Development of a knowledge-based hybrid failure diagnosis system for urban transit

Urban transit is a complex system that contains both electrical and mechanical entities; therefore, it is necessary to construct a maintenance system for ensuring safety during high-speed driving. Expert systems are computer programs that use numerical or non-numerical domain-specific knowledge to solve problems. This research aims to develop an expert system that diagnoses the causes of failures quickly and displays measures to correct them. For the development of this expert system, the standardization of a failure code classification and the creation of a Bill of Materials (BOM) were first performed. Through the analysis of both failure history and maintenance manuals, a knowledge base has been constructed. Also, for retrieving the procedure of failure diagnosis and repair linking with the knowledge base, we have built a Rule-Based Reasoning (RRB) engine with a pattern matching technique and a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) engine with a similar search method. Finally, this system has been developed as web based in order to maximize accessibility.     

Development of a semi-empirical program for predicting the braking performance of a passenger vehicle

Since the invention of automobiles, the need to know the braking performance of vehicles has been acknowledged. However, because there are numerous design variables as well as nonlinearities in the braking system, it is difficult to predict the performance accurately. In this paper, a computational program is developed to estimate the braking performance numerically. This synthetic braking performance program accounts for pedal force, pedal travel and deceleration of braking parts, such as master cylinder, booster, valve, brake pad, rotor, and hoses. To improve the accuracy of program, a semi-empirical model of a braking system is introduced by using the empirical test data of pad compression, hose expansion and the friction coefficient between the pad and rotor. The accuracy of the estimation is evaluated by comparing it to the actual vehicle test results. The developed program is easy for the brake system engineers to manipulate and it can be used in the development of new vehicles by incorporating the graphical presentations.     

Theoretical Comparison Between Different Configurations of Radial and Conventional Bogies

This article compares the dynamic behaviour of different configurations of radial and conventional two-axle bogies. In general, the design parameters for a better curve negotiation are not compatible with those for good stability. As the main target of this article is to compare the curving performances of different bogies under the same design basis, several bogie configurations with the same level of stability, obtained by choosing proper primary suspension stiffnesses, have been used. The comparison includes a conventional bogie and three radial bogies with differing self-steering and forced-steering principles in three different passenger services: High Speed, Regional and Mass Transit. The analysis has been concentrated on parameters such as stability, lateral wheel-track forces in curve and wheel wear indices. The results show that the radial bogie configurations studied do not make significant contributions in general applications with regard to a conventional bogie. It is only under specific running conditions and types of service that some radial bogie configurations provide advantages with respect to the conventional bogie.     

Heavy-duty vehicle modelling and longitudinal control

This paper addresses modelling, longitudinal control design and implementation for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). The challenging problems here are: (a) an HDV is mass dominant with low power to mass ratio; (b) They possess large actuator delay and actuator saturation. To reduce model mismatch, it is necessary to obtain a nonlinear model which is as simple as the control design method can handle and as complicated as necessary to capture the intrinsic vehicle dynamics. A second order nonlinear vehicle body dynamical model is adopted, which is feedback linearizable. Beside the vehicle dynamics, other main dynamical components along the power-train and drive-train are also modelled, which include turbocharged diesel engine, torque converter, transmission, transmission retarder, pneumatic brake and tyre. The braking system is the most challenging part for control design, which contains three parts: Jake (engine compression) brake, air brake and transmission retarder. The modelling for each is provided. The use of engine braking effect is new complementary to Jake (compression) brake for longitudinal control, which is united with Jake brake in modelling. The control structure can be divided into upper level and lower level. Upper level control uses sliding mode control to generate the desired torque from the desired vehicle acceleration. Lower level control is divided into two branches: (a) engine control: from positive desired torque to desired fuel rate (engine control) using a static engine mapping which basically captures the intrinsic dynamic performance of the turbo-charged diesel engine; (b) brake control: from desired negative torque to generate Jake brake cylinder number to be activated and ON/OFF time periods, applied pneumatic brake pressure and applied voltage of transmission retarder. Test results are also reported.     

Crashworthiness of chromium plated plastic radiator grille

The use of plastic in vehicle development has increased. In particular, a design trend has resulted in chromiumplated plastics being used in exterior panels. Recently, as the appearance has become more important in design, the plastic radiator grille has become larger, to where it can become the primary member when a front collision happens. The radiator grille should be designed with considerations of the geometric structure, such as delamination, and material characteristics, when plastics are plated with chromium. The enlarged grille has to pass regulations like FMVSS Part 581. Although the material property of plastic has been studied before, what seems to be lacking is study on the crashworthiness of plastic radiator grilles that are plated using chromium. In this paper, in order to evaluate the crashworthiness, tensile test and front collision analysis using finite element method are performed. Tensile test is conducted with 4 types of materials, and then material properties of chromium-plated plastics are obtained. Meanwhile radiator grille’s crashworthiness is evaluated using finite element analysis method. Analysis result is evaluated according to failure criterion. Through this study, method of the assessment of plastic radiator grille’s crashworthiness considered material properties of chromium plated plastics is proposed, and it can be predicted the delamination and the failure point of radiator grille at the design step.     

