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Wireless sensor networks are the driving force behind many popular and interdisciplinary research areas, such as environmental monitoring, building automation, healthcare and assisted living applications. Requirements like compactness, high integration of sensors, flexibility, and power efficiency are often very different and cannot be fulfilled by state-of-the-art node platforms at once. In this paper, we present and analyze AmICA: a flexible, compact, easy-to-program, and low-power node platform. Developed from scratch and including a node, a basic communication protocol, and a debugging toolkit, it assists in an user-friendly rapid application development. The general purpose nature of AmICA was evaluated in two practical applications with diametric requirements. Our analysis shows that AmICA nodes are 67% smaller than BTnodes, have five times more sensors than Mica2Dot and consume 72% less energy than the state-of-the-art TelosB mote in sleep mode.
In this article we present a method to generate random objects from a large variety of combinatorial classes according to a given distribution. Given a description of the combinatorial class and a set of sample data our method will provide an algorithm that generates objects of size n in worst-case runtime O(n^2) (O(n log(n)) can be achieved at the cost of a higher average-case runtime), with the generated objects following a distribution that closely matches the distribution of the sample data.
In a dynamic network, the quickest path problem asks for a path such that a given amount of flow can be sent from source to sink via this path in minimal time. In practical settings, for example in evacuation or transportation planning, the problem parameters might not be known exactly a-priori. It is therefore of interest to consider robust versions of these problems in which travel times and/or capacities of arcs depend on a certain scenario. In this article, min-max versions of robust quickest path problems are investigated and, depending on their complexity status, exact algorithms or fully polynomial-time approximation schemes are proposed.
We study global and local robustness properties of several estimators for shape and scale in a generalized Pareto model. The estimators considered in this paper cover maximum likelihood estimators, skipped maximum likelihood estimators, moment-based estimators, Cramér-von-Mises Minimum Distance estimators, and, as a special case of quantile-based estimators, Pickands Estimator as well as variants of the latter tuned for higher finite sample breakdown point (FSBP), and lower variance. We further consider an estimator matching population median and median of absolute deviations to the empirical ones (MedMad); again, in order to improve its FSBP, we propose a variant using a suitable asymmetric Mad as constituent, and which may be tuned to achieve an expected FSBP of 34%. These estimators are compared to one-step estimators distinguished as optimal in the shrinking neighborhood setting, i.e., the most bias-robust estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) bias and the estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) MSE. For each of these estimators, we determine the FSBP, the influence function, as well as statistical accuracy measured by asymptotic bias, variance, and mean squared error—all evaluated uniformly on shrinking convex contamination neighborhoods. Finally, we check these asymptotic theoretical findings against finite sample behavior by an extensive simulation study.
We present some optimality results for robust Kalman filtering. To this end, we introduce the general setup of state space models which will not be limited to a Euclidean or time-discrete framework. We pose the problem of state reconstruction and repeat the classical existing algorithms in this context. We then extend the ideal-model setup allowing for outliers which in this context may be system-endogenous or -exogenous, inducing the somewhat conflicting goals of tracking and attenuation. In quite a general framework, we solve corresponding minimax MSE-problems for both types of outliers separately, resulting in saddle-points consisting of an optimally-robust procedure and a corresponding least favorable outlier situation. Still insisting on recursivity, we obtain an operational solution, the rLS filter and variants of it. Exactly robust-optimal filters would need knowledge of certain hard-to-compute conditional means in the ideal model; things would be much easier if these conditional means were linear. Hence, it is important to quantify the deviation of the exact conditional mean from linearity. We obtain a somewhat surprising characterization of linearity for the conditional expectation in this setting. Combining both optimal filter types (for system-endogenous and -exogenous situation) we come up with a delayed hybrid filter which is able to treat both types of outliers simultaneously. Keywords: robustness, Kalman Filter, innovation outlier, additive outlier
This work deals with the optimal control of a free surface Stokes flow which responds to an applied outer pressure. Typical applications are fiber spinning or thin film manufacturing. We present and discuss two adjoint-based optimization approaches that differ in the treatment of the free boundary as either state or control variable. In both cases the free boundary is modeled as the graph of a function. The PDE-constrained optimization problems are numerically solved by the BFGS method, where the gradient of the reduced cost function is expressed in terms of adjoint variables. Numerical results for both strategies are finally compared with respect to accuracy and efficiency.
