Maritime accident investigation and temporal determinants of maritime accidents: A case study

This paper presents the results of an investigation into temporal determinants of maritime accidents based on a data-set obtained from the proceedings of formal inquiries in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The results show that there is no statistically significant outcome between the probability for an accident and the time of watch. Thus the results do not confirm previous studies, which reported significant time of day effects.The outcome of this study indicates that marine inquiries can provide useful data for an analysis of underlying causes of maritime accidents. It is suggested that accident inquiries should be extended into the area of watch systems employed and should record the hours of work and of rest of the officers on the watch involved in a maritime accident.     

The role of professional associations in shipping

This article is in three parts. The first covers the historical development of qualifying associations. The second covers the particular role of maritime institutions that include The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, The Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology and The Nautical Institute. The third and final section considers the future for maritime professional associations in the context of international shipping.     

基于城市轨道交通综合监控系统的Web方案设计

结合苏州市轨道交通1号线工程实例,介绍了基于综合监控系统的Web方案。从系统设计的角度,讨论了Web系统的硬件构成及信息发布、视频发布的设计原则;从软件功能的角度,分析了Web系统的软件构成、实时数据的获取及视频发布等相关功能。该方案基于原综合监控系统的硬件基础,实现了综合监控重要数据信息的复示,以及重要CCTV(闭路电视系统)视频图像的发布功能。综合监控系统中的Web系统与办公信息网络的融合,为企业的运营管理提供了更全面、便捷的信息来源。     

Magnetic field tuning characteristics of bimodal ultrasonic motor stator

The magnetic field tuning characteristics of an ultrasonic motor (USM) stator are discussed. The stator consists of two piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT) plates and one sandwiched-in Terfenol-D plate. The dimensions of the stator are carefully adjusted to specifically discuss the influence of the magnetic field on the frequency difference between the longitudinal and bending modes of the stator. The frequency difference discussed in this paper is usually small and mainly caused by uneven materials, machining errors and changes in external conditions (temperature, pre-stress or load). The longitudinal and bending modes of the stator are simultaneously excited by an external electric field to generate the elliptic motion trajectories of the driving points. A direct current (DC) magnetic field is applied to decrease the difference between the two mode frequencies of the fabricated stator. In experiments, the dependences of the two mode frequencies and their difference on DC magnetic fields are all investigated. The experimental results indicate that the difference between the longitudinal and bending mode frequencies of the PZT/Terfenol-D/PZT composite stator can be tuned by changing the intensity of the external DC magnetic field.     

Sensorimotor self-learning model based on operant conditioning for two-wheeled robot

Traditional control methods of two-wheeled robot are usually model-based and require the robot’s precise mathematic model which is hard to get. A sensorimotor self-learning model named SMM TWR is presented in this paper to handle these problems. The model consists of seven elements: the discrete learning time set, the sensory state set, the motion set, the sensorimotor mapping, the state orientation unit, the learning mechanism and the model’s entropy. The learning mechanism for SMM TWR is designed based on the theory of operant conditioning (OC), and it adjusts the sensorimotor mapping at every learning step. This helps the robot to choose motions. The leaning direction of the mechanism is decided by the state orientation unit. Simulation results show that with the sensorimotor model designed, the robot is endowed the abilities of self-learning and self-organizing, and it can learn the skills to keep itself balance through interacting with the environment.     

Approximate method for reliability assessment of complex phased mission systems

Phased-mission systems (PMSs) have wide applications in engineering practices, such as manmade satellites. Certain critical parts in the system, such as cold standby, hot standby and functional standby, are designed in redundancy architecture to achieve high reliability performance. State-space models such as Markov process have been used extensively in previous studies for reliability evaluation of PMSs with dynamic behaviors. The most popular way to deal with the dynamic behaviors is Markov process, but it is well known that Markov process is limited to exponential distribution. In practice, however, the lifetime of most machinery products can follow non-exponential distributions like the Weibull distribution which cannot be handled by the Markov process. In order to solve this kind of problem, we present a semi-Markov model combined with an approximation algorithm to analyze PMS reliability subjected to non-exponential failures. Furthermore, the accuracy of the approximation algorithm is investigated by comparing to an accurate solution, and a typical PMS (attitude and orbit control system) is analyzed to demonstrate the implementation of the method.     

Design of car battery protection device based on torsion spring

In recent years, electric vehicles are developing rapidly in automotive industry. When involved in accidents, if the batteries of electric cars break, it is likely to cause a short circuit and start a fire. Aimed at this issue, a car battery protection device based on torsion spring has been designed. The car battery protection device can deform in a particular pattern in a collision accident. Impact energy of the accident is absorbed by the deformation, which can significantly reduce impact force on the batteries. Meanwhile, based on the principle of maximum energy absorption, some crucial parameters of the device can be determined. Furthermore, an impact simulation conducted on ANSYS software shows that maximum safety factors can be obtained when the material of car battery protection device is carbon steel. The analysis of “safe space” in the car battery protection device shows that the device can prevent battery damage effectively in general circumstances, which means the reliability of the device has been verified. Therefore, when applied to electric vehicles, the car battery protection device, which can prevent secondary accidents, significantly improves the vehicle security in accidents.     

Gain and noise figure analysis of Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped YAG transparent ceramic microchip amplifier

The rate equations and the power evolution equations based on excited state absorption (ESA) and cooperative upconversion (CUC) of high concentration erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) transparent ceramic waveguide amplifier are set up to analyze the effects of the pump power, active ion concentration and waveguide length on the amplifier gain and noise figure (NF). The numerical analysis predicts that with a pump power of 100mW, an active ion concentration of 1.0×10²⁶ ion/m³ and a waveguide length of 3 cm, a small-signal gain of 30 dB and an NF of 5 dB can be achieved in the micro-chip amplifier.     

海底隧道安全监测问题的几点思考

安全监测是海底隧道施工的重要保障措施之一。由于海底隧道具有与陆地隧道不同的环境特点,因此,也就带来了海底隧道安全监测的复杂性与高风险。为了切实解决海底隧道的安全监测问题,结合陆地隧道安全监测经验和海底隧道的环境特点,提出了海底隧道安全监测的基本原则和技术方法,包括海水渗透超前探测、岩层岩性超前探测、围压监测、隧道形变监测、隧道空间位置导向与定位监测等,为海底隧道安全监测方法设计提供了有益的基础依据。     

A Timing Synchronization Technique for High-pressure Common Rail Diesel Engine Based on eTPU Module

根据曲轴和凸轮轴传感器信号的特点,提出了一种基于信号编码的正时同步方法,并采用分层设计思想和模块化设计方法,开发了基于MPC563芯片eTPU模块的正时同步软件,实现了正时同步控制.试验结果表明,该方法思路正确,控制准确,达到了预期的目的.