Fuel economy

Background This study investigates how migration affects the culinary practices of Syrian, Afghan, and Egyptian Coptic communities living in Northwest Italy, specifically focusing on how these groups preserve, adapt, or abandon traditional foodways in a new socio-cultural environment. The objective is to understand the role of food in maintaining cultural identity and navigating integration in the host country. Methods Using a multidisciplinary approach, the research combines semi-structured interviews with 64 participants. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.4 and R 4.4.2. Descriptive and frequency analyses summarized demographic and food-related patterns, while Fisher's exact tests and logistic regression assessed differences and predictors of traditional food maintenance. Qualitative data from interviews were thematically analyzed using an inductive approach, highlighting key themes such as adaptation, resilience, and cultural continuity. The findings reveal distinct culinary patterns shaped by each group's cultural and ecological heritage, Syrian horticultural traditions, Afghan pastoral legacies, and the Coptic plant-based diet. While culinary resilience, adaptation, and loss occur across all groups, the extent varies. Influencing factors include ingredient availability, economic constraints, and levels of social integration. Age, gender, religion, and migration history further shape food behavior. Conclusions This research underscores the dynamic relationship between migration and food, highlighting how culinary practices serve as a site of both cultural preservation and adaptation in diaspora contexts.

A.M. Hansen and R. Al Shqour (2025) "Baking and Breaking Bread at the Khans of Aqaba Castle (Jordan): Insights into Cereal Upcycling from a Medieval Ṭābūn" in Heather J. Sharkey and Karène Sanchez Summerer (eds.) Commensality and Cultural Heritage: Bringing the Foodways of the Middle East and Its Diasporas to the Table. Groningen:  University of Groningen Press, pp. 66-71

A.M. Hansen and F.B.J. Heinrich (2025) "Home Is Where the Hearth Is: Exploring the Fuel Economy of Traditional Ovens and Cooking Installations (ṭābūn, ṣāj, and zarb) in Jordan" in Heather J. Sharkey and Karène Sanchez Summerer (eds) Commensality and Cultural Heritage: Bringing the Foodways of the Middle East and Its Diasporas to the Table, Groningen: University of Groningen Press, pp. 59-65

One of the goals of the US Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act of 2009, more commonly known as 'Cash for Clunkers', was to improve the US vehicle fleet fuel efficiency. Previous studies of the program's environmental impact have focused mainly on the effect of improved fuel economy, and the resulting reductions in fuel use and emissions during the vehicle use phase. We propose and apply a method for analyzing the net effect of CARS on greenhouse gas emissions from a full vehicle life cycle perspective, including the impact of premature production and retirement of vehicles. We find that CARS had a one-time effect of preventing 4.4 million metric tons of CO 2 -equivalent emissions, about 0.4% of US annual light-duty vehicle emissions. Of these, 3.7 million metric tons are avoided during the period of the expected remaining life of the inefficient 'clunkers'. 1.5 million metric tons are avoided as consumers purchase vehicles that are more efficient than their next replacement vehicle would otherwise have been. An additional 0.8 million metric tons are emitted as a result of premature manufacturing and disposal of vehicles. These results are sensitive to the remaining lifetime of the 'clunkers' and to the fuel economy of new vehicles in the absence of CARS, suggesting important considerations for policymakers deliberating on the use of accelerated vehicle retirement programs as a part of the greenhouse gas emissions policy.

A methodology for analyzing and assessing the effectiveness of an internal combustion engine powered automotive system is developed. The analysis is carried out by characterizing separately both the system and the user's needs in terms of quantitative attributes of performance. These attributes are determined as functions of primitives (independent design variables) that describe the vehicle system, the user's requirements, and their context, for example, an E.P.A. test procedure. System capabilities and requirements are compared in a common attribute space by means of a special geometric locus, with which certain partial measures of effectiveness can be computed. These partial measures are then combined to yield an overall effectiveness measure with which design tradeoffs may be studied. The methodology is illustrated by assessing the effectiveness of a diesel powered passenger car with respect to fuel economy and emissions in the context of a simplified E.P.A. drive cycle. A key feature of the methodology is its ability to integrate complex data bases derived from simulation, laboratory test and analytical models as often found in automotive design.

The use of methanol as spark-ignition engine fuel can help to increase energy security and offers the prospect of carbon neutral transport. Methanol’s properties enable considerable improvements in engine performance, efficiency and CO2 emissions compared to gasoline operation. Previous research is reported that both flex-fuel and dedicated methanol engines can benefit from an operating strategy employing exhaust gas recirculation to control the load while leaving the throttle wide open (WOT). The current paper presents follow-up work to determine to what extent these advantages still stand over an entire drive cycle by vehicle simulation software. The CO2 and NOx emissions of methanol vehicle with hybrid system are estimated to be 85 g/km and 0.06 g/km at NEDC, 149g/mi and 0.07 g/mi at FTP. Thus our results indicate that the WOT-EGR strategy with high compression ratio methanol fuelled engine represents an interesting alternative powertrain to conventional gasoline/diesel vehicles.

