Aircraft Landing Gear Dynamics: Simulation and Control

The landing gear is an inevitable system for the aircraft. It absorbs the energy of the landing impact and carries the aircraft weight at all ground operations, including take off, taxiing, and towing. Numerical simulation has become an invaluable tool for the assessment of landing gear dynamics as well as of aircraft/landing gear interaction. This paper gives an overview of the landing gear requirements and illustrates landing gear operational conditions, i.e., the shimmy problem, the dynamics at touch down and at ground roll. Furthermore, three software packages used in the simulation of aircraft ground dynamics are presented. A look at flight simulators and landing gear test facilities follows. Finally, the possible application of controlled landing gears is discussed.     

铁路货车防盗系统设计

针对铁路运输的货物在途中被盗现象，提出了货车、集装箱防盗系统的设计原理，给出了系统硬件结构示意图和软件设计框图并对其在 Ｔ Ｍ Ｉ Ｓ中的使用前景进行了展望。     

Behaviour of the Normal Contact Force Under Multiple Wheel/Rail Interaction

The wheel/rail contact forces are calculated in the frequency domain using a track model with multiple wheels on the rail. The effects of the wave reflections between the wheels on the contact force are studied. Different pad stiffnesses are used in the calculations to investigate the influence on the contact force. It is shown that the contact force can have up to four main peaks in the frequency region 550-1200?Hz due to the wave reflections between the wheels, so that the wavelengths of short pitch corrugation can be expected to be associated with multiple frequencies. As a conclusion, it is recommended that in a model for predicting short pitch corrugation the effects of multiple wheel/rail interactions need to be included.     

A Two DOF Model for Jerk Optimal Vehicle Suspensions

Researchers have proposed various active suspension concepts to optimize the tradeoff between ride and handling in passenger vehicles. A few investigators suggested inclusion of the passenger jerk, the derivative of the passenger acceleration, as a measure of ride quality in the performance index. Minimization of a performance index then optimizes both the acceleration and jerk as well as other outputs representing handling quality and design constraints. This approach is called jerk optimal control.

This paper compares two different vehicle models of increasing complexity (the one and two DOF quarter car) using jerk optimal control. Different aspects of suspension performance are investigated, including the structure of the system transfer functions, the structure of the force control laws, and the tradeoffs between the various root mean square (rms) outputs defining system ride and handling performance. Tables compare the numerical results of the two models, allowing predictions of actual vehicle performance.

The results of the two models show the same basic trend for the tradeoff between ride and handling quality: at a constant level of rms passenger acceleration the rms passenger jerk can be reduced significantly, but only at a cost of increased rms tire deflections. In physical terms, a softer ride results in degraded handling performance. For a chosen level of ride improvement, the more realistic two DOF quarter car model predicts more severe degradation of handling. The latter nevertheless predicts a substantial increase in vehicle ride quality is possible through a 55% reduction in jerk. It is expected that actual suspensions could also produce significant increases in ride quality through jerk reduction. Jerk optimal suspensions could find use both in higher end passenger vehicles and in transports for vibration sensitive cargo.     

On the background level of Tc, Sr and Cs in the North Atlantic

Mean concentrations of the anthropogenic radioactive oceanographic tracers ⁹⁹Tc, ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs have been measured as 0.005, 1.6 and 2.5 Bq m⁻³ in oceanic Northeast Atlantic surface water, east and northeast of the Azores, in 1992. This is, apparently, the first published value for fallout “background” ⁹⁹Tc in oceanic Atlantic water.Comparison with older data indicates an observed half life for ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs in the northeast Atlantic surface water of 20 yr corresponding to a mean residence time of 80–100 yr for the stable elements.The observed ⁹⁹Tc/⁹⁰Sr ratio (3 × 10⁻³) in the Azores samples is 10 times higher than the theoretical fission yield decay corrected to 1992. This is in agreement with published data on rain water samples and may be characteristic for 1960's global fallout. Furthermore, the measured ¹³⁷Cs/⁹⁰Sr ratio is not significantly different from that observed for global fallout. There do not appear to be any additional significant sources of artificial radionuclides in this region.     

Analyzing trade-offs between transportation,inventory and production costs on freight networks

The purpose of this paper is to determine optimal shipping strategies (i.e. routes and shipment sizes) on freight networks by analyzing trade-offs between transportation, inventory, and production set-up costs. Networks involving direct shipping, shipping via a consolidation terminal, and a combination of terminal and direct shipping are considered. This paper makes three main contributions. First, an understanding is provided of the interface between transportation and production set-up costs, and of how these costs both affect inventory. Second, conditions are identified that indicate when networks involving direct shipments between many origins and destinations can be analyzed on a link-by-link basis. Finally, a simple optimization method is developed that simultaneously determines optimal routes and shipment sizes for networks with a consolidation terminal and concave cost functions. This method decomposes the network into separate sub-networks, and determines the optimum analytically without the need for mathematical programming techniques.     

Model uncertainty and the management of a system of infrastructure facilities

The network-level infrastructure management problem involves selecting and scheduling maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities on networks of infrastructure facilities so as to maintain the level of service provided by the network in a cost-effective manner. This problem is frequently formulated as a Markov decision problem (MDP) solved via linear programming (LP). The conditions of facilities are represented by elements of discrete condition rating sets, and transition probabilities are employed to describe deterioration processes. Epistemic and parametric uncertainties not considered within the standard MDP/LP framework are associated with the transition probabilities used in infrastructure management optimization routines. This paper contrasts the expected costs incurred when model uncertainty is ignored with those incurred when this uncertainty is explicitly considered using robust optimization. A case study involving a network-level pavement management MDP/LP problem demonstrates how explicitly considering uncertainty may limit worst-case MR&R expenditures. The methods and results can also be used to identify the costs of uncertainty in transition probability matrices used in infrastructure management systems.     

A cost optimized steel bridge girder design for aashto - WSD and LFD

A cost optimized design method of steel bridge girders is studied by using the specifications of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation (AASHTO) Working Stress Design (WSD) method and Load Factor Design (LFD) alternates. Here, cost trade-offs for the steel plate (e.g., the base price plus extras for size, grade, testing and inspection, etc.), stiffeners and splicing are weighed throughout the entire span to minimize the objective function. The method is then applied to a set of over 30 steel bridge structures which collected from various state bridge inventories in order to obtain optimal cost configurations for both WSD and LFD methods. These results are analyzed by a linear regression model to define relationships between cost differences and bridge lengths. From these comparisons, conclusions are drawn to provide the guidelines. It is believed that effective application of these guidelines should lead to more economical designs, especially under the LFD method.     

A design for ship stabilization by activated antiroll tanks

An activated antiroll tank system design for ship roll reduction was investigated. Considering the dynamics of the ship motion, tank flow, and variable-pitch impeller, a control law is derived based on optimal control and estimation theory. Finally, a series of numerical computations for a 1174 tonne ship without an antiroll tank system, with a passive tank system, and with the proposed activated antiroll tank system is performed. The results show that the proposed activated tank system has superior antiroll properties for free rolling, regular, and irregular sea loads to the passive tank system. In addition, this design has a very low sensitivity to variations in ship and tank dynamics. It shows that the proposed system is reliable and valid for practical use.