The homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) concept has been acknowledged as a potential combustion concept for engines, due to low NOx and soot emissions and high efficiency, especially at part-load. Early direct-injection (DI) during the compression stroke is an option when Diesel fuel is used in HCCI. This implies that the risk for wall impingement increases, due to the decreasing in-cylinder density. The fuel sprays has to be well dispersed in order to avoid wall impingement. Specially designed impinging nozzles providing a collision of the Diesel sprays in the vicinity of the orifice exits have experimentally been verified to yield well dispersed sprays and the desired benefits of HCCI under various conditions. The purpose of this work is to use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a tool to simulate and evaluate non-impinging and impinging nozzles with respect to mixture formation in direct-injected HCCI. Three different nozzles are considered: one non-impinging and two impinging nozzles with 30 and 60 degree collision angle respectively. Lagrangian CFD simulations of impinging sprays using the traditional collision model of O’Rourke is not sufficient in order obtain the correct spray properties of impinging sprays. This work proposes an enhanced collision model, which is an extension of the O’Rourke model with respect to collision frequency, post collisional velocities and collision induced break-up. The enhanced model is referred to as the EORIS model (Enhanced O’Rourke model for Impinging Sprays). The initial drop size distribution at orifice and break-up time constant of the standard Wave model is calibrated and calculated wall impingement (piston and liner) is compared with combustion efficiency, smoke, HC and CO emissions as a function of injection timing. A set of model parameters were selected for further evaluation. These model parameters and the EORIS collision model were applied to non-impinging and impinging nozzles under low- and high load conditions. The EORIS model and the selected model parameters are able to predict wall impingement in agreement with experimental measurements of combustion efficiency and smoke emissions under low- and high load conditions for the investigated nozzles. A benefit is that one set of model parameters can be used to predict mixture formation, and there is no need for additional model calibration when, for instance, the injection timing or nozzle geometry is changed. In general, experiments and simulations indicate that impinging nozzles are recommended for early injection timing in the compression stroke. This is due to the shorter penetration which leads to a reduced risk for wall impingement. The non-impinging nozzles are, however, beneficial for later injection timing in the compression stroke. During these injection conditions the impinging nozzles have a more stratified charge and under some conditions poor mixture quality is achieved. / HCCI-konceptet (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) är en tänkbar förbränningsprincip för att uppnå låga NOx och sotemissioner, speciellt under låglast förhållanden. Då Diesel används som bränsle är tidig direktinsprutning under kompressionsslaget en tänkbar strategi för att åstadkomma gynnsamma HCCI-förhållanden. Den tidiga direktinsprutningen medför däremot att risken för väggvätning ökar, på grund av den minskade densiteten i cylindern. Detta ställer krav på bränslesprejen som måste vara väl fördelad i cylindern för att undvika väggvätning. Specialkonstruerade spridarspetsar som skapar kollision av sprejerna nära hålmynningen, så kallade kolliderande sprejer, har experimentellt påvisats vara fördelaktiga för HCCI förbränning, tack vare kortare sprejpenetration och voluminös sprej. Syftet med detta arbete är att använda CFD (Computational FluidDynamics) som ett verktyg för att simulera och evaluera ickekolliderande och kolliderande sprejer med avseende på blandningsbildning under direktinsprutade HCCI förhållanden. Tre olika spridarspetsar har undersökts: en icke-kolliderande och två kolliderande med kollisionsvinkel 30 och 60 grader. CFD-simuleringar av kolliderande sprejer med Lagrangiansk modelleringsteknik och O’Rourkes traditionella kollisionsmodell har visat sig vara otillräcklig för att uppnå korrekta sprejegenskaper. Den här avhandlingen presenterar en förbättrad kollisionsmodell baserad på O’Rourkes ursprungliga kollisionsmodell med avseende på kollisionsfrekvens, dropphastighet efter kollision och kollisionsviinducerad break-up. Den förbättrade modellen kallas EORIS (Enhanced O’Rourke model for Impinging Sprays). Den initiala droppfördelningen vid spridarspetsens hålmynning och Wave-modellens tidskonstant för break-up har kalibrerats och beräknad väggvätning (kolv och foder) har jämförts med förbränningsverkningsgrad, rök, HC och CO-emissioner som funktion av insprutningstidpunkt. De valda modellparametrarna och EORIS-modellen tillämpades för att evaluera blandningsbildningen på kolliderande och icke-kolliderande spridarspetsar under låg- och höglast-förhållanden. EORIS-modellen och de utvalda modellparametrarna kan predikteraväggvätning i överensstämmelse med uppmätt förbränningsverkningsgrad och rökemissioner under låglast- och höglastförhållanden för de undersökta spridarspetsarna. En fördel är att de utvalda modellparametrarna kan prediktera blandningsbildningen och det finns inget behov att justera modellparametrarna då t.ex. insprutningstidpunkten eller spridarspetsgeometrin ändras. Generellt påvisar såväl experiment som simuleringar att de kolliderande sprejerna är lämpliga för tidig direktinsprutning underkompressionsslaget. Det är på grund av kort sprejpenetration som reducerar risken för väggvätning. De icke-kolliderande sprejerna är dock lämpliga för sen direktinsprutning under kompressionsslaget. Under dessa förhållanden har de kolliderande sprejerna en mer stratifierad blandning och under vissa förhållanden uppnås då en ofördelaktig blandningskvalitet. / QC 20100819

