Wheeling in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fytche, E.L.

1991-01-01

The quest for economic efficiency, or lowest cost, in the electricity supply industry is furthered by trading between high and low cost utilities, one aspect being transporting or wheeling power through the transmission system of a third party. Some of the pressures and constraints limiting wheeling are discussed. A simple formula is presented for determining whether trading and wheeling are worthwhile. It is demonstrated for assumed capital and operating cost levels, the viability of nine cases where bulk power or economy energy would need to be wheeled across provincial boundaries in order to reach potential buyers. Wheeling in Canada is different from the situation in the USA, due to large distances spanned by Canadian utilities and because most are provincial crown corporations, with different territorial interests and profit motivations than investor-owned utilities. Most trading in electricity has been between contiguous neighbours, for mutual advantage. New technology allows power transmission over distances of up to 1000 miles, and the economics of Canada's electrical supply could be improved, with means including access to low cost coal of Alberta, and remote hydro in British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Labrador. Nuclear plants could be located anywhere but suffer from an unfriendly public attitude. A bridge across the Prairies appears uneconomic due to cost of transmission, and also due to low valuation given to Alberta coal. 7 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs

The hydraulic wheel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez Cardona, A.

1985-01-01

The present article this dedicated to recover a technology that key in disuse for the appearance of other techniques. It is the hydraulic wheel with their multiple possibilities to use their energy mechanical rotational in direct form or to generate electricity directly in the fields in the place and to avoid the high cost of transport and transformation. The basic theory is described that consists in: the power of the currents of water and the hydraulic receivers. The power of the currents is determined knowing the flow and east knowing the section of the flow and its speed; they are given you formulate to know these and direct mensuration methods by means of floodgates, drains and jumps of water. The hydraulic receivers or properly this hydraulic wheels that are the machines in those that the water acts like main force and they are designed to transmit the biggest proportion possible of absolute work of the water, the hydraulic wheels of horizontal axis are the common and they are divided in: you rotate with water for under, you rotate with side water and wheels with water for above. It is analyzed each one of them, their components are described; the conditions that should complete to produce a certain power and formulate them to calculate it. There are 25 descriptive figures of the different hydraulic wheels

Computation of wheel-rail contact force for non-mapping wheel-rail profile of Translohr tram

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Yuanjin; Ren, Lihui; Zhou, Jinsong

2017-09-01

Translohr tram has steel wheels, in V-like arrangements, as guide wheels. These operate over the guide rails in inverted-V arrangements. However, the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the guide wheels and guide rails are not always mapped one-to-one. In this study, a simplified elastic method is proposed in order to calculate the contact points between the wheels and the rails. By transforming the coordinates, the non-mapping geometric relationship between wheel and rail is converted into a mapping relationship. Considering the Translohr tram's multi-point contact between the guide wheel and the guide rail, the elastic-contact hypothesis take into account the existence of contact patches between the bodies, and the location of the contact points is calculated using a simplified elastic method. In order to speed up the calculation, a multi-dimensional contact table is generated, enabling the use of simulation for Translohr tram running on curvatures with different radii.

Wheel speed management control system for spacecraft

Science.gov (United States)

Goodzeit, Neil E. (Inventor); Linder, David M. (Inventor)

1991-01-01

A spacecraft attitude control system uses at least four reaction wheels. In order to minimize reaction wheel speed and therefore power, a wheel speed management system is provided. The management system monitors the wheel speeds and generates a wheel speed error vector. The error vector is integrated, and the error vector and its integral are combined to form a correction vector. The correction vector is summed with the attitude control torque command signals for driving the reaction wheels.

Wheel inspection system environment.

Science.gov (United States)

2008-11-18

International Electronic Machines Corporation (IEM) has developed and is now marketing a state-of-the-art Wheel Inspection System Environment (WISE). WISE provides wheel profile and dimensional measurements, i.e. rim thickness, flange height, flange ...

The prospects for retail wheeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Donnell, E.H.; Center, J.A.

1992-01-01

This paper as published is an outline of a presentation on retail wheeling of electric power. The topics discussed are development of increased wholesale transmission access, government regulatory policies on wholesale transmission, examples of past and present retail transmission access agreements, examples of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction over retail wheeling, and state policies on retail wheeling

Four-Wheel Vehicle Suspension System

Science.gov (United States)

Bickler, Donald B.

1990-01-01

Four-wheel suspension system uses simple system of levers with no compliant components to provide three-point suspension of chassis of vehicle while maintaining four-point contact with uneven terrain. Provides stability against tipping of four-point rectangular base, without rocking contact to which rigid four-wheel frame susceptible. Similar to six-wheel suspension system described in "Articulated Suspension Without Springs" (NPO-17354).

The Reaction Wheel Pendulum

CERN Document Server

Block, Daniel J; Spong, Mark W

2007-01-01

This monograph describes the Reaction Wheel Pendulum, the newest inverted-pendulum-like device for control education and research. We discuss the history and background of the reaction wheel pendulum and other similar experimental devices. We develop mathematical models of the reaction wheel pendulum in depth, including linear and nonlinear models, and models of the sensors and actuators that are used for feedback control. We treat various aspects of the control problem, from linear control of themotor, to stabilization of the pendulum about an equilibrium configuration using linear control, t

Propulsion Wheel Motor for an Electric Vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Figuered, Joshua M. (Inventor); Herrera, Eduardo (Inventor); Waligora, Thomas M. (Inventor); Bluethmann, William J. (Inventor); Farrell, Logan Christopher (Inventor); Lee, Chunhao J. (Inventor); Vitale, Robert L. (Inventor); Winn, Ross Briant (Inventor); Eggleston, IV, Raymond Edward (Inventor); Guo, Raymond (Inventor);

Wheel traffic effect on air-filled porosity and air permeability in a soil catena across the wheel rut

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berisso, Feto Esimo; Schjønning, Per; Lamandé, Mathieu

might induce different effects on soil physical properties. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of vehicle traffic on soil physical properties and air permeability by systematic collection of samples in a transect running from the center to the outside of the wheel rut. A field...... catena running from center of the wheel rut to un wheeled part of the field ( 0, 20, 40, 50,60 and 400 cm horizontal distance). We measured water retention and air permeability (ka) at -30, -100 and -300 hPa matric potentials. At -100 hPa, we obtained consistently lower air filled under the wheel rut......The impact of wheel traffic on soil physical properties is usually quantified by randomly collecting soil cores at specific depths below the wheeled surface. However, modeling studies as well as few measurements indicated a non-uniform stress distribution in a catena across the wheel rut, which...

Biaxial wheel/hub test facility. Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fischer, G.; Grubisic, V. [eds.

2000-07-01

The 4{sup th} meeting aims to exchange the experience and knowledge of engineers during several presentations and discussions about new developments required for a reliable, time and cost reducing validation of the wheel/hub assembly. Tremendous development of the wheel performance, described by the ratio of the rated load (kg) versus the wheel weight (kg) had taken place during the last 5000 years. Starting from the ratio of 3 for wooden 2-piece-disc-wheels in Mesopotamia it needed nearly 1000 years to increase the ratio to approx 5 at light-weight spoke wheels for fighting carriages, found in the grave of king Tutenchamon in Egypt. Modern light alloy wheels of commercial vehicles reach values up to 160 kg/kg. Additionally the comlex design of the modern systems for cars and commercial vehicles comprising wheel, brake, hub, bearing, spindle and hub carrier, including different materials and their treatment, fasteners, press-fits, require an appropriate testing procedure. The variable loading conditions, caused by operational wheel forces, brake and torque moments including heating, may result in changing tolerances and press-fits during operation and consequently in different damage mechanisms. This can be simulated in the Biaxial Wheel Test Machine, whereby corresponding load programs are necessary. An overview about all biaxial test machines in usage at the end of 1999 is shown in the introduction. The total number is 17 for cars, 7 for commercial vehicles and 1 for trains. The six presentations of this meeting were consequently concentrated on: (a) recommendations for a standardization of load programs of the German Wheel Committee, (b) the simulation of brake and torque events and (c) the possibility for a numerical stress analyses and fatigue life assessment. (orig./AKF)

A Nontoxic Barlow's Wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Daffron, John A.; Greenslade, Thomas B.

2015-01-01

Barlow's wheel has been a favorite demonstration since its invention by Peter Barlow (1776-1862) in 1822.1 In the form shown in Fig. 1, it represents the first electric motor. The interaction between the electric current passing from the axle of the wheel to the rim and the magnetic field produced by the U-magnet produces a torque that turns the wheel. The original device used mercury to provide electrical contact to the rim, and the dangers involved with the use of this heavy metal have caused the apparatus to disappear from the lecture hall.

Problems of locomotive wheel wear in fleet replacement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.P. Lingaytis

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To conduct a research and find out the causes of defects appearing on the wheel thread of freight locomotives 2М62 and SIEMENS ER20CF. Methodology. To find the ways to solve this problem comparing the locomotive designs and their operating conditions. Findings. After examining the nature of the wheel wear the main difference was found: in locomotives of the 2M62 line wears the wheel flange, and in the locomotives SIEMENS ER20CF – the tread surface. After installation on the 2M62 locomotive the lubrication system of flanges their wear rate significantly decreased. On the new freight locomotives SIEMENS ER20CF the flange lubrication systems of the wheel set have been already installed at the factory, however the wheel thread is wearing. As for locomotives 2M62, and on locomotives SIEMENS ER20CF most wear profile skating wheels of the first wheel set. On both locomotive lines the 2М62 and the SIEMENS ER20CF the tread profile of the first wheel set most of all is subject to the wear. After reaching the 170 000 km run, the tread surface of some wheels begins to crumble. There was a suspicion that the reason for crumb formation of the wheel surface may be insufficient or excessive wheel hardness or its chemical composition. In order to confirm or deny this suspicion the following studies were conducted: the examination of the rim surface, the study of the wheel metal hardness and the document analysis of the wheel production and their comparison with the results of wheel hardness measurement. Practical value. The technical condition of locomotives is one of the bases of safety and reliability of the rolling stock. The reduction of the wheel wear significantly reduces the operating costs of railway transport. After study completion it was found that there was no evidence to suggest that the ratio of the wheel-rail hardness could be the cause of the wheel surface crumbling.