As part of the National Park Service's Temporary Winter Use Plans Environmental Assessment, the University of Denver has been collecting in-use tailpipe emissions data from snowcoaches and snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. During the winter of 2006, using a portable emissions monitoring system, tailpipe data were collected from 10 snowcoaches and 2 four-stroke snowmobiles. These vehicles were operated over a standard route within the park, and the snowcoaches all carried identical passenger loads. These snowcoaches were newer in age with more advanced fuel management technology than those studied earlier, and average emissions were lower as a result (120, 1.7, and 11 g/mi for carbon monoxide [CO], hydrocarbons [HC], and oxides of nitrogen [NO x ]). Large emissions variability was still observed despite using a standardized route and equal passenger loading. A comparison between five nearly identically equipped snowcoaches that had CO emissions ranging between 12 and 310 g/mi suggests that snow and road conditions are the most important factors behind the large emissions variability observed between modern snowcoaches. The first comprehensive emission measurements, using a portable emissions measurement system, on two snowmobiles showed that computer-controlled fuel management systems have increased fuel economy (Ͼ25 mpg) and are a major reason that emissions from these winter vehicles have dropped so dramatically. Using all of the tailpipe emissions data collected to date shows that the two primary winter vehicles in Yellowstone National Park are now very similar in their per-passenger emissions. Portable emission measurements have been made of the snowmobiles and snowcoaches operating in Yellowstone National Park. The replacement of two-stroke snowmobiles with four-stroke versions along with the migration to port fuel-injection techniques in both have led to large emission reductions. Even on a per-passenger basis, emissions are now similar between snowmobiles and snowcoaches. However, poor road and snow conditions can still cause modern snowcoaches to spend large amounts of time in power enrichment, resulting in higher levels of CO and HC emissions. The data suggest that continued modernization via fleet turnover will work to reduce even these emissions.

The fuel cost of the motor vehicle operating on its common route is an important part of the operating cost. Therefore, the importance of the fuel saving is increasing day by day. One of the parameters which improve fuel saving is the regulation of driving characteristics. The number and duration of stop is increased by the heavy traffic load. It is possible to improve the fuel saving with regulation of traffic flow and driving characteristics. The researches show that the regulation of the traffic flow decreases fuel consumption, but it is not enough to improve fuel saving without the regulation of driving characteristics. This study analyses the fuel consumption of two trips of city bus operating on its common route and determines the effect of traffic density and driving characteristics on fuel consumption. Finally it offers some suggestions about regulation of driving characteristics to improve the fuel saving. Fuel saving is determined according to the results obtained from sim...

This study presents a pioneering computer program, developed in 1986 on an Amstrad CPC 6128, to simulate and calculate the fuel consumption of vehicles with internal combustion engines, exemplifying the integration of computer science and mechanical engineering. The research focuses on the simulation methodology, structured in three parts. First, it defines key parameters of internal combustion engines and vehicles, utilizing performance curves to model brake mean specific fuel consumption based on brake mean effective pressure and engine speed. Second, a mathematical model employs the Newton-Gregory forward polynomial interpolation method to compute fuel consumption, optimizing data selection to enhance accuracy and efficiency. Third, the program simulates standardized driving cycles, including a proposed Comparative Driving Cycle for City Passenger Buses, to assess fuel economy under varied conditions. By accounting for resistance forces and engine states like idling and acceleration, the simulation enables analysis of hypothetical vehicle designs and driver behavior optimization. This work provides a practical example of combining computational techniques with mechanical engineering principles, offering a versatile tool for fuel economy analysis and interdisciplinary research.

This work presents the computation of depreciation under Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System using simulation software developed for the purpose. The three case studies presented provide in-depth analysis and applications of the simulation software that was developed. The results from the three case studies proved that the investment of $900,000 by Virgin Atlantic airline to purchase three new aircrafts will be recovered in 8 years; Toyota's investment of $152,000 in the automated assembly line will be recovered in 8 years while AEG's investments in the two forklift trucks and crane will both be recovered in 8 years for the same reason. These results gave a quick insight for evaluating such an unstructured real life problem as depreciation (cost recovery) in organizations.

Active flow control is probably the most challenging research area in vehicle aerodynamics. Being able to manipulate a flow field in order to achieve desired results beneficial to engineering is the only way to meet today's demands for competitive and efficient solutions in the automotive industry. The current work studies the flow control on a semi detailed model truck by using detached-eddy simulations and wind tunnel experiments aiming at reducing the aerodynamic drag. This study combines both passive and active flow control applied on the rear end of the trailer. An indigenous fluidic actuator (loudspeaker in cavity with slots) is used as a synthetic jet in the experiment. Both experiments and computations demonstrate that the active flow control works successfully and results in flow reattachment to the flaps. The numerical simulations show that the drag coefficient, ‫ܥ‬ ‫ܦ‬ , decreased by 3.9% when AFC was activated compared to the baseline case without flaps. The corresponding decrease when AFC was deactivated (with flaps) was only 0.7%. The experimental results show a decrease of ‫ܥ‬ ‫ܦ‬ by 3.1% for the case with activated AFC compared to the baseline case. When AFC was deactivated the corresponding decrease in ‫ܥ‬ ‫ܦ‬ was 1.8%. A detailed flow analysis made in computations and experiments is used to explain these results.

