Development of a New Loss Model for Turbomachinery Labyrinth Seals

The preliminary design of labyrinth seals requires a fast and accurate estimate of the leakage flow. While the conventional bulk flow models can quickly predict labyrinth seal discharge characteristics, they lack the accuracy and pragmatism of modern CFD technique and vice-a-versa. This paper presents a new 1D loss model for straight-through gas labyrinth seals that can provide quick seal leakage flow predictions with CFD-equivalent accuracy. The present seal loss model is developed using numerical experimentation technique. Multiple CFD computations are conducted on straight-through labyrinth seal geometries for a range of pressure ratios. A distinct post-processing methodology is developed to extract the through-flow stream tube in seal. Total pressure losses and flow area variations experienced by the flow in seal stream-tube are systematically accounted for based on the well-known knife-to-knife (K2K) methodology. Regression analyses are conducted on the trends of variations of loss and area coefficients to derive the independent pressure loss and flow area correlations. These novel correlations can predict the bulk leakage flow rate, windage flow rate and inter-knife static pressures over a wide range of variation of flow and geometry parameters. Validation study shows that the leakage mass flow rate predicted by this model is accurate within ±8% of measured test data. This fast and accurate model can be employed for various applications such as, in seal design-analysis workflows, for secondary air system (SAS) performance analysis and for the rotor-dynamic and aeroelastic assessments of seals.

Differential Evolution Based Algorithm for Optimal Current Ripple Cancelation in an Unequal Interleaved Power Converter

This paper proposes an optimal methodology based on the Differential Evolution algorithm for obtaining the set of duty cycles of a recently proposed power electronics converter with input current ripple cancelation capability. The converter understudy was recently introduced to the state-of-the-art as the interleaved connection of two unequal converters to achieve low input current ripple. A latter contribution proposed a so-called proportional strategy. The strategy can be described as the equations to relate the duty cycles of the unequal power stages. This article proposes a third switching strategy that provides a lower input current ripple than the proportional strategy. This is made by considering duty cycles independently of each other instead of proportionally. The proposed method uses the Differential Evolution algorithm to determine the optimal switching pattern that allows high quality at the input current side, given the reactive components, the switching frequency, and power levels. The mathematical model of the converter is analyzed, and thus, the decision variables and the optimization problem are well set. The proposed methodology is validated through numerical experimentation, which shows that the proposed method achieves lower input current ripples than the proportional strategy.

A GPU-Accelerated Linear Solver for Massively Parallel Underground Simulations

Modern engineering applications require the solution of linear systems of millions or even billions of equations. The solution of the linear system takes most of the simulation for large scale simulations, and represent the bottleneck in developing scientific and technical software. Usually, preconditioned iterative solvers are preferred because of their low memory requirements and they can have a high level of parallelism. Approximate inverses have been proven to be robust and effective preconditioners in several contexts. In this communication, we present an adaptive Factorized Sparse Approximate Inverse (FSAI) preconditioner with a very high level of parallelism in both set-up and application. Its inherent parallelism makes FSAI an ideal candidate for a GPU-accelerated implementation, even if taking advantage of this hardware is not a trivial task, especially in the set-up stage. An extensive numerical experimentation has been performed on industrial underground applications. It is shown that the proposed approach outperforms more traditional preconditioners in challenging underground simulation, greatly reducing time-to-solution.

A Class of Higher-Order Newton-Like Methods for Systems of Nonlinear Equations

In this paper, a class of efficient iterative methods with increasing order of convergence for solving systems of nonlinear equations is developed and analyzed. The methodology uses well-known third-order Potra–Pták iteration in the first step and Newton-like iterations in the subsequent steps. Novelty of the methods is the increase in convergence order by an amount three per step at the cost of only one additional function evaluation. In addition, the algorithm uses a single inverse operator in each iteration, which makes it computationally more efficient and attractive. Local convergence is studied in the more general setting of a Banach space under suitable assumptions. Theoretical results of convergence and computational efficiency are verified through numerical experimentation. Comparison of numerical results indicates that the developed algorithms outperform the other similar algorithms available in the literature, particularly when applied to solve the large systems of equations. The basins of attraction of some of the existing methods along with the proposed method are given to exhibit their performance.

