A simple analytical method is developed to estimate frequencies of longitudinal modes in closed hard-walled ducts with discontinuities in a cross-sectional area. The approach adopted is based on a general expression for the acoustic impedance for a plane wave motion in a duct and conditions of impedance continuity at duct discontinuities. Formulae for mode frequencies in a form of transcendental equations were found for one, two and three discontinuities in a duct cross-section. An accuracy of the method was checked by a comparison of analytic predictions with calculation data obtained by use of numerical implementation based on the forced oscillator method with a finite difference algorithm.

This paper deals with an observer design for a p-cell chopper. The goal is to reduce drastically the number of sensors in such system by using an observer in order to estimate all the capacitor voltages. Furthermore, considering an instantaneous model of a p-cell chopper, an interconnected observer is designed in order to estimate the capacitor voltages. This is realized by using only the load current measurement. Simulation results are given in order to illustrate the performance of such observer. To demonstrate the validity of our approach, experimental results based on Digital Signal Processor (DSP) are presented.

The upcoming hypersonic technologies pose a difficult task for air navigation systems. The article presents a designed model of elastic interaction of penetrating acoustic radiation with flat isotropic suspension elements of an inertial navigation sensor in the operational conditions of hypersonic flight. It has been shown that the acoustic transparency effect in the form of a spatial-frequency resonance becomes possible with simultaneous manifestation of the wave coincidence condition in the acoustic field and equality of the natural oscillation frequency of a finite-size plate and a forced oscillation frequency of an infinite plate. The effect can lead to additional measurement errors of the navigation system. Using the model, the worst and best case suspension oscillation frequencies can be determined, which will help during the design of a navigation system.

Tungsten heavy alloys comprising tungsten, nickel and ferrous were modified, where molybdenum was added in varying weight proportions keeping the ratio of Ni: Fe (8:2) constant. The powders were mixed in a high-energy ball mill and were further fabricated using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method at a peak temperature of 1000°C with heating rate of 100°C/min. The details of the microstructure and mechanical properties of these various alloy compositions were studied. With the increasing weight composition of the Mo in the alloy, the relative density of the alloy increased with a significant improvement in all the mechanical properties. The yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and hardness improved significantly with increase in the proportion of Mo; however, a reduction in elongation percentage was observed. The maximum strength of 1250 MPa UTS was observed in the alloy with a Mo proportion of 24%. The heavy alloy unmixed with Mo has shown distinct white and grey regions, where white (W) grain is due to tungsten and grey region is a combinatorial effect of Ni and Fe. Upon addition of Mo, the white and gray phase differences started to minimize resulting in deep gray and black ‘C’-phase structures because of homogenization of the alloy. The main fracture mode found during this investigation in the alloys was inter-granular mode.

The idea of adopting the space domain as the next frontier for optical communication has received increasing attention in the last few years. Optical devices are the integral parts of a mode division multiplexing (MDM) transmission. Therefore, conducting an intensive study on the devices is paramount to the successful realization of the overall system. This paper presents a review of the recent advances in the inline components of an MDM system, consisting of mode converters, spatial (de) multiplexers, optical amplifiers, and few-mode fibers (FMFs). Also presented are different mode conversion and multiplexing schemes. Recent techniques of minimizing differential mode gain (DMG) in the optical amplifiers are also reviewed. The review covers other types of amplification schemes and their current standing in the MDM system. These include optical semiconductor amplifiers (OSAs), and the Raman amplifiers (RAs). Finally, the review also highlights the role of FMF, multicore fiber and their relationship with fan-in/fan-out devices.

In this paper, effect of Hall currents on the thermal instability of couple-stress fluid permeated with dust particles has been considered. Following the linearized stability theory and normal mode analysis, the dispersion relation is obtained. For the case of stationary convection, dust particles and Hall currents are found to have destabilizing effect while couple stresses have stabilizing effect on the system. Magnetic field induced by Hall currents has stabilizing/destabilizing effect under certain conditions. It is found that due to the presence of Hall currents (hence magnetic field), oscillatory modes are produced which were non-existent in their absence.

In this paper, the computer modelling application based on the modal expansion method is developed to study the influence of a sound source location on a steady-state response of coupled rooms. In the research, an eigenvalue problem is solved numerically for a room system consisting of two rectangular spaces connected to one another. A numerical procedure enables the computation of shape and frequency of eigenmodes, and allows one to predict the potential and kinetic energy densities in a steady-state. In the first stage, a frequency room response for several source positions is investigated, demonstrating large deformations of this response for strong and weak modal excitations. Next, a particular attention is given to studying how the changes in a source position influence the room response when a source frequency is tuned to a resonant frequency of a strongly localized mode.