This paper presents the results of econometric estimation of the "rebound effect" for household vehicle travel in the United States based on a comprehensive analysis of survey data collected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) at approximately three-year intervals over a 15-year period. The rebound effect is defined as the percent change in vehicle travel for a percent change in fuel economy. It summarizes the tendency to "take back" potential energy savings due to fiel economy improvements in the form of increased vehicle travel. Separate vehicle use models were estimated for one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-vehicle households. The results are consistent with the consensus of recently published estimates based on national or state-Ievel data, which show a long-run rebound effect of about +0.2 (a ten percent increase in fiel economy, all else equal, would produce roughly a two percent increase in vehicle travel and an eight percent reduction in fiel use). The hypothesis that vehicle travel responds equally to changes in fhel cost-per-mile whether caused by changes in fiel economy or fuel price per gallon could not be rejected. Recognizing the interdependency in survey data among miles of travel, fuel economy and price paid for fuel for a particular vehicle turns out to be crucial to obtaining meaningful results. vii AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE ELASTICITY OF VEHICLE TIL4VEL WITH RESPECT TO FUEL COST PER MILE USING RTEC SURVEY DATA

Previous research suggests that the elasticity of light-duty motor vehicle travel with respect to fuel cost, known as the "rebound effect," is modest in size and probably declined in magnitude between the 1960s and the late 1990s. However, turmoil in energy markets during the early 2000s has raised new questions about the stability of this elasticity. Using panel data on U.S. states, we revisit the simultaneous-equations methodology of Small and Van Dender (2007) and Hymel et al. (2010) to see whether structural parameters have changed. Using data through 2009, we confirm the earlier finding of a rebound effect that declines in magnitude with income, but we also find an upward shift in its magnitude of about 0.025 during the years 2003-2009. In addition, we find that the rebound effect is much greater in magnitude in years when gasoline prices are rising than when they are falling. It is also greater during times of media attention and price volatility, which explains about half the upward shift just mentioned.

This technical report does not necessarily represent final EPA decisions or positions. It is intended to present technical analysis of issues using data that are currently available. The purpose in the release of such reports is to facilitate the exchange of technical information and to inform the public of technical developments.

Nations around the world have used fuel economy standards, voluntary or mandatory, to control greenhouse gas emissions and oil consumption (1). Although the literature on fuel economy standards is extensive (2), little attention has been paid to analyzing the efficiency and equity of alternative forms and levels of standards. This paper develops and applies a mathematical programming model to measuring the effects of alternative fuel economy regulations in terms of economic efficiency, and differential impacts on manufacturers in the United States. It appears that fuel economy improvements of 20 to 33 percent would provide net economic benefits to U.S. consumers. Unfortunately, none of the alternatives tested is clearly more equitable than the others. The UPI and CAFE metrics disadvantage different sets of manufacturers. An industry-wide, voluntary fuel economy standard (such as that of the EU and ACEA) has the potential to be most economically efficient and to avoid transfer payments among manufacturers, as well. A weight-based metric would be more expensive than CAFE or UPI metrics for the same level of fuel economy increase, but might be less likely to restrict manufacturers' future marketing options. The analysis has many limitations, which should be addressed in future research.

Corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regulations specify minimum standards for fuel efficiency that vehicle manufacturers must meet independently. We design a system of tradeable fuel economy credits that allows trading across vehicle classes and manufacturers with and without considering market power in the credit market. We perform numerical simulations to measure the potential cost savings from moving from the current CAFE system to one with stricter standards, but that allows vehicle manufacturers various levels of increased flexibility. We find that the ability for each manufacturer to average credits between its cars and trucks provides a large percentage of the potential savings. As expected, the greatest savings come from the greatest flexibility in the credit system. Market power lowers the potential cost savings to the industry as a whole, but only modestly. Loss in efficiency from market power does not eliminate the gains from credit trading.

US fuel economy standards have not been changed significantly in 20 years. Feebates are a market-based alternative in which vehicles with fuel consumption rates above a ''pivot point'' are charged fees while vehicles below receive rebates. By choice of pivot points, feebate systems can be made revenue neutral. Feebates have been analyzed before. This study re-examines feebates using recent data, assesses how the undervaluing of fuel economy by consumers might affect their efficacy, tests sensitivity to the cost of fuel economy technology and price elasticities of vehicle demand, and adds assessments of gas-guzzler taxes or rebates alone. A feebate rate of $500 per 0.01 gallon per mile (GPM) produces a 16 percent increase in fuel economy, while a $1000 per 0.01 GPM results in a 29 percent increase, even if consumers count only the first 3 years of fuel savings. Unit sales decline by about 0.5 percent but sales revenues increase because the added value of fuel economy technologies outweighs the decrease in sales. In all cases, the vast majority of fuel economy increase is due to adoption of fuel economy technologies rather than shifts in sales.

