Supersonic flutter of composite skin panels of repeated-sublaminate layup

In high-speed aerospace vehicles, supersonic flutter is a well-known phenomenon of dynamic instability to which external skin panels are prone. In theory, the instability stage is expressed by the 'flutter critical parameter' Q(crit), which is a function of the stiffness-, and dynamic pressure parameters. For a composite skin panel, Q(crit) can be maximised by lay-up optimisation. Repeated-sublaminate lay-up schemes possess good potential for economical lay-up optimisation because the corresponding effort is limited to a family of sublaminates of few layers only. When Q(crit) is obtained for all sublaminates of a family, and the sublaminates ranked accordingly, the resulting ranking reveals not only the optimum lay-up, but also the near-optimum lay-ups, which are useful design alternatives, and the inferior lay-ups which should be avoided. In this paper, we examine sublaminate-ranking characteristics for a composite panel prone to supersonic flutter. In particular, we consider a simple supported midplane-symmetrical rectangular panel of typical aspect ratio alpha and flow angle psi, and for four-layered sublaminates, obtain the Q(crit)-based rankings for a wide range of the number of repeats, r. From the rankings, we find that an optimum lay-up can exist for which the outermost layer is oriented wide of, rather than along, the flow. Furthermore, for many lay-ups other than the optimum and the inferior, we see that as r increases, Q(crit) undergoes significant change in the course of converging. To reconcile these findings, eigenvalue-coalescence characteristics are discussed in detail for specific cases.

Damage assessment of basaltic rock mass due to repeated blasting in a railway tunnelling project - A case study

The demand for tunnelling and underground space creation is rapidly growing due to the requirement of civil infrastructure projects and urbanisation. Blasting remains the most inexpensive method of underground excavations in hard rock. Unfortunately, there are no specific safety guidelines available for the blasted tunnels with regards to the threshold limits of vibrations caused by repeated blasting activity in the close proximity. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive study conducted to find out the effect of repeated blast loading on the damage experienced by jointed basaltic rock mass during tunnelling works. Conducting of multiple rounds of blasts for various civil excavations in a railway tunnel imparted repeated loading on rock mass of sidewall and roof of the tunnel. The blast induced damage was assessed by using vibration attenuation equations of charge weight scaling law and measured by borehole extensometers and borehole camera. Ground vibrations of each blasting round were also monitored by triaxial geophones installed near the borehole extensometers. The peak particle velocity (V-max) observations and plastic deformations from borehole extensometers were used to develop a site specific damage model. The study reveals that repeated dynamic loading imparted on the exposed tunnel from subsequent blasts, in the vicinity, resulted in rock mass damage at lesser vibration levels than the critical peak particle velocity (V-cr). It was found that, the repeated blast loading resulted in the near-field damage due to high frequency waves and far-field damage due to low frequency waves. The far field damage, after 45-50 occurrences of blast loading, was up to 55% of the near-field damage in basaltic rock mass. The findings of the study clearly indicate that the phenomena of repeated blasting with respect to number of cycles of loading should be taken into consideration for proper assessment of blast induced damage in underground excavations.

Learning Optimal Discriminant Functions through a Cooperative Game of Automata

The problem of learning correct decision rules to minimize the probability of misclassification is a long-standing problem of supervised learning in pattern recognition. The problem of learning such optimal discriminant functions is considered for the class of problems where the statistical properties of the pattern classes are completely unknown. The problem is posed as a game with common payoff played by a team of mutually cooperating learning automata. This essentially results in a probabilistic search through the space of classifiers. The approach is inherently capable of learning discriminant functions that are nonlinear in their parameters also. A learning algorithm is presented for the team and convergence is established. It is proved that the team can obtain the optimal classifier to an arbitrary approximation. Simulation results with a few examples are presented where the team learns the optimal classifier.

A cooperative game of a pair of learning automata

A cooperative game played in a sequential manner by a pair of learning automata is investigated in this paper. The automata operate in an unknown random environment which gives a common pay-off to the automata. Necessary and sufficient conditions on the functions in the reinforcement scheme are given for absolute monotonicity which enables the expected pay-off to be monotonically increasing in any arbitrary environment. As each participating automaton operates with no information regarding the other partner, the results of the paper are relevant to decentralized control.

Location of Pathogenic Bacteria during Persistent Infections: Insights from an Analysis Using Game Theory

Bacterial persistent infections are responsible for a significant amount of the human morbidity and mortality. Unlike acute bacterial infections, it is very difficult to treat persistent bacterial infections (e.g. tuberculosis). Knowledge about the location of pathogenic bacteria during persistent infection will help to treat such conditions by designing novel drugs which can reach such locations. In this study, events of bacterial persistent infections were analyzed using game theory. A game was defined where the pathogen and the host are the two players with a conflict of interest. Criteria for the establishment of Nash equilibrium were calculated for this game. This theoretical model, which is very simple and heuristic, predicts that during persistent infections pathogenic bacteria stay in both intracellular and extracellular compartments of the host. The result of this study implies that a bacterium should be able to survive in both intracellular and extracellular compartments of the host in order to cause persistent infections. This explains why persistent infections are more often caused by intracellular pathogens like Mycobacterium and Salmonella. Moreover, this prediction is in consistence with the results of previous experimental studies.

A cooperative game theoretic approach to prototype selection

In this paper we consider the task of prototype selection whose primary goal is to reduce the storage and computational requirements of the Nearest Neighbor classifier while achieving better classification accuracies. We propose a solution to the prototype selection problem using techniques from cooperative game theory and show its efficacy experimentally.

