All issues

Currently, earthquake-resistant design of buildings based on the power calculation and presentation of effect of the earthquake static equivalent forces, which are calculated using elastic response spectra (linear-spectral method) that connects the law of motion of the soil with the absolute acceleration of the model in a nonlinear oscillator.

This approach does not directly take into account either the influence of the duration of strong motion or the plastic behavior of the structure. Frequency content and duration of ground vibrations directly affect the energy received by the building and causing damage to its elements. Unlike power or kinematic calculation of the seismic effect on the structure can be interpreted without considering separately the forces and displacements and to provide, as the product of both variables, i.e., the work or input energy (maximum energy that can be purchased building to the earthquake).

With the energy approach of seismic design, it is necessary to evaluate the input seismic energy in the structure and its distribution among various structural components.

The article provides substantiation of the energy approach in the design of earthquake-resistant buildings and structures instead of the currently used method based on the power calculation and presentation of effect of the earthquake static equivalent forces, which are calculated using spectra of the reaction.

Noted that interest in the use of energy concepts in earthquake-resistant design began with the works of Housner, which provided the seismic force in the form of the input seismic energy, using the range of speeds, and suggested that the damage in elastic-plastic system and elastic system causes one and the same input seismic energy.

The indices of the determination of the input energy of the earthquake, proposed by various authors, are given in this paper. It is shown that modern approaches to ensuring seismic stability of structures, based on the representation of the earthquake effect as a static equivalent force, do not adequately describe the behavior of the system during an earthquake.

In this paper, based on quantitative estimates of seismic risk analyzes developed in the NRU MSUCE Standard Organization (STO) “Seismic resistance structures. The main design provisions”. In the developed document a step forward with respect to the optimal design of earthquake-resistant structures.

The proposed concept of using the achievements of modern methods of calculation of buildings and structures on seismic effects, which are harmonized with the Eurocodes and are not contrary to the system of national regulations.

In this paper, a time-dependent natural convective heat transfer in a closed square cavity filled with non- Newtonian fluid was considered in the presence of an isothermal energy source located on the lower wall of the region under consideration. The vertical boundaries were kept at constant low temperature, while the horizontal walls were completely insulated. The behavior of a non-Newtonian fluid was described by the Ostwald de Ville power law. The process under study was described by transient partial differential equations using dimensionless non-primitive variables “stream function – vorticity – temperature”. This method allows excluding the pressure field from the number of unknown parameters, while the non-dimensionalization allows generalizing the obtained results to a variety of physical formulations. The considered mathematical model with the corresponding boundary conditions was solved on the basis of the finite difference method. The algebraic equation for the stream function was solved by the method of successive lower relaxation. Discrete analogs of the vorticity equation and energy equation were solved by the Thomas algorithm. The developed numerical algorithm was tested in detail on a class of model problems and good agreement with other authors was achieved. Also during the study, the mesh sensitivity analysis was performed that allows choosing the optimal mesh.

As a result of numerical simulation of unsteady natural convection of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid in a closed square cavity with a local isothermal energy source, the influence of governing parameters was analyzed including the impact of the Rayleigh number in the range 104–106, power-law index $n = 0.6–1.4$, and also the position of the heating element on the flow structure and heat transfer performance inside the cavity. The analysis was carried out on the basis of the obtained distributions of streamlines and isotherms in the cavity, as well as on the basis of the dependences of the average Nusselt number. As a result, it was established that pseudoplastic fluids $(n < 1)$ intensify heat removal from the heater surface. The increase in the Rayleigh number and the central location of the heating element also correspond to the effective cooling of the heat source.

