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The aim of this paper is to present so-called discrete-continual boundary element method (DCBEM) of structural analysis. Its field of application comprises buildings constructions, structures and also parts and components for the residential, commercial and un-inhabitant structures with invariability of physical and geometrical parameters in some dimensions. We should mention here in particular such objects as beams, thin-walled bars, strip foundations, plates, shells, deep beams, high-rise buildings, extensional buildings, pipelines, rails, dams and others. DCBEM comes under group of semianalytical methods. Semianalytical formulations are contemporary mathematical models which currently becoming available for realization due to substantial speed-up of computer productivity. DCBEM is based on the theory of the pseudodifferential boundary equations. Corresponding pseudodifferential operators are discretely approximated using Fourier analysis or wavelet analysis. The main DCBEM advantages against the other methods of the numerical analysis is a double reduction in dimension of the problem (discrete numerical division applied not to the full region of the interest but only to the boundary of the region cross section, as a matter of fact one is solving an one-dimensional problem with the finite step on the boundary area of the region), one has opportunities to carrying out very detailed analysis of the specific chosen zones, simplified initial data preparation, simplistic and adaptive algorithms. There are two methods to define and conduct DCBEM analysis developed – indirect (IDCBEM) and direct (DDCBEM), thus indirect like in boundary element method (BEM) applied and used little bit more than direct.
The execution of project activities generally requires the use of (renewable) resources like machines, equipment or manpower. The resource allocation problem consists in assigning time intervals to the execution of the project activities while taking into account temporal constraints between activities emanating from technological or organizational requirements and costs incurred by the resource allocation. If the total procurement cost of the different renewable resources has to be minimized we speak of a resource investment problem. If the cost depends on the smoothness of the resource utilization over time the underlying problem is called a resource levelling problem. In this paper we consider a new tree-based enumeration method for solving resource investment and resource levelling problems exploiting some fundamental properties of spanning trees. The enumeration scheme is embedded in a branch-and-bound procedure using a workload-based lower bound and a depth first search. Preliminary computational results show that the proposed procedure is promising for instances with up to 30 activities.
We present recent developments of adaptive wavelet solvers for elliptic eigenvalue problems. We describe the underlying abstract iteration scheme of the preconditioned perturbed iteration. We apply the iteration to a simple model problem in order to identify the main ideas which a numerical realization of the abstract scheme is based upon. This indicates how these concepts carry over to wavelet discretizations. Finally we present numerical results for the Poisson eigenvalue problem on an L-shaped domain.
We present an algebraically extended 2D image representation in this paper. In order to obtain more degrees of freedom, a 2D image is embedded into a certain geometric algebra. Combining methods of differential geometry, tensor algebra, monogenic signal and quadrature filter, the novel 2D image representation can be derived as the monogenic extension of a curvature tensor. The 2D spherical harmonics are employed as basis functions to construct the algebraically extended 2D image representation. From this representation, the monogenic signal and the monogenic curvature signal for modeling intrinsically one and two dimensional (i1D/i2D) structures are obtained as special cases. Local features of amplitude, phase and orientation can be extracted at the same time in this unique framework. Compared with the related work, our approach has the advantage of simultaneous estimation of local phase and orientation. The main contribution is the rotationally invariant phase estimation, which enables phase-based processing in many computer vision tasks.
Analysis of the reinforced concrete chimney geometry changes and their influence on the stresses in the chimney mantle was made. All the changes were introduced to a model chimney and compared. Relations between the stresses in the mantle of the chimney and the deformations determined by the change of the chimney's vertical axis geometry were investigated. The vertical axis of chimney was described by linear function (corresponding to the real rotation of the chimney together with the foundation), and by parabolic function (corresponding to the real dislocation of the chimney under the influence of the horizontal forces - wind). The positive stress pattern in the concrete as well as the negative stress pattern in the reinforcing steel have been presented. The two cases were compared. Analysis of the stress changes in the chimney mantle depending on the modification in the thickness of the mantle (the thickness of the chimney mantle was altered in the linear or the abrupt way) was carried out. The relation between the stresses and the chimney's diameter change from the bottom to the top of the chimney was investigated. All the analyses were conducted by means of a specially developed computer program created in Mathematica environment. The program makes it also possible to control calculations and to visualize the results of the calculations at every stage of the calculation process.
Nodal integration of finite elements has been investigated recently. Compared with full integration it shows better convergence when applied to incompressible media, allows easier remeshing and highly reduces the number of material evaluation points thus improving efficiency. Furthermore, understanding it may help to create new integration schemes in meshless methods as well. The new integration technique requires a nodally averaged deformation gradient. For the tetrahedral element it is possible to formulate a nodal strain which passes the patch test. On the downside, it introduces non-physical low energy modes. Most of these "spurious modes" are local deformation maps of neighbouring elements. Present stabilization schemes rely on adding a stabilizing potential to the strain energy. The stabilization is discussed within this article. Its drawbacks are easily identified within numerical experiments: Nonlinear material laws are not well represented. Plastic strains may often be underestimated. Geometrically nonlinear stabilization greatly reduces computational efficiency. The article reinterpretes nodal integration in terms of imposing a nonconforming C0-continuous strain field on the structure. By doing so, the origins of the spurious modes are discussed and two methods are presented that solve this problem. First, a geometric constraint is formulated and solved using a mixed formulation of Hu-Washizu type. This assumption leads to a consistent representation of the strain energy while eliminating spurious modes. The solution is exact, but only of theoretical interest since it produces global support. Second, an integration scheme is presented that approximates the stabilization criterion. The latter leads to a highly efficient scheme. It can even be extended to other finite element types such as hexahedrals. Numerical efficiency, convergence behaviour and stability of the new method is validated using linear tetrahedral and hexahedral elements.
The Carbon journal is pleased to introduce a themed collection of recent articles in the area of computational carbon nanoscience. This virtual special issue was assembled from previously published Carbon articles by Guest Editors Quan Wang and Behrouz Arash, and can be accessed as a set in the special issue section of the journal website homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/carbon. The article below by our guest editors serves as an introduction to this virtual special issue, and also a commentary on the growing role of computation as a tool to understand the synthesis and properties of carbon nanoforms and their behavior in composite materials.
For the dynamic behavior of lightweight structures like thin shells and membranes exposed to fluid flow the interaction between the two fields is often essential. Computational fluid-structure interaction provides a tool to predict this interaction and complement or eventually replace expensive experiments. Partitioned analyses techniques enjoy great popularity for the numerical simulation of these interactions. This is due to their computational superiority over simultaneous, i.e. fully coupled monolithic approaches, as they allow the independent use of suitable discretization methods and modular analysis software. We use, for the fluid, GLS stabilized finite elements on a moving domain based on the incompressible instationary Navier-Stokes equations, where the formulation guarantees geometric conservation on the deforming domain. The structure is discretized by nonlinear, three-dimensional shell elements.
Commonly used sequential staggered coupling schemes may exhibit instabilities due to the so-called artificial added mass effect. As best remedy to this problem subiterations should be invoked to guarantee kinematic and dynamic continuity across the fluid-structure interface. Since iterative coupling algorithms are computationally very costly, their convergence rate is very decisive for their usability. To ensure and accelerate the convergence of this iteration the updates of the interface position are relaxed. The time dependent, 'optimal' relaxation parameter is determined automatically without any user-input via exploiting a gradient method or applying an Aitken iteration scheme.
We apply keyquery-based taxonomy composition to compute a classification system for the CORE dataset, a shared crawl of about 850,000 scientific papers. Keyquery-based taxonomy composition can be understood as a two-phase hierarchical document clustering technique that utilizes search queries as cluster labels: In a first phase, the document collection is indexed by a reference search engine, and the documents are tagged with the search queries they are relevant—for their so-called keyqueries. In a second phase, a hierarchical clustering is formed from the keyqueries within an iterative process. We use the explicit topic model ESA as document retrieval model in order to index the CORE dataset in the reference search engine. Under the ESA retrieval model, documents are represented as vectors of similarities to Wikipedia articles; a methodology proven to be advantageous for text categorization tasks. Our paper presents the generated taxonomy and reports on quantitative properties such as document coverage and processing requirements.
A practical framework for generating cross correlated fields with a specified marginal distribution function, an autocorrelation function and cross correlation coefficients is presented in the paper. The contribution promotes a recent journal paper [1]. The approach relies on well known series expansion methods for simulation of a Gaussian random field. The proposed method requires all cross correlated fields over the domain to share an identical autocorrelation function and the cross correlation structure between each pair of simulated fields to be simply defined by a cross correlation coefficient. Such relations result in specific properties of eigenvectors of covariance matrices of discretized field over the domain. These properties are used to decompose the eigenproblem which must normally be solved in computing the series expansion into two smaller eigenproblems. Such decomposition represents a significant reduction of computational effort. Non-Gaussian components of a multivariate random field are proposed to be simulated via memoryless transformation of underlying Gaussian random fields for which the Nataf model is employed to modify the correlation structure. In this method, the autocorrelation structure of each field is fulfilled exactly while the cross correlation is only approximated. The associated errors can be computed before performing simulations and it is shown that the errors happen especially in the cross correlation between distant points and that they are negligibly small in practical situations.
The reduction of oscillation amplitudes of structural elements is necessary not only for maintenance of their durability and longevity but also for elimination of a harmful effect of oscillations on people and technology operations. The dampers are widely applied for this purpose. One of the most widespread models of structural friction forces having piecewise linear relation to displacement was analysed. T The author suggests the application of phase trajectories mapping in plane "acceleration – displacement". Unlike the trajectories mapping in a plane "velocity – displacement", they don't require large number of geometrical constructions for identification of the characteristics of dynamic systems. It promotes improving the accuracy. The analytical assumptions had been verified by numerical modeling. The results show good enough coincide between numerical and analytical estimation of dissipative characteristic.