On the nonlinear and time-varying acoustic modeling of the simplified intake or exhaust silencing system

The intake or exhaust noise of an internal combustion engine is usually predicted by the linear, time-invariant source model in frequency domain with reasonable precision. However, the actual finite amplitude pulsation involves the nonlinear, time-varying characteristics that are prominent in time-domain. To overcome the discrepancy between two source models, an approximate nonlinear and time-varying frequency domain source model can be employed by appending the nonlinear or time-varying terms to the linear, time-invariant source model. Proper selection of the nonlinear describing terms varying with time is important for the realistic and precise prediction of the radiated sound. For the selection of such terms, flow and motional characteristics in the valve and orifice of a simplified fluid machine comprised of very large reservoir, valve, and duct is considered. Effects of each describing term and the combined terms are investigated by comparing the sound spectrum predicted from nonlinear source model to that from linear source model. In the comparison, the sound spectrum calculated by the method of characteristics is used as a reference. It is found that the source model using only the velocityrelated terms yields the best result among all the models using various combinations of the terms with different characteristics. The best model yields a difference from the linear source model within ±5 dB in overall sound level. Change of acoustic loads results in a difference of 20–27 dB in linear source model from the reference data; however, maximum 10–22 dB deviations are observed in using the various nonlinear source models. It is concluded that more than 4 describing terms should be employed in the nonlinear model to obtain a realistic result of the radiated sound from the intake or exhaust system.     

Region of attraction analysis for nonlinear vehicle lateral dynamics using sum-of-squares programming

In this study we will estimate the region of attraction (RoA) of the lateral dynamics of a nonlinear single-track vehicle model. The tyre forces are approximated using rational functions that are shown to capture the nonlinearities of tyre curves significantly better than polynomial functions. An existing sum-of-squares (SOS) programming algorithm for estimating regions of attraction is extended to accommodate the use of rational vector fields. This algorithm is then used to find an estimate of the RoA of the vehicle lateral dynamics. The influence of vehicle parameters and driving conditions on the stability region are studied. It is shown that SOS programming techniques can be used to approximate the stability region without resorting to numerical integration. The RoA estimate from the SOS algorithm is compared to the existing results in the literature. The proposed method is shown to obtain significantly better RoA estimates.     

PACDIN statement of methods

PAntograph–Catenary Dynamic Interaction (PACDIN) is a code developed by the vehicle technology research centre (CITV) of the Universitat Politècnica de València in collaboration with the railway company Talgo S.L. The model of the catenary is a finite element model using absolute nodal coordinates. It is based on a general formulation that can be applied for analysing a wide range of catenary configurations, including stitch wire, transitions or non-straight path tracks. The formulation is fully non-linear and includes large deformations, dropper slackening and contact interaction. The model is linearised when deformations are small, as in the case of the benchmark dynamic analysis. The results of the PACDIN code show a good agreement with the average results of other benchmark codes.     

Role of steering wheel feedback on driver performance: driving simulator and modeling analysis

When driving in curves, how do drivers use the force appearing on the steering wheel? As it carries information related to lateral acceleration, this force could be necessary for drivers to tune their internal model of vehicle dynamics; alternatively, being opposed to the drivers' efforts, it could just help them stabilize the steering wheel position. To assess these two hypotheses, we designed an experiment on a motion-based driving simulator. The steering characteristics of the vehicle were modified in the course of driving, unknown to drivers. Results obtained with standard drivers showed a surprisingly wide range of adaptation, except for exaggerated modifications of the steering force feedback. A two-level driver model, combining a preview of vehicle dynamics and a neuromuscular steering control, reproduces these experimental results qualitatively and indicates that adaptation occurs at the haptic level rather than in the internal model of vehicle dynamics. This effect is related to other theories on the manual control of dynamics systems, wherein force feedback characteristics are abstracted at the position control level. This research also illustrates the use of driving simulation for the study of driver behavior and future intelligent steering assistance systems.     

锰粉加工工人心血管功能的调查研究

对 ５５ 名锰粉加工工人和 ５６ 名对照工人的调查结果显示，工人工作地点 Ｍｎ Ｏ２ 浓度几何均值为 １９６ ｍ ｇ／ｍ ３ （锰尘 ０１７～２２．２４ ｍ ｇ／ｍ ３ ），样品超标率 ８８７％ 。接触组头晕头痛、睡眠障碍、容易疲劳和记忆不良的主诉率明显高于对照组（ Ｐ＜００５～００１）。接触组和对照组的心电图异常、高血压和低舒张压检出率未见显著性差异，其心率、 Ｐ Ｒ间期、 Ｑ Ｒ Ｓ波、收缩压和舒张压的均值比较也没有显著性差异。接触组心电图异常和低舒张压的 Ｏ Ｒ分别是 １．５６（９５％ 可信区间为 ０７０～３．５０）和 ２．０８（９５％ 可信区间为 ０１８～２３．５７）。