Multiple-model fault tolerant control of terminal unites of HVAC Systems

In this work, a fault-tolerant control scheme is applied to a air handling unit of a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. Using the multiple-model approach it is possible to identify faults and to control the system under faulty and normal conditions in an effective way. Using well known techniques to model and control the process, this work focuses on the importance of the cost function in the fault detection and its influence on the reconfigurable controller. Experimental results show how the control of the terminal unit is affected in the presence a fault, and how the recuperation and reconfiguration of the control action is able to deal with the effects of faults.

Optimization of apodization functions in terahertz transient spectrometry

A quadratic programming optimization procedure for designing asymmetric apodization windows tailored to the shape of time-domain sample waveforms recorded using a terahertz transient spectrometer is proposed. By artificially degrading the waveforms, the performance of the designed window in both the time and the frequency domains is compared with that of conventional rectangular, triangular (Mertz), and Hamming windows. Examples of window optimization assuming Gaussian functions as the building elements of the apodization window are provided. The formulation is sufficiently general to accommodate other basis functions. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America

Small-angle x-ray scattering study of flow alignment of a thermotropic liquid crystal in the nematic and smectic phases

WThe capillary flow alignment of the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-n-octyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl in the nematic and smectic phases is investigated using time-resolved synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering. Samples were cooled from the isotropic phase to erase prior orientation. Upon cooling through the nematic phase under Poiseuille flow in a circular capillary, a transition from the alignment of mesogens along the flow direction to the alignment of layers along the flow direction (mesogens perpendicular to flow) appears to occur continuously at the cooling rate applied. The transition is centered on a temperature at which the Leslie viscosity coefficient α3 changes sign. The configuration with layers aligned along the flow direction is also observed in the smectic phase. The transition in the nematic phase on cooling has previously been ascribed to an aligning-nonaligning or tumbling transition. At high flow rates there is evidence for tumbling around an average alignment of layers along the flow direction. At lower flow rates this orientation is more clearly defined. The layer alignment is ascribed to surface-induced ordering propagating into the bulk of the capillary, an observation supported by the parallel alignment of layers observed for a static sample at low temperatures in the nematic phase.

The exclusive use of integer-order spots for LEED-IV structure analysis of adsorption systems: p(2×2)-O on Ni{111}

Two different ways of performing low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) structure determinations for the p(2 x 2) structure of oxygen on Ni {111} are compared: a conventional LEED-IV structure analysis using integer and fractional-order IV-curves collected at normal incidence and an analysis using only integer-order IV-curves collected at three different angles of incidence. A clear discrimination between different adsorption sites can be achieved by the latter approach as well as the first and the best fit structures of both analyses are within each other's error bars (all less than 0.1 angstrom). The conventional analysis is more sensitive to the adsorbate coordinates and lateral parameters of the substrate atoms whereas the integer-order-based analysis is more sensitive to the vertical coordinates of substrate atoms. Adsorbate-related contributions to the intensities of integer-order diffraction spots are independent of the state of long-range order in the adsorbate layer. These results show, therefore, that for lattice-gas disordered adsorbate layers, for which only integer-order spots are observed, similar accuracy and reliability can be achieved as for ordered adsorbate layers, provided the data set is large enough.

A hyperstable neural network for the modelling and control of nonlinear systems

A multivariable hyperstable robust adaptive decoupling control algorithm based on a neural network is presented for the control of nonlinear multivariable coupled systems with unknown parameters and structure. The Popov theorem is used in the design of the controller. The modelling errors, coupling action and other uncertainties of the system are identified on-line by a neural network. The identified results are taken as compensation signals such that the robust adaptive control of nonlinear systems is realised. Simulation results are given.

Neural networks for identification of nonlinear systems under random piecewise polynomial disturbances

The problem of identification of a nonlinear dynamic system is considered. A two-layer neural network is used for the solution of the problem. Systems disturbed with unmeasurable noise are considered, although it is known that the disturbance is a random piecewise polynomial process. Absorption polynomials and nonquadratic loss functions are used to reduce the effect of this disturbance on the estimates of the optimal memory of the neural-network model.

Identification of linear systems in the presence of piecewise polynomial disturbances

The paper proposes a method of performing system identification of a linear system in the presence of bounded disturbances. The disturbances may be piecewise parabolic or periodic functions. The method is demonstrated effectively on two example systems with a range of disturbances.

Use of the statistical properties of the wavelet-transform coefficients for optimization of integration time in Fourier transform spectrometry

We show that an analysis of the mean and variance of discrete wavelet coefficients of coaveraged time-domain interferograms can be used as a specification for determining when to stop coaveraging. We also show that, if a prediction model built in the wavelet domain is used to determine the composition of unknown samples, a stopping criterion for the coaveraging process can be developed with respect to the uncertainty tolerated in the prediction.

Optimal control of nonlinear systems represented by differential algebraic equations

An iterative procedure is described for solving nonlinear optimal control problems subject to differential algebraic equations. The procedure iterates on an integrated modified simplified model based problem with parameter updating in such a manner that the correct solution of the original nonlinear problem is achieved.