Dynamic compositional modeling of pedestrian crash counts on urban roads in Connecticut

Uncovering the temporal trend in crash counts provides a good understanding of the context for pedestrian safety. With a rareness of pedestrian crashes it is impossible to investigate monthly temporal effects with an individual segment/intersection level data, thus the time dependence should be derived from the aggregated level data. Most previous studies have used annual data to investigate the differences in pedestrian crashes between different regions or countries in a given year, and/or to look at time trends of fatal pedestrian injuries annually. Use of annual data unfortunately does not provide sufficient information on patterns in time trends or seasonal effects. This paper describes statistical methods uncovering patterns in monthly pedestrian crashes aggregated on urban roads in Connecticut from January 1995 to December 2009. We investigate the temporal behavior of injury severity levels, including fatal (K), severe injury (A), evident minor injury (B), and non-evident possible injury and property damage only (C and O), as proportions of all pedestrian crashes in each month, taking into consideration effects of time trend, seasonal variations and VMT (vehicle miles traveled). This type of dependent multivariate data is characterized by positive components which sum to one, and occurs in several applications in science and engineering. We describe a dynamic framework with vector autoregressions (VAR) for modeling and predicting compositional time series. Combining these predictions with predictions from a univariate statistical model for total crash counts will then enable us to predict pedestrian crash counts with the different injury severity levels. We compare these predictions with those obtained from fitting separate univariate models to time series of crash counts at each injury severity level. We also show that the dynamic models perform better than the corresponding static models. We implement the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) approach to enable fast Bayesian posterior computation.     

Functional peroxides and peroxy oligoesters on the basis of pyromellitic dianhydride

A series of peroxy oligomers has been synthesized on the basis of pyromellitic dianhydride and tetrachloroanhydride of pyromellitic acid by condensation with polyethylene glycols and tert-butylhydroperoxide. The resulting oligoesters contain two types of functional groups: carboxylic – which can participate in ionic reactions and peroxide – able to initiate certain radical processes. Concentrations of these groups depend on the method of synthesis, the nature of starting monomers, and the molecular mass of polyethylene glycol. Structures of oligoesters have been determined by IR and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy. The oligoesters are able to form three-dimensional networks when heated to 400 K. A mechanism of the network formation is proposed. These materials can be used as curing agents for unsaturated polyesters and also for epoxy + unsaturated polyester resin compositions. Electronic Publication     

Advancement in the thermodiffusion theory of anisotropic inhomogeneous shells

This article represents the latter advancement in the modeling of diffusion processes in deformable solids. Special attention is given to the development of models for thin-walled shells with both thermal and atomic types of diffusion. Based upon these models, a number of general theorems and principles (i.e., the D'Alembert principle, Hamilton principle, mass forces analogy, Clapeyron theorem, fundamental energy theorem, and reciprocity theorem) are formulated and proved. These theorems allow for developing efficient methods for the solution of relevant boundary-value problems for the shells of this kind.     

Fuzzy Directional (FD) Filter for impulsive noise reduction in colour video sequences

This paper presents a novel Fuzzy Directional (FD) Filter for suppression of impulsive noise in colour video sequences. The proposed approach consists in the estimation of fuzzy levels to detect movement and noise presence in the neighbourhood frames, permitting to preserve the edges, fine details and chromaticity characteristics in colour images and video sequences. The new framework has been justified applying commonly used objective criteria, such as, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Normalized Colour Difference (NCD), as well subjective perception by human viewer showing better performance in comparison with known methods presented in the literature.     

A concept of combined cooling,heating and power system utilising solar power and based on reversible solid oxide fuel cell and metal hydrides

In energy systems, multi-generation including co-generation and tri-generation has gained tremendous interest in the recent years as an effective way of waste heat recovery. Solid oxide fuel cells are efficient power plants that not only generate electricity with high energy efficiency but also produce high quality waste heat that can be further used for hot and chilled water production. In this work, we present a concept of combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) energy system which uses solar power as a primary energy source and utilizes a reversible solid oxide fuel cell (R-SOFC) for producing hydrogen and generating electricity in the electrolyser (SOEC) and fuel cell (SOFC) modes, respectively. The system uses “high temperature” metal hydride (MH) for storage of both hydrogen and heat, as well as “low temperature” MH's for the additional heat management, including hot water supply, residential heating during winter time, or cooling/air conditioning during summer time.The work presents evaluation of energy balances of the system components, as well as heat-and-mass transfer modelling of MH beds in metal hydride hydrogen and heat storage system (MHHS; MgH₂), MH hydrogen compressor (MHHC; AB₅; A = La + Mm, BNi + Co + Al + Mn) and MH heat pump (MHHP; AB₂; A = Ti + Zr, BMn + Cr + Ni + Fe). A case study of a 3 kWe R-SOFC is analysed and discussed. The results showed that the energy efficiencies are 69.4 and 72.4% in electrolyser and fuel cell modes, respectively. The round-trip COP's of metal hydride heat management system (MHHC + MHHP) are close to 40% for both heating and cooling outputs. Moreover, the tri-generation leads to an improvement of 36% in round-trip energy efficiency as compared to that of a stand-alone R-SOFC.     

