Numerical and experimental investigation of lubricating oil flow in a gerotor pump

Gerotor pumps are widely used in the automotive industry for engine oil lubrication, due to their high volumetric efficiency and smooth pumping action. In many cases, the lubricating oil from the sump is mixed with contaminants, such as dust and tiny solid particles, or becomes thickened, due to aging. These problems will lead to critical situations, such as increased noise, enhanced wear and erosion, and poor lubrication of the engine. These critical situations were studied by conducting a detailed CFD integrated investigation on a gerotor pump’s performance at different operating conditions in three phases, and the results are presented in this paper. In first phase, a CFD model of a gerotor pump was developed with a dynamic mesh for the rotary movement of both the inner and outer rotors. The effects on pump flow rate of important parameters, such as rotor speed, fluid viscosity and number of ports, were simulated using non-contaminated oil at room temperature and an elevated temperature of 140oC. The relationship between flow rate and pressure at different rotor speeds was predicted and validated with test data for further parametric study. The pressure ripples at different time steps were measured at different angular positions of the rotors to examine the model accuracy. It was found that the flow rate increased and pressure pulsation, as well as flow recirculation, was reduced when ports were added to the cover plate. A suction pipe with a strainer was added for the second phase to capture the undesired changes in flow behavior, such as cavitation, which is caused by negative suction at the inlet region of pump. A suitable size for the inlet suction pipe for this pump was chosen after performing tests to characterize the flow behavior with single and double ports. Next, the relationship between pressure drop and strainer porosity was determined using different porosity values for the strainers. In the final phase, oil with different concentrations of solids was simulated to measure the effect of solid particles on flow rates and pressure losses. It was observed that the intensity of the recirculation was reduced at the suction end at the higher concentration of 0.04%, due to particle inertial effects. It was also found that particle size distribution affected the overall efficiency and pressure head of the pump.     

Long-term behavior of particulate matters at urban roadside and background locations in Seoul,Korea

The concentrations of particulate matter, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and TSP at an urban roadside and an urban background station are analyzed. Data collected over a 10 year period are analyzed. The concentrations of the particulates measured at the urban site are systematically larger than at the background station. The mean PM values at the former also exhibit a slight fall over the decade unlike those at the background station. Overall, the particulate matters at both locations are in an intermediate range of global level, e.g., approximately two times lower than those in other Asian regions but higher than in Europe.     

Evaluating effects of traffic and vehicle characteristics on vehicular emissions near traffic intersections

Urban air quality is generally poor at traffic intersections due to variations in vehicles’ speeds as they approach and leave. This paper examines the effect of traffic, vehicle and road characteristics on vehicular emissions with a view to understand a link between emissions and the most likely influencing and measurable characteristics. It demonstrates the relationships of traffic, vehicle and intersection characteristics with vehicular exhaust emissions and reviews the traffic flow and emission models. Most studies have found that vehicular exhaust emissions near traffic intersections are largely dependent on fleet speed, deceleration speed, queuing time in idle mode with a red signal time, acceleration speed, queue length, traffic-flow rate and ambient conditions. The vehicular composition also affects emissions. These parameters can be quantified and incorporated into the emission models. There is no validated methodology to quantify some non-measurable parameters such as driving behaviour, pedestrian activity, and road conditions     

Roll-induced bifurcation in ship maneuvering under model uncertainty

In this paper, a mathematical model is developed for the maneuvering motion of a naval ship and bifurcations of its equilibrium are identified in roll-coupled motion. The subject ship is a high-speed surface combatant with twin-propeller twin-rudder system. Captive model tests are conducted for the ship using planar motion mechanism. Maneuvering coefficients are calculated by polynomial curve fitting of the test data. Uncertainty distribution in the coefficients is assumed same as that of the curve fitting errors. Uncertainty in the model coefficients is propagated to full-scale simulation results by the stochastic response surface method (SRSM). This method is computationally efficient as compared to standard Monte Carlo simulation technique. The SRSM uses polynomial chaos expansion of orthogonal to fit any probability distribution. Bifurcation analysis of the mathematical model is performed by varying the vertical center of gravity as the bifurcation parameter. Hopf bifurcation is identified. It is found that the bifurcations occur due to the coupling of roll motion with sway, yaw motion and rudder angle. In the presence of wind, roll angle response in bifurcation diagram is discussed.     