What is nowadays called (classic) Clifford analysis consists in the establishment of a function theory for functions belonging to the kernel of the Dirac operator. While such functions can very well describe problems of a particle with internal SU(2)-symmetries, higher order symmetries are beyond this theory. Although many modifications (such as Yang-Mills theory) were suggested over the years they could not address the principal problem, the need of a n-fold factorization of the d’Alembert operator. In this paper we present the basic tools of a fractional function theory in higher dimensions, for the transport operator (alpha = 1/2 ), by means of a fractional correspondence to the Weyl relations via fractional Riemann-Liouville derivatives. A Fischer decomposition, fractional Euler and Gamma operators, monogenic projection, and basic fractional homogeneous powers are constructed.
The paper contains a description of dynamic effects in the silo wall during the outflow of a stored material. The work allows for determining the danger of construction damage due to resonant vibrations and is of practical importance by determining the influence of cyclic pressures and vibro–creeping during prolonged use of a silo. The paper was devised as a result of tests on silo walls in semi-technical scale. The model is generally applicable and allows for identification of parameters in real- size silos as well.
The paper proposes a new method for general 3D measurement and 3D point reconstruction. Looking at its features, the method explicitly aims at practical applications. These features especially cover low technical expenses and minimal user interaction, a clear problem separation into steps that are solved by simple mathematical methods (direct, stable and optimal with respect to least error squares), and scalability. The method expects the internal and radial distortion parameters of the used camera(s) as inputs, and a plane quadrangle with known geometry within the scene. At first, for each single picture the 3D position of the reference quadrangle (with respect to each camera coordinate frame) is calculated. These 3D reconstructions of the reference quadrangle are then used to yield the relative external parameters of each camera regarding the first one. With known external parameters, triangulation is finally possible. The differences from other known procedures are outlined, paying attention to the stable mathematical methods (no usage of nonlinear optimization) and the low user interaction with good results at the same time.
Many researchers are working on developing robots into adequate partners, be it at the working place, be it at home or in leisure activities, or enabling elder persons to lead a self-determined, independent life. While quite some progress has been made in e.g. speech or emotion understanding, processing and expressing, the relations between humans and robots are usually only short-term. In order to build long-term, i.e. social relations, qualities like empathy, trust building, dependability, non-patronizing, and others will be required. But these are just terms and as such no adequate starting points to “program” these capacities even more how to avoid the problems and pitfalls in interactions between humans and robots. However, a rich source for doing this is available, unused until now for this purpose: artistic productions, namely literature, theater plays, not to forget operas, and films with their multitude of examples. Poets, writers, dramatists, screen-writers, etc. have studied for centuries the facets of interactions between persons, their dynamics, and the related snags. And since we wish for human-robot relations as master-servant relations - the human obviously being the master - the study of these relations will be prominent. A procedure is proposed, with four consecutive steps, namely Selection, Analysis, Categorization, and Integration. Only if we succeed in developing robots which are seen as servants we will be successful in supporting and helping humans through robots.
In this paper proposed the application of two-parameters damage model, based on non-linear finite element approach, to the analysis of masonry panels. Masonry is treated as a homogenized material, for which the material characteristics can be defined by using homogenization technique. The masonry panels subjected to shear loading are studied by using the proposed procedure within the framework of three-dimensional analyses. The nonlinear behaviour of masonry can be modelled using concepts of damage theory. In this case an adequate damage function is defined for taking into account different response of masonry under tension and compression states. Cracking can, therefore, be interpreted as a local damage effect, defined by the evolution of known material parameters and by one or several functions which control the onset and evolution of damage. The model takes into account all the important aspects which should be considered in the nonlinear analysis of masonry structures such as the effect of stiffness degradation due to mechanical effects and the problem of objectivity of the results with respect to the finite element mesh. Finally the proposed damage model is validated with a comparison with experimental results available in the literature.
This paper deals with the modelling and the analysis of masonry vaults. Numerical FEM analyses are performed using LUSAS code. Two vault typologies are analysed (barrel and cross-ribbed vaults) parametrically varying geometrical proportions and constraints. The proposed model and the developed numerical procedure are implemented in a computer analysis. Numerical applications are developed to assess the model effectiveness and the efficiency of the numerical procedure. The main object of the present paper is the development of a computational procedure which allows to define 3D structural behaviour of masonry vaults. For each investigated example, the homogenized limit analysis approach has been employed to predict ultimate load and failure mechanisms. Finally, both a mesh dependence study and a sensitivity analysis are reported. Sensitivity analysis is conducted varying in a wide range mortar tensile strength and mortar friction angle with the aim of investigating the influence of the mechanical properties of joints on collapse load and failure mechanisms. The proposed computer model is validated by a comparison with experimental results available in the literature.
A concept of non-commutative Galois extension is introduced and binary and ternary extensions are chosen. Non-commutative Galois extensions of Nonion algebra and su(3) are constructed. Then ternary and binary Clifford analysis are introduced for non-commutative Galois extensions and the corresponding Dirac operators are associated.
The sizing of simple resonators like guitar strings or laser mirrors is directly connected to the wavelength and represents no complex optimisation problem. This is not the case with liquid-filled acoustic resonators of non-trivial geometries, where several masses and stiffnesses of the structure and the fluid have to fit together. This creates a scenario of many competing and interacting resonances varying in relative strength and frequency when design parameters change. Hence, the resonator design involves a parameter-tuning problem with many local optima. As its solution evolutionary algorithms (EA) coupled to a forced-harmonic FE simulation are presented. A new hybrid EA is proposed and compared to two state-of-theart EAs based on selected test problems. The motivating background is the search for better resonators suitable for sonofusion experiments where extreme states of matter are sought in collapsing cavitation bubbles.
Optimum technological solutions must take into account the entire life cycle of structures including design procedures as well as quality assurance, inspection, maintenance, and repair strategies. Unfortunately, current design standards do not provide a satisfactory basis to ensure expected structural lifetimes. The latter may vary from only a few years for temporary structures to over a century for bridges, water dams or nuclear repositories. Consistent scientific concepts are urgently required to cover this wide spectrum of lifetimes in structural design and maintenance. This was a motivation for a group of scientists at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) to start a special research program supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Cooperative Research Center SFB 398 since 1996. Institutes of the University Wuppertal and of the University Essen-Duisburg joined the research group. The goal of the Center is to study sources of damage and deterioration in materials and structures, to develop consistent models and simulation methods, to predict structural lifetimes and finally to integrate this predictions into new lifetime-oriented design strategies.
Research activities in our center are organised in three Project Groups as follows:
- Modelling of lifetime effects
- Methods for lifetime-oriented structural analyses
- Future lifespan-oriented design strategies.
Information technology plays a key role in the everyday operation of buildings and campuses. Many proprietary technologies and methodologies can assist in effective Building Performance Monitoring (BPM) and efficient managing of building resources. The integration of related tools like energy simulator packages, facility, energy and building management systems, and enterprise resource planning systems is of benefit to BPM. However, the complexity to integrating such domain specific systems prevents their common usage. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been deployed successfully in many large multinational companies to create integrated and flexible software systems, but so far this methodology has not been applied broadly to the field of BPM. This paper envisions that SOA provides an effective integration framework for BPM. Service oriented architecture for the ITOBO framework for sustainable and optimised building operation is proposed and an implementation for a building performance monitoring system is introduced.
We consider a structural truss problem where all of the physical model parameters are uncertain: not just the material values and applied loads, but also the positions of the nodes are assumed to be inexact but bounded and are represented by intervals. Such uncertainty may typically arise from imprecision during the process of manufacturing or construction, or round-off errors. In this case the application of the finite element method results in a system of linear equations with numerous interval parameters which cannot be solved conventionally. Applying a suitable variable substitution, an iteration method for the solution of a parametric system of linear equations is firstly employed to obtain initial bounds on the node displacements. Thereafter, an interval tightening (pruning) technique is applied, firstly on the element forces and secondly on the node displacements, in order to obtain tight guaranteed enclosures for the interval solutions for the forces and displacements.
The concept is presented of the sensitivity analysis of the limit state of the structure with respect to selected basic variables. The sensitivity is presented in the form of the probability distribution of the limit state of the structure. The analysis is performed by the problem-oriented Monte Carlo simulation procedure. The procedure is based on the problem's definition of the elementary event, as a structural limit state. Thus the sample space consists of limit states of the structure. Defined on the sample space the one-dimensional random multiplier is introduced. This multiplier refers to the dominant basic variable (group of variables) of the problem. Numerical procedure results in the set of random numbers. Normalized relative histogram of this set is an estimator of the PDF of the limit state of the structure. Estimators of reliability, or the probability of failure are statistical characteristics of this histogram. The procedure is illustrated by the example of sensitivity analysis of the serviceability limit state of monumental structure. It is the colonnade of Licheń Basilica, situated in central Poland. Limit state of the structure is examined with reference to the upper deck horizontal deflection. Wind actions are taken as dominant variables. An assumption is made that the wind load intensities acting on the lower and on the upper storey of the colonnade, respectively, are identically distributed, but correlated random variables. Three correlation variants of these variables are considered. Relevant limit state histograms are analysed thereafter. The paper ends with the conclusions referring to the method and some general remarks on the fully probabilistic design.
The Bernstein polynomials are used for important applications in many branches of Mathematics and the other sciences, for instance, approximation theory, probability theory, statistic theory, num- ber theory, the solution of the di¤erential equations, numerical analysis, constructing Bezier curves, q-calculus, operator theory and applications in computer graphics. The Bernstein polynomials are used to construct Bezier curves. Bezier was an engineer with the Renault car company and set out in the early 1960’s to develop a curve formulation which would lend itself to shape design. Engineers may …nd it most understandable to think of Bezier curves in terms of the center of mass of a set of point masses. Therefore, in this paper, we study on generating functions and functional equations for these polynomials. By applying these functions, we investigate interpolation function and many properties of these polynomials.
