A study on the development of equivalent beam analysis model on pedestrian protection bumper impact

This paper presents a dynamically equivalent beam analysis model on pedestrian protection bumper impact instead of a non-linear finite element impact analysis method. Equivalent beam analysis model was developed by substituting the femur and tibia for dynamically equivalent Euler beam. Dynamically equivalent forces of bumper beam, upper stiffener and lower stiffener are found by a finite element analysis results and applied to the Euler beam model of lower legform impactor. This equivalent beam analysis model was used to obtain a bending angle of lower legform impactor by using finite element beam theory. Peak acceleration of the tibia was obtained by developing an approximate acceleration equation. A linear interpolation of non-linear finite element analysis results considering the dimension variation of bumper beam factors affecting the acceleration was used to get an approximate acceleration equation. The accuracy of this simple analysis model was tested by comparing its results with those of the non-linear finite element analysis. Tested bumper beam types were press type beam and roll forming beam used widely in the current car bumpers. The differences of maximum acceleration of the tibia between the two models did not exceed 10% and the bending angle did not exceed 20%. This accuracy is enough to be used in the early stage of bumper beam design to check the bumper pedestrian performance quickly. Use of equivalent beam analysis model is expected to reduce the analysis time with respect to the non-linear finite element analysis significantly.     

A development of simple analysis model on bumper barrier impact and new IIHS bumper impact using the dynamically equivalent beam approach

This paper presents a simple analysis model for bumper barrier impact and new IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) bumper impact instead of a non-linear finite element impact analysis. A dynamically equivalent beam approach was introduced to simplify the non-linear dynamic bumper impact. For a bumper barrier impact, the equivalent curved-beam element was substituted for the bumper beam and the bumper foam. For a new IIHS bumper impact, a modified curved-beam element of bumper barrier impact considering the effect of contoured new IIHS impact barrier was used. The accuracy of this simple analysis model was tested by comparing its results with those of the non-linear finite element analysis. Tested bumper beam types were press type beam and roll forming beam used widely in the current car bumpers. The maximum displacement error between the two models did not exceed 1.95% for a barrier impact and 13.2% for a new IIHS bumper impact. This accuracy is good enough to be used in the early stage of bumper beam design process. This simple analysis model is expected to reduce the car development time and tests cost significantly.     

Impact of Horizontal Resolution and Cumulus Parameterization Scheme on the Simulation of Heavy Rainfall Events over the Korean Peninsula

In this paper, we present the results from high-resolution numerical simulations of three heavy rainfall events over the Korean Peninsula. The numerical results show that the prediction accuracy for heavy rainfall events improved as horizontal resolution increased. The fine-grid precipitation fields were much closer to the real precipitation fields in the case of large synoptic forcing over the Korean Peninsula. In the case of large convective available potential energy and weak synoptic forcing, it seems that even when using a high resolution, the models still showed poor performance in reproducing the observed high precipitation amounts. However, activation of the cumulus parameterization scheme in the intermediate resolution of 9km, even at a grid spacing of 3 km, had a positive impact on the simulation of the heavy rainfall event.     

Observation and Numerical Simulations with Radar and Surface Data Assimilation for Heavy Rainfall over Central Korea

T This study investigated the impact of multiple-Doppler radar data and surface data assimilation on forecasts of heavy rainfall over the central Korean Peninsula; the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and its three-dimensional variational data assimilation system (3DVAR) were used for this purpose. During data assimilation, the WRF 3DVAR cycling mode with incremental analysis updates (IAU) was used. A maximum rainfall of 335.0 mm occurred during a 12-h period from 2100 UTC 11 July 2006 to 0900 UTC 12 July 2006. Doppler radar data showed that the heavy rainfall was due to the back-building formation of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). New convective cells were continuously formed in the upstream region, which was characterized by a strong southwesterly low-level jet (LLJ). The LLJ also facilitated strong convergence due to horizontal wind shear, which resulted in maintenance of the storms. The assimilation of both multiple-Doppler radar and surface data improved the accuracy of precipitation forecasts and had a more positive impact on quantitative forecasting (QPF) than the assimilation of either radar data or surface data only. The back-building characteristic was successfully forecasted when the multiple-Doppler radar data and surface data were assimilated. In data assimilation experiments, the radar data helped forecast the development of convective storms responsible for heavy rainfall, and the surface data contributed to the occurrence of intensified low-level winds. The surface data played a significant role in enhancing the thermal gradient and modulating the planetary boundary layer of the model, which resulted in favorable conditions for convection.     

Improvement in Background Error Covariances Using Ensemble Forecasts for Assimilation of High-Resolution Satellite Data

Satellite data obtained over synoptic data-sparse regions such as an ocean contribute toward improving the quality of the initial state of limited-area models.Background error covariances are crucial to the proper distribution of satellite-observed information in variational data assimilation.In the NMC (National Meteorological Center) method,background error covariances are underestimated over data-sparse regions such as an ocean because of small differences between different forecast times.Thus,it is necessary to reconstruct and tune the background error covariances so as to maximize the usefulness of the satellite data for the initial state of limited-area models,especially over an ocean where there is a lack of conventional data.In this study,we attempted to estimate background error covariances so as to provide adequate error statistics for data-sparse regions by using ensemble forecasts of optimal perturbations using bred vectors.The background error covariances estimated by the ensemble method reduced the overestimation of error amplitude obtained by the NMC method.By employing an appropriate horizontal length scale to exclude spurious correlations,the ensemble method produced better results than the NMC method in the assimilation of retrieved satellite data.Because the ensemble method distributes observed information over a limited local area,it would be more useful in the analysis of high-resolution satellite data.Accordingly,the performance of forecast models can be improved over the area where the satellite data are assimilated.