Flexible Bodies in Multibody System Codes

Multibody codes are'efficient tools to simulate nonlinear dynamic behaviour of rigid and flexible multibody systems undergoing large overall motions overlaid by small elastic deformation. This paper gives an overview of common approaches for the equations of motion of flexible body models and presents a general way to prepare the required data including geometric stiffening terms. In particularly, for the nodal approach the data are derived using standard results of a finite element analysis of the body. The computation of coefficient matrices describing the equations of motion is done outside the finite element code by matrix manipulations only. The data are stored in a standardised object-oriented structure. Consequently, the data set is independent of the formulation of the multibody system code.     

An evaluation of vehicle deceleration profiles

Vehicles stopping at signalized intersections were examined for the purpose of evaluating the validity of the common assumption of constant and uniform deceleration rates. The data set consisted of the first vehicles to stop upon the onset of the yellow signal interval with measurements of the initial approach speed, deceleration time, and deceleration distance. The deceleration rate may be computed using only two of the three measured values; thus the rate for each vehicle can be determined by three different equations. With nonuniform deceleration profiles, the equations will produce different values; and the degree of nonuniformity can be determined by comparing the differences in the computed deceleration rates. The analysis of the field observations indicated that 69 percent of the vehicles demonstrated deceleration profiles associated with nonuniform deceleration rates. Furthermore, the deceleration profile and the degree of nonuniformity were found to be a function of the initial approach speed.     

Initial results from long-term measurements of atmospheric humidity and related parameters in the marine boundary layer at two locations in the Gulf of Mexico

Measurements of boundary layer moisture have been acquired from Rotronic MP-100 sensors deployed on two NDBC buoys in the northern Gulf of Mexico from June through November 1993. For one sensor, which was retrieved approximately 8 months after deployment, the post- and precalibrations agreed closely and fell well within WMO specifications for accuracy. The second sensor operated continuously from June 1993 to February 1997 (3.5 years). Buoy observations of relative humidity and supporting data were used to calculate specific humidity and the surface fluxes of latent and sensible heat. Specific humidities from the buoys were compared with observations of moisture obtained from nearby ship reports, and the correlations were generally high (0.7–0.9). Surface gravity wave spectra were also acquired. The time series of specific humidity and the other buoy parameters revealed three primary scales of variability, small (h), synoptic (days), and seasonal (months). The synoptic variability was clearly dominant and occurred primarily during September, October, and November. Most of the synoptic variability was due to frontal systems that dropped down into the Gulf of Mexico from the continental US followed by air masses which were cold and dry. Cross-correlation analyses of the buoy data indicated that: (1) the moisture field was highly coherent over distances of 800 km or more in the northern Gulf of Mexico; and (2) both specific humidity and air temperature served as tracers of the motion associated with propagating atmospheric disturbances. These correlation analyses also revealed that the prevailing weather systems generally entered the buoy domain from the South prior to September, but primarily from the North thereafter. Spectra of the various buoy parameters indicated strong diurnal and semidiurnal variability for barometric pressure and sea surface temperature (SST) and lesser variability for air temperature, wind speed and significant wave height. The surface fluxes of latent and sensible heat were dominated by the synoptic events which took place from September through November with the transfer of latent heat being primarily from the ocean to the atmosphere. Finally, an analysis of the surface wave observations from each buoy, which included calculations of wave age and estimates of surface roughness, indicate that major heat and moisture flux events coincide with periods of active wave growth, although the data were insufficient to identify any causal relationships.     

Design and shared use of a terminal departure lounge for new large aircraft operations

New Large Aircraft (NLA) are new aircraft developments larger than any existing aircraft. The NLA's higher seat capacity will significantly impact passenger terminal design and operations. This paper focuses on the issues regarding the departure lounge. Deterministic queuing theory is used to determine the size and seating configuration of the lounge, as well as to decide whether a second level should be built to accommodate the increase in the number of passengers. The paper also discusses the use of the satellite section of a pier‐satellite terminal as a single lounge for the NLA. Spreadsheets are used to implement the analyses.     

Auto-ignition and micro-explosion behaviors of droplet arrays of water-in-fuel emulsion

The characteristics of auto-ignition and micro-explosion behaviors of one-dimensional arrays of fuel droplets suspended in a chamber with high surrounding temperature were investigated experimentally with various droplet spacings, numbers of droplet and surrounding temperatures. The fuels used were pure n-decane and emulsified n-decane with varied water contents ranging from 10 to 30%. All experiments were performed under atmospheric conditions with high surrounding temperatures. An imaging technique using a high-speed camera was adopted to measure ignition delay, flame lifetime, and flame spread speed. The camera was also used to observe micro-explosion behaviors. As the droplet array spacing increased, the ignition delay also increased, regardless of water content. However, the lifetime of the droplet array decreased as the droplet spacing increased. The micro-explosion starting time remained unchanged regardless of the number of the droplets or the droplet spacing; however, it tended to be delayed slightly as the water percentage and droplet spacing increased.     

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.     

Collection, spillback, and dissipation in pedestrian evacuation: A network-based method

We present a method of predicting pedestrian route choice behavior and physical congestion during the evacuation of indoor areas with internal obstacles. Under the proposed method, a network is first constructed by discretizing the space into regular hexagonal cells and giving these cells potentials before a modified cell transmission model is employed to predict the evolution of pedestrian flow in the network over time and space. Several properties of this cell transmission model are explored. The method can be used to predict the evolution of pedestrian flow over time and space in indoor areas with internal obstacles and to investigate the collection, spillback, and dissipation behavior of pedestrians passing through a bottleneck. The cell transmission model is further extended to imitate the movements of multiple flows of pedestrians with different destinations. An algorithm based on generalized cell potential is also developed to assign the pedestrian flow.     

The management of the rural transportation problem in Nigeria

In spite of the fact that about 70% of Nigeria's population live in rural areas, these areas have remained largely inaccessible. Not only do they lack motorable roads and organized public transport but also field surveys indicate that nearly all rural inhabitants do not have a private car. A Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure has been set up to manage the inaccessibility problem, among others. Whereas there are several conventional approaches to the management of the rural transportation problem, the Nigerian approach relies on the provision of roads. This restrictive approach with an emphasis on locational to the neglect of personal accessibility has various limitations which are analysed.     

Step-tolling with price-sensitive demand: Why more steps in the toll make the consumer better off

Most dynamic models of congestion pricing use fully time-variant tolls. However, in practice, tolls are uniform over the day, or at most have just a few steps. Such uniform and step tolls have received surprisingly little attention from the literature. Moreover, most models that do study them assume that demand is insensitive to the price. This seems an empirically questionable assumption that, as this paper finds, strongly affects the implications of step tolling for the consumer. In the bottleneck model, first-best tolling has no effect on the generalised price, and thus consumer surplus remains the same as without tolling. Conversely, under price-sensitive demand, step tolling increases the price, making the consumer worse off. The more steps the toll has, the closer it approximates the first-best toll, thereby increasing the welfare gain and making consumers better off. This indicates the importance for real-world tolls to have as many steps as possible: this not only raises welfare, but may also increase the political acceptability of the scheme by making consumers better off.