CRITICAL STRESS ASSESSMENT IN ANGLE TO GUSSET PLATE BOLTED CONNECTION BY SIMPLIFIED FEM MODELLING
(2010)
Simplified modelling of friction grip bolted connections of steel member – to – gusset plate is often applied in engineering practise. The paper deals with the simplification of pre-tensioned bolt model and simplification of load transfer within connection. Influence on normal strain (and thus stress) distribution at critical cross-section is investigated. Laboratory testing of single-angle or double-angle members – to – gusset plates bolted connections were taken as basis for numerical analysis. FE models were created using 1D and 2D elements. Angles and gusset plates were modelled with shell elements. Two methods of modelling of friction grip bolting were considered: bolt-regarding approach with 1D element systems modelling bolts and two variants of bolt-disregarding approach with special constraints over some part of member and gusset plate surfaces in contact: a) constraints over whole area of contact, b) constraints over the area around each bolt shank (“partially tied”). Modelling of friction grip bolted connections using simplified bolt modelling may be effective, especially in the case of analysis concerning elastic range only. In such a case disregarding bolts and replacing them with “partially tied” modelling seems to be more attractive. It is less time-consuming and provides results of similar accuracy in comparison to analysis utilizing simplified bolt modelling.
VARIATION OF ROTATIONAL RESTRAINT IN GRID DECK CONNECTION DUE TO CORROSION DAMAGE AND STRENGTHENING
(2006)
The approach to assessment of rotational restraint of stringer-to-crossbeam connection in a deck of 100-year old steel truss bridge is presented. Sensitivity of rotational restraint coefficient of the connection to corrosion damage and strengthening is analyzed. Two criteria of the assessment of the rotational restraint coefficient are applied: static and kinematic one. The former is based on bending moment distribution in the considered member, the latter one – on the member rotation at the given joint. 2D-element model of finite element method is described: webs and flanges are modeled with shell elements, while rivets in the connection – with system of beam and spring elements. The method of rivet modeling is verified by T-stub connection test results published in literature. FEM analyses proved that recorded extent of corrosion damage does not alter the initial rotational restraint of stringer-to-crossbeam connection. Strengthening of stringer midspan influences midspan bending moment and stringer end rotation in a different way. Usually restoring member load bearing capacity means strengthening its critical regions (where the highest stress levels occur). This alters flexural stiffness distribution over member length and influences rotational restraint at its connection to other members. The impact depends on criterion chosen for rotational restraint coefficient assessment.
The uncertainty existing in the construction industry is bigger than in other industries. Consequently, most construction projects do not go totally as planned. The project management plan needs therefore to be adapted repeatedly within the project lifecycle to suit the actual project conditions. Generally, the risks of change in the project management plan are difficult to be identified in advance, especially if these risks are caused by unexpected events such as human errors or changes in the client preferences. The knowledge acquired from different resources is essential to identify the probable deviations as well as to find proper solutions to the faced change risks. Hence, it is necessary to have a knowledge base that contains known solutions for the common exceptional cases that may cause changes in each construction domain. The ongoing research work presented in this paper uses the process modeling technique of Event-driven Process Chains to describe different patterns of structure changes in the schedule networks. This results in several so called “change templates”. Under each template different types of change risk/ response pairs can be categorized and stored in a knowledge base. This knowledge base is described as an ontology model populated with reference construction process data. The implementation of the developed approach can be seen as an iterative scheduling cycle that will be repeated within the project lifecycle as new change risks surface. This can help to check the availability of ready solutions in the knowledge base for the situation at hand. Moreover, if the solution is adopted, CPSP, “Change Project Schedule Plan „a prototype developed for the purpose of this research work, will be used to make the needed structure changes of the schedule network automatically based on the change template. What-If scenarios can be implemented using the CPSP prototype in the planning phase to study the effect of specific situations without endangering the success of the project objectives. Hence, better designed and more maintainable project schedules can be achieved.
Car following models are used to describe the behavior of a number of cars on the road dependent on the distance to the car in front. We introduce a system of ordinary differential equations and perform a theoretical and numerical analysis in order to find solutions that reflect various traffic situations. We present three different variations of the model motivated by reality.
Quality is one of the most important properties of a product. Providing the optimal quality can reduce costs for rework, scrap, recall or even legal actions while satisfying customers demand for reliability. The aim is to achieve ``built-in'' quality within product development process (PDP). The common approach therefore is the robust design optimization (RDO). It uses stochastic values as constraint and/or objective to obtain a robust and reliable optimal design. In classical approaches the effort required for stochastic analysis multiplies with the complexity of the optimization algorithm. The suggested approach shows that it is possible to reduce this effort enormously by using previously obtained data. Therefore the support point set of an underlying metamodel is filled iteratively during ongoing optimization in regions of interest if this is necessary. In a simple example, it will be shown that this is possible without significant loss of accuracy.
BAUHAUS ISOMETRY AND FIELDS
(2012)
While integration increases by networking, segregation strides ahead too. Most of us fixate our mind on special topics. Yet we are relying on our intuition too. We are sometimes waiting for the inflow of new ideas or valuable information that we hold in high esteem, although we are not entirely conscious of its origin. We may even say the most precious intuitions are rooting in deep subconscious, collective layers of the mind. Take as a simple example the emergence of orientation in paleolithic events and its relation to the dihedral symmetry of the compass. Consider also the extension of this algebraic matter into the operational structures of the mind on the one hand and into the algebra of geometry, Clifford algebra as we use to call it today, on the other. Culture and mind, and even the individual act of creation may be connected with transient events that are subconscious and inaccessible to cognition in principle. Other events causative for our work may be merely invisible too us, though in principle they should turn out attainable. In this case we are just ignorant of the whole creative process. Sometimes we begin to use unusual tools or turn into handicraft enthusiasts. Then our small institutes turn into workshops and factories. All this is indeed joining with the Bauhaus and its spirit. We shall go together into this, and we shall present a record of this session.
Unconstrained models are very often found in the broad spectrum of different theories of traffic demand models. In these models there are none or only one-sided restrictions influencing the choice of the individual. However in the traffic demand different deciding dependencies of the traffic volume with regard to the specific conditions of the territory structure potentials exist. Kichhoff and Lohse introduced bi- and tri-linearly constrained models to show these dependencies. In principle, the dependencies are described as hard, elastic and open boundary sum criteria. In this article a model is formulated which gets away from these predefined boundary sum criteria and allows a free determination of minimal and maximal boundary sum criteria. The iterative solution algorithm is shown according to a FURNESS procedure at the same time. With the approach of freely selectable minimal and maximal boundary sum criteria the modeling transport planner gets the possibility to show the traffic event even better. Furthermore all common boundary sum criteria can be calculated with this model. Therewith the often necessary and sensible standard and special cases can also be modeled.
In distributed project organisations and collaboration there is a need for integrating unstructured self-contained text information with structured project data. We consider this a process of text integration in which various text technologies can be used to externalise text content and consolidate it into structured information or flexibly interlink it with corresponding information bases. However, the effectiveness of text technologies and the potentials of text integration greatly vary with the type of documents, the project setup and the available background knowledge. The goal of our research is to establish text technologies within collaboration environments to allow for (a) flexibly combining appropriate text and data management technologies, (b) utilising available context information and (c) the sharing of text information in accordance to the most critical integration tasks. A particular focus is on Semantic Service Environments that leverage on Web service and Semantic Web technologies and adequately support the required systems integration and parallel processing of semi-structured and structured information. The paper presents an architecture for text integration that extends Semantic Service Environments with two types of integration services. Backbone to the Information Resource Sharing and Integration Service is a shared environment ontology that consolidates information on the project context and the available model, text and general linguistic resources. It also allows for the configuration of Semantic Text Analysis and Annotation Services to analyse the text documents as well as for capturing the discovered text information and sharing it through semantic notification and retrieval engines. A particular focus of the paper is the definition of the overall integration process configuring a complementary set of analyses and information sharing components.
The main aim of the research project in progress is to develop virtual models as tools to support decision-making in the planning of construction maintenance. The virtual models gives the capacity to allow them to transmit, visually and interactively, information related to the physical behaviour of materials, components of given infrastructures, defined as a function of the time variable. The interactive application allows decisions to be made on conception options in the definition of plans for maintenance, conservation or rehabilitation. The first virtual prototype that is now in progress concerns just lamps. It allows the examination of the physical model, visualizing, for each element modelled in 3D and linked to a database, the corresponding technical information concerned with the wear and tear aspects of the material, calculated for that period of time. In addition, the analysis of solutions for repair work or substitution and inherent cost are predicted, the results being obtained interactively and visualized in the virtual environment itself. The aim is that the virtual model should be able to be applied directly over the 3D models of new constructions, in situations of rehabilitation. The practical usage of these models is directed, then, towards supporting decision-making in the conception phase and the planning of maintenance. In further work other components will be analysed and incorporated into the virtual system.
Several results concerning the distribution of the headway of busses in the flow behind a traffic signal are presented. In the main focus of interest is the description of analytical models, which are verified by the results of Monte-Carlo-Methods. The advantage of analytical models (verified, but not derived by simulation methods) is their flexibility with respect to possible generalizations. For instance, several random distributions of the flow incoming to the traffic signal can be compared. The attention will be directed at the question, how the primary headway H (analyzed in front of the traffic signal) is mapped to the headway H’ analyzed behind of the traffic signal and how the random distribution of H is mapped to that of H’. For the traffic flow in front of the traffic signal several models will be discussed. The first case considers the situation, that busses operate on a common lane with the individual motor car traffic and the traffic flow is saturated. In the second situation, busses operate on a separated bus lane. Moreover, a mixed situation is discussed to model as close to reality as possible.
As numerical techniques for solving PDE or integral equations become more sophisticated, treatments of the generation of the geometric inputs should also follow that numerical advancement. This document describes the preparation of CAD data so that they can later be applied to hierarchical BEM or FEM solvers. For the BEM case, the geometric data are described by surfaces which we want to decompose into several curved foursided patches. We show the treatment of untrimmed and trimmed surfaces. In particular, we provide prevention of smooth corners which are bad for diffeomorphism. Additionally, we consider the problem of characterizing whether a Coons map is a diffeomorphism from the unit square onto a planar domain delineated by four given curves. We aim primarily at having not only theoretically correct conditions but also practically efficient methods. As for FEM geometric preparation, we need to decompose a 3D solid into a set of curved tetrahedra. First, we describe some method of decomposition without adding too many Steiner points (additional points not belonging to the initial boundary nodes of the boundary surface). Then, we provide a methodology for efficiently checking whether a tetrahedral transfinite interpolation is regular. That is done by a combination of degree reduction technique and subdivision. Along with the method description, we report also on some interesting practical results from real CAD data.
