JP2010003169A - Analysis system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an amount of calculations in the behavior analysis of a particle and reduce the load of a computer. <P>SOLUTION: The present invention includes: a particle information retention part 160 for retaining location information and attribute information of particles to be analyzed; a cell creation part 130 for creating cells which are small regions that divide the space, where the particles are disposed; an interactive force calculation part 140 for setting a region in which a plurality of cells are included, with a specific particle of the respective individual particles as the center, as a cutoff region with respect to the particle and calculating an interactive force including a long-distance interactive force that acts among the particle and other particles that are exist in the cells within the cutoff region, by using the location information and the attribute information retained by the particle information retention part 160; and a particle location calculating part 150 for calculating the location of the particle by using the interactive force calculated by the interactive force calculation part 140. The location information retained by the particle information retaining part 160 is updated, to the location calculated by the particle location calculating part 150. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an analysis system and a program for analyzing particle behavior.

In the analysis process that simulates the behavior of particles by the distinct element method, two pairs of particles are extracted, the interaction force acting on each particle is calculated in consideration of the distance between the particles, and the obtained interaction force is calculated. Use to solve the equation of motion and calculate the motion of each particle. Particle pairs are extracted in combination with all other particles for each particle. Accordingly, when the number of particles is n, the calculation amount is O (n ² ). In this process, the load in the calculation of the distance between particles performed when obtaining the interaction force is very large.

  On the other hand, regarding the calculation of the interaction force (contact force) acting at a short distance, the space in which the particles exist is divided into cells (small regions), and whether or not the particles existing in adjacent cells are in contact with each other. And calculating the interaction force (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this method (hereinafter referred to as the cell method), the amount of calculation when the number of particles is n is O (n).

  The prior art described in Patent Document 1 includes a particle coordinate memory for storing the coordinates of particles and an index memory for storing the coordinates of particles belonging to the subcells. When calculating, the conventional technology is based on the proximity relationship between the subcells. A subcell is designated, and the particle coordinates of particles belonging to the corresponding subcell are read out and supplied as close particle coordinates. As a result, the particle coordinate calculation is saved and particles existing in the vicinity of the target particle are efficiently selected and given coordinates to improve the speed of the entire calculation.

JP 2001-236342 A

The calculation of the interaction force between particles in the particle behavior analysis is very heavy and the calculation amount is enormous.
An object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of calculation in the behavior analysis of particles and reduce the load on the computer.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there are provided storage means for holding position information and attribute information of particles to be analyzed, cell creation means for creating cells that are small areas dividing the space in which the particles are arranged, With respect to the particles, a region including a plurality of the cells centered on the particles is set as a cutoff range for the particles, and the position information and the attribute information held in the storage unit are used to An interaction force calculation means for calculating an interaction force including a long-range interaction force that acts between the particle and another particle existing in the cell within the cutoff range, and the interaction force calculation means Particle position calculating means for calculating the position of the particles using the calculated interaction force, and the position information held in the storage means is calculated by the particle position calculating means. An analysis system and updates the location.
The invention according to claim 2 is the analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the cut-off range is such that the length of one side is an integral multiple of the length of one side of the cell. .
The invention described in claim 3 further includes accepting means for accepting input of at least one of the size of the cell and the size of the cut-off range, and the cell creating means is information received by the accepting means. 2. The analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the cell is created based on the information, and the interaction force calculation unit sets the cutoff range based on the information received by the reception unit. .
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when the accepting unit accepts one information of the cell size or the size of the cut-off range, the other information is calculated based on the accepted information. The analysis system according to claim 3, further comprising a calculation unit.
The invention according to claim 5 is the analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the interaction force calculation means and the particle position calculation means are constituted by a plurality of computers, and perform calculations by parallel distributed processing. It is.
In the invention described in claim 6, the computer includes a cell creating means for creating a cell that is a small area dividing the space in which the particles are arranged, and each of the particles includes a plurality of the cells centered on the particle. The included region is set as a cut-off range for the particle, and the position information and attribute information of the analysis target particle held in the storage unit are used to exist in the cell within the cut-off range for the particle. An interaction force calculating means for calculating an interaction force acting between other particles, and a particle position calculating means for calculating the position of the particle using the interaction force calculated by the interaction force calculating means; The program is made to function as update means for updating the position information held in the storage means to the position calculated by the particle position calculation means.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the particle behavior analysis, it is not necessary to calculate the interaction force by obtaining the distance between the particles for all the particles to be analyzed, and the calculation load can be greatly reduced.
According to the invention of claim 2, it is possible to efficiently calculate the interaction force acting between the particles without performing unnecessary calculation.
According to the invention of claim 3, it is possible to set an appropriate cell and cut-off range according to the analysis conditions.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the user can appropriately set both the cell and the cut-off range only by setting one of the cell size and the cut-off range size.
According to the invention of claim 5, even in the particle behavior analysis by the parallel distributed system, it is not necessary to calculate the interaction force by obtaining the distance between all the particles to be analyzed, and the calculation load is greatly reduced. be able to.
According to the invention of claim 6, even when the behavior analysis of the particles is performed by the computer, it is not necessary to calculate the interaction force by obtaining the distance between the particles for all the analysis target particles, thereby greatly reducing the calculation load. can do.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of an analysis apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.
As shown in FIG. 1, the analysis apparatus 100 of this embodiment includes a parameter receiving unit 110 and an analysis control unit 120 that controls the entire processing of particle behavior analysis by the individual element method. In addition, a cell creation unit 130, an interaction force calculation unit 140, a particle position calculation unit 150, a particle information holding unit 160, and a communication control unit 170 for executing analysis processing according to the present embodiment are provided.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a computer that implements the analysis apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.
The computer 10 shown in FIG. 2 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 10a that is a calculation means, a main storage device (main memory) 10b that is a storage means, and an external storage device 10c. As the external storage device 10c, a magnetic disk device, an SSD (Solid State Drive), or the like is used. The computer 10 in FIG. 2 includes a network I / F (interface) 10d for connecting to an external device via a network, a display mechanism 10e for performing display output to the display device, and a sound output. And an audio mechanism 10f. Furthermore, an input device 10g such as a keyboard or a mouse is provided. A chip set and a bridge circuit (not shown) are interposed between the CPU 10a and other components.

