All issues

The basic subset of two-stage Rosenbrock schemes with complex coefficients for numerical solution of autonomous systems of ordinary differential equations (ODE) has been considered. Numerical realization of such schemes requires one LU-decomposition, two computations of right side function and one computation of Jacoby matrix of the system per one step. The full theoretical investigation of accuracy and stability of such schemes have been done. New A-stable methods of the 3-rd order of accuracy with different properties have been constructed. There are high order L-decremented schemes as well as schemes with simple estimation of the main term of truncation error which is necessary for automatic evaluation of time step. Testing of new methods has been performed.

The article presented the computational algorithm developed to study chemical processes in the internal flows of a multicomponent gas under the influence of laser radiation. The mathematical model is the gas dynamics’ equations with chemical reactions at low Mach numbers. It takes into account dissipative terms that describe the dynamics of a viscous heat-conducting medium with diffusion, chemical reactions and energy supply by laser radiation. This mathematical model is characterized by the presence of several very different time and spatial scales. The computational algorithm is based on a splitting scheme by physical processes. Each time integration step is divided into the following blocks: solving the equations of chemical kinetics, solving the equation for the radiation intensity, solving the convection-diffusion equations, calculating the dynamic component of pressure and calculating the correction of the velocity vector. The solution of a stiff system of chemical kinetics equations is carried out using a specialized explicit second-order accuracy scheme or a plug-in RADAU5 module. Numerical Rusanov flows and a WENO scheme of an increased order of approximation are used to find convective terms in the equations. The code based on the obtained algorithm has been developed using MPI parallel computing technology. The developed code is used to calculate the pyrolysis of ethane with radical reactions. The superequilibrium concentrations’ formation of radicals in the reactor volume is studied in detail. Numerical simulation of the reaction gas flow in a flat tube with laser radiation supply is carried out, which is in demand for the interpretation of experimental results. It is shown that laser radiation significantly increases the conversion of ethane and yields of target products at short lengths closer to the entrance to the reaction zone. Reducing the effective length of the reaction zone allows us to offer new solutions in the design of ethane conversion reactors into valuable hydrocarbons. The developed algorithm and program will find their application in the creation of new technologies of laser thermochemistry.

For a non-homogeneous model transport equation with source terms, the stability analysis of a linear hybrid scheme (a combination of upwind and central approximations) is performed. Stability conditions are obtained that depend on the hybridity parameter, the source intensity factor (the product of intensity per time step), and the weight coefficient of the linear combination of source power on the lower- and upper-time layer. In a nonlinear case for the non-equilibrium by velocities and temperatures equations of gas suspension motion, the linear stability analysis was confirmed by calculation. It is established that the maximum permissible Courant number of the hybrid large-particle method of the second order of accuracy in space and time with an implicit account of friction and heat exchange between gas and particles does not depend on the intensity factor of interface interactions, the grid spacing and the relaxation times of phases (K-stability). In the traditional case of an explicit method for calculating the source terms, when a dimensionless intensity factor greater than 10, there is a catastrophic (by several orders of magnitude) decrease in the maximum permissible Courant number, in which the calculated time step becomes unacceptably small.

On the basic ratios of Riemann’s problem in the equilibrium heterogeneous medium, we obtained an asymptotically exact self-similar solution of the problem of interaction of a shock wave with a layer of gas-suspension to which converge the numerical solution of two-velocity two-temperature dynamics of gassuspension when reducing the size of dispersed particles.

The dynamics of the shock wave in gas and its interaction with a limited gas suspension layer for different sizes of dispersed particles: 0.1, 2, and 20 ìm were studied. The problem is characterized by two discontinuities decay: reflected and refracted shock waves at the left boundary of the layer, reflected rarefaction wave, and a past shock wave at the right contact edge. The influence of relaxation processes (dimensionless phase relaxation times) to the flow of a gas suspension is discussed. For small particles, the times of equalization of the velocities and temperatures of the phases are small, and the relaxation zones are sub-grid. The numerical solution at characteristic points converges with relative accuracy $O \, (10^{-4})$ to self-similar solutions.

