Department of Applied Mechanics

Time-delay estimation in closed-loop systems is of critical value in the tasks of system identification, closed-loop performance assessment and process control, in general. In this work, we introduce the application of mutual information (MI) theory to estimate process delay under closed-loop conditions. The hallmark of the proposed method is that no exogenous (dither) signal is required to estimate the delay. Further, the method allows estimation of time-delays merely from the step response of the system. The method is based on the estimation of a quantity known as the average mutual information (AMI) computed between the input and output of the system. The estimation of AMI involves estimation of joint probability distribution of the input-output pair and therefore is a superset of the existing correlation-based methods, which only compute second-order moments of the joint distribution. Simulation studies are presented to demonstrate the practicality and utility of the proposed method.

The mitigation of blast waves propagating in air and interacting with rigid barriers and obstacles is numerically investigated using the mesh-free smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. A novel virtual boundary particle procedure with a skewed gradient wall boundary treatment is applied at the interfaces between air and rigid bodies. This procedure is validated with closed-form solutions for strong and weak shock reflection from rigid surfaces, supersonic flows over a wedge, formation of reflected, transverse, and Mach stem shocks, and also earlier experiments on interaction of a blast wave with concrete blocks. The mitigation of the overpressure and impulse transmitted to the protected structure due to an array of rigid obstacles of different shapes placed in the path of the blast wave is thereafter determined and discussed in the context of the existing experimental and numerical studies. It is shown that blockages having the shape of a right facing triangle or square placed in tandem or staggered provide better mitigation. The influence of the distance between the blockage array and protected structure is assessed, and the incorporation of a gap in the blockages is shown to improve the mitigation. The mechanisms responsible for the attenuation of air blast are identified through the simulations.

Analysis of needle electromyography signal is used for the differentiation of neuropathy and myopathy condition from the normal. Amplitude based features such as root mean square and mean absolute value are used to differentiate between normal and pathological signals. Tunable-Q wavelet transform is used to decompose the frequency bands of the signal. Further, the same set of features are used to analyse each frequency bands. The results show that the proposed approach is able to distinguish between normal and different pathological electromyography signals better than the conventional time domain analysis. It is also observed that myopathy and neuropathy signals are comprised of high frequency components than low frequency components as compared to normal signal. The proposed method yields a higher significance with a p-value <0.05 between normal and each pathological signal such as neuropathy and myopathy.

Energy harvesting is a promise to harvest unwanted vibrations from a host structure. Similarly, a dynamic vibration absorber is proved to be a very simple and effective vibration suppression device, with many practical implementations in civil and mechanical engineering. This paper analyzes the prospect of using a vibration absorber for possible energy harvesting. To achieve this goal, a vibration absorber is supplemented with a piezoelectric stack for both vibration confinement and energy harvesting. It is assumed that the original structure is sensitive to vibrations and that the absorber is the element where the vibration energy is confined, which in turn is harvested by means of a piezoelectric stack. The primary goal is to control the vibration of the host structure and the secondary goal is to harvest energy out of the dynamic vibration absorber at the same time. Approximate fixed-point theory is used to find a closed form expression for optimal frequency ratio of the vibration absorber. The changes in the optimal parameters of the vibration absorber due to the addition of the energy harvesting electrical circuit are derived. It is shown that with a proper choice of harvester parameters a broadband energy harvesting can be obtained combined with vibration reduction in the primary structure. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.

In this work, an attempt has been made to analyze the influence of pathological changes in eye globe dimensions towards the mechanical responses of optic nerve head tissues during eye adductions. For this study, a 3D baseline model geometry of posterior ocular tissues has been constructed. The eye globe diameters of the model are modified to mimic the changes in ocular globe morphology in control, glaucoma, myopia and glaucoma with myopia conditions. Adductions are simulated for each modified model as the rotation of the globe from 1ºto 10ºin steps of 1º. von Mises strain in lamina cribrosa (LC) and posterior displacement of LC are estimated. Results show that strains developed in LC and its posterior displacement are higher in diseased eyes compared to healthy eyes. It appears that eyes with higher axial length and globe anisotropy are more susceptible to optic nerve head damage. This study might be extended to assess the progression of glaucomatous optic neuropathy.

