of welded details in such structures becomes an important issue for the design. The typical welded details were represented as welded joints assembled by longitudinal corrugated plates. All the experiments were performed under fatigue loading using a servo-control testing machine. The test results from the failure mode observation with the aid of infrared thermo-graph technology show that the failure manner of these welded joints is comparable to that of the corrugated steel web beams reported previously. It is indicated from the stiffness degradation analysis that the welded joints with larger corrugation angle have higher stiffness and greater stiffness degradation in the notable stiffness degradation range. It is shown from the test S-N relations based on the free regression and forced regression analyses that there is a good linear dependence between lg(N) and lg(ΔS). It is also demonstrated that the proposed fracture mechanics analytical model is able to give a prediction slightly lower but on the safe side for the mean stresses at 2 million cycles of the test welded joints.

In order to analyze the effect of different loading frequencies on the fatigue performance for asphalt mixture, the changing law of asphalt mixture strengths with loading speed was revealed by strength tests under different loading speeds. Fatigue equations of asphalt mixtures based on the nominal stress ratio and real stress ratio were established using fatigue tests under different loading frequencies. It was revealed that the strength of the asphalt mixture is affected by the loading speed greatly. It was also discovered that the fatigue equation based on the nominal stress ratio will change with the change of the fatigue loading speed. There is no uniqueness. But the fatigue equation based on the real stress ratio doesn’t change with the loading frequency. It has the uniqueness. The results indicate the fatigue equation based on the real stress ratio can realize the normalization of the asphalt mixture fatigue equation under different loading frequencies. It can greatly benefit the analysis of the fatigue characteristics under different vehicle speeds for asphalt pavement.

Shear test results for a composite wall panel in a light composite structure system are compared with test results for shear walls in Japan. The analysis results show that this kind of composite wall panel works very well, and can be regarded as a solid panel. The composite wall panel with a hidden frame is essential for bringing its effect on shear resistance into full play. Comprehensive analysis of the shear-resistant behavior of the composite wall panel suggests that the shear of the composite shear wall panel can be controlled by the cracking strength of the web shearing diagonal crack.

The unsaturated undisturbed quaternary system middle pleistocene loess, a typical unsaturated soil, often occurs in the implementation of western development strategy. To obtain the shearing strength characteristics of this unsaturated undisturbed loess, based on the analysis of mineral composition, the triaxial shear test of undisturbed quaternary system middle pleistocene loess under different moisture contents is conducted with the specialized triaxial instrument for unsaturated soil. The test results show that the mainly mineral composition of undisturbed quaternary system middle pleistocene loess is quartz and albite. Under the same confining pressure, the matric suction increases with the decrease of moisture content. The smaller the moisture content, the larger the matric suction; the higher the moisture content, the lower the matric suction. Under the same moisture content, the matric suction increases with the confining pressure and reaches a maximum when the confining pressure is 100 kPa, and then decreases with the increase of confining pressure. This phenomenon is closely related to the grain contact tightness of soil mass under high confining pressure. According to the triaxial test of loess, the sample of loess experiences 4 stages from loading to failure: 1) compaction stage; 2) compression stage; 3) microcrack developing stage; 4) shear failure stage. The test sample is of brittle failure (weak softening) under low moisture content and confining pressure. With the decrease of matric suction and the increase of consolidated confining pressure, the stress-strain curve changes from softening type to ideal plastic type. In the shearing strength parameters of unsaturated undisturbed loess, the influence of moisture content on internal friction angle is small, but that on cohesive force is obvious. Therefore, the shearing strength of unsaturated undisturbed loess is higher than that of saturated undisturbed loess and varies with the moisture content.

Remodeled clay and sand rock specimens were prepared by designing lateral confinement and water drainage experiments based on the stress exerted on granular materials in a waste dump. An in situ test was conducted in an internal waste dump; the physical and mechanical parameters of the remodeled rock mass dumped at different time and depths were measured. Based on statistics, regression analysis was performed with regard to the shearing stress parameters acquired from the two tests. Other factors, such as remodeling pressure (burial depth), remodeling time (amount of time since waste was dumped), and the corresponding functional relationship, were determined. Analysis indicates that the cohesion of the remodeled clay and its remodeling pressure are correlated by a quadratic function but are not correlated with remodeling time length. In situ experimental results indicate that the shear strength of reshaped granular materials in the internal dump is positively correlated with burial depth but poorly correlated with time length. Cohesion C and burial depth H follow a quadratic function, specifically for a short time since waste has been dumped. As revealed by both in situ and laboratory experiments, the remodeling strength of granular materials varies in a certain pattern. The consistency of such materials verifies the reliability of the remodeling experimental program.

A finite element reconstruction algorithm for ultrasound tomography based on the Helmholtz equation in frequency domain is presented to monitor the grouting defects in reinforced concrete structures. In this algorithm, a hybrid regularizations-based iterative Newton method is implemented to provide stable inverse solutions. Furthermore, a dual mesh scheme and an adjoint method are adopted to reduce the computation cost and improve the efficiency of reconstruction. Simultaneous reconstruction of both acoustic velocity and attenuation coefficient for a reinforced concrete model is achieved with multiple frequency data. The algorithm is evaluated with numerical simulation under various practical scenarios including varied transmission/receiving modes, different noise levels, different source/detector numbers, and different contrast levels between the heterogeneity and background region. Results obtained suggest that the algorithm is insensitive to noise, and the reconstructions are quantitatively accurate in terms of the location, size and acoustic properties of the target over a range of contrast levels.