Following a tripling of world oil prices in 1973-74, the US. Congress passed the EnergV Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 establishing mandatory fuel economy standardr for automobiles and light truckr. Beginning at 18 MPG in 1978 the passenger carstandarb increased to 27.5 MPG by 1985. There has been considerable debate about the influence ofthe standards, as opposed to the gasoline price increases in 1973-74 and 1979-80, on new car fuel economy. Twelve years of average fuel economy data are now available for every manufacturer's domestic and imported car fleets, making possible a statistical estimation of the relative importance of standarb vems fuel prices in determining new car MPG. In this paper a penally funchon is fomtulated in which deviations from either the standard or the market equilibrium demand for fuel economy create costs for manufacturers. An equation for new car MPG is derived by minimizing the sum of quadraticpenalty functions. Estimation ofthe model, using 15 sets of manufacturer CAFE data for 197889, clearly indicates thai the CAFE standmdr were a sipifcant constraint for many manufaeturers, and were pehaps twice as important an influence as gasoline prices. A test for structural change in the model does not reject the hypothesis that the CAFE constraint had the same effect on camtakers before and after 1983.

This report and its appendices summarize the findings of a 2-year extension to the TxDOT-sponsored study 0-5974 entitled "Estimating Texas Motor Vehicle Costs" undertaken by a Center for Transportation Research (CTR) team of mechanical engineers and economists at The University of Texas at Austin. The work was conducted in two phases over a 4-year period beginning in 2007 and this report details the second phase conducted over the period 2009-2011. It reports results in three areas: 1) total operating costs for the major vehicle classes currently seen on Texas highways, 2) engine models for hybrid light vehicles, and 3) results from examining the impact of transmission types through gearbox and differential sub-models. This second phase is the focus of this report but the reader interested in why this work was undertaken should peruse technical report 0-5974-1. This second, and final, report contains several detailed appendices on mechanical engineering sub-models and a product-a Vcost model and manual-for TxDOT use in highway and freight planning, economics and departmental revenue estimation. (Note: Traditionally vehicle operating costs were termed VOCs but the current use of this acronym to represent volatile organic compounds in emission studies encouraged the authors to adopt a different term-Vcost.

~~'e argne that. the provision of more fiiel-efficient cars shonld be analyzed in the frnmework of a mnlt.i-dimensional product. placement decision where attribntes are dependent. This depencíency arises becanse fiiel-efliciency is linked to certain ae-roclynamic shapes. We show that the presence of this constraint. may rednce the incentives to provide fiiel-eflïciency. In eqiulibrium cars become more similar and aeroclynamic ~rs fiiel prices incrcase. However, the provicleci level of fiiel-efficiency falls short of the social optimal one snch that, a mininnnn fnel economy standard is called for. 'See Albert Caspers, PDG Ford, and David J. Herman, PDG Opel, in Wirtschaftswoche (1995). Reduced comfort stems from the necessity that an FEC must be a lightweighted car. Potential buyers have to dispense with heavy equipment such as air-conditioning and~or stearing aid (Blick durch die Wirtschaft (1996)). 2Greenpeace modified the Twingo at these three levels: first, they improved the aerodynamics by 3001o changing the rear and front of the car. Second, they reduced the total weight hy 20"10

In this paper, we propose a new procedure to reduce the order of control oriented TC SI engine models. The techniques is based on the identification of time scale separation within the dynamics of various engine state variables with pertinent use of the perturbation theory. The model reduction is accomplished in two steps and exploits the dynamic and physical characteristics of engine design and its operation. In the first step, regular and singular perturbation theories are collectively employed to eliminate temperature dynamics and replace them with their quasi-steady state values. This is followed by the elimination of fast pressures. As a result, a library of engine models is obtained which are associated with each other on sound theoretical basis. Different assumptions under which this modeling is realizable are presented and their existence in the context of engine is discussed. The limitations of the proposed engine model as a true representation of the actual engine behavior (as depicted by the comprehensive model) are qualitatively assessed through comprehensive simulation studies.

The transport industry is a primary contributor towards emissions that impact climate change. Fuel economy is also of critical importance to the profitability of road freight transport operators. Empirical evidence identified a variety of factors impacting fuel consumption, including route inclination, payload and truck driver behaviour. This creates the need for accurate fuel usage models and objective methods to distinguish the impact of drivers from other factors, in order to enable reliable driver performance assessment. We compiled a data set for 331 drivers completing 7332 trips over 21 routes to obtain evidence of the impact of route, payload and driver behaviour on fuel economy. We then extracted various regression and neural models for fuel economy and used these models to remove the impact of route inclination and payload, allowing the impact of driver performance to be measured more accurately. All models demonstrated significant out-ofsample predictive ability. Neural models in general outperformed regression models, while amongst neural models radial basis models slightly outperformed multi-layer perceptron models. The significance of compensating for factors not controlled by the driver was verified by demonstrating large differences in driver performance ranking before and after compensating for route inclination and payload.