Wave motion in pipe bends is much more complicated than that in straight pipes, thereby changing considerably the propagation characteristics of guided waves in pipes with bends. Therefore, a better understanding of how guided waves propagate in pipe bends is essential for inspecting pipelines with bends. The interaction between a pipe bend and the most used non-dispersive torsional mode at low frequency in a small-bore pipe is studied in this paper. Experiments are conducted on a magnetostrictive system, and it is observed that T(0,1) bend reflections and mode conversions from T(0,1) to F(1,1) and F(2,1) occur in the pipe bend. The magnitude of the T(0,1) bend reflections increases with increasing propagation distance and excitation frequency. The amplitude of the mode-converted signals also increases with increasing propagation distance, but it decreases with increasing excitation frequency. Because of their longer bent path, the test signals for a pipe bend with a bending angle of 180X are much more complicated than those for one with a bending angle of 90X. Therefore, it is even more difficult to scan a bent pipe with a large bending angle. The present findings provide some insights into how guided waves behave in pipe bends, and they generalize the application of guided-wave inspection in pipelines.

In this study a metal clad waveguide sensor with a metamaterial guiding layer is analyzed. Sensitivity of the proposed sensor is derived using dispersion and Fresenal’s equations for waveguiding mode and reflection mode. While efficiently analyzing and comparing the results with the existing one, some interesting findings are achieved. It is observed that the proposed sensor shows larger cover layer sensitivity and larger adlayer sensitivity compared to the dielectric guiding layer sensor due to adsorbtive properties of metamaterial. Henceforth, it concludes that the proposed sensor shows sensitivity improvement over a dielectric guiding layer sensor.

Many real-time systems can be described as cascade space-state models of different orders. In this paper, a new predefined controller is designed using a Strongly Predefined Time Sliding Mode Control (SPSMC) scheme for a cascade high-order nonlinear system. The proposed control scheme based-on SMC methodology is designed such that the system states reach zero within a determined time prior to performing numerical simulation. Moreover, Fixed Time Sliding Mode Control (FSMC) and Terminal Sliding Mode Control (TSMC) schemes are presented and simulated to provide a comparison with the proposed predefined time scheme. The numerical simulation is performed in Simulink/MATLAB for the proposed SPSMC and the other two existing methods on two examples: second and of third order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SPSMC method. The trajectory tracking of the ship course system is addressed as an example of a second-order system. Synchronization of two chaotic systems, Genesio Tesi and Coullet, is considered as an example of a third-order system. Also, by using two performance criteria, a thorough comparison is made between the proposed predefined time scheme, SPSMC, and the two no predefined time schemes, FSMC and TSMC.

The main concern of the present paper is to determine which types of linguistic descriptions are fit to properly express a complex reality such as developed in Jaina theory of universals and particulars presented in the Jaina Literature of the Classical Period (5th–10th c. CE) in order to demonstrate a way in which the Jaina theory of universals and particulars has an impact upon the way we describe reality through language. I take into consideration the fact that, according to the Jaina philosophy, reality is not describable in the complete way and that there is always – in any linguistic act of picturing the world – the margin of non-cognizance and non-expressiveness. The Jaina philosophy of language offers the original solutions, different from those given by other Indian thinkers, to the abovementioned problems.

The most challenging in speech enhancement technique is tracking non-stationary noises for long speech segments and low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Different speech enhancement techniques have been proposed but, those techniques were inaccurate in tracking highly non-stationary noises. As a result, Empirical Mode Decomposition and Hurst-based (EMDH) approach is proposed to enhance the signals corrupted by non-stationary acoustic noises. Hurst exponent statistics was adopted for identifying and selecting the set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) that are most affected by the noise components. Moreover, the speech signal was reconstructed by considering the least corrupted IMF. Though it increases SNR, the time and resource consumption were high. Also, it requires a significant improvement under nonstationary noise scenario. Hence, in this article, EMDH approach is enhanced by using Sliding Window (SW) technique. In this SWEMDH approach, the computation of EMD is performed based on the small and sliding window along with the time axis. The sliding window depends on the signal frequency band. The possible discontinuities in IMF between windows are prevented by the total number of modes and the number of sifting iterations that should be set a priori. For each module, the number of sifting iterations is determined by decomposition of many signal windows by standard algorithm and calculating the average number of sifting steps for each module. Based on this approach, the time complexity is reduced significantly with suitable quality of decomposition. Finally, the experimental results show the considerable improvements in speech enhancement under non-stationary noise environments.

