Load Transfer Analysis of a Bus Bay Section Under Standard Rollover Test Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">U</Emphasis>*<Subscript>M</Subscript> Index

Bus rollover accidents are receiving increasing attention due to the associated high fatality rate. In order to improve the bus structural performance during the rollover collision, it is necessary to investigate how the impact force is transferred within the bus superstructure. This paper introduced a method for studying the load transfer behavior of the bus superstructure during the standard rollover test by using the U * _M index. A bus bay section was used as the sample structure to demonstrate the proposed method. The result of the paper reveals that the load transfer analysis based on the U * _M index can provide engineers with the insight of the structural issues and the direction to improve the structural performance, which cannot be accomplished through the conventional finite element analysis.     

Tire Lateral Force Estimation Using Kalman Filter

As for the tire analysis, lateral tire force is a fundamental factor that describes the stability of vehicle handling. Attempts to analyze the vehicle stability have been made based on various objective test methods and some specific factors such as yaw, lateral acceleration and roll angle. However, the problem to identify which axle is lack of the tire grip at a certain situation still remains. Since indoor tire force measurement system cannot represent a real road and vehicle conditions, tire force measurement through a real vehicle test is inevitable. Due to the high price of the tire force measurement device, tire force estimator can be an alternative toward cost reduction and device failure. In this paper, nonlinear planar full car model combined with tire model is proposed. Then, using discrete-time extended Kalman-Bucy filter (EKBF), individual tire lateral force are estimated with modified relaxation length model.     

Potential of Real-Time Cylinder Pressure Analysis by Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays

In this paper, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was used to implement a real-time cylinder pressure analysis. The goal of the project was to improve the accuracy of calculated heat release and center of combustion calculations to enhance the precision of engine control functions. Compared to today’s real-time pressure analysis systems, several additional physical effects were taken into account for this objective. The wall heat transfer was calculated based on the approach published by Hohenberg. A chemical equilibrium with six substances was assumed for the mixture composition and a real-time calculation method was developed. Furthermore, a two-zone model was adapted and implemented for this realtime analysis. The validation of the results and the rating of the improvement in precision were based on GT-SUITE simulation results as an offline reference tool. Compared to state-of-the-art analysis systems, it was possible to reduce the average error of the center of combustion position from 1.6° to 0.5° crank angle (CA) by taking the investigated effects into account. Moreover, it was possible to significantly reduce the time required for the calculation from one complete combustion cycle to 0.2°CA at an engine speed of 3,000 rpm by using a continuous calculation method on the FPGA. This led to an additional improvement of the ability to control the engine, especially under highly dynamic operation conditions.     

Structural Optimization for Roof Crush Test Using an Enforced Displacement Method

A roof crush test has been utilized to reduce passengers’ injuries from a vehicle rollover. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 216 and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) perform actual vehicle tests and evaluate the vehicle’s ratings. Nonlinear dynamic response structural optimization can be employed not only for achievement of a high rating but also minimization of the weight. However, the technique needs a huge computation time and cost because many nonlinear dynamic response analyses are required in the time domain. A novel method is proposed for nonlinear dynamic response structural optimization regarding the roof crush test. The process of the proposed method repeats the analysis domain and the design domain until the convergence criteria are satisfied. In the analysis domain, the roof crush test is simulated using a high fidelity model of nonlinear dynamic finite element analysis. In the design domain, a low fidelity model of linear static response structural optimization is utilized with enforced displacements that come from the analysis domain. Correction factors are employed to compensate the differences between a nonlinear dynamic analysis response and a linear static analysis response with enforced displacement. A full-scale vehicle problem is optimized with a constraint on the rigid wall force from the analysis in the design domain.     

Selection of Actuator Combination in Integrated Chassis Control Using Taguchi Method

This paper presents a method to select the actuator combination in integrated chassis control using Taguchi method. Electronic stability control (ESC), active front and rear steering (AFS/ARS) are used as an actuator, which is needed to generate a control tire force. After computing the control yaw moment in the upper-level controller, it is distributed into the control tire forces, generated by ESC, AFS and ARS in the lower-level controller. In this paper, the weighted pseudo-inverse control allocation (WPCA) with variable weights is used to determine the control tire forces of each actuator. Taguchi method is adopted for sensitivity analysis on variable weights of WPCA in terms of the control performances such as the maneuverability and the lateral stability. For sensitivity analysis, simulation is performed on a vehicle simulation package, CarSim. From sensitivity analysis, the most effective actuator combination is selected.     

