Material flow

About: Material flow is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36844 citations. The topic is also known as: material stream.

Linear programming and Lagrangian relaxation heuristics for designing a material flow network on a block layout

Abstract: This paper focuses on the problem of designing a material flow network for a given block layout. For an efficient design of a network, we simultaneously consider locations of input and output points, flow paths, and the smoothness of material flow paths. A mixed integer programming formulation is given for the problem with the objective of minimising the sum of transportation cost, cost related to flow paths, and penalty cost for non-smooth flows, i.e., flows with many turns. We suggest two heuristic algorithms based on the linear programming relaxation and the Lagrangian relaxation techniques. To evaluate performance of the suggested algorithms, a series of computational experiments is performed on well-known problem instances as well as randomly generated test problems. Results show that the suggested algorithms give good solutions in a reasonable amount of computation time.

Process and system for time control of a basic industry plant

Abstract: A process and a device for comprehensive control of a basic industry plant, such as a steel plant or an integrated iron works, which includes subprocesses that are critical with regard to continuous material flow, eg, casting processes The invention optimizes the material flow through the system and prevents the interruption of the material flow prior to the start of subprocesses that are critical with regard to continuous material flow The process sequence in a subprocess is subdivided into four steps, referred to as quarter cells with each quarter cell containing a point in time, a time range to describe possible process time fluctuations, the name of the previous quarter cell, ie, the name of the previous substep of a subprocess, as well as a marker of whether the process time fluctuation of this subcell is influenceable or non-influenceable

Investigations on the material flow and the influence of the resulting texture on the tensile properties of dissimilar friction stir welded ZK60/Mg-Al-Sn-Zn joints

Abstract: This work focuses on clarifying the relationship of material flow and texture evolution in friction stir welding (FSW) of magnesium alloys and the influence of the texture on the tensile properties of joints. Two types of material arrangements, with ZK60 or Mg-4.6Al-1.2Sn-0.7Zn alloys at advancing side (AS), were applied for dissimilar FSW. The material flow velocity was calculated based on the flow patterns, and the texture evolution was analyzed by electron backscatter diffraction. The results showed that the metal in the rotation layer was pushed flowing upward by the right-hand thread tool pin with clockwise rotation, and three regions with significantly different flow behavior and texture distribution were formed in stir zone (SZ). The rotation angle of the c-axis of magnesium hexagonal unit cell at each region was consistent with the material flow behavior around the tool pin approximately. The greater the flow velocity and the moving distance of deformation metal, the greater the texture intensity. Moreover, when ZK60 with superior plastic deformability was placed at AS, the relatively higher flow velocity in SZ was produced. This caused the relatively higher texture intensity, which lead to the lower tensile strength of joints. The tensile fracture of both joints with two arrangement types occurred at the interface between SZ and thermo-mechanical affected zone at AS due to the uncoordinated plastic deformation caused by the inhomogeneous severe texture distribution. This investigation can provide a new insight into FSW process optimization of magnesium alloys.