Investigating the surface integrity of aluminium based composites machined by EDM

In the present work, the surface characteristics of Electrical Discharge Machined (EDM) Al (6351)SiC and Al (6351)SiCB₄C composites are investigated. The composites are prepared by employing the conventional stir casting technique, as it can produce better particle dispersion in the matrix. The detailed experimental study is performed on the composites by varying current (I), duty factor (τ), pulse on time (T_on), and the gap voltage (V) in order to analyze the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) formed in the sub surface and the average crater diameter formed on the machined surface of the composites as an output function. The formation of recast layers, presence of bubbles and the surface texture of the composites at various machining conditions are observed. The results show that the increased Metal Removal Rate (MRR) increases the depth of HAZ and the average crater diameter on the machined area. Further, the addition of B₄C particles to the composite produces more surface defect than the AlSiC composite.     

Heavy metal free primers: Polymorphism of gadolinium and titanium in the context of GSR glass phase

The possibility of identifying gunshot residue (GSR) particles produced by non-toxic primers containing only titanium and zinc is a very difficult task using SEM/EDX analysis employed in the analysis of GSR originating from primers containing lead, barium and antimony. However, Bauer et al. demonstrated that non-toxic (TiZn) primers form a TiZn₂O₄ spinel crystalline structure using SEM/EDX with EBSD (Electron Back Scatter Diffraction) and TKD (Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction), whereas GSR originating from gadolinium-doped TiZn primers form a non-crystalline glass phase. Here, a possible explanation of these different phenomena is hypothesized.     

Optimizing the defensive characteristics of mild steel via the electrodeposition of ZnSi3N4 reinforcing particles

The effect of ZnSi₃N₄ deposition prepared via direct electrolytic co-deposition on mild steel was studied as a result its inherent vulnerability to corrosion in an aggressive environment and failure on the application of load. The experiment was conducted varying the mass concentration of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) between 7 and 13 g at cell voltage of 0.3 and 0.5 V, at constant temperature of 45 °C. The morphologies of the coated surfaces were characterized using high resolution Nikon Optical Microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) revealing that the particles of the ZnSi₃N₄ were homogeneously dispersed. The corrosion behaviour was studied using potentiodynamic polarization technique in 3.65% NaCl solution and the microhardness was examined using Brinell hardness testing technique. The result of the corrosion experiment confirmed an improved corrosion resistance with a reduction in corrosion rate from 9.7425 mm/year to 0.10847 mm/year, maximum coating efficiency of 98.9%, maximum polarization resistance of 1555.3 Ω and a very low current density of 9.33 × 10⁻⁶ A/cm². The negative shift in the E_corr revealed the cathodic protective nature of the coating. The microhardness was also found to have increased from 137.9 HBN for the unmodified steel to a maximum value of 263.3 HBN for the 0.5Zn13Si₃N₄ coated steel representing 90.9% increment in hardness as a result of the matrix grain refining and dispersion-strengthening ability of the incorporated Si₃N₄ particles.     

Theoretical study of an energetic material di-1H-1,3,4-triazole derivatives

Computations by density functional theory (DFT) method are performed on a series of di-1H-1,3,4-triazole derivatives with different substituents and linkages. The heat of formation (HOF) is predicted by the designed isodesmic reactions. The predicted results reveal that –N₃ and –NN– groups are effective structural units for increasing the HOF values of the di-1H-1,3,4-triazole derivatives. The HOMO–LUMO gap is affected by the substituents and linkage groups. Detonation performance is evaluated using the Kamlet–Jacobs approach based on the calculated density and HOF. The results indicate that –NO₂, –NF₂, –NH–, –NH–NH– and –NN– groups are helpful for enhancing the detonation properties of di-1H-1,3,4-triazole derivatives. The bond dissociation energy and bond order of the weakest bonds are analyzed to investigate their stability. It is observed that the –CH₂–, –CH₂–CH₂– and –CHCH– groups are effective structural units for improving the stabilities of these derivatives. Considering the detonation performance and the stability, five compounds are screened as the potential candidates for high energy density materials.     

