We investigate the nonequilibrium steady state of driven magnetic flux lines in type-II superconductors subject to strong point or columnar pinning centers and the aging dynamics of nonequilibrium relaxation process in the presence of weak point pinning centers. We employ a three-dimensional elastic line model and Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations. For the first part, we characterize the system by means of the force-velocity / current-voltage curve, static structure factor, mean vortex radius of gyration, number of double-kink and half-loop excitations, and velocity / voltage noise features. We compare the results for the above quantities for randomly distributed point and columnar defects. Most of both numerical works have been done in two-dimensional systems such as thin film in which the structure of flux lines is treated as a point-like particle. Our main point of investigation in this paper is to demonstrate that the vortex structure and its other transport properties may exhibit a remarkable variety of complex phenomena in three-dimensional or bulk superconductors. The second part devotes to the study of aging phenomena in the absence of a driving force in disordered superconductors with much weaker point disorder. By investigating the density autocorrelation function, we observe all three crucial properties of the aging phenomena; slow power-law relaxation, breaking of time-translation invariance, and the presence of the dynamical scaling. We measure the dynamical exponents b and lambda_c/z and compare to other work. We find exponent values increase for increasing pinning strength, smaller interaction range, lower temperature, and denser defect density while the exponents measured in other approach tend to decrease. / Ph. D.

Yes / Desalination has become one of the obvious solutions for the global water crisis due to affording high-quality water from seawater and brackish water resources. As a result, there are continuing efforts being made to improve desalination technologies, especially the one producing high-quantity freshwater, i.e., thermal desalination. This improvement must be accomplished via enhancement of process design through optimization which is implicitly dependent on providing a generic process model. Due to the scarcity of a comprehensive review paper for modeling multi-effect distillation (MED) process, this topic is becoming more important. Therefore, this paper intends to capture the evolution of modeling the forward feed MED (most common type) and shed a light on its branches of steady-state and dynamic modeling. The maturity of the models developed for MED will be thoroughly reviewed to clarify the general efforts made highlighting the advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the outputs of this review, the requirements of process development and emerging challengeable matters of modeling will be specified. This, in turn, would afford a possible improvement strategy to gain a reliable and sustainable thermal desalination process.

<p> Steady state heat and mass balancing around an ethylene/ethane distillation unit at Polymer Corporation, Sarnia is studied using the CHESS simulation executive system.</p> <p> The unit involves a single column with reboiler heat provided by recompression of the overhead vapor stream.</p> <p> A new column model is developed, based on the approximate pseudo-binary method of Hengstebeck, and is shown to give good results with marked savings in computation time over the conventional tray to tray methods. Models for vapor compression and heat exchange are also presented.</p> <p> The system model is fitted to plant data and a routine developed to obtain satisfactory system convergence.</p> <p> A parametric study is carried out in which column pressure and distillate product enthalpy are varied to demonstrate significant improvements in plant operation.</p> <p> An evaluation of the CHESS simulation system is presented.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

<p> Steady state response of a single degree of freedom system with impact damper, with the main emphasis of two impacts (symmetric or unsymmetric)/cycle motion, and its asymptotic stability criterion are derived analytically. Stability regions are determined for wide range of parameters of the impact damper by using digital computer. </p> <p> Experimental study is also made to verify the assumptions taken in the analytical solution and to obtain general response of the system for wide range of parameters of the impact damper. </p> <p> As a result, it is found that unsymmetric two impacts per cycle motion exists and is stable for a wide range of parameters of the impact damper. </p> <p> Also, it is found that three and four impacts/cycle motions exist and are stable. </p> <p> Stability boundaries are found to be a complicated function of the impact damper parameters. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

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No description available.

No description available.

