CCQM-K143 is a key comparison that assesses participants’ ability to prepare single element calibration solutions. Preparing calibration solutions properly is the cornerstone of establishing a traceability link to the International System of Units (SI), and therefore should be tested in order to confirm the validity of CCQM comparisons of more complex materials. CCQM-K143 consisted of participants each preparing a single copper calibration solution at 10 g/kg copper mass fraction and shipping 10 bottled aliquots of that solution to the coordinating laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The masses and mass fraction for the prepared solutions were documented with the submitted samples.
The solutions prepared by all participants were measured at NIST by high performance inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (HP-ICP-OES). The intensity measurements for copper were not mapped onto values of mass fraction via calibration. Instead, ratios were computed between the measurements for copper and simultaneous measurements for manganese, the internal standard, and all subsequent data reductions, including the computation of the KCRV and the degrees of equivalence, were based on these ratios. Other than for two participants whose measurement results appeared to suffer
from calculation or preparation errors, all unilateral degrees of equivalence showed that the measured values did not differ significantly from the KCRV. These results were confirmed by a second set of ICP-OES measurements performed by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). CCQM-K143 showed that participants are capable of preparing calibration solutions starting from high purity, assayed copper metal.
Similar steps are involved when preparing solutions for other elements, so it seems safe to infer that similar capabilities should prevail when preparing many different, single-element solutions.
The objective of this paper is to describe and to validate a simplified pendulum-analogy model to simulate the interaction of a liquid cargo with ist carrying vehicle. The resulting testing rig consists of a rectangular container, spring supported on a two wheelset-bogie having a scale down of 1/10 with respect to a full-size equipment. The testing rig is used to validate a simple pendulum-based, simplified three degree-of-freedom mathematical model of the response of a partially filled container to lateral accelerations. The length of the pendulum is set according to validated methodologies. The resulting mathematical scheme reveals a high correlation with the experimental output, on the order of 99%, while some other performance measures, related to the peak forces and the range of variation of the wheel-rail forces, also show good concordance with the experimental results.
A methodology is proposed for the experimental analysis of the liquid cargo effect under combined orthogonal accelerations. To simultaneously subject the vehicle-cargo system to longitudinal and lateral accelerations, the vehicle is set obliquely on a tilt table. The experimental outputs suggest that there is a significant effect of the liquid cargo on the lateral load transfer ratio (LTR), on the order of 20%, which is attributable to the resulting shifting of the liquid cargo’s centre of gravity. That is, the peak LTR values due exclusively to sloshing were not significant, in such a way that the liquid cargo would only pose a safety risk under a steady acceleration input.
Also, the inverse of the product of the magnitude of the acceleration times the free surface length, correlates with the liquid cargo effect. That is, the magnitude of the input acceleration is not fully determinant for greater load transfers.
Different approaches have been attempted so far to reduce fuel consumption and linked pollutants, including vehicle equipment and design, with rational driving style being recognized as a potential source of fuel savings. However, no specific methodology had been suggested so far to assess fuel economy of driving other than the fuel consumed itself. In this paper, the Standard deviation of driving acceleration has been found to be directly associated to fuel consumption, so that the less dispersion of the driving acceleration, produces the lower fuel consumptions and emissions. Such metric could be thus used to assess driving style.
This paper describes a theoretical model to simulate the effects of a sloshing cargo on the safety performance of a vehicle that performs a braking-in-a-turn maneuver when travels at a partial fill level. The fundamental assumption of the model consists of the superposition of the effects of two simplified mechanical-analogy models that represent a liquid cargo on a vehicle, including one for the roll motion and another one for the pitch motion. The distinctive characteristics of the mechanical models, however, is that they are based upon a validated formulation to establish the properties of the pendulum (length).
The results suggest a small effect of the sloshing cargo on the braking efficiency of the cargo, while the load transfer is moderately affected. However, such results should be put into a perspective, according to which such small variations can represent the avoidance of a rear-end crash or a rollover. In this respect, a specialized ABS system could be considered to improve the performance of such kind of vehicles when performing such maneuvers.
Validation of the proposed methodology should be performed as a continuation of this research effort.
