Floods through inundated urban environments constitute a hazard to the population and infrastructure. A series of field measurements were performed in an inundated section of the City of Brisbane (Australia) during a major flood in January 2011. Using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), detailed velocity and suspended sediment concentration measurements were conducted about the peak of the flood. The results are discussed with a focus on the safety of individuals in floodwaters and the sediment deposition during the flood recession. The force of the floodwaters in Gardens Point Road was deemed unsafe for individual evacuation. A comparison with past laboratory results suggested that previous recommendations could be inappropriate and unsafe in real flood flows.

The stability properties of the rotating free surface flow in a cylindrical container is studied using a global stability approach, considering successively three models. For the case of solid body rotation (Newton’s bucket), all eigenmodes are found to be stable, and are classified into three families: gravity waves, singular inertial modes, and Rossby waves. For the case of a potential flow, an instability is found. The mechanism is explained as a resonance between gravity waves and centrifugal waves, and is thought to be at the origin of the “rotating polygon instability” observed in experiments where the flow is driven by rotation of the bottom plate (see L. Tophøj, J. Mougel, T. Bohr, D. Fabre, The Rotating Polygon Instability of a Swirling Free Surface Flow, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 194502). Finally, in the case of the Rankine vortex which in fact consists in the combination of the two first cases, we report a new instability mechanism involving Rossby and gravity waves.

Sustainability is one of the challenging issues in electricity production systems. Recently, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been suggested for use in combined heat and power (CHP) systems. This application is introduced as a promising environmentally-friendly system according to the thermodynamic and electrochemical models. In this paper, an atmospheric SOFC/CHP cycle was analysed based on integrating exergy concepts, energy and mass balance equations. In this regard, a zero-dimensional energy and mass balance model was developed in engineering equation solver (EES) software. Two dimensionless parameters (the exergetic performance coefficient (EPC) for investigating the whole cycle, and exergetic efficiency for investigating the exergy efficiency of the main component of this cycle) were applied. Results show that efficiencies of the system have been increased substantially. The electrical efficiency, total efficiency and EPC of this cycle were ~54%, ~79% and ~58% respectively. Moreover, the CO2 emission is 19% lower than when compared with a conventional combined power cycle fed by natural gas. In addition, a dynamic economic evaluation was performed to extract the most sensitive parameters affecting the outputs: electricity sales price (ESP), equipment purchase cost and fuel cost. Furthermore, an electricity production cost of ~125 $ MW.h-1 was attributed to our model, resulting in yet further cost reduction for widespread applications of this cycle.

Showerhead cooling process which consists of internal convective cooling and external film cooling of a turbine blade is investigated using ANSYS-CFX software. The aim of the present investigation is to provide a better understanding of the fundamental nature of showerhead cooling using the three dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes analysis. A numerical model has been developed to study the effects of coupled internal and external cooling of the leading edge for a semi-elliptical body shape with the SST k-ω model. This model consists of all internal flow passages and cooling hole rows at the leading edge. The numerical results obtained are discussed and compared with experimental data available in the literature. The results show that the cooling efficiency increases with the increase of the blowing ratio and the Mach number, therefore, the overall efficiency for the steel becomes less important compared to the plexiglas which has a low thermal conductivity.

The finite element analysis of the behaviour of airframes subjected to crash or impact loadings requires the use of suitable finite elements, in particular for the modelling of riveted assemblies. In order to predict the structure survivability, it is indeed necessary to focus on these areas because stress concentrations, and consequently crack initiations, which can lead to catastrophic loss of the airplane, are likely to occur. Because of the local nature of the phenomenon, the disproportion between the aircraft and the assembly scale, and the large number of fasteners in a complete structure (more than 100 000), super-elements for the fasteners and for the perforated sheets have been developed in order to suitably model assemblies in structural calculations. However, these two types of finite elements can not be currently connected together. The paper presented here focuses on how to link these finite elements.

This paper presents closed loop simulation of a CMOS-MEMS force sensor for biomedical applications employing an optimal proportional-integral-derivative controller. Since the dynamic behavior of the sensor under investigation is nonlinear the iterative feedback tuning approach was proposed for optimal gains tuning of the proposed controller. Simulation results presented in this research illustrate that the proposed controller suppresses the undesired in-plane vibration induced by environment or gripper 40 times faster than the nonlinear controller proposed in the literature. To suppress the maximum input disturbance the maximum voltage was approximately 18 V which was less than the pull-in voltage of 30 V. The proposed controller is served to actuate two stator fingers adjacent to a rotor finger in order to provide both the attractive and repellent forces during manipulation. Employing the proposed mechanism not only resolves the drawbacks corresponding to the nonlinear controller presented in the literature but also improves its performance of the closed loop system by using the complete nonlinear dynamics of the force sensor. Also, applying complete non-linear dynamic of model improves the performance of controller and is one of superior features of proposed PID controller in comparison with the classical controller presented in literature.

In this paper we present the design of a compact active cardiac stabilizer based on planar compliant mechanisms and piezoelectric actuators. Considering an assembly of planar manufactured structures helps to simplify the manufacturing process and may increase the compactness. Parallel architectures constitute interesting solutions for their intrinsic stiffness properties, but in a planar configuration parallel manipulators often exhibit kinematic singularities. Two design approaches for planar parallel compliant mechanisms are presented in this paper. One design approach consists in designing a passive compliant mechanism in a configuration close to the singularity by introducing some asymmetries during the manufacturing process. The second design approach consists in taking advantage of the singularities of parallel manipulators to obtain non-trivial solutions. The new proposed active stabilizer, composed of planar compliant mechanisms, is introduced and its performances are discussed.

When operational modal analysis (OMA) is conducted on operating machines or structures without knowing excitations and perturbations neither the number of concerned frequencies, one problem raises on the validity of modal parameters identification (especially damping ratios) and on the precision of results obtained. This paper presents an OMA method allowing for the evaluation of uncertainties of modal parameters (frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes). The method is based on the vector autoregressive model (VAR) for multiple numbers of measured channels. It is seen that the uncertainty of modal parameters decreases with higher model orders; the calculation of uncertainty allows also for the construction of an objective criterion for the selection of computing model order based on a threshold of confidence interval. The derivation confirms also that the identification of natural frequencies deals with a smaller uncertainty compared with the damping ratio estimation, and hence it can be conducted with a lower computing model order. Numerical simulations and experiments on a steel plate show the feasibility and the effectiveness of the developed OMA method.

The effects of punch geometry and sample size on forming limit diagrams in expansion are investigated in the case of a 2024 aluminium alloy. Four configurations were selected: flat punch (Marciniak test) or hemispheric punch and decimetric vs. centimetric tooling dimensions. Both decimetric and centimetric deep-drawing devices are associated with an image correlation tool that allows identifying without any contact the deformation on the surface of planar or non-planar specimens. Strains on the surface of the samples are observed by means of a double numerisation in three dimensions of the sample before and after deformation by using stereoscopic vision and triangulation. Finally, deep-drawing limit of the four configurations are compared in expansion state and with literature. Results mainly show that hemispherical punch allows measuring higher strains and is less sensitive to size effect than Marciniak test.