An appropriate unidirectional wave spectrum model for the Strait of Hormuz

The objective of this paper is to introduce an appropriate unidirectional wave spectrum model for the Strait of Hormuz. The research is focused on assessing performance of standard wave spectrum models in the region. By evaluating such models based on valuable measurement data recently published, the calibration procedure has been conducted on such standard models to reach a better concordance between a modified standard spectral model and observed field spectra. The calibration is performed initially with respect to four distinct directions related to four available measurement stations. So, it results in four sets of coefficients for a nominated model. Next, it is continued to reach just one model insensitive to directions. Results clearly showed that the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) model is more appropriate than Joint North Sea Wave Project (JONSWAP) and Pierson and Moskowitz (PM) models in this area, even without any calibration. However, modifications have been successful on improving the conformity of the model.     

Numerical simulation of the spreading dynamic responses of the multibody system with a floating base

To simulate the dynamic responses of the multibody system with a floating base when the upper parts spread with a certain sequence and relative speed, the homogeneous matrix method is employed to model and simulate a four-body system with a floating base and the motions are analyzed when the upper parts are spread sequentially or synchronously. The rolling, swaying and heaving temporal variations are obtained when the multibody system is under the conditions of the static water along with the wave loads and the mean wind loads or the single pulse wind loads, respectively. The moment variations of each joint under the single pulse wind load are also gained. The numerical results showed that the swaying of the floating base is almost not influenced by the spreading time or form when the upper parts spread sequentially or synchronously, while the rolling and the heaving mainly depend on the spreading time and forms. The swaying and heaving motions are influenced significantly by the mean wind loads. The single pulse wind load also has influences on the dynamic responses. The torque of joint 3 and joint 4 in the single pulse wind environment may be twice that in the windless environment when the system spreads with 60 s duration.     

Numerical investigation of transmission of low frequency sound through a smooth air-water interface

It is the traditional belief that sound transmission from water to the air is very weak due to a large contrast between air and water impedances. Recently, the enhanced sound transmission and anomalous transparency of air-water interface have been introduced. Anomalous transparency of air-water interface states that the sound generated by a submerged shallow depth monopole point source localized at depths less than 1/10 sound wavelength, can be transmitted into the air with omni-directional pattern. The generated sound has 35 times higher power compared to the classical ray theory prediction. In this paper, sound transmission through air-water interface for a localized underwater shallow depth source is examined. To accomplish this, two-phase coupled Helmholtz wave equations in two-phase media of air-water are solved by the commercial finite element based COMSOL Multiphysics software. Ratios of pressure amplitudes of different sound sources in two different underwater and air coordinates are computed and analyzed against non-dimensional ratio of the source depth (D) to the sound wavelength (λ). The obtained results are compared with the experimental data and good agreement is displayed.     

Comprehensive experimental study on the effect of biodiesel/diesel blended fuel on common-rail di diesel engine technology

This research work aims to study the aspects of using biodiesel or FAME as a component blended in diesel fuel for common-rail DI engine technology. The specific engine experiments were designed for LD commercial engine [Toyota 2KD-FTV] to understand engine combustion process, engine performance and thermal efficiency when applying FAME blended fuel. In addition, the exhaust emission in HD diesel engine [HINO J08E] was evaluated by standard HD engine emission ESC and ELR test cycles. Furthermore, the severe 400-hour of HD engine durability tests for determining the limitation on using FAME blended fuel, have been conducted with B0, B10, B20 and B50. The result shows that using of FAME blended fuel in the HD common-rail DI engine, can be applied with some guidelines experimentally discovered by this research such as filter plugging that may occur when the content of biodiesel is up to 20 % or higher, and the critical fuel injector surface polishing wear, can be observed from B50 sample. In general, the higher biodiesel content will contribute to lower power output as well, thus too high biodiesel content will cause low engine power output.     

Phenomenological two-phase multi-zone combustion model for direct-injection diesel engines

This paper proposed a quasi-dimensional combustion model from a new observed two-phase penetration and combustion phenomenon in diesel spray. In the model, fuel spray was divided into two of liquid and gas phase areas. Considering the phenomenon that separation of gas and liquid phase in diesel spray occurs during spray penetration, gas and liquid area of spray are discretized respectively. Liquid phase areas play important role in fuel mass transport, however gas phase areas are the main region for fuel combustion in the model. Fuel and air mixing rate of gas phase zone is the key for the calculation of combustion rate. Validation experiments are designed by using optimal Latin hypercube design method. Comparison of calculations and experiments show that the model is able to predict diesel engine performance at different engine speeds, loads, and injection pressure and timing, and provides guidance for the design of engines.     