EFFECTS OF CUTTING SPEED WHEN TURNING AGE HARDENED INCONEL 718 WITH PCBN TOOLS OF BINDERLESS AND LOW-CBN GRADES

Application of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools as an alternative for ceramic and cemented carbide tools in machining superalloys has been frequently identified as a solution for enhancing process efficiency but only a limited number of studies has been done in this area. The current study explores the effect of the cutting speed, which was varied in a wide range (2–14 m/s), on machinability of age hardened Inconel 718 with PCBN tools. Performance of binderless PCBN grade and grade with low-cBN content was evaluated in terms of tool life, tool wear, cutting forces and surface quality. Chip formation and process dynamics were analyzed as well. It was found that low-cBN grade provided 70–90% better surface finish and tool life than the binderless at moderate speeds (5–8 m/s). Performance of both grades at low and high speed ranges was non-satisfactory due to notching and flaking respectively. At low cutting speed adhesive wear plays a major role while as the speed increases a chemical wear becomes dominant.     

前驱体对激光熔覆复合溶胶凝胶制备陶瓷涂层的影响

目的研究不同前驱体配比下,激光熔覆复合溶胶凝胶在3Cr13不锈钢表面制备的陶瓷涂层的性能,并对强化机理进行分析。方法通过溶胶凝胶法制备均匀的前驱体,即Ti O2和C(微米石墨和碳纳米管),利用激光熔覆技术,在3Cr13不锈钢基体表面制备出高性能的涂层。采用光学显微镜、X射线衍射仪、扫描电镜和能谱仪对涂层组织和相成分进行分析,采用维氏硬度计对涂层的硬度进行测试,采用HT-600型高温摩擦磨损试验机测试基体和熔覆层在常温下的磨损性能。结果通过溶胶凝胶法,制备出均匀的Ti O2和C混合粉末。激光熔覆后,在覆层中均匀分布着Ti C和Cr7C3强化相。改变前驱体配比,当C和Ti O2的摩尔比增大时,涂层组织明显细化,且涂层中无气孔,显微硬度也有较大提高。当n(TiO2)∶n(C)=1∶8时,次表面显微硬度达到810HV0.2,涂层硬度从上到下呈现递减的趋势,且涂层的耐磨性最好,为基体的4.5倍。结论增大C和Ti O2两者摩尔比,可以提高熔覆层的显微硬度和耐磨性。在熔池中,Ti C密度较小,涂层中硬质颗粒从上到下依次减少,与之对应,硬度也依次递减。同时,碳纳米管的加入将对涂层起到细晶强化的效果。Ti与碳纳米管和微米石墨结合生成微米级和亚微米级Ti C,提高了形核率,Cr7C3以亚微米级Ti C为非均质核心,形核长大,生成均匀分布的Cr7C3强化相。     

316L表面激光熔覆复合微弧氧化制备陶瓷涂层

目的提高316L不锈钢表面的耐蚀性和生物活性。方法首先采用激光熔覆技术在316L不锈钢表面制备钛层,然后对钛层表面进行微弧氧化处理,从而在316L不锈钢表面制备出含有Ca、P元素的多孔状陶瓷涂层。利用扫描电子显微镜(Scanning Electron Microscope,SEM)、能谱仪(Energy Dispersive Spectrometer,EDS)、X射线衍射仪(X-Ray Diffraction,XRD)分析了钛层厚度对陶瓷涂层的表面显微形貌、元素含量及物相组成的影响。利用电化学实验、浸泡实验分别测试了涂层在1.5倍SBF溶液中的耐蚀性能和生物活性。结果通过激光熔覆复合微弧氧化能够在316L不锈钢表面制备出多孔状陶瓷涂层。随着钛层厚度的增加,微弧氧化原位生成的陶瓷涂层致密度、厚度也增加。当钛层厚度达到0.4 mm时,微弧氧化后得到的陶瓷涂层完整致密,厚度达到20μm。涂层主要由锐钛矿相Ti O2、金红石相Ti O2组成。极化曲线分析可知,腐蚀电位Ecorr为-0.162 V,腐蚀电流密度降至5.11×10-7 A/cm2。陶瓷涂层在1.5倍SBF中浸泡3天后表面即有羟基磷灰石沉积。结论通过激光熔覆复合微弧氧化在316L不锈钢表面制备的陶瓷涂层在模拟体液环境下具有较好的耐蚀性能,同时也具备良好的生物活性。