System Global Behavior Research Articles

Novel Hybrid Modular Construction System ‐ Structural Behaviour of Isolated Sub‐Frames

AbstractWith the rising necessity for sustainable, economic and fast construction solutions, reliable modular construction systems are increasingly in demand. This paper presents a novel lightweight modular construction system, consisting of tubular columns and light‐gauge cold‐form steel profiles, where the beam‐to‐column connection is established by an innovative plug‐and‐play joint. The experimental campaign conducted on the full‐scale isolated sub‐frame configurations is reported, together with the recorded specimen behavior. The experimental results are compared with the numerical FEM estimations, leading to conclusions regarding the system's global behavior, its potential and the influence of the novel joint.

Developing multiple regression models from the manufacturer's ground-source heat pump catalogue data

The performance of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP), often expressed as Power drawn and/or the COP, depends on several operating parameters. Manufacturers usually publish such data in tables for certain discrete values of the operating fluid temperatures and flow rates conditions. In actual applications, such as in dynamic simulations of heat pump system integrated to buildings, there is a need to determine equipment performance under operating conditions other than those listed. This paper describes a simplified methodology for predicting the performance of GSHPs using multiple regression (MR) models as applicable to manufacturer data. We find that fitting second-order MR models with eight statistically significant x-variables from 36 observations appropriately selected in the manufacturer catalogue can predict the system global behavior with good accuracy. For the three studied GSHPs, the external prediction error of the MR models identified following the methodology are 0.2%, 0.9% and 1% for heating capacity (HC) predictions and 2.6%, 4.9% and 3.2% for COP predictions. No correlation is found between residuals and the response, thus validating the models. The operational approach appears to be a reliable tool to be integrated in dynamic simulation codes, as the method is applicable to any GSHP catalogue data.

Modeling the Formation of Some Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons During the Roasting of Arabica Coffee Samples

Roasting is a critical process in coffee production, as it enables the development of flavor and aroma. At the same time, roasting may lead to the formation of nondesirable compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, Arabica green coffee beans from Cuba were roasted under controlled conditions to monitor PAH formation during the roasting process. Roasting was performed in a pilot-spouted bed roaster, with the inlet air temperature varying from 180 to 260 degrees C, for roasting conditions ranging from 5 to 20 min. Several PAHs were determined in both roasted coffee samples and green coffee samples. Different models were tested, with more or less assumptions on the chemical phenomena, with a view to predict the system global behavior. Two kinds of models were used and compared: kinetic models (based on Arrhenius law) and statistical models (neural networks). The numbers of parameters to adjust differed for the tested models, varying from three to nine for the kinetic models and from five to 13 for the neural networks. Interesting results are presented, with satisfactory correlations between experimental and predicted concentrations for some PAHs, such as pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, and anthracene.

Formations of Vehicles in Cyclic Pursuit

Inspired by the so-called bugs problem from mathematics, we study the geometric formations of multivehicle systems under cyclic pursuit. First, we introduce the notion of cyclic pursuit by examining a system of identical linear agents in the plane. This idea is then extended to a system of wheeled vehicles, each subject to a single nonholonomic constraint (i.e., unicycles), which is the principal focus of this paper. The pursuit framework is particularly simple in that the n identical vehicles are ordered such that vehicle i pursues vehicle i+1 modulo n. In this paper, we assume each vehicle has the same constant forward speed. We show that the system's equilibrium formations are generalized regular polygons and it is exposed how the multivehicle system's global behavior can be shaped through appropriate controller gain assignments. We then study the local stability of these equilibrium polygons, revealing which formations are stable and which are not.

Evolutionary minority game: the roles of response time and mutation threshold.

In the evolutionary minority game, agents are allowed to evolve their strategies ("mutate") based on past experience. We explore the dependence of the system's global behavior on the response time and the mutation threshold of the agents. We find that the precise values of these parameters determine if the strategy distribution of the population has a U shape, inverse U shape, or W shape. It is shown that in a free society (market), highly adaptive agents (with short response times) perform best. In addition, "patient" agents (with high mutation thresholds) outperform "nervous" ones.

Global behavior of gear system using mixed cell mapping

In some mechanical nonlinear systems, the transient motion will be undergoing a very long process and the attractor-basin boundaries are so complicated that some difficulties occur in analyzing the system global behavior. To solve this problem a mixed cell mapping method based on the point mapping and the principle of simple celll mapping is developed. The algorithm of the mixed cell mapping is studied. A dynamic model of a gear pair is established with the backlash, damping, transmission error and the time-varying stiffness taken into consideration. The global behaviors of this system are analyzed. The coexistence of the system attractors and the respective attractor-basin of each attractor with different parameters are obtained, thus laying a theoretical basis for improvement of the dynamic behaviors of gear system.