Exhaust emissions and fuel consumption of a triple-fuel spark-ignition engine powered passenger car

This paper examines the influence of compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and gasoline fuel on the exhaust emissions and the fuel consumption of a spark-ignition engine powered passenger car. The vehicle was driven according to the urban driving cycle and extra urban driving cycle speed profiles with the warmed-up engine. Cause and effect based analysis reveals potential for using different fuels to reduce vehicle emission and deficiencies associated with particular fuels. The highest tank to wheel efficiency and the lowest CO₂ emission are observed with the natural gas fuelled vehicle, that also featured the highest total hydrocarbon emissions and high NO_x emissions because of fast three way catalytic converter aging due the use of the compressed natural gas. Retrofitted liquefied petroleum gas fuel supply systems feature the greatest air-fuel ratio variations that result in the lowest TtW efficiency and in the highest NO_x emissions of the liquefied gas fuelled vehicle.     

Thermodynamic Analysis of a Condensate Heating Systemfrom a Marine Steam Propulsion Plant with Steam Reheating

The thermodynamic (energy and exergy) analysis of a condensate heating system, its segments, and components from a marine steam propulsion plant with steam rehe...     

Workshop report - Benchmarking the outcome of competitive tendering

Workshop 1 was concerned to identify the real results of competitive tendering, and experience on how to make it work better, using evidence from the rail and bus sectors in a large number of countries spread around the world. It was found that competitive tendering had generally been successful in terms of quality and costs, but problems had occurred in a number of cases, so careful attention must be paid to the design of tendering exercises, details of the contract, risk-sharing arrangements and the approach to any re-negotiation found to be necessary. As a result, an important conclusion is that the tendering authority needs a high degree of expertise in these issues; any thought that competitive tendering relieves the public authority of the need for expertise in public transport is mistaken.     

高墩大跨连续刚构桥的施工控制

介绍了高墩、大跨连续刚构桥的结构特点,论述了高墩、大跨连续刚构桥施工中的高程线形监控方法。     

Assessing the impact of the built environment on travel behavior: a case study of Buffalo,New York

Assessing the impact of characteristics of the built environment on travel behavior can yield valuable tools for land use and transportation planning. Of particular interest are planning models that can estimate the effects of ‘smart growth’ planning. In this paper, a post-processor method of quantifying and searching for relationships among many aspects of travel behavior and the built environment is developed and applied to the Buffalo, NY area. A wide scope of travel behavior is examined, and over 50 variables, many of which are based on high-detail data sources, are examined for potentially quantifying the built environment. Linear modeling is then used to relate travel behavior and the built environment, and the resulting models may be applied in a post-processor fashion to travel models to provide some measure of sensitivity to built environment modifications. The study’s findings demonstrate that mode choice is highly correlated to measures of the built environment, and that many of the principles of smart growth appear to be a valid way to encourage non-vehicle travel. Home-based VHT and VMT appear to be affected by the built environment to a lesser degree.     

An investigation into the isolation performance of mono-and bi-stable systems

Motivated by the need for improving the isolation performance, many research studies have been performed on isolators with nonlinear characteristics. Based on the shape of their phase portrait, such devices can be configured as either a mono-or bi-stable isolator. This paper focuses on investigating the relative performance of these two classes under the same excitations. Force transmissibility is used to measure the isolation performance, which is defined in terms of the RMS of the ratio of the transmitted force to the excitation force. When the system is subjected to harmonic excitation, it is found that the maximum reduction of the force transmissibility in the isolation range using Quasi-Zero stiffness is achieved. When the system is subjected to random excitation, it has the same effect of Quasi-Zero stiffness. Further, optimum damping can be changed with stiffness and has minimum value.     

Sea trial of prototype Vertical Weight Stabilizer (VWS) anti-rolling system for small ships

