To solve the low power density issue of hybrid electric vehicular batteries, a combination of batteries and ultra- capacitors (UCs) could be a solution. The high power density feature of UCs can improve the performance of battery/UC hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs). This paper presents a parallel hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) equipped with an internal combustion engine and an HESS. An advanced energy management strategy (EMS), mainly based on fuzzy logic, is proposed to improve the fuel economy of the HEV and the endurance of the HESS. The EMS is capable of determining the ideal distribution of output power among the internal combustion engine, battery, and UC according to the propelling power or regenerative braking power of the vehicle. To validate the effectiveness of the EMS, numerical simulation and experimental validations are carried out. The results indicate that EMS can effectively control the power sources to work within their respective efficient areas. The battery load can be mitigated and prolonged battery life can be expected. The electrical energy consumption in the HESS is reduced by 3.91% compared with that in the battery only system. Fuel consumption of the HEV is reduced by 24.3% compared with that of the same class conventional vehicles under Economic Commission of Europe driving cycle.

The transverse injection flow field has an important impact on the flowpath design of scramjet engines. At present a combination of the transverse injection scheme and any other flame holder has been widely employed in hypersonic propulsion systems to promote the mixing process between the fuel and the supersonic freestream; combustion efficiency has been improved thereby, as well as engine thrust. Research on mixing techniques for the transverse injection flow field is summarized from four aspects, namely the jet-to-crossflow pressure ratio, the geometric configuration of the injection port, the number of injection ports, and the injection angle. In conclusion, urgent investigations of mixing techniques of the transverse injection flow field are proposed, especially data mining in the quantitative analytical results for transverse injection flow field, based on results from multi-objective design optimization theory.

Hydrogen is starting to be mentioned as an alternative fuel to replace the fossil fuel in future transportation applications due to its characteristics of zero greenhouse gas emission and high energy efficiency. Before hydrogen fuel and its facilities can be introduced to the public, relevant safety issues and its hazards must be assessed in order to avoid any chance of injury or loss. While a traditional risk assessment has difficulty in prioritizing the risk of failure modes, this paper proposes a new fuzzy-based risk evaluation technique which uses fuzzy value to prioritize the risk of various scenarios. In this study, the final risk of each failure modes was prioritized by using the MATLAB fuzzy logic tool box with a combination of two assessments. The first assessment was concerned with the criteria which affected the actual probability of occurrence. This assessment considered the availability of the standard that was applied to prevent the likelihood of the scenario occurring. On the other hand, the second assessment was focused on evaluating the consequence of the failure by taking into account the availability of detection and the complexity of the failure rather than only the severity of the scenarios. A total of 87 failure scenarios were identified using failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) procedures on hydrogen refueling station models. Fuzzy-based assessments were performed through risk prioritizing various failure scenarios with a fuzzy value (0 to 1) and risk level (low, medium, and high) while a traditional risk assessment approach presented the risks only in forms of level (low, medium, and/or high). Availability of the fuzzy value enabled further prioritizing on the risk results that fell in the same level of risk. This study concluded that fuzzy-based risk evaluation is able to further prioritize the decisions when compared with a traditional risk assessment method.

The objective of this study was to develop, as well as validate the strongly coupled method (two-way fluid structural interaction (FSI)) used to simulate the transient FSI response of the vertical axis tidal turbine (VATT) rotor, subjected to spatially varying inflow. Moreover, this study examined strategies on improving techniques used for mesh deformation that account for large displacement or deformation calculations. The blade’s deformation for each new time step is considered in transient two-way FSI analysis, to make the design more reliable. Usually this is not considered in routine one-way FSI simulations. A rotor with four blades and 4-m diameter was modeled and numerically analyzed. We observed that two-way FSI, utilizing the strongly coupled method, was impossible for a complex model; and thereby using ANSYS-CFX and ANSYS-MECHANICAL in work bench, as given in ANSYS-WORKBENCH, helped case examples 22 and 23, by giving an error when the solution was run. To make the method possible and reduce the computational power, a novel technique was used to transfer the file in ANSYS-APDL to obtain the solution and results. Consequently, the results indicating a two-way transient FSI analysis is a time- and resource-consuming job, but with our proposed technique we can reduce the computational time. The ANSYS STRUCTURAL results also uncover that stresses and deformations have higher values for two-way FSI as compared to one-way FSI. Similarly, fluid flow CFX results for two-way FSI are closer to experimental results as compared to one-way simulation results. Additionally, this study shows that, using the proposed method we can perform coupled simulation with simple multi-node PCs (core i5).

In this paper, a novel system using direct contact heat transfer between air and water solution was proposed to generate ice slurry. The heat transfer process and the system performance were studied; energy efficiency coefficients of 0.038, 0.053, and 0.064 were obtained using different solutions. An empirical relationship between the volumetric heat transfer coefficient U_v and the main parameters was obtained by fitting the experimental data. The U_v calculated from the empirical formula agreed with the experimental U_v quite well with a relative error of less than 15%. Based on the empirical formula, a laboratory-scale direct contact ice slurry generator was then constructed, with practical application in mind. If the air flow rate is fixed at 200 m³/h, the ice production rate will be 0.091 kg/min. The experimental results also showed that the cold energy consumption of the air compressor accounted for more than half of the total amount. To improve the system energy efficiency coefficient, it is necessary to increase the air pipes insulation and the solution’s thermal capacity, and also it is appropriate to utilize the free cold energy of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

This paper deals with the estimation of crest settlement in a concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD), utilizing intelligent methods. Following completion of dam construction, considerable movements of the crest and the body of the dam can develop during the first impoundment of the reservoir. Although there is vast experience worldwide in CFRD design and construction, few accurate experimental relationships are available to predict the settlement in CFRD. The goal is to advance the development of intelligent methods to estimate the subsidence of dams at the design stage. Due to dam zonification and uncertainties in material properties, these methods appear to be the appropriate choice. In this study, the crest settlement behavior of CFRDs is analyzed based on compiled data of 24 CFRDs constructed during recent years around the world, along with the utilization of gene expression programming (GEP) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) methods. In addition, dam height (H), shape factor (S_f), and time (t, time after first operation) are also assessed, being considered major factors in predicting the settlement behavior. From the relationships proposed, the values of R² for both equations of GEP (with and without constant) were 0.9603 and 0.9734, and for the three approaches of ANFIS (grid partitioning (GP), subtractive clustering method (SCM), and fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM)) were 0.9693, 0.8657, and 0.8848, respectively. The obtained results indicate that the overall behavior evaluated by this approach is consistent with the measured data of other CFRDs.

To evaluate the columnar jointed basalts in the dam site of Baihetan hydropower station in southwest China, we developed a basic conceptual model of single jointed rock mass. Considering that the rock mass deformation consists of rock block deformation and joints deformation, the linear mechanical characteristics of the cell (including the elastic joints and the nonlinear mechanical behaviors of the cell) with a combined frictional-elastic interface were analyzed. We developed formulas to calculate the rock block deformation, which can be adapted for multiple jointed rock mass and columnar jointed basalts. The formulas are effective in calculating the equivalent modulus of multiple jointed rock mass, and precisely reveal the anisotropic properties of columnar jointed basalts. Furthermore, the in situ rigid bearing plate tests were analyzed and calculated, and the types of loading-unloading curves and the equivalent modulus along different directions of columnar jointed basalts were obtained. The analytical results are in close compliance with the test results.