The paper formulates a mathematical model for hydroelastic oscillations of a plate resting on a nonlinear hardening elastic foundation and interacting with a pulsating fluid layer. The main feature of the proposed model, unlike the wellknown ones, is the joint consideration of the elastic properties of the plate, the nonlinearity of elastic foundation, as well as the dissipative properties of the fluid and the inertia of its motion. The model is represented by a system of equations for a twodimensional hydroelasticity problem including dynamics equation of Kirchhoff’s plate resting on the elastic foundation with hardening cubic nonlinearity, Navier – Stokes equations, and continuity equation. This system is supplemented by boundary conditions for plate deflections and fluid pressure at plate ends, as well as for fluid velocities at the bounding walls. The model was investigated by perturbation method with subsequent use of iteration method for the equations of thin layer of viscous fluid. As a result, the fluid pressure distribution at the plate surface was obtained and the transition to an integrodifferential equation describing bending hydroelastic oscillations of the plate is performed. This equation is solved by the Bubnov –Galerkin method using the harmonic balance method to determine the primary hydroelastic response of the plate and phase response due to the given harmonic law of fluid pressure pulsation at plate ends. It is shown that the original problem can be reduced to the study of the generalized Duffing equation, in which the coefficients at inertial, dissipative and stiffness terms are determined by the physical and mechanical parameters of the original system. The primary hydroelastic response and phases response for the plate are found. The numerical study of these responses is performed for the cases of considering the inertia of fluid motion and the creeping fluid motion for the nonlinear and linearly elastic foundation of the plate. The results of the calculations showed the need to jointly consider the viscosity and inertia of the fluid motion together with the elastic properties of the plate and its foundation, both for nonlinear and linear vibrations of the plate.

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.

A simplified implicit Euler method was analyzed as an alternative to the explicit Euler method, which is a commonly used method in numerical modeling in electrophysiology. The majority of electrophysiological models are quite stiff, since the dynamics they describe includes a wide spectrum of time scales: a fast depolarization, that lasts milliseconds, precedes a considerably slow repolarization, with both being the fractions of the action potential observed in excitable cells. In this work we estimate stiffness by a formula that does not require calculation of eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix of the studied ODEs. The efficiency of the numerical methods was compared on the case of typical representatives of detailed and conceptual type models of excitable cells: Hodgkin–Huxley model of a neuron and Aliev–Panfilov model of a cardiomyocyte. The comparison of the efficiency of the numerical methods was carried out via norms that were widely used in biomedical applications. The stiffness ratio’s impact on the speedup of simplified implicit method was studied: a real gain in speed was obtained for the Hodgkin–Huxley model. The benefits of the usage of simple and high-order methods for electrophysiological models are discussed along with the discussion of one method’s stability issues. The reasons for using simplified instead of high-order methods during practical simulations were discussed in the corresponding section. We calculated higher order derivatives of the solutions of Hodgkin-Huxley model with various stiffness ratios; their maximum absolute values appeared to be quite large. A numerical method’s approximation constant’s formula contains the latter and hence ruins the effect of the other term (a small factor which depends on the order of approximation). This leads to the large value of global error. We committed a qualitative stability analysis of the explicit Euler method and were able to estimate the model’s parameters influence on the border of the region of absolute stability. The latter is used when setting the value of the timestep for simulations a priori.

Industrial robots have made it possible for robotics to become a worldwide discipline both in economy and in science. However, their capabilities are limited, especially regarding contact tasks where it is required to regulate or at least limit contact forces. At one point, it was noticed that elasticity in the joint transmission, which was treated as a drawback previously, is actually helpful in this regard. This observation led to the introduction of elastic joint robots that are well-suited to contact tasks and cooperative behavior in particular, so they become more and more widespread nowadays. Many researchers try to implement such devices not with trivial series elastic actuators (SEA) but with more sophisticated variable stiffness actuators (VSA) that can regulate their own mechanical stiffness. All elastic actuators demonstrate shock robustness and safe interaction with external objects to some extent, but when stiffness may be varied, it provides additional benefits, e. g., in terms of energy efficiency and task adaptability. Here, we present a novel variable stiffness actuator with a magnetic coupler as an elastic element. Magnetic transmission is contactless and thus advantageous in terms of robustness to misalignment. In addition, the friction model of the transmission becomes less complex. It also has milder stiffness characteristic than typical mechanical nonlinear springs, moreover, the stiffness curve has a maximum after which it descends. Therefore, when this maximum torque is achieved, the coupler slips, and a new pair of poles defines the equilibrium position. As a result, the risk of damage is smaller for this design solution. The design of the joint is thoroughly described, along with its mathematical model. Finally, the control system is also proposed, and simulation tests confirm the design ideas.