The tribological behaviour of mineral oils additivated with polyethylene

The paper investigates the elastohydrodynamic lubrication of concentrated contacts in a rolling bearing operating at moderate speeds. Two base oils with different characteristics, additivated with low-density polyethylene were used as lubricants. Rheological and tribological tests were performed to study the influence of temperature, polymer concentration, and bearing speed. The influence of the addition of a polymer component on the film-forming properties and on wear under high pressure was examined in a four-ball test rig. Experimental data show that the polymer concentration added to the base oil plays an important role in obtaining greater film thicknesses and in preventing wear in elastohydrodynamic contacts.     

On feasible sets for MPC and their approximations

In this paper we are interested in the computation of feasible sets for linear model predictive control techniques, based on set relations and not on the conventional orthogonal projection. Further, the problem of computing suitable inner approximations of the feasible sets is considered. Such approximations are characterized by simpler polytopic representations, and preserve essential properties as convexity, positive invariance, inclusion of the set of expected initial states.     

Rheological properties and microstructures of cellulose acetate phthalate/hydroxypropyl cellulose blends

Cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP)/hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) blends were investigated by means of attenuated total reflection‐Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis, shear viscosity, oscillatory shear tests, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Effect of solution concentrations in 2‐methoxyethanol, blend compositions, and shear rate on the rheological functions reflects the mobility of the chain segments or their orientation—with thinning behavior in the shear field. Specific interactions, such as the hydrogen bonds between polymer components and 2‐methoxyethanol used in casting solutions of films, influence the resulting morphology. Supernodular aggregates with different intensities and dimensions, which involve the coexistence of an isotropic and an anisotropic phase, typical for lyotropic cellulosic derivative liquid crystals at low concentrations, are evidenced by AFM images. This study is useful for applications of CAP/HPC blends in pharmaceutical domains.POLYM. COMPOS., 33:2072–2083, 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Sensor‐fault tolerance using robust MPC with set‐based state estimation and active fault isolation

In this paper, a sensor fault‐tolerant control scheme using robust model predictive control (MPC) and set‐theoretic fault detection and isolation (FDI) is proposed. The robust MPC controller is used to control the plant in the presence of process disturbances and measurement noises while implementing a mechanism to tolerate faults. In the proposed scheme, fault detection (FD) is passive based on interval observers, while fault isolation (FI) is active by means of MPC and set manipulations. The basic idea is that for a healthy or faulty mode, one can construct the corresponding output set. The size and location of the output set can be manipulated by adjusting the size and center of the set of plant inputs. Furthermore, the inputs can be adjusted on‐line by changing the input‐constraint set of the MPC controller. In this way, one can design an input set able to separate all output sets corresponding to all considered healthy and faulty modes from each other. Consequently, all the considered healthy and faulty modes can be isolated after detecting a mode changing while preserving feasibility of MPC controller. As a case study, an electric circuit is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Explicit nonlinear predictive control for a magnetic levitation system

The paper presents a methodology for the construction of an explicit nonlinear control law via approximation of the nonlinear constrained finite‐time optimal control (CFTOC). This is achieved through an approximate mapping of a general nonlinear system in a set of linear piecewise affine (PWA) systems. The key advantages of this methodology are two‐fold. First, the construction of an analytic solution of the CFTOC problem leads to an efficient explicit implementation. Second, by taking advantage of model predictive control's systematic fashion to handle constraints, an improved performance can be obtained for the closed‐loop system. The proposed theory is applied in real‐time for a system with fast dynamics: a magnetic levitation benchmark. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Further remarks on asymptotic stability and set invariance for linear delay-difference equations

We studied the existence of positively invariant sets for linear delay-difference equations. In particular, we regarded two strong stability notions: robust (with respect to delay parameter) asymptotic stability for the discrete-time case and delay-independent stability for the continuous-time case. The correlation between these stability concepts is also considered. Furthermore, for the delay-difference equations with two delay parameters, we provided a computationally efficient numerical routine which is necessary to guarantee the existence of contractive sets of Lyapunov–Razumikhin type. This condition also appears to be necessary and sufficient for the delay-independent stability and sufficient for the robust asymptotic stability.     

A fault tolerant control scheme based on sensor–actuation channel switching and dwell time

The present paper proposes a switching control scheme for a plant with multiple sensor–estimator/control–actuator pairs. The scheme is shown to handle the specific stability problems originated by the switching between the different feedback loops and accommodate to faults in the measurement (sensors) channels. The main contribution is a fault tolerant switching scheme with stability guarantees assured by a pre‐imposed dwell time. The detection and the fault tolerance capabilities are achieved through the separation of sets associated with suitable residual signals corresponding to healthy and faulty functioning. Another contribution of the paper resides in a recovery technique for the post‐fault reintegration of the biased estimations. This technique makes use of a virtual sensor whose associated estimation, based on an optimization procedure, minimizes the recovery time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study of thermal and lubrication phenomena in the piston‐ring and cylinder‐sleeve tribosystem of an internal combustion engine and flash temperature calculation

The piston ring is one of the main elements in an internal combustion engine. Together with the cylinder sleeve, the piston ring has two basic functions: (1) contacting the cylinder sleeve to prevent the gases formed above the piston from migrating to the crankcase and (2) as a translation couple, formed of the piston‐ring and cylinder‐sleeve assembly. Complex tribological phenomena occur in the piston‐ring and cylinder‐sleeve tribosystem, according to variations in sliding speed, gas pressure, and temperature. This paper presents a method of calculation of the thickness of the lubricant film in the piston‐ring and cylinder‐sleeve tribosystem, using the Reynolds equation, integrated in specific conditions. According to the Newtonian behaviour of the lubricant, the shear stresses in the lubricant film between the piston ring and cylinder sleeve are determined. A computational procedure to determine flash temperatures in the piston‐ring and cylinder‐sleeve tribosystem is presented. The theoretical results, including film thickness, sliding speed, gas pressure, and flash temperatures for a complete crankshaft cycle are also presented.