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Uneven wing deployment of a Hybrid Projectile (HP), an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that is ballistically launched and then transforms, was investigated to determine the amount of roll and pitch produced during wing deployment. During testing of an HP prototype, it was noticed that sometimes the projectile began to slightly roll after the wings were deployed shortly after apogee. In this study, an analytical investigation was done to determine how the projectile body dynamics would be affected by the wings being deployed improperly. Improper and uneven wing deployment situations were investigated throughout the course of this study. The first analyzed was a single wing delaying to open. The second was if only one wing was to lock into a positive angle of incidence. The roll characteristics when both wings were deployed but only one was locked into an angle of incidence resulted in a steady state roll rate of 4.5 degrees per second.

This paper presents 3D finite element analysis performed for a composite cylindrical tank made of 6061-aluminum liner overwrapped with carbon fibers subjected to a burst internal pressure of 1610 bars. As the service pressure expected in these tanks is 700 bars, a factor of safety of 2.3 is kept the same for all designs. The optimal design configuration of such high pressure storage tanks includes an inner liner used as a gas permeation barrier, geometrically optimized domes, inlet/outlet valves with minimum stress concentrations, and directionally tailored exterior reinforcement for high strength and stiffness. Filament winding of pressure vessels made of fiber composite materials is the most efficient manufacturing method for such high pressure hydrogen storage tanks. The complexity of the filament winding process in the dome region is characterized by continually changing the fiber orientation angle and the local thickness of the wall.

This research attempts to investigate the effect of change in system curve on the energy intensity method of measurement and verification of energy savings. With recent push from US government on energy efficiency through EPACT 2007 and upturn in performance contracted energy efficiency project implementations the effective and accurate evaluation of energy savings as compared to the baseline is of paramount importance. The authors have studied different methods of Measurement and Verification (M&V) of energy savings from literature to compare and contrast and clearly bring out merits and de-merits of each. Finally, the role of production level variable plays in establishing the baseline energy usage is discussed. Though modern models proposed in the literature of determining baseline energy usage consider production level, this variable is compounded from two variables viz., time of usage of a system and fraction of total capacity usage.

Mortar weapons systems have existed for more than five hundred years. Though modern tube-launched rounds are far more advanced than the cannon balls used in the 15th century, the parabolic trajectory and inability to steer the object after launch remains the same. Equipping the shell with extending aerodynamic surfaces transforms the unguided round into a maneuverable munition with increased range [1] and precision [2]. The subject of this work is the experimental analysis of transient aerodynamic behavior of a transforming tube-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during transition from a ballistic trajectory to winged flight. Data was gathered using a series of wind tunnel experiments to determine the lift, drag, and pitching moment exerted on the prototype in various stages of wing deployment. Flight models of the design were broken down into three configurations: “round”, “transforming”, and “UAV”.

Industries related to automotive manufacturing and its supply chain play a key role in leaving a carbon footprint during an automobile's life cycle. Per the report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in March, 2008 [1], “motor vehicle industry in the U.S. spends about $3.6 billion on energy annually.” The proposed research will focus on energy savings opportunities in automotive manufacturing and its supplier network. The US Department of Energy (DOE) funds 24 Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) throughout the U.S. that conduct energy assessments at many of these facilities. The results of these assessments are summarized in a database maintained by Rutgers University which acts as the central management body for all the IACs. This research will present key concepts summarized from this database.

Natural Gas engines are viewed as an alternative to diesel power in the quest to reduce heavy duty vehicle emissions in polluted urban areas. In particular, it is acknowledged that natural gas has the potential to reduce the inventory of particulate matter, and this has encouraged the use of natural gas engines in transit bus applications. Extensive data on natural gas and diesel bus emissions have been gathered using two Transportable Heavy Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratories, that employ chassis dynamometers to simulate bus inertia and road load. Most of the natural gas buses tested prior to 1997 were powered by Cummins L-10 engines, which were lean-burn and employed a mechanical mixer for fuel introduction. The Central Business District (CBD) cycle was used as the test schedule.

Incidents in which a piece of construction equipment backed into a worker resulted in an average of 17 deaths per year at road construction sites and 15 deaths per year at building construction sites from 1997 through 2001. This trend continues and researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are evaluating methods to decrease these incidents. A new technology based on the detection of electronic identification tags worn by workers has been developed and evaluated at a road construction site. The tag-based proximity warning system consists of a magnetic field generator and communications system that mounts on the back of a piece of construction equipment such as a dump truck, road grader, or loader. Workers at a construction site wear a small tag that detects the magnetic marker field.