Mi piace recitare, ma non mi piace tutto ciò che viene prima e dopo il set. Odio rivedermi nei film». Questa dichiarazione, citata in uno dei tanti "coccodrilli" pubblicati in occasione della morte, fornisce molti elementi utili a inquadrare la figura di Lea Massari nel paesaggio attoriale del secondo dopoguerra. Introdotta nel mondo del cinema (contro la volontà del padre) da Pietro Gherardi, amico di famiglia, Lea Massariall'anagrafe Anna Maria Massatani -non ha mai primeggiato né sulle copertine delle riviste di moda né sulle pagine dei magazine scandalistici e neppure nelle classifiche del reference system italiano. «Lea Massari -scrisse Franco Cordelli su "Il Corriere della Sera"-non è attrice da grandi premi, ma attrice da ricordi indelebili». Il rapporto con i media (e in particolare con la televisione) è sempre stato piuttosto complicato, a tal punto che negli anni l'attrice si è guadagnata la fama di antidiva ribelle, «la più scontrosa che cinema e teatro abbiano mai avuto» (Berti 1966). Quando, a metà degli anni novanta, accetta di partecipare al programma "Sottovoce", la sessantenne Massari porta a Gigi Marzullo un album di foto che la ritraggono non in pose sexy o glamour, ma in compagnia di alcuni dei suoi, adoratissimi, cani. L'impegno nel sociale, con particolare attenzione alla tutela degli animali e dell'ambiente, è forse -

The higher fuel economy allowed by diesel engines in comparison with Otto cycle based engines drove them to a progressive lead in vehicle fleet shares, especially within high-duty fleets, during last years. However, diesel engines have also other less welcome properties such as considerable tailpipe Particulate Matter (PM) emissions that contribute to adverse health effects and also to ecosystems and built heritage degradation. This burden requires straightforward mitigation measures and one of the most frequent in Europe has been the operational use of particle traps in a great diversity of fleets, in particular captive ones. These captive fleets account for an important percentage of annual mileage in urban areas. Nevertheless there's a lack of information on filters efficiency under real operational conditions as also of an affordable and easily accessible method for doing this evaluation, since the typical methodology for testing particle traps is used only for homologation purposes. Aiming to operationally test Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) performances using different engine types and emission technologies (EURO standards) tests were implemented in a total of 12 vehicles equipped with 4 different commercially available wall-flow DPF. These tests were done in the two largest Portuguese metropolitan areas, Lisbon and Oporto. Several opacity measurements using the free acceleration test were performed with and without the filter installed for at least 200 running hours per vehicle. Other relevant data (such as fuel consumption) were recorded for evaluating also other possible secondary effects on the vehicle performance. Results indicate an average reduction of 92% in opacity, while no significant changes in fuel consumption and engine power were registered. Conclusions highlight not only the adequacy of the filters tested for PM reduction as well as an inexpensive methodology with potential for ensuring its efficiency in high-duty vehicle fleets real-world operation.

The three-wheeled motor taxi, often termed as "auto rickshaw" is very popular in India and serves as the most affordable means of transportation to the local people. Due to its small size, it is well suited for the narrow crowded streets in Indian cities. One of the main concerns of this vehicle has been its large emissions of green house gases and other toxic particulates, thereby causing severe air pollution. This paper presents a survey of relevant literature on the need for a low-cost Parallel Electric Hybrid Three-Wheeled Motor Taxi or Parallel Electric Hybrid Rickshaw (PEHR). Extensive simulation studies are carried out on a Bajaj RE auto rickshaw equipped with a two stroke engine on the modified Indian Driving Cycle by making it electric hybrid capable of managing its regenerative braking energy. The main focus has been the study of brake recovery energy and its management to increase the fuel economy delivered by the PEHR.

The workshop aligns with priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office to decarbonize transportation in the agriculture, mining, construction, and military industries. This decarbonization effort is also intended to support original equipment manufacturers, industry associations, technology developers, utilities, and other stakeholders. The sections within this report correspond to the three topic areas covered in the 3-day workshop: a high-level perspective of needs and challenges, vehicle and equipment decarbonization strategies, and energy systems integration opportunities. The authors would like to thank DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office for guidance and assistance arranging the workshop. We are grateful to key people at DOE that supported NREL ahead of the workshop, including Michael Berube, Gurpreet Singh, Michael Weismiller, and Peter Devlin. We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to all the workshop presenters and participants.

