an irreversible stirling heat pump cycle using ferromagnetic materials as a cyclic working substance is established. the influences of finite-rate heat transfer, heat leak, regeneration time, regenerative lossand the internal irreversibility on the cyclic performance of magnetic heat pumps are taken into account. on the basis of the thermodynamic properties of ferromagnetic materials, the perfo...

The paper highlights the design of automatic generation controllers through optimal control strategy, for an interconnected hydrothermal system using a new performance index that circumvents the need for a load demand estimator. The dynamic performances of these controllers are analysed and compared with those obtained through the usual performance index as that used by Fosha and Elgerd, consid...

Ishiguro(2004) shows that discriminatory wage schemes are optimal among collusion-proof contracts under relative performance evaluation when agents collude. However, that analysis depends on the assumption that the agents cannot observe their performances. We investigate how optimal contracts should be modified when the agents observe the realized firm value. We show that the optimal collusion-...

In advancing our prior work on a unified theory for pseudospectral (PS) optimal control, we present new results for PS methods over arbitrary grids. These results provide a way to compare performances among different PS methods and suggest guidelines to choose the proper grids and discretization approaches for solving optimal control problems. The new unified ideas reveal hidden properties of d...

The Automated Manual Transmission was introduced in vehicles to improve driving comfort, performances and fuel efficiency compared with manual transmissions. In this system, the management of the clutch is a key point especially when considering driving comfort. In this paper, we propose a control law for clutch engagement based on sliding mode control. The goal is to ensure a smooth clutch eng...

In this work, A time varying control law is proposed for linear continuous-time systems with non Symmetrical constrained control. Necessary and sufficient conditions allowing us to obtain the largest nonsymmetrical positively invariant polyhedral set with respect to (w.r.t) the system in the closed loop are given. The asymptotic stability of the origin is also guaranteed. The case of symmetrica...

The living world is an exciting and inexhaustible source of high performance solutions to the multitude of biological problems, which were attained as a result of a natural selection, during the millions and millions years evolution of life on Earth. This work presents and comments some examples of high performances of living beings, in the light of the universal principle governing the realm o...