Anti-rolling is an important technique for safety and efficient ship operation. In the era of sailing ships, rolling motions were not so severe compared to those of modern ships running by prime mover without sails, because the sail itself had a damping effect on rolling motion. After propeller driven ships exceeded sailing ships in number and performance, namely, from the end of the nineteenth century, many types of anti-rolling–related techniques were invented and developed, of both passive and active types. Recently (2009, 2010), as sea trials, we carried out proto-type experiments on an anti-rolling system and confirmed its effectiveness. The new concept utilizes the so-called Corioli’s effect, which appears in the rotational coordinate system. Usually, this effect is considered as virtual, but the real effect appears when a mass moves in the radial direction in a rotating coordinate system. In the case of ship rolling, the vertical motion of a mass generates Corioli’s force to finally generate anti-rolling moment. This is the reason the system was named Vertical Weight Stabilizer (VWS). This new system was invented in 1998 by Hirayama, and confirmed by the model experiments in a towing tank. Numerical simulations were carried out by the Sea and Air Control System laboratory of Yokohama National University, but the actual system could not be realized, because we could not find an appropriate actuator. The key technology for the success of the current sea experiment is the powerful, high-speed, compact actuator for the vertical movement of the weight. In this paper, we introduce this new concept by adopting a simple experiment, the control system with new actuator used in an actual sea experiment, and report on the successful results.     

Differences in emission of nitrogen and phosphorus into the Vistula and Oder basins in 1995-2008 — Natural and anthropogenic causes (MONERIS model)

The aim of the modeling studies (MONERIS) was to estimate annual source apportioned nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) emissions into the Vistula and Oder basins in 1995-2008, thus, during the transition period in Poland, characterized by changes in both agricultural sector and handling of point source pollution. N and P emissions into both basins showed declining tendencies. Between the sub-periods 1995-2002 and 2003-2008, the overall N emission into the Vistula and Oder basins decreased by 16-17% (i.e. by ca. 26,900 tons in the Vistula and by ca. 18,000 tons in the Oder basin); P emission declined by 23% in the Vistula and by 32% in the Oder basins (i.e. by ca. 3400 tons in the Vistula and by ca. 2200 tons in the Oder basin). The temporal patterns of N and P emission into the Vistula and Oder basins, as well as the percentage contribution of N and P pathways (particularly: overland flow, tile drainage, groundwater, waste water treatment plants) showed great differences between the basins. Natural (type of bedrock, soil type, lake area) and anthropogenic (regionally and temporarily different type and intensity of agricultural activity, spatially different structural changes in agriculture during the transition period, regionally and temporarily different investment in waste water treatment plans) factors were found to be responsible for the differences, and the relationships are extensively discussed in the paper. In 1995-2008, 70% of N emission into both river basins was via groundwater and tile drainage, with the former playing more important role in the Vistula basin, and the latter playing more important role in the Oder basin; contribution of N emission from point sources was comparable in both rivers and it reached 11-12%. In 1995-2008, point sources, erosion, overland flow, and urban systems were found the most important P pathways in both basins, with a higher percentage contribution of point sources in the Oder basin.     

Response analysis of a truss spar in the frequency domain

The nonzero added-mass coefficients of a platform are found by using the transformation law for a second-order tensor, and the repeated application of the parallel-axes theorem. The excitation forces acting on the truss section of the platform are derived by an approach that differs from the conventional one commonly seen in the literature. The force decomposition of the Morison equation is used to add viscous effects to linear equations of motion. The nonlinear equation of motion for the heave of the truss spar is solved without any iteration in the frequency domain. The results obtained from this analysis are compared with results obtained from the conventional numerical approach and with experimental data.     

Importance of several nonlinear factors on broaching prediction

In order to realize a more quantitative prediction of broaching and capsizing in following and quartering seas, existing mathematical modelling techniques should be upgraded. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically examine all factors relevant to capsizing in following and quartering seas. To this end, we first attempted to examine the prediction accuracy of wave-induced forces by comparing calculations with captive model experiments. As a result, we found that a wave-induced surge force has a certain nonlinearitiy with respect to wave steepness. The nonlinearity of sway–roll coupling with respect to sway velocity was also found, and our numerical result with these nonlinearities improves the prediction accuracy of the critical ship speed of capsizing in following and quartering seas. The importance of the wave effect on propeller thrust was also examined. We found that this effect is not negligibly small and could improve capsizing predictions in heavy following and quartering seas. Finally, we attempted to investigate the importance of nonlinear heel-induced hydrodynamic forces on numerical predictions of capsizing due to broaching. Here, we propose a new procedure for captive model experiments to obtain hydrodynamic forces with various heel angles up to 90°, and data on heel-induced hydrodynamic forces with respect to heel angle in calm water are provided. We then compare the numerical simulations with the nonlinear heel-induced hydrodynamic forces and without them. These time series comparisons show that the effect of nonlinear heel-induced hydrodynamic forces in calm water is not negligibly small for the case of ship capsizing due to broaching.