We would like to thank Randall Lutter for his valuable suggestions and Ro Malik for excellent research assistance. This paper represents the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

In order to promote public understanding of the impact of regulations on consumers, business, and government, the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution established the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. The Joint Center's primary purpose is to hold lawmakers and regulators more accountable by providing thoughtful, objective analysis of relevant laws and regulations. Over the past three decades, AEI and Brookings have generated an impressive body of research on regulation. The Joint Center builds on this solid foundation, evaluating the economic impact of laws and regulations and offering constructive suggestions for reforms to enhance productivity and welfare. The views expressed in Joint Center publications are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Joint Center.

Cast in situ particle-reinforced aluminum-based composite is characterized by in situ generation of dispersoid particles and also, further value addition due to matrix strengthening caused by alloying. These lightweight composites result in reduced weight when employed in dynamic components, leading thereby to significant fuel economy. Dry sliding behavior of cast in situ Al (Ti)-Al 2 O 3 (TiO 2 ) composites synthesized by dispersing titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) particles in molten aluminum, has been investigated to explore its potential application in sliding components. Wear tests have been conducted at normal loads of 9.8, 14.7, 19.6, 24.5, 29.4, 34.3 and 39.2 N and a constant sliding speed of 1.05 m/s using a pin-on-disc wear testing machine, under dry sliding conditions. For some specimens of cast in situ composite, wear tests have been also conducted at four different sliding speeds of 0.52, 1.05, 1.57 and 2.10 m/s but at a constant normal load of 34.3 N. The results show that the cumulative volume loss and wear rate of cast in situ composites are significantly lower than those observed in either the cast commercial aluminum or cast unreinforced Al-Ti base alloys, under similar load and sliding conditions. At a given particle content, the wear rate increases with increasing porosity content due to its effect on both the real area of contact and subsurface cracking. The wear rate of cast in situ composites with relatively lower porosity content, decreases with increasing particle content but, in presence of relatively large porosity content, the wear rate decreases only by a little or remain unchanged with increasing particle content. The coefficient of friction of cast in situ composite decreases with increasing porosity content but increases slightly with increasing particle content. In cast in situ composites, porosities were observed to increase the cumulative volume loss and wear rate in all the different types of cast in situ composites. Sometimes, the contributions of the reinforcing particles in enhancing the wear resistance have been obliterated by increased porosity content and therefore, it should be controlled in cast in situ composites. However, a limited amount of porosity could be tolerated in cast in situ composites without impairing its wear resistance significantly. The limitation of wear coefficient as a basis for defining wear resistance has been highlighted and wear rate has been judged as a better parameter for comparing the wear resistance of different cast in situ composites.

Aluminium-based tribological materials may reduce the weight of components, leading to significant fuel economy. The aim of the present study is to investigate the wear and friction in cast in situ Al(Mn)-Al 2 O 3 (MnO 2 ) composites synthesized by dispersing MnO 2 particles in molten aluminium, which get reduced to form Al 2 O 3 particles. Wear tests have been conducted at four normal loads of 9.8, 19.6, 29.4 and 39.2 N and at a constant sliding speed of 1.05 m/s using a pin-on-disc wear testing machine, under dry sliding conditions. The results of the investigation indicate that the cumulative volume loss and wear rate of in situ composites are significantly lower than those observed in either the commercial aluminium or Al-Mn base alloy, under similar loading and sliding conditions. The influences of both reinforcing particle and porosity contents on the tribological behaviour of in situ composites were evaluated. It has been found that at a given particle content, the wear rate increases with increasing porosity content due to its combined effect on real area of contact and subsurface cracking. The wear rate of in situ composites with relatively lower porosity decreases with increasing particle content, but does not appear to change significantly or even increases a little with increasing particle content when the composites have relatively higher porosity. In view of large fluctuations in coefficient of friction during sliding, no effect of particle or porosity contents on the coefficient of friction could be determined unambiguously for different in situ composites.

Today's vehicles use coordination strategies downstream their subsystems to avoid conflicts. This is possible as far as a very limited number of integrated subsystems is concerned. This paper discusses the potential of this approach and proposes an eventual substitute. A brief review is given to speculate about the architectures' compatibility with respect to control problems. It appears that autonomous vehicles require additional subsystems for safety. Therefore, an upstream approach is no longer appropriate to handle vehicle's subsystems interactions.

One of the most important environmental problems in large cities is the vehicular emission. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are a growing alternative for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Since this kind of vehicle has low autonomy yet, it is important to optimize energy consumption, for instance by planning a suitable infrastructure of battery recharge and/or battery-switch stations. This paper presents an architecture for EV simulation, important to analyze traffic flow, its dynamics and the performance when there are obstructions or intense traffic. There are several tools for traffic simulation, SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) is one of them. But none of the existing traffic simulators integrates models of EV that allow, for example, perform simulation studies regarding energy consumption. SUMO is a portable open source simulator with multi-modal traffic feature capabilities that permit the simulation of various types of vehicles. This work is an extension of the SUMO, two-dimensional (2D) vehicular simulation package. To allow the simulation of energy consumption of EV, two extensions were incorporated in SUMO: EV models and modeling of altitude, transforming SUMO into a threedimensional (3D) simulator. The energy model effectiveness and correctness with 3D capabilities has been validated using two driving schedules (Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule and Highway Fuel Economy Driving Schedule). This new tool will also support the study of better routes choice in 3D environment with EV aiming minimum energy consumption.

