Previous research studies have successfully demonstrated the use of artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting critical structural responses and layer moduli of highway flexible pavements. The primary objective of this study was to develop an ANN-based approach for backcalculation of pavement moduli based on heavy weight deflectometer (HWD) test data, especially in the analysis of airport flexible pavements subjected to new generation aircraft (NGA). Two medium-strength subgrade flexible test sections, at the National Airport Pavement Test Facility (NAPTF), were modeled using a finite element (FE) based pavement analysis program, which can consider the non-linear stress-dependent behavior of pavement geomaterials. A multi-layer, feed-forward network which uses an error-backpropagation algorithm was trained to approximate the HWD backcalculation function using the FE program generated synthetic database. At the NAPTF, test sections were subjected to Boeing 777 (B777) trafficking on one lane and Boeing 747 (B747) trafficking on the other lane using a test machine. To monitor the effect of traffic and climatic variations on pavement structural responses, HWD tests were conducted on the trafficked lanes and on the untrafficked centerline of test sections as trafficking progressed. The trained ANN models were successfully applied on the actual HWD test data acquired at the NAPTF to predict the asphalt concrete moduli and non-linear subgrade moduli of the medium-strength subgrade flexible test sections.

Mesoscopic characteristics of a clayey soil specimen subjected to macroscopic loading are examined using a medical-use computerized tomography (CT) instrument. Disturbed state concept (DSC) theory is based on the utilization of the hardening model. DSC indirectly describes material behavior by claiming that the actual response of the material is expressed in terms of the relative intact (RI) response and the fully adjusted (FA) response. The occurrence of mesoscopic structural changes of material has similarities with the occurrence of a macroscopic response of the material under loadings. In general, the relative changing value of a softening material is three to five times more than that of a hardening material. Whether special zones exist or not in a specimen cross section does not affect the following conclusion: hardening material and softening material show mechanical differences with CT statistical indices values prominently changing, and the change is related to the superposing of a disturbance factor. A new disturbance factor evolution function is proposed. Thus, mesoscopic statistical indices are introduced to describe macroscopic behavior through the new evolution function. An application of the new evolution function proves the effectiveness of the amalgamation of a macroscopic and a mesoscopic experimental phenomenon measurement methods.

The mechanical behavior of sand is very complex, and depends on factors including confining pressure, density, and drainage condition. A soil mass can be contractive or dilative when subjected to shear loading, and eventually reaches an ultimate state, referred to as the critical state in soil mechanics. Conventional approach to explore the mechanical behavior of sand mainly relies on the experimental tests in laboratory. This paper gives an alternative view to this subject using discrete element method (DEM), which has attracted much attention in recent years. The implementation of the DEM is carried out by a series of numerical tests on granular assemblies with varying initial densities and confining pressures, under different test configurations. The results demonstrate that such numerical simulations can produce correct responses of the sand behavior in general, including the critical state response, as compared to experimental observations. In addition, the DEM can further provide details of the microstructure evolutions during shearing processes, and the resulting induced anisotropy can be fully captured and quantified in the particle scale.

A numerical model using the coupled smoothed particle hydrodynamics-finite element method (SPH-FEM) approach is presented for analysis of structures under blast loads. The analyses on two numerical cases, one for free field explosive and the other for structural response under blast loads, are performed to model the whole processes from the propagation of the pressure wave to the response of structures. Based on the simulation, it is concluded that this model can be used for reasonably accurate explosive analysis of structures. The resulting information would be valuable for protecting structures under blast loads.

This paper proposes a new numerical simulation method for analyzing the parametric vibration of stay cables based on the theory of nonlinear dynamic response of structures under the asynchronous support excitation. The effects of important parameters related to parametric vibration of cables, i.e., characteristics of structure, excitation frequency, excitation amplitude, damping effect of the air and the viscous damping coefficient of the cables, were investigated by using the proposed method for the cables with significant length difference as examples. The analysis results show that nonlinear finite element method is a powerful technique in analyzing the parametric vibration of cables, the behavior of parametric vibration of the two cables with different Irvine parameters has similar properties, the amplitudes of parametric vibration of cables are related to the frequency and amplitude of harmonic support excitations and the effect of distributed viscous damping on parametric vibration of the cables is very small.

Factors such as errors during the fabrication or construction of structural components and errors of calculation assumption or calculation methods, are very likely to cause serious deviation of many strings’ actual prestressing forces from the designed values during tension structure construction or service period, and further to threaten the safety and reliability of the structure. Aiming at relatively large errors of the prestressing force of strings in a tension structure construction or service period, this paper proposes a new finite element method (FEM), the “tensile force correction calculation method”. Based on the measured prestressing forces of the strings, this new method applies the structure from the zero prestressing force status approach to the measured prestressing force status for the first phase, and from the measured prestressing force status approach to the designed prestressing force status for the second phase. The construction tensile force correction value for each string can be obtained by multi-iteration with FEM. Using the results of calculation, the strings’ tensile force correction by group and in batch will be methodic, simple and accurate. This new calculation method can be applied to the prestressed correction construction simulation analysis for tension structures.

