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Digital imaging and modeling are essential tools for characterizing rock structures and understanding fluid flow behavior. These efforts often rely on X‐ray micro‐computed tomography (micro‐CT), which faces an inherent trade‐off between resolution and field‐of‐view (FOV). Deep learning super‐resolution (SR) methods have been developed to overcome this limitation, but their application to carbonate rocks is challenged by complex micro‐nanometer features. Due to the resolution limits, micro‐CT fails to capture sub‐micrometer features such as micropores in carbonates, and using such data as high‐resolution (HR) training images limits the SR model's ability to accurately reconstruct the micropore structures. We introduce a cascading SR pipeline designed to address these challenges and reveal sub‐micrometer features in carbonate rocks. The approach integrates multi‐stage 2D SR networks to progressively enhance low‐resolution (LR) images toward the HR domain, followed by a third‐plane SR network for 3D reconstruction. We evaluate this method on a three‐stage SR task: starting from a 3 μ ${\\upmu }$m resolution micro‐CT image, super‐resolving to an intermediate 1 μ ${\\upmu }$m resolution, and ultimately reaching 0.1 μ ${\\upmu }$m resolution based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM), achieving a 30× ${\\times} $ scale factor. Validation with unseen SEM demonstrates that the reconstructed domains retain essential structural and physical properties. This approach provides a practical solution to current imaging limitations and enables the integration of multi‐resolution modalities for improved rock characterization.

Although thermal methods have been popular and successfully applied in heavy oil recovery, they are often found to be uneconomic or impractical. Therefore, alternative production protocols are being actively pursued and interesting options include water injection and polymer flooding. Indeed, such techniques have been successfully tested in recent laboratory investigations, where X-ray scans performed on homogeneous rock slabs during water flooding experiments have shown evidence of an interesting new phenomenon-post-breakthrough, highly dendritic water fingers have been observed to thicken and coalesce, forming braided water channels that improve sweep efficiency. However, these experimental studies involve displacement mechanisms that are still poorly understood, and so the optimization of this process for eventual field application is still somewhat problematic. Ideally, a combination of two-phase flow experiments and simulations should be put in place to help understand this process more fully. To this end, a fully dynamic network model is described and used to investigate finger thickening during water flooding of extra-heavy oils. The displacement physics has been implemented at the pore scale and this is followed by a successful benchmarking exercise of the numerical simulations against the groundbreaking micromodel experiments reported by Lenormand and co-workers in the 1980s. A range of slab-scale simulations has also been carried out and compared with the corresponding experimental observations. We show that the model is able to replicate finger architectures similar to those observed in the experiments and go on to reproduce and interpret, for the first time to our knowledge, finger thickening following water breakthrough. We note that this phenomenon has been observed here in homogeneous (i.e. un-fractured) media: the presence of fractures could be expected to exacerbate such fingering still further. Finally, we examine the impact of several system parameters, including core length, wettability and injection rate, on the extent and efficiency of the finger swelling phenomenon.

This article is concerned with the adaptive-event-triggered filtering problem as it relates to a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems characterized by interval Type-2 fuzzy models. The system under investigation is susceptible to Markovian switching and deception attacks. It is proposed to implement an improved event-triggering mechanism to reduce the unnecessary signal transmissions on the communication channel and formulate the extended dissipativity specification to quantify the transient dynamics of filtering errors. By resorting to the linear matrix inequality approach and using the information on upper and lower membership functions, stochastic analysis establishes sufficient conditions for the existence of the desired filter, ensuring the mean-squared stability and extended dissipativity of the augmented filtering system. Further, an optimization-based algorithm (PSO) is proposed for computing filter gains at an optimal level of performance. The developed scheme was finally tested through experimental numerical illustrations based on a single-link robot arm and a lower limbs system.

Imbibition is an important process encountered in many porous media applications. At the pore scale, pore network models (PNM) are computationally efficient and can model drainage accurately. However, using PNM to model imbibition still remains a challenge due to the complexities encountered in understanding pore-scale flow phenomena related to pore body filling (PBF) and snap-off along with the relative competition between these events. In this work, we use direct numerical simulations (DNS) to revisit the basic principles of PBF in a two-dimensional synthetic pore geometry. We notice that PBF during spontaneous imbibition is dependent on several parameters such as shape of the transition zone, contact angle and the fluid properties like density. The interactions between these parameters are investigated in a quantitative manner. We demonstrate the existence of a critical contact angle 𝜃 c and a barrier contact angle 𝜃 b . 𝜃 c depends on the shape of the pore geometry, whereas 𝜃 b depends on the pore geometry, contact angle and fluid properties. For a system comprising of light fluids, 𝜃 b is only slightly larger than 𝜃 c ; whereas for a system occupied by dense fluids, 𝜃 b is notably larger than 𝜃 c . The contact angle of the wetting phase 𝜃 in relation to 𝜃 c and 𝜃 b decides if the wetting phase can imbibe a pore body. Imbibition always occurs if 𝜃 < 𝜃 c . For 𝜃 > 𝜃 c , we observe capillary barrier zones in which capillary forces accompany viscous forces to resist spontaneous imbibition. For this case, we observe smooth transition of the meniscus curvature while the meniscus enters and exits capillary barrier zones. For 𝜃 c ≤ 𝜃 ≤ 𝜃 b , inertia assists the wetting phase to overcome resisting forces and imbibe the pore space. For 𝜃 > 𝜃 b , the resisting forces dominate over inertia so that the wetting phase cannot imbibe the pore space. For the synthetic pore geometries investigated, we provide analytical and semi-analytical expressions to determine 𝜃 c and the position of capillary barrier zones respectively. The barrier contact angle 𝜃 b is computed numerically for several inertial systems and for various shapes of the synthetic pore geometry. The results of this quantitative analysis can be utilised to improve the existing pore filling rules and predictive capabilities of PNM used for two-phase flows.

