Search results for "Computer simulation"
showing 10 items of 1054 documents
Ability of Preissmann slot scheme to simulate smooth pressurisation transient in sewers
2010
Urban drainage networks are generally designed to operate in a free-surface flow condition. However, as a consequence of heavy rainfall events or network malfunctioning, filling of sewers (pressurization) and network overflowing may occur. Several softwares are commonly used to simulate floods in drainage networks and their results are usually thought to be reliable and robust. However, no specific studies have been carried out on the behaviour of these softwares during the pressurization transient. Actually, mathematical models based on the momentum equation appear to be more suitable in correctly simulating the pressurization moving jump but models based on the energy equation are much mo…
Evaluation of the apparent losses caused by water meter under-registration in intermittent water supply
2009
Apparent losses are usually caused by water theft, billing errors, or revenue meter under-registration. While the first two causes are directly related to water utility management and may be reduced by improving company procedures, water meter inaccuracies are considered to be the most significant and hardest to quantify. Water meter errors are amplified in networks subjected to water scarcity, where users adopt private storage tanks to cope with the intermittent water supply. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of two variables influencing the apparent losses: water meter age and the private storage tank effect on meter performance. The study was carried out in Palermo (Italy). Th…
3D simulations and experiments of guided wave propagation in adhesively bonded multi-layered structures
2010
Understanding guided wave propagation in multi-layered plates and interaction with discontinuities can be difficult, as well as the interpretation of the ultrasonic signals. Propagation of guided waves can be studied analytically solving the equations of motion with the proper boundary conditions; nevertheless analytical models can be difficult to solve for complex multi-layered structures or having inner discontinuities. The problem can be efficiently studied using numerical techniques. Simulation of guided wave propagation in multi-layered structures, for ultrasonic waves in the MHz range, is solved here with the finite element analysis based on an explicit integration rule to solve the e…
GA-based Off-Line Parameter Estimation of the Induction Motor Model Including Magnetic Saturation and Iron Losses
2020
This paper, starting from recent papers in the scientific literature dealing with Rotating Induction Motor (RIM) dynamic modelling, as a first step, improves its space-vector dynamic model, including both the magnetic saturation and iron losses; The main original aspects of the proposed model are the following: 1) the magnetic saturation of the iron core has been described on the basis of both current versus flux and flux versus current functions, 3) it includes the iron losses, separating them in hysteresis and eddy current ones, 4) it includes the effect of the load on the magnetic saturation. Afterwards, it proposes an off-line technique for the estimation of electrical parameters of thi…
Validation of a subject specific 3-actuator torque-driven model in human vertical jumping.
2013
In this study, a forward dynamic subject specific 3-actuator torque-driven model of the human musculoskeletal system was created based on measurements of individual characteristics of a subject. Simulation results were compared with experimental vertical squat jumping with and without adding weights. By analyzing kinematic and kinetic experimental data at the instant of the toe-off for the same initial conditions, it was shown that a simple computer simulation using a suitable cost function could reproduce the real task performed by humans. This investigation is the first step in a wider project that will incorporate elastic components, and that will evaluate the advantages of the individua…
Finite-element Discretizations of Semiconductor Energy-transport Equations
2003
Energy-transport models describe the flow of electrons in a semiconductor crystal. Several formulations of these models, in the primal or dual entropy variables or in the drift-diffusion-type variables, are reviewed. A numerical discretization of the steady-state drift-diffusion-type formulation using mixed-hybrid finite elements introduced by Marini and Pietra is presented. The scheme is first applied to the simulation of a one-dimensional ballistic diode with non-parabolic band diagrams. Then a two-dimensional deep submicron MOSFET device with parabolic bands is simulated, using an adaptively refined mesh.
Nonlinear control of an activated sludge aeration process: use of fuzzy techniques for tuning PID controllers
1999
In this paper, several tuning algorithms, specifically ITAE, IMC and Cohen and Coon, were applied in order to tune an activated sludge aeration PID controller. Performance results of these controllers were compared by simulation with those obtained by using a nonlinear fuzzy PID controller. In order to design this controller, a trial and error procedure was used to determine, as a function of error at current time and at a previous time, sets of parameters (including controller gain, integral time and derivative time) which achieve satisfactory response of a PID controller actuating over the aeration process. Once these sets of data were obtained, neural networks were used to obtain fuzzy m…
Medium Voltage Smart Grid: Experimental Analysis of Secondary Substation Narrow Band Power Line Communication
2013
This paper is focused on the possibility of employing narrow band power line communication (PLC) in medium voltage (MV) distribution networks. The topic is investigated by means of both simulations and experimental tests, which were carried out in the distribution network of Ustica Island. In detail, a two-way MV communication was tested between two secondary substations connected by an MV cable power line. Each substation has a by-pass connection at MV bus-bars and an MV/LV oil filled power transformer. In this paper, the MV and the PLC systems under test are described and the experimental tests are presented, which were carried out to evaluate the parameters of the simulation model. The a…
Expected principal stress directions under multiaxial random loading. Part II: Numerical simulation and experimental assessment through the weight fu…
1999
In Part I of the present work, the theoretical aspects of a proposed procedure to determine the expected principal stress directions under multiaxial random loading have been discussed. This procedure consists of averaging the instantaneous values of the three Euler angles through weight functions. In Part II here, a numerical simulation is presented to illustrate the above theoretical method. As an example, the algorithm proposed is applied to some experimental biaxial in- and out-of-phase stress states to assess the correlation between the expected principal stress directions and the position of the experimental fatigue fracture plane for such tests.
Numerical prediction of the shear response of semi-prefabricated steel-concrete trussed beams
2016
Abstract In this study, the shear behavior of hybrid steel-trussed-concrete beams (HSTCBs) realized with prefabricated steel trusses embedded into a concrete core cast in situ, is investigated by means of Finite Element (FE) numerical simulations. HSTCBs do not behave as classical RC elements nor composite beams. Up to now, there are not specific design criteria in the building codes and the calculation of this type of beams is conducted by means of design-by-testing procedures. The knowledge of the material behavior as well as the understanding of the interaction between materials in contact is the first requirement for the definition of proper design procedures and calculation methods for…