Modern methods of complex planning the execution of task packages in multistage systems are characterized by the presence of restrictions on the dimension of the problem being solved, the impossibility of guaranteed obtaining effective solutions for various values of its input parameters, as well as the impossibility of registration the conditions for the formation of sets from the result and the restriction on the interval duration of time of the system operating. The decomposition of the generalized function of the system into a set of hierarchically interconnected subfunctions is implemented to solve the problem of scheduling the execution of task packages with generating sets of results and the restriction on the interval duration of time for the functioning of the system. The use of decomposition made it possible to employ the hierarchical approach for planning the execution of task packages in multistage systems, which provides the determination of decisions by the composition of task groups at the first level of the hierarchy decisions by the composition of task packages groups executed during time intervals of limited duration at the second level and schedules for executing packages at the third level the hierarchy. In order to evaluate decisions on the composition of packages, the results of their execution, obtained during the specified time intervals, are distributed among the packages. The apparatus of the theory of hierarchical games is used to determine complex solutions. A model of a hierarchical game for making decisions by the compositions of packages, groups of packages and schedules of executing packages is built, which is a system of hierarchically interconnected criteria for optimizing decisions. The model registers the condition for the formation of sets from the results of the execution of task packages and restriction on duration of time intervals of its operating. The problem of determining the compositions of task packages and groups of task packages is NP-hard; therefore, its solution requires the use of approximate optimization methods. In order to optimize groups of task packages, the construction of a method for formulating initial solutions by their compositions has been implemented, which are further optimized. Moreover, a algorithm for distributing the results of executing task packages obtained during time intervals of limited duration by sets is formulated. The method of local solutions optimization by composition of packages groups, in accordance with which packages are excluded from groups, the results of which are not included in sets, and packages, that aren’t included in any group, is proposed. The software implementation of the considered method of complex optimization of the compositions of task packages, groups of task packages, and schedules for executing task packages from groups (including the implementation of the method for optimizing the compositions of groups of task packages) has been performed. With its use, studies of the features of the considered planning task are carried out. Conclusion are formulated concerning the dependence of the efficiency of scheduling the execution of task packages in multistage system under the introduced conditions from the input parameters of the problem. The use of the method of local optimization of the compositions of groups of task packages allows to increase the number of formed sets from the results of task execution in packages from groups by 60% in comparison with fixed groups (which do not imply optimization).

The article focuses on the problem of mechanisms’ co-design for robotic systems to perform adaptive physical interaction with an unstructured environment, including physical human robot interaction. The co-design means simultaneous optimization of mechanics and control system, ensuring optimal behavior and performance of the system. Mechanics optimization refers to the search for optimal structure, geometric parameters, mass distribution among the links and their compliance; control refers to the search for motion trajectories for mechanism’s joints. The paper presents a generalized method of structural-parametric synthesis of underactuated mechanisms with closed kinematics for robotic systems for various purposes, e. g., it was previously used for the co-design of fingers’ mechanisms for anthropomorphic gripper and legs’ mechanisms for galloping robots. The method implements the concept of morphological computation of control laws due to the features of mechanical design, minimizing the control effort from the algorithmic component of the control system, which reduces the requirements for the level of technical equipment and reduces energy consumption. In this paper, the proposed method is used to optimize the structure and geometric parameters of the passive mechanism of the back support module of an industrial exosuit. Human movements are diverse and non-deterministic when compared with the movements of autonomous robots, which complicates the design of wearable robotic devices. To reduce injuries, fatigue and increase the productivity of workers, the synthesized industrial exosuit should not only compensate for loads, but also not interfere with the natural human motions. To test the developed exosuit, kinematic datasets from motion capture of an entire human body during industrial operations were used. The proposed method of structural-parametric synthesis was used to improve the ergonomics of a wearable robotic device. Verification of the synthesized mechanism was carried out using simulation: the passive module of the back is attached to two geometric primitives that move the chest and pelvis of the exosuit operator in accordance with the motion capture data. The ergonomics of the back module is quantified by the distance between the joints connecting the upper and bottom parts of the exosuit; minimizing deviation from the average value corresponds to a lesser limitation of the operator’s movement, i. e. greater ergonomics. The article provides a detailed description of the method of structural-parametric synthesis, an example of synthesis of an exosuit module and the results of simulation.