Reaction wheels for kinetic energy storage

Science.gov (United States)

Studer, P. A.

1984-11-01

In contrast to all existing reaction wheel implementations, an order of magnitude increase in speed can be obtained efficiently if power to the actuators can be recovered. This allows a combined attitude control-energy storage system to be developed with structure mounted reaction wheels. The feasibility of combining reaction wheels with energy storage wwheels is demonstrated. The power required for control torques is a function of wheel speed but this energy is not dissipated; it is stored in the wheel. The I(2)R loss resulting from a given torque is shown to be constant, independent of the design speed of the motor. What remains, in order to efficiently use high speed wheels (essential for energy storage) for control purposes, is to reduce rotational losses to acceptable levels. Progress was made in permanent magnet motor design for high speed operation. Variable field motors offer more control flexibility and efficiency over a broader speed range.

Customer loads of two-wheeled vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Gorges, C.; Öztürk, K.; Liebich, R.

2017-12-01

Customer usage profiles are the most unknown influences in vehicle design targets and they play an important role in durability analysis. This publication presents a customer load acquisition system for two-wheeled vehicles that utilises the vehicle's onboard signals. A road slope estimator was developed to reveal the unknown slope resistance force with the help of a linear Kalman filter. Furthermore, an automated mass estimator was developed to consider the correct vehicle loading. The mass estimation is performed by an extended Kalman filter. Finally, a model-based wheel force calculation was derived, which is based on the superposition of forces calculated from measured onboard signals. The calculated wheel forces were validated by measurements with wheel-load transducers through the comparison of rainflow matrices. The calculated wheel forces correspond with the measured wheel forces in terms of both quality and quantity. The proposed methods can be used to gather field data for improved vehicle design loads.

Assessment of a Boat Fractured Steering Wheel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vukelic Goran

2016-09-01

Full Text Available During regular use of the steering wheel mounted on a boat, two cracks emanating from a fastener hole were noticed which, consequently, caused final fracture of the wheel. To determine the behavior of a boat steering wheel with cracks present, assessment of a fractured wheel was performed. Torque moments of the fasteners were measured prior to removing the steering wheel from the boat. Visual and dye penetrant inspection followed along with the material detection. Besides using experimental procedures, assessment of the fractured wheel was performed using finite element analysis, i.e. stress intensity factor values were numerically determined. Variation of stress intensity factor with crack length is presented. Possible causes of crack occurrence are given and they include excessive values of fastener torque moments coupled with fretting between fastener and fastener hole that was poorly machined. Results obtained by this assessment can be taken for predicting fracture behavior of a cracked steering wheel and as a reference in the design, mounting and exploitation process of steering wheels improving that way their safety in transportation environment.

An Ultrasonic Wheel-Array Probe

Science.gov (United States)

Drinkwater, B. W.; Brotherhood, C. J.; Freemantle, R. J.

2004-02-01

This paper describes the development and modeling of an ultrasonic array wheel probe scanning system. The system operates at 10 MHz using a 64 element array transducer which is 50 mm in length and located in a fluid filled wheel. The wheel is coupled to the test structure dry, or with a small amount of liquid couplant. When the wheel is rolled over the surface of the test structure a defect map (C-Scan) is generated in real-time. The tyre is made from a soft, durable polymer which has very little acoustic loss. Two application studies are presented; the inspection of sealant layers in an aluminum aircraft wing structure and the detection of embedded defects in a thick section carbon composite sample.

Wheeled hopping robot

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Gary J [Albuquerque, NM

2010-08-17

The present invention provides robotic vehicles having wheeled and hopping mobilities that are capable of traversing (e.g. by hopping over) obstacles that are large in size relative to the robot and, are capable of operation in unpredictable terrain over long range. The present invention further provides combustion powered linear actuators, which can include latching mechanisms to facilitate pressurized fueling of the actuators, as can be used to provide wheeled vehicles with a hopping mobility.

49 CFR 229.73 - Wheel sets.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Wheel sets. 229.73 Section 229.73 Transportation... TRANSPORTATION RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVE SAFETY STANDARDS Safety Requirements Suspension System § 229.73 Wheel sets. (a...) when applied or turned. (b) The maximum variation in the diameter between any two wheel sets in a three...

Full drive-by-wire dynamic control for four-wheel-steer all-wheel-drive vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Fahimi, Farbod

2013-03-01

Most of the controllers introduced for four-wheel-steer (4WS) vehicles are derived with the assumption that the longitudinal speed of the vehicle is constant. However, in real applications, the longitudinal speed varies, and the longitudinal, lateral, and yaw dynamics are coupled. In this paper, the longitudinal dynamics of the vehicle as well as its lateral and yaw motions are controlled simultaneously. This way, the effect of driving/braking forces of the tires on the lateral and yaw motions of the vehicle are automatically included in the control laws. To address the dynamic parameter uncertainty of the vehicle, a chatter-free variable structure controller is introduced. Elimination of chatter is achieved by introducing a dynamically adaptive boundary layer thickness. It is shown via simulations that the proposed control approach performs more robustly than the controllers developed based on dynamic models, in which longitudinal speed is assumed to be constant, and only lateral speed and yaw rate are used as system states. Furthermore, this approach supports all-wheel-drive vehicles. Front-wheel-drive or rear-wheel-drive vehicles are also supported as special cases of an all-wheel-drive vehicle.

Three omni-directional wheels control on a mobile robot

OpenAIRE

Ribeiro, António Fernando; Moutinho, Ivo; Silva, Pedro; Fraga, Carlos; Pereira, Nino

2004-01-01

Traditional two wheels differential drive normally used on mobile robots have manoeuvrability limitations and take time to sort out. Most teams use two driving wheels (with one or two cast wheels), four driving wheels and even three driving wheels. A three wheel drive with omni-directional wheel has been tried with success, and was implemented on fast moving autonomous mobile robots. This paper deals with the mathematical kinematics description of such mobile platform, it describes the advant...

Minisatellite Attitude Guidance Using Reaction Wheels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion STROE

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In a previous paper [2], the active torques needed for the minisatellite attitude guidance from one fixed attitude posture to another fixed attitude posture were determined using an inverse dynamics method. But when considering reaction/momentum wheels, instead of this active torques computation, the purpose is to compute the angular velocities of the three reaction wheels which ensure the minisatellite to rotate from the initial to the final attitude. This paper presents this computation of reaction wheels angular velocities using a similar inverse dynamics method based on inverting Euler’s equations of motion for a rigid body with one fixed point, written in the framework of the x-y-z sequence of rotations parameterization. For the particular case A=B not equal C of an axisymmetric minisatellite, the two computations are compared: the active torques computation versus the computation of reaction wheels angular velocities ̇x , ̇y and ̇z. An interesting observation comes out from this numerical study: if the three reaction wheels are identical (with Iw the moment of inertia of one reaction wheel with respect to its central axis, then the evolutions in time of the products between Iw and the derivatives of the reaction wheels angular velocities, i.e. ̇ , ̇ and ̇ remain the same and do not depend on the moment of inertia Iw.

Maximum Torque and Momentum Envelopes for Reaction Wheel Arrays

Science.gov (United States)

Markley, F. Landis; Reynolds, Reid G.; Liu, Frank X.; Lebsock, Kenneth L.

2009-01-01

Spacecraft reaction wheel maneuvers are limited by the maximum torque and/or angular momentum that the wheels can provide. For an n-wheel configuration, the torque or momentum envelope can be obtained by projecting the n-dimensional hypercube, representing the domain boundary of individual wheel torques or momenta, into three dimensional space via the 3xn matrix of wheel axes. In this paper, the properties of the projected hypercube are discussed, and algorithms are proposed for determining this maximal torque or momentum envelope for general wheel configurations. Practical strategies for distributing a prescribed torque or momentum among the n wheels are presented, with special emphasis on configurations of four, five, and six wheels.

Why Animals Run on Legs, Not on Wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

Diamond, Jared

1983-01-01

Speculates why animals have not developed wheels in place of inefficient legs. One study cited suggests three reasons why animals are better off without wheels: wheels are efficient only on hard surfaces, limitation of wheeled motion due to vertical obstructions, and the problem of turning in spaces cluttered with obstacles. (JN)

Wheel set run profile renewing method effectiveness estimation

OpenAIRE

Somov, Dmitrij; Bazaras, Žilvinas; Žukauskaite, Orinta

2010-01-01

At all the repair enterprises, despite decreased rim wear-off resistance, after every grinding only geometry wheel profile parameters are renewed. Exploit wheel rim work edge decrease tendency is noticed what induces acquiring new wheels. This is related to considerable axle load and train speed increase and also because of wheel work edge repair method imperfection.

49 CFR 230.113 - Wheels and tire defects.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... tires may not have a seam running lengthwise that is within 33/4 inches of the flange. (g) Worn flanges... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Wheels and tire defects. 230.113 Section 230.113... Tenders Wheels and Tires § 230.113 Wheels and tire defects. Steam locomotive and tender wheels or tires...

