• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.12
• /
• pp.2124-2135
• /
• 2006

In this paper, the reliability estimation of pipelines is performed by employing the probabilistic method, which accounts for the uncertainties in the load and resistance parameters of the limit state function. The FORM (first order reliability method) and the SORM (second order reliability method) are carried out to estimate the failure probability of pipeline utilizing the FAD (failure assessment diagram). And the reliability of pipeline is assessed by using this failure probability and analyzed in accordance with a target safety level. Furthermore, the MCS (Monte Carlo Simulation) is used to verify the results of the FORM and the SORM. It is noted that the failure probability increases with the increase of dent depth, gouge depth, operating pressure, outside radius, and the decrease of wall thickness. It is found that the FORM utilizing the FAD is a useful and is an efficient method to estimate the failure probability in the reliability assessment of a pipeline. Furthermore, the pipeline safety assessment technique with the deterministic procedure utilizing the FAD only is turned out more conservative than those obtained by using the probability theory together with the FAD. The probabilistic method such as the FORM, the SORM and the MCS can be used by most plant designers regarding the operating condition and design parameters.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.7 no.9
• /
• pp.741-748
• /
• 2001

In this paper, we propose a method of tracking and capturing a moving object by a mobile robot. The position of the moving object is acquired from the relation through color-based image information from a 2-DOF active camera mounted on the mobile robot. The direction and rotational angular velocity of the moving object are estimated using a state estimator. A Kalman fiber is used as the state estimator for taking characteristics of robustness against noises and uncertainties included in the input data. After estimating the trajectory of the moving object, we decide on the optimal trajectory and plan the motion of the mobile robot to capture the target object within the shortest distance and time. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by the simulations and experiments.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.259-266
• /
• 2015

Among many energy resources, natural gas has recently received a remarkable amount of attention, particularly from the electrical generation industry. This is in part due to increasing shale gas production, providing an environment-friendly fossil fuel, and high risk of nuclear power. Because South Korea, the world's second largest LNG importing nation after Japan, has no international natural gas pipelines and relies on imports in the form of LNG, the natural gas has been traditionally procured by long term LNG contracts at relatively high price. Thus, there is a need of developing an Asian LNG trading hub, where LNG can be traded at more competitive spot prices. In a natural gas spot market, the amount of natural gas to be bought should be carefully determined considering a limited storage capacity and future pricing dynamics. In this work, the problem to find the optimal amount of natural gas in a spot market is formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) in risk neutral environment and the optimal base stock policy which depends on a stage and price is established. Taking into account price and demand uncertainties, the basestock target levels are simply approximated from dynamic programming. The simulation results show that the basestock policy can be one of effective ways for procurement of LNG in a spot market.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.688-696
• /
• 2017

This paper presents an integrated roll-pitch-yaw autopilot using an equivalent based sliding mode control for skid-to-turn nonlinear time-varying missile system with lumped disturbances in its six-equations of motion. The considered missile model are developed to integrate the model uncertainties, external disturbances, and parameters perturbation as lumped disturbances. Moreover, it considers the coupling effect between channels, the variation of missile velocity and parameters, and the aerodynamics nonlinearity. The presented approach is employed to achieve a good tracking performance with robustness in all missile channels simultaneously during the entire flight envelope without demand of accurate modeling or output derivative to avoid the noise existence in the real missile system. The proposed autopilot consisting of a two-loop structure, controls pitch and yaw accelerations, and stabilizes the roll angle simultaneously. The Closed loop stability is studied. Numerical simulation is provided to evaluate performance of the suggested autopilot and to compare it with an existing autopilot in the literature concerning the robustness against the lumped disturbances, and the aforesaid considerations. Finally, the proposed autopilot is integrated in a six degree of freedom flight simulation model to evaluate it with several target scenarios, and the results are shown.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.367-382
• /
• 2015

This paper aims to conduct the reliability-based assessment of the welded joint in the orthotropic steel bridge deck by use of a mesh-insensitive structural stress (MISS) method, which is an effective numerical procedure to determine the reliable stress distribution adjacent to the weld toe. Both the solid element model and the shell element model are first established to investigate the sensitivity of the element size and the element type in calculating the structural stress under different loading scenarios. In order to achieve realistic condition assessment of the welded joint, the probabilistic approach based on the structural reliability theory is adopted to derive the reliability index and the failure probability by taking into account the uncertainties inherent in the material properties and load conditions. The limit state function is formulated in terms of the structural resistance of the material and the load effect which is described by the structural stress obtained by the MISS method. The reliability index is computed by use of the first-order reliability method (FORM), and compared with a target reliability index to facilitate the safety assessment. The results achieved from this study reveal that the calculation of the structural stress using the MISS method is insensitive to the element size and the element type, and the obtained structural stress results serve as a reliable basis for structural reliability analysis.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.537-553
• /
• 2016

