Investigation on evaluation of yaw stability for medium commercial vehicles

This paper proposes test scenarios for evaluation of yaw stability for medium commercial vehicles. Maneuvering, speed, longitudinal tire force, tire-road friction coefficient, road slope, and load condition are considerable factors that have effect on the medium commercial vehicle yaw stability. After conducting an analysis on these six factors, effective test scenarios were developed. A sine with dwell test is well known as a test scenario for evaluation of performance of electronic stability control (ESC) on passenger vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles. The SWD test was modified considering medium commercial vehicle dynamics, and the ramp steer maneuver with maximum acceleration test was proposed. Simulation validation has been conducted using field test data. From simulation study, it was shown that the ESC system for medium commercial vehicle is effectively evaluated by the proposed test scenarios.     

Real-time weighted multi-objective model predictive controller for adaptive cruise control systems

In this paper, a novel spacing control law is developed for vehicles with adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems to perform spacing control mode. Rather than establishing a steady-state following distance behind a newly encountered vehicle to avoid collision, the proposed spacing control law based on model predictive control (MPC) further considers fuel economy and ride comfort. Firstly, a hierarchical control architecture is utilized in which a lower controller compensates for nonlinear longitudinal vehicle dynamics and enables to track the desired acceleration. The upper controller based on the proposed spacing control law is designed to compute the desired acceleration to maintain the control objectives. Moreover, the control objectives are then formulated into the model predictive control problem using acceleration and jerk limits as constrains. Furthermore, due to the complex driving conditions during in the transitional state, the traditional model predictive control algorithm with constant weight matrix cannot meet the requirement of improvement in the fuel economy and ride comfort. Therefore, a real-time weight tuning strategy is proposed to solve time-varying multi-objective control problems, where the weight of each objective can be adjusted with respect to different operating conditions. In addition, simulation results demonstrate that the ACC system with the proposed real-time weighted MPC (RW-MPC) can provide better performance than that using constant weight MPC (CW-MPC) in terms of fuel economy and ride comfort.     

Subjective absolute discomfort threshold due to idle vibration in passenger vehicles according to sitting posture

Idle vibration, occurring when a vehicle comes to a stop while the engine is on, is known to be a main cause of discomfort for passengers, and the customer effect has been recently growing. The frequency of idle vibration is determined by the engine type. To lower the vibration, various technologies have been applied to optimize the engine mount and vehicle body structure. In addition to the technological developments, research on human response with a consideration of idle vibration is needed to effectively reduce the level of discomfort experienced by passengers. Seats aimed at enhancing static comfort influence the sitting posture of passengers; sitting posture is a factor affecting human body characteristics that response to idle vibration. This study examined the absolute discomfort threshold of idle vibration according to the sitting postures of 13 taxi drivers. The four sitting postures of subjects on a rigid-body seat without a backrest were variables in the determination of absolute discomfort threshold of idle vibration. The absolute discomfort threshold curves obtained in this experiment were less sensitive to frequency changes than the frequency weighting function of ISO 2631-1.     

The measurement of accessibility: Some preliminary results

This paper presents an analysis of accessibility by private transport, using a Hansen type measure of accessibility. The data base is the 1962 London Travel Survey. The study is confined to car-owning households residing in inner London. A comparison of the patterns of accessibility associated with four measures of areal attractiveness - total employment, retail employment, households and population - is presented. The sensitivity of relative accessibilities to marginal changes in parameter values is analysed. Two aspects of the effect of the zoning system on the measurement of accessibility are investigated: the effects of zonal configuration and zonal aggregation. First, the implications of increasing the size of central area zones is analysed. Second, a comparison of patterns of accessibility calculated at the zonal and district levels is undertaken.[/p]     

Impact Analysis of the Reduction Effect for Reducing Joint Position of Stick-slip Fault TunnelEI北大核心

Research purposes: Based on an engineering of traffic tunnel, anti-breaking model experiment of large-scale 1 :30 is carried out under fault dislocation. Reduction effect of three working conditions(working condition A of no reducing joint, B of staggered setting of reducing joint and dislocation surface, C of reducing joint set at dislocation position) is comparatively analyzed by analysis of contact pressure, lining strain and lining stress. The optimal location of reduction joint is explored. Research conclusions:(1)The reduction effect of different position of reducing joint is different, such as A相似文献   

A medium term transport research strategy for the EEC

Abstract

Part 1 elicited major research issues and opportunities in the transport sector in the EEC from an examination of a range of planning scenarios. This article relates those issues and opportunities to the needs of the EEC transport sector policy formation and derives a set of research recommendations. The respective roles of the EEC and other institutions in developing and meeting the research needs are then discussed, concluding with some institutional proposals for the strengthening of the organization of the strategic research effort of the EEC in the transport sector.     