Voluntary Wheel Running in Mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Goh, Jorming; Ladiges, Warren

2015-12-02

Voluntary wheel running in the mouse is used to assess physical performance and endurance and to model exercise training as a way to enhance health. Wheel running is a voluntary activity in contrast to other experimental exercise models in mice, which rely on aversive stimuli to force active movement. This protocol consists of allowing mice to run freely on the open surface of a slanted, plastic saucer-shaped wheel placed inside a standard mouse cage. Rotations are electronically transmitted to a USB hub so that frequency and rate of running can be captured via a software program for data storage and analysis for variable time periods. Mice are individually housed so that accurate recordings can be made for each animal. Factors such as mouse strain, gender, age, and individual motivation, which affect running activity, must be considered in the design of experiments using voluntary wheel running. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Peculiarities of Clutch Forming Rails and Wheel Block Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Shiler, V. V.; Galiev, I. I.; Shiler, A. V.

2018-03-01

The clutch of the wheel and rail is significantly influenced by the design features of the standard wheel pair, which are manifested in the presence of "parasitic" slipping of the wheels along the rails during its movement. The purpose of the presented work is to evaluate new design solutions for wheel sets. The research was carried out using methods of comparative simulation modelling and physical prototyping. A new design of the wheel pair (block wheel pair) is proposed, which features an independent rotation of all surfaces of the wheels in contact with the rails. The block construction of the wheel pair forms open mechanical contours with the track gauge, which completely eliminates the "parasitic" slippage. As a result, in the process of implementing traction or braking forces, the coupling coefficient of the block construction of the wheel pair is significantly higher than that of existing structures. In addition, in the run-out mode, the resistance to movement of the block wheel pair is half as much. All this will allow one to significantly reduce the energy consumption for traction of trains, wear of track elements and crew, and to increase the speed and safety of train traffic.

29 CFR 1910.215 - Abrasive wheel machinery.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... be securely fastened to the spindle and the bearing surface shall run true. When more than one wheel... 29 Labor 5 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Abrasive wheel machinery. 1910.215 Section 1910.215 Labor... OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS Machinery and Machine Guarding § 1910.215 Abrasive wheel machinery. (a...

Module-based structure design of wheeled mobile robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. Luo

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an innovative and systematic approach for synthesizing mechanical structures of wheeled mobile robots. The principle and terminologies used for the proposed synthesis method are presented by adopting the concept of modular design, isomorphic and non-isomorphic, and set theory with its associated combinatorial mathematics. The modular-based innovative synthesis and design of wheeled robots were conducted at two levels. Firstly at the module level, by creative design and analysing the structures of classic wheeled robots, a wheel module set containing four types of wheel mechanisms, a suspension module set consisting of five types of suspension frames and a chassis module set composed of five types of rigid or articulated chassis were designed and generalized. Secondly at the synthesis level, two kinds of structure synthesis modes, namely the isomorphic-combination mode and the non-isomorphic combination mode were proposed to synthesize mechanical structures of wheeled robots; which led to 241 structures for wheeled mobile robots including 236 novel ones. Further, mathematical models and a software platform were developed to provide appropriate and intuitive tools for simulating and evaluating performance of the wheeled robots that were proposed in this paper. Eventually, physical prototypes of sample wheeled robots/rovers were developed and tested so as to prove and validate the principle and methodology presented in this paper.

Circulating levels of endocannabinoids respond acutely to voluntary exercise, are altered in mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running, and differ between the sexes.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Zoe; Argueta, Donovan; Garland, Theodore; DiPatrizio, Nicholas

2017-03-01

concentrations than males. For mice housed with wheels, the amount of running during the 30min before sampling was a significant positive predictor of plasma AEA within groups, and HR mice had significantly lower levels of AEA than C mice. Our results suggest that voluntary exercise alters circulating levels of endocannabinoids, and further demonstrate that selective breeding for voluntary exercise is associated with evolutionary changes in the endocannabinoid system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Costs associated with wheeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1991-01-01

Wheeling costs are incurred by all companies that experience a change in power flows over their transmission lines during a specific transaction, whether or not the lines of that company are part of the contract path. The costs of providing wheeling service differ from one system to another and from one kind of wheeling transaction to another. While most transactions may be completed using existing capacity, others may require an increase in line. Depending on the situation, some cost components may be high, low, negative, or not incurred at all. This article discusses two general categories of costs; transactional and capital. The former are all operation, maintenance and opportunity costs incurred in completing a specific transaction assuming the existence of adequate capacity. Capital costs are the costs of major new equipment purchases and lines necessary to provide any increased level of transmission services

Fuzzy control in robot-soccer, evolutionary learning in the first layer of control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter J Thomas

2003-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper an evolutionary algorithm is developed to learn a fuzzy knowledge base for the control of a soccer playing micro-robot from any configuration belonging to a grid of initial configurations to hit the ball along the ball to goal line of sight. The knowledge base uses relative co-ordinate system including left and right wheel velocities of the robot. Final path positions allow forward and reverse facing robot to ball and include its physical dimensions.

Study on design of light-weight super-abrasive wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Nohara, K.; Yanagihara, K.; Ogawa, M.

2018-01-01

Fixed-abrasive tool, also called a grinding wheel, is produced by furnacing abrasive compound which contains abrasive grains and binding powder such as vitrified materials or resins. Fixed-abrasive tool is installed on spindle of grinding machine. And it is given 1,800-2,000 min-1 of spindle rotation for the usage. The centrifugal fracture of the compound of fixed- abrasive tool is one of the careful respects in designing. In recent years, however, super-abrasive wheel as a fixed-abrasive tool has been developed and applied widely. One of the most characteristic respects is that metal is applied for the body of grinding-wheel. The strength to hold abrasive grain and the rigidity of wheel become stronger than those of general grinding wheel, also the lifespan of fixed-abrasive tool becomes longer. The weight of fixed-abrasive tool, however, becomes heavier. Therefore, when the super-abrasive wheel is used, the power consumption of spindle motor becomes larger. It also becomes difficult for the grinding-wheel to respond to sudden acceleration or deceleration. Thus, in order to reduce power consumption in grinding and to obtain quicker frequency response of super-abrasive wheel, the new wheel design is proposed. The design accomplishes 46% weight reduction. Acceleration that is one second quicker than that of conventional grinding wheel is obtained.

Aerodynamic analysis of an isolated vehicle wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Leśniewicz, P.; Kulak, M.; Karczewski, M.

2014-08-01

Increasing fuel prices force the manufacturers to look into all aspects of car aerodynamics including wheels, tyres and rims in order to minimize their drag. By diminishing the aerodynamic drag of vehicle the fuel consumption will decrease, while driving safety and comfort will improve. In order to properly illustrate the impact of a rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body, precise analysis of an isolated wheel should be performed beforehand. In order to represent wheel rotation in contact with the ground, presented CFD simulations included Moving Wall boundary as well as Multiple Reference Frame should be performed. Sliding mesh approach is favoured but too costly at the moment. Global and local flow quantities obtained during simulations were compared to an experiment in order to assess the validity of the numerical model. Results of investigation illustrates dependency between type of simulation and coefficients (drag and lift). MRF approach proved to be a better solution giving result closer to experiment. Investigation of the model with contact area between the wheel and the ground helps to illustrate the impact of rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body.

Aerodynamic analysis of an isolated vehicle wheel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leśniewicz, P; Kulak, M; Karczewski, M

2014-01-01

Increasing fuel prices force the manufacturers to look into all aspects of car aerodynamics including wheels, tyres and rims in order to minimize their drag. By diminishing the aerodynamic drag of vehicle the fuel consumption will decrease, while driving safety and comfort will improve. In order to properly illustrate the impact of a rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body, precise analysis of an isolated wheel should be performed beforehand. In order to represent wheel rotation in contact with the ground, presented CFD simulations included Moving Wall boundary as well as Multiple Reference Frame should be performed. Sliding mesh approach is favoured but too costly at the moment. Global and local flow quantities obtained during simulations were compared to an experiment in order to assess the validity of the numerical model. Results of investigation illustrates dependency between type of simulation and coefficients (drag and lift). MRF approach proved to be a better solution giving result closer to experiment. Investigation of the model with contact area between the wheel and the ground helps to illustrate the impact of rotating wheel aerodynamics on the car body.

First Wheel of the Hadronic EndCap Calorimeter Completed

CERN Multimedia

Oram, C.J.

2002-01-01

With the LAr calorimeters well advanced in module production, the attention is turning to Batiment 180 where the calorimeter modules are formed into complete detectors and inserted into their respective cryostats. For the Hadronic End Cap (HEC) Group the task in B180 is to assemble the wheels, rotate them into their final orientation, and put them onto the cradle in front of the End Cap Cryostat. These tasks have been completed for the first HEC wheel in the B180 End Cap Clean Room. Given that this wheel weighs 70 tons the group is very relieved to have established that these gymnastics with the wheel proceed in a routine fashion. To assemble a wheel we take modules that have already been cold tested, do the final electrical testing and locate them onto the HEC wheel assembly table. Four wheels are required in total, each consisting of 32 modules. Wheel assembly is done in the horizontal position, creating a doughnut-like object sitting on the HEC table. The first picture shows the last module being added ...

Project considerations and design of systems for wheeling cogenerated power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tessmer, R.G. Jr.; Boyle, J.R.; Fish, J.H. III; Martin, W.A.

1994-08-01

Wheeling electric power, the transmission of electricity not owned by an electric utility over its transmission lines, is a term not generally recognized outside the electric utility industry. Investigation of the term`s origin is intriguing. For centuries, wheel has been used to describe an entire machine, not just individual wheels within a machine. Thus we have waterwheel, spinning wheel, potter`s wheel and, for an automobile, wheels. Wheel as a verb connotes transmission or modification of forces and motion in machinery. With the advent of an understanding of electricity, use of the word wheel was extended to be transmission of electric power as well as mechanical power. Today, use of the term wheeling electric power is restricted to utility transmission of power that it doesn`t own. Cogeneration refers to simultaneous production of electric and thermal power from an energy source. This is more efficient than separate production of electricity and thermal power and, in many instances, less expensive.