  In FIG. 2, each component is connected via various buses such as a system bus and an input / output bus. For example, the CPU 10a and the main storage device 10b are connected via a system bus or a memory bus. Further, between the CPU 10a and the external storage device 10c, the network I / F 10d, the display mechanism 10e, the sound mechanism 10f, the input device 10g, and the like, PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect), PCI Express, serial ATA (AT Attachment), USB ( It is connected via an input / output bus such as Universal Serial Bus) or AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port).

  Note that FIG. 2 merely illustrates a hardware configuration of a computer suitable for realizing the analysis apparatus 100 of the present embodiment, and it is needless to say that the configuration is not limited to the illustrated configuration. For example, in addition to the external storage device 10c, a drive using a flexible disk or an optical disk as a medium or a USB memory may be provided as an auxiliary storage device. The USB memory is connected to the bridge circuit via the USB. Further, the voice mechanism 10f may be provided as a function of a chipset without being an independent configuration.

  In the analysis apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1, the analysis control unit 120, the cell creation unit 130, the interaction force calculation unit 140, and the particle position calculation unit 150 are read into the main storage device 10b in the computer 10 shown in FIG. 2, for example. This function is realized by the CPU 10a executing the program, and is a means realized by cooperation of software and hardware resources. The parameter receiving unit 110 is realized by, for example, a program-controlled CPU 10a and an input device 10g. The particle information holding unit 160 is realized by a storage unit such as the main storage device 10b or the external storage device 10c, for example. The communication control unit 170 is realized by, for example, a program-controlled CPU 10a and a network I / F 10d.

  The parameter receiving unit 110 is a receiving unit that receives parameters necessary for the analysis process. Specifically, the cell size (the length of one side of the cell) and the cut-off distance (the length of one side of the cut-off range, the cut-off range) necessary for calculation by the cell method will be described later. ) Is accepted. Moreover, you may receive the input (for example, mass, electric charge, etc.) about the attribute and state regarding the particle | grains to be analyzed. Furthermore, in the behavioral analysis of particles, distributed processing by a plurality of computers is generally performed in order to cope with the size of the calculation load. In this case, information such as the number of processors and particles allocated to each processor is used. Etc. may be accepted.

