Simulation of city bus performance based on actual urban driving cycle in China

This paper establishes the simulation model of a city bus on the basis of the EQ6110 bus prototype and its experimental data. According to the actual urban driving cycle, the fuel economy and the traction performance of the EQ6110 city bus have been simulated, and factors such as the driving cycle, the loss of power to engine accessories, the gear-shifting strategy, the fuel shut-off strategy of the engine, etc., which influence on the bus’s fuel economy, are also quantitatively analyzed. Some conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) driving cycles have a great influence on the fuel economy of a city bus; (2) under the typical urban driving cycle of the public bus in China, the engine fuel shut-off strategy can save about 1 to 1.5 percent of the fuel consumption; and (3) the optimized gear-shifting rules can save 6.7 percent of the fuel consumption. Experimental results verify that the fuel economy for the EQ6110 public bus is improved by 7.2 pecent over the actual Wuhan urban driving cycle of the current public bus in China.     

Analysis process of a steering system using a concept model for idle vibration

This paper describes the development of an optimal design process for a steering column system and supporting system. A design guide is proposed at the initial concept stage of the development process to obtain sufficient stiffness of the steering system while reducing the idle vibration sensitivity of the system. Case studies on resonance isolation are summarized, where vibration modes among the systems are separated by applying a vibration mode map at the initial stage of the design process. This study also provides design guidelines for an optimal dynamic damper system using a CAE (computer aided engineering) analysis. The damper FE (finite element) model is added to the vehicle model to analyze the relation between the frequency and the sensitivity of the steering column system. This analysis methodology makes it possible to achieve target performance in the early design stage and reduction of damper tuning activity after the proto car test stage. Through the proposed steering column system development process, a lightweight vehicle with high stiffness is possible prior to the proto build stage. Furthermore, the improved process is expected to contribute to reducing the overall development period and the number of proto car tests necessary to achieve the desired steering system performance.     

Effect of fuel stratification on initial flame development: Part 2-low swirl condition

This paper is the second invstigation on the effect of fuel stratification on flame propagation. In the previous work, the characteristics under the no port-generated swirl condition, i.e., the conventional case was studied. In this work, the flame development under the low swirl condition was considered. For this purpose, the initial flame development and propagation were visualized under different axially stratified states in a modified optical single cylinder SI engine. The images were captured by an intensified CCD camera through the quartz window mounted in the piston. Stratification was controlled by the combination of the port swirl ratio and injection timing. These were averaged and processed to characterize the flame propagation. The flame stability was estimated by the weighted average of flame area and luminosity. The stability was also evaluated through the standard deviation of flame area and propagation distance and through the mean absolute deviation of the propagating direction. The results show that the flame-flow interaction determines the direction of flame propagation and that the governing roles of the two factors vary according to the stratified state and the location in the cylinder. In addition, the flame development and the initial flame stability are strongly dependent on the stratified conditions, and the initial flame stability is closely related to the engine stability and lean misfire limit. Lastly, there is no essential difference in gasoline and CNG flame propagation characteristics.     

Lane-following method for high speed autonomous vehicles

This paper presents a steering control method for lane-following in a vehicle using an image sensor. With each image frame acquired from the sensor, the steering control method determines target position and direction, and constructs a travel path from the current position to the target position either as an Arc-path or S-path. The steering angle is calculated from the travel path thus generated, and the vehicle follows the travel path via motor-control. The method was tested using a vehicle dubbed as KAV (Korea Autonomous Vehicle) along an expressway (Seoul Inner Beltway) trajectory with a variety of radii (50 m ∼ 300 m) while traveling at a speed of 60 km/h to 80 km/h. Compared with an experienced human driver, the method showed little much difference in performance in terms of lane-center deviation. The proposed method is currently employed for high speed autonomous driving as well as for stop and go traffic.     

Automotive structure vibration with component mode synthesis on a multi-level

The recursive component mode synthesis method (RCMS) has been implemented for the finite element analysis model of an automobile structure as an efficient free vibration analysis tool. The RCMS method is intended to obtain a better performance relative to the block Lanczos method, which is a traditional method in the industry of obtaining eigenvalues, while obtaining the acceptable accuracy. A numerical example of the automobile finite element model demonstrates the outstanding performance of RCMS compared to the block Lanczos method.     