The main causes of aerodynamic drag for automotive vehicles are the flow separation at the rear end of the vehicles. By reducing the drag force, it is possible to increase the fuel economy. Aerodynamic component i.e. Frontal Deflectors (FD) commonly used on trucks to prevent the flow separation. Frontal Deflectors themselves do create the drag, but they also reduce drags by preventing flow separation at downstream. The main aim of this paper is to quantify the effect of frontal deflectors on improving trucks aerodynamics. In this study, the simulation were ran for 6 different shapes of FD which acquires different height and different placement of FD that is mounted on the truck from the frontal roof by using ANSYS Fluent software. The design of the truck has been done in SOLIDWORK 2018 and the same design is used for analysis in ANSYS (Fluent). The two equation models used in this study are 𝑘𝑘− 𝜀𝜀 with applying the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations for the behaviour o...

Emission legislation has forced the pace of development of engine management functions. Legislation that will be applied to diesel engines during the period 2010-2020 continue to put great emphasis on both nitrogen oxides NOx and particulate matter (PM). With the increasing effort to reduce emissions and maintain fuel economy manufacturers are focussing on engine control. Engine control requires data acquisition and acquisition requires sensors, but hardware in the form of sensors adds further cost to the production. As a result, so called virtual sensors are introduced. These are estimators that predict the required data, which is costly to measure or simply incapable of measurement. In this paper a parallel neural network structure is built. It consists of three Non-linear autoregressive exogenous input (NLARX) neural network models used to predict the smoke emissions of a diesel engine operated in a Non-Road-Transient Cycle. Existing resources from Matlab toolboxes are used in order to monitor both the cost and computational expenses of analysis. The data is re-ordered into training and validation sets and processed. To overcome the weakness of the neural network approach in respect of high frequency signals, the data is divided into layers to split up the frequencies and cut high amplitudes. Three horizontal layers of the signal are processed in parallel through independent NLARX-models and their performances are added to give an overall result.

Thermal management, in particular, heat recovery and utilisation in internal combustion engines result in improved fuel economy, reduced emissions, fast warm up and optimized cylinder head temperatures. Turbocompounding is a heat recovery technique that has been successfully used in medium and large scale engines. Heat recovery to a secondary fluid and expansion is used in large scale engines, such as in power plants in the form of heat recovery steam generators(HRSG) . The present paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of turbocompounding and heat recovery and utilisation through a fluid power cycle, a technique that is also applicable to medium and small scale engines. In a fluid power cycle, the working fluid is stored in a reservoir and expanded subsequently. The reservoir acts as an energy buffer that improves the overall efficiency, significantly. This paper highlights the relative advantage of exhaust heat secondary power cycles over turbocompounding with the aid of MATLAB based QSS Toolbox [2] simulation results. Steam has been selected as the working fluid in this work for its superior heat capacity over organic fluids and gases.

Pneumopercussion machines (pneumatic impact machines) are widely used in all areas of human activity. Also, they are widely used in the mining industry. Unfortunately, their operation is characterized by a low efficiency of compressed air energy usage. In some cases, this level of efficiency is calculated as 15-20%. Such a situation increases the cost of drilling operations significantly. In this article, due to an implementation of a new construction of the equipment, the efficiency of the pneumopercussion machines was increased. This problem is solved by combining the most effective thermodynamic processes of compressed air in the working chambers of machines. Also, a new technical solution for the construction of pneumopercussion machines is suggested by the Authors. The proposed new design is realized by a combination of the most effective thermodynamic processes in the chambers of pneumatic impact machines. A new pneumatic hammer is presented, which allows to reduce compressed air consumption twice during an operation on the surface (in comparison with hammers available on the market). The operation of pneumopercussion machines and the method of calculating geometric parameters are described. The economic performance of the equipment confirms the correctness of the proposed technological solutions.

In this paper data mining techniques are used to model the non-trivial relationships between dependent variables (mass exhaust emissions) and independent variables (engines' technologies and fuel properties). Models based on experiments to predict pollutant emissions from gasoline properties and engine technologies can improve the design process. An applied adaptive neural network model structure provides for efficient combining of available expert knowledge with existing experimental data. Efficient learning methods for neural network were applied, and genetic optimization of the models was also explored.