A Systematic Literature Review on Particle Swarm Optimization Techniques for Medical Diseases Detection

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the domain of computer science that focuses on the development of machines that operate like humans. In the field of AI, medical disease detection is an instantly growing domain of research. In the past years, numerous endeavours have been made for the improvements of medical disease detection, because the errors and problems in medical disease detection cause serious wrong medical treatment. Meta-heuristic techniques have been frequently utilized for the detection of medical diseases and promise better accuracy of perception and prediction of diseases in the domain of biomedical. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a swarm-based intelligent stochastic search technique encouraged from the intrinsic manner of bee swarm during the searching of their food source. Consequently, for the versatility of numerical experimentation, PSO has been mostly applied to address the diverse kinds of optimization problems. However, the PSO techniques are frequently adopted for the detection of diseases but there is still a gap in the comparative survey. This paper presents an insight into the diagnosis of medical diseases in health care using various PSO approaches. This study presents to deliver a systematic literature review of current PSO approaches for knowledge discovery in the field of disease detection. The systematic analysis discloses the potential research areas of PSO strategies as well as the research gaps, although, the main goal is to provide the directions for future enhancement and development in this area. This paper gives a systematic survey of this conceptual model for the advanced research, which has been explored in the specified literature to date. This review comprehends the fundamental concepts, theoretical foundations, and conventional application fields. It is predicted that our study will be beneficial for the researchers to review the PSO algorithms in-depth for disease detection. Several challenges that can be undertaken to move the field forward are discussed according to the current state of the PSO strategies in health care.

A dai-liao hybrid conjugate gradient method for unconstrained optimization

One of todays’ best-performing CG methods is Dai-Liao (DL) method which depends on non-negative parameter and conjugacy conditions for its computation. Although numerous optimal selections for the parameter were suggested, the best choice of remains a subject of consideration. The pure conjugacy condition adopts an exact line search for numerical experiments and convergence analysis. Though, a practical mathematical experiment implies using an inexact line search to find the step size. To avoid such drawbacks, Dai and Liao substituted the earlier conjugacy condition with an extended conjugacy condition. Therefore, this paper suggests a new hybrid CG that combines the strength of Liu and Storey and Conjugate Descent CG methods by retaining a choice of Dai-Liao parameterthat is optimal. The theoretical analysis indicated that the search direction of the new CG scheme is descent and satisfies sufficient descent condition when the iterates jam under strong Wolfe line search. The algorithm is shown to converge globally using standard assumptions. The numerical experimentation of the scheme demonstrated that the proposed method is robust and promising than some known methods applying the performance profile Dolan and Mor´e on 250 unrestricted problems. Numerical assessment of the tested CG algorithms with sparse signal reconstruction and image restoration in compressive sensing problems, file restoration, image video coding and other applications. The result shows that these CG schemes are comparable and can be applied in different fields such as temperature, fire, seismic sensors, and humidity detectors in forests, using wireless sensor network techniques.

Enhanced computational homogenization techniques for modelling size effects in polymer composites

Several experimental investigations corroborate nanosized inclusions as being much more efficient reinforcements for strengthening polymers as compared to their microsized counterparts. The inadequacy of the standard first-order computational homogenization scheme, by virtue of lack of the requisite length scale to model such size effects, necessitates enhancements to the standard scheme. In this work, a thorough assessment of one such extension based on the idea of interface energetics is conducted. Systematic numerical experimentation and analysis demonstrate the limitation of the aforementioned approach in modeling mechanical behavior of composite materials where the filler material is much stiffer than the matrix. An alternative approach based on the idea of continuously graded interphases is introduced. Comprehensive evaluation of this technique by means of representative numerical examples reveals it to be the appropriate one for modeling nano-composite materials with different filler-matrix stiffness combinations.

A GPU-accelerated adaptive FSAI preconditioner for massively parallel simulations

The solution of linear systems of equations is a central task in a number of scientific and engineering applications. In many cases the solution of linear systems may take most of the simulation time thus representing a major bottleneck in the further development of scientific and technical software. For large scale simulations, nowadays accounting for several millions or even billions of unknowns, it is quite common to resort to preconditioned iterative solvers for exploiting their low memory requirements and, at least potential, parallelism. Approximate inverses have been shown to be robust and effective preconditioners in various contexts. In this work, we show how adaptive Factored Sparse Approximate Inverse (aFSAI), characterized by a very high degree of parallelism, can be successfully implemented on a distributed memory computer equipped with GPU accelerators. Taking advantage of GPUs in adaptive FSAI set-up is not a trivial task, nevertheless we show through an extensive numerical experimentation how the proposed approach outperforms more traditional preconditioners and results in a close-to-ideal behavior in challenging linear algebra problems.