Improved method for analyzing automotive transmission parts (shaft/gear) manufactured using the warm shrink fitting process

There are three sub-processes associated with the assembly of an automobile transmission: heat fitting, shrink fitting, and combination fitting. In the heat fitting stage, the gear is heated to a specified temperature and then squeezed towards the outer diameter of the shaft. The stress of the heat-fitted gear depends on the yield strength of the gear. In the shrink fitting process, the gear is typically squeezed towards the shaft at room temperature using a press. An alternate method, known as warm shrink fitting, heats the already warm gear and safely squeezes it toward the shaft. The warm shrink fitting process for automobile transmission parts is becoming more commonplace, but the additional heating can cause the dimensions of the assembled parts (shaft/gear) to change with respect to both the outer diameter and the profile of the gear. As a result, there may be additional noise and vibration between gears. To address these problems, we analyzed the warm shrink fitting process using the contact pressure caused by fitting interference between the outer diameter of the shaft and the inner diameter of the gear, fitting temperature, and the profile tolerance of the gear as design parameters. In this study, a closed form equation for predicting the contact pressure and fitting load is proposed. This equation is used to develop an optimization technique for the warm shrink fitting process. The reliability of the model was verified using experimental results measured in the field, and FEM with thermal-structural coupled field analysis. Actual loads measured in the field showed good agreement with the results obtained by theoretical and finite element analysis, and expansion of the outer diameters of the gears agreed well with the results.     

Driving environment assessment using fusion of in- and out-of-vehicle vision systems

Because the overall driving environment consists of a complex combination of the traffic Environment, Vehicle, and Driver (EVD), Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) must consider not only events from each component of the EVD but also the interactions between them. Although previous researchers focused on the fusion of the states from the EVD (EVD states), they estimated and fused the simple EVD states for a single function system such as the lane change intent analysis. To overcome the current limitations, first, this paper defines the EVD states as driver’s gazing region, time to lane crossing, and time to collision. These states are estimated by enhanced detection and tracking methods from in- and out-of-vehicle vision systems. Second, it proposes a long-term prediction method of the EVD states using a time delayed neural network to fuse these states and a fuzzy inference system to assess the driving situation. When tested with real driving data, our system reduced false environment assessments and provided accurate lane departure, vehicle collision, and visual inattention warning signals.     

Analysis of intended bus usage

In order to plan bus operations, it is necessary for transit planners to understand what factors may influence travelers’ choice of buses for travels within a city. The proposed method involves various scenarios of a hypothetical bus operation which was rated by a group of individuals.

Analysis of Covariance technique is employed to analyze people's sensitivities to their perceived levels of bus service characteristics. The technique involves:

1. testing for the significant effects of varying levels of service characteristics upon people's intentions to use bus service, and

2. assessing differences among various population segments in their sensitivity patterns towards bus service characteristics.

Results from the application of the technique to attitudinal data collected by the Orange County Transit District indicate that bus service characteristics do influence, independently and jointly, respondents’ stated intentions to use buses.

Sensitivity pattern differed across the five homogeneous segments identified in an earlier research based on socioeconomic characteristics.

One segment (an older, predominatly male population segment with higher home ownership level and lower income than the rest of the sample) was relatively insensitive to changes in bus fare and was influenced by changes in headway independent of changes in access distance. Another segment consisting of fewer registered voters with lower education also exhibited similar independent impact of headway and access distance.

The technique is especially useful in reducing a large number of proposed alternative bus systems to a smaller set for further planning considerations by specifying the ranges within which variation of service characteristic would cause substantial changes in the intended usage responses.     

Analysis of Clogging Mechanism and Filter-cake Structure of Slurry Containing Coarse-particle Materials in Sandy Strata北大核心CSCD

The problem of filter-cake formation in highly permeable strata is urgently to be solved for slurry shield tunnelling. Adding coarse-particle materials in slurry is an effective method to solve the problem. A selfdesigned test device of slurry invasion and filter-cake formation in strata was adopted, and one kind of lightweight sand was selected as coarse particle materials. By changing the particle sizes of light-weight sand particles, the filtrate mass and the time of filter-cake formation under the condition of different additive contents and pressures were measured. And the influence of particle size of coarse-particle materials on filter-cake formation characteristics was analyzed. A triangular constriction calculation method was proposed, which can be used to quickly determine the influence range of coarse-particle materials on the pore size variation of the strata. The test results show that: (1) the addition of coarse-particle materials can significantly reduce the inter-particle pore size and effectively improve the clogging effectiveness under the condition of this tested strata. (2) The particle size of coarse-particle materials has a great influence on filter-cake formation characteristics. The coarse-particle material with smaller particle size has a better clogging effect, and its filter-cake formation characteristics are more stable. The coarse-particle material with larger particle size has a higher volatility in its filter-cake formation characteristics. (3) Coarse-particle materials with different particle sizes result in different final filter-cake structures. When the coarse-particle materials possess a larger particle size, a mixed filtercake structure is formed, and when the particle size is small, a double-layer filter-cake structure is formed. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Research on a Calculation Method for the Damage Evaluation of the Existing Urban Tunnel Lining Structure北大核心CSCD