Structure damage identification and alarming of long-span bridge were conducted with three-dimensional dynamic displacement data collected by GPS subsystem of health monitoring system on Runyang Suspension Bridge. First, the effects of temperature on the main girder spatial position coordinates were analyzed from the transverse, longitudinal and vertical directions of bridge, and the correlation regression models were built between temperature and the position coordinates of main girder in the longitudinal and vertical directions; then the alarming indices of coordinate residuals were conducted, and the mean-value control chart was applied to making statistical pattern identification for abnormal changes of girder dynamic coordinates; and finally, the structural damage alarming method of main girder was established. Analysis results show that temperature has remarkable correlation with position coordinates in the longitudinal and vertical directions of bridge, and has weak correlation with the transverse coordinates. The 3% abnormal change of the longitudinal coordinates and 5% abnormal change of the vertical ones caused by structural damage are respectively identified by the mean-value control chart method based on GPS dynamic monitoring data and hence the structural abnormalities state identification and damage alarming for main girder of long-span suspension bridge can be realized in multiple directions.

As wavelet basis in wavelet analysis is neither arbitrary nor unique, the same signal dealing with different wavelet bases will generate different results. Therefore, how to construct a wavelet basis suitable for the characteristics of the analyzed signal and solve its algorithm and realization is a fundamental problem which perplexed many researchers. To solve these problems, in accordance with the basic features of the measured millisecond blast vibration signal, a new wavelet basis construction method based on the separation blast vibration signal is proposed, and the feasibility of this method is verified by comparing the practical effect of the newly constructed wavelet with other known wavelets in signal processing.

The flow field and heat transfer of the strip surface due to the twin slot vertical jet impingement were investigated using the ANSYS FLUENT. The RNG k-ɛ model was carried out in the turbulent calculation. Systematic parametric research was conducted by varying the jet velocity of nozzle exit (V=5 m/s, 7.5 m/s, 10 m/s), the temperature of cooling water (T_w=280 K, 300 K), the normalized spacing from the nozzle to the strip surface (H=10, 15, 20, 33), and the normalized spacing from the nozzle to nozzle centerline (W=0, 15, 30). The velocity streamline of the flow domain and the general trend of the distribution of the local Nusselt number on the impingement surface of strip were obtained. The result indicate that, the average Nusselt number increases by about 70% (90%) as the jet velocity is increased from 5 m/s to 7.5 m/s (from 7.5 m/s to 10 m/s), and T_w, H and W have minimal effect on it. While the valley Nusselt number decreases by about 10%–43% with the increase of H and W. The functional relationship between the average Nusselt number and the systematic parameters is derived by the least square regression method.

The steady, laminar, incompressible and two dimensional micropolar flow between two porous disks was investigated using optimal homotopy asymptotic method (OHAM) and fourth order Runge-Kutta numerical method. Comparison between OHAM and numerical method shows that OHAM is an exact and high efficient method for solving these kinds of problems. The results are presented to study the velocity and rotation profiles for different physical parameters such as Reynolds number, vortex viscosity parameter, spin gradient viscosity and microinertia density parameter. As an important outcome, the magnitude of the microrotation increases with an increase in the values of injection velocity while it decreases by increasing the values of suction velocity.

Organic dust flames deal with a field of science in which many complicated phenomena like pyrolysis or devolatization of solid particles and combustion of volatile particles take place. One-dimensional flame propagation in cloud of fuel mixture is analyzed in which flame structure is divided into three zones. The first zone is preheat zone in which rate of the chemical reaction is small and transfer phenomena play significant role in temperature and mass distributions. In this model, it is assumed that particles pyrolyze first to yield a gaseous fuel mixture. The second zone is reaction zone where convection and vaporization rates of the particles are small. The third zone is convection zone where diffusive terms are negligible in comparison of other terms. Non-zero Biot number is used in order to study effect of particles thermal resistance on flame characteristics. Also, effect of particle size on combustion of micro organic dust is investigated. According to obtained results, it is understood that both flame temperature and burning velocity decrease with rise in the Biot number and particle size.

Convection heat transfer coefficient and air pressure drop in sinter layer are important factors for the design of sinter cooling craft. Due to the lack of necessary data, the two parameters are studied by experimental method. The experimental results show that heat conduction of sinter impacts the measurement of convection heat transfer coefficient. Convection heat transfer increases with the increase of air volumetric flow rate. Sinter layer without small particles (sample I) gives higher convection heat transfer coefficient than that with small particles (sample II). Under the considered conditions, volumetric convection heat transfer coefficient is in the range of 400–1800 W/(m³·°C). Air pressure drop in sinter layer increases with the increase of normal superficial velocity, as well as with the rise of air temperature. Additionally, air pressure drop also depends on sinter particle size distribution. In considered experimental conditions, pressure drop in sinter sample II is 2–3 times that in sinter sample I, which resulted from 17% small scale particles in sinter sample II.

Analysis of the aerodynamic performance of high-speed trains in special cuts would provide references for the critical overturning velocity and complement the operation safety management under strong winds. This work was conducted to investigate the flow structure around trains under different cut depths, slope angles using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The high-speed train was considered with bogies and inter-carriage gaps. And the accuracy of the numerical method was validated by combining with the experimental data of wind tunnel tests. Then, the variations of aerodynamic forces and surface pressure distribution of the train were mainly analyzed. The results show that the surroundings of cuts along the railway line have a great effect on the crosswind stability of trains. With the slope angle and depth of the cut increasing, the coefficients of aerodynamic forces tend to reduce. An angle of 75° is chosen as the optimum one for the follow-up research. Under different depth conditions, the reasonable cut depth for high-speed trains to run safely is 3 m lower than that of the conventional cut whose slope ratio is 1:1.5. Furthermore, the windward slope angle is more important than the leeward one for the train aerodynamic performance. Due to the shield of appropriate cuts, the train body is in a minor positive pressure environment. Thus, designing a suitable cut can contribute to improving the operation safety of high-speed trains.