• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.277-287
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• 2003

The low boundary of load carrying capacity of the elastic-plastic spatial grid structures depend on numerous values and their variability assumed in designing process. Analysed influence all this values in searching for optimal variant of the structure lead to too great problem even taking into consideration actual computational power we have in disposal. Therefore one can take only a few values which have greatest influence on the optimal choice. In optimal analysis of the elastic-plastic spatial grid structures the previously proposed method with subsequent modification (Karczewski 1980), (Karczewski, Barszcz and Donten 1996), (Karczewski and Donten 2001) as well as computer program which was worked out by Donten K. to make possible practical utilisation this method was employed. The paper deal with evaluation of influence dimensions of particular values for choice of optimal variant of the structure. One among this values is distribution of the struts in the structure.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2009

The current focus of development in industrial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is integration of CFD into Computer-Aided product development, geometrical optimisation, robust design and similar. On the other hand, in CFD research aims to extend the boundaries of practical engineering use in "non-traditional" areas. Requirements of computational flexibility and code integration are contradictory: a change of coding paradigm, with object orientation, library components, equation mimicking is proposed as a way forward. This paper describes OpenFOAM, a C++ object oriented library for Computational Continuum Mechanics (CCM) developed by the author. Efficient and flexible implementation of complex physical models is achieved by mimicking the form of partial differential equation in software, with code functionality provided in library form. Open Source deployment and development model allows the user to achieve desired versatility in physical modeling without the sacrifice of complex geometry support and execution efficiency.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2015

The current scenario of the transportation sector reflects the urgent need to address issues such as depletion of traditional fuel reserves and ever growing pollution levels. Researchers around the world are focussing on alternatives as well as optimisation of currently employed devices to reduce the pollution levels generated by the commonly used fuels. One such optimisation involves the study of air flow within the intake manifolds of SI engines. It is a well-known fact that alterations in the air manifolds of engines have a significant impact on the engine performance parameters, fuel consumption and emission levels. Previous works have demonstrated the impacts of runner lengths, diameter, plenum volume, taper angle of distribution manifolds and other factors on in-cylinder fluid motion and engine performance. However, a static setup provides an optimal configuration only at a specific engine speed. This paper aims to investigate the variations in the same parameters on a four stroke, naturally aspirated single cylinder SI engine through varying the cross section design over the intake runner with the aid of Computational Fluid Dynamics. The system consists of segments that form the intake runner with projections on the inside that allow various permutations of the intake runner segments. The various configurations provide the optimised fluid flow characteristics within the intake manifold at specific engine speed intervals. The variations such as turbulence, air fuel mixing are analysed using the three dimensional CFD software FLUENT. The results can be used further for developing an automated or manually adjustable intake manifold.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.77-90
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• 2024

Waste foundry sand (WFS) is the waste product that cause environmental hazards. WFS can be used as a partial replacement of cement or fine aggregates in concrete. A database comprising 234 compressive strength tests of concrete fabricated with WFS is used. To construct the machine learning-based prediction models, the water-to-cement ratio, WFS replacement percentage, WFS-to-cement content ratio, and fineness modulus of WFS were considered as the model's inputs, and the compressive strength of concrete is set as the model's output. A base extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model together with two hybrid XGBoost models mixed with the tunicate swarm algorithm (TSA) and the salp swarm algorithm (SSA) were applied. The role of TSA and SSA is to identify the optimum values of XGBoost hyperparameters to obtain the higher performance. The results of these hybrid techniques were compared with the results of the base XGBoost model in order to investigate and justify the implementation of optimisation algorithms. The results showed that the hybrid XGBoost models are faster and more accurate compared to the base XGBoost technique. The XGBoost-SSA model shows superior performance compared to previously published works in the literature, offering a reduced system error rate. Although the WFS-to-cement ratio is significant, the WFS replacement percentage has a smaller influence on the compressive strength of concrete. To improve the compressive strength of concrete fabricated with WFS, the simultaneous consideration of the water-to-cement ratio and fineness modulus of WFS is recommended.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.245-266
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• 2004

Incremental launching method is one of the highly competitive techniques for construction of concrete bridges. It avoids costly and time consuming form work and centralizes all construction activities in a small casting yard, thus saving in cost and time against conventional bridge construction. From the quality point of view, it eliminates the uncertainty of monolithic behaviour by allowing high repetitiveness and industrial environment. But, from analysis and design point of view, the most characteristic aspect of incrementally launched bridges is that, it has to absorb the stresses associated with the temporary supports that are gradually taken on by the deck during its launch. So, it is necessary to analyse the structure for each step of launching which is a tedious and time consuming process. Effect of support settlements or temperature variation makes the problem more complex. By using transfer matrix method, this problem can be handled efficiently with minimal computational effort. This paper gives insight into method of analysis, formulation for optimization of the structural system, effect of support settlement and temperature gradient, during construction, on the stress state of incrementally launched bridges.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.301-309
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• 2009