  The analysis control unit 120 controls the entire processing of particle behavior analysis by the analysis apparatus 100. It also collects and creates information necessary for processing. Specifically, for example, the parameter receiving unit 110 and the communication control unit 170 are controlled to acquire parameters necessary for analysis processing and information on particles to be analyzed. The analysis control unit 120 is a calculation unit that calculates the other parameter based on the received parameter when the parameter reception unit 110 receives one of the cell size and the cutoff distance as a parameter. The information thus obtained is passed to the cell creation unit 130, the interaction force calculation unit 140, and the particle position calculation unit 150. Then, the analysis control unit 120 stores the position information calculated by the particle position calculation unit 150 in the particle information holding unit 160. That is, the analysis control unit 120 also functions as an updating unit that updates the position information of the particles held in the particle information holding unit 160. When the particle behavior analysis is executed by distributed processing, the analysis control unit 120 controls the communication control unit 170 to exchange analysis results with other analysis devices 100 at each step in the analysis processing. Collect information necessary for the processing of the next step.

  The cell creation unit 130 creates a cell for performing calculation by the cell method. Further, a cut-off range that is regarded as a range in which the interaction force acts between the particles is specified. The cut-off range may be arbitrarily set by the user based on conditions such as the type of interaction force to be analyzed (Coulomb force, magnetic force, etc.) and the required analysis accuracy. However, in this embodiment, the cut-off range is set to an integral multiple of the cell size in order to eliminate useless calculations such as obtaining the distance between particles that do not calculate the interaction force (out of the cut-off range). . That is, the cut-off range is composed of only an integer number of cells.

By the way, in the conventional cell method used for the calculation of the interaction force at a short distance, the cell size is set as shown in the following equation in order to set one particle center in one cell.

Cell size <√2 x minimum particle radius (1)

However, in the present embodiment, the cell size is not limited as shown in equation (1). Rather

Cell size> √2 x minimum particle radius (2)

Since the calculation efficiency may be improved, the minimum cell size may be set based on the equation (2).

  When applying this embodiment to the behavior analysis of the toner used as the image forming material of the image forming apparatus, a preferable specific example is given in consideration of a general toner size and electrostatic interaction force acting between the toners. For example, the cell size is about 30 to 40 μm, and the cut-off distance is about 8 to 10 times the cell size.

  The interaction force calculation unit 140 sets, for each particle to be analyzed, a cutoff range specified by the cell creation unit 130 around the particle. Then, within the set cut-off range, the distance between the particle present in each cell created by the cell creation unit 130 and the center particle is obtained, and the interaction force acting between the particles is calculated. When the particle behavior analysis is executed by parallel distributed processing, the interaction force calculation unit 140 of each analysis device 100 calculates the interaction force with respect to the particles assigned to the own device by the above method. As a method for calculating the interaction force, a calculation method used in a conventional system for analyzing particle behavior may be used.

  The particle position calculation unit 150 solves the equation of motion for each particle using the interaction force acting on each particle calculated by the interaction force calculation unit 140, and the position coordinates of each particle moved by receiving this interaction force. Calculate When the particle behavior analysis is executed by parallel distributed processing, the particle position calculation unit 150 of each analysis device 100 acquires the calculation result of the interaction force related to the particle assigned to the own device from another analysis device 100. And added to the calculation result of the interaction force calculation unit 140 of the own device. And the position of particle | grains is calculated using the total of the obtained interaction force. As a calculation method of the position coordinates of the particles, a calculation method used in a conventional particle behavior analysis system may be used.

  The particle information holding unit 160 is a storage unit that holds position information and attribute information (charge, mass, velocity, etc.) of particles to be analyzed. These pieces of information are initially given from the outside by user input or communication, but are updated with the calculation result of the particle position calculation unit 150 after the analysis is started. The calculations by the interaction force calculation unit 140 and the particle position calculation unit 150 are normally repeated a preset number of times, and the position information held in the particle information holding unit 160 is updated each time. In addition, when the analysis is executed by distributed processing by a plurality of analysis apparatuses 100, particle allocation information for each analysis apparatus 100 is also held.

  The communication control unit 170 receives initial information of information held in the particle information holding unit 160 from an external device, and outputs a final analysis result to the external device. When the analysis is executed by distributed processing by a plurality of analysis apparatuses 100, the allocation information of particles for each analysis apparatus 100 is received. Moreover, the calculation result for every calculation step by the interaction force calculation unit 140 and the particle position calculation unit 150 is transmitted to the corresponding analysis device 100 based on the allocation of particles. Similarly, the calculation result for each calculation step for the particles assigned to the own apparatus is received from the other analysis apparatus 100.