En este artículo se presentan 2 metodologías basadas en las formulaciones del Método de los Elementos de Contorno y del Método de los Elementos Finitos para estudiar el efecto de la interacción suelo-estructura en el comportamiento dinámico de edificaciones. Se ha estudiado la respuesta de un edificio de 3 plantas producida por un campo de ondas incidente con los 2 métodos propuestos. Los resultados obtenidos presentan un buen grado de acuerdo entre ellos. A partir de estos resultados se ha validado un modelo aproximado para estudiar este tipo de problemas y se han examinado diferentes tipologías de edificaciones. Las conclusiones alcanzadas muestran que la respuesta global de las estructuras se debe a la deformación de los forjados y depende de su superficie, de las condiciones de apoyo y del acoplamiento con los forjados de la misma planta. Del mismo modo, se ha observado un acoplamiento del comportamiento de pilares y forjados cuando las rigideces de ambos son similares.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This paper presents 2 methodologies based on the Boundary Element Method and the Finite Element Method to study soil-structure interaction effect on building behaviour. A 3-story building response induced by an incident wave field is studied using both methods. The results obtained show a good agreement. Then, a simplified model is validated from these methods and several buildings are analysed. Conclusions show that structural responses are due to floor deformation, and depend on their area, support conditions and coupling. A coupling between floors and columns when both elements have similar stiffness is also observed.
Reinforced concrete bridge decks are exposed to several types of deterioration processes: corrosion, alkali silica reaction, carbonation, shrinkage, freeze thaw actions, and so forth. The most commonly found problem is corrosion-induced bridge deck delamination. Previous studies have shown that surveys of bridges relying on a single nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technology provide limited information about the condition of concrete bridge decks. To overcome limitations of individual technologies, a complementary approach using several NDE technologies should be used in bridge deck evaluation. The presented approach utilizes a suite of NDE technologies, namely, impact echo (IE), ultrasonic surface waves (USW), ground-penetrating radar (GPR), half-cell potential (HCP), and electrical resistivity (ER). The suite of NDE technologies was implemented in the evaluation of bridge decks on nine bridges in Iowa. The NDE was complemented by ground-truth measurements on the cores extracted from all nine bridge decks. Condition assessment with the five NDE technologies has clearly shown their advantages and limitations. For example, the GPR surveys provided assessment of concrete deterioration at relatively high speeds of data collection. In contrast, IE provided high accuracy in detection and characterization of delaminations in the deck but at a lower testing speed. HCP and ER tests provided assessment of the likelihood of corrosion, whereas the USW test provided accurate assessment of the effects of deterioration processes and defects on mechanical properties, primarily the degradation of the elastic modulus. Most important, the survey showed the advantages of use of multimodal NDE surveys in the comprehensiveness of condition assessment of concrete bridge decks.
Wheel forces generate stresses in the rail as a function of several vehicle and infrastructure characteristics and operating conditions. The different components of the wheel forces develop strains in the rail which contain an elastic and hysteretic (irreversible) components. The irreversible deformations of the rail would be associated with locomotive energy losses. In this paper, a testing facility is proposed to indirectly characterize the level of stresses in the rail, in terms of the energy that is lost during tuming maneuvers. Different potentially influential factors are considered, including the friction at the Center plate, the wheelbase length, the distance between bogies and the radius of the curved track. The change
in the potential energy during a U-turn displacement is measured. In this respect, an experimental model under this operating principle, aimed at validating such a principle of Operation, reveals a significant effect of the friction at the center plate on the energy lost during turning maneuvers, and consequently, on the level of stresses in the rail.
In spite that transport activities do not represent the biggest contributor of pollutants emissions, their reduction has been a priority as some other externalities are associated to such emissions and to the transport itself. A crucial element to characterize the behavior of the vehicles against the environment are the losses that such vehicles exhibit in a passive way, that is, without any involvement of power conditions. The energy loses due to the rolling, the drag and to the friction in mechanical components, have been assessed so far in terms of the stopping acceleration when the vehicle idles on a ramp. However, such a testing procedure produces some uncertainties due to the dynamic conditions that are considered. To avoid such critical limitations, in this paper a testing procedure and facility are proposed, which are based on static conditions of the vehicle at the initiation and at the ending of the test, which are assumed to provide a better reliability to the testing. Some preliminary theoretical analysis should be made in order to validate the operational principles proposed herein for such testing facility.
Turning maneuvers originate higher forces exerted on the rail and the loss of locomotive energy, at a rate that is function of several parameters that influence the magnitude of the developed horizontal wheel-rail forces, including the friction at the centre plate and the bogie´s yaw stiffness. However, such a friction at the contact surfaces of the centre plate is needed to mitigate the Hunting phenomenon when the train moves on straight track segments. In this paper, a self-centering centre plate is proposed, consisting of a lubricated centre plate, equipped with a spring- and damper-based self-centering mechanism. Simulation results of the proposed mechanism suggest that the energy performance in turns of a train car equipped with such self-centering centre plate is comparatively better, as the peak friction forces linked to the dry friction at the contact surfaces of current centre plate designs, are avoided. The assessment of the hunting performance of the proposed device in straight track segments is proposed as the continuation of this work.