Phenomena of Foamed Concrete under Rolling of Aircraft Wheels

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Chun-shui; Yao, Hong-yu; Xiao, Xian-bo; Kong, Xiang-jun; Shi, Ya-jie

2014-04-01

Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) is an effective technique to reduce hazards associated with aircraft overrunning runway. In order to ascertain phenomena of the foamed concrete used for EMAS under rolling of aircraft wheel, a specially designed experimental setup was built which employed Boeing 737 aircraft wheels bearing actual vertical loads to roll through the foamed concrete. A number of experiments were conducted upon this setup. It is discovered that the wheel rolls the concrete in a pure rolling manner and crushes the concrete downwards, instead of crushing it forward, as long as the concrete is not higher than the wheel axle. The concrete is compressed into powder in-situ by the wheel and then is brought to bottom of the wheel. The powder under the wheel is loose and thus is not able to sustain wheel braking. It is also found that after being rolled by the wheel the concrete exhibits either of two states, i.e. either 'crushed through' whole thickness of the concrete or 'crushed halfway', depending on combination of strength of the concrete, thickness of the concrete, vertical load the wheel carries, tire dimension and tire pressure. A new EMAS design concept is developed that if an EMAS design results in the 'crushed through' state for the main gears while the 'crushed halfway' state for the nose gear, the arresting bed would be optimal to accommodate the large difference in strength between the nose gear and the main gear of an aircraft.

A fully omnidirectional wheeled assembly for robotic vehicles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Killough, S.M.; Pin, F.G.

1990-01-01

A large number of wheeled or tracked platform mechanisms have been studied and developed to provide their mobility capability to teleoperated and autonomous robot vehicles. This paper presents an original wheeled platform based on an orthogonal wheel assembly that provides a full (three-degrees-of-freedom) omnidirectionality of the platform without wheel slippage and with the capability for simultaneous motions in rotation and translation (including sideways movements). A schematic of the basic wheel assembly is shown. The motion of the assembly is unconstrained (freewheeling) in the direction parallel to the main assembly shaft, while it is constrained in the direction perpendicular to the shaft, being driven in this direction by rotation of the shaft. A prototype platform was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of this new concept

Reaction Wheel Disturbance Model Extraction Software - RWDMES

Science.gov (United States)

Blaurock, Carl

2009-01-01

The RWDMES is a tool for modeling the disturbances imparted on spacecraft by spinning reaction wheels. Reaction wheels are usually the largest disturbance source on a precision pointing spacecraft, and can be the dominating source of pointing error. Accurate knowledge of the disturbance environment is critical to accurate prediction of the pointing performance. In the past, it has been difficult to extract an accurate wheel disturbance model since the forcing mechanisms are difficult to model physically, and the forcing amplitudes are filtered by the dynamics of the reaction wheel. RWDMES captures the wheel-induced disturbances using a hybrid physical/empirical model that is extracted directly from measured forcing data. The empirical models capture the tonal forces that occur at harmonics of the spin rate, and the broadband forces that arise from random effects. The empirical forcing functions are filtered by a physical model of the wheel structure that includes spin-rate-dependent moments (gyroscopic terms). The resulting hybrid model creates a highly accurate prediction of wheel-induced forces. It accounts for variation in disturbance frequency, as well as the shifts in structural amplification by the whirl modes, as the spin rate changes. This software provides a point-and-click environment for producing accurate models with minimal user effort. Where conventional approaches may take weeks to produce a model of variable quality, RWDMES can create a demonstrably high accuracy model in two hours. The software consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables the user to specify all analysis parameters, to evaluate analysis results and to iteratively refine the model. Underlying algorithms automatically extract disturbance harmonics, initialize and tune harmonic models, and initialize and tune broadband noise models. The component steps are described in the RWDMES user s guide and include: converting time domain data to waterfall PSDs (power spectral

Control of wheeled mobile robot in restricted environment

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Mohammed A. H.; En, Chang Yong

2018-03-01

This paper presents a simulation and practical control system for wheeled mobile robot in restricted environment. A wheeled mobile robot with 3 wheels is fabricated and controlled by proportional derivative active force control (PD-AFC) to move in a pre-planned restricted environment to maintain the tracking errors at zero level. A control system with two loops, outer by PD controller and inner loop by Active Force Control, are designed to control the wheeled mobile robot. Fuzzy logic controller is implemented in the Active force Control to estimate the inertia matrix that will be used to calculate the actual torque applied on the wheeled mobile robot. The mobile robot is tested in two different trajectories, namely are circular and straight path. The actual path and desired path are compared.

Nonlinear analysis of the GFRP material wheel hub

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Yun-Feng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the current bicycle wheel was replaced by the ones which composed by the wheel hub with Glassfiber Reinforced Plastic (alkali free thin-walled cylinder material, hereinafter referred to as GFRP material and the protective components made up of rubber outer pneumatic pad. With the help of the basic theory of elastic-plastic mechanics, the finite element “Nonlinear buckling” analysis of the wheel was carried out. The results show that the maximum elastic deformation of the wheel hub and the critical value of buckling failure load were restricted by the elasticity under the condition of external loads. Considering with the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the GFRP value of the material, it is demonstrated that the material is feasible to be used for wheel hub.

Meals on Wheels Association of America

Science.gov (United States)

... Meals About Meals on Wheels Get Started The Issue The Problem & Our Solution Meals on Wheels Health Facts & Resources Senior Facts Map State Fact Sheets Research More Than a Meal Pilot Research Study Medicare Claims Analyses Policy Myths Hunger in Older Adults Take Action Volunteer Advocate #SAVELUNCH ...

ANALYSIS OF FORMING TREAD WHEEL SETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor IVANOV

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper shows the results of a theoretical study of profile high-speed grinding (PHSG for forming tread wheel sets during repair instead of turning and mold-milling. Significant disadvantages of these methods are low capacity to adapt to the tool and inhomogeneous structure of the wheel material. This leads to understated treatment regimens and difficulties in recovering wheel sets with thermal and mechanical defects. This study carried out modeling and analysis of emerging cutting forces. Proposed algorithms describe the random occurrence of the components of the cutting forces in the restoration profile of wheel sets with an inhomogeneous structure of the material. To identify the statistical features of randomly generated structures fractal dimension and the method of random additions were used. The multifractal spectrum formed is decomposed into monofractals by wavelet transform. The proposed method allows you to create the preconditions for controlling the parameters of the treatment process.

Development of Diamond-like Carbon Fibre Wheel

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

魏源迁; 山口勝美; 洞口巌; 竹内雅之

2004-01-01

A unique diamond-like carbon (DLC) grinding wheel was developed, in which the DLC fibres were made by rolling Al sheets coated with DLC films and aligned normally to the grinding wheel surface by laminating Al sheets together with DLC fibres. In this paper, the formation process of DLC fibres and the fabrication process of a DLC fibre wheel were investigated. Many grinding experiments were also carried out on a precision NC plane milling machine using a newly developed DLC wheel. Grinding of specimens of silicon wafers, optical glasses, quartz, granites and hardened die steel SKD11 demonstrated the capabilities of nanometer surface finish. A smooth surface with a roughness value of Ra2.5nm (Ry26nm) was achieved.

UT Biomedical Informatics Lab (BMIL) probability wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Sheng-Cheng; Lee, Sara; Wang, Allen; Cantor, Scott B.; Sun, Clement; Fan, Kaili; Reece, Gregory P.; Kim, Min Soon; Markey, Mia K.

A probability wheel app is intended to facilitate communication between two people, an "investigator" and a "participant", about uncertainties inherent in decision-making. Traditionally, a probability wheel is a mechanical prop with two colored slices. A user adjusts the sizes of the slices to indicate the relative value of the probabilities assigned to them. A probability wheel can improve the adjustment process and attenuate the effect of anchoring bias when it is used to estimate or communicate probabilities of outcomes. The goal of this work was to develop a mobile application of the probability wheel that is portable, easily available, and more versatile. We provide a motivating example from medical decision-making, but the tool is widely applicable for researchers in the decision sciences.

Stabilization of the wheel running phenotype in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, Robert S; Cates, Brittany E; Combs, Eric B; Dillard, Bryce M; Epting, Jessica T; Foster, Brittany R; Patterson, Shawnee V; Spivey, Thomas P

2016-03-01

Increased physical activity is well known to improve health and wellness by modifying the risks for many chronic diseases. Rodent wheel running behavior is a beneficial surrogate model to evaluate the biology of daily physical activity in humans. Upon initial exposure to a running wheel, individual mice differentially respond to the experience, which confounds the normal activity patterns exhibited in this otherwise repeatable phenotype. To promote phenotypic stability, a minimum seven-day (or greater) acclimation period is utilized. Although phenotypic stabilization is achieved during this 7-day period, data to support acclimation periods of this length are not currently available in the literature. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the wheel running response in C57BL/6j mice immediately following exposure to a running wheel. Twenty-eight male and thirty female C57BL/6j mice (Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME) were acquired at eight weeks of age and were housed individually with free access to running wheels. Wheel running distance (km), duration (min), and speed (m∙min(-1)) were measured daily for fourteen days following initial housing. One-way ANOVAs were used to evaluate day-to-day differences in each wheel running character. Limits of agreement and mean difference statistics were calculated between days 1-13 (acclimating) and day 14 (acclimated) to assess day-to-day agreement between each parameter. Wheel running distance (males: F=5.653, p=2.14 × 10(-9); females: F=8.217, p=1.20 × 10(-14)), duration (males: F=2.613, p=0.001; females: F=4.529, p=3.28 × 10(-7)), and speed (males: F=7.803, p=1.22 × 10(-13); females: F=13.140, p=2.00 × 10(-16)) exhibited day-to-day differences. Tukey's HSD post-hoc testing indicated differences between early (males: days 1-3; females: days 1-6) and later (males: days >3; females: days >6) wheel running periods in distance and speed. Duration only exhibited an anomalous difference between wheel running on day 13

Wheeling rates evaluation using optimal power flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muchayi, M.; El-Hawary, M. E.

