Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

A Fast Boundary Tracking Alogorithm For Constrained Nonlinear Mathematical Programming Problems, Jacob Yaghoub Moradi

Dissertations

A fast search algorithm for the solution of nonlinear mathematical programming optimization problems is presented in this thesis. A gradient search procedure is combined with a "Boundary Tracking"(BT) method using the feasible direction finding method of Zoutendijk for generating a feasible starting direction along the feasible-infeasible boundary.

The algorithm is applied to the minimum weight design of submersible, circular, cylindrical shells reinforced by equally spaced "T" type frames. This problem had produced algorithm failure in two earlier studies and was only recently solved by the Direct Search-Feasible Direction Algorithm (DSFD) which was shown by recent comparison studies to be among …

Dynamic Analysis Of Structures With Solid-Fluid Interaction, Rennee Ramona Pedrido

Dissertations

Interaction between solid and fluid has been recognized to be an important factor in the areas of aeroelasticity, hydroelasticity, and the study of flow-induced vibration in nuclear reactor components. This study develops a finite element model for interaction between an elastic solid and a fluid medium. Plane triangular finite elements have been used separately for fluid, solid, and solid-fluid continua and the equivalent mass, damping, and stiffness matrices and interaction load arrays for all elements are derived and assembled into global matrices. The global matrix differential equation of motion developed is solved in time to obtain the pressure and velocity …

Thermal Stratification And Circulation Of Water Bodies Subjected To Thermal Discharge, Mohammad A. Borhani

Dissertations

A three-dimensional analytical model for large water bodies is presented. Time histories and spatial distribution of pressure, velocity and temperature in water bodies, subjected to thermal discharge, are determined employing a digital computer. The dynamic response is obtained for a rectangular water body by applying a finite difference method to the mass, momentum and energy balance equations. These partial differential equations are algebraically manipulated to obtain; 1) three parabolic differential equations integrated temporally to find the horizontal velocity components and temperature; 2) one algebraic integral equation to get the vertical velocity component; 3) one elliptic differential equation integrated spatially to …