Criteria for local transport subsidies

Governments have rarely been content to leave the provision of public transport services entirely to the market. Competition has been regulated and increasingly services have been subsidized from public funds. However, the criteria for such subsidies have been a continuing source of debate. Economists have tended to emphasize efficiency criteria and advocated the use of cost‐benefit analysis, but, for a variety of reasons, in the U.K. at least, this approach does not seem to have played a major role in the allocation of subsidies. Others have advocated more needs‐based approaches. Whilst these have been tried, they also have their limitations. The first few sections of the paper, therefore, review the development of these approaches in the U.K. and consider their shortcomings from the point of view of deciding on transport subsidies. In the latter part of the paper it is suggested that developments in the appraisal of health care procedures, particularly in the use of cost‐utility techniques, indicate a possible alternative approach. The approach in the health context is outlined and it is demonstrated how it might be applied to the appraisal of local transport services.     

A differential evolution approach for the vehicle routing problem with backhauls and time windows

This paper presents a differential evolution algorithm (DEA) to solve a vehicle routing problem with backhauls and time windows (VRPBTW) and applied for a catering firm. VRPBTW is an extension of the vehicle routing problem, which includes capacity and time window constraints. In this problem, customers are divided into two subsets: linehaul and backhaul. Each vehicle starts from a depot and goods are delivered from the depot to the linehaul customers. Goods are subsequently brought back to the depot from the backhaul customers. The objective is to minimize the total distance that satisfies all of the constraints. The problem is formulated using mixed integer programming and solved using DEA. Proposed algorithm is tested with several benchmark problems to demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm and results show that our proposed algorithm can find superior solutions for most of the problems in comparison with the best known solutions. Hence, DEA was carried out for catering firm to minimize total transportation costs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling and analysis of a fuel-injection pump used in diesel engines

The Fuel-Injection Pump (FIP) used in diesel engine has a higher-pair cam-mechanism to pressurize the fuel for injection. This paper proposes a methodology to model FIP from a multibody Dynamics (MBD) perspective. The results from the model include the temporal behavior of driving torque, contact Hertz stress and reaction forces at various joints. The model helps the designer to assess the effect of various cam profiles, link parameters and other design variables. It is necessary that these parameters be optimized for future high pressure applications. For this purpose, a cam-mechanism with offset follower axis is analysed. Decoupled Natural Orthogonal Complement (DeNOC) matrices based algorithm is used to model FIP without and with offset cam-mechanism. The study shows that, the offset cam-mechanism allows reduction in the side-thrust, reaction forces, and the contact Hertz stress acting on the cam-follower interface. As a typical case, for an FIP working around a pressure value of 600 bar, an optimum offset value is found to be 9.5 mm and it shows a reduction of about 45% in side thrust values. To validate the modeling approach, experimental studies are performed on pump without and with offset cam-mechanism. Experimental results are in qualitative agreement with the theoretical model results.     

Optimal Design for the Rear-Glass Joint of an Automobile for Squeak and Rattle Noise Reduction

Ever since vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) reduction technology made dramatic improvements, vehicle interior noises represented by Squeak and Rattle (S/R) becomes an ever more important factor to improve the emotional quality of vehicles. Generally, people detect S/R noises on automotive interior parts, brake system, suspension, Body in White (BIW), etc. Among them, the rear-glass joint is a major source for vehicle interior noise, and can cause S/R noises under a variety of environmental and driving conditions. This study uses, two approaches, experimental and numerical approaches, to define the cause of S/R noise at the rear-glass section. Based on these two approaches, this study confirms that S/R noises generate through the contact between bottom side of molding and BIW. The sealant penetration length, panelmolding distance, and sealant width are the parameters affecting noise generation. In addition, this study created an optimal design with Design of Experiments (DOE) of the rear-glass joint. The design maximized the sealant penetration length, which is a parameter that majorly affects noise. The optimal design comprises of two steps: sealant injections shape optimization and rear-glass joint parameter optimization. Each step is carried out with FEA and validated by sealant penetration experiments. Through these optimizations, this study obtained an optimum combination of design parameters and fignificantly reduced the noise generated by rear-glass section.