1998-01-01

Wheeling is the transmission of electrical power and reactive power from a seller to a buyer through a transmission network owned by a third party. The wheeling rates are then the prices charged by the third party for the use of its network. This paper proposes and evaluates a strategy for pricing wheeling power using a pricing algorithm that in addition to the fuel cost for generation incorporates the optimal allocation of the transmission system operating cost, based on time-of-use pricing. The algorithm is implemented for the IEEE standard 14 and 30 bus system which involves solving a modified optimal power flow problem iteratively. The base of the proposed algorithm is the hourly spot price. The analysis spans a total time period of 24 hours. Unlike other algorithms that use DC models, the proposed model captures wheeling rates of both real and reactive power. Based on the evaluation, it was concluded that the model has the potential for wide application in calculating wheeling rates in a deregulated competitive power transmission environment. 9 refs., 3 tabs

49 CFR 229.75 - Wheels and tire defects.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Wheels and tire defects. 229.75 Section 229.75....75 Wheels and tire defects. Wheels and tires may not have any of the following conditions: (a) A... two adjoining spots that are each two or more inches in length. (e) A seam running lengthwise that is...

To the question of modeling of wheels and rails wear processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.V. Myamlin

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose. There is a need of wear process modeling in the wheel-rail system. This is related to the fact that the wear processes in this system are absolutely different in the initial and final stages. The profile change of rail and, especially, of the wheels caused by the wear significantly affects the rolling stock dynamics, traffic safety and the resource of the wheels and rails. Wear modeling and the traffic safety evaluation requires the accounting of the low frequency component forces (including the modeling of transitional areas affecting the wheel on the side of the rail and carriage in motion of rolling stock, so the statistical analysis is not possible. Methodology. The method of mathematical modeling of the wheel set and the rail interaction was used during the research conducting. Findings. As a result of the modeling of the wheel set motion on the rail track, the mathematic model with 19 freedom degrees was obtained. This model takes into account the axle torque and studies wheels constructions as the components of the mechanical systems, consisting of a hub and tire. Originality. The mathematic model allows evaluating the wear degree of the wheels and rails when using on the rolling stock not only all-metal wheel sets, but also compound ones with the use of spring wheels and independent rotation of semi-axes with the wheels. Practical value. The development of the improved mathematical model of freight car wheel set motion with differential rotation of the wheels and compound axles allows studying the wear processes of wheels and rails.

The effect of wheel eccentricity and run-out on grinding forces, waviness, wheel wear and chatter

OpenAIRE

O'DONNELL, GARRET; MURPHY, STUART

2011-01-01

PUBLISHED The effect of grinding-wheel eccentricity on grinding forces, wheel wear and final waviness height was studied. Eccentricity was evident in force oscillations and acceleration and audio measurements. A model was developed to predict final scallop-profile shape from grinding parameters and eccentricity. Recommendations are given on detecting eccentricity and determining when eccentricity is tolerable.

Finite element analysis of rail-wheel interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahman, F.; Kharlamov, Y.A.; Islam, S.; Khan, A.A.

2006-01-01

Damage mechanisms such as surface cracks, plastic deformation and wear can significantly reduce the service life of railway track and rolling stock. They also have a negative impact on the rolling noise as well as: on the riding comfort. A proper understanding of these mechanisms requires a detailed knowledge of physical interaction between wheel and rail. Furthermore, demands for higher train speeds and increased axle loads implies that the consequences of larger contact. forces between wheel and rail must be thoroughly investigated. Two methods have traditionally been used to investigate the rail-wheel contact, that is the Hertz analytical method and simplified numerical method based on the boundary element (BE) method. These methods rely on a half-space assumption and a linear material model. This paper presents that to overcome these limitations, a tool for FE-based quasistatic wheel-rail contact simulations has been developed. The tool is a library of ANSYS macro routines for configuring, meshing and loading of a parametric wheel-rail model. The meshing is based on measured wheel and rail profiles. The wheel and rail materials in the contact region are treated as elastic-plastic with kinematic hardening. By controlling the values of the configuration parameters, representations of various driving cases can be generated. The quasi-static loads are obtained from train motion. Interaction phenomena such as rolling, spinning and sidling can be included. The modeling tool and a methodology are described in the presented paper. Significant differences in the calculated state between the FE solution and the traditional approaches can be observed. These differences are most significant in situations with flange contact. (author)

29 CFR 1915.134 - Abrasive wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 7 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Abrasive wheels. 1915.134 Section 1915.134 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR... wheels shall fit freely on the spindle and shall not be forced on. The spindle nut shall be tightened...

The influence of friction coefficient and wheel/rail profiles on energy dissipation in the wheel/rail contact

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Idarraga Alarcon, G.A.; Burgelman, N.D.M.; Meza Meza, J.; Toro, A.; Li, Z.

2015-01-01

This work investigates the energy dissipation in a wheel/rail system through friction work modeling. In order to identify the effect of the friction coefficient on the energy dissipation in the wheel/rail contact, several simulations were performed using a 3D multibody model of a railway vehicle

Modeling of the motion of automobile elastic wheel in real-time for creation of wheeled vehicles motion control electronic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Balakina, E. V.; Zotov, N. M.; Fedin, A. P.

2018-02-01

Modeling of the motion of the elastic wheel of the vehicle in real-time is used in the tasks of constructing different models in the creation of wheeled vehicles motion control electronic systems, in the creation of automobile stand-simulators etc. The accuracy and the reliability of simulation of the parameters of the wheel motion in real-time when rolling with a slip within the given road conditions are determined not only by the choice of the model, but also by the inaccuracy and instability of the numerical calculation. It is established that the inaccuracy and instability of the calculation depend on the size of the step of integration and the numerical method being used. The analysis of these inaccuracy and instability when wheel rolling with a slip was made and recommendations for reducing them were developed. It is established that the total allowable range of steps of integration is 0.001.0.005 s; the strongest instability is manifested in the calculation of the angular and linear accelerations of the wheel; the weakest instability is manifested in the calculation of the translational velocity of the wheel and moving of the center of the wheel; the instability is less at large values of slip angle and on more slippery surfaces. A new method of the average acceleration is suggested, which allows to significantly reduce (up to 100%) the manifesting of instability of the solution in the calculation of all parameters of motion of the elastic wheel for different braking conditions and for the entire range of steps of integration. The results of research can be applied to the selection of control algorithms in vehicles motion control electronic systems and in the testing stand-simulators

The colour wheels of art, perception, science and physiology

Science.gov (United States)

Harkness, Nick

2006-06-01

Colour is not the domain of any one discipline be it art, philosophy, psychology or science. Each discipline has its own colour wheel and this presentation examines the origins and philosophies behind the colour circles of Art, Perception, Science and Physiology (after image) with reference to Aristotle, Robert Boyle, Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Ewald Hering and Albert Munsell. The paper analyses and discusses the differences between the four colour wheels using the Natural Colour System® notation as the reference for hue (the position of colours within each of the colour wheels). Examination of the colour wheels shows the dominance of blue in the wheels of art, science and physiology particularly at the expense of green. This paper does not consider the three-dimensionality of colour space its goal was to review the hue of a colour with regard to its position on the respective colour wheels.

Wheel running, voluntary ethanol consumption, and hedonic substitution.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozburn, Angela Renee; Harris, R Adron; Blednov, Yuri A

2008-08-01

Few studies have examined the relationship between naturally rewarding behaviors and ethanol drinking behaviors in mice. Although natural and drug reinforcers activate similar brain circuitry, there is behavioral evidence suggesting food and drug rewards differ in perceived value. The primary goal of the present study was to investigate the relationships between naturally reinforcing stimuli and consumption of ethanol in ethanol preferring C57BL/6J mice. Mouse behaviors were observed after the following environmental manipulations: standard or enhanced environment, accessible or inaccessible wheel, and presence or absence of ethanol. Using a high-resolution volumetric drinking monitor and wheel running monitor, we evaluated whether alternating access to wheel running modified ethanol-related behaviors and whether alternating access to ethanol modified wheel running or subsequent ethanol-related behaviors. We found that ethanol consumption remains stable with alternating periods of wheel running. Wheel running increases in the absence of ethanol and decreases upon reintroduction of ethanol. Upon reintroduction of ethanol, an alcohol deprivation effect was seen. Collectively, the results support theories of hedonic substitution and suggest that female C57BL/6J mice express ethanol seeking and craving under these specific conditions.

Study on the Attitude Control of Spacecraft Using Reaction Wheels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ju-Young Du

1998-06-01

Full Text Available Attitude determination and control of satellite is important component which determines the accomplish satellite missions. In this study, attitude control using reaction wheels and momentum dumping of wheels are considered. Attitude control law is designed by Sliding control and LQR. Attitude maneuver control law is obtained by Shooting method. Wheels momentum dumping control law is designed by Bang-Bang control. Four reaction wheels are configurated for minimized the electric power consumption. Wheels control torque and magnetic moment of magnetic torquer are limited.

Experiments on a Tail-wheel Shimmy

Science.gov (United States)

Harling, R; Dietz, O

1954-01-01

Model tests on the "running belt" and tests with a full-scale tail wheel were made on a rotating drum as well as on a runway in order to investigate the causes of the undesirable shimmy phenomena frequently occurring on airplane tail wheels, and the means of avoiding them. The small model (scale 1:10) permitted simulation of the mass, moments of inertia, and fuselage stiffness of the airplane and determination of their influence on the shimmy, whereas by means of the larger model with pneumatic tires (scale 1:2) more accurate investigations were made on the tail wheel itself. The results of drum and road tests show good agreement with one another and with model values. Detailed investigations were made regarding the dependence of the shimmy tendency on trail, rolling speed, load, size of tires, ground friction,and inclination of the swivel axis; furthermore, regarding the influence of devices with restoring effect on the tail wheel, and the friction damping required for prevention of shimmy. Finally observations from slow-motion pictures are reported and conclusions drawn concerning the influence of tire deformation.

