Estimation of road profile variability from measured vehicle responses

When assessing the statistical variability of fatigue loads acting throughout the life of a vehicle, the question of the variability of road roughness naturally arises, as both quantities are strongly related. For car manufacturers, gathering information on the environment in which vehicles evolve is a long and costly but necessary process to adapt their products to durability requirements. In the present paper, a data processing algorithm is proposed in order to estimate the road profiles covered by a given vehicle, from the dynamic responses measured on this vehicle. The algorithm based on Kalman filtering theory aims at solving a so-called inverse problem, in a stochastic framework. It is validated using experimental data obtained from simulations and real measurements. The proposed method is subsequently applied to extract valuable statistical information on road roughness from an existing load characterisation campaign carried out by Renault within one of its markets.     

Design and implementation of a new clamping force estimator in Electro-Mechanical Brake systems

In this paper, an improved clamping force estimator is proposed for Electro-Mechanical Brake (EMB) systems by using the motor rotor position information and the hysteresis characteristics of mechanical parts in the EMB. A cascaded type of a force/position control system with a force sensor or an estimator was designed and implemented to control the clamping force and to keep the clearance gap in EMB systems. The EMB Hardware-In-the-Loop-Simulation (HILS) results show that the proposed force estimator yields better estimation performance than the existing estimator and that the clamping force control system based on the estimator can be also used for the fault tolerant control of the system.     

Research on control strategy for differential steering system based on H mixed sensitivity

The differential steering system (DSS) of electric wheel vehicle gets rid of the restrictions of traditional steering system completely. As an ideal steering technology, it not only realizes the perfect combination of the road feel and the steering portability, but also realizes the harmony and unification between the steering maneuverability and safety. The structure and basic theory of the DSS of electric wheel vehicle are discussed in this paper. Based on these, the dynamic model of the steering system is built. Considering of the uncertainties and disturbances existing in the model, the H_∞ mixed sensitivity control theory is applied to achieve better tracking performance and road feel in the process of steering. Then, a H_∞ mixed sensitivity controller is designed to restrain the effect of the road disturbance and model uncertainties. The simulation results indicate that the DSS with the designed controller can effectively restrain the effect of noises and disturbances caused by random motivation from road, torque sensor measurement and model parameter uncertainty, and enable the driver to obtain satisfactory road feel.     

Experimental study on the impact characteristics of a sandwich composite with an aluminum foam core

The need for composites has been increasing in various industries because composites have good mechanical properties for their weight and superior stiffness and strength. The composites addressed in this study were multi-pore aluminum foam with a specific gravity of 1/10 composed of solid aluminum metal. This composite has excellent impact energy-absorption capability. In this study, impact tests on an aluminum foam core sandwich composite with a porous core were conducted to examine its mechanical properties. The specimen was a sandwich structure with an aluminum foam core, and different impact energies, such as 50J, 70J, and 100J, were applied to the specimen. Consequently, a maximum load of 5.5 kN occurred when the striker penetrated the upper face sheet in all experiments. The maximum load occurred at 4.2 ms for 50J, 3.5 ms for 70J, and 3.0 ms for 100J, indicating that the greater the impact energy was, the shorter the time was until the maximum load. After the maximum load occurred, that is, after the penetration of the upper face sheet, the striker penetrated 10 mm further, causing the core to be damaged in the 50J test, while the lower face sheet remained intact. In the 70J test, the striker penetrated the core and caused damage to the upper face sheet at 10 ms. Finally, in the 100J test, the striker penetrated both the upper face sheet and core and even the lower face sheet at 10 ms. Given the result above, the maximum load occurred when the striker penetrated the upper face sheet and the sandwich composite with aluminum foam core; the load then gradually decreased and then rapidly increased when the striker reached the lower face sheet, and the maximum load lasted slightly longer than the time required for the upper face sheet to be penetrated.     