Media anthropology is a new and interdisciplinary field of research with very different subjects and methods that seems to be already heavily informed by a comparatively narrow understanding of media as mass media (e.g. TV, Internet, social web, etc.). Therefore, most theories in this field, at least implicitly, employ a hierarchical and often dichotomic preconception of the two poles of media-human relations, by analysing the operationalities and ontologies of the human and the media independently from one another. This article deviates from this line of thought by advocating an expanded, symmetrical and relational understanding of the terms media and human, taking them as always already intermingled facets of a broader dynamic configuration. Starting from a consideration of the historically powerful, yet overlooked media of the so-called habitat diorama, the heuristic concept of “anthropomediality” is to be developed. Eventually, this relational approach may open up a new, interesting field for interrogation of (media-)anthropological analysis in general.
Sand-bentonite mixtures are well recognized as buffer and sealing material in nuclear waste repository constructions. The behaviour of compacted sand-bentonite mixture needs to be well understood in order to guarantee the safety and the efficiency of the barrier construction. This paper presents numerical simulations of swelling test and coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) test on compacted sand-bentonite mixture in order to reveal the influence of the temperature and hydraulic gradients on the distribution of temperature, mechanical stress and water content in such materials. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to identify the parameters which influence the most the response of the numerical model. Results of back analysis of the model parameters are reported and critically assessed.
FREE VIBRATION FREQUENCIES OF THE CRACKED REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS - METHODS OF CALCULATIONS
(2010)
The paper presents method of calculation of natural frequencies of the cracked reinforced concrete beams including discreet model of crack. The described method is based on the stiff finite elements method. It was modified in such a way as to take into account local discontinuities (ie. cracks). In addition, some theoretical studies as well as experimental tests of concrete mechanics based on discrete crack model were taken into consideration. The calculations were performed using the author’s own numerical algorithm. Moreover, other calculation methods of dynamic reinforced concrete beams presented in standards and guidelines are discussed. Calculations performed by using different methods are compared with the results obtained in experimental tests.
In this paper we review two distint complete orthogonal systems of monogenic polynomials over 3D prolate spheroids. The underlying functions take on either values in the reduced and full quaternions (identified, respectively, with R3 and R4), and are generally assumed to be nullsolutions of the well known Riesz and Moisil Théodoresco systems in R3. This will be done in the spaces of square integrable functions over R and H. The representations of these polynomials are explicitly given. Additionally, we show that these polynomial functions play an important role in defining the Szegö kernel function over the surface of 3D spheroids. As a concrete application, we prove the explicit expression of the monogenic Szegö kernel function over 3D prolate spheroids.
Due to the complex interactions between the ground, the driving machine, the lining tube and the built environment, the accurate assignment of in-situ system parameters for numerical simulation in mechanized tunneling is always subject to tremendous difficulties. However, the more accurate these parameters are, the more applicable the responses gained from computations will be. In particular, if the entire length of the tunnel lining is examined, then, the appropriate selection of various kinds of ground parameters is accountable for the success of a tunnel project and, more importantly, will prevent potential casualties. In this context, methods of system identification for the adaptation of numerical simulation of ground models are presented. Hereby, both deterministic and probabilistic approaches are considered for typical scenarios representing notable variations or changes in the ground model.
In Zeiten volatiler Immobilienmärkte und einer hohen Wettbewerbsintensität sind leistungsfähige Systeme der Analyse und Entscheidungsunterstützung unverzichtbar. Entscheidungen zu Investitionsstrategien und Einzelinvestitionen basieren zumeist auf mehreren entscheidungsrelevanten Kriterien. Unterschiedliche immobilienwirtschaftliche Entscheidungsalternativen können dabei durchaus Kriterienausprägungen aufweisen, die eine bestimmte Alternative nicht als stets besser bzw. stets schlechter ausweisen. Klassische finanzwirtschaftliche Modelle oder verbreitete qualitative Verfahren wie das Scoring können die gegebene Komplexität meist nicht angemessen berücksichtigen. Eine Weiterentwicklung immobilienwirtschaftlicher Entscheidungsmodelle ist durch die Übertragung und Spezifizierung multikriterieller Verfahren der Entscheidungsunterstützung möglich. Speziell die Untergruppe des Outranking beschäftigt sich mit der schrittweisen Strukturierung, Ordnung und Priorisierung von komplexen Auswahlalternativen. Als spezifische immobilienwirtschaftliche Fragestellung dient hier die Auswahl und Priorisierung von Zielmärkten im taktischen Portfoliomanagement eines institutionellen Immobilienportfoliosmit internationaler Ausrichtung. Die Formalisierung des Entscheidungsproblems „Priorisierung von Zielmärkten“ erfolgt mit dem ELECTRE-Verfahren.
Requires for reliability and durability of structures and their elements with simultaneous material economy have stimulated improvement of constitutive equations for description of elasto-plastic deformation processes. This has led to the development of phenomenological modelling of complex phenomena of irreversible deformation including history-dependent and rate-dependent effects. During the last several decades many works have been devoted to the development of elasto-plastic models, in order to better predict the material behavior under combined variable thermo-mechanical loading. The increase of accuracy of stress analysis and safety factors for complex structures with the help of modern finite-element packages (ABAQUS, ANSYS, COSMOS, LS-DYNA, MSC.MARC, MSC.NASTRAN, PERMAS and other) can be provided only by use of complex and special variants of plasticity theories, which are adequate for the considered loading conditions and based on authentic information about properties of materials. The areas of application of the various theories (models) are as a rule unknown to the users of finite-element packages at the existing variety loading condition sin machine-building designs. At the moment a universal theory of inelasticity is absent and even the most accomplished theories can not guarantee adequate description of deformation processes for arbitrary structure under wide range of loading programs. The classifier of materials, loading conditions, effects (phenomena) and list of basic experiments are developed by the authors. Use of these classifiers for an establishment of hierarchy of models is a first step for introduction of the multimodel analysis into computational practice. The set of the classic and modern inelasticity theories is considered, so that they are applicable for stress analysis of structures under complex loading programs. Among them there are plastic flow theories with linear and nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening, multisurface theories, endochronic theory, holonomic theory, rheologic models, theory of elasto-plastic processes, slip theory, physical theories (single crystal and polycrystalline models) and others. The classification of materials provides rearranging by a degree of homogeneous, chemical composition, level of strength and plasticity, behavior under cyclic loading, anisotropy of properties at initial condition, anisotropy of properties during deformation process, structural stability. The classification of loading conditions takes into consideration proportional and non-proportional loading, temperature range, combination of cyclic and monotonous loading, one-axial, two-axial and complex stress state, curvature of strain path, presence of stress concentrators and level of strain gradient. A unified general form of constitutive equations is presented for all used material models based upon the concept of internal state variables. The wide range of mentioned above inelastic material models has been implemented into finite element program PANTOCRATOR developed by authors (see for details www.pantocrator.narod.ru). Application possibility of different material models is considered both for material element and for complex structures subjected to complex non-proportional loading.
A new application of software technology is the application area of smart living or sustainable living. Within this area application platforms are designed and realized with the goal to support value added services. In this context value added services integrates microelectronics, home automation and services to enhance the attractiveness of flats, homes and buildings. Especially real estate companies or service providers dealing with home services are interested in an effective design and management of their services. Service Engineering is the approved approach for designing customer oriented service processes. Service engineering consists of several phases; from situation analysis to service creation and service design to service management. This article will describe how the method service blueprint can be used to design service processes. Smart living includes all actions to enlarge a flat to a smart home for living. One special requirement of this application domain is the use of local components (actuators, sensors) within service processes. This article will show how this extended method supports service providers to improve the quality of customer oriented service processes and the derivation of needed interfaces of involved actors. For the civil engineering process it will be possible to derive needed information from a built in home automation system. The aim is to show, how to get needed smart local components to fullfill later offered it-supported value added services. Value added services focused on inhabitants are grouped to consulting and information, care and supervision, leisure time activities, repairs, mobility and delivery, safety and security, supply and disposal.
In this paper, we present an empirical approach for objective and quantitative benchmarking of optimization algorithms with respect to characteristics induced by the forward calculation. Due to the professional background of the authors, this benchmarking strategy is illustrated on a selection of search methods in regard to expected characteristics of geotechnical parameter back calculation problems. Starting from brief introduction into the approach employed, a strategy for optimization algorithm benchmarking is introduced. The benchmarking utilizes statistical tests carried out on well-known test functions superposed with perturbations, both chosen to mimic objective function topologies found for geotechnical objective function topologies. Here, the moved axis parallel hyper-ellipsoid test function and the generalized Ackley test function in conjunction with an adjustable quantity of objective function topology roughness and fraction of failing forward calculations is analyzed. In total, results for 5 optimization algorithms are presented, compared and discussed.
Lack of Information technology applications on construction projects lead to complex flow of data during project life cycle. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has gained attention in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, envisage the use of virtual n-dimensional (n-D) models to identify potential conflicts in design, construction or operational of any facility. A questionnaire has been designed to investigate perceptions regarding BIM advantages. Around 102 valid responses received from diversified stakeholders. Results showed very low BIM adoption with low level of ‘Buzz’. BIM is a faster and more effective method for designing and construction management, it improves quality of the design and construction and reduces rework during construction; which came out as the top thee advantages according to the perception of AEC professionals of Pakistan.BIM has least impact on reduction of cost, time and human resources. This research is a bench mark study to understand adoption and advantageous of BIM in Pakistan Construction Industry.
In civil engineering practice, values of column forces are often required before any detailed analysis of the structure has been performed. One of the reasons for this arises from the fast-tracked nature of the majority of construction projects: foundations are laid and base columns constructed whilst analysis and design are still in progress. A need for quick results when feasibility studies are performed or when evaluating the effect of design changes on supporting columns form other situations in which column forces are required, but where a detailed analysis to get these forces seems superfluous. Thus it was concluded that the development of an efficient tool for column force calculations, in which the extensive input required in a finite element analysis is to be avoided, would be highly beneficial. The automation of the process is achieved by making use of a Voronoi diagram. The Voronoi diagram is used a) for subdividing the floor into influence areas and b) as a basis for automatic load assignment. The implemented procedure is integrated into a CAD system in which the relevant geometric information of the floor, i.e. its shape and column layout, can be defined or uploaded. A brief description of the implementation is included. Some comparative results and considerations regarding the continuation of the study are given.