Currently, the chassis assembly contributes about 73 percent of the overall weight of a 14.63 m long haul trailer. This paper presents alternative design concepts for the structural floor of a van trailer utilizing sandwich panels with various material and geometric characteristics of the core layer in order to reduce its weight significantly below that of the current design configuration. The main objective of the new designs is to achieve optimal tradeoffs between the overall structural weight and the flexural stiffness of the floor. Various preliminary design concepts of the core designs were compared on the basis of a single section of the core structure. Six different designs were analyzed by weight, maximum displacement and maximum stress under bending and torsion loads. Each concept was kept uniform by length, thickness, loading and boundary conditions. Each design concept was examined through testing of scaled model for floor assemblies.

Recent advances in Metal Matrix Composites have made them ready for transition to large-volume production and commercialization. Such new materials seem to allow the fabrication of higher quality parts at less than 50 percent of the weight as compared to steel. The increasing requirements of weight savings and extended durability motivated the potential application of MMC technology into the heavy vehicle market. However, significant technical barriers such as joining are likely to hinder the broad applications of MMC materials in heavy vehicles. The focus of this paper is to examine the feasibility of manufacturing and the behavior of bolted joint connections made from aluminum matrix reinforced with Silicon Carbide (SiC) particles. Two reinforcement ratios: 20% and 45% were considered in this study. The first part of the paper concentrates on experimental evaluation of bolted MMC joints.

Particulate emission control from diesel engines is one of the major concerns in the urban areas in California. Recently, regulations have been proposed for stringent PM emission requirements from both existing and new diesel engines. As a result, particulate emission control from urban diesel engines using advanced particulate filter technology is being evaluated at several locations in California. Although ceramic based particle filters are well known for high PM reductions, the lack of effective and durable regeneration system has limited their applications. The continuously regenerated diesel particulate filter (CRDPF) technology discussed in this presentation, solves this problem by catalytically oxidizing NO present in the diesel exhaust to NO2 which is utilized to continuously combust the engine soot under the typical diesel engine operating condition.

Further growth of diesel engines in the light-duty and heavy-duty vehicular market is closely linked to the potential health risks of diesel exhaust. The California Air Resources Board and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment have identified diesel exhaust as a toxic air contaminant. The International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that diesel particulate is a probable human carcinogen [1]. Cleaner burning liquid fuels, such as those derived from natural gas via the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process, offer a potentially economically viable alternative to standard diesel fuel while providing reduced particulate emissions. Further understanding of FT operation may be realized by investigating the differences in toxicity and potential health effects between particulate matter(PM) derived from FT fuel and that derived from standard Federal diesel No. 2 (DF).

The paper captures the recent events in relation with the Volkswagen (VW) Emissions Scandal and addresses the impact of this event on the future of power train development. The paper analyses the impact on the perspectives of the internal combustion engine, the battery based electric car and the hydrogen based technology. The operation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), VW and the United States prosecutor, sparked by the action of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) is forcing the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) towards everything but rationale immediate transition to the battery based electric mobility. This transition voids the value of any improvement of the internal combustion engine (ICE), especially in the lean burn, compression ignition (CI) technology, and of a better hybridization of powertrains, both options that have much better short term perspectives than the battery based electric car.

West Virginia University's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department is studying the benefits of continuous payload volume in transforming projectiles. Continuous payload volume is the single largest vacancy in a vehicle that may be utilized. Currently there is a market for transforming projectiles, which are gun launched (or tube launched) vehicles stowed in an initial configuration; which deploy wings once exiting the launcher to become small unmanned aircraft. WVU's proposed design uses a helical hinge, which allows the wing sections to be externally stowed outside the UAV's fuselage. Additionally, the design positions the vehicles wing sections sub-bore (or smaller than the guns internal diameter), and flush (smooth and planer) to the surface of the fuselage. The typical transforming winged projectile design considered, stores its wing sections along the center axis of the fuselage. This bisects the payload space and limits the continuous payload carrying potential.

Automotive industries in the US and around the world have enormous impact on the economy of each country. Not just the major vehicle manufacturer, but all the other companies in the supply chain are equally important. This was evident with the earthquake and Tsunami that happened in March 2011. Because of the massive destruction at suppliers' facilities, the automakers in the US and other countries struggled to get the necessary parts and supplies. This created a ripple effect throughout the world and led to the closure of several automakers' facilities for a long time. Thus, the automotive supply chains are as important as the main automotive manufacturing facilities. Since these suppliers produce a lot of parts and supplies, the corresponding energy usage is also significant. The current research is focused on compressed air and process heating system analysis at one of the automotive parts manufacturer in Mexico.