In this study, the tribological properties of steel, Mn-phosphate, Si doped (S1s), and hydrogenated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:H) diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings were investigated in a pin on reciprocating plate tribometer and single cam test rig. S1s and taC-H DLC coating architectures were obtained with plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition technique with hardness 20 ± 4 GPa and 35 ± 7 GPa respectively. All materials had a centre-line average surface roughness (Ra) of 0.02-0.03 µm except for the Mn(PO3)2 which had Ra of 0.30 µm. The S1s showed severe delamination after tests on the reciprocating tribometer while spots of wear flakes were observed in the bench test. Both single cam rig and reciprocating tests have shown similar wear and friction results which can be used to rank materials, surface coatings and lubricants for optimum performance of valve train components.

One method for improving the torque capacity of the CVT is to use a split-powered CVT (SPCVT) to reduce the power transmitted into a continuously variable unit (CVU). A variable bridge SPCVT with two planetary gear units (PGUs), which are composed of a sun gear, a ring gear, and carrier and planetary gears, can minimize the power to the CVU. However, a SPCVT with a conventional CVT should possess a dual mode, which would allow the conventional CVT to be used at high speeds and an additional gear train to be used at low speeds. The inner-spherical CVU (ISCVU) with an inner and outer spherical contact mechanism developed in this study can cover the range from low to high speeds. The rated power and the overall speed ratios were 100 kW and 0.09~0.36, respectively. Power efficiency was numerically calculated to be over 90% over the speed ratio range of 0.1~0.29. The maximum shear stress at the two contact areas of the rotor pairs, the minimum life and the overall size were estimated to be 700 MPa, 276 kh and 350×350×400 mm 3 , respectively. This study shows that an ISCVU and a variable bridge type PGU can realize the SPCVT with a single mode for a vehicle.

The US motor vehicle fatality rate declined through 2010 but has partially rebounded since then. This slide deck presents two possible approaches to understanding this rebound, the first expert-based and diagrammatic, the second relying on historical data and simulation. The expert-driven approach raises many interesting possibilities, but only the data-driven approach can narrow them down and identify key factors and priorities.

Due to the increasing demand on transportation around the world, transportation sector has become one of the main contributors to major environmental issues related to energy depletion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, more efforts and resources have been invested during the last 10 years in order to develop more sustainable vehicle technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells vehicles (FCEVs). In this study, a prediction model for number of vehicles has been developed and the expected short-term and long-term environmental impacts of FCEVs in Westbank, Palestine, have been determined compared to other vehicle technologies, such as BEVs and HEVs, based on current and future factors, such as number of vehicles, average fuel and power consumption, average annual traveled kilometers, and electricity and fuel sources. Current and future vehicles' emissions factors (gm of CO2-eq/ Km) have been determined for Palestine. Next, the GHG emissions considering ICEVs, HEVS, BEVs, and FCEVs have been determined. The results of the study have concluded that FCEVs can be considered the most sustainable alternative, and it could lead to reductions in GHG emissions up to 38.92% and 26.67% compared to HEVs and BEVs, respectively, in 2025. Whereas, the environmental benefits of FCEVs are getting more predominant over time, and the expected reduction in GHG emissions is getting greater (91.24%) in 2050, due to the expected improvement in hydrogen production by using more environmentally friendly methods.

Fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) with energy storage (ES) 5 device(s) could result in improved lifetime, performance, fuel 6 economy, and reduced cost. This paper presents the utilization of 7 an ES device consisting of a supercapacitor bank for future electric 8 vehicles with a hydrogen fuel cell (FC) as the main power source. 9 The study mainly focuses on the innovative control law based 10 on the flatness properties for a FC/supercapacitor hybrid power 11 source. Utilizing the flatness principle, we propose simple solutions 12 to the hybrid energy-management and stabilization problems. A 13 supercapacitor module, as a high dynamic and high-power density 14 device, functions to supply energy to regulate the dc-bus energy. 15 The FC, as a slower dynamic source in this system, functions 16 by supplying energy to keep the supercapacitor module charged. 17 To ensure energy-efficient operation of the FC stack, the output 18 current ripple of the FC stack is minimized by parallel boost 19 converters with an interleaving switching technique for a high-20 frequency ripple by the supercapacitor for a low-frequency ripple. 21 To authenticate the proposed control laws, a test bench is realized 22 in the laboratory. The control algorithm (energy and current 23 control loops) is digitally implemented by dSPACE controller 24 DS1103. Experimental results with small-scale devices (a proton 25 exchange membrane FC (PEMFC) of 500 W, 50 A, and 10 V and 26 a supercapacitor bank of 250 F, 32 V, and 500 A) substantiate the 27 excellent performance during load cycles.

ince the early 1970s, urban economists have recognized the importance of a general equilibrium model of the urban economy. Initially, however, they developed such models only for monocentric cities in which all jobs were assumed to stay in a central business district (CBD). Thus, although the analytical solution of the monocentric city model yielded many theoretical insights, it remained empirically inappropriate and difficult to justify in policy application. Early contributions to the general equilibrium model of a monocentric city included , who developed the most complete models all solved numerically. A parallel line of developments that started in the early 1970s led to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) urban simulation model (Ingram,