Steel profiles with slender cross-sections are characterized by their high susceptibility to instability phenomena, especially local buckling, which are intensified under fire conditions. This work presents a study on numerical modelling of the behaviour of steel structural elements in case of fire with slender cross-sections. To accurately carry out these analyses it is necessary to take into account those local instability modes, which normally is only possible with shell finite elements. However, aiming at the development of more expeditious methods, particularly important for analysing complete structures in case of fire, recent studies have proposed the use of beam finite elements considering the presence of local buckling through the implementation of a new effective steel constitutive law. The objective of this work is to develop a study to validate this methodology using the program SAFIR. Comparisons are made between the results obtained applying the referred new methodology and finite element analyses using shell elements. The studies were made to laterally restrained beams, unrestrained beams, axially compressed columns and columns subjected to bending plus compression.
This paper presents a robust model updating strategy for system identification of wind turbines. To control the updating parameters and to avoid ill-conditioning, the global sensitivity analysis using the elementary effects method is conducted. The formulation of the objective function is based on M¨uller-Slany’s strategy for multi-criteria functions. As a simulationbased optimization, a simulation adapter is developed to interface the simulation software ANSYS and the locally developed optimization software MOPACK. Model updating is firstly tested on the beam model of the rotor blade. The defect between the numerical model and the reference has been markedly reduced by the process of model updating. The effect of model updating becomes more pronounced in the comparison of the measured and the numerical properties of the wind turbine model. The deviations of the frequencies of the updated model are rather small. The complete comparison including the free vibration modes by the modal assurance criteria shows the excellent coincidence of the modal parameters of the updated model with the ones from the measurements. By successful implementation of the model validation via model updating, the applicability and effectiveness of the solution concept has been demonstrated.
Interval analysis extends the concept of computing with real numbers to computing with real intervals. As a consequence, some interesting properties appear, such as the delivery of guaranteed results or confirmed global values. The former property is given in the sense that unknown numerical values are in known to lie in a computed interval. The latter property states that the global minimum value, for example, of a given function is also known to be contained in a interval (or a finite set of intervals). Depending upon the amount computation effort invested in the calculation, we can often find tight bounds on these enclosing intervals. The downside of interval analysis, however, is the mathematically correct, but often very pessimistic size of the interval result. This is in particularly due to the so-called dependency effect, where a single variable is used multiple times in one calculation. Applying interval analysis to structural analysis problems, the dependency has a great influence on the quality of numerical results. In this paper, a brief background of interval analysis is presented and shown how it can be applied to the solution of structural analysis problems. A discussion of possible improvements as well as an outlook to parallel computing is also given.
It is well known that complex quaternion analysis plays an important role in the study of higher order boundary value problems of mathematical physics. Following the ideas given for real quaternion analysis, the paper deals with certain orthogonal decompositions of the complex quaternion Hilbert space into its subspaces of null solutions of Dirac type operator with an arbitrary complex potential. We then apply them to consider related boundary value problems, and to prove the existence and uniqueness as well as the explicit representation formulae of the underlying solutions.
MULTI-SITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULING CONSIDERING RESOURCE MOVING TIME IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
(2010)
Under the booming construction demands in developing countries, particularly in Vietnam situation, construction contractors often perform multiple concurrent projects in different places. In construction project scheduling processes, the existing scheduling methods often assume the resource moving time between activities/projects to be negligible. When multiple projects are deployed in different places and far from each other, this assumption has many shortcomings for properly modelling the real-world constraints. Especially, with respect to developing countries such as the Vietnam which contains transportation systems that are still in backward and low technical standards. This paper proposes a new algorithm named Multi-Site Construction Project Scheduling - MCOPS. The objective of this algorithm is to solve the problem of minimising multi-site construction project duration under limited available conditions of renewable resources (labour, machines and equipment) combining with the moving time of required resource among activities/projects. Additionally, in order to mitigate the impact of resource moving time into the multi-site project duration, this paper proposed a new priority rule: Minimum Resource Moving Time (MinRMT). The MinRMT is applied to rank the finished activities according to a priority order, to support the released resources to the scheduling activities. In order to investigate the impact of the resource moving time among activities during the scheduling process, computational experimentation was implemented. The results of the MCOPS-based computational experiments showed that, the resource moving time among projects has significantly impacted the multi-site project durations and this amount of time can not be ignored in the multi-site project scheduling process. Besides, the efficient application of the MinRMT is also demonstrated through the achieved results of the computational experiment in this paper. Though the efforts in this paper are based on the Vietnamese construction conditions, the proposed method can be usefully applied in other developing countries which have similar construction conditions.
In this paper we present some rudiments of a generalized Wiman-Valiron theory in the context of polymonogenic functions. In particular, we analyze the relations between different notions of growth orders and the Taylor coefficients. Our main intention is to look for generalizations of the Lindel¨of-Pringsheim theorem. In contrast to the classical holomorphic and the monogenic setting we only obtain inequality relations in the polymonogenic setting. This is due to the fact that the Almansi-Fischer decomposition of a polymonogenic function consists of different monogenic component functions where each of them can have a totally different kind of asymptotic growth behavior.
The aim of this paper we discuss explicit series constructions for the fundamental solution of the Helmholtz operator on some important examples non-orientable conformally at manifolds. In the context of this paper we focus on higher dimensional generalizations of the Klein bottle which in turn generalize higher dimensional Möbius strips that we discussed in preceding works. We discuss some basic properties of pinor valued solutions to the Helmholtz equation on these manifolds.
Procedures of a construction of general solutions for some classes of partial differential equations (PDEs) are proposed and a symmetry operators approach to the raising the orders of the polynomial solutions to linear PDEs are develops. We touch upon an ''operator analytic function theory'' as the solution of a frequent classes of the equations of mathematical physics, when its symmetry operators forms vast enough space. The MAPLE© package programs for the building the operator variables is elaborated also.
We present StarWatch, our application for real-time analysis of radio astronomical data in Virtual Environment. Serving as an interface to radio astronomical databases or being applied to live data from the radio telescopes, the application supports various data filters measuring signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Doppler's drift, degree of signal localization on celestial sphere and other useful tools for signal extraction and classification. Originally designed for the database of narrow band signals from SETI Institute (setilive.org), the application has been recently extended for the detection of wide band periodic signals, necessary for the search of pulsars. We will also address the detection of week signals possessing arbitrary waveforms and present several data filters suitable for this purpose.
The Lucas-Kanade tracker has proven to be an efficient and accurate method for calculation of the optical flow. However, this algorithm can reliably track only suitable image features like corners and edges. Therefore, the optical flow can only be calculated for a few points in each image, resulting in sparse optical flow fields. Accumulation of these vectors over time is a suitable method to retrieve a dense motion vector field. However, the accumulation process limits application of the proposed method to fixed camera setups. Here, a histogram based approach is favored to allow more than a single typical flow vector per pixel. The resulting vector field can be used to detect roads and prescribed driving directions which constrain object movements. The motion structure can be modeled as a graph. The nodes represent entry and exit points for road users as well as crossings, while the edges represent typical paths.
For assessment of old buildings, thermal graphic analysis aided with infra-red camera have been employed in a wide range nowadays. Image processing and evaluation can be economically practicable only if the image evaluation can also be automated to the largest extend. For that reason methods of computer vision are presented in this paper to evaluate thermal images. To detect typical thermal image elements, such as thermal bridges and lintels in thermal images respectively gray value images, methods of digital image processing have been applied, of which numerical procedures are available to transform, modify and encode images. At the same time, image processing can be regarded as a multi-stage process. In order to be able to accomplish the process of image analysis from image formation through perfecting and segmentation to categorization, appropriate functions must be implemented. For this purpose, different measuring procedures and methods for automated detection and evaluation have been tested.
In order to make control decisions, Smart Buildings need to collect data from multiple sources and bring it to a central location, such as the Building Management System (BMS). This needs to be done in a timely and automated fashion. Besides data being gathered from different energy using elements, information of occupant behaviour is also important for a building’s requirement analysis. In this paper, the parameter of Occupant Density was considered to help find behaviour of occupants towards a building space. Through this parameter, support for building energy consumption and requirements based on occupant need and demands was provided. The demonstrator presented provides information on the number of people present in a particular building space at any time, giving the space density. Such collections of density data made over a certain period of time represents occupant behaviour towards the building space, giving its usage patterns. Similarly, inventory items were tracked and monitored for moving out or being brought into a particular read zone. For both, people and inventory items, this was achieved using small, low-cost, passive Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Occupants were given the tags in a form factor of a credit card to be possessed at all times. A central database was built where occupant and inventory information for a particular building space was maintained for monitoring and providing a central data access.
Bridge vibration due to traffic loading has been subject of extensive research in the last decades. Such studies are concerned with deriving solutions for the bridge-vehicle interaction (BVI) and analyzing the dynamic responses considering randomness of the coupled model’s (BVI) input parameters and randomness of road unevenness. This study goes further to examine the effects of such randomness of input parameters and processes on the variance of dynamic responses in quantitative measures. The input parameters examined in the sensitivity analysis are, stiffness and damping of vehicle’s suspension system, axle spacing, and stiffness and damping of bridge. This study also examines the effects of the initial excitation of a vehicle on the influences of the considered input parameters. Variance based sensitivity analysis is often applied to deterministic models. However, the models for the dynamic problem is a stochastic one due to the simulations of the random processes. Thus, a setting using a joint meta-model; one for the mean response and other for the dispersion of the response is developed. The joint model is developed within the framework of Generalized Linear Models (GLM). An enhancement of the GLM procedure is suggested and tested; this enhancement incorporates Moving Least Squares (MLS) approximation algorithms in the fitting of the mean component of the joint model. The sensitivity analysis is then performed on the joint-model developed for the dynamic responses caused by BVI.