This paper addresses the safety of two-row tank design by performing the extensive sloshing model tests. Owing to the uncertainties entangled with the scale law transforming the measured impact pressure up to the full scale one, so called comparative approach was taken to derive the design sloshing load. The target design vessel was chosen as 230 K LNG-FPSO with tow-row tank arrangement and the reference vessel as 138 K conventional LNG carrier, which has past track record without any significant failure due to sloshing loads. Starting with the site-specific metocean data, ship motion analysis was carried out with 3D diffraction-radiation program, then the obtained ship motion data was used as 6DOF tank excitation for subsequent sloshing model test and analysis. The statistical analysis was carried out with obtained peak data and the long-term sloshing load was determined out of it. It was concluded that the normalized sloshing impact pressure on 230 K LNG-FPSO with two-row tank arrangement is higher than that of convectional LNG carrier, hence requires the use of reinforced cargo containment system for the sake of failure-free operation without filling limitation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2001.11a
• /
• pp.723-729
• /
• 2001

Electro-hydraulic shift control of a vehicle automatic transmission has been predominantly carried out via an open-loop control based on numerous time-consuming calibrations. Despite remarkable success in practice, the variations of system characteristics inevitably deteriorate the performance of the tuned open-loop controller. As a result, the controller parameters need to be continuously updated in order to maintain satisfactory shift quality. This paper presents a self-learning algorithm for automatic transmission shift control in a construction vehicle during inertia phase. First, an observer reconstructs the turbine acceleration signal (impossible to measure in a construction vehicle) from the readily accessible turbine speed measurement. Then, a control algorithm based on a quadratic function of the turbine acceleration is shown to guarantee the asymptotic convergence (within a specified target bound) of the error between the actual and the desired turbine accelerations. A Lyapunov argument plays a crucial role in deriving adaptive laws for control parameters. The simulation and hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) studies show that the proposed algorithm actually delivers the promise of satisfactory performance despite the system characteristics variations and uncertainties.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.573-582
• /
• 2017

Chloride-induced cover cracking will aggravate the performance deterioration for RC structures under the chlorideladen environment, which may endanger the safety of structures and occupants. Traditional design method cannot ensure that a definite performance is satisfied. To overcome the defects, a study on the performance-based design method was carried out in this paper. Firstly, the limit state functions were established for the corrosion initiation and cover cracking. Thereafter, the uncertainty analysis was performed to study the effects of random factors on the time-dependent performances. Partial factor formulae were deduced through the first-order reliability method for performance verification. Finally, an illustrative example was presented and the sensitivity of cover depth to other parameters was carried out. It is found that the uncertainties of the random variables have great effects on the required cover depth. It is demonstrated that the performance-based design method can ensure that the target performance can be satisfied and support to formulate a rational maintenance and repair strategy for RC structures under the chloride environment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.438-444
• /
• 2013

This paper presents the replication of a desired vibration response by iterative learning control (ILC) system for a vibration motion replication actuator. The vibration motion replication actuator has parameter uncertainties including system nonlinearity and joint nonlinearity. Vehicle manufacturers worldwide are increasingly relying on road simulation facilities that put simulated loads and stresses on vehicles and subassemblies in order to reduce development time. Road simulation algorithm is the key point of developing road simulation system. With the rapid progress of digital signal processing technology, more complex control algorithms including iterative learning control can be utilized. In this paper, ILC algorithm was utilized to produce simultaneously the six channels of desired responses using the Stewart platform composed of six linear electro-magnetic actuators with Halbach magnet array. The convergence rate and accuracy showed reasonable results to meet the requirement. It shows that the algorithm is acceptable to replicate multi-channel vibration responses.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.27-35
• /
• 2004

In the field of machine vision using a single camera mounted on a mobile robot, although the detection and tracking of moving objects from a moving observer, is complex and computationally demanding task. In this paper, we propose a new scheme for a mobile robot to track and capture a moving object using images of a camera. The system consists of the following modules: data acquisition, feature extraction and visual tracking, and trajectory generation. And a single camera is used as visual sensors to capture image sequences of a moving object. The moving object is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the active camera. Uncertainties in the position estimation caused by the point-object assumption are compensated using the Kalman filter. To generate the shortest time trajectory to capture the moving object, the linear and angular velocities are estimated and utilized. The experimental results of tracking and capturing of the target object with the mobile robot are presented.