No description available.

The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of driver, vehicle, and environment characteristics on Collision Warning System (CWS) design. One hypothesis was made that the capability of collision avoidance would not be same among a driver, vehicle, and environment group with different characteristics. Accident analysis and quantitative analysis was used to examine this hypothesis in terms of ‘risk’ and ‘safety margin’ respectively. Rear-end collision had a stronger focus in the present study. As a result of accident analysis, heavy truck showed a higher susceptibility of the fatal rear-end accidents than car and light truck. Also, dry road surface compared to wet or snow, dark condition compared to daylight condition, straight road compared to curved road, level road compared to grade, crest or sag, roadway having more than 5 travel lanes compared to roadway having 2, 3 or 4 travel lanes showed a higher susceptibility of the fatal rear-end accidents. Relative rear-end accidents involvement proportion compared to the other types of collision was used as a measure of susceptibility. As a result of quantitative analysis, a significant difference in terms of Required Minimum Warning Distance (RMWD) was made among a different vehicle type and braking system group. However, relatively small difference was made among a different age, gender group in terms of RMWD. Based on the result, breaking performance of vehicle should be regarded as an input variable in the design of CWS, specifically warning timing criteria, was concluded.

Today many car manufactures are developing systems that help the driver to avoid collisions. Examples of this kind of systems are: adaptive cruise control, collision warning and collision mitigation / avoidance. All these systems need to track and predict future positions of surrounding objects (vehicles ahead of the system host vehicle), to calculate the risk of a future collision. To validate that a prediction is correct the predictions must be correlated to observations. This is called the data association problem. If a prediction can be correlated to an observation, this observation is used for updating the tracking filter. This process maintains the low uncertainty level for the track. From the work behind this thesis, it has been found that a sequential nearest- neighbour approach for the solution of the problem to correlate an observation to a prediction can be used to find the solution to the data association problem. Since the computational power for the collision mitigation system is limited, only the most dangerous surrounding objects can be tracked and predicted. Therefore, an algorithm that classifies and selects the most critical measurements is developed. The classification into order of potential risk can be done using the measurements that come from an observed object.

