Ship productivity as a measure of maritime performance

Ship and fleet productivity have been discussed increasingly as performance measures in recent years, but productivity has not been defined precisely as it relates to the maritime industry. This article offers definitions from some key terms that can clarify the concept of productivity and thus make it more usable as an analytical tool for steamship management.     

China shipbuilding management challenges in the 1980s

Since the economic reforms in the late 1970s, the shipbuilding industry in China has enjoyed rapid growth. Over the past two decades, many new building contracts have been won and successfully completed. However, some shipyards have also suffered great losses. Basing on their experience in Southern China, the authors examine some of the major challenges that Chinese shipbuilders faced during this transitional period, when the industry ventured into the international market. These challenges are broadly categorized into two areas: (i) external factors, such as inflation and infrastructural support that the shipbuilder had no control over, and (ii) shipbuilding management, which the shipbuilder had to master in order to gain competitive advantage. Suggestions on how these problems could be tackled are discussed.     

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.     

Theoretical and experimental analysis of a CNG cylinder rack connection to a bus roof

From our perspective, a global technology development should be focused on resolving the issues of environmental impact and conservation of available natural energy resources. New technological solutions and alternative fuels, such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), have increasingly more application for modern engines and vehicles. If we take into account the situation in city transport, where primarily vehicles with diesel engines are used, a strategic proposal is to begin by retrofitting these into bi-fuel or dedicated Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs). This paper analyzes the retrofit of a diesel bus into dedicated NGV. To confirm the safety of the vehicle in city transport, we addressed the problem of mounting a gas rack with CNG cylinders on the roof of a retrofitted city bus, according to UN ECE Regulation No. 110. This assembly is the most critical part of the retrofitted bus because of the concentration of stress due to increased mass and the application of a specific installation for supply of CNG from the cylinders to the engine. These regulations must be met in all parts of the vehicle, but we only focused on those areas affected by the retrofit to NGV.     

Discomfort of vertical whole-body shock-type vibration in the frequency range of 0.5 to 16 Hz

Shock-type vibrations are frequently experienced in vehicles excited by impulsive input, such as bumps in the road, and cause discomfort. Current national and international standard weightings were primarily developed for assessing exposure to sinusoidal or random vibrations and not impulsive excitations or shocks. In this experimental study, various shock signals were systematically produced using the response of a one degree-of-freedom vibration model to hanning-windowed half-sine force input. The fundamental frequency of the shock was varied from 0.5 to 16 Hz at a step of 1/3 of an octave. The magnitude estimation method was used for fifteen subjects to compare the discomfort of shocks with various unweighted vibration dose values between 0.35 ms^−1.75 and 2.89 ms^−1.75 at each frequency. The equivalent comfort magnitude of shock showed greater sensitivity at frequencies less than 0.63 Hz and at the resonance frequency of the human body between 5.0 Hz and 6.3 Hz. The frequency weighting constructed by using both the equivalent comfort magnitude and the growth rate of discomfort obtained in this study was compared with the current standard weightings, W_b of BS 6841 and W_k of ISO 2631. The derived weightings for shock were applied to the acceleration of the shocks, and an enhanced correlation was proved between the magnitude estimations and the weighted physical magnitude of shock.     

考虑引桥工作状态下的短跨板桥的车致动力反应

通过把车辆和桥梁看作一个耦合系统来建立模型去求解桥梁的车致动力反应。文中研究了由AASHTO HS20卡车引起的不同跨径的短板桥的动力反应。利用参数分析来研究不同车速及不同路面状况所产生的效应。研究发现,引起桥梁动力反应峰值的临界车速遵循描述列车致桥梁共振的规则。分析中考虑了引桥状态的影响包括引桥桥头断层及引桥板形变。虽然引桥变形对桥梁的动力反应影响微小,但是在研究中却发现引桥桥头断层能在短跨板桥中引起显著的动力反应。该文对评价既有短跨径桥梁的动力性能有很大的意义,因此值得中国从业者借鉴。     

The impact of European climate change regulations on international tourist markets

We use a model of international and domestic tourist numbers and flows to investigate the effect of various climate policy instruments implemented in Europe on arrivals and emissions for the countries concerned. We find that these schemes do not fulfil their desired effects. The introduction of aviation into the European trading system results in a fall in the number of tourists travelling into the European Union in favour of other destinations. It also causes a significant welfare loss with only a small reduction in emissions. The flight taxes in the Netherlands and the UK result in different substitution effects across destinations (depending on the zones being taxed) but both policies do have the same consequence of inducing global welfare losses and also reducing visitor numbers to the countries. We find that when these policies are combined their effects are additive. Welfare impacts are robust to variations in the underlying assumptions and changes in the scope of the taxes examined have the expected effects.     

Diesel-engined vehicle nitric oxide and soot emissions during the European light-duty driving cycle using a transient mapping approach

An engine mapping-based methodology is developed to gain a first approximation of a vehicle’s performance and emissions during a light-duty cycle. The procedure is based on a steady-state experimental investigation of the engine with an appropriate vehicle drivetrain model applied so that the cycle vehicle speed data can be transformed into engine speed and torque. Correction analysis is then applied based on transient experimentation to account for the transient discrepancies during real driving. The developed algorithm is applied for the case of a diesel-engined vehicle running on the European light-duty cycle. A comparative analysis is performed for each section of the cycle revealing its individual transient characteristics.     

Long-term behavior of particulate matters at urban roadside and background locations in Seoul,Korea

The concentrations of particulate matter, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and TSP at an urban roadside and an urban background station are analyzed. Data collected over a 10 year period are analyzed. The concentrations of the particulates measured at the urban site are systematically larger than at the background station. The mean PM values at the former also exhibit a slight fall over the decade unlike those at the background station. Overall, the particulate matters at both locations are in an intermediate range of global level, e.g., approximately two times lower than those in other Asian regions but higher than in Europe.     

Requirement-based testing of an automotive ECU considering the behavior of the vehicle

HILS (Hardware In the Loop Simulation) and RBT (Requirement-Based Testing) are widely used to evaluate the performance and reliability of automotive ECUs (Electronic Control Units). The HILS method is used to predict the behavior of ECU-installed vehicles and to evaluate the performance of ECU controllers. RBT evaluates whether the embedded system satisfies the pre-defined requirements. In this study, the behavior of a vehicle is regarded as a system requirement, and an embedded system test procedure that evaluates the system requirement is proposed. In particular, a new method is introduced, which integrates HILS with RBT. Using the proposed method, the behavior of an articulated vehicle equipped with an AWS (All Wheel Steering) ECU is evaluated with RBT software.