Three-dimensional numerical investigation of the separation process in a vortex tube at different operating conditions

Air separators provide safe, clean, and appropriate air flow to engines and are widely used in vehicles with large engines such as ships and submarines. In this operational study, the separation process inside a Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube cleaning (cooling) system is investigated to analyze the impact of the operating gas type on the vortex tube performance; the operating gases used are air, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The computational fluid dynamic model used is equipped with a three-dimensional structure, and the steady-state condition is applied during computations. The standard k–ε turbulence model is employed to resolve nonlinear flow equations, and various key parameters, such as hot and cold exhaust thermal drops, and power separation rates, are described numerically. The results show that nitrogen dioxide creates the greatest separation power out of all gases tested, and the numerical results are validated by good agreement with available experimental data. In addition, a comparison is made between the use of two different boundary conditions, the pressure-far-field and the pressure-outlet, when analyzing complex turbulent flows inside the air separators. Results present a comprehensive and practical solution for use in future numerical studies.     

Modeling the flow regime near the source in underwater gas releases

Recent progress in calculating gas bubble sizes in a plume, based on phenomenological approaches using the release conditions is a significant improvement to make the gas plume models self-reliant. Such calculations require details of conditions Near the Source of Plume (NSP); (i.e. the plume/jet velocity and radius near the source), which inspired the present work. Determining NSP conditions for gas plumes are far more complex than that for oil plumes due to the substantial density difference between gas and water. To calculate NSP conditions, modeling the early stage of the plume is important. A novel method of modeling the early stage of an underwater gas release is presented here. Major impact of the present work is to define the correct NSP conditions for underwater gas releases, which is not possible with available methods as those techniques are not based on the physics of flow region near the source of the plume/jet. We introduce super Gaussian profiles to model the density and velocity variations of the early stages of plume, coupled with the laws of fluid mechanics to define profile parameters. This new approach, models the velocity profile variation from near uniform, across the section at the release point to Gaussian some distance away. The comparisons show that experimental data agrees well with the computations.     

Automatic calibration of fundamental diagram for first‐order macroscopic freeway traffic models

Despite its importance in macroscopic traffic flow modeling, comprehensive method for the calibration of fundamental diagram is very limited. Conventional empirical methods adopt a steady state analysis of the aggregate traffic data collected from measurement devices installed on a particular site without considering the traffic dynamics, which renders the simulation may not be adaptive to the variability of data. Nonetheless, determining the fundamental diagram for each detection site is often infeasible. To remedy these, this study presents an automatic calibration method to estimate the parameters of a fundamental diagram through a dynamic approach. Simulated flow from the cell transmission model is compared against the measured flow wherein an optimization merit is conducted to minimize the discrepancy between model‐generated data and real data. The empirical results prove that the proposed automatic calibration algorithm can significantly improve the accuracy of traffic state estimation by adapting to the variability of traffic data when compared with several existing methods under both recurrent and abnormal traffic conditions. Results also highlight the robustness of the proposed algorithm. The automatic calibration algorithm provides a powerful tool for model calibration when freeways are equipped with sparse detectors, new traffic surveillance systems lack of comprehensive traffic data, or the case that lots of detectors lose their effectiveness for aging systems. Furthermore, the proposed method is useful for off‐line model calibration under abnormal traffic conditions, for example, incident scenarios. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of vehicle ownership evolution in Montreal,Canada using pseudo panel analysis

This paper employs a pseudo-panel approach to study vehicle ownership evolution in Montreal region, Canada using cross-sectional origin–destination survey datasets of 1998, 2003 and 2008. Econometric modeling approaches that simultaneously accommodate the influence of observed and unobserved attributes on the vehicle ownership decision framework are implemented. Specifically, we estimate generalized versions of the ordered response model—including the generalized, scaled- and mixed-generalized ordered logit models. Socio-demographic variables that impact household’s decision to own multiple cars include number of full and part-time working adults, license holders, middle aged adults, retirees, male householders, and presence of children. Increased number of bus stops, longer bus and metro lengths within the household residential location buffer area decrease vehicle fleet size of households. The observed results also varied across years as manifested by the significance of the interaction terms of some of the variables with the time elapsed since 1998 variable. Moreover, variation due to unobserved factors are captured for part-time working adults, number of bus stops, and length of metro lines. In terms of the effect of location of households, we found that some neighborhoods exhibited distinct car ownership temporal dynamics over the years.