  When particle behavior analysis is executed by distributed processing, generally, a system configuration including a plurality of analysis devices 100 and a management device (not shown) that performs overall control of each analysis device 100 is employed. In this case, each analysis device 100 includes an analysis control unit 120, an interaction force calculation unit 140, a particle position calculation unit 150, a particle information holding unit 160, and a communication control unit 170, and includes a parameter receiving unit 110, an analysis control unit 120, and a cell. The creation unit 130 and the communication control unit 170 may be included in the management apparatus. In this configuration, the analysis control unit 120 of the analysis apparatus 100 is responsible for control of each function in the own apparatus and control of data exchange between the apparatuses, and the analysis control unit 120 of the management apparatus assigns particles to each analysis apparatus 100. It is responsible for management of information commonly handled by each analysis apparatus 100 such as cell creation, management of final analysis results, and the like.

<Relationship between cell and cutoff range>
Here, the cell and the cut-off range set in the present embodiment will be further described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between the cell and the cutoff range in the present embodiment.
Assume that particles exist in the space to be analyzed as shown in FIG. Cells are set in this space as shown in FIG. In the example shown in the figure, the size of this cell is such that approximately one particle enters one cell.

  Further, in order to calculate the interaction force acting on each particle by paying attention to each particle in the space where the cell is set, a cutoff range is set. In FIG. 3B, the particle indicated by a white circle (◯) is the target particle, and the region indicated by the thick frame centered on the target particle is the cut-off range. As described above, the cutoff distance is set to an integral multiple of the cell size, and in the example shown in FIG. 3B, the cutoff range is an area of 5 cells × 5 cells.

  In the cut-off range thus set, the distance between the target particle and the particle existing in each cell is calculated, and the interaction force acting between the target particle and other particles is calculated. Then, the interaction force between the particles existing outside the cutoff range and the target particle is ignored. As described above, when the cut-off distance is set at several times to several tens of times the cell size, the number of particles existing within the cut-off range is about several tens to several hundreds. Since the number of particles to be analyzed is enormous, setting the cut-off range as described above greatly reduces the amount of calculation of the interaction force related to the target particle, and the amount of calculation close to O (n) It becomes.

  In the above description, the cut-off distance is set to be an integral multiple of the cell size. However, since the relationship between the cut-off distance and the cell size is relative, whichever is considered as a reference good. Considering the cut-off distance as a reference, the cell size is an integral fraction of the cut-off distance. In actual analysis processing, it is generally considered that the cutoff distance is first set based on conditions such as the type of interaction force to be calculated and the required analysis accuracy. In such a case, after the cut-off distance is set, the cells are set with an appropriate cell size that is 1/10 to 1/10.

<Parameter input screen>
As described above, in the present embodiment, the parameter accepting unit 110 accepts input of one or both of the cell size and the cut-off distance as parameters for analysis. As an example of a specific parameter receiving method, for example, it is conceivable that the parameter receiving unit 110 displays a parameter input screen on the display device via the display mechanism 10e in FIG. 2 and receives an input to the input screen. .

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an input screen displayed on the display under the control of the parameter receiving unit 110.
The input screen 400 shown in FIG. 4 is provided with a cutoff distance input field 401 and a cell size input field 402. The user sets a cutoff distance and a cell size by inputting desired numerical values in the input fields 401 and 402. However, as described above, since the cutoff distance needs to be set to be an integral multiple of the cell size, an appropriate input restriction means is provided.

  For example, when the cut-off distance is set to what number of cell sizes is set in advance and held in the parameter receiving unit 110, when a numerical value is input to one of the cut-off distance input column 401 and the cell size input column 402 It is conceivable that the value corresponding to the other is automatically calculated and entered.

  In addition, when a numerical value is input to one of the cut-off distance input field 401 and the cell size input field 402, a list of input candidates is displayed on the other side, and the user may select a desired value from the list. good. That is, when a numerical value is entered in the cut-off distance input field 401, a value that is a fraction of that integer is displayed as a list of input candidates, and when a numerical value is entered in the cell size input field 402, a value that is an integral multiple of that value is displayed. Listed as input candidates. Then, the user selects a desired value from the displayed list.

  Furthermore, only one of the cutoff distance input field 401 and the cell size input field 402 is provided on the input screen 400, and the parameter that is not input is automatically determined by the analysis control unit 120 based on the input parameter. You may make it calculate.

  In addition to the input screen 400 as described above, the particle group to be analyzed is displayed as an image and cut off by designating an arbitrary region by a GUI (Graphical User Interface) using a pointing device such as a mouse. , And the analysis control unit 120 may calculate the cut-off distance and the cell size.