Burning characteristics of microcellular combustible objects

Microcellular combustible objects for application of combustible case, caseless ammunition or combustible detonator-holding tubes are fabricated through one-step foaming process, in which supercritical CO₂ is used as foaming agent. The formulations consist of inert polymer binder and ultra fine RDX. For the inner porous structures of microcellular combustible objects, the cell sizes present a unimodal or bimodal distribution by adjusting the foaming conditions. Closed bomb test is to investigate the influence of both porous structure style and RDX content on burning behavior. The sample with bimodal distribution of cell sizes burns faster than that with unimodal distribution, and the concentration of RDX can influence the burning characteristics in a positive manner. In addition, the translation of laminar burning to convective burning is determined by burning rate versus pressure curves of samples at two different loading densities, and the resulting transition pressure is 30 MPa. Moreover, the samples with bigger sample size present higher burning rate, resulting in providing deeper convective depth. Dynamic vivacity of samples is also studied. The results show that the vivacity increases with RDX content and varies with inner structure.     

Inventory policies for a make‐to‐order system with a perishable component and fixed ordering cost

We consider a make‐to‐order production system where two major components, one nonperishable (referred to as part 1) and one perishable (part 2), are needed to fulfill a customer order. In each period, replenishment decisions for both parts need to be made jointly before demand is realized and a fixed ordering cost is incurred for the nonperishable part. We show that a simple (s_n,S,S) policy is optimal. Under this policy, S along with the number of backorders at the beginning of a period if any and the availability of the nonperishable part (part 1) determines the optimal order quantity of the perishable part (part 2), while (s_n,S) guide when and how much of part 1 to order at each state. Numerical study demonstrates that the benefits of using the joint replenishment policy can be substantial, especially when the unit costs are high and/or the profit margin is low. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009     

Estimating component characteristics from system failure‐time data

Suppose that failure times are available from a random sample of N systems of a given, fixed design with components which have i.i.d. lifetimes distributed according to a common distribution F. The inverse problem of estimating F from data on observed system lifetimes is considered. Using the known relationship between the system and component lifetime distributions via signature and domination theory, the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator _N(t) of the component survival function (t) is identified and shown to be accessible numerically in any application of interest. The asymptotic distribution of _N(t) is also identified, facilitating the construction of approximate confidence intervals for (t) for N sufficiently large. Simulation results for samples of size N = 50 and N = 100 for a collection of five parametric lifetime models demonstrate the utility of the recommended estimator. Possible extensions beyond the i.i.d. framework are discussed in the concluding section. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

On online bin packing with LIB constraints

In many applications of packing, the location of small items below large items, inside the packed boxes, is forbidden. We consider a variant of the classic online one‐dimensional bin packing, in which items allocated to each bin are packed there in the order of arrival, satisfying the condition above. This variant is called online bin packing problem with LIB (larger item in the bottom) constraints. We give an improved analysis of First Fit showing that its competitive ratio is at most , and design a lower bound of 2 on the competitive ratio of any online algorithm. In addition, we study the competitive ratio of First Fit as a function of an upper bound (where d is a positive integer) on the item sizes. Our upper bound on the competitive ratio of First Fit tends to 2 as d grows, whereas the lower bound of two holds for any value of d. Finally, we consider several natural and well known algorithms, namely, Best Fit, Worst Fit, Almost Worst Fit, and Harmonic, and show that none of them has a finite competitive ratio for the problem. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009     

Investigation on the foaming behaviors of NC-based gun propellants

To prepare the porous NC-based (nitrocellulose-based) gun propellants, the batch foaming process of using supercritical CO₂ as the physical blowing agent is used. The solubilities of CO₂ in the single-base propellants and TEGDN (trimethyleneglycol dinitrate) propellants are measured by the gravimetric method, and SEM (scanning electron microscope) is used to observe the morphology of foamed propellants. The result shows that a large amount of CO₂ could be dissolved in NC-based propellants. The experimental results also reveal that the energetic plasticizer TEGDN exerts an important influence on the pore structure. The triaxial tensile failure mechanism for solid-state nucleation is used to explain the nucleation of NC-based propellants in the solid state. Since some specific foaming behaviors of NC-based propellants can not be explained by the failure mechanism, a solid-state nucleation mechanism which revises the triaxial tensile failure mechanism is proposed and discussed.     