A detailed study about the suitable perturbation element shape and location for tunable BW dual mode microstrip filter which has circular ring resonator is presented. BW tuning is achieved by resonator geometry modification. The study explains the effect of a perturbation element on the stability of the center frequency during BW tuning. Different cases have been studied for two shapes of perturbation element; which one is a rectangular and the other is a radial. The treated cases discuss whether the perturbation element is located in the inner or in the outer circumference of the ring, and whether it is a patch or a notch. BW tuning simulation treated the case of FBW3dB increase for two and three times. The best case of perturbation element which has the best center frequency stability has been modeled, simulated, and fabricated at 2.4 GHz. Geometry modification of the filter took into account the RF MEMS modeling. The filter has an elliptic frequency response, and its FBW has been increased in five steps from 1.7% to 5%. The designed filters were evaluated experimentally and by simulation with very good agreement.

A novel dual mode logic (DML) model has a superior energy-performance compare to CMOS logic. The DML model has unique feature that allows switching between both modes of operation as per the real-time system requirements. The DML functions in two dissimilar modes (static and dynamic) of operation with its specific features, to selectively obtain either low-energy or high-performance. The sub-threshold region DML achieves minimum-energy. However, sub-threshold region consequence in performance is enormous. In this paper, the working of DML model in the moderate inversion region has been explored. The near-threshold region holds much of the energy saving of subthreshold designs, along with improved performance. Furthermore, robustness to supply voltage and sensitivity to the process temperature variations are presented. Monte carol analysis shows that the projected near-threshold region has minimum energy along with the moderate performance.

Knowledge of the way in which minor and trace elements occur in coal is one of the most important geochemical indicators of coal quality. The differences between the methods of binding elements in coal in each coal seam and the variability of this feature of coal in the basin profile have not been discussed so far. These coal features were identified in a group of selected coal seams (209, 401, 405, 407, 501, 504, 510, 615, 620) in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB). At the same time, the differences in the role of identified mineral and maceral groups in concentrating specific elements in coal is highlighted. Identical or similar tendencies of changes in the way in which As and V, Ba and Rb, Co and Pb, Co and Zn, Mn and Pb, Pb and Zn, Co and Rb, and for Cr and Cu occur in the coal seams in the USCB profile was found. Changes in the mode of occurrence of As and Pb in coal in the USCB profile were probably influenced by carbonate mineralization. The changes in the mode of occurrence of Mni and Pb in the coal were probably determined by dia and epigenetic sulfide mineralization, while the content of Ba, Cr, Rb, Sr, and V in coal from these deposits was affected by clay minerals. It was observed that the greater the degree of the carbonization of the organic matter of coal, the lower the content of As, Mn and Pb in coal and the higher the content of Ba and Sr in coal.

A general model of the equations of generalized thermo-microstretch for an infinite space weakened by a finite linear opening mode-I crack is solved. Considered material is the homogeneous isotropic elastic half space. The crack is subjected to a prescribed temperature and stress distribution. The formulation is applied to generalized thermoelasticity theories, using mathematical analysis with the purview of the Lord-Şhulman (involving one relaxation time) and Green-Lindsay (includes two relaxation times) theories with respect to the classical dynamical coupled theory (CD). The harmonic wave method has been used to obtain the exact expression for normal displacement, normal stress force, coupled stresses, microstress and temperature distribution. Variations of the considered fields with the horizontal distance are explained graphically. A comparison is also made between the three theories and for different depths for the case of copper crystal.

Radiation of sound waves from a semi-infinite cylindrical duct with perforated end whose outer wall is coated with acoustically absorbent material is investigated by using the Wiener-Hopf technique in conjunction with the mode matching technique. A semi-infinite duct with a perforated screen can be used as a model for many engineering applications, such as noise reduction in exhausts of automobile engines, in modern aircraft jet, and turbofan engines. In particular, we aim to find the effects of outer lining and perforated end to sound pressure level for the underlying problem by using the standard Wiener-Hopf and mode matching techniques. We also present some numerical illustrations by determining the sound pressure level for different parameters such as soft and rigid outer surface, with and without perforated end, etc. Such investigations are useful in the reduction of noise effects generated through variety of sources.