A simple and efficient Lambda logic (${\lambda}-logic$) based algorithm is proposed for the solution of the generator constrained economic dispatch problem when the generating units having prohibited zones. The proposed method solves the economic dispatch (ED) problem that takes into account ramprate limits, transmission losses and prohibited operating zones in the power system operation. The proposed method uses a simple heuristic rule based on average power of prohibited operating zones which produces the feasibility of solution for the restricted operating units. The effectiveness of the algorithm is tested on five different test systems and the performance compared with other relevant methods reported in the literature. In all the cases, the proposed algorithm performs better than the previous existing algorithms with a less computational burden.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.145-153
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• 2004

Potential fuel economy improvements and environmental legislation have renewed interest in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines. Computational models of fuel injection and mixing processes pre-ignition are being developed for engine optimisation. These highly transient thermofluid models require verification against temporally and spatially resolved data-sets. The authors have previously established the capability of PDA to provide suitable temporally and spatially resolved spray characteristics such as mean droplet size, velocity components and qualitative mass distribution. This paper utilises this data-set to assess the predictive capability of a numerical model for GDI spray prediction. After a brief description of the two-phase model and discretisation sensitivity, the influence of initial spray conditions is discussed. A minimum of 5 initial global spray characteristics are required to model the downstream spray characteristics adequately under isothermal, atmospheric conditions. Verification of predicted transient spray characteristics such as the hollow-cone, cone collapse, head vortex, stratification and penetration are discussed, and further improvements to modelling GDI sprays proposed.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.179-190
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• 2023

In this paper, building information modelling (BIM) associated to the principle of significant items emerged at quantities and costs in the optimization of productivity related to the rehabilitation of the building where proposed and discussed. A quantitative and qualitative study related to the field of application based on some parameters such as pathology diagnosis, projects documents and bills of quantities were used for model development at the preliminary stage of this work. The study identified 14 quantities significant items specified to cost value based on the use of the 80/20 Pareto rule, through the integration of building information modelling (BIM) in the optimisation of labour productivity for rehabilitation of buildings. The results of this study reveal the reliability and the improvement of labour productivity using building information modelling process integrating quantities and cost significant items.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.381-407
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• 2018

This paper presents a hybrid numerical approach, which combines a two-phase Navier-Stokes model (NS) and the fully nonlinear potential theory (FNPT), for modelling wave-structure interaction. The former governs the computational domain near the structure, where the viscous and turbulent effects are significant, and is solved by OpenFOAM/InterDyMFoam which utilising the finite volume method (FVM) with a Volume of Fluid (VOF) for the phase identification. The latter covers the rest of the domain, where the fluid may be considered as incompressible, inviscid and irrotational, and solved by using the Quasi Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite element method (QALE-FEM). These two models are weakly coupled using a zonal (spatially hierarchical) approach. Considering the inconsistence of the solutions at the boundaries between two different sub-domains governed by two fundamentally different models, a relaxation (transitional) zone is introduced, where the velocity, pressure and surface elevations are taken as the weighted summation of the solutions by two models. In order to tackle the challenges associated and maximise the computational efficiency, further developments of the QALE-FEM have been made. These include the derivation of an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian FNPT and application of a robust gradient calculation scheme for estimating the velocity. The present hybrid model is applied to the numerical simulation of a fixed horizontal cylinder subjected to a unidirectional wave with or without following current. The convergence property, the optimisation of the relaxation zone, the accuracy and the computational efficiency are discussed. Although the idea of the weakly coupling using the zonal approach is not new, the present hybrid model is the first one to couple the QALE-FEM with OpenFOAM solver and/or to be applied to numerical simulate the wave-structure interaction with presence of current.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.625-647
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• 2002

Parallel execution of computational mechanics codes requires efficient mesh-partitioning techniques. These mesh-partitioning techniques divide the mesh into specified number of submeshes of approximately the same size and at the same time, minimise the interface nodes of the submeshes. This paper describes a new mesh partitioning technique, employing Genetic Algorithms. The proposed algorithm operates on the deduced graph (dual or nodal graph) of the given finite element mesh rather than directly on the mesh itself. The algorithm works by first constructing a coarse graph approximation using an automatic graph coarsening method. The coarse graph is partitioned and the results are interpolated onto the original graph to initialise an optimisation of the graph partition problem. In practice, hierarchy of (usually more than two) graphs are used to obtain the final graph partition. The proposed partitioning algorithm is applied to graphs derived from unstructured finite element meshes describing practical engineering problems and also several example graphs related to finite element meshes given in the literature. The test results indicate that the proposed GA based graph partitioning algorithm generates high quality partitions and are superior to spectral and multilevel graph partitioning algorithms.