Seismic response of stone masonry spires: Analytical modeling

Stone masonry spires are vulnerable to seismic loading. Computational methods are often used to predict the dynamic linear elastic response of masonry towers and spires, but this approach is only applicable until the first masonry joint begins to open, limiting the ability to predict collapse. In this paper, analytical modeling is used to investigate the uplift, rocking and collapse of stone spires. General equations for static equilibrium of the spire under lateral acceleration are first presented, and provide a reasonable lower bound for predicting collapse. The dynamic response is then considered through elastic modal analysis and rigid body rocking. Together, these methods are used to provide uplift curves and single impulse overturning collapse curves for a complete range of possible spire geometries. Results are used to evaluate the historic collapse of two specific stone spires. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Seismic response of stone masonry spires: Computational and experimental modeling

Analytical methods provide a global context from which to understand the dynamics of stone spires, but computational and experimental methods are useful to predict more specific behavior of multiple block structures. In this paper, the spire of St. Mary Magdalene church in Waltham-on-the-Wolds, UK, which was damaged in the 2008 Lincolnshire Earthquake, is used as a case study. Both a physical model and a discrete element computational model of the spire were created and used to investigate collapse under constant horizontal acceleration, impulse base motion, and earthquake ground motion. Results indicate that the global behavior compares well with analytical modeling, but local block displacements evident in DEM and experimental results also reduce the stability of the structure. In this context, the observed damage to St. Mary Magdalene church is evaluated and discussed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes with continuous observations for dialogue management

This work shows how a dialogue model can be represented as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) with observations composed of a discrete and continuous component. The continuous component enables the model to directly incorporate a confidence score for automated planning. Using a testbed simulated dialogue management problem, we show how recent optimization techniques are able to find a policy for this continuous POMDP which outperforms a traditional MDP approach. Further, we present a method for automatically improving handcrafted dialogue managers by incorporating POMDP belief state monitoring, including confidence score information. Experiments on the testbed system show significant improvements for several example handcrafted dialogue managers across a range of operating conditions.

Gasoline fuelled partially premixed compression ignition in a light duty multi cylinder engine: A study of low load and low speed operation

The objective of this study was to examine the operating characteristics of a light duty multi cylinder compression ignition engine with regular gasoline fuel at low engine speed and load. The effects of fuel stratification by means of multiple injections as well as the sensitivity of auto-ignition and burn rate to intake pressure and temperature are presented. The measurements used in this study included gaseous emissions, filter smoke opacity and in-cylinder indicated information. It was found that stable, low emission operation was possible with raised intake manifold pressure and temperature, and that fuel stratification can lead to an increase in stability and a reduced reliance on increased temperature and pressure. It was also found that the auto-ignition delay sensitivity of gasoline to intake temperature and pressure was low within the operating window considered in this study. Nevertheless, the requirement for an increase of pressure, temperature and stratification in order to achieve auto-ignition time scales small enough for combustion in the engine was clear, using pump gasoline. Copyright © 2009 SAE International.

Investigation into partially premixed combustion in a light-duty multi-cylinder diesel engine fuelled gasoline and diesel with a mixture of

Partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) engines operating with a low temperature highly homogeneous charge have been demonstrated previously using conventional diesel fuel. The short ignition delay of conventional diesel fuel requires high fuel injection pressures to achieve adequate premixing along with high levels of EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) to achieve low NOx emissions. Low load operating regions are typified by substantial emissions of CO and HC and there exists an upper operating load limitation due to very high rates of in-cylinder gas pressure rise. In this study mixtures of gasoline and diesel fuel were investigated using a multi-cylinder light duty diesel engine. It was found that an increased proportion of gasoline fuel reduced smoke emissions at higher operating loads through an increase in charge premixing resulting from an increase in ignition delay and higher fuel volatility. The results of this investigation confirm that a combination of fuel properties, exhibiting higher volatility and increased ignition delay, would enable a widening of the low emission operating regime, but that consideration must be given to combustion stability at low operating loads. Copyright © 2007 SAE International.

Statistics of reaction progress variable and mixture fraction gradients from DNS of turbulent partially premixed flames

Statistically planar turbulent partially premixed flames for different initial intensities of decaying turbulence have been simulated for global equivalence ratios = 0.7 and 1.0 using three-dimensional, simplified chemistry-based direct numerical simulations (DNS). The simulation parameters are chosen such that the flames represent the thin reaction zones regime combustion. A random bimodal distribution of equivalence ratio is introduced in the unburned gas ahead of the flame to account for the mixture inhomogeneity. The results suggest that the probability density functions (PDFs) of the mixture fraction gradient magnitude |Δξ| (i.e., P(|Δξ|)) can be reasonably approximated using a log-normal distribution. However, this presumed PDF distribution captures only the qualitative nature of the PDF of the reaction progress variable gradient magnitude |Δc| (i.e., P(|Δc|)). It has been found that a bivariate log-normal distribution does not sufficiently capture the quantitative behavior of the joint PDF of |Δξ| and |Δc| (i.e., P(|Δξ|, |Δc|)), and the agreement with the DNS data has been found to be poor in certain regions of the flame brush, particularly toward the burned gas side of the flame brush. Moreover, the variables |Δξ| and |Δc| show appreciable correlation toward the burned gas side of the flame brush. These findings are corroborated further using a DNS data of a lifted jet flame to study the flame geometry dependence of these statistics. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Model-based control of thermoacoustic instabilities in partially premixed lean combustion - A design case study

Self-excited oscillation is becoming a major issue in low-emission, lean partially premixed combustion systems, and active control has been shown to be a feasible method to suppress such instabilities. A number of robust control methods are employed to obtain a feedback controller and it is observed that the robustness to system uncertainty is significantly better for a low complexity controller in spite of the norms being similar. Moreover, we demonstrate that closed-loop stability for such a complex system can be proved via use of the integral quadratic constraint method. Open- and closed-loop nonlinear simulations are provided. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.