Fatigue analysis for a multi-lap spot welded joint of high strength steel using quasi static tensile-shear test

The welding quality of spot weldment is an important factor that significantly affects the strength, stiffness, safety, and other performance characteristics of vehicles. Therefore, quality control and fatigue life evaluation of spot weldment are necessary processes. This paper presents a method for determining the fatigue life of multi-lap spot weldment of a high strength steel sheet. In this method, the fatigue life is estimated using the lethargy coefficient, which is the total defect coefficient according to rupture stress and time obtained by the quasi static tensile-shear test. The DC potential drop method was used to check initiation and propagation of cracks in addition to the test. Also, in this study, we modified the lethargy coefficient by using the welding current. Furthermore, we define a specific lapping constant, which is a characteristic constant of 2 or 3 lap weldments. The fatigue life obtained by the fatigue estimate equation, which contains a specific lapping constant was compared and verified with an experimental value. Finally we analyzed the relation of lap number, welding current and fatigue life. This method can save processing time and cost for predicting the life cycle of a structure.     

Effects of the fuel injection ratio on the emission and combustion performances of the partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion engine applied with the split injection method

Currently, due to the severity of world-wide air pollution by substances emitted from vehicles, emission control is being enforced more strictly, and it is expected that the regulation requirements for emission will become even more severe. A new concept combustion technology that can reduce the Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and PM in relation to combustion is urgently required. As a core combustion technology among new combustion technologies for the next generation engine, the homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is expanding its application range by adopting a multiple combustion mode, a catalyst, direct fuel injection and partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion using the split injection method. This paper used a split injection method in order to apply the partially premixed charge compression ignition combustion method without significantly altering engine specifications of the multiple combustion mode and practicality by referring to the results of studies on the HCCI engine. Furthermore, the effects of the ratio of the fuel injection amount on split injection are investigated. From the test results, the adequate combination of the ratio of the fuel injection amount for the split injection method has some benefit on exhaust and fuel economy performance in a naturally aspirated single cylinder diesel engine.     

Development of the brake system design program for a vehicle

It is quite challenging to estimate the braking performance of a vehicle because the brake system is comprised of many parts, including a booster, master cylinder, and caliper. Calculation of characteristics such as braking force through vehicle tests requires much time and money. Therefore, the development of a method to estimate the braking performance of a vehicle using qualitative methods is beneficial. In this study, a program that can analyze the braking capabilities of a vehicle such as pressure, efficiency, and pedal travel is presented. The increase in disc temperature during braking as well as the properties of various boosters can be calculated using the proposed program. Dynamic characteristics of a vehicle equipped with a Load Sensing Proportional Valve (LSPV) were computed more precisely by obtaining the change in valve pressure according to the displacement of a suspension system. Since all input and output files are composed in the Microsoft Excel format, both design data management and database construction can easily completed.     

Experimental study on macroscopic spray characteristics after impingement in a slit-type GDI injector

In this paper, an experimental study on the wall-impinging spray of the slit-type GDI injector is presented. To examine the effects of various factors on the development of a spray impinging on the wall, experiments were conducted at various injection pressures, ambient pressures, wall distances from the injector tip, wall temperatures, and wall inclination angles. Behavior of the impinging spray was visualized using a planar laser scattering method. It is shown that the spray path penetration of the wall-impinging spray increases with increases in injection pressure, wall distance, wall temperature, or wall angle. On the other hand, the spray path penetration of the wall-impinging spray decreases with increases in ambient pressure. The predicted spray path penetration calculated by the empirical equation estimates the spray path penetration in all cases, and the empirical equation is optimized for the total injection pressure.     

Investigation on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of diesel engine EGR coolers

An important goal in diesel engine research is the development of a means to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The use of a cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system is one of the most effective techniques currently available for reducing nitrogen oxides. Since PM (Particulate Matter) fouling reduces the efficiency of an EGR cooler, a tradeoff exists between the amount of NOx and PM emissions, especially at high engine loads. In the present study, we performed engine dynamometer experiments and numerical analyses to investigate how the internal shape of an EGR cooler affects the heat exchanger efficiency. Heat exchanger efficiencies were examined for plain and spiral EGR coolers. The temperature and pressure distributions inside these EGR coolers were obtained in three dimensions using the numerical package program FLUENT.     

Experimental investigation of nozzle cavitating flow characteristics for diesel and biodiesel fuels

This study was performed to clarify criteria for cavitation inception and the relationship between flow conditions and cavitation flow patterns of diesel and biodiesel fuels. The goal was to analyze the effects of injection conditions and fuel properties on cavitating flow and disintegration phenomena of flow after fuel injection. To accomplish this goal, it was utilized a test nozzle with a cylindrical cross-sectional orifice and a flow visualization system composed of a fuel supply system and an image acquisition system. In order to analyze the rate of flow and injection pressure of the fuel, a flow rate meter and pressure gauge were installed at the entrance of the nozzle. A long distance microscope device equipped with a digital camera and a high resolution ICCD camera were used to acquire flow images of diesel and biodiesel, respectively. The effects of nozzle geometry on the cavitating flow were also investigated. Lastly, a detailed comparison of the nozzle cavitation characteristics of both fuel types was conducted under a variety of fuel injection parameters. The results of this analysis revealed that nozzle cavitation flow could be divided into four regimes: turbulent flow, beginning of cavitation, growth of cavitation, and hydraulic flip. The velocity coefficient of diesel fuel was greatly altered following an increase in flow rate, although for biodiesel, the variation of the velocity coefficient relative to the rate of flow was mostly constant. The cavitation number decreased gradually with an increase in the Reynolds number and Weber number, and the discharge coefficient was nearly equal to one, regardless of cavitation number. Lastly, it could not observe cavitation growth in the tapered nozzle despite an increase in fuel injection pressure.     