<Particle behavior analysis procedure>
Next, the procedure of particle behavior analysis according to the present embodiment will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of particle behavior analysis according to the present embodiment. The procedure shown in FIG. 5 shows the operation of the entire system composed of a plurality of analysis devices 100 and a management device (not shown), assuming that the analysis is performed by parallel distributed processing with a plurality of analysis devices 100. ing. In addition, it is assumed that the cell is created by the management apparatus.

  The management apparatus first acquires the number of processors (analysis apparatus 100) that executes distributed processing (step 501). Then, data for calculation is acquired (step 502). This data includes information such as particle position information and initial information of attribute information, and the number of executions of the calculation step. The information acquired in steps 501 and 502 may be received from an external device via the communication control unit 170, may be read from a storage device, or input by the user using the input device 10g in FIG. May be.

  Next, the management device assigns particles to be calculated to each processor (analysis device 100) (step 503). Then, a cell is created, and the identification information (particle ID) of each particle is associated with the identification information (cell ID) of each cell (step 504). At this time, the cell size and the cutoff distance are also set.

  After this, according to the assignment made in step 503, information necessary for the calculation is sent to each processor, and each processor distributes and calculates the interaction force acting between the particles (steps 505 and 506). In step 505 in FIG. 5, the cell information is updated. Initially, since the cell information created in step 504 is used, there is no substantial information update. Next, communication is performed between the processors, and each processor collects and adds the calculation results of the interaction force relating to the particles assigned to the own device (step 507). Then, using the sum of the calculated interaction forces, the equation of motion is solved for each particle, and the position is calculated (step 508).

  Next, communication is performed again between the processors, and each processor updates the position information of each particle held in the particle information holding unit 160 based on the calculation result in step 508 (step 509). Then, it is determined whether or not a predetermined number of calculation steps has been reached. If not reached (No in step 510), the cell information is updated based on the calculation results up to step 509 (step 505), the processing of steps 506 to 509 is repeated. On the other hand, if the set calculation step is reached (Yes in step 510), an end process such as output of the analysis result is performed, and the process ends (step 511).

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, the technical scope of this invention is not limited to the range as described in the said embodiment. It is apparent from the description of the scope of the claims that various modifications or improvements added to the above embodiment are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows the function structure of the analyzer to which embodiment of this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of the computer which implement | achieves the analyzer of this embodiment. It is a figure explaining the relationship between the range of the cell and cut-off in this embodiment. In this embodiment, it is a figure which shows the structural example of the input screen displayed on display by control of a parameter reception part. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the particle | grain behavior analysis by this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Analysis apparatus 110 ... Parameter reception part 120 ... Analysis control part 130 ... Cell preparation part 140 ... Interaction force calculation part 150 ... Particle position calculation part 160 ... Particle information holding part 170 ... Communication control part

Claims (6)

Storage means for holding position information and attribute information of particles to be analyzed;
Cell creating means for creating a cell which is a small area dividing the space in which the particles are arranged;
For each of the particles, a region including a plurality of the cells centered on the particle is set as a cut-off range for the particle, and the position information and the attribute information held in the storage unit are used. An interaction force calculating means for calculating an interaction force including a long-range interaction force acting between the particle and another particle existing in the cell within the cutoff range;
Particle position calculation means for calculating the position of the particles using the interaction force calculated by the interaction force calculation means,
An analysis system, wherein the position information held in the storage means is updated to a position calculated by the particle position calculation means.   The analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the cut-off range has a length of one side that is an integral multiple of a length of one side of the cell. Receiving means for receiving input of at least one of the cell size and the cut-off range size;
The cell creating means creates the cell based on the information received by the receiving means,
The analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the interaction force calculation unit sets the cut-off range based on information received by the reception unit.   When the receiving unit receives one piece of information of the size of the cell or the size of the cut-off range, the receiving unit further includes a calculating unit that calculates the other information based on the received information. The analysis system according to claim 3.   The analysis system according to claim 1, wherein the interaction force calculation unit and the particle position calculation unit are configured by a plurality of computers and perform calculation by parallel distributed processing. Computer
A cell creation means for creating a cell, which is a small area that divides a space in which particles are arranged;
For each of the particles, a region including a plurality of the cells centered on the particle is set as a cut-off range for the particle, and the position information and attribute information of the analysis target particle held in the storage unit are used. An interaction force calculating means for calculating an interaction force acting between the particles and other particles existing in the cell within the cutoff range;
Particle position calculating means for calculating the position of the particles using the interaction force calculated by the interaction force calculating means;
As update means for updating the position information held in the storage means to the position calculated by the particle position calculation means,
A program characterized by functioning.

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