No description available.

Accurate estimation of the coefficient of friction (CoF) is essential to accurately modeling railroad dynamics, reducing maintenance costs, and increasing safety factors in rail operations. The assumption of a constant CoF is popularly used in simulation studies for ease of implementation, however many evidences demonstrated that CoF depends on various dynamic parameters and instantaneous conditions. In the real world, accurately estimating the CoF is difficult due to effects of various uncertain parameters, such as wheel and rail materials, rail roughness, contact patch, and so on. In this study, the newly developed 3-D nonlinear CoF model for the dry rail condition is introduced and the CoF variation is tested using this model with dynamic parameters estimated from the wheel-rail simulation model. In order to account for uncertain parameters, a stochastic analysis using the polynomial chaos (poly-chaos) theory is performed using the CoF and wheel-rail dynamics models. The wheel-rail system at a right traction wheel is modeled as a mass-spring-damper system to simulate the basic wheel-rail dynamics and the CoF variation. The wheel-rail model accounts for wheel-rail contact, creepage effect, and creep force, among others. Simulations are performed at train speed of 20 m/s for 4 sec using rail roughness as a unique excitation source. The dynamic simulation has been performed for the deterministic model and for the stochastic model. The dynamics results of the deterministic model provide the starting point for the uncertainty analysis. Six uncertain parameters have been studied with an assumption of 50% uncertainty, intentionally imposed for testing extreme conditions. These parameters are: the maximum amplitude of rail roughness (MARR), the wheel lateral displacement, the track stiffness and damping coefficient, the sleeper distance, and semi-elliptical contact lengths. A symmetric beta distribution is assumed for these six uncertain parameters. The PDF of the CoF has been obtained for each uncertain parameter study, for combinations of two different uncertain parameters, and also for combinations of three different uncertain parameters. The results from the deterministic model show acceptable vibration results for the body, the wheel, and the rail. The introduced CoF model demonstrates the nonlinear variation of the total CoF, the stick component, and the slip component. In addition, it captures the maximum CoF value (initial peak) successfully. The stochastic analysis results show that the total CoF PDF before 1 sec is dominantly affected by the stick phenomenon, while the slip dominantly influences the total CoF PDF after 1 sec. Although a symmetric distribution has been used for the uncertain parameters considered, the uncertainty in the response obtained displayed a skewed distribution for some of the situations investigated. The CoF PDFs obtained from simulations with combinations of two and three uncertain parameters have wider PDF ranges than those obtained for only one uncertain parameter. FFT analysis using the rail displacement has been performed for the qualitative validation of the stochastic simulation result due to the absence of the experimental data. The FFT analysis of the deterministic rail displacement and of the stochastic rail displacement with uncertainties demonstrates consistent trends commensurate with loss of tractive efficiency, such as the bandwidth broadening, peak frequency shifts, and side band occurrence. Thus, the FFT analysis validates qualitatively that the stochastic modeling with various uncertainties is well executed and is reflecting observable, real-world results. In conclusions, the development of an effective model which helps to understand the nonlinear nature of wheel-rail friction is critical to the progress of railroad component technology and rail safety. In the real world, accurate estimation of the CoF at the wheel-rail interface is very difficult since it is influenced by several uncertain parameters as illustrated in this study. Using the deterministic CoF value can cause underestimation or overestimation of CoF values leading to inaccurate decisions in the design of the wheel-rail system. Thus, the possible PDF ranges of the CoF according to key uncertain parameters must be considered in the design of the wheel-rail system. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No / Model based control of automotive engines for fuel economy and pollution minimization depends on accuracy of models used. A number of mathematical models of automotive engine processes are available for this purpose but critical model parameters are difficult to obtain and generalize. This paper presents a novel method of online estimation of discharge coefficient of throttle body at the intake manifold of gasoline engines. The discharge coefficient is taken to be a varying parameter. Air mass flow across the throttle body is a critical variable in maintaining a closer to stoichiometric air fuel ratio; which is necessary to minimize the pollution contents in exhaust gases. The estimation method is based on sliding mode technique. A classical first Sliding mode observer is designed to estimate intake manifold pressure and the model uncertainty arising from the uncertain and time varying discharge coefficient is compensated by the discontinuity/switching signal of sliding mode observer. This discontinuity is used to compute coefficient of discharge as a time varying signal. The discharge coefficient is used to tune/correct the intake manifold model to engine measurements. The resulting model shows a very good agreement with engine measurements in steady as wells transient state. The stability of the observer is shown by Lyapunov direct method and the validity of the online estimation is successfully demonstrated by experimental results. OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic revision II) based sensor data acquisition from the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) of a production model vehicle is used. The devised algorithm is simple enough to be designed and implemented in a production environment. The online estimation of parameter can also be used for engine fault diagnosis work. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dans le cadre de la présente thèse, on a procédé à l’étude du comportement dynamique d’un système d’engrenage comportant des paramètres incertains. Une des principales hypothèses faite dans l’utilisation des méthodes de prise en compte des incertitudes, est que le modèle est déterministe, c’est-à-dire que les paramètres utilisés dans le modèle ont une valeur définie et invariante. Par ailleurs, la connaissance du domaine de variation de la réponse dynamique du système dues aux incertitudes qui découle des coefficients d’amortissement, des raideurs d’engrènement, la présence de frottement entre les pièces, les défauts de montage et de fabrication ou l’inertie des pales dans le cas d’éolienne est essentielle. Pour cela, dans la première partie, on s’applique à décrire la réponse dynamique d’une transmission par engrenage comportant des paramètres modélisés par des variables aléatoires. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons la simulation de Monte Carlo, la méthode de perturbation et la méthode de projection sur un chaos polynomial. Dans la seconde partie,deux approches sont utilisées pour analyser le comportement dynamique d’un système d’engrenage d’éolienne : l’approche probabiliste et l’approche ensembliste basée sur la méthode d’analyse par intervalles. L'objectif consiste à comparer les deux approches pour connaitre leurs avantages et inconvénients en termes de précision et temps de calcul. / In the present work, the dynamic behavior of a gear system with uncertain parameters is studied. One of the principal hypotheses in the use of methods for taking into account uncertainties is that the model is deterministic, that is to say that parameters used in the model have a defined and fixed value. Furthermore, the knowledge of variation response of a gear system involving damping coefficients, mesh stiffness, friction coefficient, assembly defect, manufacturing defect or the input blades in the case of wind turbine is essential. In the first part, we investigate the dynamic response of a gear system with uncertain parameters modeled as random variables. A Monte Carlo simulation, a perturbation method and a polynomial chaos method are carried out. In the second part, two approaches are used to analyze the dynamic behavior of a wind turbine gear system : the probabilistic approach and the interval analysis method. The objective is to compare the two approaches to define their advantages and disadvantages in terms of precision and computation time.