Visualization of periodic flows over a sunroof opening by using a phase-marked PIV measurement

Flows over cavity openings are known to be highly structured and periodic due to the strong sound pressures emitted by the cavities. This article is concerned with the measurement of flow fields over the sunroof opening of an SUV. Since the PIV system used in the present work is not capable of taking phase-locked velocity fields during the measurement stage, phase-marked PIV measurements are performed and the phase-locked velocity fields are retrieved during a post-processing stage. The new PIV measurement method is shown to yield fairly accurate results with a proper choice of a phase-bandwidth. By using the phase-marked PIV measurement method, the evolution of large-scale structures in shear flow over the sunroof opening as phase changes is revealed. The detached shear layer is shown to fluctuate and then form a discrete large vortex convecting and impinging on the rear roof edge of the SUV. The average convection velocity of the vortex is calculated to be 0.45 of the nominal free stream flow velocity. Flow fields are compared for four different cases of deflector protrusion and a case without a deflector. Installation of a deflector can significantly change the flow field. For a deflector that reduces the buffeting noise by more than 10 dB, it is shown that turbulent fluctuations are initiated by the deflector but do not grow in amplitude as they convect downstream. As the deflector protrusion is increased, the amount of flow under the deflector increases in general. The flow exiting from the channel formed by the deflector and an A-frame is shown to increase the thickness of the shear layer near the leading edge of the sunroof opening.     

Comments on ‘the Kalker book of tables for non-Hertzian contact of wheel and rail’

The ‘simple double-elliptical contact’ (SDEC) approach by Piotrowski et al. [The Kalker book of tables for non-Hertzian contact of wheel and rail. Vehicle Syst Dyn. 2017;55:875–901] generates a-symmetrical contact patches in an elegant way. This allows to extend the table-based approach for the wheel–rail creep force calculation towards non-Hertzian contact geometry. This is an important line of research, because FASTSIM is intricate for non-Hertzian contacts, whereas CONTACT requires long calculation times.

Here, we comment on the further motivation that's provided for the approach. According to the authors, ‘the spin creepage generates longitudinal creep force in non-symmetric, non-elliptical contacts’, which is ‘completely lost’ when using elliptical regularisation. We demonstrate that this mainly depends on the choice of contact origin, and that the interaction is much reduced if different choices are made. This suggests that elliptical regularisation may be viable still, if the details are properly worked out. Furthermore, we introduce the spin center and the free-rolling position as means to extend the table-based approach towards more general non-Hertzian circumstances.     

Analysing training and education in ports

The quality and availability of labour is important for the performance of ports. Insights from cluster theories are relevant for analysing training and education in ports, as ports can be regarded as clusters. In general, labour in clusters is relatively mobile, education services in clusters are relatively good and employees have a high willingness to invest in specific skills. However, skilled and talented labour still may be scarce, especially in regions with tight labour markets. Thus, in many clusters, including port clusters, firms and governments actively aim to improve the quality of labour. This paper presents an analysis of these efforts of firms and governments to improve the quality of the labour force in three seaport clusters. In this paper the concept of a ‘training and education regime’ is presented as an approach to analyse efforts of firms and governments to improve the quality and availability of labour. Important results of three case studies include first, the observation that the quality of training and education regime differs substantially between clusters. Second, the presence of aregime manager in Rotterdam adds to the quality of Rotterdam’s training and education regime. Such an organisation may be effective across countries and clusters. Finally, the presence ofleader firms, willing to invest in training and education also improves an education regime.     

More gray hair—but for whom? Scenario-based simulations of elderly activity travel patterns in 2020

This paper reports the results of a scenario-based simulation study to explore mobility effects of an aging society in the Netherlands. Four accumulative behavioral scenario variants, embedded in an economic and demographic scenario are used to simulate possible future activity-travel patterns, using the Albatross system as the simulator. The variants account for likely differences in activity-travel behavior between elderly today and elderly in the future. Trends ongoing over the last decade in the Netherlands suggest that future elderly need to work longer, change their activity pattern with most growth occurring in the social/leisure activity category, will try to avoid morning peak hours by rescheduling their activities and may introduce more spatial diversity in terms of their residence location. Results show that these behavioral and spatial changes lead to a significant increase in travel demands as well as temporal, spatial and modal shifts in mobility patterns. We discuss possible policy implications of these predictions and evaluate the specific strength of activity-based models for studies of this kind.