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There are conditions of uneven combustion for tubular powder elements of large elongation used in artillery propelling charges. Here it is necessary to consider in parallel the processes of combustion and movement of powder gases inside and outside the channels of the powder tubes. Without this, it is impossible to adequately formulate and solve the problems of ignition, erosive combustion and stress-strain state of tubular powder elements in the shot process. The paper presents a physical and mathematical formulation of the main problem of the internal ballistics of an artillery shot for a charge consisting of a set of powder tubes. Combustion and movement of a bundle of powder tubes along the barrel channel is modeled by an equivalent tubular charge of all-round combustion. The end and cross-sectional areas of the channel of such a charge (equivalent tube) are equal to the sum of the areas of the ends and cross-sections of the channels of the powder tubes, respectively. The combustion surface of the channel is equal to the sum of the inner surfaces of the tubes in the bundle. The outer combustion surface of the equivalent tube is equal to the sum of the outer surfaces of the tubes in the bundle. It is assumed that the equivalent tube moves along the axis of the bore. The speed of motion of an equivalent tubular charge and its current position are determined from Newton’s second law. To calculate the flow parameters, we used two-dimensional axisymmetric equations of gas dynamics, for the solution of which an axisymmetric orthogonalized difference mesh is constructed, which adapts to the flow conditions. When the tube moves and burns, the difference grid is rearranged taking into account the changing regions of integration. The control volume method is used for the numerical solution of the system of gas-dynamic equations. The gas parameters at the boundaries of the control volumes are determined using a self-similar solution to the Godunov problem of decay for an arbitrary discontinuity. The developed technique was used to calculate the internal ballistics parameters of an artillery shot. This approach is considered for the first time and allows a new approach to the design of tubular artillery charges, since it allows obtaining the necessary information in the form of fields of velocity and pressure of powder gases for calculating the process of gradual ignition, unsteady erosive combustion, stress-strain state and strength of powder elements during the shot. The time dependences of the parameters of the internal ballistics process and the distribution of the main parameters of the flow of combustion products at different times are presented.

By method of molecular dynamics investigated the interaction of nonlinear localized modes with bivacancies Pt crystal Pt₃Al. Identified dependences of the lifetime of the nonlinear localized modes from the initial temperature of the crystal model, the initial atom Al deviation from its equilibrium position, as well as the distance to the introduced bivacancy Pt in (111) plane of the crystal.

In this paper, we address the mathematical modeling of robots based on tensegrity structures. The pivotal property of such structures is the forming elements working only for compression or tension, which allows the use of materials and structural solutions that minimize the weight of the structure while maintaining its strength.

Tensegrity structures hold several properties important for collaborative robotics, exploration and motion tasks in non-deterministic environments: natural compliance, compactness for transportation, low weight with significant impact resistance and rigidity. The control of such structures remains an open research problem, which is associated with the complexity of describing the dynamics of such structures.

We formulate an approach for describing the dynamics of such structures, based on second-order dynamics of the Cartesian coordinates of structure elements (rods), first-order dynamics for angular velocities of rods, and first-order dynamics for quaternions that are used to describe the orientation of rods. We propose a numerical method for solving these dynamic equations. The proposed methods are implemented in the form of a freely distributed mathematical package with open source code.

Further, we show how the provided software package can be used for modeling the dynamics and determining the operating modes of tensegrity structures. We present an example of a tensegrity structure moving in zero gravity with three rigid rods and nine elastic elements working in tension (cables), showing the features of the dynamics of the structure in reaching the equilibrium position. The range of initial conditions for which the structure operates in the normal mode is determined. The results can be directly used to analyze the nature of passive dynamic movements of the robots based on a three-link tensegrity structure, considered in the paper; the proposed modeling methods and the developed software are suitable for modeling a significant variety of tensegrity robots.

The proteins of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) play a key role in the functioning of the adaptive immune system, and the identification of peptides that bind to them is an important step in the development of vaccines and understanding the mechanisms of autoimmune diseases. Today, there are a number of methods for predicting the binding of a particular MHC allele to a peptide. One of the best such methods is NetMHCpan-4.0, which is based on an ensemble of artificial neural networks. This paper presents a methodology for qualitatively improving the underlying neural network underlying NetMHCpan-4.0. The proposed method uses the ensemble construction technique and adds as input an estimate of the Potts model taken from static mechanics, which is a generalization of the Ising model. In the general case, the model reflects the interaction of spins in the crystal lattice. Within the framework of the proposed method, the model is used to better represent the physical nature of the interaction of proteins included in the complex. To assess the interaction of the MHC + peptide complex, we use a two-dimensional Potts model with 20 states (corresponding to basic amino acids). Solving the inverse problem using data on experimentally confirmed interacting pairs, we obtain the values of the parameters of the Potts model, which we then use to evaluate a new pair of MHC + peptide, and supplement this value with the input data of the neural network. This approach, combined with the ensemble construction technique, allows for improved prediction accuracy, in terms of the positive predictive value (PPV) metric, compared to the baseline model.