The elementary processes of atomic and molecular oxygen over the solid surfaces of graphite and β–cristobalite have been studied theoretically. The aim of the study is to widen the knowledge about the behaviour of materials used as a Thermal Protection Systems in space vehicles during its re-entry on the Earth’s atmosphere. For the oxygen interaction over graphite, a Density Functional Theory study has been carried out for the main heterogeneous elementary processes. Minima and transition states have been characterized for the atomic and molecular adsorption, as also the main features of atomic diffusion and O2 formation via Eley-Rideal and Langmuir-Hinshelwood processes. The rate constants for each of the beforementioned processes have been computed by means of the Transition State Theory and then used in a Kinetic model in order to study the overall effect of the processes occurring at the same time. This model allows estimating the atomic recombination coefficient, widely used in computational fluid dynamics simulations. In order to understand the microscopic mechanism of these processes, a dynamical study has been carried out by means of the quasiclassical trajectory method over several potential energy surfaces (PES). For the atomic interaction with the surface an analytical surface (using the Flexible Periodic Lodon-Eyring-Polanyi-Sato, FPLEPS method) and an interpolated one (using the Modified Shepard method) have been constructed. In the case of two atoms interacting with the surface, a FPLEPS surface has been used. From these calculations, reaction probabilities, scattering angles and other properties has been obtained. The dynamical study of oxygen interacting with β–cristobalite has been completed, specifically for the interaction of an oxygen atom with a precovered surface and for the molecular oxygen over a clean surface. Using these results, the reaction rate constants have been computed and used in a microkinetic model in order to understand the effect of all of the elementary processes considered at the same time. Furthermore, an estimation of the atomic recombination coefficient and the energetic accommodation coefficient has been carried out. / S’ha realitzat un estudi teòric d’alguns dels processos químics elementals de l’oxigen atòmic i molecular sobre les superfícies sòlides del grafit i de la β–cristobalita. La intenció ha sigut la d’ampliar el coneixement sobre quin es el comportament dels materials que s’empren com a sistemes de protecció tèrmica en vehicles espacials durant la seva reentrada a l’atmosfera terrestre. Per entendre millor com tenen lloc aquests processos químics heterogenis sobre la superfície del grafit, s’ha realitzat un estudi a nivell de la Teoria del Funcional de la Densitat sobre la interacció de l’oxigen atòmic i molecular amb aquesta superfície. Així doncs, s’han caracteritzat els principals punts estacionaris (mínims d’adsorció, estats de transició,...) de las reaccions elementals: adsorció atòmica i molecular, difusió, formació de molècules d’O2 a partir de les reaccions d’Eley-Rideal o Langmuir-Hinshelwood,..., observant en tots els casos que són processos energèticament activats. S’han trobat també dos petits mínims de fisisorció per l’àtom i la molècula, amb concordança amb dades experimentals publicades. S’han calculat les constants de velocitat associades a cadascun dels processos elementals a partir de la Teoria de l’Estat de Transició, i s’ha construït un model cinètic (300-1000K), en el que s’han estudiat l’efecte d’aquests processos de forma global, permetent també realitzar una estimació del coeficient de recombinació atòmica. Aquest coeficient, molt emprat en simulacions computacionals de fluids, a resultat ser molt petit a les diferents condicions estudiades. Per a aprofundir en el mecanisme microscòpic dels processos esmentats, s’ha realitzat un estudi de dinàmica molecular mitjançant el mètode de trajectòries quasiclàssiques sobre dos superfícies d’energia potencial , construïdes mitjançant un mètode analític (Flexible Periodic London-Eyring-Polanyi-Sato, FPLEPS) i un mètode d’interpolació (Modified Shepard) per a la interacció de un àtom amb el grafit, i sobre una superfície FPLEPS per a la interacció de dos àtoms amb el grafit. Amb això s’han pogut determinar les probabilitats de reacció per a cadascun dels processos, l’intercanvi energètic entre les espècies en fase gas i la superfície sòlida, angles de dispersió,... obtenint bona concordança d’aquests amb resultats experimentals publicats. S’ha observat que la reflexió atòmica i la adsorció atòmica són els principals processos sobre una superfície sòlida neta. La reacció Eley-Rideal, que produeix molècules d’O2 excitades internament, es produeix sobre una superfície amb O preadsorbit, mentre que la dissociació molecular no s’ha observat pràcticament. S’ha completat l’estudi dinàmic de l’oxigen sobre la superfície de β–cristobalita (001), per als processos de interacció d’un àtom amb la superfície coberta d’oxigen atòmic i per a la col•lisió de l’O2 amb la superfície neta. S’han realitzat també càlculs dinàmics en condicions quasitèrmiques dels processos elementals per obtenir les constants de velocitat associades i poder així construir un model cinètic (700- 1700K), amb el que s’han pogut avaluar els coeficients de recombinació atòmica (γ) i d’acomodació energètica (β). Per al primer s’han obtingut valors propers als experimentals, compresos entre 0.01 i 0.02. En el cas de βO s’han obtingut valors entre 0.75 i 0.8, que difereixen substancialment dels que s’han assumit a simulacions prèvies (βO=1). S’ha demostrat que el procés d’adsorció atòmica es molt més important que la reacció Eley-Rideal en quant a transferència de calor cap a la superfície sòlida.

