The Kalker book of tables for non-Hertzian contact of wheel and rail

A new regularisation of non-elliptical contact patches has been introduced, which enables building the look-up table called by us the Kalker book of tables for non-Hertzian contact (KBTNH), which is a fast creep force generator that can be used by multibody dynamics system simulation programs. The non-elliptical contact patch is regularised by a simple double-elliptical contact region (SDEC). The SDEC region is especially suitable for regularisation of contact patches obtained with approximate non-Hertzian methods for solving the normal contact problem of wheel and rail. The new regularisation is suitable for wheels and rails with any profiles, including worn profiles.

The paper describes the new procedure of regularisation of the non-elliptical contact patch, the structure of the Kalker book of tables, and parameterisation of the independent variables of the tables and creep forces.

A moderate volume Kalker book of tables for SDEC region suitable for simulation of modern running gears has been computed in co-simulation of Matlab and program CONTACT.

To access the creep forces of the Kalker book of tables, the linear interpolation has been applied.

The creep forces obtained from KBTNH have been compared to those obtained by program CONTACT and FASTSIM algorithm. FASTSIM has been applied on both the contact ellipse and the SDEC contact patch. The comparison shows that KBTNH is in good agreement with CONTACT for a wide range of creepage condition and shapes of the contact patch, whereas the use of FASTSIM on the elliptical patch and SDEC may lead to significant deviations from the reference CONTACT solutions.

The computational cost of calling creep forces from KBTNH has been estimated by comparing CPU time of FASTSIM and KBTNH. The KBTNH is 7.8–51 times faster than FASTSIM working on 36–256 discretisation elements, respectively.

In the example of application, the KBTNH has been applied for curving simulations and results compared with those obtained with the creep force generator employing the elliptical regularisation. The results significantly differ, especially in predicted creepages, because the elliptical regularisation neglects generation of the longitudinal creep force by spin creepage.     

Influence of temperature on the tyre rolling resistance

Temperature is a very important factor controlling rolling resistance of road vehicle tyres. There are at least three different temperatures that may be considered as important factors controlling thermal conditions of the rolling tyre. The most common measure of the thermal conditions during tyre rolling is ambient air temperature. The other two are: pavement temperature and “tyre” temperature. Tyre temperature is the most difficult to establish, as temperatures of different parts of rolling tyres differ considerably, thus there is a problem to obtain representative values. In the authors’ opinion, air temperature is the most universal and reliable parameter to measure. The article presents results obtained in the Technical University of Gdańsk during laboratory and road measurements of different car tyres rolling on different pavements. The knowledge of rolling resistance characteristics is important for modelling car dynamics as well as fuel consumption. It is also necessary to establish proper test conditions in the future standardized on-road method of measuring rolling resistance. The results indicate that generally each tyre and pavement combination is influenced by the air temperature in a unique way, but at the same it is possible to propose some general influence factors that may be used to normalize measurements to the standard temperature of 25 °C.     

e-Maritime: A framework for knowledge exchange and development of innovative marine information services

The waterborne sectors in Europe employ more than 3 million people and generate a turnover representing more than 2% of the EU’s GDP. In order to maintain its leadership and competitiveness, Europe must take advantage of new market opportunities and address these challenges by means of focused research, development and innovation. In recent years, advances in information and communication technologies and growth of Earth surveillance capacity have created demand for new forms of maritime information that are increasingly driven by policy and governance addressing safety, security and sustainability. This is reflected in emergence of the IMO e-Navigation strategy and the more embracing European e-Maritime framework as the new themes governing marine information products and services. Such services require innovative integration of knowledge and skills spanning a range of sciences, technologies and information communication fields as well as co-operation across the specialist communities involved. This poses a challenge, namely; how to engage the marine and maritime stakeholder communities and how to enable the interaction needed to create the new high value market products and services. This paper explores the various issues involved and concludes how e-Maritime might offer itself as the enabling framework.     

Quantitative assessment of hydrocarbon explosion and fire risks in offshore installations

A risk-based design framework should involve both risk assessment and risk management. This article introduces and describes a number of procedures for the quantitative assessment and management of fire and gas explosion risks in offshore installations. These procedures were developed in a joint industry project on the explosion and fire engineering of floating, production, storage and off-loading units (the EFEF JIP), which was led by the authors. The present article reports partial results, focussing on defining the frequency of fires and explosions in offshore installations. Examples of the aforementioned procedures’ application to a hypothetical floating, production, storage, and off-loading unit (FPSO) are presented. A framework for the quantitative risk assessment of fires and explosions requires the definition of both the frequency and consequences of such events. These procedures can be efficiently applied in offshore development projects, and the application includes the assessment of design explosion and fire loads as well as the quantification of effects of risk control options (RCO) such as platform layout, location and number of gas detectors, isolation of ignition sources etc.     