The operation safety of the public transport is seriously threaten by the occurrence of defects and damages in existing urban tunnels, which affects the quality of traffic, and will shorten the service life of urban tunnels. Therefore, it is of great significance to evaluate the damages of the tunnel lining structure quickly and accurately. The damage evaluation methods of the existing urban tunnel lining structure are investigated and analyzed in this paper, and a combination method of the macroscopic evaluation of the existing damaged urban tunnel and the damage mechanism of the lining structural material is proposed. Among them, the assessment method specified in the national criterion is selected to evaluate the damages of the lining structure for the macroscopic evaluation, and the classification of tunnel health levels is optimized. Meanwhile, the damage modulus based on the elastic modulus is selected, and the concept of elastic modulus reduction rate is introduced for the mechanism of damage. Furthermore, the assumed function relationship between the health level and the damage degree of existing urban tunnels is proposed and established, which provides a new idea for structural damage assessment of existing urban tunnels. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Study of Controlling Measures for Existing Railway Deformation Caused by Metro Shield Tunnel Under-passing Construction北大核心CSCD

Based on the background of the first phase project of the R3 line of Jinan Rail Transit, and in view of the metro shield tunnel passing under the existing railway bridge and subgrade, this paper uses Abaqus to establish a numerical model to simulate the deformation of the existing bridge and subgrade of the Jiaoji railway line under the two conditions of non-active reinforcement and reinforcement. The results show that under the condition of no reinforcement, the maximum settlement of the top bridge on the pier is -5.88 mm, and the maximum settlement difference is 5.16 mm, which exceed the deformation control requirements of the 5 mm regarding the bridge pier of the railway with ballast track. The maximum lateral displacement and longitudinal displacement of the pier are 0.28 mm and -3.01 mm, respectively. After the reinforcement measures of the bored piles are adopted, the maximum settlement of the top bridge on the pier is -1.71 mm, and the maximum settlement difference is 1.16 mm, which fully meet the bridge pier deformation control standard. The maximum lateral displacement and longitudinal maximum displacement are -0.245 mm and -2.83 mm, respectively, which meet the requirements of the control standard. The vertical settlement of the railway subgrade is relatively small. The maximum settlement values under the two working conditions are -12.31 mm and -11.97 mm, respectively, which meet the subgrade settlement control requirement of 20 mm. It is proved that the reinforcement effect of the bored pile is good, and the reinforcement scheme is safe and feasible. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Across the waves: a bibliometric analysis of container shipping research since the 1960s

The paper investigates collaborative and semantic patterns that emerged between 1967 and 2013 about the theme of container shipping based on a corpus of 294 articles published in scholarly journals within the fields of transportation, supply chain, economics, geography, regional planning and development, and operations research. An analysis based on the co-occurrence of title words allows identifying dominant sub-themes and their evolution. Main results point to the gradual diversification of container shipping research, from the dominance of economics towards a more trans-disciplinary set of approaches which integrate port-related activities and multimodal networks. Yet, disciplinary specialization remains strong up to nowadays so that container shipping research remains rather fragmented. While co-authorships have increased over time, they remain polarized by few, weakly connected research battalions. Our study suggests that research on container shipping would benefit from more frequent contacts between such communities to foster in-depth cross-disciplinary studies and fundamental cooperation.     

Effective Public Participation is Fundamental for Marine Conservation—Lessons from a Large-Scale MPA

The Representative Areas Program (RAP) was, at the time, the most comprehensive process of community involvement and participatory planning for any environmental issue in Australia. The RAP was a key component of the widely acclaimed rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and although completed in 2003, many lessons learned are still relevant today. This paper provides an analysis of the comprehensive public participation program that significantly influenced the final planning outcome. It provides insights into a fundamental component of effective marine planning, assessing what worked well and what did not in terms of public engagement. Some aspects of the public participation program were innovative, and some were more effective than others. The outcome was one-third of the Marine Park was declared as highly protected no-take zones in 2004, with the remainder of the park also zoned to provide lower levels of protection. The methods used to engage the public and the 25 lessons discussed in this paper should be of interest for practitioners, policy makers and academics elsewhere aiming for “good practice” approaches to achieve environmental conservation.     

Numerical Study of the Transition Between Reentrant Jet and Twin Vortex Flow Regimes in Ventilated Cavitation

Contrary to natural cavitation, ventilated cavitation is controllable and is not harmful. It is particularly used to reduce the drag of the hydraulic vehicles. The ventilated cavitation is characterized by various gas regimes. The mechanisms of ventilated cavitation are investigated in the present work with CFD based on a 2D solver. The attention is especially focused on the transition between the reentrant jet and twin vortex regimes. The results confirm that the product of ventilated cavitation number and Froude number is lower than 1 (σ_cFr?<?1) in the twin vortex regime, while it is higher than 1 (σ_cFr?>?1) in the reentrant jet regime, as reported in the literature. Further analysis shows that ventilated cavitation is significantly influenced by the natural cavitation number.     

Inviting travelers to the smorgasbord of sustainable urban transport: evidence from a MaaS field trial

A Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept, UbiGo, was implemented in Gothenburg, Sweden, and used for a 6-month period by 195 individuals in 83 households. Four participant subgroups were identified: Car shedders, Car accessors, Simplifiers, and Economizers. A qualitative analysis revealed that the subgroups had different reasons to join the service and different expectations of the change that would occur on the basis of the altered preconditions offered by the service. Previous car users reduced their use of private car and increased their use of public transport and active modes. Participants who did not have access to a privately-owned car but thought they needed one discovered that they managed well without. Other participants were reinforced in their existing behaviors but in ways they did not envisage, depending on which goals they had at the outset of the trial. Overall, the participants were also satisfied with the service, as well as with stated changes and non-changes, even if this in some cases meant more planning. Based on the empirical findings it could be argued that a service approach, such as UbiGo, has the potential to reduce the need for private car ownership, and enable people to change their mode choices and travel patterns. The potential relies however on a number of specific features of the service of which flexibility and a need- rather than a mode-based approach are key features.