Benefits of magnesium wheels for consumer cars

Science.gov (United States)

Frishfelds, Vilnis; Timuhins, Andrejs; Bethers, Uldis

2018-05-01

Advantages and disadvantages of magnesium wheels are considered based on a mechanical model of a car. Magnesium wheels are usually applied to racing cars as they provide slightly better strength/weight ratio than aluminum alloys. Do they provide notable benefits also for the everyday user when the car speeds do not exceed allowed speed limit? Distinct properties of magnesium rims are discussed. Apart from lighter weight of magnesium alloys, they are also good in dissipating the energy of vibrations. The role of energy dissipation in the rim of a wheel is estimated by a quarter car model. Improvements to safety by using the magnesium wheels are considered. Braking distance and responsiveness of the car is studied both with and without using an Anti Blocking System (ABS). Influence of rim weight on various handling parameters of the car is quantitatively tested.

The Fatigue Life Prediction of Train Wheel Rims Containing Spherical Inclusions

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yajie; Chen, Huanguo; Cai, Li; Chen, Pei; Qian, Jiacheng; Wu, Jianwei

2018-03-01

It is a common phenomenon that fatigue crack initiation occurs frequently in the inclusions of wheel rims. Research on the fatigue life of wheel rims with spherical inclusions is of great significance on the reliability of wheels. To find the danger point and working condition of a wheel, the stress state of the wheel rim with spherical inclusions was analyzed using the finite element method. Results revealed that curve conditions are dangerous. The critical plane method, based on the cumulative fatigue damage theory, was used to predict the fatigue life of the wheel rim and whether it contained spherical inclusions or not under curve conditions. It was found that the fatigue life of the wheel rim is significantly shorter when the wheel rim contains spherical inclusions. Analysis of the results can provide a theoretical basis and technical support for train operations and maintenance.

Further study on the wheel-rail impact response induced by a single wheel flat: the coupling effect of strain rate and thermal stress

Science.gov (United States)

Jing, Lin; Han, Liangliang

2017-12-01

A comprehensive dynamic finite-element simulation method was proposed to study the wheel-rail impact response induced by a single wheel flat based on a 3-D rolling contact model, where the influences of the structural inertia, strain rate effect of wheel-rail materials and thermal stress due to the wheel-rail sliding friction were considered. Four different initial conditions (i.e. pure mechanical loading plus rate-independent, pure mechanical loading plus rate-dependent, thermo-mechanical loading plus rate-independent, and thermo-mechanical loading plus rate-dependent) were involved into explore the corresponding impact responses in term of the vertical impact force, von-Mises equivalent stress, equivalent plastic strain and shear stress. Influences of train speed, flat length and axle load on the flat-induced wheel-rail impact response were discussed, respectively. The results indicate that the maximum thermal stresses are occurred on the tread of the wheel and on the top surface of the middle rail; the strain rate hardening effect contributes to elevate the von-Mises equivalent stress and restrain the plastic deformation; and the initial thermal stress due to the sliding friction will aggravate the plastic deformation of wheel and rail. Besides, the wheel-rail impact responses (i.e. impact force, von-Mises equivalent stress, equivalent plastic strain, and XY shear stress) induced by a flat are sensitive to the train speed, flat length and axle load.

Low-cost real-time automatic wheel classification system

Science.gov (United States)

Shabestari, Behrouz N.; Miller, John W. V.; Wedding, Victoria

1992-11-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of a low-cost machine vision system for identifying various types of automotive wheels which are manufactured in several styles and sizes. In this application, a variety of wheels travel on a conveyor in random order through a number of processing steps. One of these processes requires the identification of the wheel type which was performed manually by an operator. A vision system was designed to provide the required identification. The system consisted of an annular illumination source, a CCD TV camera, frame grabber, and 386-compatible computer. Statistical pattern recognition techniques were used to provide robust classification as well as a simple means for adding new wheel designs to the system. Maintenance of the system can be performed by plant personnel with minimal training. The basic steps for identification include image acquisition, segmentation of the regions of interest, extraction of selected features, and classification. The vision system has been installed in a plant and has proven to be extremely effective. The system properly identifies the wheels correctly up to 30 wheels per minute regardless of rotational orientation in the camera's field of view. Correct classification can even be achieved if a portion of the wheel is blocked off from the camera. Significant cost savings have been achieved by a reduction in scrap associated with incorrect manual classification as well as a reduction of labor in a tedious task.

OPTIMIZATION OF HEATING OF GEAR WHEEL USING NUMERICAL MODELING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soňa Benešová

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Successful heat treating and carburizing of gear wheels for wind turbine gear boxes requires that plastic deformation in the wheel is minimized. Numerical modeling using the DEFORM software was aimed at exploring the effects of the base, on which the gear wheel rests during heating, on the heating process. Homogeneous heating was assumed. It was found that the base heats up more quickly than the workpiece. It is the consequence of the base's shape and volume. As a result, the base expands and slides against the wheel, predominantly at the first heating stage. Later on, it prevents the gear wheel from expanding, causing plastic deformation in the wheel. The findings were used for designing new heating schedules to minimize these undesirable interactions and to reduce the plastic deformation to a negligible magnitude. In addition, this paper presents an example of a practical use of numerical modeling in the DEFORM software.

OPTIMIZATION OF HEATING OF GEAR WHEEL USING NUMERICAL MODELING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sona Benesova

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Successful heat treating and carburizing of gear wheels for wind turbine gear boxes requires that plastic deformation in the wheel is minimized. Numerical modeling using the DEFORM software was aimed at exploring the effects of the base, on which the gear wheel rests during heating, on the heating process. Homogeneous heating was assumed. It was found that the base heats up more quickly than the workpiece. It is the consequence of the base's shape and volume. As a result, the base expands and slides against the wheel, predominantly at the first heating stage. Later on, it prevents the gear wheel from expanding, causing plastic deformation in the wheel. The findings were used for designing new heating schedules to minimize these undesirable interactions and to reduce the plastic deformation to a negligible magnitude. In addition, this paper presents an example of a practical use of numerical modeling in the DEFORM software.

Mice from lines selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running exhibit lower blood pressure during withdrawal from wheel access.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolb, Erik M; Kelly, Scott A; Garland, Theodore

2013-03-15

Exercise is known to be rewarding and have positive effects on mental and physical health. Excessive exercise, however, can be the result of an underlying behavioral/physiological addiction. Both humans who exercise regularly and rodent models of exercise addiction sometimes display behavioral withdrawal symptoms, including depression and anxiety, when exercise is denied. However, few studies have examined the physiological state that occurs during this withdrawal period. Alterations in blood pressure (BP) are common physiological indicators of withdrawal in a variety of addictions. In this study, we examined exercise withdrawal in four replicate lines of mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running (HR lines). Mice from the HR lines run almost 3-fold greater distances on wheels than those from non-selected control lines, and have altered brain activity as well as increased behavioral despair when wheel access is removed. We tested the hypothesis that male HR mice have an altered cardiovascular response (heart rate, systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure [MAP]) during exercise withdrawal. Measurements using an occlusion tail-cuff system were taken during 8 days of baseline, 6 days of wheel access, and 2 days of withdrawal (wheel access blocked). During withdrawal, HR mice had significantly lower systolic BP, diastolic BP, and MAP than controls, potentially indicating a differential dependence on voluntary wheel running in HR mice. This is the first characterization of a cardiovascular withdrawal response in an animal model of high voluntary exercise. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Analysis of wheel rim - Material and manufacturing aspects

Science.gov (United States)

Misra, Sheelam; Singh, Abhiraaj; James, Eldhose

2018-05-01

The tire in an automobile is supported by the rim of the wheel and its shape and dimensions should be adjusted to accommodate a specified tire. In this study, a tire of car wheel rim belonging to the disc wheel category is considered. Design is an important industrial operation used to define and specify the quality of the product. The design and modelling reduces the risk of damage involved in the manufacturing process. The design performed on this wheel rim is done on modelling software. After designing the model, it is imported for analysis purposes. The analysis software is used to calculate the different types of force, stresses, torque, and pressures acting upon the rim of the wheel and it reduces the time spent by a human for mathematical calculations. The analysis carried out considers two different materials namely structural steel and aluminium. Both materials are analyzed and their performance is noted.

Blocking of conditioned taste avoidance induced by wheel running.

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, W David; Heth, C Donald

2010-01-01

In Experiment 1, compared to non-reinforced presentation of a food stimulus (A-->no US), the association of a food stimulus with wheel running (A-->US) blocked subsequent avoidance of a distinctive flavor (X), when both the food and flavor were followed by wheel running (AX-->US). Experiment 2 replicated and extended the blocking effect, demonstrating that the amount of avoidance of X after AX-->wheel training depended on the correlation between A-alone trials and wheel running-the predictiveness of the A stimulus. The present study is the first to demonstrate associative blocking of conditioned taste avoidance (CTA) induced by wheel running and strongly implicates associative learning as the basis for this kind of avoidance. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Running Wheel Enhances Food Anticipatory Activity: An Exploratory Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Flôres, Danilo E F L; Bettilyon, Crystal N; Jia, Lori; Yamazaki, Shin

2016-01-01

Rodents anticipate rewarding stimuli such as daily meals, mates, and stimulant drugs. When a single meal is provided daily at a fixed time of day, an increase in activity, known as food anticipatory activity (FAA), occurs several hours before feeding time. The factors affecting the expression of FAA have not been well-studied. Understanding these factors may provide clues to the undiscovered anatomical substrates of food entrainment. In this study we determined whether wheel-running activity, which is also rewarding to rodents, modulated the robustness of FAA. We found that access to a freely rotating wheel enhanced the robustness of FAA. This enhancement was lost when the wheel was removed. In addition, while prior exposure to a running wheel alone did not enhance FAA, the presence of a locked wheel did enhance FAA as long as mice had previously run in the wheel. Together, these data suggest that FAA, like wheel-running activity, is influenced by reward signaling.