Mean Value WGT Diesel Engine Calibration Model for Effective Simulation Research

Recently, to improve vehicle fuel economy, as well as the performance of internal combustion engines, optimized system matching between a vehicle’s drivetrain and engine has become a very important technical issue. For this reason, the need for simulation research on engine and vehicle performance improvement has increased. But in general, since both engine simulation and vehicle simulation require initial engine calibration map input, a simple engine calibration method is required for the efficient configuration of various virtual engine calibration map setups. On this background, in this study, an example of waste gate turbocharger (WGT) cooled — exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) Diesel engine calibration using a test-based mean value engine model is presented as a suitable engine calibration map setting method. Also, the feasibility of an engine calibration model is confirmed through various engine tests. Using the simple model presented here, it is possible for diverse engine operating conditions and engine performance maps to be acquired.     

Monte Carlo simulation of B2-L2<Subscript>1</Subscript> ordering transitions in Au-Cu-Al alloy systems

The B2-L2₁ ordering transitions in Au-Cu-Al shape-memory alloys are studied by the Monte Carlo exchange simulations, where a set of the first, the second and the third nearest-neighbor mixing potentials for Cu-Al in the Au-Cu-Al alloys are calculated from first principals using the Connolly-Williams methods. To ensure the phase stability of the β-Au-Cu-Al, the investigation includes the range of compositions Au₂Cu_1−x Al_1+x (−0.15 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.15). The B2-L2₁ transition temperatures are predicted, and are in agreement with the experimental results. The atomic ordering around vacancy of the L2₁ structure is further discussed.     

Multi-element ultrasound phased array applicator for the ablation of deep-seated tissue

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has attracted increasing interests as a promising noninvasive modality for the treatment of deep tumors in the thoracic and abdominal cavity. A 90-element HIFU spherical phased array applicator operated at 1MHz has been developed for deep tissue ablation. The spherical array with a 5 cm wide central hole has a 21 cm diameter and an 18 cm radius of curvature. Annular element distribution with unequal element spacing is used to reduce the number of elements. The array is constructed with piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT-8) circular elements that are 1.4 cm in diameter and have a wall with thickness of 0.2 cm. The array offers an effective ablating depth of at least 8 cm in the tissue for both simulations and ex vivo experiments. The simulations demonstrate that the developed array can steer the focus with good quality of intensity distributions up to 6mm off center over ranges from 17 to 21 cm when the water depth is set at 11 cm. We also present the beam focusing capability in deep tissue through a series of ex vivo experiments by measuring discoloration areas after sonications. These results indicate that the developed array is ideal for the ablation of deep-seated tissue.     

Optimization of pellet production process parameters in grate using simulation results

The objective of this paper is to optimize the parameters of pellet drying and preheating process in grate. A mathematical model of drying and preheating is developed, and is verified by the experiments. Further, the operating parameters of wind temperature, wind speed, grate speed and bed depth etc. are investigated through the orthogonal method using the simulation results. And a relationship of drying, preheating effects and operating parameters is achieved. The results show that the optimization effect can be achieved in the given range when air velocity is about 3.0 m/s and temperature is about 300, 500, 800, and 1 100 °C in the updraft drying zone, downdraft drying zone, preheating I zone, and preheating II zone respectively. The work is help for saving energy and reducing emissions in pellet induration.     

An information-based color feature representation and its application in detecting adult images

For many image classification tasks, color histogram is usually employed as an important “signature” to describe the color distribution of the image and infer the image content. However, most traditional color histograms cannot achieve satisfactory results in many image classification systems. In order to improve the accuracy and reduce the computational complexity of the classification task, an information-based color feature representation is proposed in this paper. The mutual information between the feature and the class label is adopted to evaluate the discriminative power of the feature. A novel quantization scheme is presented, which removes the redundant color components and combines the adjacent components together to generate a new feature to maximize the discriminative ability. An iterative algorithm is performed to derive the color space quantization and color feature generation. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed color representation, a specific image classification task, i.e., differentiating the adult images from benign ones, is employed. Experimental results show that our color feature achieves better classification performance and better efficiency compared with the traditional color histogram.