Angle-of-attack effects on counter-rotating propellers at take-off

Due to their potential for significant fuel consumption savings, Counter-Rotating Open Rotors (CRORs) are currently being considered as an alternative to high-bypass turbofans. When CRORs are mounted on an aircraft, several 'installation effects' arise which are not present when the engine is operated in isolation. This paper investigates how flow features arising from one such effect - The angle-of-attack of the engine centre-line relative to the oncoming flow - can influence the design of CROR engines. Three-dimensional full-annulus unsteady CFD simulations are used to predict the time-varying flow field experienced by each rotor and emphasis is put on the interaction of the frontrotor wake and tip vortex with the rear-rotor. A parametric study is presented that quantifies the rotorrotor interaction as a function of the angle-of-attack. It is shown that angle-of-attack operation significantly changes the flow field and the unsteady lift on both rotors. In particular, a frequency analysis shows that the unsteady lift exhibits sidebands around the rotor-rotor interaction frequencies. Further, a non-linear increase in the total rear-rotor tip unsteadiness is observed for moderate and high angles-of-attack. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that common techniques used to mitigate CROR noise, such as modifying the rotor-rotor axial spacing and rear-rotor crop, can not be applied correctly unless angle-of-attack effects are taken into account. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.

Modal dynamics of self-excited azimuthal instabilities in an annular combustion chamber

In this paper we describe the time-varying amplitude and its relation to the global heat release rate of self-excited azimuthal instabilities in a simple annular combustor operating under atmospheric conditions. The combustor was modular in construction consisting of either 12, 15 or 18 equally spaced premixed bluff-body flames around a fixed circumference, enabling the effect of large-scale interactions between adjacent flames to be investigated. High-speed OH* chemiluminescence imaged from above the annulus and pressure measurements obtained at multiple locations around the annulus revealed that the limit cycles of the modes are degenerate in so much as they undergo continuous transitions between standing and spinning modes in both clockwise (CW) and anti-clockwise (ACW) directions but with the same resonant frequency. Similar behaviour has been observed in LES simulations which suggests that degenerate modes may be a characteristic feature of self-excited azimuthal instabilities in annular combustion chambers. By modelling the instabilities as two acoustic waves of time-varying amplitude travelling in opposite directions we demonstrate that there is a statistical prevalence for either standing m=1 or spinning m=±1 modes depending on flame spacing, equivalence ratio, and swirl configuration. Phase-averaged OH* chemiluminescence revealed a possible mechanism that drives the direction of the spinning modes under limit-cycle conditions for configurations with uniform swirl. By dividing the annulus into inner and outer annular regions it was found that the spin direction coincided with changes in the spatial distribution of the peak heat release rate relative to the direction of the bulk swirl induced along the annular walls. For standing wave modes it is shown that the globally integrated fluctuations in heat release rate vary in magnitude along the acoustic mode shape with negligible contributions at the pressure nodes and maximum contributions at the pressure anti-nodes. © 2013.

Predictive control for spacecraft rendezvous in an elliptical orbit using an FPGA

A field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based predictive controller for a spacecraft rendezvous manoeuvre is presented. A linear time varying prediction model is used to accommodate elliptical orbits, and a variable prediction horizon is used to facilitate finite time completion of manoeuvres. The resulting constrained optimisation problems are solved using a primal dual interior point algorithm. The majority of the computational demand is in solving a set of linear equations at each iteration of this algorithm. To accelerate this operation, a custom circuit is implemented, using a combination of Mathworks HDL Coder and Xilinx System Generator for DSP, and used as a peripheral to a MicroBlaze soft core processor. The system is demonstrated in closed loop by linking the FPGA with a simulation of the plant dynamics running in Simulink on a PC, using Ethernet. © 2013 EUCA.

Aberration correction for free space optical communications using rectangular zernike modal wavefront sensing

A time multiplexed rectangular Zernike modal wavefront sensor based on a nematic phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulator and specially designed for a high power two-electrode tapered laser diode which is a compact and novel free space optical communication source is used in an adaptive beam steering free space optical communication system, enabling the system to have 1.25 GHz modulation bandwidth, 4.6° angular coverage and the capability of sensing aberrations within the system and caused by atmosphere turbulence up to absolute value of 0.15 waves amplitude and correcting them in one correction cycle. Closed-loop aberration correction algorithm can be implemented to provide convergence for larger and time varying aberrations. Improvement of the system signal-to-noise-ratio performance is achieved by aberration correction. To our knowledge, it is first time to use rectangular orthonormal Zernike polynomials to represent balanced aberrations for high power rectangular laser beam in practice. © 2014 IEEE.

