Review of flywheel based internal combustion engine hybrid vehicles

Hybrid vehicles of different configurations and utilizing different energy storage systems have existed in development for many decades and more recently in limited production. They can be grouped as parallel, series or complex hybrids. Another classification is micro, mild and full hybrids which makes the distinction on the basis of functionality. The common energy storage systems in hybrid vehicles are batteries, supercapacitors and high speed flywheels. This paper aims to review a specific type of hybrid vehicle which involves the internal combustion engine (ICE) as the prime mover and the high speed flywheel as an energy storage device. Such hybrids are now attracting considerable interest given their potential for low cost. It is hence timely to produce a review of research and development in this subject. The flywheel is coupled to the drive line with a continuous variable transmission (CVT). The CVT can be of various types such as electrical, hydraulic or mechanical but usually in this case it is a non-electrical one. Different configurations are possible and the paper provides a timeline of the development of such powertrains with various examples. These types of hybrid vehicles have existed as prototypes for many decades and the authors believe that their development has reached levels where they can be considered serious contenders for production vehicles.     

Reducing transit fleet emissions through vehicle retrofits,replacements, and usage changes over multiple time periods

Bus transit is often promoted as a green form of transportation, but surprisingly little research has been done on how to run transit systems in a green manner. Both vehicle task assignment and purchase models are generally constructed to minimize financial costs. Integrating vehicle task assignment with purchase decisions is made challenging by the different time scales involved. An integer programming approach is used to combine vehicle purchase, retrofit and aggregated task assignment decisions. The formulation is designed to operate in sequence with traditional vehicle task assignment models, to add emissions and long term financial cost elements to the objective, while maintaining computational tractability and feasible input data requirements. In a case study, a transit agency saves money in the long term by using stimulus money to buy CNG infrastructure instead of purchasing only new buses. Carbon prices up to $400/(ton CO₂ equivalent) do not change vehicle purchase decisions, but higher carbon prices can cause more diesel hybrid purchases, at a high marginal cost. Although the motivation and numerical case study are from the US transit industry, the model is formulated to be widely applicable to green fleet management in multiple contexts.     

Assessment of the volume of fluid method for free-surface wave flow

This study was concerned with the free-surface wave flow around a surface-piercing foil. The volume of fluid method implemented in a Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics code was employed. Three widely used discretization schemes for the volume of fluid method were assessed for a test case that involved general ship waves, spilling breaking waves in front of the leading edge, and bubbly free surfaces in separated regions. A single computational approach was selected for the comparison, and a grid-dependence study was carried out. The computational results were validated against existing experimental data, showing good agreement. The validation results suggest that all three discretization schemes perform well, but the best and most efficient results were obtained using the high-resolution interface capturing scheme.     

Location of bus garages

The location of bus garages is a complex issue that has received recent attention in the literature. Given a bus system, the number of bus garages and their locations depend on garage cost, deadheading cost and environmental impacts. An approximate analytical model is used to determine the number of bus garages that minimizes the above costs. The concept of a slowly varying density of bus-route origins (hence deadheads) per unit area is used to model deadheading costs. The increased deadheading caused by breakdowns and accidents is also considered. The garage cost is modeled as a function of the number of buses stored. A closed-form solution is obtained for the optimal density of garages, when the garage cost function is linear. The actual locations of garages and the allocations of buses to the garages are found using a discrete space location-allocation model formulated so as to consider the environmental impact associated with buses deadheading through populated neighborhoods.     

高尔夫A3型轿车行李箱盖有限元计算与方案优化设计

在对德国大众汽车公司生产的高尔夫A3型轿车行李箱盖的使用材料性能进行实验研究的基础上，建立了三维数学模型，利用I－deas工程软件对其有限元计算，并通过实地结果进行验证，最后提出了高尔A3车行李箱盖的优化方案。     

Application of genetic algorithms for joint optimization of signal setting parameters and dynamic traffic assignment for the real network data

This paper presents the joint optimization of signal setting parameters and dynamic user equilibrium (DUE) traffic assignment for the congested urban road network. The simulation-based approach is employed to obtain the DUE condition for the case of multiple-origin multiple-destination traffic flows. The dynamic traffic assignment simulation program (DTASP), developed in C language is used to assign the traffic dynamically on the road network, whereas method of successive averages (MSA) is modified and used to arrive at the DUE condition. The artificial intelligence technique of genetic algorithms (GAs) is applied to obtain the optimal signal setting parameters and path flow distribution factor for DUE condition. The methodology developed in such a way that joint optimization of signal setting parameters with DUE is obtained. The proposed method is applied to the real network data of Fort Area of Mumbai city comprising of 17 nodes and 56 unidirectional links with 72 Origin–Destination pairs, where all the 17 nodes are signalized intersections. The traffic flow condition for the optimized signal setting parameters is considerably improved compared to the existing signal settings. The results prove that the GA is an effective technique to solve the joint optimization problem for the real network data.     

Development of hot stamped center pillar using form die with channel type indirect blank holder

The hot stamping process has been used in the automotive industry to reduce the weight of the body-in-white and to increase passenger safety via improved crashworthiness. However, defects such as fracture and wrinkle occur when hot stamping is performed using a conventional drawing or forming method. In this study, a channel-type indirect blank holder (CIBH) is proposed to develop a high-strength center pillar in form-type hot stamping, so that the aforementioned drawbacks are overcome. This type of blank holder plays an important role in reducing severe wrinkling at the flange; such wrinkling leads to folding after the completion of form-type hot-stamping. First, we investigated the effect of the channel shape on the indirect blank holding force by using a simplified two-dimensional plane-strain stamping process. Second, we selected the slope angle and corner radius of the channel as the main shape parameters by finite element analysis and artificial neural network (ANN). It is known that fracture at the hot formed wall and wrinkle at the flange are significantly affected by the slope angle of the channel, and the appropriate value for eliminating fracture and wrinkle is determined to be 99°. By performing hot stamping using a form die with the selected channel, we can manufacture a high-strength center pillar without wrinkle and fracture.