Feature-Based Cad System Buildup for Passenger Airbag Design

The passenger airbag (PAB) requires a large volume and fast deployment because of the large distance between the dashboard and the passenger. And various shapes and sizes of the PAB are required depending on the type of vehicle. However, since the PAB modeling process for each design change is complicated and time consuming, the design parameters of the PAB could not be well investigated. In this study, a unique feature-based CAD system has been proposed that easily constructs PAB CAD model and then generates PAB FE model for collision analysis. Main keypoints and widths of PAB that determine the shape and size have been extracted by analyzing the geometric-feature of airbag. The PAB CAD model can be easily constructed by inputting keypoints and widths information. Then, from the constructed PAB CAD model, the PAB FE model is automatically generated. Finally, the generated PAB FE model can be directly employed for collision analysis, thereby reducing the modeling time of the PAB and enabling efficient parametric studies on design.     

An improved formulation for bulk cargo ship scheduling with a single loading port

This paper presents an improved, significantly more efficient formulation of an existing model for bulk cargo or semi-bulk cargo ship scheduling problems with a single loading port. The original model, published by Ronen in 1986, was formulated as a non-linear, mixed integer program. In this work, the authors were able to re-formulate it into a linear one, by eliminating all the non-linearities of the original model. In addition, this model has far fewer integer variables than the original one. A numerical example has been given to illustrate the elimination of non-linearities and how 40 integer variables, in the original model, are reduced to just eight. This example also shows that this model is better at finding exact optimal solutions than the original one. It is also worth observing that the resulting model is a generalization of the ‘capacitated facility location problem’.     

Development of electrostatic diesel particulate matter filtration systems combined with a metallic Flow-Through Filter and electrostatic methods

A 3000 cc diesel engine attached to an engine dynamo was used to test three newly developed electrostatic Diesel Particulate matter filtration Systems (DPS 1, 2, and 3) under four steady-state engine operating conditions: idle, 2000 rpm with no load, and 2000 rpm under 25% and 50% loads. Of the two developed alternatives, DPS 1 and DPS 2, DPS 2 comprises an ionization section, electrostatic field additional section and Flow-Through Filter (FTF), which achieved almost 90% removal of particulate matter (PM) under the engine’s operating conditions, and the efficiency of the FTF was maintained between 20% and 50%. Comparing the long-term performance of DPS 2 and DPS 3 (effectively a serial combination of two DPS 2s) with a commercially-available Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), the DPS 2 and DPS 3 achieved almost the same efficiency for removing PM as the DPF but had significantly improved (75%∼90% lower) differential pressure drops.     

Application of slim A-pillar to improve driver’s field of vision

The importance of vehicle safety cannot be exaggerated in today’s mobile societies. Many manufacturers, associates related to vehicles and universities make an effort to improve vehicle safety by developing new technologies, applying high strength steel to the body structure etc. However, the majority of these efforts are focused on decreasing injury. It is absolutely important to minimize injury, but a more important aspect is coping with vehicle accidents. That is, As undeniably important as it is to minimize potential injuries, it is critical that experts focus on developing ways to keep drivers out of situations likely to lead to crashes in the first place. The purpose of this paper is to determine what the most critical factor is when coping with an unfamiliar driving situation. The answer is to provide a wide-open field of vision, especially for the driver. The driver’s field of vision is obstructed by the vehicle’s A-pillar. To solve this, the A-pillar obstruction angle, which is the angle between the driver’s eyes and the A-pillar should be decreased. This paper purposes three-methods for decreasing this angle structurally and applying a slim A-pillar which is as the best solution to decrease the A-pillar obstruction angle and ensure the drivers field of vision at the same time     

Theoretical method for predicting the weight reduction rate of a box-type car body for rolling stock by material substitution design

In this paper, a theoretical approach is suggested for predicting the structural performances and weight reduction rate of a car body with a box-type section when its material is substituted with a lightweight material for weight saving. For the material substitution design of a car body for rolling stock, bending, axial, and twisting deformations should be considered at constant stiffness and strength conditions. To compare the weight reduction effects on different material applications, some new indices were derived from a structural performance point of view. The derived indices provide good measures to estimate weight reduction by material substitution design and can be effectively applied to the conceptual design of a car body.     

Implementation of discharging/charging current sensorless state-of-charge estimator reflecting cell-to-cell variations in lithium-ion series battery packs

This paper offers novel insights to the design and implementation of an innovative state-of-charge (SOC) estimator for the lithium-ion (Li-Ion) series battery pack. The most interesting feature of this approach is that it can utilize information from each filtered terminal voltage of the Li-Ion cells connected in series for SOC estimation of the battery pack. Without actual sensing each discharging/charging current (DCC) applied to the Li-Ion cells, it is possible to extract each DCC estimation from the corresponding filtered terminal voltages with an equivalent electrical circuit model (EECM) identification of all Li-Ion cells in the battery pack. There are two advantages to SOC estimation of the battery pack with this approach. First, the proposal can be implemented simply and effectively, reducing the computational steps required for SOC estimation. By reducing computational steps, the proposal is expected to be more cost-effective. Second, the approach guarantees an improved SOC performance, even if the battery pack results in inevitable cell-to-cell variation among Li-Ion cells. Accordingly, there are fewer differences to previously estimated DCCs among Li-Ion cells. Specifically, all values from the estimated DCCs are properly compensated for by simultaneous parameter modification according to each cell’s electrochemical characteristics. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that our DCC sensorless SOC estimator provides robust SOC performance for the battery pack. This approach considered an experimental battery pack (12S1P) connected in series using 2.6 Ah LiCoO2 cells produced by Samsung SDI.     

Numerical method for simulating tire rolling noise by the concept of periodically exciting contact force

For the numerical simulation of tire rolling noise, an important subject is the extraction of normal velocity data of the tire surface that are essential for the acoustic analysis. In the current study, a concept of periodically exciting contact force is introduced to effectively extract the tire normal velocity data. The ground contact pressure within contact patch that is obtained by the static tire contact analysis is periodically applied to the whole tread surface of stationary tire. The periodically exciting contact forces are sequentially applied with a time delay corresponding to the tire rolling speed. The tire vibration is analyzed by the mode superposition in the frequency domain, and the acoustic analysis is performed by commercial BEM code. The proposed method is illustrated through the numerical experiment of 3-D smooth tire model and verified from the comparison with experiment, and furthermore the acoustical responses are investigated to the tire rolling speed.     

License plate extraction method for identification of vehicle violations at a railway level crossing

The primary cause of most railroad accidents is vehicle entry into railway level crossings despite warning messages. To identify drivers who violate railway level crossing regulations, vehicle license plate recognition can be applied at railway level crossings. The purpose of this paper is to present an effective method for extracting the license plate region from vehicle images taken at railway level crossings. The method proposed in this paper uses the variation in the gray-level values across the image of a license plate. For license plate region extraction, the character region is first recognized by identifying the character width and the difference between the background region and the character region. The license plate region is then extracted by finding the inter-character distance in the plate region. In addition, the license plate type is identified by the difference in the gray-level value between the background region and the character region. The proposed method is effective in solving the current challenges in extracting the license plate region from the damaged frames of license plates issued for domestic use, including new types of license plates. According to the experimental results, the proposed method yields a high extraction rate of 99.5% for vehicle license plates.