Accident severity analysis using ordered probit model

To reduce injuries in road crashes, better understanding is needed between the relationship of injury severity and risk factors. This study seeks to identify the contributing factors affecting crash severity with broad considerations of driver characteristics, roadway features, vehicle types, pedestrian characteristics and crash characteristics using an ordered probit model. It also explores how the interaction of these factors will affect accident severity risk. Three types of accidents were investigated: two-vehicle crashes, single vehicle crashes and pedestrian accidents. The reported crash data in Singapore from 1992 to 2001 were used to illustrate the process of parameter estimation. Several factors such as vehicle type, road type, collision type, location type, pedestrian age, time of day of accident occurrence were found to be significantly associated with injury severity. It was also found that injury severity decreases over time for the three types of accident investigated.     

西班牙国家铁路AVE S 103新型高速动车组

西班牙国家铁路(RENFE)于2001年7月向德国Siemens公司订购了16列8节车编组的最高速度为350 km/h的AVE S 103新型电动车组.文章概要介绍了该电动车组的主要特点.     

Effects of coolant channels on large-scale Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCS)

Fully coupled simulations of two-phase transport in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs) and heat transfer in coolant channels are performed in order to investigate the effects of cooling channel configuration on the distributions of temperature and water within PEFCs. When a practical coolant flow rate is applied to large-scale cells for automotive applications, a significant coolant temperature rise is expected from the coolant inlet to the outlet, particularly under high current density operations, creating a significant cell temperature gradient along the flow direction as well. Consequently, a two-phase water profile resulting from evaporation-condensation processes inside PEFCs is also strongly influenced by the cell temperature gradient from the hot coolant inlet toward the cold coolant outlet regions, demonstrating that both temperature and liquid saturation strongly depend on the thermal gradient along the coolant flow path.     

Brake pad taper wear on brake moan noise

Automotive brake systems today have many factors that can contribute to brake noise. Modern approaches to reduce the propensity of brake noise mostly target high frequency brake squeal. A more difficult constituent of brake noise to address is low frequency moan, which is typically caused when the brake system excites a suspension member with a constrained natural frequency in the range of excitation. Although most modern CAE techniques utilized to diagnose and solve brake noise issues focus on new brake pad condition, this paper will show the benefit of understanding a common wear mechanism “Taper Wear,?and attempt to correlate its effects on brake moan. In order to study this phenomenon, a finite element model of a disc brake is established, and a complex eigenvalue analysis (CEA) of the brake system is performed. The propensity of brake moan noise is evaluated on basis of damping ratio of a dynamic brake system model. By using the finite element model, effects of the brake pad taper wear on brake moan noise is studied. The results show that the brake pad taper wear is a significant factor for generating the instability causing the brake moan noise. The study is performed at various levels of brake pad taper wear. When the brake pad taper wear is more than 0.5 mm, the value of negative damping ratio rapidly increases, and the propensity of brake moan noise is greatly magnified. In this study, the simulation result correlated well with the test result, which provides the theory and guidance for brake moan noise control.     

Influence of pilot injection on combustion characteristics and emissions in a DI diesel engine fueled with diesel and DME

This work experimentally investigates how the dwell time between pilot injection and main injection influences combustion and emissions characteristics (NOx, CO, THC and smoke) in a single-cylinder DI diesel engine. The experiments were conducted using two fuel injection systems according to the fuel type, diesel or dimethyl ether (DME), due to the different fuel characteristics. The injection strategy is accomplished by varying the dwell time (10°CA, 16°CA and 22°CA) between injections at five main injection timings (?4°CA aTDC, ?2°CA aTDC, 0°CA aTDC, 2°CA aTDC and 4°CA aTDC). Results from pilot-main injection conditions are compared with those shown in single injection conditions to better demonstrate the potential of pilot injection. It was found that pilot injection is highly effective for lowering heat-release rates with smooth pressure traces regardless of the fuel type. Pilot injection also offers high potential to maintain or increase the BMEP; even the combustion-timing is retarded to suppress the NOx emission formation. Overall, NOx emission formation was suppressed more by the combustion phasing retard effect, and not the pilot injection effect considered in this study. Comparison of the emissions for different fuel types shows that CO and HC emissions have low values below 100 ppm for DME operation in both single injection and pilot-main injection. However, NOx emission is slightly higher in the earlier main injection timings (?4°CA aTDC, ?2°CA aTDC) than diesel injections. Pilot injection was found to be more effective with DME for reducing the amount of NOx emission with combustion retardation, which indicates a level of NOx emission similar to that of diesel. Although the diesel pilot-main injection conditions show higher smoke emission than single-injection condition, DME has little smoke emission regardless of injection strategy.     

Bayesian vehicle class recognition using 3-d probe

A new approach is presented to vehicle-class recognition from video clips. Two new concepts introduced are: probes consisting of local 3-d curve-groups which when projected into video frames are features for recognizing vehicle classes in video clips; and Bayesian recognition based on class probability densities for groups of 3-d distances between pairs of 3-d probes. A full Bayesian recognizer is realized via Monte Carlo simulation method. Also, a sub-optimal but robust camera calibration method is employed and tested extensively.     

Improvement of combustion efficiency and emission characteristics of IC diesel engine operating on ESC cycle applying Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT) with vaneless turbine volute

Based on experimental data, the present study investigates the influence of turbine adjustment in a turbocharger with vaneless turbine volute on diesel combustion efficiency indices and emission characteristics. Experimental investigations were conducted on engine modes as set out by the European Stationary Cycle (ESC). The adjustment algorithms selected for the experiment under ESC modes included adjustment to achieve minimal values of specific fuel consumption (SFC), NOx, CO and particulate matter (PM). In present research only VGT adjustment was investigated, the factors like fuel injection timing and EGR were not investigated. As a result we were able to make a comparison of the engine combustion efficiency and emission indices for VGT and a common turbocharger running on ESC cycle modes.     

The influence of three-way catalysts on harmful emission production

This article deals with the influence of three-way catalysts on the production of basic emissions, such as carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from spark-ignition engines. A virtual simulation of the new European driving cycle is used. Characteristics of components in emissions in the front and back of the catalyst are measured on the test bed to form the basis of the simulation. The results relate to emissions for 1 km travelled.     

Surveillance and Poaching on Inshore Reefs of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia, is managed under the GBR Marine Park Act (1975) and is seen as a shining example of marine resource management. The principle tool of management is zoning for multiple use. We examined surveillance and illegal fishing around two inshore islands (Magnetic and Orpheus) of the GBR Marine Park in 2000/2001. Both islands are near Townsville, the largest city adjacent to the GBR. Surveillance effort was low, with vessels present on only 16% of days of the year. Measurable but low levels of illegal recreational fishing occurred within no-take zones. Levels decreased with increasing surveillance effort. Thus zoning was not completely successful in protecting fish targeted by fisheries, even within the most highly enforced sections of the Park. The expansion of no-take zones in 2004 from 4.6% to 33.4% of the area of the 358,000 km2 Park represents a considerable challenge for future surveillance and enforcement.