A receding horizon sliding control approach for electric powertrains with backlash and flexible half-shafts

Active control of electric powertrains is challenging, due to the fact that backlash and structural flexibility in transmission components can cause severe performance degradation or even instability of the control system. Furthermore, high impact forces in transmissions reduce driving comfort and possibly lead to damage of the mechanical elements in contact. In this paper, a nonlinear electric powertrain is modelled as a piecewise affine (PWA) system. The novel receding horizon sliding control (RHSC) idea is extended to constrained PWA systems and utilised to systematically address the active control problem for electric powertrains. Simulations are conducted in Matlab/Simulink in conjunction with the high fidelity Carsim software. RHSC shows superior jerk suppression and target wheel speed tracking performance as well as reduced computational cost over classical model predictive control (MPC). This indicates the newly proposed RHSC is an effective method to address the active control problem for electric powertrains.     

Experimental and numerical study of containership responses in severe head seas

An accurate determination of the global load effects in a ship is vital for the design of the vessel. This paper addresses an experimental and numerical study of containership responses in severe head seas. Experimental results were obtained using a flexible model of a containership of newer design. The experiments showed that, taking hull flexibility into account, the fourth and sixth harmonic of the vertical bending moments had a maximum value of between 25% and 50% of the first harmonic. We also demonstrated that hull flexibility can increase the vertical bending moment by up to 35% in sea states relevant for design. Comparisons of moments found experimentally with results from a nonlinear hydroelastic strip theory method showed that the effect of nonlinearities on the rigid body moments was slightly over-predicted in the aft body. The method also tends to over-predict the increase of the bending moments due to hull flexibility. In general however, the numerical results compared reasonably well with the experimental ones.     

Numerical and experimental investigations into the application of response conditioned waves for long-term nonlinear analyses

The coefficient of contribution method, in which the extreme response is determined by considering only the few most important sea states, is an efficient way to do nonlinear long-term load analyses. To furthermore efficiently find the nonlinear short-term probability distributions of the vessel responses in these sea states, response conditioned wave methods can be used. Several researchers have studied the accuracy of response conditioned wave methods for this purpose. However, further investigations are necessary before these can become established tools. In this paper we investigate the accuracy by comparing the short-term probability distributions obtained from random irregular waves with those from response conditioned waves. We furthermore show how response conditioned wave methods can be fitted into a long-term response analysis. The numerical and experimental investigations were performed using a container vessel with a length between perpendiculars of 281 m. Numerical simulations were done with a nonlinear hydroelastic time domain code. Experiments were carried out with a flexible model of the vessel in the towing tank at the Marine Technology Centre in Trondheim. The focus was on the probability distributions of the midship vertical hogging bending moments in the sea states contributing most to the hogging moments with a mean return period of 20 years and 10 000 years. We found that the response conditioned wave methods can very efficiently be used to accurately determine the nonlinear short-term probability distributions for rigid hulls, but either accuracy or efficiency is to a large effect lost for flexible hulls, when slamming induced whipping responses are accounted for.     

The impact of structural flexibilities of wheelsets and rails on the hunting behaviour of a railway vehicle

The hunting motion of a passenger coach is investigated using a multibody system in which the wheelsets and the rails can be modelled as flexible bodies. By comparing the results for different model variants, in which the structural flexibilities of the wheelsets and of the rails are either taken into account or neglected, the impact of the flexibilities is analysed. It turns out that the flexibilities of both the wheelsets and the rails have a significant impact on the hunting behaviour by increasing the lateral motions of the wheelsets and lowering the critical speed. In order to investigate the impact of the flexibilities under different operating conditions, the calculations are carried out for track geometries using different rail profiles (60E1, 60E2) and different rail cants (1:40, 1:20) and for different values for the friction coefficient (0.25…0.4) at the wheel–rail contact. The results show that the influence of the flexibilities is the strongest for high lateral forces, which occur e.g. for contact geometries leading to high hunting frequencies and for high values of the friction coefficient. The results also show in some cases a strong impact of the flexibilities on the position of the wheel–rail contact on the running surface of the rail, which is of particular interest with respect to wear simulation.     