Numerical modeling of electrochemical process in Li-Ion battery is an emerging topic of great practical interest. In this work we present a Finite Volume discretization of electrochemical diffusive processes occurring during the operation of Li-Ion batteries. The system of equations is a nonlinear, time-dependent diffusive system, coupling the Li concentration and the electric potential. The system is formulated at length-scale at which two different types of domains are distinguished, one for the electrolyte and one for the active solid particles in the electrode. The domains can be of highly irregular shape, with electrolyte occupying the pore space of a porous electrode. The material parameters in each domain differ by several orders of magnitude and can be non-linear functions of Li ions concentration and/or the electrical potential. Moreover, special interface conditions are imposed at the boundary separating the electrolyte from the active solid particles. The field variables are discontinuous across such an interface and the coupling is highly non- linear, rendering direct iteration methods ineffective for such problems. We formulate a Newton iteration for an purely implicit Finite Volume discretization of the coupled system. A series of numerical examples are presented for different type of electrolyte/electrode configurations and material parameters. The convergence of the Newton method is characterized both as function of nonlinear material parameters as well as the nonlinearity in the interface conditions.
In this paper, a multi-period supply chain network design problem is addressed. Several aspects of practical relevance are considered such as those related with the financial decisions that must be accounted for by a company managing a supply chain. The decisions to be made comprise the location of the facilities, the flow of commodities and the investments to make in alternative activities to those directly related with the supply chain design. Uncertainty is assumed for demand and interest rates, which is described by a set of scenarios. Therefore, for the entire planning horizon, a tree of scenarios is built. A target is set for the return on investment and the risk of falling below it is measured and accounted for. The service level is also measured and included in the objective function. The problem is formulated as a multi-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming problem. The goal is to maximize the total financial benefit. An alternative formulation which is based upon the paths in the scenario tree is also proposed. A methodology for measuring the value of the stochastic solution in this problem is discussed. Computational tests using randomly generated data are presented showing that the stochastic approach is worth considering in these type of problems.
Modeling of species and charge transport in Li-Ion Batteries based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics
(2010)
In order to improve the design of Li ion batteries the complex interplay of various physical phenomena in the active particles of the electrodes and in the electrolyte has to be balanced. The separate transport phenomena in the electrolyte and in the active particle as well as their coupling due to the electrochemical reactions at the interfaces between the electrode particles and the electrolyte will inuence the performance and the lifetime of a battery. Any modeling of the complex phenomena during the usage of a battery has therefore to be based on sound physical and chemical principles in order to allow for reliable predictions for the response of the battery to changing load conditions. We will present a modeling approach for the transport processes in the electrolyte and the electrodesbased on non-equilibrium thermodynamics and transport theory. The assumption of local charge neutrality, which is known to be valid in concentrated electrolytes, is explicitly used to identify the independent thermodynamic variables and uxes. The theory guarantees strictly positive entropy production. Dierences to other theories will be discussed.
We will present a rigorous derivation of the equations and interface conditions for ion, charge and heat transport in Li-ion insertion batteries. The derivation is based exclusively on universally accepted principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the assumption of a one step intercalation reaction at the interface of electrolyte and active particles. Without loss of generality the transport in the active particle is assumed to be isotropic. The electrolyte is described as a fully dissociated salt in a neutral solvent. The presented theory is valid for transport on a spatial scale for which local charge neutrality holds i.e. beyond the scale of the diffuse double layer. Charge neutrality is explicitely used to determine the correct set of thermodynamically independent variables. The theory guarantees strictly positive entropy production. The various contributions to the Peltier coeficients for the interface between the active particles and the electrolyte as well as the contributions to the heat of mixing are obtained as a result of the theory.
In this article, we summarise the rotation-free and quaternionic parametrisation of a rigid body. We derive and explain the close interrelations between both parametrisations. The internal constraints due to the redundancies in the parametrisations, which lead to DAEs, are handled with the null space technique. We treat both single rigid bodies and general multibody systems with joints, which lead to external joint constraints. Several numerical examples compare both formalisms to the index reduced versions of the corresponding standard formulations.
