This study investigated the vault settlement characteristics of an unsymmetrically loaded tunnel which was excavated by annular excavation via core rock support method. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to design the experiments, evaluate the results with the purpose of optimizing the value of design parameters for reducing the vault settlement. The parameters such as horizontal d...

We discuss using a tabletop ion interferometer to search for deviations from Coulomb's inverse-square law. Such deviations would result from nonclassical effects such as a nonzero photon rest mass. We discuss the theory behind the proposed measurement, explain which fundamental, experimentally controllable parameters are the relevant figures of merit, and calculate the expected performance of s...

a nanofluid is a dilute liquid suspension of particles with at least one critical dimension smaller than ~100 nm. research works so far suggest that nanofluids offer excellent heat transfer enhancement over conventional base fluids. the enhancement depends on several factors such as particle shape, particle size distribution, volume fraction of nanoparticles, temperature, ph, and thermal conduc...

Robotic swarm behavior is usually demonstrated using groups of robots, in which each robot in the swarm must possess full mobile capabilities, including the ability to control both forward and reverse motion as well as directional steering. Such requirements place severe constraints on the cost and size of the individual robots (swarmers), limiting the number of units and constraining the overa...

The quality loss function assumes a fixed target and only accounts for immediate issues within manufacturing facilities whereas warranty loss occurs during customer use. Based on the two independent variables, product performance and consumers’ expectation, a methodology to predict the probability of customer complaint is presented in this paper. The formulation presented will serve as a basic ...

It has been postulated that a good representation is one that disentangles the underlying explanatory factors of variation. However, it remains an open question what kind of training framework could potentially achieve that. Whereas most previous work focuses on the static setting (e.g., with images), we postulate that some of the causal factors could be discovered if the learner is allowed to ...

For multipath channels with a high number of taps and signal constellation points the APP (BCJR) soft-in/soft-out detector in a turboscheme has a prohibitively high number of states. We replace it by a novel list-sequential stack (LISS) algorithm using augmented paths and an auxiliary stack for a length dependent bias term. For BERs lower than 10 the turbo system with a LISS equalizer has almos...

Pure bending of single-walled carbon nanotubes between (5,5) and (50,50) is studied using molecular dynamics based on the reactive bond order potential. Unlike smaller nanotubes, bending of (15,15) and larger ones exhibits an intermediate deformation in the transition between the buckled and fully kinked configurations. This transient bending regime is characterized by a gradual and controllabl...