Optimization of hull lines for the minimum resistance to movement is a problem of current interest in ship hydrodynamics. In practice, lines design is still to some extent an art. The usual approaches to decrease the ship resistance are based on the model experiment and/or CFD simulation, following the trial and error method. The paper presents a new method of in-detail hull form design based on the wave-based optimization approach. The method provides systematic variation of the hull geometrical form, which corresponds to alteration of longitudinal distribution of the hull volume, while its vertical volume distribution is fixed or highly controlled. It’s well known from the theoretical studies that the vertical distribution can't be optimized by condition of minimum wave resistance, thus it can be neglected for the optimization procedures. The method efficiency was investigated by application to the foreship of KCS, the well-known test object from the workshop Gothenburg-2000. The variations of the longitudinal distribution of the volume were set on the sectional area curve as finite volume increments and then transferred to the lines plan with the help of special frame transformation methods. The CFD towing simulations were carried out for the initial hull form and the six modified variants. According to the simulation results, examined modifications caused the resistance increments in the range 1.3–6.5 %. Optimization process was underpinned with the respective data analysis based on the new hypothesis, according to which, the resistance increments caused by separate longitudinal segments of hull form meet the principle of superposition. The achieved results, which are presented as the optimum distribution of volume present in the optimized designed hull form, which shows the interesting characteristics that its resistance has decrease by 8.9 % in respect to initial KCS hull form. Visualization of the wave patterns showed an attenuation of the transversal wave components, and the intensification of the diverging wave components.

We study the influence of fishery on a structured fish population under random changes of habitat conditions. The population parameters correspond to dominant pelagic fish species of Far-Eastern seas of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean (pollack, herring, sardine). Similar species inhabit various parts of the Word Ocean. The species body size distribution was chosen as a main population feature. This characteristic is easy to measure and adequately defines main specimen qualities such as age, maturity and other morphological and physiological peculiarities. Environmental fluctuations have a great influence on the individuals in early stages of development and have little influence on the vital activity of mature individuals. The fishery revenue was chosen as an optimality criterion. The main control characteristic is fishing effort. We have chosen quadratic dependence of fishing revenue on the fishing effort according to accepted economic ideas stating that the expenses grow with the production volume. The model study shows that the population structure ensures the increased population stability. The growth and drop out of the individuals’ due to natural mortality smoothens the oscillations of population density arising from the strong influence of the fluctuations of environment on young individuals. The smoothing part is played by diffusion component of the growth processes. The fishery in its turn smooths the fluctuations (including random fluctuations) of the environment and has a substantial impact upon the abundance of fry and the subsequent population dynamics. The optimal time-dependent fishing effort strategy was compared to stationary fishing effort strategy. It is shown that in the case of quickly changing habitat conditions and stochastic dynamics of population replenishment there exists a stationary fishing effort having approximately the same efficiency as an optimal time-dependent fishing effort. This means that a constant or weakly varying fishing effort can be very efficient strategy in terms of revenue.

Numerical study of unsteady mixed convection in an open partially porous horizontal channel with a heatgenerating source was performed. The outer surfaces of horizontal walls of finite thickness were adiabatic. In the channel there was a Newtonian heat-conducting fluid with a temperature-dependent viscosity. The discrete heatconducting and heat-generating source is located inside the bottom wall. The temperature of the fluid phase was equal to the temperature of the porous medium, and calculations were performed using the local thermal equilibrium model. The porous insertion is isotropic, homogeneous and permeable to fluid. The Darcy–Brinkman model was used to simulate the transport process within the porous medium. Governing equations formulated in dimensionless variables “stream function – vorticity – temperature” using the Boussinesq approximation were solved numerically by the finite difference method. The vorticity dispersion equation and energy equation were solved using locally one-dimensional Samarskii scheme. The diffusive terms were approximated by central differences, while the convective terms were approximated using monotonic Samarskii scheme. The difference equations were solved by the Thomas algorithm. The approximated Poisson equation for the stream function was solved separately by successive over-relaxation method. Optimal value of the relaxation parameter was found on the basis of computational experiments. The developed computational code was tested using a set of uniform grids and verified by comparing the results obtained of other authors.

Numerical analysis of unsteady mixed convection of variable viscosity fluid in the horizontal channel with a heat-generating source was performed for the following parameters: $\mathrm{Pr} = 7.0$, $\varepsilon = 0.8$, $\mathrm{Gr} = 10^5$, $C = 0-1$, $10^{-5} < \mathrm{Da} < 10^{-1}$, $50 < \mathrm{Re} < 500$, $\delta = l/H = 0.6-3$. Distributions of the isolines of the stream function, temperature and the dependences of the average Nusselt number and the average temperature inside the heater were obtained in a steady-state regime, when the stationary picture of the flow and heat transfer is observed. As a result we showed that an addition of a porous insertion leads to an intensification of heat removal from the surface of the energy source. The increase in the porous insertion sizes and the use of working fluid with different thermal characteristics, lead to a decrease in temperature inside the source.