In the Dynamic Multi-Period Routing Problem, one is given a new set of requests at the beginning of each time period. The aim is to assign requests to dates such that all requests are fulfilled by their deadline and such that the total cost for fulling the requests is minimized. We consider a generalization of the problem which allows two classes of requests: The 1st class requests can only be fulfilled by the 1st class server, whereas the 2nd class requests can be fulfilled by either the 1st or 2nd class server. For each tour, the 1st class server incurs a cost that is alpha times the cost of the 2nd class server, and in each period, only one server can be used. At the beginning of each period, the new requests need to be assigned to service dates. The aim is to make these assignments such that the sum of the costs for all tours over the planning horizon is minimized. We study the problem with requests located on the nonnegative real line and prove that there cannot be a deterministic online algorithm with a competitive ratio better than alpha. However, if we require the difference between release and deadline date to be equal for all requests, we can show that there is a min{2*alpha, 2 + 2/alpha}-competitive algorithm.
Online Delay Management
(2010)
We present extensions to the Online Delay Management Problem on a Single Train Line. While a train travels along the line, it learns at each station how many of the passengers wanting to board the train have a delay of delta. If the train does not wait for them, they get delayed even more since they have to wait for the next train. Otherwise, the train waits and those passengers who were on time are delayed by delta. The problem consists in deciding when to wait in order to minimize the total delay of all passengers on the train line. We provide an improved lower bound on the competitive ratio of any deterministic online algorithm solving the problem using game tree evaluation. For the extension of the original model to two possible passenger delays delta_1 and delta_2, we present a 3-competitive deterministic online algorithm. Moreover, we study an objective function modeling the refund system of the German national railway company, which pays passengers with a delay of at least Delta a part of their ticket price back. In this setting, the aim is to maximize the profit. We show that there cannot be a deterministic competitive online algorithm for this problem and present a 2-competitive randomized algorithm.
In this paper a three dimensional stochastic model for the lay-down of fibers on a moving conveyor belt in the production process of nonwoven materials is derived. The model is based on stochastic diferential equations describing the resulting position of the fiber on the belt under the influence of turbulent air ows. The model presented here is an extension of an existing surrogate model, see [6, 3].
A theory of discrete Cosserat rods is formulated in the language of discrete Lagrangian mechanics. By exploiting Kirchho's kinetic analogy, the potential energy density of a rod is a function on the tangent bundle of the conguration manifold and thus formally corresponds to the Lagrangian function of a dynamical system. The equilibrium equations are derived from a variational principle using a formulation that involves null{space matrices. In this formulation, no Lagrange multipliers are necessary to enforce orthonormality of the directors. Noether's theorem relates rst integrals of the equilibrium equations to Lie group actions on the conguration bundle, so{called symmetries. The symmetries relevant for rod mechanics are frame{indierence, isotropy and uniformity. We show that a completely analogous and self{contained theory of discrete rods can be formulated in which the arc{length is a discrete variable ab initio. In this formulation, the potential energy density is dened directly on pairs of points along the arc{length of the rod, in analogy to Veselov's discrete reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics. A discrete version of Noether's theorem then identies exact rst integrals of the discrete equilibrium equations. These exact conservation properties confer the discrete solutions accuracy and robustness, as demonstrated by selected examples of application. Copyright c 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We present a two-scale finite element method for solving Brinkman’s and Darcy’s equations. These systems of equations model fluid flows in highly porous and porous media, respectively. The method uses a recently proposed discontinuous Galerkin FEM for Stokes’ equations byWang and Ye and the concept of subgrid approximation developed by Arbogast for Darcy’s equations. In order to reduce the “resonance error” and to ensure convergence to the global fine solution the algorithm is put in the framework of alternating Schwarz iterations using subdomains around the coarse-grid boundaries. The discussed algorithms are implemented using the Deal.II finite element library and are tested on a number of model problems.