Field programmable gate array based predictive control system for spacecraft rendezvous in elliptical orbits

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Summary A field programmable gate array (FPGA) based model predictive controller for two phases of spacecraft rendezvous is presented. Linear time-varying prediction models are used to accommodate elliptical orbits, and a variable prediction horizon is used to facilitate finite time completion of the longer range manoeuvres, whilst a fixed and receding prediction horizon is used for fine-grained tracking at close range. The resulting constrained optimisation problems are solved using a primal-dual interior point algorithm. The majority of the computational demand is in solving a system of simultaneous linear equations at each iteration of this algorithm. To accelerate these operations, a custom circuit is implemented, using a combination of Mathworks HDL Coder and Xilinx System Generator for DSP, and used as a peripheral to a MicroBlaze soft-core processor on the FPGA, on which the remainder of the system is implemented. Certain logic that can be hard-coded for fixed sized problems is implemented to be configurable online, in order to accommodate the varying problem sizes associated with the variable prediction horizon. The system is demonstrated in closed-loop by linking the FPGA with a simulation of the spacecraft dynamics running in Simulink on a PC, using Ethernet. Timing comparisons indicate that the custom implementation is substantially faster than pure embedded software-based interior point methods running on the same MicroBlaze and could be competitive with a pure custom hardware implementation.

Observation of quantum beat in Rb by parametric four-wave mixing

Two coupled parametric four-wave-mixing processed in Rb atoms are studied using perturbation theory, which reveals clear evidence of the appearance of quantum beat at 608 cm(-1), corresponding to the energy difference of the 7s - 5d states of Rb atoms, in the parametric four-wave-mixing signals. A pump-probe technique is utilized to observe the quantum beat. Time-varying characteristics of the quantum beat are investigated using time-dependent Fourier transform. The results show that the time-varying characteristics of the quantum beat potential tool for monitoring the dissociation of molecules.

Thermally induced evolution of phase transformations in gas hydrate sediment

Thermally induced evolution of phase transformations is a basic physical-chemical process in the dissociation of gas hydrate in sediment (GHS). Heat transfer leads to the weakening of the bed soil and the simultaneous establishment of a time varying stress field accompanied by seepage of fluids and deformation of the soil. As a consequence, ground failure could occur causing engineering damage or/and environmental disaster. This paper presents a simplified analysis of the thermal process by assuming that thermal conduction can be decoupled from the flow and deformation process. It is further assumed that phase transformations take place instantaneously. Analytical and numerical results are given for several examples of simplified geometry. Experiments using Tetra-hydro-furan hydrate sediments were carried out in our laboratory to check the theory. By comparison, the theoretical, numerical and experimental results on the evolution of dissociation fronts and temperature in the sediment are found to be in good agreement.

A three-dimensional coupled physical-biological model study in the spring of 1993 in the Bohai Sea of China

A three-dimensional (3-D) coupled physical and biological model was used to investigate the physical processes and their influence on the ecosystem dynamics of the Bohai Sea of China. The physical processes include M-2 tide, time - varying wind forcing and river discharge. Wind records from I to 31 May in 1993 were selected to force the model. The biological model is based on a simple, nitrate and phosphate limited, lower trophic food web system. The simulated results showed that variation of residual currents forced by M, tide, river discharge and time-varying wind had great impact on the distribution of phytoplankton biomass in the Laizhou Bay. High phytoplankton biomass appeared in the upwelling region. Numerical experiments based on the barotropic model and baroclinic model with no wind and water discharge were also conducted. Differences in the results by the baroclinic model and the barotropic model were significant: more patches appeared in the baroclinic model comparing with the barotropic model. And in the baroclinic model, the subsurface maximum phytoplankton biomass patches formed in the stratified water.

Robust Guaranteed Cost Control for Yaw Control of Helicopter

针对具有时变不确定性且不确定性界为椭球的线性系统提出了一种新的具有自适应机制的鲁棒保性能控制器设计方法。首先,引入一个具有可由自适应律在线调整的可调参数的目标模型,通过该参数来保证由目标模型与被控模型所获得的误差系统渐近稳定。结合保证目标模型稳定性的设计,最终形成保证闭环系统稳定且控制器增益仿射依赖于可调参数的鲁棒保性能跟踪控制器。应用于安装在试验平台上的小型直升机航向控制中,仿真试验表明了该方法的有效性。

基于UD分解的自适应扩展集员估计方法

用于非线性椭球估计的扩展集员算法在实际应用中存存着数值稳定性差、计算复杂度高以及滤波器参数难以选择等问题.本文提出了一种基于UD分解的自适应扩展集员估计算法,用于解决非线性系统时变状态和参数的联合估计和定界问题.新算法将UD分解与序列更新和选择更新策略结合起米,改进了传统扩展集员算法的数值稳定性和实时性能;同时,对滤波器参数进行自适应选择以进一步降低计算复杂度并达到次优估计结果.仿真实验表明了该算法的有效性和鲁棒性.

