Reliability Modeling and Maintenance Policy Optimization for Deteriorating System Under Random Shock

Performance degradation and random shock are commonly regarded as two dependent competing risks for system failures. One method based on effective service age is proposed to jointly model the cumulative effect of random shock and system degradation, and the reliability model of degradation system under Nonhomogeneous Poisson processes (NHPP) shocks is derived. Under the assumption that preventive maintenance (PM) is imperfective and the corrective maintenance (CM) is minimal repair, one maintenance policy which combines PM and CM is presented. Moreover, the two decision variables, PM interval and the number of PMs before replacement, are determined by a multi-objective maintenance optimization method which simultaneously maximizes the system availability and minimizes the system long-run expect cost rate. Finally, the performance of the proposed maintenance optimization policy is demonstrated via a numerical example.     

Purification effects of C2Cl6 on A00 aluminum

The effects of several fluxes on purification, microstructures and properties of A00 aluminum have been studied. The experimental results and analyses indicate that many cracks and large porosities exist in the surface film above the melt purified by C₂Cl₆ and that the film is floc and mostly composed of Al₂O₃ and pure aluminum, which carries many carbon particles and AlCl₃ not fully volatilized. And then over 50% (mass fraction) of the all-melting residue is pure aluminum, which is one of the major reasons for high melting loss. Moreover, because of a mass of gas bubbles and a state of seethe, there are many inclusions which size is under 10 ??m in the microstructure of A00 aluminum purified with C₂Cl₆ or fluxes containing C₂Cl₆. With this purifying method, the aluminum crystal grains are extended along the radius that was observed firstly and the average crystal size of A00 aluminum are about 100?C150 ??m. In addition, small size inclusions have little affected on tensile strength and micro inclusions under 10 ??m have little affected on elongation.     

Personalization method of e-catalog based on user interesting degree

The user interesting degree evaluation index is designed to fulfill the users’ real needs, which includes the user’ attention degree of commodity, hot commodity and preferential commodity. User interesting degree model (UIDM) is constructed to justify the value of user interesting degree; the personalization approach is presented; operations of add and delete nodes (branches) are covered in this paper. The improved e-catalog is more satisfied to users’ needs and wants than the former e-catalog which stands for enterprises, and the improved one can complete the recommendation of related products of enterprises.     

A numerical study on piezoelectric energy harvesting by combining transverse galloping and parametric instability phenomena

This paper aims to numerically investigate the effects of parametric instability on piezoelectric energy harvesting from the transverse galloping of a square prism. A two degrees-of-freedom reduced-order model for this problem is proposed and numerically integrated. A usual quasi-steady galloping model is applied, where the transverse force coefficient is adopted as a cubic polynomial function with respect to the angle of attack. Time-histories of nondimensional prism displacement, electric voltage and power dissipated at both the dashpot and the electrical resistance are obtained as functions of the reduced velocity. Both, oscillation amplitude and electric voltage, increased with the reduced velocity for all parametric excitation conditions tested. For low values of reduced velocity, 2:1 parametric excitation enhances the electric voltage. On the other hand, for higher reduced velocities, a 1:1 parametric excitation (i.e., the same as the natural frequency) enhances both oscillation amplitude and electric voltage. It has been also found that, depending on the parametric excitation frequency, the harvested electrical power can be amplified in 70% when compared to the case under no parametric excitation.     

Novel experimental strategy for high resolution AFM imaging of membrane-associated bacterial toxins

Bacterial pore-forming toxins （PFTs） are essential virulence factors of many human pathogens. Knowl- edge of their structure within the membrane is critical for an understanding of their function in pathogenesis and for the development of useful therapy. Atomic force microscopy （AFM） has often been employed to structurally interrogate many membrane proteins, including PFTs, owing to its ability to produce sub-nanometer resolution images of samples under aqueous solution. However, an absolute prerequisite for AFM studies is that the samples are single-layered and closely-packed, which is frequently challenging with PFTs. Here, using the prototypical member of the cholesterol-dependent cytolysin family of PFTs, perfringolysin O （PFO）, as a test sample, we have developed a simple, highly robust method that routinely produces clean, closely-packed samples across the entire specimen surface. In this approach, we first use a small Teflon well to prepare the supported lipid bilayer, remove the sample from the well, and then directly apply the proteins to the bilayer. For reasons that are not clear, bilayer preparation in the Teflon well is essential. We anticipate that this simple method will prove widely useful for the preparation of similar samples, and thereby enable AFM imaging of the greatest range of bacterial PFTs to the highest possible resolution.     