This paper discusses a numerical subgrid resolution approach for solving the Stokes-Brinkman system of equations, which is describing coupled ow in plain and in highly porous media. Various scientic and industrial problems are described by this system, and often the geometry and/or the permeability vary on several scales. A particular target is the process of oil ltration. In many complicated lters, the lter medium or the lter element geometry are too ne to be resolved by a feasible computational grid. The subgrid approach presented in the paper is aimed at describing how these ne details are accounted for by solving auxiliary problems in appropriately chosen grid cells on a relatively coarse computational grid. This is done via a systematic and a careful procedure of modifying and updating the coecients of the Stokes-Brinkman system in chosen cells. This numerical subgrid approach is motivated from one side from homogenization theory, from which we borrow the formulations for the so called cell problem, and from the other side from the numerical upscaling approaches, such as Multiscale Finite Volume, Multiscale Finite Element, etc. Results on the algorithm's eciency, both in terms of computational time and memory usage, are presented. Comparison with solutions on full ne grid (when possible) are presented in order to evaluate the accuracy. Advantages and limitations of the considered subgrid approach are discussed.
A number of water flow problems in porous media are modelled by Richards’ equation [1]. There exist a lot of different applications of this model. We are concerned with the simulation of the pressing section of a paper machine. This part of the industrial process provides the dewatering of the paper layer by the use of clothings, i.e. press felts, which absorb the water during pressing [2]. A system of nips are formed in the simplest case by rolls, which increase sheet dryness by pressing against each other (see Figure 1). A lot of theoretical studies were done for Richards’ equation (see [3], [4] and references therein). Most articles consider the case of x-independent coefficients. This simplifies the system considerably since, after Kirchhoff’s transformation of the problem, the elliptic operator becomes linear. In our case this condition is not satisfied and we have to consider nonlinear operator of second order. Moreover, all these articles are concerned with the nonstationary problem, while we are interested in the stationary case. Due to complexity of the physical process our problem has a specific feature. An additional convective term appears in our model because the porous media moves with the constant velocity through the pressing rolls. This term is zero in immobile porous media. We are not aware of papers, which deal with such kind of modified steady Richards’ problem. The goal of this paper is to obtain the stability results, to show the existence of a solution to the discrete problem, to prove the convergence of the approximate solution to the weak solution of the modified steady Richards’ equation, which describes the transport processes in the pressing section. In Section 2 we present the model which we consider. In Section 3 a numerical scheme obtained by the finite volume method is given. The main part of this paper is theoretical studies, which are given in Section 4. Section 5 presents a numerical experiment. The conclusion of this work is given in Section 6.
The modelling of hedge funds poses a difficult problem since the available reported data sets are often small and incomplete. We propose a switching regression model for hedge funds, in which the coefficients are able to switch between different regimes. The coefficients are governed by a Markov chain in discrete time. The different states of the Markov chain represent different states of the economy, which influence the performance of the independent variables. Hedge fund indices are chosen as regressors. The parameter estimation for the switching parameter as well as for the switching error term is done through a filtering technique for hidden Markov models developed by Elliott (1994). Recursive parameter estimates are calculated through a filter-based EM-algorithm, which uses the hidden information of the underlying Markov chain. Our switching regression model is applied on hedge fund series and hedge fund indices from the HFR database.
Simulation of multibody systems (mbs) is an inherent part in developing and design of complex mechanical systems. Moreover, simulation during operation gained in importance in the recent years, e.g. for HIL-, MIL- or monitoring applications. In this paper we discuss the numerical simulation of multibody systems on different platforms. The main section of this paper deals with the simulation of an established truck model [9] on different platforms, one microcontroller and two real-time processor boards. Additional to numerical C-code the latter platforms provide the possibility to build the model with a commercial mbs tool, which is also investigated. A survey of different ways of generating code and equations of mbs models is given and discussed concerning handling, possible limitations as well as performance. The presented benchmarks are processed under terms of on-board real time applications. A further important restriction, caused by the real-time requirement, is a fixed integration step size. Whence, carefully chosen numerical integration algorithms are necessary, especially in the case of closed loops in the model. We investigate linearly-implicit time integration methods with fixed step size, so-called Rosenbrock methods, and compare them with respect to their accuracy and performance on the tested processors.