印度应对城市机动化策略

为应对快速的城市机动化进程及其带来的负面影响,印度政府早期采取诸如修建立交桥和拓宽道路等办法,结果却导致了更多的机动车数量增加和更严重的交通拥堵。为此,印度政府实施了＂国家城市交通政策＂,重点投资公共交通和非机动交通方式;同时还制定了＂国家城市更新计划＂,以此建立鼓励地方政府执行国家政策的激励机制,提高对城市基础设施的投资水平。这些创新政策的实施,推动了一系列公共交通项目的发展,也促进了城市内部交通体制改革和城市综合交通发展规划的制定。     

Hydrodynamic optimization of a catamaran hull with large bow and stern bulbs installed on the center plane of the catamaran

Here, a numerical optimization procedure is proposed for a fundamental study of a fast catamaran, and we compare the wave-making characteristics of a catamaran hull form with and without large bow and stern airship-type bulbs installed on the center plane of a catamaran operating at high speed. The method involves coupled ideas from two distinct research fields: numerical ship hydrodynamics and a nonlinear programming technique. The wave-making characteristics of catamaran hulls with and without bulbs were investigated using the panel method applied to free surface flow (PAFS), in which Morinos method for lifting bodies is extended to analyze the problem of free surface flow, and PAFS is linked to the optimization procedure of the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) technique. An optimum hull form for a catamaran can be obtained through a series of iterative computations, subject to some design constraints. Here, only the hull shape of a catamaran is optimized with and without center-plane bow and stern bulbs. The optimization is carried out at two Froude numbers, 0.45 and 0.5, which are around the last hump of the wave-making resistance curve. The numerical results show that a reduction in wave-making resistance is achieved around the design speed.     

Mumbai Urban Transport Project – A multi dimensional approach to improve urban transport

This paper attempts to bring out the lessons learned from implementation of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), a World Bank financed project. While some of the problems and many solutions may be case specific, the lessons learnt would be of use for other similar interventions especially in similar urban settings. Even complex engineering challenges are generally easy to be surmounted, when compared with the bigger challenges like resettling the project affected peoples, managing several stake holders and institutions, bringing them together and they agreeing to do things differently.     

Influence of tacking sequence on residual stress and distortion of single sided fillet submerged arc welded joint

Submerged arc welding (SAW) is advantageous for joining high thickness materials in large structure due to high material deposition rate. The non-uniform heating and cooling generates the thermal stresses and subsequently the residual stresses and distortion. The longitudinal and transverse residual stresses and angular distortion are generally measured in large panel structure of submerged arc welded fillet joints. Hence, the objective of this present work is to quantify the amount of residual stress and distortion in and around the weld joint due to positioning of stiffeners tack. The tacking sequence influences the level of residual stress and proper controlling of tacking sequences is required to minimize the stress. In present study, an elasto-plastic material behavior is considered to develop the thermo mechanical model which predicts the residual stress and angular distortion with varying tacking sequences. The simulated result reveals that the tacking sequence heavily influences the residual stress and deformation pattern of the single sided fillet joint. The finite element based numerical model is calibrated by comparing the experimental data from published literature. Henceforth, the angular distortions are measured from an in-house developed experimental set-up. A fair agreement between the predicted and experimental results indicates the robustness of the developed numerical model. However, the most significant conclusion from present study states that tack weld position should be placed opposite to the fillet weld side to minimize the residual stress.     

Analysis of epimetamorphic rock slopes using soft computing

This article adopts three soft computing techniques including support vector machine （SVM）, least square support vector machine （LSSVM） and relevance vector machine （RVM） for prediction of status of epimetemorphic rock slope. The input variables of SVM, LSSVM and RVM are bulk density, height, inclination, cohesion and internal friction angle. There are 53 datasets which have been used to develop the SVM, LSSVM and RVM models. The developed SVM, LSSVM and RVM give equations for prediction of status of epimetemorphic rock slope. The performance of SVM, LSSVM and RVM is 100%. A comparative study has been presented between the developed SVM, LSSVM and RVM. The results confirm that the developed SVM, LSSVM and RVM are effective tools for prediction of status of epimetemorphic rock slope.     

Evaluating the impacts of shared automated mobility on-demand services: an activity-based accessibility approach

Transportation - Autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies are under constant improvement with pilot programs now underway in several urban areas worldwide. Modeling and field-testing efforts are...