Stringent emission regulations have forced drastic technological improvements in diesel after treatment systems, particularly in reducing Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. Those improvements generally regard the use of Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and lately also the use of Selective Catalyst Reduction (SCR) systems along with improved engine control strategies for reduction of NOx emissions from these engines. Studies that have led to these technological advancements were made in controlled laboratory environment and are not representative of real world emissions from these engines or vehicles. In addition, formation and evolution of PM from these engines are extremely sensitive to overall changes in the dilution process.

Exhaust gas composition and particulate matter emission levels were obtained from in-use heavy duty transit buses powered by 6V-92TA engines with different fuels. Vehicles discussed in this study were pulled out of revenue service for a day, in Phoenix, AZ, Pittsburgh, PA and New York, NY and tested on the Transportable Heavy Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratory employing a transient chassis dynamometer. All the vehicles, with engine model years ranging from 1982 to 1992, were operated on the Federal Transit Administration Central Business District Cycle. Significant reductions in particulate matter emissions were observed in the 1990-1992 model year vehicles equipped with the trap oxidizer systems. Testing vehicles under conditions that represent “real world” situations confirmed the fact brought to light that emission levels are highly dependent upon the maintenance and operating conditions of the engines.

The federal emission standards for heavy duty vehicle engines require the exhaust emissions to be measured and calculated in unit form as grams per break horse-power-hour (g/bhp-hr). Correct emission results not only depend on the precise emission measurement but also rely on the correct determination of vehicle energy consumption. A Transportable Heavy-Duty Vehicle Emission Testing Laboratory (THDVETL) designed and constructed at West Virginia University provides accurate vehicle emissions measurements in grams over a test cycle. This paper contributes a method for measuring the energy consumption (bhp-hr) over the test cycle by a chassis dynamometer. Comparisons of analytical and experimental results show that an acceptable agreement is reached and that the THDVETL provides accurate responses as the vehicle is operated under transient loads and speeds. This testing laboratory will have particular value in comparing the behavior of vehicles operating on alternative fuels.

An electrochemical cell is presented which reduces NOx emissions from a vehicle fueled by dedicated natural gas. The cell is comprised of a honeycomb shaped ceramic which is chemically coated with an electrically conductive material in two distinct regions which serve as electrodes such that, with the application of a voltage potential, a cathode and anode are formed. As the exhaust gas flows through the inner channels of the cell, the electrochemical reduction of NOx at the cathode yields nitrogen gas and oxide ions. The nitrogen continues to flow through the cell while the oxide ions dissolve in the solid electrolyte. At the anodic zone, oxide ions are converted to oxygen gas. The pressure drop across the cell was experimentally measured to insure that the back pressure created by the cell does not create a significant reduction in the efficiency of the engine.

Corona discharge from a RF quarter wave coaxial cavity resonator is considered as a plasma ignition source for spark ignited (SI) internal combustion (IC) engines. The gaseous discharge processes associated with this device are analyzed using principles of gas kinetics and gaseous electronics, with assumed values for the electric field strength. Corona discharge occurs when the electric field shaped and concentrated by a single electrode exceeds the breakdown potential of the surrounding gas. Ambient electrons, naturally present due to ionizing radiation, drift in the direction of the externally applied field, gaining energy while undergoing elastic collisions with neutral molecules. After gaining sufficient energy they dissociate, excite, or ionize the neutral particles through inelastic collision, creating additional electrons. This process leads to avalanche electrical breakdown of the gas within about 10-8 sec.

The West Virginia University (WVU) Transportable Heavy-Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratory was employed to conduct chassis dynamometer tests in the field to measure the exhaust emissions from heavy-duty buses and trucks. This laboratory began operation in the field in January, 1992. During the period January, 1992 through June, 1993, over 150 city buses, trucks, and tractors operated by 18 different authorities in 11 states were tested by the facility. The tested vehicles were powered by 14 different types of engines fueled with natural gas (CNG or LNG), methanol, ethanol, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), #2 diesel, and low sulfur diesel (#1 diesel or Jet A). Some of the tested vehicles were equipped with exhaust after-treatment systems. In this paper, a total of 12 CNG-fueled and #2 diesel-fueled transit buses equipped with Cummins L-10 engines, were chosen for investigation.