The aim was to investigate the effect of breathing conditions and swimming pace on the relationships between the impairment, the breathing laterality and motor coordination symmetry in elite front crawl Para swimmers. Fifteen elite Para swimmers with unilateral physical impairment or with visual impairment and unilateral breathing preference performed eight 25 m using four breathing conditions (every three strokes, every two strokes on preferred and non-preferred breathing side and apnea) at slow and fast paces in a randomized order. Multicamera video system and five sensors have been used to assess arm and leg stroke phases and to compute symmetry of arm coordination (SI IdC ) and of leg kick rate (SI KR ). Our findings emphasized motor coordination asymmetry whatever the breathing conditions and swimming paces, highlighting the influence of impairment. Multinomial logistic regression exhibited a high probability for motor coordination asymmetry (SI IdC and SI KR ) to be present in categories of Para swimmers with impairment and breathing laterality on the same side, suggesting the joined effect of unilateral impairment and unilateral breathing. Moreover, unilateral physical impairment and breathing laterality could also occur on different sides and generate motor coordination asymmetry on different sides and different levels (arms vs. legs). Finally, visual impairment seems amplify the effect of unilateral breathing on motor coordination asymmetry.

In this paper, the problem of reliable control design with mixed H∞ /passive performance is discussed for a class of Takagi–Sugeno TS fuzzy descriptor systems with time-varying delay, sensor failure, and randomly occurred non-linearity. Based on the Lyapunov theory, firstly, a less conservative admissible criterion is established by combining the delay decomposition and reciprocally convex approaches. Then, the attention is focused on the design of a reliable static output feedback (SOF) controller with mixed H∞ /passive performance requirements. The key merit of the paper is to propose a simple method to design such a controller since the system output is subject to probabilistic missing data and noise. Using the output vector as a state component, an augmented model is introduced, and sufficient conditions are derived to achieve the desired performance of the closed-loop system. In addition, the cone complementarity linearization (CCL) algorithm is provided to calculate the controller gains. At last, three numerical examples, including computer-simulated truck-trailer and ball and beam systems are given to show the efficacy of our proposed approach, compared with existing ones in the literature.

This work discuss the robust stabilization problem for discrete-time switched singular systems with simultaneous presence of time-varying delay and sensor nonlinearity. To this end, an observer-based controller was synthesized that works under asynchronous switching signals. Investigating the average dwell time approach and using a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional with triple sum terms, sufficient conditions were derived for achieving the existence of such asynchronous controller and guaranteeing the resulting closed-loop system to be exponentially admissible with H∞ performance level. Subsequently, the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme was verified through two numerical examples.

Applied in many fields, nonlinear systems involving delay and algebraic equations are referred to as singular systems. These systems remain challenging due to saturation constraints that affect actuators and cause harm to their operation. Furthermore, the complexity of the problem will increase when uncertainty also simultaneously affects the system under consideration. To address this issue, this paper investigated a feasible control strategy for nonlinear singular systems with time-varying delay that are subject to uncertainty and actuator saturation. The IT-2 fuzzy model was adopted to describe the dynamic of the non-linear delayed systems using lower and upper membership functions to deal with the uncertainty. Moreover, the polyhedron model was applied to characterize the saturation function. The goal of the control approach was to design a relevant IT2 fuzzy state feedback controller with mismatched membership functions so that the closed-loop system is admissible. On the basis of an appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, sufficient delay-dependent conditions were established and an optimization problem was formulated in terms of linear matrix inequality constraints to optimize the attraction domain. Simulation examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The remarkable features of hybrid SMC assisted with fuzzy systems supplying parameters of the controller have led to significant success of these control approaches, especially in the control of multi-input and multi-output nonlinear systems. The development of type-1 fuzzy systems to type-2 fuzzy systems has improved the performance of fuzzy systems due to the ability to model uncertainties in the expression of expert knowledge. Accordingly, in this paper, the basic approach of designing and implementing the interval type-2 fuzzy sliding mode control was proposed. According to the introduced systematic design procedure, complete optimal design of a type-2 fuzzy system structure was presented in providing sliding mode control parameters by minimizing tracking error and control energy. Based on the proposed method, the need for expert knowledge as the main challenge in designing fuzzy systems was eliminated. In addition, the possibility to limit the control outputs to deal with actuators’ saturation was made available. The control method was implemented on a six-degree-of-freedom robot manipulator that was exposed to severe external disturbances, and its performance was compared to a type-1 fuzzy system as well as to the conventional SMC. The achievements revealed improved performance of the combined control system of fuzzy sliding mode type-2 in comparison with its control counterparts.

The remarkable features of hybrid SMC assisted with fuzzy systems supplying parameters of the controller have led to significant success of these control approaches, especially in the control of multi-input and multi-output nonlinear systems. The development of type-1 fuzzy systems to type-2 fuzzy systems has improved the performance of fuzzy systems due to the ability to model uncertainties in the expression of expert knowledge. Accordingly, in this paper, the basic approach of designing and implementing the interval type-2 fuzzy sliding mode control was proposed. According to the introduced systematic design procedure, complete optimal design of a type-2 fuzzy system structure was presented in providing sliding mode control parameters by minimizing tracking error and control energy. Based on the proposed method, the need for expert knowledge as the main challenge in designing fuzzy systems was eliminated. In addition, the possibility to limit the control outputs to deal with actuators’ saturation was made available. The control method was implemented on a six-degree-of-freedom robot manipulator that was exposed to severe external disturbances, and its performance was compared to a type-1 fuzzy system as well as to the conventional SMC. The achievements revealed improved performance of the combined control system of fuzzy sliding mode type-2 in comparison with its control counterparts.