The small-sized benthic biota of the Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano (SW Barents Sea slope)

R/V POLARSTERN expedition ARK XVIII/1 in summer 2002 provided the opportunity to carry out a sampling programme to assess the activity, biomass and composition of the small-sized benthic biota (size range: bacteria to meiofauna) around the active mud-oozing and methane-seeping Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV) on the SW Barents Sea slope, Northern North-Atlantic. A total of 11 stations, covering different areas (e.g., bacterial mat sites, and pogonophoran fields) within the crater, and sites outside the caldera were sampled using a multiple corer. Subsamples were analyzed for various biogenic compounds to estimate the flux of organic matter to the seafloor (sediment-bound chloroplastic pigments indicating phytodetritus), activities (bacterial exo-enzymatic turnover rates) and the total biomass [from bulk parameters, like phospholipid (PL) concentrations in the sediments] of the smallest sediment-inhabiting organisms (range: bacteria to meiofauna). Direct investigations of bacterial numbers and biomasses as well as on meiofauna densities and composition completed our investigations at HMMV. As expected for a comparable small deep-sea area with only minor disparity in water depth between sampling sites, our investigations revealed generally no significant differences in organic matter input from phytodetritus sedimentation between sampling sites inside and outside HMMV. Bacterial exo-enzymatic activities as well as total microbial biomass (TMB) and meiofauna densities, however, exhibited generally higher values at HMMV, compared to sites outside the mud volcano. Enhanced benthic life at HMMV is based on chemosynthetic processes, making the mud volcano a “chemosynthetic oasis” in an otherwise oligotrophic deep-sea environment. As we did not find any indication for bacterial symbioses in the meiofauna, comparably rich meiofaunal assemblages at HMMV are presumably indirectly related to a general enhanced biological production.     

Stochastic modeling of long term wave induced responses of ship structures

This paper presents a procedure for evaluating the long term response distribution in ship structures. A specified travel route through given geographical areas during the lifetime of the ship is defined. The individual scatter diagrams, describing the relative occurrence of different sea states for the geographical areas, are weighted with respect to the relative time occupancy of the ship. A two-dimensional analytical distribution is fitted to the weighted scatter diagram over the lifetime.

Frequency response functions for all the sectorial forces are calculated for different ship speeds, heading angles and loading conditions, and fitted to a bi-cubic spline. The wave spectrum is defined by applying a gamma spectrum. The response spectrum is found using a linear frequency domain analysis. From the response spectrum, the peak distribution of the response in each short term period, conditioned on the loading condition, the ship speed and the wave heading direction is computed. The peak distribution over the lifetime is estimated by unconditioning with respect to sea states, maneuvering and loading condition.     

Ground delay program planning under uncertainty in airport capacity

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm for assigning flight departure delays under probabilistic airport capacity. The algorithm dynamically adapts to weather forecasts by revising, if necessary, departure delays. The proposed algorithm leverages state-of-the-art optimization techniques that have appeared in recent literature. As a case study, the algorithm is applied to assigning departure delays to flights scheduled to arrive at San Francisco International Airport in the presence of uncertainty in the fog clearance time. The cumulative distribution function of fog clearance time was estimated from historical data. Using daily weather forecasts to update the probabilities of fog clearance times resulted in improvement of the algorithm's performance. Experimental results also indicate that if the proposed algorithm is applied to assign ground delays to flights inbound at San Francisco International airport, overall delays could be reduced up to 25% compared to current level.     

The relationship between transportation vulnerability,school attendance,and free transportation to an afterschool program for youth

Transportation - Transportation vulnerability, defined as lack of access to transportation resulting in financial, social, or health consequences, reduces quality of life. While research has...     

A review of guidelines for including wider economic impacts in transport appraisal

In this paper we examine how 23 industrialised countries treat wider economic impacts (WEIs) in transport appraisals. We identify 12 different types of impacts based on these countries’ appraisal guidelines. Agglomeration impacts and Production changes in imperfect markets are the most widely accepted, being recognised by 14 and 10 countries, respectively. However, about half of the impacts are mentioned by only one country, and few recommend including the impacts directly in cost–benefit analyses. Several countries provide provisos or criteria that must be met before WEIs can be assessed in the first place. We found method recommendations for quantifying WEIs in 10 countries. However, with the exception of the UK Department for Transport’s (DfT) methodological framework, there is very little international consensus on the choice of appropriate methods. Our findings thus supplement and reinforce the conclusions from the Norwegian Official Report of the Hagen Committee [NOU 2012:16. (2012). Samfunnsøkonomiske analyser. Oslo: Departementenes servicesenter] that there is currently no established consensus on the magnitude and relevance of WEIs, or on how and which of these impacts should be taken into account in transport appraisals. Recommendations for further research and appraisal practices are provided.