A link-node complementarity model and solution algorithm for dynamic user equilibria with exact flow propagations

In this paper, we propose a link-node complementarity model for the basic deterministic dynamic user equilibrium (DUE) problem with single-user-class and fixed demands. The model complements link-path formulations that have been widely studied for dynamic user equilibria. Under various dynamic network constraints, especially the exact flow propagation constraints, we show that the continuous-time dynamic user equilibrium problem can be formulated as an infinite dimensional mixed complementarity model. The continuous-time model can be further discretized as a finite dimensional non-linear complementarity problem (NCP). The proposed discrete-time model captures the exact flow propagation constraints that were usually approximated in previous studies. By associating link inflow at the beginning of a time interval to travel times at the end of the interval, the resulting discrete-time model is predictive rather than reactive. The solution existence and compactness condition for the proposed model is established under mild assumptions. The model is solved by an iterative algorithm with a relaxed NCP solved at each iteration. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed model and solution approach. We particularly show why predictive DUE is preferable to reactive DUE from an algorithmic perspective.     

Driver behavior formulation in intersection dilemma zones with phone use distraction via a logit-Bayesian network hybrid approach

Use of cellular phone while driving is one of the top contributing factors that induce traffic crashes, resulting in significant loss of life and property. A dilemma zone is a circumstance near signalized intersections where drivers hesitate when making decisions related to their driving behaviors. Therefore, the dilemma zone has been identified as an area with high crash potential. This article utilizes a logit-based Bayesian network (BN) hybrid approach to investigate drivers' decision patterns in a dilemma zone with phone use, based on experimental data from driving simulations from the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS). Using a logit regression model, five variables were found to be significant in predicting drivers' decisions in a dilemma zone with distractive phone tasks: older drivers (50–60 years old), yellow signal length, time to stop line, handheld phone tasks, and driver gender. The identified significant variables were then used to train a BN model to predict drivers' decisions at a dilemma zone and examine probabilistic impacts of these variables on drivers' decisions. The analysis results indicate that the trained BN model was effective in driver decision prediction and variable influence extraction. It was found that older drivers, a short yellow signal, a short time to stop line, nonhandheld phone tasks, and female drivers are factors that tend to result in drivers proceeding through intersections in a dilemma zone with phone use distraction. These research findings provide insight in understanding driver behavior patterns in a dilemma zone with distractive phone tasks.     

Distributed support modelling for vertical track dynamic analysis

The finite length nature of rail-pad supports is characterised by a Timoshenko beam element formulation over an elastic foundation, giving rise to the distributed support element. The new element is integrated into a vertical track model, which is solved in frequency and time domain. The developed formulation is obtained by solving the governing equations of a Timoshenko beam for this particular case. The interaction between sleeper and rail via the elastic connection is considered in an analytical, compact and efficient way. The modelling technique results in realistic amplitudes of the ‘pinned–pinned’ vibration mode and, additionally, it leads to a smooth evolution of the contact force temporal response and to reduced amplitudes of the rail vertical oscillation, as compared to the results from concentrated support models. Simulations are performed for both parametric and sinusoidal roughness excitation. The model of support proposed here is compared with a previous finite length model developed by other authors, coming to the conclusion that the proposed model gives accurate results at a reduced computational cost.     

A tool to aid redesign of flexible transport services to increase efficiency in rural transport service provision

Rural areas generally have lower and more dispersed demands for travel which cannot sustain conventional public transport services and consequently have a greater number of flexible and demand responsive transport services operating. These services usually operate on a stand-alone basis, are often subsidized and are typically only accessible by certain passenger types or for specific trip purposes. This generally results in uncoordinated and inefficient transport provision overall. The Flexible integrated transport services (FITS) system featured in this paper has been designed to address this problem. FITS can be used as a planning tool to assess potential benefits from relaxing operating constraints (e.g., a service's operating boundaries), which can potentially suggest service redesign. It also includes the capacity to assign subsidy payments on a trip by trip basis to increase cost efficiency whilst meeting a greater proportion of transport needs. The case study in the paper focusses on transport to health in the Aberdeenshire and Morayshire areas of Scotland in the UK. Despite flexible transport operators receiving public funds to meet passenger needs, this is currently being supplemented by public bodies paying large amounts in taxi fares in instances where there is a statutory obligation to provide travel but where no other suitable transport service exists. The results demonstrate the potential substantial savings which could be realized by allowing transport operators to redesign their services by relaxing constraints and by the reassignment of subsidies: resulting in more passenger demands being met and a reduction in public spending on taxi fares.     

Improvement of exhaust gas pressure’s utilization for compressing the intake air in diesel engine’s cylinders

In order to improve the economical and environmental performances of the Diesel engines, the present paper aims to bring to the forefront solutions to increase the efficiency of the supercharging process carried out by the aggregates with Comprex type pressure waves. One solution to this is to drive the Comprex, not by the supercharged engine as it currently happens, but by a DC motor. The speed of the electric motor is modified, by means of an electronic management system, depending on the speed and load of the Diesel engine. The paper presents the experimental results obtained during the investigation of a supercharged Diesel engine by the Comprex driven type according to the proposed solution.