Deep-sea floating platforms are one of the most important large structures for ocean energy exploitation. A new energy-absorbing device named S-shaped Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD) has been invented for the suppression of the horizontal motion and vertical in-plane rotation of a deep-sea floating platform. A conventional tuned liquid column damper has a U-shaped water tunnel to absorb the excessive energy of the main structure. The application of U-shaped dampers in deep-sea floating platforms is difficult due to the restriction of a large horizontal length. A novel S-shaped damper is proposed to retain the same amount of liquid using a shorter S-shaped tunnel. Theoretical and experimental works are conducted and prove that an S-shaped damper needs less than half the horizontal length to provide the same suppression as a U-shaped damper. A coupling calculation model is proposed and followed by the sensitivity analysis. The study demonstrates the applicability of the novel S-shaped damper for the motion suppression in deep-sea floating platforms.

In this study, the intrinsic mechanism of aerodynamic effects on the motion stability of a high-speed maglev system was investigated. The concept of a critical speed for maglev vehicles considering the aerodynamic effect is proposed. The study was carried out based on a single magnetic suspension system, which is convenient for proposing relevant concepts and obtaining explicit expressions. This study shows that the motion stability of the suspension system is closely related to the vehicle speed when aerodynamic effects are considered. With increases of the vehicle speed, the stability behavior of the system changes. At a certain vehicle speed, the stability of the system reaches a critical state, followed by instability. The speed corresponding to the critical state is the critical speed. Analysis reveals that when the system reaches the critical state, it takes two forms, with two critical speeds, and thus two expressions for the critical speed are obtained. The conditions of the existence of the critical speed were determined, and the effects of the control parameters and the lift coefficient on the critical speed were analyzed by numerical analysis. The results show that the first critical speed appears when the aerodynamic force is upward, and the second critical speed appears when the aerodynamic force is downward. Moreover, both critical speeds decrease with the increase of the lift coefficient.

In this research, the periodic response and stability of a nonlinear maglev system under the combined effects of steady and unsteady aerodynamic lifts is investigated, considering time delay in the feedback control loop. First, a nonlinear maglev system with a single levitation point that accounts for the nonlinearity of the electromagnetic force, time delay in the feedback control loop, and effect of aerodynamic lift is established. Then the periodic solutions of the maglev system with aerodynamic lift and time delays are obtained by an incremental harmonic balance analysis, in which the explicit time-delay action matrices used indicate that the effect of time delay on the response of the maglev system is periodic. The stability of the periodic solutions based on a finite difference continuous time approximation method and Floquet theory is studied, from which the critical time delay is obtained. Also, the relationship between the periodic vibration amplitude and the time delay is examined, along with the steady aerodynamic lift coefficient, and frequency of the unsteady aerodynamic lift, as well as the variation of critical delay with respect to the position feedback and velocity feedback with the control gain parameters. In addition, the stability boundary for the simultaneous time-delayed position and velocity feedback is obtained.

The influences of steady aerodynamic loads on hunting stability of high-speed railway vehicles were investigated in this study. A mechanism is suggested to explain the change of hunting behavior due to actions of aerodynamic loads: the aerodynamic loads can change the position of vehicle system (consequently the contact relations), the wheel/rail normal contact forces, the gravitational restoring forces/moments and the creep forces/moments. A mathematical model for hunting stability incorporating such influences was developed. A computer program capable of incorporating the effects of aerodynamic loads based on the model was written, and the critical speeds were calculated using this program. The dependences of linear and nonlinear critical speeds on suspension parameters considering aerodynamic loads were analyzed by using the orthogonal test method, the results were also compared with the situations without aerodynamic loads. It is shown that the most dominant factors affecting linear and nonlinear critical speeds are different whether the aerodynamic loads considered or not. The damping of yaw damper is the most dominant influencing factor for linear critical speeds, while the damping of lateral damper is most dominant for nonlinear ones. When the influences of aerodynamic loads are considered, the linear critical speeds decrease with the rise of crosswind velocity, whereas it is not the case for the nonlinear critical speeds. The variation trends of critical speeds with suspension parameters can be significantly changed by aerodynamic loads. Combined actions of aerodynamic loads and suspension parameters also affect the critical speeds. The effects of such joint action are more obvious for nonlinear critical speeds.

Purpose: To establish machine learning(ML) models for the diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPC) using multiparameter magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI), texture analysis (TA), dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) quantitative analysis and clinical parameters and to evaluate the stability of these models in internal and temporal validation.Methods: The dataset of 194 men was split into training (n = 135) and internal validation (n = 59) cohorts, and a temporal dataset (n = 58) was used for evaluation. The lesions with Gleason score ≥ 7 were defined as csPC. Logistic regression (LR), stepwise regression (SR), classical decision tree (cDT), conditional inference tree (CIT), random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) models were established by combining mpMRI-TA, DCE-MRI and clinical parameters and validated by internal and temporal validation using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and Delong’s method.Results: Eight variables were determined as important predictors for csPC, with the first three related to texture features derived from the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping. RF, LR and SR models yielded larger and more stable area under the ROC curve values (AUCs) than other models. In the temporal validation, the sensitivity was lower than that of the internal validation (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and AUC (p > 0.05).Conclusions: Each machine learning model in this study has good classification ability for csPC. Compared with internal validation, the sensitivity of each machine learning model in temporal validation was reduced, but the specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV and AUCs remained stable at a good level. The RF, LR and SR models have better classification performance in the imaging-based diagnosis of csPC, and ADC texture-related parameters are of the highest importance.

This paper investigates the nonlinear hunting stability of a high-speed vehicle on a curved track under steady aerodynamic load. We first established a nonlinear dynamic model of high-speed vehicle on a curved track while considering the effect of aerodynamic load. Then, we wrote a numerical simulation programme and verified the validity. The following two types of aerodynamic conditions were concerned in this study: considering only the aerodynamic lift and considering the crosswind loads. The influence of aerodynamic load on the creep force, the restoring force and moment generated by gravity, and the equilibrium position of the vehicle on the curved track can all change the hunting stability. We calculated bifurcation diagrams, limit cycle motions, nonlinear critical speeds, and frequency spectrum considering those two types of aerodynamic conditions, then compared with those without considering the aerodynamic effects. The results show that multiple frequencies including double frequency, triple frequency, quadruple frequency, and high frequencies will appear in addition to the fundamental frequency when hunting motion occurs. The higher frequencies which are even times of fundamental frequency are caused by the deviation of equilibrium position from track centre, while the deviation of equilibrium position is generated by curve track or crosswind load. Additionally, a positive aerodynamic lift and a crosswind load in the centrifugal direction will decrease the vehicle’s motion stability, while a negative aerodynamic lift and a crosswind load in the centripetal direction can improve the stability.