SELECTION AND SCALING OF GROUND MOTION RECORDS FOR SEISMIC ANALYSIS USING AN OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM
(2015)
The nonlinear time history analysis and seismic performance based methods require a set of scaled ground motions. The conventional procedure of ground motion selection is based on matching the motion properties, e.g. magnitude, amplitude, fault distance, and fault mechanism. The seismic target spectrum is only used in the scaling process following the random selection process. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to present a procedure to select a sets of ground motions from a built database of ground motions. The selection procedure is based on running an optimization problem using Dijkstra’s algorithm to match the selected set of ground motions to a target response spectrum. The selection and scaling procedure of optimized sets of ground motions is presented by examining the analyses of nonlinear single degree of freedom systems.
Processes underlying crowding in visual letter recognition were examined by investigating effects of training. Experiment 1 revealed that training reduces crowding mainly for trained strings. This was corroborated in Experiment 2, where no training effects were obvious after 3 days of training when strings changed from trial to trial. Experiment 3 specified that after a short amount of training, learning effects remained specific to trained strings and also to the trained retinal eccentricity and the interletter spacing used in training. Transfer to other than trained conditions was observed only after further training. Experiment 4 showed that transfer occurred earlier when words were used as stimuli. These results thus demonstrate that part of crowding results from the absence of higher level representations of the stimulus. Such representations can be acquired through learning visual properties of the stimulus.
We briefly review and use the recent comprehensive research on the manifolds of square roots of −1 in real Clifford geometric algebras Cl(p,q) in order to construct the Clifford Fourier transform. Basically in the kernel of the complex Fourier transform the complex imaginary unit j is replaced by a square root of −1 in Cl(p,q). The Clifford Fourier transform (CFT) thus obtained generalizes previously known and applied CFTs, which replaced the complex imaginary unit j only by blades (usually pseudoscalars) squaring to −1. A major advantage of real Clifford algebra CFTs is their completely real geometric interpretation. We study (left and right) linearity of the CFT for constant multivector coefficients in Cl(p,q), translation (x-shift) and modulation (w -shift) properties, and signal dilations. We show an inversion theorem. We establish the CFT of vector differentials, partial derivatives, vector derivatives and spatial moments of the signal. We also derive Plancherel and Parseval identities as well as a general convolution theorem.
The laser beam is a small, flexible and fast polishing tool. With laser radiation it is possible to finish many outlines or geometries on quartz glass surfaces in the shortest possible time. It's a fact that the temperature developing while polishing determines the reachable surface smoothing and, as a negative result, causes material tensions. To find out which parameters are important for the laser polishing process and the surface roughness respectively and to estimate material tensions, temperature simulations and extensive polishing experiments took place. During these experiments starting and machining parameters were changed and temperatures were measured contact-free.
The laser beam is a small, flexible and fast polishing tool. With laser radiation it is possible to finish many outlines or geometries on quartz glass surfaces in the shortest possible time. It’s a fact that the temperature developing while polishing determines the reachable surface smoothing and, as a negative result, causes material tensions. To find out which parameters are important for the laser polishing process and the surface roughness respectively and to estimate material tensions, temperature simulations and extensive polishing experiments took place. During these experiments starting and machining parameters were changed and temperatures were measured contact-free. The accuracy of thermal and mechanical simulation was improved in the case of advanced FE-analysis.
In this paper three different formulations of a Bernoulli type free boundary problem are discussed. By analyzing the shape Hessian in case of matching data it is distinguished between well-posed and ill-posed formulations. A nonlinear Ritz-Galerkin method is applied for discretizing the shape optimization problem. In case of well-posedness existence and convergence of the approximate shapes is proven. In combination with a fast boundary element method efficient first and second order shape optimization algorithms are obtained.
Adopting the European laws concerning environmental protection will require sustained efforts of the authorities and communities from Romania; implementing modern solutions will become a fast and effective option for the improvement of the functioning systems, in order to prevent disasters. As a part of the urban infrastructure, the drainage networks of pluvial and residual waters are included in the plan of promoting the systems which protect the environmental quality, with the purpose of integrated and adaptive management. The paper presents a distributed control system for sewer network of Iasi town. Unsatisfactory technical state of the actual sewer system is exposed, focusing on objectives related to implementation of the control system. The proposed distributed control system of Iasi drainage network is based on the implementation of the hierarchic control theory for diagnose, sewer planning and management. There are proposed two control levels: coordinating and local execution. Configuration of the distributed control system, including data acquisition and conversion equipment, interface characteristics, local data bus, data communication network, station configuration are widely described. The project wish to be an useful instrument for the local authorities in the preventing and reducing the impact of future natural disasters over the urban areas by means of modern technologies.
Solid behavior as well as liquid behavior characterizes the flow of granular material in silos. The presented model is based on an appropriate interaction of a displacement field and a velocity field. The constitutive equations and the applied algorithm are developed from the exact solution for a standard case. The standard case evolves from a very tall vertical plane strain silo containing material that flows at a constant speed. No horizontal displacements and velocities take place. No changes regarding the field values arise in the vertical direction and in time. Tension is not allowed at any point. Coulomb friction represents the effects of the vertical walls. The interaction between the flowing material and the walls is covered by a forced boundary condition resulting in an additional matrix for the solid component as well as for the liquid component. The resulting integral equations are designed to be solved directly. Three coefficients describe the properties of the granular material. They govern elastic solid behavior in combination with viscous liquid behavior.
We propose a new approach to the numerical solution of quasi-static elastic-plastic problems based on the Moreau-Yosida theorem. After the time discretization, the problem is expressed as an energy minimization problem for unknown displacement and plastic strain fields. The dependency of the minimization functional on the displacement is smooth whereas the dependency on the plastic strain is non-smooth. Besides, there exists an explicit formula, how to calculate the plastic strain from a given displacement field. This allows us to reformulate the original problem as a minimization problem in the displacement only. Using the Moreau-Yosida theorem from the convex analysis, the minimization functional in the displacements turns out to be Frechet-differentiable, although the hidden dependency on the plastic strain is non-differentiable. The seconds derivative exists everywhere apart from the elastic-plastic interface dividing elastic and plastic zones of the continuum. This motivates to implement a Newton-like method, which converges super-linearly as can be observed in our numerical experiments.
New foundations for geometric algebra are proposed based upon the existing isomorphisms between geometric and matrix algebras. Each geometric algebra always has a faithful real matrix representation with a periodicity of 8. On the other hand, each matrix algebra is always embedded in a geometric algebra of a convenient dimension. The geometric product is also isomorphic to the matrix product, and many vector transformations such as rotations, axial symmetries and Lorentz transformations can be written in a form isomorphic to a similarity transformation of matrices. We collect the idea that Dirac applied to develop the relativistic electron equation when he took a basis of matrices for the geometric algebra instead of a basis of geometric vectors. Of course, this way of understanding the geometric algebra requires new definitions: the geometric vector space is defined as the algebraic subspace that generates the rest of the matrix algebra by addition and multiplication; isometries are simply defined as the similarity transformations of matrices as shown above, and finally the norm of any element of the geometric algebra is defined as the nth root of the determinant of its representative matrix of order n×n. The main idea of this proposal is an arithmetic point of view consisting of reversing the roles of matrix and geometric algebras in the sense that geometric algebra is a way of accessing, working and understanding the most fundamental conception of matrix algebra as the algebra of transformations of multilinear quantities.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the major challenges for present day and will continue for future generations. The emerging EU directives relating to energy (EU EPBD and the EU Directive on Emissions Trading) now place demands on building owners to rate the energy performance of their buildings for efficient energy management. Moreover European Legislation (Directive 2006/32/EC) requires Facility Managers to reduce building energy consumption and operational costs. Currently sophisticated building services systems are available integrating off-the-shelf building management components. However this ad-hoc combination presents many difficulties to building owners in the management and upgrade of these systems. This paper addresses the need for integration concepts, holistic monitoring and analysis methodologies, life-cycle oriented decision support and sophisticated control strategies through the seamless integration of people, ICT-devices and computational resources via introducing the newly developed integrated system architecture. The first concept was applied to a residential building and the results were elaborated to improve current building conditions.
The mathematical and technical foundations of optimization have been developed to a large extent. In the design of buildings, however, optimization is rarely applied because of insufficient adaptation of this method to the needs of building design. The use of design optimization requires the consideration of all relevant objectives in an interactive and multidisciplinary process. Disciplines such as structural, light, and thermal engineering, architecture, and economics impose various objectives on the design. A good solution calls for a compromise between these often contradictory objectives. This presentation outlines a method for the application of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) as a tool for the designing of buildings. An optimization model is established considering the fact that in building design the non-numerical aspects are of major importance than in other engineering disciplines. A component-based decomposition enables the designer to manage the non-numerical aspects in an interactive design optimization process. A façade example demonstrates a way how the different disciplines interact and how the components integrate the disciplines in one optimization model. In this grid-based façade example, the materials switch between a discrete number of materials and construction types. For light and thermal engineering, architecture, and economics, analysis functions calculate the performance; utility functions serve as an important means for the evaluation since not every increase or decrease of a physical value improves the design. For experimental purposes, a genetic algorithm applied to the exemplary model demonstrates the use of optimization in this design case. A component-based representation first serves to manage non-numerical characteristics such as aesthetics. Furthermore, it complies with usual fabrication methods in building design and with object-oriented data handling in CAD. Therefore, components provide an important basis for an interactive MDO process in building design.
Cyber security has become a major concern for users and businesses alike. Cyberstalking and harassment have been identified as a growing anti-social problem. Besides detecting cyberstalking and harassment, there is the need to gather digital evidence, often by the victim. To this end, we provide an overview of and discuss relevant technological means, in particular coming from text analytics as well as machine learning, that are capable to address the above challenges. We present a framework for the detection of text-based cyberstalking and the role and challenges of some core techniques such as author identification, text classification and personalisation. We then discuss PAN, a network and evaluation initiative that focusses on digital text forensics, in particular author identification.
