Model-based design of a variable nozzle turbocharger controller

Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT) was invented to solve the problem of matching an ordinary turbocharger with an engine. VNT can harness exhaust energy more efficiently, enhance intake airflow response and reduce engine emissions, especially during transient operating conditions. The difficulty of VNT control lies in how to regulate the position of the nozzle at different engine working conditions. The control strategy designed in this study is a combination of a closed-loop feedback controller and an open-loop feed-forward controller. The gain-scheduled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was implemented as the feedback controller to overcome the nonlinear characteristic. As it is difficult to tune the parameters of the gain-scheduled PID controller on an engine test bench, system identification was used to identify the plant model properties at different working points for a WP10 diesel engine on the test bench. The PID controller parameters were calculated based on the identified first-order-plus-dead-time (FOPDT) plant model. The joint simulation of the controller and the plant model was performed in Matlab/Simulink. The time-domain and frequency-domain performances of the entire system were evaluated. The designed VNT control system was verified with engine tests. The results indicated that the real boosting pressure traced the target boosting pressure well at different working conditions.     

Performance Index for a Preview Active Suspension Applied to a Quarter-Car Model

A simple and convenient matrix expression is derived for the performance index in the case of a linear vehicle model with two degrees of freedom and a preview active suspension, subject to a unit step road input and employing optimal control. The usual quadratic integral-type performance index is assumed and the effect of an additional form of constraint is described briefly. The effects of preview time on the performance index and the optimal feed-forward control are illustrated graphically for a particular example.     

Mathematical Modelling of Vibrations and Loading of Railway Tanks Taking into Account the Liquid Cargo Mobility

Dynamics and loading of railway tank cars transporting liquid cargo are investigated. The approach based on the mechanical-pendulum analogy for the liquid cargo mobility simulation is proposed. Hydrodynamic parameters of the mechanical analogy are determined using the solution of the boundary-value problem for the liquid cargo vibrations in a cavity with the tank boiler shape. The fitting of the developed mathematical models is proved by comparison of calculated results and test data. Vibration characteristics and loading of tank-cars under their shunt collisions and motion along straight and curved track in trains are evaluated. It is shown that as a rule the liquid cargo mobility has an essential influence on tank dynamic properties.     

地震作用下框架-复合墙结构弹塑性内力计算

框架-复合墙结构是以框架和密肋复合剪力墙共同承担水平地震作用的新型组合式双重抗侧力体系,合理计算弹塑性阶段框架与复合墙的内力是决定大震下结构体系安全性能的关键问题之一.根据6榀典型密肋复合墙试验数据,建立了复合墙体指数式刚度退化模型,量化了墙体在各变形阶段的刚度退化系数.在对比复合墙与框架、混凝土墙、砌体墙刚度退化规律的基础上,分析了复合墙刚度退化对结构受力性能的影响,提出了弹塑性阶段框架-复合墙结构地震内力的实用计算方法,并通过具体算例讨论了结构内力的变化情况.研究结果表明：弹塑性阶段,框架与密肋复合墙刚度退化速度比值呈非线性关系,框架分担总地震剪力的比例增加,但其绝对剪力值增加幅度并不明显;考虑弹塑性阶段复合墙的刚度退化,更好地符合了地震下框架-复合墙结构的实际受力情况.     

Multi-objective optimization of quarter-car models with a passive or semi-active suspension system

A systematic methodology is applied in an effort to select optimum values for the suspension damping and stiffness parameters of two degrees of freedom quarter-car models, subjected to road excitation. First, models involving passive suspension dampers with constant or dual rate characteristics are considered. In addition, models with semi-active suspensions are also examined. Moreover, special emphasis is put in modeling possible temporary separations of the wheel from the ground. For all these models, appropriate methodologies are employed for capturing the motions of the vehicle resulting from passing with a constant horizontal speed over roads involving an isolated or a distributed geometric irregularity. The optimization process is based on three suitable performance criteria, related to ride comfort, suspension travel and road holding of the vehicle and yielding the most important suspension stiffness and damping parameters. As these criteria are conflicting, a suitable multi-objective optimization methodology is set up and applied. As a result, a series of diagrams with typical numerical results are presented and compared in both the corresponding objective spaces (in the form of classical Pareto fronts) and parameter spaces.     