Development and application of resilient wheels in urban rail transit vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan WEN

Full Text Available Urban rail transit vehicles have been more and more attractive to people as a kind of fast, comfortable, energy-saving, environmental protection and safe transportation. But because of the vehicle noise and vibration, urban rail vehicles also face severe challenges. The research of resilient wheels has been continuously developed and improved. Based on the review of development background and structure sorts of resilient wheels, the advantages of resilient wheels are described, and the research status of noise and vibration reducing, infinite element strength analysis, vehicle dynamic analysis and the wheel-rail wear of resilient wheels are discussed. Taking the low-floor LRVs (light rail vehicles in domestic and overseas as example, the development and application of the resilient wheels in city rail transit is described, and the application prospects of the resilient wheels in LRVs in domestic and the future research direction of elastic wheel are discussed.

Wheel-running reinforcement in free-feeding and food-deprived rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David

2016-03-01

Rats experiencing sessions of 30min free access to wheel running were assigned to ad-lib and food-deprived groups, and given additional sessions of free wheel activity. Subsequently, both ad-lib and deprived rats lever pressed for 60s of wheel running on fixed ratio (FR) 1, variable ratio (VR) 3, VR 5, and VR 10 schedules, and on a response-initiated variable interval (VI) 30s schedule. Finally, the ad-lib rats were switched to food deprivation and the food-deprived rats were switched to free food, as rats continued responding on the response-initiated VI 30-s schedule. Wheel running functioned as reinforcement for both ad-lib and food-deprived rats. Food-deprived rats, however, ran faster and had higher overall lever-pressing rates than free-feeding rats. On the VR schedules, wheel-running rates positively correlated with local and overall lever pressing rates for deprived, but not ad-lib rats. On the response-initiated VI 30s schedule, wheel-running rates and lever-pressing rates changed for ad-lib rats switched to food deprivation, but not for food-deprived rats switched to free-feeding. The overall pattern of results suggested different sources of control for wheel running: intrinsic motivation, contingencies of automatic reinforcement, and food-restricted wheel running. An implication is that generalizations about operant responding for wheel running in food-deprived rats may not extend to wheel running and operant responding of free-feeding animals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dynamic and Acoustic Characterisation of Automotive Wheels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Curà

2004-01-01

Full Text Available The subject of this paper is the dynamic and acoustic characterisation of an automotive wheel. In particular, an experimental research activity previously performed by the authors about the dynamic behaviour of automotive wheels has been extended to the acoustic field.

Reinventing the Wheel: The Economic Benefits of Wheeled Transportation in Early British Colonial West Africa

OpenAIRE

Isaías N. Chaves; Stanley L. Engerman; James A. Robinson

2013-01-01

One of the great puzzles of Sub-Saharan African economic history is that wheeled transportation was barely used prior to the colonial period. Instead, head porterage was the main method of transportation. The consensus among historians is that this was a rational adaption to the underlying conditions and factor endowments. In this paper we undertake the first systematic investigation of the relative costs of the different forms of wheeled transportation in Africa. We focus on calculating the ...

Kinematics and dynamics modelling of a mecanum wheeled mobile platform

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Tlale, NS

2008-12-01

Full Text Available analysis for mecanum wheeled mobile platform same time during the operation of the mobile platform, a maximum of eighty-one combinations of wheels (four wheels: 1,2, 3 and 4) and directions of rotational velocity of wheels (three directions of rotation... = I ’ (15) where ai is a constant depending on the wheel number and ai = -1 for i = 1 and 4, and ai = 1 for i = 2 and 3, T is the torque developed on the vehicle that changes the posture of the vehicle, I is the mass inertia of the vehicle...

Pre-exposure to wheel running disrupts taste aversion conditioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne; Pierce, W David; Heth, Donald C; Russell, James C

2002-05-01

When rats are given access to a running wheel after drinking a flavored solution, they subsequently drink less of that flavor solution. It has been suggested that running produces a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). This study explored whether CTA is eliminated by prior exposure to wheel running [i.e., unconditioned stimulus (UCS) pre-exposure effect]. The rats in the experimental group (UW) were allowed to wheel run for 1 h daily for seven consecutive days of pre-exposure. Rats in the two other groups had either access to locked wheels (LW group) or were maintained in their home cages (HC group) during the pre-exposure days. All rats were then exposed to four paired and four unpaired trials using a "ABBAABBA" design. Conditioning trials were composed of one flavored liquid followed by 60-min access to wheel running. For the unpaired trials, rats received a different flavor not followed by the opportunity to run. All rats were then initially tested for water consumption followed by tests of the two flavors (paired or unpaired) in a counterbalanced design. Rats in the UW group show no CTA to the liquid paired with wheel running, whereas LW and HC groups developed CTA. These results indicate that pre-exposure to wheel running (i.e., the UCS), eliminates subsequent CTA.

Tensegrital Wheel for Enhanced Surface Mobility, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — ProtoInnovations introduces the "tensegrital wheel" an inventive concept for wheeled locomotion that exploits the geometric and mechanical attributes of a tensegrity...

A Nontoxic Barlow's Wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Daffron, John A.; Greenslade, Thomas B., Jr.

2015-01-01

Barlow's wheel has been a favorite demonstration since its invention by Peter Barlow (1776-1862) in 1822. In the form shown in Fig. 1, it represents the first electric motor. The interaction between the electric current passing from the axle of the wheel to the rim and the magnetic field produced by the U-magnet produces a torque that turns…

Reaction Wheel Disturbance Model Extraction Software, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Reaction wheel disturbances are some of the largest sources of noise on sensitive telescopes. Such wheel-induced mechanical noises are not well characterized....

A Full Disturbance Model for Reaction Wheels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Le, M.P.; Ellenbroek, Marcellinus Hermannus Maria; Seiler, R; van Put, P.; Cottaar, E.J.E.

2014-01-01

Reaction wheels are rotating devices used for the attitude control of spacecraft. However, reaction wheels also generate undesired disturbances in the form of vibrations, which may have an adverse effect on the pointing accuracy and stability of spacecraft (optical) payloads. A disturbance model for

Western diet increases wheel running in mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running.

Science.gov (United States)

Meek, T H; Eisenmann, J C; Garland, T

2010-06-01

Mice from a long-term selective breeding experiment for high voluntary wheel running offer a unique model to examine the contributions of genetic and environmental factors in determining the aspects of behavior and metabolism relevant to body-weight regulation and obesity. Starting with generation 16 and continuing through to generation 52, mice from the four replicate high runner (HR) lines have run 2.5-3-fold more revolutions per day as compared with four non-selected control (C) lines, but the nature of this apparent selection limit is not understood. We hypothesized that it might involve the availability of dietary lipids. Wheel running, food consumption (Teklad Rodent Diet (W) 8604, 14% kJ from fat; or Harlan Teklad TD.88137 Western Diet (WD), 42% kJ from fat) and body mass were measured over 1-2-week intervals in 100 males for 2 months starting 3 days after weaning. WD was obesogenic for both HR and C, significantly increasing both body mass and retroperitoneal fat pad mass, the latter even when controlling statistically for wheel-running distance and caloric intake. The HR mice had significantly less fat than C mice, explainable statistically by their greater running distance. On adjusting for body mass, HR mice showed higher caloric intake than C mice, also explainable by their higher running. Accounting for body mass and running, WD initially caused increased caloric intake in both HR and C, but this effect was reversed during the last four weeks of the study. Western diet had little or no effect on wheel running in C mice, but increased revolutions per day by as much as 75% in HR mice, mainly through increased time spent running. The remarkable stimulation of wheel running by WD in HR mice may involve fuel usage during prolonged endurance exercise and/or direct behavioral effects on motivation. Their unique behavioral responses to WD may render HR mice an important model for understanding the control of voluntary activity levels.

A rotating target wheel system for gammasphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greene, J. P.

1999-01-01

A description is given for a low-mass, rotating target wheel to be used within the Gammasphere target chamber. This system was developed for experiments employing high beam currents in order to extend lifetimes of targets using low-melting point target material. The design is based on a previously successful implementation of rotating target wheels for the Argonne Positron Experiment (APEX) as well as the Fragment Mass Analyser (FMA) at ATLAS (Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System). A brief history of these rotating target wheel systems is given as well as a discussion on target preparation and performance

Two new wheels for ATLAS

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

Juergen Zimmer (Max Planck Institute), Roy Langstaff (TRIUMF/Victoria) and Sergej Kakurin (JINR), in front of one of the completed wheels of the ATLAS Hadronic End Cap Calorimeter. A decade of careful preparation and construction by groups in three continents is nearing completion with the assembly of two of the four 4 m diameter wheels required for the ATLAS Hadronic End Cap Calorimeter. The first two wheels have successfully passed all their mechanical and electrical tests, and have been rotated on schedule into the vertical position required in the experiment. 'This is an important milestone in the completion of the ATLAS End Cap Calorimetry' explains Chris Oram, who heads the Hadronic End Cap Calorimeter group. Like most experiments at particle colliders, ATLAS consists of several layers of detectors in the form of a 'barrel' and two 'end caps'. The Hadronic Calorimeter layer, which measures the energies of particles such as protons and pions, uses two techniques. The barrel part (Tile Calorimeter) cons...