Experimental implementation of a three qubit quantum game with corrupt source using nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor

In a three player quantum `Dilemma' game each player takes independent decisions to maximize his/her individual gain. The optimal strategy in the quantum version of this game has a higher payoff compared to its classical counterpart. However, this advantage is lost if the initial qubits provided to the players are from a noisy source. We have experimentally implemented the three player quantum version of the `Dilemma' game as described by Johnson, [N.F. Johnson, Phys. Rev. A 63 (2001) 020302(R)] using nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor and have experimentally verified that the payoff of the quantum game for various levels of corruption matches the theoretical payoff. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Microcracking in concrete under repeated compressive loads

The nature of microcracks formed in concrete under repeated uniaxial compressive loads are investigated by experiments on prismatic specimens. The distribution and orientation of cracks formed are studied by optical microscopic techniques. The basic failure mechanism of concrete at the phenomenological and internal structural level are examined by the formation and propagation of cracks. The tests have indicated that local tensile failures constitute the dominant mode of fracture, with the bond cracks forming the major percentage of the total magnitude of cracks. Significant differences were observed in the proportion of bond cracks formed under static and repeated load systems.

Two-agent cooperative search using game models with endurance-time constraints

In this article, the problem of two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) cooperatively searching an unknown region is addressed. The search region is discretized into hexagonal cells and each cell is assumed to possess an uncertainty value. The UAVs have to cooperatively search these cells taking limited endurance, sensor and communication range constraints into account. Due to limited endurance, the UAVs need to return to the base station for refuelling and also need to select a base station when multiple base stations are present. This article proposes a route planning algorithm that takes endurance time constraints into account and uses game theoretical strategies to reduce the uncertainty. The route planning algorithm selects only those cells that ensure the agent will return to any one of the available bases. A set of paths are formed using these cells which the game theoretical strategies use to select a path that yields maximum uncertainty reduction. We explore non-cooperative Nash, cooperative and security strategies from game theory to enhance the search effectiveness. Monte-Carlo simulations are carried out which show the superiority of the game theoretical strategies over greedy strategy for different look ahead step length paths. Within the game theoretical strategies, non-cooperative Nash and cooperative strategy perform similarly in an ideal case, but Nash strategy performs better than the cooperative strategy when the perceived information is different. We also propose a heuristic based on partitioning of the search space into sectors to reduce computational overhead without performance degradation.

Design of incentive compatible protocols for wireless networks: A game theoretic approach

In this thesis work, we design rigorous and efficient protocols/mechanisms for different types of wireless networks using a mechanism design [1] and game theoretic approach [2]. Our work can broadly be viewed in two parts. In the first part, we concentrate on ad hoc wireless networks [3] and [4]. In particular, we consider broadcast in these networks where each node is owned by independent and selfish users. Being selfish, these nodes do not forward the broadcast packets. All existing protocols for broadcast assume that nodes forward the transit packets. So, there is need for developing new broadcast protocols to overcome node selfishness. In our paper [5], we develop a strategy proof pricing mechanism which we call immediate predecessor node pricing mechanism (IPNPM) and an efficient new broadcast protocol based on IPNPM. We show the efficacy of our proposed broadcast protocol using simulation results.

Characterization of species-specific repeated DNA sequences from B. nigra

The construction and characterization of two genome-specific recombinant DNA clones from B. nigra are described. Southern analysis showed that the two clones belong to a dispersed repeat family. They differ from each other in their length, distribution and sequence, though the average GC content is nearly the same (45%). These B genome-specific repeats have been used to analyse the phylogenetic relationships between cultivated and wild species of the family Brassicaceae.

A non-cooperative game-theoretic approach to channel assignment in multi-channel multi-radio wireless networks

Channel assignment in multi-channel multi-radio wireless networks poses a significant challenge due to scarcity of number of channels available in the wireless spectrum. Further, additional care has to be taken to consider the interference characteristics of the nodes in the network especially when nodes are in different collision domains. This work views the problem of channel assignment in multi-channel multi-radio networks with multiple collision domains as a non-cooperative game where the objective of the players is to maximize their individual utility by minimizing its interference. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the channel assignment to be a Nash Equilibrium (NE) and efficiency of the NE is analyzed by deriving the lower bound of the price of anarchy of this game. A new fairness measure in multiple collision domain context is proposed and necessary and sufficient conditions for NE outcomes to be fair are derived. The equilibrium conditions are then applied to solve the channel assignment problem by proposing three algorithms, based on perfect/imperfect information, which rely on explicit communication between the players for arriving at an NE. A no-regret learning algorithm known as Freund and Schapire Informed algorithm, which has an additional advantage of low overhead in terms of information exchange, is proposed and its convergence to the stabilizing outcomes is studied. New performance metrics are proposed and extensive simulations are done using Matlab to obtain a thorough understanding of the performance of these algorithms on various topologies with respect to these metrics. It was observed that the algorithms proposed were able to achieve good convergence to NE resulting in efficient channel assignment strategies.

Repeated drop weight impacts and post-impact ILSS tests on glass-epoxy composite

E glass epoxy laminates of thicknesses in the range 2-5 mm were subjected to repeated impacts. For each thickness the number of hits to cause tup penetration was determined and the value of this number was higher the larger the thickness of the laminate tested. The C-scan, before and after impact, was done to obtain information regarding flaw distribution. Short beam shear test samples were made from locations at fixed distances from impact point and tested. The samples closer to the zone of impact showed lower strength values. Scanning fractography revealed shear deformation features for these samples and brittle fracture features for the region near the zone of impact.

Study of fracture features in foam bearing glass epoxy composites subjected to repeated impacts

The paper reports the failure features observed in low mass repeatedly (pendulum) impacted glass epoxy composites with and without the mid section having either 2-layers or 3-layers of flexible foam. Features such as through width and inclined cracks as well as adhering of foam observed in the experiments are explained. The significance of the foam material in modifying the impact response of the composite is stressed.