Integrated approach to an optimal automotive timing chain system design

Ensuring engine efficiency is a crucial issue for automotive manufacturers. Several manufacturers focus on reducing the time taken to develop and introduce brand new vehicles to the market. Thus, a synergic approach including various simulations is generally adopted to achieve a development schedule and to reduce the cost of physical tests. This study involved proposing a design process that is very useful in the preliminary development stage through effective support from simulations. This type of simulation-based design process is effective in developing timing chain drives; the use of this process, based on results from multiple trials, showed improvements in performance including low friction and vibration, improved durability, and cost-effective part design when compared to conventional processes. This study proposes an integrated approach to the preliminary design of an automotive timing chain system. The approach involves structural and dynamic analyses. The details of the design process are described by using the case of a virtual engine. This study conducted and summarized a dynamic and structural analysis as well as topological optimization to describe a process to obtain optimal results. The results of this study indicated the following improvements in overall performance factors: 12.1 % improvement in transmission error, 10.1 % reduction in chain tension, 46 % reduction in tensioner arm weight, and 11 % reduction in transversal displacement.     

迈向可持续的公共交通之路——首尔公交改革的经验与成就(续)

2004年7月1日,首尔市政府在全市开展了深刻的针对公交系统的整合性改革,这一举措成为迈向可持续性城市交通的重要一步。这次公交改革成功实施的关键在于它将管理机构、创新技术、基础设施的建设以及公交的组织和运营融为一体。经过一系列改革之后,首尔的交通面貌焕然一新:通过进一步协调交通运输容量和需求之间的矛盾,提高了运营效率,增加了乘客人数,使公交运营商的收入自启动集成收费系统之后得到增加。     

Workspace analysis to generate a collision-free torch path for a ship welding robot

We propose a method to determine the optimal initial location and to generate torch paths for a ship welding robot with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF). The optimal initial location is determined using an objective function, which is set up by combining constraints on the torch posture, manipulability, and the range of each joint angle to avoid collisions. A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the objective function because it does not require additional derivatives. After the initial location is determined, torch paths are generated by interpolating the starting point, endpoints and torch postures using inverse kinematics. Our method can be applied to automate the welding job for each block during ship building, irrespective of the shape of the robots, by changing the objective function.     

Coastal Tourist Interest in Value-Added,Aquaculture-Based,Culinary Tourism Opportunities

Despite increasing focus on sustainable aquaculture investment in the U.S. coastal zones, the aquaculture industry continues to face skepticism among consumers due to perceived negative environmental impacts, and health and food safety concerns. Partnering with culinary tourism and local food promotion efforts has potential for improving public outreach about the benefits of aquaculture, especially in coastal destinations where sustainable marine aquaculture and tourism are both occurring. Culinary tourism implies that local foods reflect the local livelihood and culture, and may be important to the tourist's experience. Aquaculture is becoming increasingly valuable to coastal destinations for assuring the steady availability of local seafood to meet demand and retaining commercial fisheries as a means to differentiate themselves to tourists. This study examined the role of subjective knowledge and attitude about aquaculture, and their effect on intention to participate in value-added culinary aquaculture tourism experiences. The study found that tourists' subjective knowledge and attitude about aquaculture influenced intentions to participate in culinary aquaculture tourism. In order for farmers or tour operators to be successful in diversifying with value-added culinary aquaculture, attention needs to be paid to educating consumers, which may be possible through strategic partnerships with tourism organizations, chefs, and restaurants.     

A tyre slip-based integrated chassis control of front/rear traction distribution and four-wheel independent brake from moderate driving to limit handling

This paper presents a tyre slip-based integrated chassis control of front/rear traction distribution and four-wheel braking for enhanced performance from moderate driving to limit handling. The proposed algorithm adopted hierarchical structure: supervisor – desired motion tracking controller – optimisation-based control allocation. In the supervisor, by considering transient cornering characteristics, desired vehicle motion is calculated. In the desired motion tracking controller, in order to track desired vehicle motion, virtual control input is determined in the manner of sliding mode control. In the control allocation, virtual control input is allocated to minimise cost function. The cost function consists of two major parts. First part is a slip-based tyre friction utilisation quantification, which does not need a tyre force estimation. Second part is an allocation guideline, which guides optimally allocated inputs to predefined solution. The proposed algorithm has been investigated via simulation from moderate driving to limit handling scenario. Compared to Base and direct yaw moment control system, the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce tyre dissipation energy in the moderate driving situation. Moreover, the proposed algorithm enhances limit handling performance compared to Base and direct yaw moment control system. In addition to comparison with Base and direct yaw moment control, comparison the proposed algorithm with the control algorithm based on the known tyre force information has been conducted. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is similar with that of the control algorithm with the known tyre force information.     

Turn taking behavior in dual earner households with children: a focus on escorting routines

Transportation - This article discusses results of a study on turn taking behavior in escorting children in dual-earner households. Using a multinomial logit model, the probability of different...     

Service design for public transportation to address the issue of females’ fear of crime

Transportation - In conjunction with their gender, how does the current design of public transport services affect female passengers’ feelings of safety and fear when using the service? This...     

Study on shaft alignment of propulsion shafting system depending on single reaction force supporting position of aft stern tube bearing

Journal of Marine Science and Technology - Trends of large-scale ships have seen propulsion shaft and propeller sizes increase. This has enabled shafts to have greater stiffness, yet has caused...     

Optimum design of tilting bogie frame in consideration of fatigue strength and weight

This paper addresses the use of finite-element (FE) analysis to calculate the fatigue strength of a bogie frame, for the development of tilting trains in Korea. A multi-body dynamic analysis was performed to extract the load condition by tilting on curves. Using the results of the multi-body dynamic analysis and the load scenario setout in the UIC standard, FE analysis was performed to obtain the stress distribution and to calculate the fatigue strength. An attempt was made to minimize the weight of the bogie frame using a back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN). The results of this study reveal that the stresses at some nodes are near the fatigue limit in the Goodman diagram and by using back-propagation ANN, the weight of the bogie frame could be reduced by 4.7%.     

Global cutting-path optimization considering the minimum heat effect with microgenetic algorithms

This article considers microgenetic algorithms (GAs), which explore in a small population with a few genetic operators, for cutting-path optimization problems. The major difference between GAs and simple genetic algorithms (SGAs) is how to make a reproductive plan for an improved searching technique because of population choice. It is shown that GAs implementation reaches the near-optimal region much earlier than the SGAs approach, and the GAs give a better solution than simulated annealing (SA). The main objective was to determine what temperature distribution can be obtained from the solution of a travelling distributed heat source. The solution of the travelling heat source on nested raw plate provides information about the vertices of each nested part of the raw plate. From the fact that the initial temperature at a piercing point strongly depends on the heat flow which stems from the previous cutting contour, the temperature of all piercing points must be lower than the critical temperature after each cutting of the components of a part. The critical temperature is identified as the mechanical melting temperature of steels. A heuristic back-tracking method is introduced to find the near-optimum cutting path considering the minimum heat effect on deformation. The heuristic back-tracking method is incorporated with the GAs.