On the numerical accuracy of the wave load distribution on a ship advancing in short and steep waves

Defining numerical uncertainty is an important part of the practical application of a numerical method. In the case of a ship advancing in short and steep waves, little knowledge exists on the solution behaviour as a function of discretisation resolution. This paper studies an interface-capturing (VOF) solution for a passenger ship advancing in steep (kA = 0.24) and short waves (L _w /L _pp = 0.16). The focus is to estimate quantitative uncertainties for the longitudinal distributions of the first–third harmonic wave loads in the ship bow area. These estimates are derived from the results of three systematically refined discretisation resolutions. The obtained uncertainty distributions reveal that even the uncertainty of the first harmonic wave load varies significantly along the ship bow area. It is shown that the largest local uncertainties of the first harmonic wave load relate to the differences in the local details of the propagating and deforming encountered waves along the hull. This paper also discusses the challenges that were encountered in the quantification of the uncertainties for this complex flow case.     

Distributed algorithm for empty vehicles management in personal rapid transit (PRT) network

In this paper, an original heuristic algorithm of empty vehicles management in personal rapid transit network is presented. The algorithm is used for the delivery of empty vehicles for waiting passengers, for balancing the distribution of empty vehicles within the network, and for providing an empty space for vehicles approaching a station. Each of these tasks involves a decision on the trip that has to be done by a selected empty vehicle from its actual location to some determined destination. The decisions are based on a multi‐parameter function involving a set of factors and thresholds. An important feature of the algorithm is that it does not use any central database of passenger input (demand) and locations of free vehicles. Instead, it is based on the local exchange of data between stations: on their states and on the vehicles they expect. Therefore, it seems well‐tailored for a distributed implementation. The algorithm is uniform, meaning that the same basic procedure is used for multiple tasks using a task‐specific set of parameters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

导流翼片的倾角和长度在降低大后壁车辆气动阻力中的作用

利用1／16缩比的公共汽车模型及不同倾角和长度的导流翼片，在一带有可移动地面和边界层吸收装置的开放型风洞中进行了在车辆后端面的4边上安装导流翼片时车辆后部尾流区的压强恢复及气动阻力降低的实验。对导流翼片的倾角和长度在降低大后壁车辆气动阻力中的作用及机理进行了研究。找到了能使车辆的气动阻力降低20％左右的导流翼片最佳长度及倾角。     

Numerical and experimental motion simulations of nonsymmetric ship collisions

A calculation model to simulate nonsymmetric ship collisions, implying an arbitrary impact location and collision angle, is described in the paper. The model that is introduced is based on the time integration of twelve equations of motion, six for each ship. The motions of the ships are linked together by a mutual contact force. The contact force is evaluated as an integral over the surface tractions at the contact interface. The calculation model provides full time histories of the ship motions and the acting forces. Physical understanding of the underlying phenomena was obtained by a series of model-scale experiments in which a striking ship collided with an initially motionless struck ship. In this paper, numerical simulations of four nonsymmetric collisions are presented and the calculations are validated with the results of the experiments.     

Pore water phosphate and ammonia below the permanent halocline in the south-eastern Baltic Sea and their benthic fluxes under anoxic conditions

In this paper the results of a study on the distribution of pore water phosphates and ammonia, and their fluxes under anoxic condition in a deep (> 70 m) accumulation-type bottom of the south-eastern Baltic Sea, namely in the Gdańsk Deep and the adjacent areas, are presented. All measurements were taken during the growth period, i.e. in September 2000, April 2001 and June 2002. Benthic phosphate and ammonia fluxes were estimated using Fick's First Law. Phosphate and ammonia concentrations ranged from 7.5 to 266.3 μmol dm^− 3 and from 53.6 to 1248.3 μmol dm^− 3, respectively. The values recorded in the central part of the Gdańsk Deep were lower than those found both on its slopes and on the SW slope of the Gotland Deep. The lowest phosphate contents were typical of the Oblique Sill which separates the Gdańsk and Gotland Deeps.In 1993–2002, as a result of anoxia the sediments in the Gdańsk Deep released about 5.1 × 10³ t P and 22.8 × 10³ t N. These loads supplied on average 1.5% and 0.9% of phytoplankton's demand for P and N, respectively. In comparison to the total external load of nutrients discharged to the Gulf of Gdańsk (i.e. 8.79 × 10³ t year^− 1 P_tot and 130.79 × 10³ t year^− 1 N_tot; [Witek, Z., Humborg, Ch., Savchuk, O., Grelowski, A. and Łysiak-Pastuszak, E., 2003. Nitrogen and phosphorus budgets of the Gulf of Gdańsk (Baltic Sea). Est. Coast. Shelf Sci., 57:239–248.]), the return flux of P and N from the anoxic sediments to the water column in the Gdańsk Deep was a minor source of these elements.