Perspectives on railway track geometry condition monitoring from in-service railway vehicles

This paper presents a view of the current state of monitoring track geometry condition from in-service vehicles. It considers technology used to provide condition monitoring; some issues of processing and the determination of location; how things have evolved over the past decade; and what is being, or could/should be done in future research. Monitoring railway track geometry from an in-service vehicle is an attractive proposition that has become a reality in the past decade. However, this is only the beginning. Seeing the same track over and over again provides an opportunity for observing track geometry degradation that can potentially be used to inform maintenance decisions. Furthermore, it is possible to extend the use of track condition information to identify if maintenance is effective, and to monitor the degradation of individual faults such as dipped joints. There are full unattended track geometry measurement systems running on in-service vehicles in the UK and elsewhere around the world, feeding their geometry measurements into large databases. These data can be retrieved, but little is currently done with the data other than the generation of reports of track geometry that exceeds predefined thresholds. There are examples of simpler systems that measure some track geometry parameters more or less directly and accurately, but forego parameters such as gauge. Additionally, there are experimental systems that use mathematics and models to infer track geometry using data from sensors placed on an in-service vehicle. Finally, there are systems that do not claim to measure track geometry, but monitor some other quantity such as ride quality or bogie acceleration to infer poor track geometry without explicitly measuring it.     

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.     

Observations on colony formation by the cosmopolitan phytoplankton genus Phaeocystis

Few marine phytoplankton have heteromorphic life cycles and also often dominate the ecosystems in which they occur. The class Prymnesiophyceae contains a notable exception: the genus Phaeocystis includes three species that form gelatinous colonies but also occur within their ranges as solitary cells. Phaeocystis antarctica and P. pouchetii are exclusively high latitude taxa, and are notable for regionally tremendous blooms of the colony stage. P. globosa occurs circumglobally, yet its colony blooms primarily are confined to colder waters within its range. Three additional species are warm water forms that have been reported only as solitary cells or loose aggregations that bear little resemblance to the organized colonies of the other taxa. Interpretation of existing data indicates that resource availability (light, temperature and nutrients) by itself is not sufficient to explain this distinction between cold-water colony-forming taxa and warm water solitary cell taxa, nor why colony development in P. globosa is essentially a spatially restricted phenomenon within a much broader geographic range. Colony development by P. globosa in situ has been observed at temperatures ≥20 °C, but only rarely and generally under conditions of seasonally or anthropogenically elevated nutrient supply. Data presented here demonstrate colony development at 20–22 °C in natural plankton communities from oligotrophic waters that were pre-screened through 63 μm mesh (i.e. lacking mesozooplankton and large microzooplankton), but not in unscreened communities containing microzooplankton and >63 μm zooplankton. Reduction of colony proliferation at higher temperatures by mesozooplankton grazing remains as an intriguing possibility that is consistent with available evidence to help explain differences in latitudinal extent of in situ colony development. These data are interpreted within a theoretical framework regarding the potential advantages and disadvantages of the two life cycle stages.     

Inorganic carbon fluxes through the boundaries of the Greenland Sea Basin based on in situ observations and water transport estimates

A carbon budget for the exchange of total dissolved inorganic carbon C_T between the Greenland Sea and the surrounding seas has been constructed for winter and summer situations. An extensive data set of C_T collected over the years 1994–1997 within the European Sub-polar Ocean Programmes (ESOP1 and ESOP2) are used for the budget calculation. Based on these data, mean values of C_T in eight different boxes representing the inflow and outflow of water through the boundaries of the Greenland Sea Basin are estimated. The obtained values are then combined with simulated water transports taken from the ESOP2 version of the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model (MICOM). The fluxes of inorganic carbon are presented for three layers; a surface mixed layer, an intermediate layer and a deep layer, and the imbalance in the fluxes are attributed to air–sea exchange, biological fixation of inorganic carbon, and sedimentation. The main influx of carbon is found in the surface and the deep layers in the Fram Strait, and in the surface waters of direct Atlantic origin, whereas the main outflux is found in the surface layer over the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone and the Knipovich Ridge, transporting carbon into the Atlantic Ocean via the Denmark Strait and towards the Arctic Ocean via the Norwegian Sea, respectively. The flux calculation indicates that there is a net transport of carbon out of the Greenland Sea during wintertime. In the absence of biological activity, this imbalance is attributed to air sea exchange, and requires an oceanic uptake of CO₂ of 0.024±0.006 Gt C yr⁻¹. The flux calculations from the summer period are complicated by biological fixation of inorganic carbon, and show that data on organic carbon is required in order to estimate the air–sea exchange in the area.     

Lagrangian flow in the California Undercurrent, an observation and model comparison

During the period 1992–1998, 38 isobaric RAFOS floats were deployed to sample the subsurface flow of the California Undercurrent. The deployments, released over the California continental slope west of San Francisco, have sampled robust year-round poleward subsurface flow associated with the Undercurrent most seasons and the combined inshore current and Undercurrent in winter. Two other types of flow have been seen: a region of weak flow with little net displacement just west of the California Undercurrent, and an active westward propagating eddy field. This eddy field appears to be the primary mechanism for moving floats from the Undercurrent into the ocean interior. The observations and statistics from the RAFOS floats are compared with Lagrangian estimates of particles tracked in a global high resolution ocean simulation in order to evaluate the fidelity of the model along an eastern boundary. The results show that the model reproduces the general character of the flow reasonably well, but underestimates both the mean and eddy energies by a substantial amount.