The space effects of deep pit slope are analyzed by an elastic mechanics principle. The interaction among the critical slide angle, the friction coefficient, the cohesion, and the horizontal radius of the deep pits is derived in this paper. It indicates that the deeper the pit is excavated, the greater the critical slide angle is. Both the theory for reducing stripping waste rock in deep pit and the approach to determining the configuration of the stable slope are developed from the interaction. The theory in this paper comprises the preceding principles of stability analysis of slopes and is suitable for analyzing that of deep pit.

For reconstructing a freeform feature from point cloud, a deformation-based method is proposed in this paper. The freeform feature consists of a secondary surface and a blending surface. The secondary surface plays a role in substituting a local region of a given primary surface. The blending surface acts as a bridge to smoothly connect the unchanged region of the primary surface with the secondary surface. The secondary surface is generated by surface deformation subjected to line constraints, i.e., character lines and limiting lines, not designed by conventional methods. The lines are used to represent the underlying information of the freeform feature in point cloud, where the character lines depict the feature’s shape, and the limiting lines determine its location and orientation. The configuration of the character lines and the extraction of the limiting lines are discussed in detail. The blending surface is designed by the traditional modeling method, whose intrinsic parameters are recovered from point cloud through a series of steps, namely, point cloud slicing, circle fitting and regression analysis. The proposed method is used not only to effectively and efficiently reconstruct the freeform feature, but also to modify it by manipulating the line constraints. Typical examples are given to verify our method.

For river basin management, the reliability of the rating curves mainly depends on the accuracy and time period of the observed discharge and water level data. In the Elbe decision support system (DSS), the rating curves are combined with the HEC-6 model to investigate the effects of river engineering measures on the Elbe River system. In such situations, the uncertainty originating from the HEC-6 model is of significant importance for the reliability of the rating curves and the corresponding DSS results. This paper proposes a two-step approach to analyze the uncertainty in the rating curves and propagate it into the Elbe DSS: analytic method and Latin Hypercube simulation. Via this approach the uncertainty and sensitivity of model outputs to input parameters are successfully investigated. The results show that the proposed approach is very efficient in investigating the effect of uncertainty and can play an important role in improving decision-making under uncertainty.

According to the load-structure method, the wall rock with lining can bear the load caused by the surrounding rock, and the rock resistant coefficient (RRC) is a key parameter for evaluating the capacity of this wall rock. Based on the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion, this paper develops a formula for calculating the RRC, which has been applied to the real engineering project, such as Xiamen Xiang’an East Passage Underwater Tunnel Project. The fact shows that this formula is helpful for designers to determine the RRC value.

Green cutting has become focus of attention in ecological and environmental protection. Steam is cheap, pollution-free and eco-friendly, and then is a good and economical coolant and lubricant. Steam generator and steam feeding system were developed to generate and feed steam. Comparative experiments were carried out in cutting AA6061-15 vol.% SiC (25 µm particle size), with cubic boron nitride (CBN) insert KB-90 grade under the conditions of compressed air, oil water emulsion, steam as coolant and lubricant, and dry cutting, respectively. The experimental results show that, with steam as coolant and lubricant, gradual reduction in the cutting force, friction coefficient, surface roughness and cutting temperature values were observed. Further, there was reduction in built up edge formation. It is proved that use of water steam as coolant and lubricant is environmentally friendly.

In this study, the suitability of current design methods for the 0.2% proof yield strength of the corner regions for high strength cold-formed steel at normal room temperature was investigated. The current standard predictions are generally accurate for outer corner specimen but conservative for inner corner specimen. Based on the experimental results, an analytical model to predict the corner strength of high strength cold-formed steel at normal room temperature was also proposed. The comparison indicated that the proposed model predicted well the corner strength of high strength cold-formed steel not only at normal room temperature but also at elevated temperatures. It is shown that the predictions obtained from the proposed model agree well with the test results. Generally the corner strength enhancement of high strength cold-formed steel decreases when the temperature increases.

Many kinds of devices with cam have been widely used in various mechanical equipments. However, non-equalization machining for spatial cam trough remains to be a difficult problem. This paper focuses on the analysis of running conditions and machining processes of spatial cam with oscillating follower. We point out the common errors in the biased distance cutting. By analyzing the motion of oscillating follower of spatial cam, we present a new 3D curve expansion model of spatial cam trough-outline. Based on this model, we have proposed a machining method for trochoidal milling with non-equalization diameter cutter. This new method has led to a creative and effective way for non-equalization diameter machining for spatial cam with oscillating follower.

