Search results for "Automotive"
showing 10 items of 619 documents
Proof of concept of wayside railroad wheel inspection using a laser-air hybrid ultrasonic technique
2003
Non-destructive inspection of railroad wheels is performed in maintenance shops, where wheels are removed and inspected individually. No technique is yet available to the railroad industry to perform wayside inspections of wheels on a moving train. The characteristics of laser and air-coupled ultrasound are discussed to justify the use of a laser-air hybrid ultrasonic technique. Laser generation of ultrasound is combined with air-coupled detection to provide a flexible non-contact and remote technique that would enable the railroad industry to perform wayside inspections of moving railroad wheels. The present paper describes Proof of Concept set-up and results of the experiments performed a…
A Refined Model for Knock Onset Prediction in Spark Ignition Engines Fueled With Mixtures of Gasoline and Propane
2015
In the last decade, gaseous fuels, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas (NG), widely spread in many countries, thanks to their prerogative of low cost and reduced environmental impact. Hence, bi-fuel engines, which allow to run either with gasoline or with gas (LPG or NG), became very popular. Moreover, as experimentally demonstrated by the authors in the previous works, these engines may also be fueled by a mixture of gasoline and gas, which, due to the high knock resistance of gas, allow to use stoichiometric mixtures also at full load, thus drastically improving engine efficiency and pollutant emissions with respect to pure gasoline operation without noticeable power los…
Computer active control of damping fluid of a racing superbike suspension scheme for road safety improvement spin-off
2008
This paper describes in detail a computational investigation of a newly-conceived scheme of hydraulic active racing motorcycle suspension and its design application based on a computer-aided control of damping fluid. Through ad hoc tests on a full-scale model setup and the theoretical approach of a non linear 8th-order suspension scheme, this study gives enhancement of the damping fluid active control on the feedback branch of the entire control system for significant improvement of the suspension response to typical road inputs. Briefly, the fluid flow in suspension dampers - generated through well-suited high-pressure hydraulic circuit - shall be conveniently controlled in direction and m…
Optimization of a Vehicle Shape by CFD Code
2005
In this paper, fluid dynamics simulations have been executed using a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) commercial code, on a Maserati Biturbo mod. 222 - 1988. At first some surfaces are optimised, choosing the more important ones for the reduction of the resistance, by a manual variation of their geometry, hence a large surface is optimised in an automatic way, by means of an own software, developed in the MatLab environment, returning the optimised surface according to a specific objective function (the resistance in this paper). The aerodynamics resistance results are given under the form of aerodynamics penetration coefficient CD, taking into account the vehicle shape effect, the speed,…
Simulation approach for improving CNC milling machines accuracy for single axis motion
2010
CNC milling machines are widely used in manufacturing processes. In time, their accuracy is decreasing, which directly influences the accuracy of the manufactured parts. This research proposes a simulation-based method for improving the accuracy of the above mentioned machines, which is suitable to be applied at the shop floor level. A model of the feed drive, using a dc servomotor as actuator, is the core of the proposed approach. Matlab & Simulink based simulation diagrams were built in order to test the behavior of the system.
Why do older drivers reduce driving? Findings from three European countries
2003
The objective of this study was to find out the reasons, which lead drivers to reduce their driving in varying cultural settings. Data on the prevalence of reduced driving, the reasons for and factors associated with reduced driving were obtained from Finnish, German and Italian home-dwelling active drivers (n=710) aged 55 and older. The subjects were interviewed in autumn 1995 at their homes with a standardized questionnaire as a part of the European project Keeping the Elderly Mobile: Technology to Meet Their Outdoor Mobility Needs. In the Finnish and German samples 62% and in the Italian sample 44% of the active drivers stated that they had reduced their driving. These persons drove fewe…
Factors influencing automobile firms eco-innovation orientation
2014
[EN] An eco-innovation is any innovation that reduces environmental damage. Even though eco-innovating is a key trend in industry today, relatively little research has been conducted on its implications for the automobile industry. In this article, the attitude toward the environment while innovating is analyzed using the SEM (Structural Equation Model) technique, applied to a data set of 223 Spanish automotive companies. Results of a statistical analysis with this data set show that companies which focus on processes and products when innovating tend to be more environmentally oriented and tend to highlight the importance of information sources more than those which do not have a focus on …
Survey on power increase of power by employment of PV reconfigurator
2015
This paper shows the performance of a PV system under shadow projection on PV panels. The reconfiguration techniques, employing a microprocessor-based system, modifies the layout of the PV plant by physically changing the connections among modules, in order to recover the loss of power due to the shadows. Different cases have been considered to evaluate the increase of power.
Distribution grid analysys through PSAT open source tools
2015
In this paper a study of an electrical distribution grid with presence of renewable energy sources performed using the Power System Analysis Tool is presented. The paper describes the load flow analysis of a real existing grid owned by the Italian DSO “ENEL Distribuzione SpA” and located in an urban area.
Stability analysis of rotor whirl under nonlinear internal friction by a general averaging approach
2016
The two main sources of internal friction in a rotor-shaft system are the shaft structural hysteresis and the possible shrink-fit release of the assembly. The internal friction tends to destabilize the over-critical rotor running, but a remedy against this effect may be provided by a proper combination of some external damping in the supports and an anisotropic arrangement of the support stiffness, or at most by the support damping alone, depending on the system geometry. The present analysis reported here considers a general asymmetric rotor-shaft system, where the rotor is perfectly rigid and is constrained by viscous–flexible supports having different stiffnesses on two orthogonal plane…