An introduction is given to Clifford Analysis over pseudo-Euclidean space of arbitrary signature, called for short Ultrahyperbolic Clifford Analysis (UCA). UCA is regarded as a function theory of Clifford-valued functions, satisfying a first order partial differential equation involving a vector-valued differential operator, called a Dirac operator. The formulation of UCA presented here pays special attention to its geometrical setting. This permits to identify tensors which qualify as geometrically invariant Dirac operators and to take a position on the naturalness of contravariant and covariant versions of such a theory. In addition, a formal method is described to construct the general solution to the aforementioned equation in the context of covariant UCA.
SIMULATION AND MATHEMATICAL OPTIMIZATION OF THE HYDRATION OF CONCRETE FOR AVOIDING THERMAL CRACKS
(2010)
After mixing of concrete, the hardening starts by an exothermic chemical reaction known as hydration. As the reaction rate depends on the temperature the time in the description of the hydration is replaced by the maturity which is defined as an integral over a certain function depending on the temperature. The temperature distribution is governed by the heat equation with a right hand side depending on the maturity and the temperature itself. We compare of the performance of different time integration schemes of higher order with an automatic time step control. The simulation of the heat distribution is of importance as the development of mechanical properties is driven by the hydration. During this process it is possible that the tensile stresses exceed the tensile strength and cracks occur. The goal is to produce cheap concrete without cracks. Simple crack-criterions use only temperature differences, more involved ones are based on thermal stresses. If the criterion predicts cracks some changes in the input data are needed. This can be interpreted as optimization. The final goal will be to adopt model based optimization (in contrast to simulation based optimization) to the problem of the hydration of young concrete and the avoidance of cracks. The first step is the simulation of the hydration, which we focus in this paper.
We establish the basis of a discrete function theory starting with a Fischer decomposition for difference Dirac operators. Discrete versions of homogeneous polynomials, Euler and Gamma operators are obtained. As a consequence we obtain a Fischer decomposition for the discrete Laplacian. For the sake of simplicity we consider in the first part only Dirac operators which contain only forward or backward finite differences. Of course, these Dirac operators do not factorize the classic discrete Laplacian. Therefore, we will consider a different definition of a difference Dirac operator in the quaternionic case which do factorizes the discrete Laplacian.
The use of process models in the analysis, optimization and simulation of processes has proven to be extremely beneficial in the instances where they could be applied appropriately. However, the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industries present unique challenges that complicate the modeling of their processes. A simple Engineering process model, based on the specification of Tasks, Datasets, Persons and Tools, and certain relations between them, have been developed, and its advantages over conventional techniques have been illustrated. Graph theory is used as the mathematical foundation mapping Tasks, Datasets, Persons and Tools to vertices and the relations between them to edges forming a directed graph. The acceptance of process modeling in AEC industries not only depends on the results it can provide, but the ease at which these results can be attained. Specifying a complex AEC process model is a dynamic exercise that is characterized by many modifications over the process model's lifespan. This article looks at reducing specification complexity, reducing the probability for erroneous input and allowing consistent model modification. Furthermore, the problem of resource leveling is discussed. Engineering projects are often executed with limited resources and determining the impact of such restrictions on the sequence of Tasks is important. Resource Leveling concerns itself with these restrictions caused by limited resources. This article looks at using Task shifting strategies to find a near-optimal sequence of Tasks that guarantees consistent Dataset evolution while resolving resource restrictions.
Traffic simulation is a valuable tool for the design and evaluation of road networks. Over the years, the level of detail to which urban and freeway traffic can be simulated has increased steadily, shifting from a merely qualitative macroscopic perspective to a very detailed microscopic view, where the behavior of individual vehicles is emulated realistically. With the improvement of behavioral models, however, the computational complexity has also steadily increased, as more and more aspects of real-life traffic have to be considered by the simulation environment. Despite the constant increase in computing power of modern personal computers, microscopic simulation stays computationally expensive, limiting the maximum network size than can be simulated on a single-processor computer in reasonable time. Parallelization can distribute the computing load from a single computer system to a cluster of several computing nodes. To this end, the exisiting simulation framework had to be adapted to allow for a distributed approach. As the simulation is ultimately targeted to be executed in real-time, incorporating real traffic data, only a spatial partition of the simulation was considered, meaning the road network has to be partitioned into subnets of comparable complexity, to ensure a homogenous load balancing. The partition process must also ensure, that the division between subnets does only occur in regions, where no strong interaction between the separated road segments occurs (i.e. not in the direct vicinity of junctions). In this paper, we describe a new microscopic reasoning voting strategy, and discuss in how far the increasing computational costs of these more complex behaviors lend themselves to a parallelized approach. We show the parallel architecture employed, the communication between computing units using MPIJava, and the benefits and pitfalls of adapting a single computer application to be used on a multi-node computing cluster.
HYPERMONOGENIC POLYNOMIALS
(2006)
It is well know that the power function is not monogenic. There are basically two ways to include the power function into the set of solutions: The hypermonogenic functions or holomorphic Cliffordian functions. L. Pernas has found out the dimension of the space of homogenous holomorphic Cliffordian polynomials of degree m, but his approach did not include a basis. It is known that the hypermonogenic functions are included in the space of holomorphic Cliffordian functions. As our main result we show that we can construct a basis for the right module of homogeneous holomorphic Cliffordian polynomials of degree m using hypermonogenic polynomials and their derivatives. To that end we first recall the function spaces of monogenic, hypermonogenic and holomorphic Cliffordian functions and give the results needed in the proof of our main theorem. We list some basic polynomials and their properties for the various function spaces. In particular, we consider recursive formulas, rules of differentiation and properties of linear independency for the polynomials.
We study the Weinstein equation u on the upper half space R3+. The Weinstein equation is connected to the axially symmetric potentials. We compute solutions of the Weinstein equation depending on the hyperbolic distance and x2. These results imply the explicit mean value properties. We also compute the fundamental solution. The main tools are the hyperbolic metric and its invariance properties.
We consider efficient numerical methods for the solution of partial differential equations with stochastic coefficients or right hand side. The discretization is performed by the stochastic finite element method (SFEM). Separation of spatial and stochastic variables in the random input data is achieved via a Karhunen-Loève expansion or Wiener's polynomial chaos expansion. We discuss solution strategies for the Galerkin system that take advantage of the special structure of the system matrix. For stochastic coefficients linear in a set of independent random variables we employ Krylov subspace recycling techniques after having decoupled the large SFEM stiffness matrix.
Due to the amount of flow simulation and measurement data, automatic detection, classification and visualization of features is necessary for an inspection. Therefore, many automated feature detection methods have been developed in recent years. However, only one feature class is visualized afterwards in most cases, and many algorithms have problems in the presence of noise or superposition effects. In contrast, image processing and computer vision have robust methods for feature extraction and computation of derivatives of scalar fields. Furthermore, interpolation and other filter can be analyzed in detail. An application of these methods to vector fields would provide a solid theoretical basis for feature extraction. The authors suggest Clifford algebra as a mathematical framework for this task. Clifford algebra provides a unified notation for scalars and vectors as well as a multiplication of all basis elements. The Clifford product of two vectors provides the complete geometric information of the relative positions of these vectors. Integration of this product results in Clifford correlation and convolution which can be used for template matching of vector fields. For frequency analysis of vector fields and the behavior of vector-valued filters, a Clifford Fourier transform has been derived for 2D and 3D. Convolution and other theorems have been proved, and fast algorithms for the computation of the Clifford Fourier transform exist. Therefore the computation of Clifford convolution can be accelerated by computing it in Clifford Fourier domain. Clifford convolution and Fourier transform can be used for a thorough analysis and subsequent visualization of flow fields.
In civil engineering it is very difficult and often expensive to excite constructions such as bridges and buildings with an impulse hammer or shaker. This problem can be avoided with the output-only method as special feature of stochastic system identification. The permanently existing ambient noise (e.g. wind, traffic, waves) is sufficient to excite the structures in their operational conditions. The output-only method is able to estimate the observable part of a state-space-model which contains the dynamic characteristics of the measured mechanical system. Because of the assumption that the ambient excitation is white there is no requirement to measure the input. Another advantage of the output-only method is the possibility to get high detailed models by a special method, called polyreference setup. To pretend the availability of a much larger set of sensors the data from varying sensor locations will be collected. Several successive data sets are recorded with sensors at different locations (moving sensors) and fixed locations (reference sensors). The covariance functions of the reference sensors are bases to normalize the moving sensors. The result of the following subspace-based system identification is a high detailed black-box-model that contains the weighting function including the well-known dynamic parameters eigenfrequencies and mode shapes of the mechanical system. Emphasis of this lecture is the presentation of an extensive damage detection experiment. A 53-year old prestressed concrete tied-arch-bridge in Hünxe (Germany) was deconstructed in 2005. Preliminary numerous vibration measurements were accomplished. The first experiment for system modification was an additional support near the bridge bearing of one main girder. During a further experiment one hanger from one tied arch was cut through as an induced damage. Some first outcomes of the described experiments will be presented.