There are increasing economic incentives within the chemical process industry towards demand driven operation with product diversification, requiring flexible operation in responsive plants. In continuous processes, this is realized through steady-state transitions but requires consideration of process dynamics arising from operation that is inherently transient in nature. The steady-state economic optimum is typically defined at the intersection of constraints, and requires multivariable control with optimal constraint handling capabilities. Thus, constrained model predictive control is well-suited to realize the profit potential at the economic optimum. In this thesis, feasible and optimal steady-state transitions are achieved using reference management with consideration of the closed-loop dynamics of constrained model predictive control. The supervisory control scheme is used to determine the optimal setpoint trajectory which is subsequently tracked by regulatory control, incorporating feedback for the rejection of high frequency disturbances and eliminating steady-state offset in the presence of model mismatch. The separation of economic and control objectives enables the lower level to be tuned for stability and the upper level to be tuned for performance. The mathematical formulation results in a multi-level optimization problem with an economic objective function at the upper level, and a series of control performance objective functions arising from constrained model predictive control at the lower levels. The solution strategy proposed converts the multi-level optimization problem into a single-level optimization problem using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, and solves the resulting complementarity conditions using an interior point approach. Alternative objective formulations are investigated based on maximizing profit during transient operation. The first formulation is typically based on a quadratic objective function minimizing the transition time, indirectly improving economic operation by reducing the amount of off-specification product produced. The second formulation is based on the explicit consideration of economics. The profit calculated during transient operation is based on the difference between the revenue generated by the production of acceptable product within specified univariate product quality bands, and the operational costs of raw materials and utilities. The resulting linear objective function is further extended to incorporate control performance considerations to improve conditioning for gradient based optimization. The proposed methodology is applied to a single-input single-output linear system, demonstrating the potential benefits of simultaneous rather than sequential optimization in terms of computational efficiency and solution reliability. Alternative objective function and constraint formulations are investigated, and the effect on the optimal solution assessed. In particular, the possibility of indeterminacy is shown and handled using hierarchical optimization. The methodology is also demonstrated on additional examples including non-minimum phase systems and multi-input multi-output linear systems. Application to a multi-input multi-output nonlinear system corresponding to styrene polymerization using the proposed methodology is detailed. The set of differential and algebraic equations defining the process is discretized using orthogonal collocation on finite elements. The optimal operation during grade transitions based on explicit consideration of economics is determined, and additional improvements realized by manipulating the production rate. Finally, reference management with online re-optimization is investigated for a single-input single-output linear system based on a bias update, and the improvement in closed-loop performance assessed for output disturbances and model mismatch. The methodology is also demonstrated on a multi-input multi-output system based on a linear model when applied to the nonlinear process. The proposed methodology developed for steady-state transitions may also be applied to batch operation, startups and shutdowns. Future extensions include analysis of closed-loop stability due to the incorporation of feedback within the cascade control scheme, and the explicit consideration of uncertainty. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Yes / Local scour around submarine pipelines can affect the stability of the pipeline. The accurate estimation of the scour around submarine pipelines has been a hot topic of research among marine engineers. This paper presents results from a numerical study of clear-water scour depth below a submarine pipeline for a range of the steady flow conditions. The flow field around the pipeline under scour equilibrium condition is numerically simulated by solving the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the standard k-ε turbulence closure. The flow discharge through the scour hole for various flow conditions is investigated. The results are used to establish the relationship between the flow discharge and the maximum scour depth. Incorporated with the Colebrook-White equation, the bed shear stress is obtained and an iterative method is proposed to predict the scour depth around the submarine pipeline. The calculated scour depths using the present method agree well with the laboratory measurements, with the average absolute relative error being smaller than that using previous methods, indicating that the proposed method can be used to predict the clear-water scour around the submarine pipeline with satisfactory accuracy. / National Nature Science Fund of China (Grant No.50879084, 51279189), the Open Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University (SKHL1302),China Scholarship Council, Public Projects of Zhejiang Province (2016C33095) and the Natural Science Fund of Zhejiang Province (LQ16E090004).

We explore steady-state properties of a driven lattice gas, which is a simple model of interacting many-particle systems, driven far from equilibrium by an external field. First, we study a system on a square lattice with periodic boundary conditions (PBC) along both principal lattice axes, while the drive acts along only one of these axes. For such systems, we analyze the full distribution of structure factors. Next, we investigate the effects of imposing other boundary conditions on the system. In particular, we focus on models with shifted periodic boundary conditions (SPBC) along one axis and open boundary conditions (OBC) along the other axis. The OBC allow us to have a steady flux of particles through the system while the SPBC permits us to drive the system in a range of possibilities. Using Monte Carlo simulation techniques, we discover a rich variety of phenomena, especially at low temperatures. A continuum theory for the densities, based on Langevin equations, is formulated and its predictions compared to simulation data. Many large scale properties are described successfully. / Ph. D.