Despite numerous achievements of modern science the problem of lightning initiation in an electrodeless thundercloud, the maximum electric field strength inside which is approximately an order of magnitude lower than the dielectric strength of air, remains unsolved. Although there is no doubt that discharge activity begins with the appearance of positive streamers, which can develop under approximately half the threshold electric field as compared to negative ones, it remains unexplored how cold weakly conducting streamer systems unite in a joint hot well-conducting leader channel capable of self-propagation due to effective polarization in a relatively small external field. In this study, we present a self-organizing transport model which is applied to the case of electric discharge tree formation in a thundercloud. So, the model is aimed at numerical simulation of the initial stage of lightning discharge development. Among the innovative features of the model are the absence of grid spacing, high spatiotemporal resolution, and consideration of temporal evolution of electrical parameters of transport channels. The model takes into account the widely known asymmetry between threshold fields needed for positive and negative streamers development. In our model, the resulting well-conducting leader channel forms due to collective effect of combining the currents of tens of thousands of interacting streamer channels each of which initially has negligible conductivity and temperature that does not differ from the ambient one. The model bipolar tree is a directed graph (it has both positive and negative parts). It has morphological and electrodynamic characteristics which are intermediate between laboratory long spark and developed lightning. The model has universal character which allows to use it in other tasks related to the study of transport (in the broad sense of the word) networks.

The influence of the process of initiating a rapid local heat release near surface streamlined by supersonic gas (air) flow on the separation region that occurs during a fast turn of the flow was investigated. This surface consists of two planes that form obtuse angle when crossing, so that when flowing around the formed surface, the supersonic gas flow turns by a positive angle, which forms an oblique shock wave that interacts with the boundary layer and causes flow separation. Rapid local heating of the gas above the streamlined surface simulates long spark discharge of submicrosecond duration that crosses the flow. The gas heated in the discharge zone interacts with the separation region. The flow can be considered two-dimensional, so the numerical simulation is carried out in a two-dimensional formulation. Numerical simulation was carried out for laminar regime of flow using the sonicFoam solver of the OpenFOAM software package.

The paper describes a method for constructing a two-dimensional computational grid using hexagonal cells. A study of grid convergence has been carried out. A technique is given for setting the initial profiles of the flow parameters at the entrance to the computational domain, which makes it possible to reduce the computation time by reducing the number of computational cells. A method for non-stationary simulation of the process of rapid local heating of a gas is described, which consists in superimposing additional fields of increased pressure and temperature values calculated from the amount of energy deposited in oncoming supersonic gas flow on the corresponding fields of values obtained in the stationary case. The parameters of the energy input into the flow corresponding to the parameters of the electric discharge process, as well as the parameters of the oncoming flow, are close to the experimental values.

During analyzing numerical simulation data it was found that the initiation of rapid local heating leads to the appearance of a gas-dynamic perturbation (a quasi-cylindrical shock wave and an unsteady swirling flow), which, when interacting with the separation region, leads to a displacement of the separation point downstream. The paper considers the question of the influence of the energy spent on local heating of the gas, and of the position on the streamlined surface of the place of heating relative to the separation point, on the value of its maximum displacement.

This paper demonstrates the advantages of using artificial intelligence algorithms for the design of experiment theory, which makes possible to improve the accuracy of parameter identification for an elastostatic robot model. Design of experiment for a robot consists of the optimal configuration-external force pairs for the identification algorithms and can be described by several main stages. At the first stage, an elastostatic model of the robot is created, taking into account all possible mechanical compliances. The second stage selects the objective function, which can be represented by both classical optimality criteria and criteria defined by the desired application of the robot. At the third stage the optimal measurement configurations are found using numerical optimization. The fourth stage measures the position of the robot body in the obtained configurations under the influence of an external force. At the last, fifth stage, the elastostatic parameters of the manipulator are identified based on the measured data.

The objective function required to finding the optimal configurations for industrial robot calibration is constrained by mechanical limits both on the part of the possible angles of rotation of the robot’s joints and on the part of the possible applied forces. The solution of this multidimensional and constrained problem is not simple, therefore it is proposed to use approaches based on artificial intelligence. To find the minimum of the objective function, the following methods, also sometimes called heuristics, were used: genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing algorithm, etc. The obtained results were analyzed in terms of the time required to obtain the configurations, the optimal value, as well as the final accuracy after applying the calibration. The comparison showed the advantages of the considered optimization techniques based on artificial intelligence over the classical methods of finding the optimal value. The results of this work allow us to reduce the time spent on calibration and increase the positioning accuracy of the robot’s end-effector after calibration for contact operations with high loads, such as machining and incremental forming.