Der Begriff der Zuverlässigkeit spielt eine zentrale Rolle bei der Bewertung von Verkehrsnetzen. Aus der Sicht der Nutzer des öffentlichen Personennahverkehrs (ÖPNV) ist eines der wichtigsten Kriterien zur Beurteilung der Qualität des Liniennetzes, ob es möglich ist, mit einer großen Sicherheit das Reiseziel in einer vorgegebenen Zeit zu erreichen. Im Vortrag soll dieser Zuverlässigkeitsbegriff mathematisch gefasst werden. Dabei wird zunächst auf den üblichen Begriff der Zuverlässigkeit eines Netzes im Sinne paarweiser Zusammenhangswahrscheinlichkeiten eingegangen. Dieser Begriff wird erweitert durch die Betrachtung der Zuverlässigkeit unter Einbeziehung einer maximal zulässigen Reisezeit. In vergangenen Arbeiten hat sich die Ring-Radius-Struktur als bewährtes Modell für die theoretische Beschreibung von Verkehrsnetzen erwiesen. Diese Überlegungen sollen nun durch Einbeziehung realer Verkehrsnetzstrukturen erweitert werden. Als konkretes Beispiel dient das Straßenbahnnetz von Krakau. Hier soll insbesondere untersucht werden, welche Auswirkungen ein geplanter Ausbau des Netzes auf die Zuverlässigkeit haben wird. This paper is involved with CIVITAS-CARAVEL project: "Clean and better transport in cites". The project has received research funding from the Community's Sixth Framework Programme. The paper reflects only the author's views and the Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Reasonably accurate cost estimation of the structural system is quite desirable at the early stages of the design process of a construction project. However, the numerous interactions among the many cost-variables make the prediction difficult. Artificial neural networks (ANN) and case-based reasoning (CBR) are reported to overcome this difficulty. This paper presents a comparison of CBR and ANN augmented by genetic algorithms (GA) conducted by using spreadsheet simulations. GA was used to determine the optimum weights for the ANN and CBR models. The cost data of twenty-nine actual cases of residential building projects were used as an example application. Two different sets of cases were randomly selected from the data set for training and testing purposes. Prediction rates of 84% in the GA/CBR study and 89% in the GA/ANN study were obtained. The advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are discussed in the light of the experiments and the findings. It appears that GA/ANN is a more suitable model for this example of cost estimation where the prediction of numerical values is required and only a limited number of cases exist. The integration of GA into CBR and ANN in a spreadsheet format is likely to improve the prediction rates.
Designing a structure follows a pattern of creating a structural design concept, executing a finite element analysis and developing a design model. A project was undertaken to create computer support for executing these tasks within a collaborative environment. This study focuses on developing a software architecture that integrates the various structural design aspects into a seamless functional collaboratory that satisfies engineering practice requirements. The collaboratory is to support both homogeneous collaboration i.e. between users operating on the same model and heterogeneous collaboration i.e. between users operating on different model types. Collaboration can take place synchronously or asynchronously, and the information exchange is done either at the granularity of objects or at the granularity of models. The objective is to determine from practicing engineers which configurations they regard as best and what features are essential for working in a collaborative environment. Based on the suggestions of these engineers a specification of a collaboration configuration that satisfies engineering practice requirements will be developed.
THE FOURIER-BESSEL TRANSFORM
(2010)
In this paper we devise a new multi-dimensional integral transform within the Clifford analysis setting, the so-called Fourier-Bessel transform. It appears that in the two-dimensional case, it coincides with the Clifford-Fourier and cylindrical Fourier transforms introduced earlier. We show that this new integral transform satisfies operational formulae which are similar to those of the classical tensorial Fourier transform. Moreover the L2-basis elements consisting of generalized Clifford-Hermite functions appear to be eigenfunctions of the Fourier-Bessel transform.
Wolken
(2006)
ON THE NAVIER-STOKES EQUATION WITH FREE CONVECTION IN STRIP DOMAINS AND 3D TRIANGULAR CHANNELS
(2006)
The Navier-Stokes equations and related ones can be treated very elegantly with the quaternionic operator calculus developed in a series of works by K. Guerlebeck, W. Sproeossig and others. This study will be extended in this paper. In order to apply the quaternionic operator calculus to solve these types of boundary value problems fully explicitly, one basically needs to evaluate two types of integral operators: the Teodorescu operator and the quaternionic Bergman projector. While the integral kernel of the Teodorescu transform is universal for all domains, the kernel function of the Bergman projector, called the Bergman kernel, depends on the geometry of the domain. With special variants of quaternionic holomorphic multiperiodic functions we obtain explicit formulas for three dimensional parallel plate channels, rectangular block domains and regular triangular channels. The explicit knowledge of the integral kernels makes it then possible to evaluate the operator equations in order to determine the solutions of the boundary value problem explicitly.
The paper gives the results of scientific research, which, being based on probabilistic and statistical modeling, identifies the relationship of certain socio-economic factors and the number of people killed in road accidents in the Russian Federation regions. It notes the identity of processes in various fields, in which there is loss of life. Scientific methods and techniques were used in the process of data processing and study findings: systematic approach, methods of system analysis (algorithmization, mathematical programming) and mathematical statistics. The scientific novelty lies in the formulation, formalization and solving problems related to the analysis of regional road traffic accidents, its modeling taking into account the factors of socio-economic impact.
This paper examines the interactions between issues such as ideology, neoliberalism, institution-building and sustainable development. The central focus of the paper is to demonstrate that the neoliberalism hasn’t succeeded just because it is an economic strategy which better serves the interests of the capitalist class (though it must be stressed that this fact has obviously contributed) but mainly because it has been promoted as an attractive economic strategy by respected, well organized and transnationalized institutions all around the globe, and understand the reasons behind this institutional support. After reviewing the interrelationships between the Bretton-Woods institutions and their relationship with the concepts of neoliberalism and sustainable development, the paper concludes claiming that the so-called neoliberal ideology operates behind the discourses of growth, progress and sustainability and that it is in charge of softening domination by diffusing legitimating ideas and granting concessions to subordinate forces, thus implying significations and values that transcend the possible manipulation of the world as an object.
Electromagnetic wave propagation is currently present in the vast majority of situations which occur in veryday life, whether in mobile communications, DTV, satellite tracking, broadcasting, etc. Because of this the study of increasingly complex means of propagation of lectromagnetic waves has become necessary in order to optimize resources and increase the capabilities of the devices as required by the growing demand for such services.
Within the electromagnetic wave propagation different parameters are considered that characterize it under various circumstances and of particular importance are the reflectance and transmittance. There are several methods or the analysis of the reflectance and transmittance such as the method of approximation by boundary condition, the plane wave expansion method (PWE), etc., but this work focuses on the WKB and SPPS methods.
The implementation of the WKB method is relatively simple but is found to be relatively efficient only when working at high frequencies. The SPPS method (Spectral Parameter Powers Series) based on the theory of pseudoanalytic functions, is used to solve this problem through a new representation for solutions of Sturm Liouville equations and has recently proven to be a powerful tool to solve different boundary value and eigenvalue problems. Moreover, it has a very suitable structure for numerical implementation, which in this case took place in the Matlab software for the valuation of both conventional and turning points profiles.
The comparison between the two methods allows us to obtain valuable information about their perfor mance which is useful for determining the validity and propriety of their application for solving problems where these parameters are calculated in real life applications.
The application of a recent method using formal power series is proposed. It is based on a new representation for solutions of Sturm-Liouville equations. This method is used to calculate the transmittance and reflectance coefficients of finite inhomogeneous layers with high accuracy and efficiency. Tailoring the refraction index profile defining the inhomogeneous media it is possible to develop very important applications such as optical filters. A number of profiles were evaluated and then some of them selected in order to perform an improvement of their characteristics via the modification of their profiles.
A UNIFIED APPROACH FOR THE TREATMENT OF SOME HIGHER DIMENSIONAL DIRAC TYPE EQUATIONS ON SPHERES
(2010)
Using Clifford analysis methods, we provide a unified approach to obtain explicit solutions of some partial differential equations combining the n-dimensional Dirac and Euler operators, including generalizations of the classical time-harmonic Maxwell equations. The obtained regular solutions show strong connections between hypergeometric functions and homogeneous polynomials in the kernel of the Dirac operator.
Image processing has been much inspired by the human vision, in particular with regard to early vision. The latter refers to the earliest stage of visual processing responsible for the measurement of local structures such as points, lines, edges and textures in order to facilitate subsequent interpretation of these structures in higher stages (known as high level vision) of the human visual system. This low level visual computation is carried out by cells of the primary visual cortex. The receptive field profiles of these cells can be interpreted as the impulse responses of the cells, which are then considered as filters. According to the Gaussian derivative theory, the receptive field profiles of the human visual system can be approximated quite well by derivatives of Gaussians. Two mathematical models suggested for these receptive field profiles are on the one hand the Gabor model and on the other hand the Hermite model which is based on analysis filters of the Hermite transform. The Hermite filters are derivatives of Gaussians, while Gabor filters, which are defined as harmonic modulations of Gaussians, provide a good approximation to these derivatives. It is important to note that, even if the Gabor model is more widely used than the Hermite model, the latter offers some advantages like being an orthogonal basis and having better match to experimental physiological data. In our earlier research both filter models, Gabor and Hermite, have been developed in the framework of Clifford analysis. Clifford analysis offers a direct, elegant and powerful generalization to higher dimension of the theory of holomorphic functions in the complex plane. In this paper we expose the construction of the Hermite and Gabor filters, both in the classical and in the Clifford analysis framework. We also generalize the concept of complex Gaussian derivative filters to the Clifford analysis setting. Moreover, we present further properties of the Clifford-Gabor filters, such as their relationship with other types of Gabor filters and their localization in the spatial and in the frequency domain formalized by the uncertainty principle.
Euclidean Clifford analysis is a higher dimensional function theory offering a refinement of classical harmonic analysis. The theory is centered around the concept of monogenic functions, i.e. null solutions of a first order vector valued rotation invariant differential operator called the Dirac operator, which factorizes the Laplacian. More recently, Hermitean Clifford analysis has emerged as a new and successful branch of Clifford analysis, offering yet a refinement of the Euclidean case; it focusses on the simultaneous null solutions, called Hermitean (or h-) monogenic functions, of two Hermitean Dirac operators which are invariant under the action of the unitary group. In Euclidean Clifford analysis, the Clifford-Cauchy integral formula has proven to be a corner stone of the function theory, as is the case for the traditional Cauchy formula for holomorphic functions in the complex plane. Previously, a Hermitean Clifford-Cauchy integral formula has been established by means of a matrix approach. This formula reduces to the traditional Martinelli-Bochner formula for holomorphic functions of several complex variables when taking functions with values in an appropriate part of complex spinor space. This means that the theory of Hermitean monogenic functions should encompass also other results of several variable complex analysis as special cases. At present we will elaborate further on the obtained results and refine them, considering fundamental solutions, Borel-Pompeiu representations and the Teoderescu inversion, each of them being developed at different levels, including the global level, handling vector variables, vector differential operators and the Clifford geometric product as well as the blade level were variables and differential operators act by means of the dot and wedge products. A rich world of results reveals itself, indeed including well-known formulae from the theory of several complex variables.