Estimation of delay variability at signalized intersections for urban arterial performance evaluation

Urban arterial performance evaluation has been broadly studied, with the major focus on average travel time estimation. However, in view of the stochastic nature of interrupted flow, the ability to capture the characteristics of travel time variability has become a critical step in determining arterial level of service (LOS). This article first presents a stochastic approach that integrates classic cumulative curves and probability theories in order to investigate delay variability at signalized intersections, as a dominant part of the link travel time variability. This serves as a basis for arterial travel time estimation, which can be obtained through a convolution of individual link travel time distributions. The proposed approach is then applied in the estimation of travel time along one arterial in Shanghai, China, with abundant automatic vehicle identification (AVI) data sources. The travel time variability is evaluated thoroughly at 30-min intervals, with promising results achieved in comparison to the field measurements. In addition, the estimated travel time distributions are utilized to illustrate the probability of multiple LOS ranges, namely, reliability LOS. The results provide insights into how we might achieve a more reliable and informative understanding of arterial performance.     

Development of knowledge based body structure concept design model

The purpose of this study is to propose a concept design process for an automotive body structure using technical information on the major joints and members of vehicles. First, in order to collect the technical information on major joints and members, 17 vehicles were selected using benchmark data. The collected technical information for the selected vehicles was the cross sectional shapes of each joint and member which were used for the analysis of joint stiffness, crashworthiness and static stiffness of the member to make a database along with cross section properties. This study applied a ‘What If Study’ technique to perform a concept design of an automotive body using the analyzed information and selected cross section meeting the design objectives. The criteria for the selection of the cross section were defined by subdividing the defined design objectives of an automotive body structure and constraints into members and joints. In order to configure an analysis model of an automotive body structure using the selected cross section, a shape parametric model was used and static stiffness, dynamic stiffness and crashworthiness were assessed to evaluate the configured automotive body structure. The evaluation result showed that the crashworthiness and static/dynamic stiffness were improved compared to an existing body structure. In addition, the weight of the body structure was reduced. Through this study, the process that can rapidly and effectively derive and evaluate the concept design of an automotive body structure was defined. It is expected that, henceforth, this process will be helpful for the study of automotive body structures.     

Simulation of mixed gas formation for a spray-wall complex guided LPG direct injection engine

To obtain an ultralean air-fuel ratio and to reduce engine-out NOX and HC emissions induced by the richer mixture near the spark plug, a spray and wall complex guided combustion system has been developed by utilizing the fuel characteristics of LPG. The new combustion system configuration is optimized by using a commercial CFD code, FIRE V2013, and the reliability of the system has been experimentally demonstrated by Plane Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF). The mixture formation in the new combustion system under part load (2,000 rpm) is numerically simulated. With an injection timing of 40°CA BTDC, the LPG spray which is injected from two upper holes, reaches the ignition point, and the other part of the LPG spray which is injected from the bottom hole, is directed to the ignition point through the vertical vortices at the same time. At the ignition timing of about 20°CA BTDC, the two-part mixtures have been shown to form a stable and richer stratified mixture around the ignition point, and the maximum global air-fuel ratio reaches to 60: 1.     

Comparison of fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions between the aged and new DPF systems of Euro 5 diesel passenger car

This study was conducted to examine the impact of aged and new DPF systems of the Euro 5 diesel passenger car on fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions. Test diesel vehicle used in this study was equipped with diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and diesel particulate filter (DPF) as aftertreatment systems, and satisfied the Euro-5 emissions standard. The displacement volume of engine was 1.6 L and the cumulative mileage was 167,068 km before the test. The FTP-75 test procedure was used, and the time resolved and weight based exhaust emissions of total hydrocarbon (THC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured. The results show that the vehicle with the new DPF system has lower emissions of THC, CO and NOx than the aged one, and fuel efficiency also increased about 5 percent. The aged DPF system had higher backpressure due to the particulate matter (mostly in the form of ash) accumulated in the DPF. As was shown in the analysis using X-CT (X-ray computer tomography), the aged DPF system had particulate matter (PM) accumulated to a length of 46.6 mm. In addition, a component analysis of PM through XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analysis found that 50 % or more of the components consisted of the P, S, Ca, and Zn.     

Robust control for four-wheel-independent-steering electric vehicle with steer-by-wire system

A four-wheel-independent-steering (4WIS) electric vehicle (EV) with steer-by-wire (SBW) system is proposed in this paper. The fast terminal sliding mode controller (FTSMC) is designed for the SBW system to suppress external disturbances. Taking unstructured and structured uncertainties into consideration, a robust controller is designed for the 4WIS EV utilizing μ synthesis approach and the controller order reduction is implemented based on Hankel-Norm approximation. Since sideslip angle is the feedback signal of robust controller and it is hard to measure, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is employed to estimate sideslip angle. To evaluate the vehicle performance with the designed control system, step and sinusoidal steering maneuvers are simulated and analyzed. Simulation results show that the designed control system have good tracking ability, strong robust stability and good robust performance to improve vehicle stability and handing performance.