Transporting jobs through a two‐machine open shop

We consider the two‐machine open shop scheduling problem in which the jobs are brought to the system by a single transporter and moved between the processing machines by the same transporter. The purpose is to split the jobs into batches and to find the sequence of moves of the transporter so that the time by which the completed jobs are collected together on board the transporter is minimal. We present a ‐approximation algorithm. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2009     

Scheduling parallel machines with inclusive processing set restrictions and job rejection

In this article, we study a parallel machine scheduling problem with inclusive processing set restrictions and the option of job rejection. In the problem, each job is compatible to a subset of machines, and machines are linearly ordered such that a higher‐indexed machine can process all those jobs that a lower‐indexed machine can process (but not conversely). To achieve a tight production due date, some of the jobs might be rejected at certain penalty. We first study the problem of minimizing the makespan of all accepted jobs plus the total penalty cost of all rejected jobs, where we develop a ‐approximation algorithm with a time complexity of . We then study two bicriteria variants of the problem. For the variant problem of minimizing the makespan subject to a given bound on the total rejection cost, we develop a ‐approximation algorithm with a time complexity of . For the variant problem of maximizing the total rejection cost of the accepted jobs subject to a given bound on the makespan, we present a 0.5‐approximation algorithm with a time complexity of . © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 667–681, 2017     

Scheduling multiple products on parallel machines with setup costs

We consider a class of production scheduling models with m identical machines in parallel and k different product types. It takes a time p_i to produce one unit of product type i on any one of the machines. There is a demand stream for product type i consisting of n_i units with each unit having a given due date. Before a machine starts with the production of a batch of products of type i a setup cost c is incurred. We consider several different objective functions. Each one of the objective functions has three components, namely a total setup cost, a total earliness cost, and a total tardiness cost. In our class of problems we find a relatively large number of problems that can be solved either in polynomial time or in pseudo‐polynomial time. The polynomiality or pseudo‐polynomiality is achieved under certain special conditions that may be of practical interest; for example, a regularity pattern in the string of due dates combined with earliness and tardiness costs that are similar for different types of products. The class of models we consider includes as special cases discrete counterparts of a number of inventory models that have been considered in the literature before, e.g., Wagner and Whitin (Manage Sci 5 (1958), 89–96) and Zangwill (Oper Res 14 (1966), 486–507; Manage Sci 15 (1969), 506–527). © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Scheduling parallel machines with inclusive processing set restrictions

We consider the problem of assigning a set of jobs to different parallel machines of the same processing speed, where each job is compatible to only a subset of those machines. The machines can be linearly ordered such that a higher‐indexed machine can process all those jobs that a lower‐indexed machine can process. The objective is to minimize the makespan of the schedule. This problem is motivated by industrial applications such as cargo handling by cranes with nonidentical weight capacities, computer processor scheduling with memory constraints, and grades of service provision by parallel servers. We develop an efficient algorithm for this problem with a worst‐case performance ratio of + ε, where ε is a positive constant which may be set arbitrarily close to zero. We also present a polynomial time approximation scheme for this problem, which answers an open question in the literature. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Approximation algorithms for sequential batch‐testing of series systems

We introduce and study a generalization of the classic sequential testing problem, asking to identify the correct state of a given series system that consists of independent stochastic components. In this setting, costly tests are required to examine the state of individual components, which are sequentially tested until the correct system state can be uniquely identified. The goal is to propose a policy that minimizes the expected testing cost, given a‐priori probabilistic information on the stochastic nature of each individual component. Unlike the classic setting, where variables are tested one after the other, we allow multiple tests to be conducted simultaneously, at the expense of incurring an additional set‐up cost. The main contribution of this article consists in showing that the batch testing problem can be approximated in polynomial time within factor , for any fixed . In addition, we explain how, in spite of its highly nonlinear objective function, the batch testing problem can be formulated as an approximate integer program of polynomial size, while blowing up its expected cost by a factor of at most . Finally, we conduct extensive computational experiments, to demonstrate the practical effectiveness of these algorithms as well as to evaluate their limitations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 275–286, 2016     