The unchangeable need of securing and locating parts during different manufacturing processes turned the fixtures to key elements in many part production industries. The iterations between design engineers and manufacturing planners because of late collision detection of the part/fixtures with robots cost a lot of time and money. The lead-time can be reduced by developing tools and/or methods for early verification of the fixtures during the simultaneous engineering phase. Different aspects of fixture designing, modeling and simulating is investigated as a base step to recognize the best practice work to do fixture planning in Process Simulate integrated PLM environment. The aim of the project is to use Process Simulate to design and validate modular fixtures at the same time and in a single environment. It also aims to investigate the possibility of adding kinematics, sensors, and actuating signals to the fixtures and utilize them to model the fixture behavior in a larger simulation study. The project narrows down its focus on the fixtures designed for robotic applications specifically in Automotive Body in White lines without losing generality. The document type stated at the title page and in the header of this page is master thesis work.

De krocktester som utförs idag är låsta till det system av styr och draganordningar som byggs upp. Att göra en krocktest därbilarna kan styras individuellt med hjälp av en förarrobot ökar friheten att designa tester. Att krocka två bilar som på bilden på framsidan, med 90 graders vinkel mellan bilarnas färdriktning ställer det mest tidskritiska kravet när de ska träffa varandra. Detta kräver en bra hastighetsreglering vilket är huvuddelen i examensarbetet. I denna rapport redovisas hur ett sådant styrsystem skulle kunna byggas samt tester i en simuleringsmodell för denna typ av krocktest. Simuleringsmodellen är uppbyggd i Matlab/Simulink och eftersträvar att efterlikna ett verkligt sidokollisionstest tillräckligt mycket för att kunna testa styrsystemet. Efter de tester som gjorts kan man konstatera att det är möjligt att konstruera ett sådant styrsystem som kan få två bilar att träffa varandra i en sådan sidokollision som är beskriven ovan.

Pavements encompass a significant component of the total civil infrastructure investment. In Ontario, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is responsible for the maintenance and construction of approximately 39,000 lane-kilometres of highway. In 2004, the province estimated the value of the total highway system at $39 billion dollars. Thus, managing this asset is an important factor to ensure a high level of service to the traveling public. One of the most important indicators of level of service for a road network is safety. Each year, thousands of motorists across North America are involved in motor vehicle collisions, which result in property damage, congestion, delays, injuries and fatalities. The MTO estimated that in 2002, vehicle collisions in Ontario cost nearly $11 billion. Despite the importance of highway safety, it is usually not considered explicitly in the pavement management framework or maintenance analysis. A number of agencies across North America collect skid data to assess the level of safety at both the project and network level (Li et al, 2004). However, a number of transportation agencies still do not collect friction data as part of their regular pavement data collection programs. This is related to both liability concerns and lack of knowledge for how this data can be effectively used to improve safety. The transportation industry generally relies on information such as collision rates, black-spot locations and radius of curvature to evaluate the level of safety of an alignment (Lamm et al., 1999). These are important factors, but the use of complementary skid data in an organized proactive manner would also be beneficial. In preparation for a considered Long Term Area Maintenance Contract, a project was initiated by the MTO to collect network level friction data across three regions in the Province of Ontario. This project represents the first time friction data was collected at the network level in Ontario. In 2006, approximately 1,800 km of the MTO highway network was surveyed as a part of this study. This research utilized the network level skid data along with collision data to examine the relationships and model the impacts of skid resistance on the level of safety. Despite the value of collecting network level skid data, many Canadian transportation agencies still do not collect network level skid data due to the costs and potential liability associated with the collected data. The safety of highway networks are usually assessed using various levels of service indicators such as Wet-to-Dry accident ratio (W/D), surface friction (SN), or the collision rate (CR). This research focused on developing a framework for assessing the level of safety of a highway network in terms of the risk of collision based on pavement surface friction. The developed safety framework can be used by transportation agencies (federal, state, provincial, municipal, etc.) or the private sector to evaluate the safety of their highway networks and to determine the risk or probability of a collision occurring given the level of friction along the pavement section of interest. As a part of the analysis, a number of factors such as Region, Season of the Year, Environmental Conditions, Road Surface Condition, Collision Severity, Visibility and Roadway Location were all investigated. Statistical analysis and modeling were performed to developed relationships which could relate the total number of collisions or the collision rate (CR) to the level of available pavement friction on a highway section. These models were developed using over 1,200 collisions and skid test results from two Regions in the Province of Ontario. Another component of this study examined the Wet-to-Dry accident ratio and compared it to the Skid Number. A number of Transportation Agencies rely on the Wet-to-Dry accident ratio to identify potential locations with poor skid resistance. The results of the comparison further demonstrated the need and importance of collecting network level skid data. Another component of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various preservation treatments used within the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) study. In addition, modeling was performed which examined the historical friction trends over time within various environment zones across North America to investigate skid resistance deterioration trends. The results of the analysis demonstrated that commonly used preservation treatments can increase skid resistance and improve safety. The cost effectiveness of implementing preservation and maintenance to increase the level of safety of a highway using Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) was evaluated. A Decision Making Framework was developed which included the formulation of a Decision Matrix that can be used to assist in selecting a preservation treatment for a given condition. The results of this analysis demonstrate the savings generated by reducing the number of collisions as a result of increasing skid resistance. The results of this research study have demonstrated the importance of network level friction testing and the impact of skid resistance on the level of safety of a highway. A review of the literature did not reveal any protocol or procedures for sampling or minimum test interval requirements for network level skid testing using a locked-wheel tester. Network level friction testing can be characterized as expensive and time-consuming due to the complexity of the test. As a result, any reduction in the required number of test points is a benefit to the transportation agency, private sector (consultants and contractors) and most importantly, the public. An analysis approach was developed and tested that can be used to minimize the number of required test locations along a highway segment using common statistical techniques.