Inverse geophysical problems are difficult to solve due to their mathematically incorrect formulation and large computational complexity. Geophysical exploration in frontier areas is even more complicated due to the lack of reliable geological information. In this case, inversion methods that allow interpretation of several types of geophysical data together are recognized to be of major importance. This paper is dedicated to one of such inversion methods, which is based on minimization of the determinant of the Gram matrix for a set of model vectors. Within the framework of this approach, we minimize a nonlinear functional, which consists of squared norms of data residual of different types, the sum of stabilizing functionals and a term that measures the structural similarity between different model vectors. We apply this approach to seismic and electromagnetic synthetic data set. Specifically, we study joint inversion of acoustic pressure response together with controlled-source electrical field imposing structural constraints on resulting electrical conductivity and P-wave velocity distributions.

We start off this note with the problem formulation and present the numerical method for inverse problem. We implemented the conjugate-gradient algorithm for non-linear optimization. The efficiency of our approach is demonstrated in numerical experiments, in which the true 3D electrical conductivity model was assumed to be known, but the velocity model was constructed during inversion of seismic data. The true velocity model was based on a simplified geology structure of a marine prospect. Synthetic seismic data was used as an input for our minimization algorithm. The resulting velocity model not only fit to the data but also has structural similarity with the given conductivity model. Our tests have shown that optimally chosen weight of the Gramian term may improve resolution of the final models considerably.

We present a physico-mathematical statement of coupled geometrical and gas dynamics problem of intrachamber processes simulation and calculation of main internal ballistics characteristics of solid rocket motors in axisymmetric approximation. Method and numerical algorithm of solving the problem are described in this paper. We track the propellant burning surface using the level set method. This method allows us to implicitly represent the surface on a fixed Cartesian grid as zero-level of some function. Two-dimensional gas-dynamics equations describe a flow of combustion products in a solid rocket motor. Due to inconsistency of domain boundaries and nodes of computational grid, presence of ghost points lying outside the computational domain is taken into account. For setting the values of flow parameters in ghost points, we use the inverse Lax – Wendroff procedure. We discretize spatial derivatives of level set and gas-dynamics equations with standard WENO schemes of fifth and third-order respectively and time derivatives using total variation diminishing Runge –Kutta methods. We parallelize the presented numerical algorithm using CUDA technology and further optimize it with regard to peculiarities of graphics processors architecture.

Created software package is used for calculating internal ballistics characteristics of nozzleless solid rocket motor during main firing phase. On the base of obtained numerical results, we discuss efficiency of parallelization using CUDA technology and applying considered optimizations. It has been shown that implemented parallelization technique leads to a significant acceleration in comparison with central processes. Distributions of key parameters of combustion products flow in different periods of time have been presented in this paper. We make a comparison of obtained results between quasione-dimensional approach and developed numerical technique.

Authors describe a two-stage traffic assignment model. It contains of two blocks. The first block consists of a model for calculating a correspondence (demand) matrix, whereas the second block is a traffic assignment model. The first model calculates a matrix of correspondences using a matrix of transport costs (it characterizes the required volumes of movement from one area to another, it is time in this case). To solve this problem, authors propose to use one of the most popular methods of calculating the correspondence matrix in urban studies — the entropy model. The second model describes exactly how the needs for displacement specified by the correspondence matrix are distributed along the possible paths. Knowing the ways of the flows distribution along the paths, it is possible to calculate the cost matrix. Equilibrium in a two-stage model is a fixed point in the sequence of these two models. In practice the problem of finding a fixed point can be solved by the fixed-point iteration method. Unfortunately, at the moment the issue of convergence and estimations of the convergence rate for this method has not been studied quite thoroughly. In addition, the numerical implementation of the algorithm results in many problems. In particular, if the starting point is incorrect, situations may arise where the algorithm requires extremely large numbers to be computed and exceeds the available memory even on the most modern computers. Therefore the article proposes a method for reducing the problem of finding the equilibrium to the problem of the convex non-smooth optimization. Also a numerical method for solving the obtained optimization problem is proposed. Numerical experiments were carried out for both methods of solving the problem. The authors used data for Vladivostok (for this city information from various sources was processed and collected in a new dataset) and two smaller cities in the USA. It was not possible to achieve convergence by the method of fixed-point iteration, whereas the second model for the same dataset demonstrated convergence rate $k^{-1.67}$.