Level workforce planning for multistage transfer lines

In this article, we define two different workforce leveling objectives for serial transfer lines. Each job is to be processed on each transfer station for c time periods (e.g., hours). We assume that the number of workers needed to complete each operation of a job in precisely c periods is given. Jobs transfer forward synchronously after every production cycle (i.e., c periods). We study two leveling objectives: maximin workforce size () and min range (R). Leveling objectives produce schedules where the cumulative number of workers needed in all stations of a transfer line does not experience dramatic changes from one production cycle to the next. For and a two‐station system, we develop a fast polynomial algorithm. The range problem is known to be NP‐complete. For the two‐station system, we develop a very fast optimal algorithm that uses a tight lower bound and an efficient procedure for finding complementary Hamiltonian cycles in bipartite graphs. Via a computational experiment, we demonstrate that range schedules are superior because not only do they limit the workforce fluctuations from one production cycle to the next, but they also do so with a minor increase in the total workforce size. We extend our results to the m‐station system and develop heuristic algorithms. We find that these heuristics work poorly for min range (R), which indicates that special structural properties of the m‐station problem need to be identified before we can develop efficient algorithms. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 577–590, 2016     

Technical note: Finite-time regret analysis of Kiefer-Wolfowitz stochastic approximation algorithm and nonparametric multi-product dynamic pricing with unknown demand

We consider the problem of nonparametric multi-product dynamic pricing with unknown demand and show that the problem may be formulated as an online model-free stochastic program, which can be solved by the classical Kiefer-Wolfowitz stochastic approximation (KWSA) algorithm. We prove that the expected cumulative regret of the KWSA algorithm is bounded above by where κ₁, κ₂ are positive constants and T is the number of periods for any T = 1, 2, … . Therefore, the regret of the KWSA algorithm grows in the order of , which achieves the lower bounds known for parametric dynamic pricing problems and shows that the nonparametric problems are not necessarily more difficult to solve than the parametric ones. Numerical experiments further demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed KW pricing policy by comparing with some pricing policies in the literature.     

Minimal LST representations of MAP(n)s: Moment fittings and queueing approximations

A Markovian arrival process of order n, MAP(n), is typically described by two n × n transition rate matrices in terms of rate parameters. While it is straightforward and intuitive, the Markovian representation is redundant since the minimal number of parameters is n² for non‐redundant MAP(n). It is well known that the redundancy complicates exact moment fittings. In this article, we present a minimal and unique Laplace‐Stieltjes transform (LST) representations for MAP(n)s. Even though the LST coefficients vector itself is not a minimal representation, we show that the joint LST of stationary intervals can be represented with the minimum number of parameters. We also propose another minimal representation for MAP(3)s based on coefficients of the characteristic polynomial equations of the two transition rate matrices. An exact moment fitting procedure is presented for MAP(3)s based on two proposed minimal representations. We also discuss how MAP(3)/G/1 departure process can be approximated as a MAP(3). A simple tandem queueing network example is presented to show that the MAP(3) performs better than the MAP(2) in queueing approximations especially under moderate traffic intensities. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 549–561, 2016     

A stochastic assignment problem

There are n boxes with box i having a quota value Balls arrive sequentially, with each ball having a binary vector attached to it, with the interpretation being that if X_i = 1 then that ball is eligible to be put in box i. A ball's vector is revealed when it arrives and the ball can be put in any alive box for which it is eligible, where a box is said to be alive if it has not yet met its quota. Assuming that the components of a vector are independent, we are interested in the policy that minimizes, either stochastically or in expectation, the number of balls that need arrive until all boxes have met their quotas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 62:23–31, 2015     

Single batch machine scheduling with deliveries

We consider the problem of scheduling a set of n jobs on a single batch machine, where several jobs can be processed simultaneously. Each job j has a processing time p_j and a size s_j. All jobs are available for processing at time 0. The batch machine has a capacity D. Several jobs can be batched together and processed simultaneously, provided that the total size of the jobs in the batch does not exceed D. The processing time of a batch is the largest processing time among all jobs in the batch. There is a single vehicle available for delivery of the finished products to the customer, and the vehicle has capacity K. We assume that K = rD, where and r is an integer. The travel time of the vehicle is T; that is, T is the time from the manufacturer to the customer. Our goal is to find a schedule of the jobs and a delivery plan so that the service span is minimized, where the service span is the time that the last job is delivered to the customer. We show that if the jobs have identical sizes, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in time such that the service span is minimum. If the jobs have identical processing times, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in time such that the service span is asymptotically at most 11/9 times the optimal service span. When the jobs have arbitrary processing times and arbitrary sizes, then we can find a schedule and delivery plan in time such that the service span is asymptotically at most twice the optimal service span. We also derive upper bounds of the absolute worst‐case ratios in both cases. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 470–482, 2015