基于自调整神经元的无人直升机航向控制方法

直升机航向动力学包含输入非线性、时变参数和主-尾旋翼之间的强耦合,传统的比例积分微分(Proportional integral differential,PID)方法很难达到良好的控制性能。基于以上原因,通过把自调整神经元与滑模控制相结合,提出一种能够解决带有输入非线性的航向自适应控制方法。与常规自适应控制相比,用滑模条件代替误差函数作为目标函数,使控制器在保证闭环稳定性的同时,能够进一步使跟踪误差满足期望精度。证明了该方法的稳定性,针对实际模型直升机试验平台航向动力学模型的仿真结果,以及与传统PID方法的比较都表明了该方法的有效性。

基于运动速度的机器人学习控制

为了使机器人跟踪给定的期望轨线，提出了一种新的基于机器人运动重复性的学习控制法．在这种方法中机器人通过重复试验得到期望运动，这种控制法的优点：一是对于在期望运动附近非线性机器人动力学的近似表达式的线性时变机械系统产生期望运动的输入力矩可不由估计机器人动力学的物理参数形成；二是可以适当的选择位置、速度和加速度反馈增益矩阵，从而加快误差收敛速度；三是加入了加速度反馈，减少了速度反馈，减少了重复试验的次数．这是因为在每次试验的初始时刻不存在位置和速度误差，但存在加速度误差．另外，这种控制法的有效性通过ＰＵＭＡ５６２机器人的前三个关节的计算机仿真结果得到验证。

城市交通中车队状态观测器的一种新算法

本文阐述了离散时间点过程理论,时变马尔科夫链及鞅差分序列在城市交通车队状态观测器中的应用。并在此基础上,改进了[5]中的估计算法。用本文提出的非线性最小方差估计算法,对提供的交通状态进行估计,所得结果比[5]中算法精度有明显提高。在大连市某交通干线计算机控制系统中初步应用,取得了令人满意的结果。

离散裂缝诱导各向异性粘弹性地震波模拟与特征分析

The real media always attenuate and distort seismic waves as they propagate in the earth. This behavior can be modeled with a viscoelastic and anisotropic wave equation. The real media can be described as fractured media. In this thesis, we present a high-order staggered grid finite-difference scheme for 2-D viscoelastic wave propagation in a medium containing a large number of small finite length fractures. We use the effective medium approach to compute the anisotropic parameters in each grid cell. By comparing our synthetic seismogram by staggered-grid finite-difference with that by complex-ray parameter ray tracing method, we conclude that the high-order staggered-grid finite-difference technique can effectively used to simulate seismic propagation in viscoelastic-anisotropic media. Synthetic seismograms demonstrate that strong attenuation and significant frequency dispersion due to viscosity are important factors of reducing amplitude and delaying arrival time varying with incidence angle or offset. On the other hand, the amount of scattered energy not only provides an indicator of orientation of fracture sets, but can also provide information about the fracture spacing. Analysis of synthetic seismograms from dry- and fluid-filled fractures indicates that dry-filled fractures show more significant scattering on seismic wavefields than fluid-filled ones, and offset-variations in P-wave amplitude are observable. We also analyze seismic response of an anticlinal trap model that includes a gas-filled fractured reservoir with high attenuation, which attenuates and distorts the so-called bright spot.

Paradigms for Structure in an Amorphous Computer

Recent developments in microfabrication and nanotechnology will enable the inexpensive manufacturing of massive numbers of tiny computing elements with sensors and actuators. New programming paradigms are required for obtaining organized and coherent behavior from the cooperation of large numbers of unreliable processing elements that are interconnected in unknown, irregular, and possibly time-varying ways. Amorphous computing is the study of developing and programming such ultrascale computing environments. This paper presents an approach to programming an amorphous computer by spontaneously organizing an unstructured collection of processing elements into cooperative groups and hierarchies. This paper introduces a structure called an AC Hierarchy, which logically organizes processors into groups at different levels of granularity. The AC hierarchy simplifies programming of an amorphous computer through new language abstractions, facilitates the design of efficient and robust algorithms, and simplifies the analysis of their performance. Several example applications are presented that greatly benefit from the AC hierarchy. This paper introduces three algorithms for constructing multiple levels of the hierarchy from an unstructured collection of processors.