As the idea of simulated annealing (SA) is introduced into the fitness function, an improved genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to perform the optimal design of a pressure vessel which aims to attain the minimum weight under burst pressure constraint. The actual burst pressure is calculated using the arc-length and restart analysis in finite element analysis (FEA). A penalty function in the fitness function is proposed to deal with the constrained problem. The effects of the population size and the number of generations in the GA on the weight and burst pressure of the vessel are explored. The optimization results using the proposed GA are also compared with those using the simple GA and the conventional Monte Carlo method.

The EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) technique can greatly reduce the NO_x emission of diesel engines, especially when an EGR cooler is employed. Numerical simulations are applied to study the flow field and temperature distributions inside the EGR cooler. Three different models of EGR cooler are investigated, among which model A is a traditional one, and models B and C are improved by adding a helical baffle in the cooling area. In models B and C the entry directions of cooling water are different, which mostly influences the flow resistance. The results show that the improved structures not only lengthen the flow path of the cooling water, but also enhance the heat exchange rate between the cool and hot media. In conclusion we suggest that the improved structures are more powerful than the traditional one.

A single stage Stirling pulse tube cryocooler was designed based on REGEN 3.2 and fabricated for testing. The experimental results show that the cooler can provide a cooling capacity of 5.0 W at 79.1 K, and produce a no-load temperature of 57.0 K, operating with an average pressure of 2.50 MPa and a frequency of 60 Hz, performance results that are very close to the calculated values. The cryocooler can be cooled from room temperature to 80 K in 8.5 min. The fast cooldown time is a result of the small regenerator.

An improved configuration of the membrane stack was adopted in the electrodeionization (EDI) cell to prevent precipitation of bivalent metal hydroxide during the running. The operational parameters that influenced the removal of copper ions from the dilute solution were optimized. The result showed that a moderate decrease in the inlet pH value and a moderate increase in the applied voltage could achieve a better removal effect. The steady process of electroplating wastewater treatment could be achieved with a removal efficiency of more than 99.5% and an enrichment factor of 5~14. The concentration of copper in purified water was less than 0.23 mg/L. This demonstrated the applicability of recovering heavy metal ions and purified water from electroplating effluent for industrial reuse.

Fluidized-bed reactor is a candidate for dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis from syngas because of its excellent heat removal capability. In order to improve the attrition resistance of catalyst, an amount of silica sol as binder was added to the catalyst composed of methanol synthesis component CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃ and methanol dehydration component HZSM-5, which was prepared by coprecipitation and shaped by spray drying to get spherical particles. The effect of silica sol on the catalytic activity was investigated in a fixed-bed flow microreactor. Based on the experiment results, silica sol in the range of 0~20wt% had small effect on the catalytic activity. Generally, the CO conversion and DME yield decreased with the increase in concentration of silica sol, while the attrition resistance of catalysts increased with increasing silica sol, indicating that it was feasible to improve the attrition resistance without greatly sacrificing the activity of catalyst. In addition, the characterizations of catalysts were carried out using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and temperature programmed reduction (TPR).

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) emissions in flue gas from two types of municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) most commonly used in China were investigated in this study. The selected incinerators include two grate-type MSWIs: MSWI-A (350 t/d) and MSWI-B (150 t/d), and two fluidized bed MSWIs: MSWI-C (400 t/d) and MSWI-D (400 t/d), which are all equipped with semi-dry lime scrubber and bag filter except MSWI-D equipped with cyclone and wet scrubber (WS) as air pollutant control device (APCD). Results indicated that the emission concentration and the international toxic equivalents (I-TEQs) of the PCDD/Fs from the stacks were in the range of 1.210~10.273 ng/Nm³ and 0.019~0.201 ng I-TEQ/Nm³, respectively. They were greatly lower than the emission regulation standard of PCDD/Fs in China (1.0 ng I-TEQ/Nm³). However, only the PCDD/Fs emission level from MSWI-C was below 0.1 ng I-TEQ/Nm³. Although the homologue profiles were distinct, the contributions of the 2,3,7,8-subsituted congeners to the total I-TEQ were similar among all the investigated MSWIs. Two major 2,3,7,8-substituted congeners, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF and 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD, account for 47% and 9% (average values) of the total I-TEQ values, respectively. The correlation between PCDD/Fs levels and composition of flue gas was also discussed.

A series of new amphiphilic poly[methyl(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)siloxane]-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PMTFPS-b-PEO) diblock copolymers with different ratios of hydrophobic segment to hydrophilic segment were prepared by coupling reactions of end-functional PMTFPS and PEO homopolymers. Copolymers were shown to be well defined and narrow molecular weight distribution (MWD) (1.07~1.3) by characterizations such as gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and ¹H-nudear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR).