This work focuses on the development of a methodology for the complete reconstruction of the 3D geometry of a concrete bridge. 3D scanning technology was selected as the most apt to the task as it provides very detailed geometrical informations. A dedicated carriage system for a compact and lightweight laser scanner has been designed and built as a first prototype to be used on laboratory as well as future on-field tests. A first assessment of the design constraints has been carried out, based on the general goal of implementing a system able to be used with existing inspection vehicles with minimal modifications. The specific electronic system for management and control of the carriage system and the management of the associated tracking system has been also designed and realized. Some preliminary tests have been performed at Politecnico di Milano University campus to assess the viability and analyze the performance of the early design choices.

As the energy landscape changes globally with the development of tight oil and gas resources, questions about the rail safety and tighter regulations around safety and environment, energy insiders are asking the question; are pipelines still the safest way to transport energy? In a recent study conducted by T.D. Williamson (TDW) (1) this paper uncovers some current industry trends, drivers and restraints that will shape the pipelines landscape for the future. The study looked at regional trends, technology applications and future project developments in the pipelines arena and how this is influencing how pipelines are being designed, installed and utilized. The study identified that there were four distinct pipeline “themes” over the pipeline life cycle, which comprise: • Infrastructure – pipeline new build for growth, replacement and expansion, • Integrity Management – management of the integrity for new and existing pipelines, • Flow Assurance & Throughput – optimizing throughput and uptime for new and existing pipelines, • Management of Human Capital – acquiring, developing and retaining competent people or outsourcing. The paper will discuss how these needs imbedded in these themes are met or, as in some cases, unmet. The paper also looks at developments in materials for new pipelines, pipeline monitoring and leak detection (from cables to dogs to, unmanned vehicles), newer products that are being shipped (from higher hydrogen content methane gas to carbon dioxide from capture schemes to diluted bitumen from the oil sands), the impact of “big data” (from Mb to Yb), and how operators are looking to manage emergencies (from spill response to emergency planning and operational readiness). This paper will compare safety records for energy transportation as well as the new demands being put on energy companies that will propose an answer to the question posed in the title.

In this study, we adopt a dual power system for extension (DPES) operation by combining the existing power system of an electric vehicle with a hydrogen fuel cell. This was to enhance the durability of the electric vehicle and reduce the inconvenience of battery charging. The lithium battery acts as the primary power source and has real-time monitoring of its state of charge (SOC), while the hydrogen fuel cells act as the auxiliary power supply. The auxiliary power can be used either directly or for charging the lithium battery while the vehicle is in its idle state. The dual power system is coupled with a dual-mode motor controller and energy management system. This study aims to apply the dual power system on the electric vehicle using hydrogen fuel cells. We designed a simulation platform for real driving conditions using Labview to send and receive control commands. In this study, we simulated the road cycles of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE-40), Japanese legislative cycle (JP10) and the World-wide Motorcycle Emissions Test Cycle (WMTC), using Proportional-integral Control (PI) for automatic tracking and employing engineering error analysis to determine the most suitable PI parameter values for the simulated system. The results showed that using a fixed 100 W fuel cell could enhance the operation time up to 21 %, 21 %, and 14 % for the road cycles of the ECE-40, JP10, and WMTC, respectively. Due to the required features of an actual vehicle, we also designed an energy limiting system to manage the driver-controlled electronic throttle by controlling the instantaneous and maximum power output of the motor in order to achieve savings in energy consumption, increase its operation time, protect the system, and enhance its durability.

Power management systems are one of the most important components in modern hybrid vehicles. They are needed to optimize the operation of the hybrid system components. In this paper, a model for a fuel cell/battery vehicle is developed using PSAT and then tested with four power management control strategies utilizing the driving cycle of Amman city, the capital of Jordan. The main components of the hybrid vehicle are a PEM fuel cell, battery, and a brushless dc motor. PEM fuel cells are popular due to their good start up, high power density, and low operating temperature. The role of the battery in a hybrid system is to boost the system power during start-up and transient events in addition to storing the energy recovered from the braking process. The developed hybrid vehicle model is designed and configured so that it matches the power, acceleration, and maximum speed of a midsized vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. The proposed control strategies are the thermostat strategy, fuel cell optimized strategy, load following strategy and fuzzy logic strategy. All four control strategies are implemented in simulation utilizing PSAT. The simulation results indicate that the best performance in terms of fuel economy is achieved by the load following control strategy.

The work addresses the optimization of the steering and roll systems of an innovative four-wheeled tilting vehicle, which is currently being built at the University of Padova. The vehicle is a combination of traditional two and four-wheeled forms, with the driver operating a bike handlebar to steer, and throttle and brake inputs to control speed. Two pedals control the roll movement, while the gearshifts are made automatically. The steering system consists of a handlebar, column, pinion, rack and track-rods to the wheels. In the resulting spatial mechanism, roll and steer motions of the wheels are coupled. The kinematic optimization presented in this paper, aims at minimizing undesired roll to steer behaviour, and provides appropriate outer/inner wheel steer angles. The natural coordinate approach is employed to efficiently simulate and optimize the mechanism.

A good driving cycle is needed for accurate evaluation of a vehicle’s performance in terms of emission and fuel consumption. Driving cycles obtained for certain cities or countries are not usually applicable to other cities or countries. Therefore, considerable research has been conducted on developing driving cycles for certain cities and regions. In this paper, a driving cycle for a taxi in Amman city, the capital of Jordan, is developed. Significant differences are noted when comparing the Amman driving cycle with other driving cycles. A model of a gasoline powered vehicle is used to conduct a performance comparison in terms of fuel economy and emissions utilizing the developed Amman driving cycle and six other worldwide driving cycles. The developed Amman driving cycle is very useful in obtaining accurate estimation of fuel economy and emissions for vehicles running on Amman roads and will be used in future work to study the performance of hybrid fuel cell/ battery vehicles.

Suppressing or limiting the differential action of the differential mechanism is the mostly adopted technique to avoid the skidding of a driving wheel of a vehicle riding on a poorly adherent surface. The devices carrying out this function unbalance the traction force distribution in the differential, generating a yaw torque acting on the vehicle as a secondary effect. If the unbalancing action is electronically controlled, this yaw torque can be used to affect the attitude of car as a torque vectoring technique. In this paper, a purpose built differential is presented and its technical features are highlighted, including the electrohydraulic actuation. Moreover, its torque vectoring capabilities are discussed, basing on the numerical simulation campaign performed deploying this device in a 7 DOFs model of a race car with low ground effect. The results of these simulations are compared with the behavior of the same vehicle equipped with a common passive locking differential, to show that the proposed one and its control logic (which relies on only measurable inputs) are able of improving the handling of the vehicle, in terms of both vehicle stability and linearity with the driver’s inputs. Therefore, this system could be considered as a completion of the common ESC (“Electronic Stability Control) systems to control the vehicle attitude when using the brake system is an inefficient solution.

This paper describes the on-road test program that was used for a performance study and environmental analysis of an electrically assisted bicycle in the urban area of Naples. For this purpose, the vehicle was tested on different test tracks, cycling over 2000 km, and then making a general assessment about the driving behavior under real conditions. Based on the findings obtained during the different test samples, an appraisal of the electric traction offered by this bicycle on the driving comfort was evaluated for different conditions: electrical assistance at start, on a flat road and when riding uphill. The power requirements in different typical riding situations were also calculated: these results were estimated by experimental kinematic parameters that describe the driving dynamics collected during the real-life applications. An environmental analysis was made and also put against the environmental impact of a thermal moped.

The development of compact and efficient hybrid electric vehicle powertrains for low initial and on-going costs requires consideration of numerous, often competing factors. Appropriately designing and sizing these powertrains requires the consideration of requirements for vehicle range and performance, considered directly through the sizing of motors and engines, and indirectly through minimization of vehicle mass whilst being constrained by total stored energy in the vehicle, against the impact on vehicle emissions and on purchase and ongoing operational costs. In addition to these considerations the actual driver use will strongly influence the energy consumed and vehicle emissions. It therefore becomes beneficial to provide flexibility in hybrid vehicle configuration design to enable the minimization of vehicle emissions and ongoing vehicle costs. The purpose of this paper is to study the various alternative vehicle powertrain configurations for application to small scale hybridization demands, such as scooters or motorcycles. Powertrain configurations studied in this paper include plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV), battery hybrid electric (BHEV), and a pure electric vehicle (PEV). To design and size each of the configurations a statistical approach is taken, power and load demands are studied and utilized to size powertrain components. Results are extended to size vehicle energy storage for electric only range of 25, 50 and 100 km, and total vehicle range of 100 km for the BHEV and 200 km for the PHEV. Based on the results developed from the analysis mathematical models of each of the powertrain configurations are then developed in Matlab/Simulink and numerical studies of vehicle energy consumption in comparison to range are conducted. Outcomes of these simulations are compared to an operating cost based analysis of the suggested powertrains; the benefits and limitations of each design are considered in detail.

A complex system is composed of many interacting components, but the behavior of the system as a whole can be quite different from that of the individual components. An automobile is an example of a common mechanical system composed of a large number of individual components that are mechanically connected in some way and hence transmit vibrations to each other. This paper proposes a variety of inter-related analytical tools for the study of experimental data from such systems. In this work, experimental results of accelerometer data acquired at two locations in the automobile for two different kinds of tests are analyzed. One test is the response to impact on a stationary vehicle, and the other is the road-response to the vehicle being driven on a flat road at different speeds. Signals were processed via Fourier and wavelet transforms, cross-correlation coefficients were computed, and Hilbert transforms and Kuramoto order parameters were determined. A new parameter representing synchronization deficit is introduced. There is indeed some degree of synchronization that can be quantified between the accelerations measured at these two locations in the vehicle.

Computational occupant modelling has an effective role to play in investigating road safety. Realistic representation of occupants is very important to make investigations in virtual environment. Pregnant occupant modelling can help investigating safety for unborn occupants (fetuses) however, existing pregnant occupant models are not very realistic. Most do not anthropometrically represent pregnant women and do not include a fetus model. ‘Expecting’, a computational pregnant occupant model, developed with a view to simulate the dynamic response to crash impacts is briefly explained in this paper. The model is validated through rigid bar impacts and belt loading tests and used to simulate a wide range of impacts. ‘Expecting’, possess the anthropometric properties of a 5th percentile female at around the 38th week of pregnancy. The model is complete with a finite element uterus and a realistic multibody fetus which is a novel feature in models of this kind. In this paper, the effect of further developments to ‘Expecting’, by incorporating a finite element fetus head model is investigated. Further detailed anatomic geometry is used to generate deformable fetus head model. The model is used to simulate a range of frontal impacts with seatbelt and airbag, as well as no restraint cases. The strains developed in the utero-placental interface are used as the main criteria for fetus safety. The effect of incorporating a finite element fetus head in the pregnant occupant model is discussed.

Student Team Challenges on specific topics are growing in popularity as efficient ways to stimulate students’ independent work, technical and management learning as well as socialization and internationalization. Many competitions are focused on ground vehicles (SAE Formula, Motostudent, Shell Eco Marathon, Solar Challenge), with different focuses on performance, fuel consumption or other depending on the aim of the event. An interesting approach is proposed in the United States by the ASME HPV Challenge, which is focused on Human Powered Vehicles. This class of vehicles allows not only to set-up a classical competition in terms of design, innovation, presentation, manufacturing and racing, but also to grow the student awareness about speed-energy relation. An HPV gives to the rider a direct feedback on a “human-scale” about energy quantities involved in personal mobility. The main returns by the use of this specific topic for a student challenge are: better understanding of the sustainable mobility problem, awareness about the potential and the limits of human muscular power, development of technical skills about design and engineering of lightweight and efficient vehicles, stimulation of the HPVs market development (the students are both potential future designers/manufacturers and/or customers), promotion of healthy and engaging physical activities. In this context, while Europe is rich of HPVs amateurs and manufacturers and is the usual location of the WHPVA World Championship, there is a lack of an educational framework involving students and teachers. Starting from the end of ZEV-HPV Erasmus Intensive Program 2011–2013, the proposal of creating a specific HPV challenge for the European students was developed by the authors. In particular, it was evaluated that by integrating the Student Challenge in the WHPVA World Championship as a special “Educational” category, many reciprocal advantages could be obtained: logistic and organizational support from the WHPVA and its national representatives, in particular for racing and timing, reciprocal technical and cultural exchange between students, academics and the hundred of amateur rider/designer/builder that were attending the event in the last decade, growth and renewal of the European HPVs community by aggregating young people around the subject and by stimulating the research of innovative solutions. After an in-depth analysis of the arguments reported above, an overview of the rules for the 1st edition of EU HPV Student Challenge will be presented and compared to analogous international competitions from an educational perspective.

When flying at hypersonic speeds, it is a fundamental requirement to reduce the high drag resulting from a blunt nose cone in the ascent stage to increase the payload weight on the one hand and decrease the amount of energy needed to overcome the Earth’s gravity on the other. However, an aerospike can be attached on the front of the nose cone to obtain a high drag and heat load reduction. This study describes novel technique of an active flow control concepton nose cone with aerodisk that uses counterflowing jets to significantly modify external flowfields. In fact, this method strongly disperse the shock waves of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles to reduce aerothermal loads.Numerical simulations of a 2D axisymmetric aerodisked nose cone in hypersonic flow are conducted, and innovative techniques involving forward injection of gas from the stagnation point of the sphere are investigated; techniques include injection of various counterflowing jets (Helium and Carbon dioxide) as a coolant jet from the nose cone behind the aerodisk. In this study, the characteristics of the various jet conditions of a counterflowing jet on a cone surface were investigated numerically to improve performance of the jet on heat reduction at surface of a nose. Different Mach numbers at different altitudes have been chosen to investigate the effect of the aerospike on the nose cone’s surrounding flowfield. The drag and the heat load reduction is numerically evaluated at Mach numbers of 5.75. The results show that the lighter gas, Helium, is found to have a better cooling performance than Carbon Dioxide in low pressure ratios. The film cooling of Helium jet due to its lower specific heat capacity (Cp) character is efficient on heat load of the nose cone.

Automotive manufacturers invest a lot of effort and money to enhance the vibro-acoustic performance of their products. In a complex dynamic system such as a truck cabin, the enhancement effort may be very difficult and time-consuming if only the ‘trial and error’ method is used without prior knowledge about the noise contributors. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most influential noise radiating panel in a passenger cabin compartment of a heavy duty truck. The noise inside the vehicle cabin originates from various sources and travels through many pathways. The first step of sound quality refinement is to find the pathways and corresponding operational internal forces. Operational acceleration responses and frequency response functions (FRFs) are measured on a prototype truck to determine the excitation forces while engine is running in operational conditions. Once these internal forces are identified using the experimental force identification (FI) technique, they are utilized to predict the total sound pressure level inside the cabin and also perform the panel acoustic contribution analysis (PACA) to determine the most problematic panel of the cabin. A coupled vibro-acoustic finite element model (FEM) is used to predict the sound pressure level inside the cabin. Sound pressure levels at the driver’s and passenger’s right and left ears are determined numerically for excitation coming from the cabin mounts ranging between 20–200 Hz. When the most noise radiating panel is identified, it can be redesigned to improve the sound pressure level inside the cabin.

Clutch system is an important element in the vehicle powertrain. It transmits the rotation from the crankshaft to the gearbox input shaft and filters axial and torsional vibrations providing from engine or induced by friction. This paper discusses axial dynamic behavior of automotive clutch for manual transmission. For this study, a tridimensional finite element model of clutch system is developed to simulate a clutch shaker test. First, an impact hammer test is performed to identify vibration properties of each clutch component. A pre-stressed modal analysis is then carried out to determine mode shapes and its associated natural frequencies of the clutch assembly. Shaker and simulation results are eventually compared to validate the clutch model. This latter offers for the design phase, a tool to avoid natural vibrations or to vibrate at specified frequencies.

This paper illustrates a methodology that, by means of laboratory and on-track tests, allows for an appropriate design of the connection elements between the suspended equipment and the carbody in order to enhance the rail ride comfort. In particular at first the connection elements are tested in laboratory to assess their visco-elastic behaviour simulating the common operating conditions. Subsequently on-track tests and experimental modal analysis are carried out to identify the interaction between underframe equipment motions and carbody modes. In the experimental tests, starting from the laboratory test results, it is possible to define the connection elements in order to minimise the negative influence on vehicle ride comfort. Two different solutions are proposed: the “TMD solution” (the suspension is tuned on the natural frequency of the carbody mode most relevant from the comfort point of view) and the “suspended solution” (the suspension system aims to decouple the two subsystems).

Implementation of a new bogie concept is an integrated part of the vehicle design which must follow a rigorous testing and validation procedure. Use of multibody simulation helps to reduce the amount of time and effort required in selecting a new concept design by analysing results of simulated dynamic behaviour of the proposed design. However, the multibody simulation software mainly looks at the dynamics of a single vehicle; hence, forces from the train configuration operational dynamics are often absent in such simulations. Effects of longitudinal-lateral and longitudinal-vertical interactions between rail vehicles have been found to affect the stability of long trains [1,2]. The effect of wedge design on the vertical dynamics of a bogie has also been discussed in [3,4]. It is important to apply the lateral and vertical forces from a train simulation into a single multibody model of a wagon to check its behaviour when operating in train configuration. In this paper, a novel methodology for the investigation of new bogie designs has been proposed based on integrating dynamic train simulation and the multibody vehicle modelling concept that will help to efficiently achieve the most suitable design of the bogie. The proposed methodology suggests that simulation of any configuration of bogie needs to be carried out in three stages. As the first stage, the bogie designs along with the wagon configurations need to be presented as a multibody model in multibody simulation software to test the suitability of the concept. The model checking needs to be carried out in accordance with the wagon model acceptance procedure established in [5]. As the second stage, the wagon designs need to be tested in train configurations using a longitudinal train dynamics simulation software such as ‘CRE-LTS’ [2], where a train set consisting of the locomotives and wagons will be simulated to give operational wagon parameters such as lateral and vertical coupler force components. As the third stage, the detailed dynamic analysis of bogies and wagons needs to be performed with a multibody software such as ‘Gensys’ where lateral and vertical coupler force components from the train simulation (second stage) will be applied on the multibody model to replicate the worst case scenario. The proposed methodology enhances the selection procedure of any alternate bogie concept by the application of simulated train and vehicle dynamics. The simulated case studies show that simulation of wagon dynamic behaviour in multibody software combined with data obtained from longitudinal train simulation is not only possible, but it can identify issues with a bogie design that can otherwise be overlooked.

The chatter of motorcycles is a self-excited vibration that may appear during braking. This vibration can be very strong and the accelerations of both the rear and front unsprung masses can reach 5–10g with frequencies in the range 17–22Hz , seriously hindering the rider’s control of the vehicle. Very few studies exist on this topic, and the first work that compares experimental data to numerical simulation and addresses the fundamental mechanisms of the chatter genesis has been recently published. In the current paper authors present the continuation of the research, and in particular the results of a parametric analysis performed to identify the most important design and motion parameters when it comes to chatter stability. The analysis is carried out by simulating chatter with a validated nonlinear motorcycle multibody model which captures the most important vehicle features.

In order to decrease both energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, the automotive, aeronautics and aerospace industries aim at making lighter vehicles. To achieve this, composite materials provide good opportunities, ensuring high material properties and free definition of geometry. As an example, for cold applications, the use of carbon fiber/thermoset composites is ever increasing, in spite of a high fiber price. But in a global and eco-friendly approach, the major limitation for their use remains their potential recyclability. Recycling a composite means having a recycling technology available, getting a dismantle solution and an access for the product, and disposing identification plus selection possibilities to the materials. Thus, carbon fibers recovery ( i.e. recycling and re-processing) would both help design engineers to balance energy efficiency and cost, and open new opportunities for developing second-life composites, dedicated to the manufacture of medium or low loaded parts (non-structural in many cases). A first section presents an overview of composite recycling possibilities. Indeed, environmentally and economically, composite incineration is not attractive (even with an energetic valorization), let-alone burying. Reuse and recycling thus remain the two most interesting options. Aeronautics offers a high potential in terms of fiber deposit. In southwest France, composites recycling will increase in terms of quantity due to dismantling platforms Tarmac (dedicated to civil aircraft applications) and P2P (for the disassembly of ballistic weapons). In addition, from a technical point of view, and even if end-of-life solutions for composites still remain under development, solvolysis ( i.e. water under supercritical conditions) already offers the opportunity to recover carbon fibers. The resulting recyclate retains up to 90 percent of the fiber’s mechanical properties. A second part will explore the recycling to design issue ( i.e. how recycling processes have to balance the previous aspects of the end-of-life proposal). The recycler clearly becomes a new supplier in the carbon fiber lifecycle, by revalorizing wastes with alternatives to burning. Moreover, increasing carbon fiber shelf life reduces its product life impact. Finally, promoting carbon fiber end-of-life would ensure to link aeronautics, automotive, and leisure and sports industries; but one can create demand for recycled reinforcement, by packaging it in useful and attractive forms for those end-users ( e.g. pseudo-continuous fiber, felt, strips, bands, patches, etc.). These sections will be enlightened by several examples from collaborations between I2M and local industries.

This paper lies within the integration of an eco-design method adapted to the Innovation structure at a car manufacturer. The environmental constraints in the automotive industry are more and more important (European emission standards for exhaust emissions, European directive on end-of life vehicles …). Eco-design is a new manner to design products related to the concept of sustainable development, which combines economy and ecology and put the environmental criterion alongside the classical criterions of design. The goal of this study is to identify the specifications of a strategy for integrating the dimension “Environment”. This strategy is applied in the innovation process thanks to eco-design tools which are the learning vectors for an organization, and therefore support a learning process. This process is structured with the interactions between the management of firm, the environment department, and the design team. Therefore we first make a synthesis of the different classifications of eco-design tools and use two categories: diagnosis and improvement. Second, as our goal is the integration in the Innovation structure and within a design process, we analyze some design process models and highlight the RID (Research, Innovation structure, Development) concept. Third, the main practices of several car makers are synthetized and a focus on three of them (Volvo, Ford, and Volkswagen) is made; we link their strategies with the concept of RID. Finally in the fourth part, we propose a model of a strategy for integrating eco-design practices based on the three examples and supported by a learning process.