Study on J-integral with SENB specimensin a condenser material

A series of tests was performed with three-point single-edge-notched-bend (SENB) specimens in a condenser material (Titanium alloy). Results show that the J-integral values of welded joint and HAZ are obviously smaller than those of the base metal. It signifies that the welding process can result in a reduced toughness of Titanium alloy and the effect of crack orientation on toughness value is not negligible for engineering applications. Besides, the J-integral values of L-T direction specimens are much higher than those of LS ones. The J-integral values of rolled ring are: J_(C-R)>J_(C-L)>J_(L-R).     

Estimation of Tire-Road Friction Using Observer Based Identifiers

This paper presents methods for identifying the tire-road friction coefficient. The proposed methods are: an observer-based least square method and an observer/filtered-regressor-based method. These methods were designed assuming that some of the states are not available since physical parameter identification methods developed assuming that the system states are available are not attractive from a practical point of view. The observer is used to estimate signals which are difficult or expensive to measure. Using the estimated states of the system and the filtered-regressor, the parameter estimates are obtained. The proposed methods are evaluated on an eight state nonlinear vehicle/transmission simulation model with a Bakker-Pacejka's formula tire model. Vehicle tests have been performed on dry and wet roads to verify the performance of the methods. It has been shown through simulations and vehicle tests how the RPM sensors can be used with observer based identification methods to estimate the tire-road friction from measurements of engine rpm, transmission output speed and wheel speed. The proposed methods will be useful in the implementation and adaptation of vehicle collision warning/avoidance algorithm since the tire-road friction can be estimated only using the RPM sensors which are currently being used in production vehicles.     

GIS-based highway design review system to improve constructability of design

This paper presents a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a tool which can help highway engineers review a completed highway design to improve its constructability. The GIS can link different data sets together using geographical location as the common key between the data sets to perform various spatial operations. In this paper, the GIS is used to integrate various highway design data using a common milepost referencing system. The GIS allows the integration of the highway design information by establishing common spatial relationships between various highway design features and their geographical locations. The GIS can provide a comprehensive platform upon which all aspects of the highway project review process can be built. This paper also addresses the interface of GIS with the existing highway project data bases and computer-aided design files. The proposed GIS-based highway design review system can improve the constructability of the highway design at an early design review stage.     

High Frequency Characteristics of a Front Wheel Suspension

This paper presents a modeling method to analyze the frequency characteristics of a suspension system. The method employs the superelement and lumped methods for structural modeling of flexible bodies, and it is incorporated with a multibidy dynamics formulation in which joint nonlinearities can be considered effectively. To verify the accuracy of the results obtained by the modeling method, a quarter car test was made. Test results showed that the computational model provided fairly accurate frequency characteristics for the suspension system. Other useful conclusions were also drawn from this study.     

Optimal slack time for timed transfers at a transit terminal

At transit terminals where two routes interchange passengers, total system costs may be reduced by allowing some “slack” time in the vehicle schedules to decrease the probability of missed connections. Transfer cost functions are formulated and used to determine optimal slack time for simple systems with transfers between one bus route and one rail line. Some analytic results are derived for empirical discrete and Gumbel distributions of bus arrival times. Relations between the optimal slack times and headways, transfer volumes, passenger time values, bus operating costs, and standard deviations of bus and train arrivals are also developed numerically using normally distributed arrivals. However, the proposed numerical approach can optimize slack times for any observed arrival distributions. The results provide some guidelines on desirable slack times and show that schedule coordination between the two routes is not worth attempting when standard deviations of arrivals exceed certain levels. Possible extensions of this work are suggested in the last section.     

Law enforcement in the ocean

The combating of the present great variety of criminal activities occurring at sea mainly involves measures to be taken on land, in particular in ports.However, also actual enforcement at sea will continue to play an essential (complementary) role. This article surveys the rules of international law governing law enforcement measures at sea. These rules are complex, because distinctions have to be made between the various jurisdictional zones at sea and between the positions of the flag state, the coastal state and the port state. Traditionally, ships in the high seas (all sea areas beyond a narrow band of territorial sea) were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag state. In an increasing number of situations, the coastal state now has law enforcement authority over foreign ships in expanded areas up to 200 nautical miles offshore. But apart from these situations, flag state jurisdiction still prevails beyond the territorial sea. This makes effective law enforcement difficult. In practice, many obstacles can be overcome by making more effective use of the authority of the port state, and by concluding new international agreements providing for specific enforcement systems.     

Steady streaming of viscous surface layer in waves

An investigation of the drift velocity induced by water waves of a contminated surface layer is carried out. The theoretical analysis is based on a thin boundary layer on the free surface. The results of the analysis reveal that the drift velocity of a viscous layer on the water surface is 7/4 times the Stokes prediction ofc(ak) ² wherec is the wave celerity andak the wave slope. The present experimental investigation confirms the validity of the theoretical prediction for the drift velocity for a lightly contaminated surface layer; however, for a heavily contaminated surface layer, the experimental results exceed the theoretical prediction. An investigation for a heavily contaminated layer is carried out assuming an inextensible surface layer. Thus, in the experiment, vinyl sheets are used to substitute the contaminated layers. By balancing the wave-induced mean thrust force with the mean drag force, the drift velocity is obtained and compared with the experimental results. Based on the theoretical and experimental analyses, formulae for predicting the drift velocities for laminar and turbulent flow conditions are proposed.     

大众捷运牵引供电可用度及可靠度分析

分析单一电力设备的历时可用度行为,探讨变压器设备对数正态分布型可靠度以及指数分布型维修度对其可用度的影响。建立牵引供电系统的可用度和可靠度分析模式,探讨双主变电站电力相互备用和第三轨越区引电等供电模式的历时可用度和可靠度行为。     

Sliding mode robust fault-tolerant control for uncertain systems with time delay

Considering the modeling uncertainties and external disturbance, a kind of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control method for time delay system with actuator fault is proposed. The upper-bound of the uncertainties is considered as a known constant, while the upper-bound of the actuator fault is unknown. A sufficient condition for the existence of an integral sliding mode dynamics is given in terms of linear matrix inequality(LMI). A novel adaptive law is given to estimate the unknown upper-bound of faults. On this basis, a type of sliding mode robust H∞fault-tolerant control law is designed to guarantee the asymptotic stability and the H_∞ performance index of the system. Finally, the simulation on quad-rotor semi-physical platform demonstrates the reliability and validity of the method.