The article considers the problem of the stability of the vertical position of a Maxwell pendulum during its periodic up-down movements. Two types of transition movements are considered: “stop” — occurs when the body of the pendulum in its highest position on the string (during its “standard” upward movement) stops for a moment; “two-link pendulum” — occurs when the entire thread from the body of the pendulum is selected (the lowest position of the body on the thread during its “standard” downward movement), and the body is forced to rotate relative to the thread around the point of its attachment to the body. It is shown that for any values of the pendulum parameters, this position is unstable in the sense that oscillations of the thread around the vertical of finite amplitude occur in the system for arbitrarily small initial deviations. In addition, it has been established that no shock phenomena occur during the movement of the Maxwell pendulum, and the model of this pendulum itself, with the values of its parameters often used in the literature, is incorrect according to Hadamard. In this work, it is shown that the vertical position of the pendulum threads during the indicated oscillatory movements of the body along the threads for any non-degenerate values of the parameters of the Maxwell pendulum is always unstable in the above sense. Moreover, this instability is caused precisely by transitional movements of the 2nd type. In this work, it is further shown that no jumps in speeds or accelerations (due to which shocks or “jerks” in the tension of the threads can occur) do not occur during the indicated movements of the Maxwell pendulum model under consideration. In our opinion, the “jerks” observed in the experiments are due to other reasons, for example, the technical imperfection of the instruments on which the experiments were carried out.

The rheological behavior of aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale silicon dioxide particles strongly depends on the dynamic viscosity, which affects directly the use of nanofluids. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate models for predicting dynamic viscosity from independent input parameters: silicon dioxide concentration SiO₂, pH acidity, and shear rate $\gamma$. The influence of the suspension composition on its dynamic viscosity is analyzed. Groups of suspensions with statistically homogeneous composition have been identified, within which the interchangeability of compositions is possible. It is shown that at low shear rates, the rheological properties of suspensions differ significantly from those obtained at higher speeds. Significant positive correlations of the dynamic viscosity of the suspension with SiO₂ concentration and pH acidity were established, and negative correlations with the shear rate $\gamma$. Regression models with regularization of the dependence of the dynamic viscosity $\eta$ on the concentrations of SiO₂, NaOH, H₃PO₄, surfactant (surfactant), EDA (ethylenediamine), shear rate γ were constructed. For more accurate prediction of dynamic viscosity, the models using algorithms of neural network technologies and machine learning (MLP multilayer perceptron, RBF radial basis function network, SVM support vector method, RF random forest method) were trained. The effectiveness of the constructed models was evaluated using various statistical metrics, including the average absolute approximation error (MAE), the average quadratic error (MSE), the coefficient of determination $R^2$, and the average percentage of absolute relative deviation (AARD%). The RF model proved to be the best model in the training and test samples. The contribution of each component to the constructed model is determined. It is shown that the concentration of SiO₂ has the greatest influence on the dynamic viscosity, followed by pH acidity and shear rate γ. The accuracy of the proposed models is compared to the accuracy of models previously published. The results confirm that the developed models can be considered as a practical tool for studying the behavior of nanofluids, which use aqueous suspensions based on nanoscale particles of silicon dioxide.

Study of work of heating equipment is an actual issue because it allows determining optimal regimes to reach highest efficiency. At that it is very helpful to use computer simulation to predict how different heating modes influence the effectiveness of the heating process and wear of heating equipment. Computer simulation provides results whose accuracy is proven by many studies and requires costs and time less than real experiments. In terms of present research, computer simulation of heating of air tuyere of blast furnace was realized with the help of FEM software. Background studies revealed possibility to simulate it as a flat, axisymmetric problem and DEFORM-2D software was used for simulation. Geometry, necessary for simulation, was designed with the help of SolidWorks, saved in .dxf format. Then it was exported to DEFORM-2D pre-processor and positioned. Preliminary and boundary conditions were set up. Several modes of operating regimes were under analysis. In order to demonstrate influence of eah of the modes and for better visualization point tracking option of the DEFORM-2D post-processor was applied. Influence of thermal insulation box plugged into blow channel, with and without air gap, and thermal coating on air tuyere’s temperature field was investigated. Simulation data demonstrated significant effect of thermal insulation box on air tuyere’s temperature field. Designed model allowed to simulate tuyere’s burnout as a result of interaction with liquid iron. Conducted researches have demonstrated DEFORM-2D effectiveness while using it for simulation of heat transfer and heating processes. DEFORM-2D is about to be used in further studies dedicated to more complex process connected with temperature field of blast furnace’s air tuyere.