In recent years, researchers have developed virtual environments, which allow more realistic human-computer interactions and have become increasingly popular for engineering applications such as computer-aided design and process evaluation. For instance, the demand for product service, remanufacture, and recycling has forced companies to consider ease of assembly and disassembly during the design phase of their products. Evaluating these processes in a virtual environment during the early stages of design not only increases the impact of design modifications on the final product, but also eliminates the time, cost, and material associated with the construction of physical prototypes. Although numerous virtual environments for assembly analysis exist or are under development, many provide only visual feedback. A real-time haptic simulation test bed for the analysis of assembly and disassembly operations has been developed, providing the designer with force and tactile feedback in addition to traditional visual feedback. The development such a simulation requires the modeling of collisions between virtual objects, which is a computationally expensive process. Also, the demands of a real-time simulation incorporating haptic feedback introduce additional complications for reliable collision detection. Therefore, the first objective of this work was to discover ways in which current collision detection libraries can be improved or supplemented to create more robust interaction between virtual objects. Using the simulation as a test bed, studies were then conducted to determine the potential usefulness of haptic feedback for analysis of assembly and disassembly operations. The following significant contributions were accomplished: (1) a simulation combining the strengths of an impulse-based simulation with a supplemental constraint maintenance scheme for modeling object interactions, (2) a toolkit of supplemental techniques to support object interactions in situations where collision detection algorithms commonly fail, (3) a haptic assembly and disassembly simulation useful for experimentation, and (4) results from a series of five experimental user studies with the focus of determining the effectiveness of haptic feedback in such a simulation. Additional contributions include knowledge of the usability and functionality of current collision detection libraries, the limitations of haptic feedback devices, and feedback from experimental subjects regarding their comfort and overall satisfaction with the simulation.

We investigate charmonium production in the hot medium created by heavy-ion collisions by setting up a framework in which in-medium charmonium properties are constrained by thermal lattice QCD (lQCD) and subsequently implemented into kinetic approaches. A Boltzmann transport equation is employed to describe the time evolution of the charmonium phase space distribution with the loss and gain term accounting for charmonium dissociation and regeneration (from charm quarks), respectively. The momentum dependence of the charmonium dissociation rate is worked out. The dominant process for in-medium charmonium regeneration is found to be a 3-to-2 process. Its corresponding regeneration rates from different input charmquark momentum spectra are evaluated. Experimental data on J/[psi] production at CERN-SPS and BNL-RHIC are compared with our numerical results in terms of both rapidity-dependent inclusive yields and transverse momentum (pt) spectra. Within current uncertainties from (interpreting) lQCD data and from input charm-quark spectra the centrality dependence of J/[psi] production at SPS and RHIC (for both mid-and forward rapidity) is reasonably well reproduced. The J/[psi] pt data are shown to have a discriminating power for in-medium charmonium properties as inferred from different interpretations of lQCD results.