欧洲客车设计

自然,欧洲客车设计也受到技术与生产的限制。自20世纪初到50年代的几十年时间里,大部分制造商在生产和销售适应于市场的车辆,这些车辆的可靠性非常好,无可挑剔,有些甚至可以说是难得的珍品。渐渐地,像所有经济领域一样,客车经济的信息增强了,单凭客车的外观与美学功能,就能对销     

Choice of parking: Stated preference approach

Over recent years, parking policy has become a key element of transport policy in many countries. Parking policy measures can affect many different dimensions of travel behaviour but are likely to be most significant in terms of travellers' choice of parking type and location. This dimension of travel choice has, to date, received comparatively little attention, yet is of vital importance if we are to properly understand and predict the effects of parking policy measures.This paper presents two studies addressing this issue carried out in the United Kingdom and Germany. Both studies used a stated preference approach in order to collect disaggregate data on travellers responses to changes in parking attributes and used these data to build simple logit models of parking type choice. The studies were designed in order to allow comparable choice models to be estimated from the two datasets. The results obtained strongly indicate the need to separately identify the costs associated with different components of the parking activity (e.g., general in-vehicle time, parking search time, egress time) and also point to the existence of significant differences in the relative valuation of these components across different journey purposes. Where possible, the results of the choice modelling exercises are also compared with existing revealed and stated preference results and are found to be generally in line with prior expectations.     

Modified lateral control of an autonomous vehicle by look-ahead and look-down sensing

This paper presents a modified lateral control method for an autonomous vehicle with both look-ahead and look-down sensing systems. To cope with sensor noise and modeling uncertainty in the lateral control of the vehicle, a modified LMI-based H lateral controller was proposed, which uses the look-ahead information of the lateral offset error measured at the front of vehicle and the look-down information of the vehicle yaw angle error between the reference lane and the centerline of the vehicle. To verify the safety and the performance of the lateral control, a scaled-down vehicle was developed, and the positioning of the vehicle was estimated with USAT. The proposed controller, which uses both look-ahead and look-down information, was tested for lane changing and reference lane tracking with both simulation and experiment. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed controller has better tracking and handling performance compared with a controller that uses only the look-ahead information of the target heading angle error.     

Competition and disruption in a dynamic urban supply chain

Rapid changes and complexities in business environments have stressed the importance of interactions between partners and competitors, leading supply chains to become the most important element of contemporary business environments. There is a concomitant need for foresight in describing supply chain performance in all operating environments, including those involving punctuated disruptions. Furthermore, the urban metropolis is now widely recognized to be an environment which is especially vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and for which integrated supply chain decisions can produce very substantial net benefits. Accordingly, this paper presents a dynamic supply chain network model formulated as a differential variational inequality; the model is fashioned to allow consideration of supply chain disruption threats to producers, freight carriers, and retail enterprises. The DVI is solved using a fixed-point algorithm, and a simple numerical example, introduced to illustrate how the impacts of supply chain disruptions may be quantified, is presented.     

Improvement of long-term lives of rubber gaskets of polyacrylate (ACM) by employing carboxyl cure sites

Rubber gaskets are used widely in many industries. An evaluation of the material properties and an accurate lifetime prediction of rubber are very important in the design process to ensure the durability and reliability of rubber components. The properties of rubber-like materials are sensitive to ambient conditions, such as temperature, environment and mechanical load. Moreover, the initial properties of rubber gaskets must be sustained under working conditions to maintain its sealing function. To perform tests within a reasonable time, the highly accelerated life test (HALT) is generally used to predict the long-term lifetime of rubber materials. Polyacrylate (ACM) with chlorine cure sites is generally used for engine head gaskets. An ACM with carboxyl cure sites was developed to improve the lifetime of the gaskets. A four-parameter method representing the recovery behavior of the gaskets was published recently, and two revised methods for obtaining the recovery were proposed. The mean squared errors (MSEs) of the regression methods and experimental data were compared. The life of a gasket for the target recovery (60%) of a compressed gasket was calculated somewhat differently depending on the selected regression model to predict a considerably different long-term life. The parameters in the regression models were obtained using the successive zooming genetic algorithm (SZGA), and the lives of ACM with a carboxyl cure site and ACM with a chlorine cure site were compared.