Short sleep duration,sleep disorders,and traffic accidents

Sleepiness is an important factor in traffic accidents caused by human error. The purpose of this paper is to review a number of studies conducted over the years regarding the effect of the lack of sleep on the incidence of traffic accidents as well as the individual effects of various sleep disorders on accidents. In addition, we discuss recent advances in methods of detecting sleepiness and strategies for preventing traffic accident by using these methods.     

Solution of an unstable inverse problem: wave source evaluation from observation of velocity distribution

This paper illustrates how to estimate a wave source generating a wave system, including local waves, with the assumption of linear dispersive waves of two dimensions. The estimation of wave source is realized by using an inverse problem. Unfortunately, the inverse problem is ill-posed in the sense of stability, since the wave source information included in local waves diminishes as the distance from the wave source increases. In the area of applied mathematics, there are well-developed methods to tackle ill-posed problems, which are called regularizations. In this paper, three different regularizations which are well known in applied mathematics are introduced and investigated to learn whether they are applicable to the present problem of the estimation of wave source. From the numerical experiments, it is shown that the estimation is realized by the regularizations introduced in this study, so that they can be applied to the determination of a wave source generating a wave system including local waves. Received: June 6, 2000 / Accepted: February 7, 2001     

Experimental ivnestigation on flow fields of viscous fluid around two-dimensional wings and comparison with computational results

To examine the flow field of a viscous fluid around the trailing edge of a wing with respect to the Kutta condition or the Joukowski hypothesis, an experimental investigation into the velocity fields around two-dimensional (2D) wings NACA0012 and NACA4412 was carried out using an X-type hot-wire anemometer in a wind tunnel and the method of colored milk injection in a circulating water channel. The results of these investigations revealed that the flow of a viscous fluid at the trailing edge of a 2D wing is tangential to the face on the pressure side, and that the flow is very slow or reversed on the suction side due to separation when the angle of attack is greater than 7.5°. By flow visualization, a Kármán vortex street was found in the wake of both wings (NACA0012 and NACA4412) when the angle of attack was 5°. These results show that the ordinary Kutta condition with respect to the direction of outflow at the trailing edge is not necessarily satisfied in a viscous fluid, but the Kutta condition with respect to the pressure at the trailing edge is satisfied as usual. Numerical results, which have been obtained as the solution of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, show good agreement with above-mentioned experimental results. Therefore, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation has proved to be very effective for studying steady viscous flow around the trailing edge of a 2D wing.     

Transformation Plasticity─The Effect on Metallo-Thermo-Mechanical Simulation of Carburized Quenching Process

IntroductionInelashcorhaersiblestrainaccompaniedbyslidingofcrystalsduetothermalandphasetransformationdilatationiswellknowntointensivelythethedistonionofworkpieceunderqUopching,andsomanynumericalsimulatonsll-7]havebeencAnedoutintheframeworkofmotallochermo-mechwhcsl1].Transformationplasticity(TP),anothekindofbeversiblestrain,isalsorecognizedasoneofdominantparwtersthechngthestr6ssanddistorton,andsomenumcricalcalculationaremadebytakingtheeffectintoconsideration.Figurelschematicallyillustraresthe…     

On the realization of nonlinear wave profiles using the Banach fixed-point theorem: Stokes wave in a finite depth

A new mathematical formulation for the realization of nonlinear wave profiles and its nonlinear solution procedure, based on the Banach fixed-point theorem, is proposed. To apply the formulation, a nonlinear equation for the Stokes wave in a finite depth was derived, and some numerical solutions are given. A numerical study showed that the proposed iteration method, based on linear progressive wave potential only, enabled us to realize the Stokes nonlinear wave profiles in a finite depth. The nonlinear strategy of iteration has a very fast convergence rate, i.e., only about 6–10 iterations are required to obtain a numerically converged solution.     

A new functional optimization method applied to the pitch distribution of a marine propeller

Based on Hilbert space theory, an infinite-dimensional optimization method to find the optimal pitch distribution of marine propellers was developed. Thereby, the three-dimensional effect of induced velocity could effectively be controlled in an optimal way; i.e., an investigation was carried out to learn whether the present method is applicable to the design of marine propellers, especially pitch distributions, by maximizing the propeller efficiency functional. In addition, with the help of Hilbert space theory, it was successfully shown that the optimization method developed has a unique mathematical solution. In this work, only the pitch distribution was optimized, while other parameters such as the camber and thickness of the trial propeller remained as in the original. With a numerical study, it is shown that the present optimization method gives an optimal pitch distribution, the open-water characteristic curve being superior to the original curve. Received: August 24, 2000 / Accepted: July 16, 2001