Analysis of blood vessel mechanics in normal and diseased conditions is essential for disease research, medical device design and treatment planning. In this work, 2D finite element models of normal vessel and atherosclerotic vessels with 50% and 90% plaque deposition were developed and were meshed using Delaunay triangulation method. The transient analysis was performed and the parameters such as total displacement, Von Mises stress and strain energy density were analyzed for normal and atherosclerotic vessels. Results demonstrate that an inverse relation exists between the considered mechanical parameters over the vessel surface and the percentage of plaque deposited on the inner vessel wall. It was further observed that the total displacement and Von Mises stress decrease nonlinearly with increasing plaque percentage. Whereas, the strain energy density decreases almost linearly with increase in plaque deposition. In this paper, the objectives of the study, methodology and significant observations are presented. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

In the present study, we develop an energetically efficient suboptimal open-loop strategy to control the wake behind a circular cylinder in the laminar regime. The open-loop suboptimal controller is designed to resemble the feedback integral controller with reference to its dynamical behaviour. Energetic efficiency is measured using the power loss coefficient. The Van der Pol model for the evolution of lift force on the cylinder is chosen as the reduced-order model for the development of an open-loop suboptimal controller. The parameter estimation of the low- dimensional model is carried out using the results from the continuum based Navier - Stokes simulations. It is shown that a subspace identification method can be used to model the relationship between the inputs to the reduced-order model and the inputs to the higher-order computational fluid dynamic model. The development of the suboptimal control is realised by means of solving suitably formulated optimal tracking and regulator problems using the Pontryagin's minimum principle. The resultant controller is found to be energetically efficient and also successful in the control of vortex shedding.

We have considered the three-dimensional wake behind a cross formed by two intersecting flat plates using direct numerical simulations. The Reynolds number based on the uniform inflow velocity U0 and the plate width d was 1000. The vortex shedding in the wake was totally suppressed in a 4d wide intersection region and this gave rise to a massive zone of recirculating flow. Quasi two-dimensional vortex shedding with a primary frequency 0.165 U0/d occurred behind the outer branches more than 7d from the intersection. The wake behind the outer branches of the crossing plates closely resembled the wake behind a single flat plate. However, the wake flow in an intermediate region (located between the intersection region and the outer branches) was affected by persistent secondary flows. Further, shear-layer (K-H) instabilities have been observed in this region. The mean wake structure revealed the formation of four symmetrically positioned pairs of swirling vortices close to the intersection corner next to the plate's edges.

Purpose: Better membrane oxygenators need to be developed to enable efficient gas exchange between venous blood and air. Design/methodology/approach: Optimal design and analysis of such devices are achieved through mathematical modeling tools such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this study, a control volume-based one-dimensional (1D) sub-channel analysis code is developed to analyze the gas exchange between the hollow fiber bundle and the venous blood. DIANA computer code, which is popular with the thermal hydraulic analysis of sub-channels in nuclear reactors, was suitably modified to solve the conservation equations for the blood oxygenators. The gas exchange between the tube-side fluid and the shell-side venous blood is modeled by solving mass, momentum and species conservation equations. Findings: Simulations using sub-channel analysis are performed for the first time. As the DIANA-based approach is well known in rod bundle heat transfer, it is applied to membrane oxygenators. After detailed validations, the artificial membrane oxygenator is analyzed for different bundle sizes (L/W) and bundle porosity (epsilon) values, and oxygen saturation levels are predicted along the bundle. The present sub-channel analysis is found to be reasonably accurate and computationally efficient when compared to conventional CFD calculations. Research limitations/implications: This approach is promising and has far-reaching ramifications to connect and extend a well-known rod bundle heat transfer algorithm to a membrane oxygenator community. As a variety of devices need to be analyzed, simplified approaches will be attractive. Although the 1D nature of the simulations facilitates handling complexity, it cannot easily compete with expensive and detailed CFD calculations. Practical implications: This work has high practical value and impacts the design community directly. Detailed numerical simulations can be validated and benchmarked for future membrane oxygenator designs. Social implications: Future membrane oxygenators can be designed and analyzed easily and efficiently. Originality/value: The DIANA algorithm is popularly used in sub-channel analysis codes in rod bundle heat transfer. This efficient approach is being implemented into membrane oxygenator community for the first time.

Two-dimensional flow over a circular cylinder placed in-line behind a control rod of the same diameter is studied with and without the influence of a plane wall. Thermal patterns observed during various vortex shedding modes are discussed in detail. POD analysis of temperature data reveals that, with the decrease in wall height, modal structures are moved closer to the cylinder surface, which increases the heat transfer fluctuation. The plane wall increases the heat transfer from the bottom surface of the cylinder and decreases the heat transfer from the top surface, while the rotation of control rod contributes in an opposite manner. As the cylinder is moved closer to the wall, the time-averaged Nusselt number increases for a stationary control rod. In the case of a rotating control rod, the rotation of the control rod acts in the opposite sense to nullify this wall effect. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.