Wheelchair users' perceptions of and experiences with power assist wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

Giacobbi, Peter R; Levy, Charles E; Dietrich, Frederick D; Winkler, Sandra Hubbard; Tillman, Mark D; Chow, John W

2010-03-01

To assess wheelchair users' perceptions of and experiences with power assist wheels using qualitative interview methods. Qualitative evaluations were conducted in a laboratory setting with a focus on users' experiences using power assist wheel in their naturalistic environments. Participants consisted of seven women and 13 men (M(age) = 42.75, SD = 14.68) that included one African American, one Hispanic, 17 whites, and one individual from Zambia. Qualitative interviews were conducted before, during, and after use of a power assist wheel. Main outcome measures included the wheelchair users' evaluations and experiences related to the use of power assist wheels. The primary evaluations included wheeling on challenging terrains, performance of novel activities, social/family aspects, fatigue, and pain. These descriptions indicated that most participants perceived positive experiences with the power assist wheels, including access to new and different activities. Secondary evaluations indicated that the unit was cumbersome and prohibitive for some participants because of difficulties with transport in and out of a vehicle and battery life. Most participants felt that power assist wheels provided more independence and social opportunities. The power assist wheel seems to offer physical and social benefits for most wheelers. Clinicians should consider users' home environment and overall life circumstances before prescribing.

Resting Is Rusting: A Critical View on Rodent Wheel-Running Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Sophie Helene; Gass, Peter; Fuss, Johannes

2014-08-01

Physical exercise is known to exert various beneficial effects on brain function and bodily health throughout life. In biomedical research, these effects are widely studied by introducing running wheels into the cages of laboratory rodents. Yet, although rodents start to run in the wheels immediately, and perform wheel-running excessively on a voluntary basis, the biological significance of wheel-running is still not clear. Here, we review the current literature on wheel-running and discuss potentially negative side-effects that may give cause for concern. We particularly emphasize on analogies of wheel-running with stereotypic and addictive behavior to stimulate further research on this topic. © The Author(s) 2014.

Latent effectiveness of desiccant wheel: A silica gels- water system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabah, A. A.; Mohamed, S. A.

2009-01-01

A latent heat effectiveness model in term of dimensionless groups? =f (NTU, m * ,Crm * ) for energy wheel has been analytically derived. The energy wheel is divided into humidification and dehumidification sections. For each section macroscopic mass differential equations for gas and the matrix were applied. In this process local latent effectiveness (? c ,? h ) for the humidification and dehumidification section of the wheel were obtained. The Latent effectiveness of the wheel is then derived form local effectiveness [? =f (? c ,? h)]. The model is compared with the existing experimental investigation and manufacturer data for energy wheel. More than 90% of the experimental data within a confidence limit of 95%. (Author)

Analysis of power wheeling services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tepel, R.C.; Jewell, W.; Johnson, R.; Maddigan, R.

1986-11-01

Purpose of this study is to examine existing wheeling arrangements to determine the terms of the agreements, to analyze the terms relative to regulatory goals, and finally, to suggest ways in which the arrangements can be modified to lead to outcomes more closely in line with the goals. The regulatory goals that are considered are: Does the arrangement meet the revenue requirement of the wheeling firm. Is efficient use promoted. Are the costs fairly apportioned. And, is the arrangement practical and feasible to implement.

Wheels With Sense

Science.gov (United States)

Cambridge, Dwayne; Clauss, Douglas; Hewson, Fraser; Brown, Robert; Hisrich, Robert; Taylor, Cyrus

2002-10-01

We describe a student intrapreneurial project in the Physics Entrepreneurship Program at Case Western Reserve University. At the request of a major fortune 100 company, a study has been made of the technical and marketing issues for a new business of selling sensors on commercial vehicle wheels for monitoring pressure, temperature, rotations, and vibrations, as well as providing identification. The nature of the physics involved in the choice of the appropriate device such as capacitive or piezoresistive sensors is discussed, along with the possibility of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology and RFID (radiofrequency identification) readout on wheels. Five options (status quo, in-house development, external business acquisition, a large business national partnership, and a small-business Cleveland consortium partnership) were studied from both technological and business perspectives to commercialize the technology. The decision making process for making a choice is explained.

Dynamic Modeling and Vibration Analysis for the Vehicles with Rigid Wheels Based on Wheel-Terrain Interaction Mechanics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianfeng Wang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The contact mechanics for a rigid wheel and deformable terrain are complicated owing to the rigid flexible coupling characteristics. Bekker’s equations are used as the basis to establish the equations of the sinking rolling wheel, to vertical load pressure relationship. Since vehicle movement on the Moon is a complex and on-going problem, the researcher is poised to simplify this problem of vertical loading of the wheel. In this paper, the quarter kinetic models of a manned lunar rover, which are both based on the rigid road and deformable lunar terrain, are used as the simulation models. With these kinetic models, the vibration simulations were conducted. The simulation results indicate that the quarter kinetic model based on the deformable lunar terrain accurately reflects the deformable terrain’s influence on the vibration characteristics of a manned lunar rover. Additionally, with the quarter kinetic model of the deformable terrain, the vibration simulations of a manned lunar rover were conducted, which include a parametric analysis of the wheel parameters, vehicle speed, and suspension parameters. The results show that a manned lunar rover requires a lower damping value and stiffness to achieve better vibration performance.

Diagnostics of the wheel thread of railway rolling stock

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Yu. Buryak

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose. At present, the devastating impact of faulty wheels on rails on the move is a major problem of railway transport. This factor is one of the most important, which causes the shift from traditional manual methods of verification and external examination to the automated diagnostic system of rolling stock in operation. Methodology. To achieve this goal the main types of wheel damages and the way they appear are analyzed. The methods for defects and abnormalities of the wheel thread determining as well as their advantages and disadvantages were presented. Nowadays these methods are under usage in both the international practice and in the one of the CIS countries. Findings. The faulty wheel sound on the move was researched and analyzed. The necessity of using the automated system, enabling one to reduce significantly the human factor is substantiated. Originality. The method to determine the wheel thread damage on the basis of a sound diagnostic is proposed. Practical value. Automatic tracking system of the wheels condition allows performing their more qualitative diagnostics, detecting a fault at the early stage and forecasting the rate of its extension. Besides detecting the location of the faulty wheel in the rolling stock, it is also possible to trace the dynamics of the fault extension and to give the recommendations on how to eliminate it.

Design procedure for a wind-wheel with self-adjusting blade mechanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gennady A. Oborsky

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Developed is a wind-wheel design equipped with the self-adjusting blade. The blade is positioned eccentrically to the balance wheel and can freely rotate around its axis. Elaborated is the method of calculating the energy characteristics for a wind-wheel with the self-adjusting blade, considering not only the wind force but the force of air counter flow resistance to the blade’s rotation. Initially, the blade being located at an angle α = 45 to the wheel rotation plane, the air flow rotates the wheel with the maximum force. Thus, the speed of rotation increases that involves the increase in air counter flow resistance and results in blade turning with respective angle α reduction. This, consequently, reduces the torque. When the torsional force and the resistance enter into equilibrium, the blade takes a certain angle α, and the wheel speed becomes constant. This wind-wheel design including a self-adjusting blade allows increasing the air flow load ratio when compared to the wind-wheel equipped with a jammed blade.

Dynamic motion stabilization for front-wheel drive in-wheel motor electric vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jia-Sheng Hu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents a new dynamic motion stabilization approach to front-wheel drive in-wheel motor electric vehicles. The approach includes functions such as traction control system, electronic differential system, and electronic stability control. The presented electric vehicle was endowed with anti-skid performance in longitudinal accelerated start; smooth turning with less tire scrubbing; and safe driving experience in two-dimensional steering. The analysis of the presented system is given in numerical derivations. For practical verifications, this article employed a hands-on electric vehicle named Corsa-electric vehicle to carry out the tests. The presented approach contains an integrated scheme which can achieve the mentioned functions in a single microprocessor. The experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness and feasibility of the presented methodology.

77 FR 70478 - RG Steel Wheeling, LLC, Wheeling Office, A Division Of RG Steel, LLC, Including On-Site Leased...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-26

... Unlimited and Green Energy Initiatives LLC, Including Workers Whose Wages Were Reported Through Severstal..., Wheeling Office, a division of RG Steel, LLC, including on-site leased workers from Pro Unlimited and Green Energy Initiatives, LLC, Wheeling, West Virginia (TA-W-81,880) and Mountain State Carbon, LLC, including...

Wheel-running attenuates intravenous cocaine self-administration in rats: sex differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Cosgrove, Kelly P; Hunter, Robb G; Carroll, Marilyn E

2002-10-01

This experiment examines the effect of access to a running-wheel on intravenous cocaine self-administration in male and female rats. Rats maintained at 85% of their free-feeding body weight were first exposed to the running-wheel alone during the 6-h sessions until behavior stabilized for 14 days. Intravenous cannulae were then implanted, and the rats were trained to self-administer a low dose of cocaine (0.2 mg/kg) under a fixed-ratio (FR 1) schedule during the 6-h sessions, while the wheel remained inactive and cocaine self-administration stabilized (cocaine-only condition). Next, the wheel access and cocaine self-administration were concurrently available followed by a period of cocaine-only. Behavior was allowed to stabilize for 10 days at each phase. During wheel access, cocaine infusions decreased by 21.9% in males and 70.6% in females compared to the cocaine-only condition; the effect was statistically significant in females. Infusions increased to baseline levels when wheel access was terminated. When cocaine infusions were concurrently available, wheel revolutions were reduced by 63.7% and 61.5% in males and females, respectively, compared to the wheel-only condition. This result did not differ due to sex, but it was statistically significant when data from males and females were combined. These results indicate that wheel-running activity had a greater suppressant effect on cocaine self-administration in females than in males, and in females, wheel-running and cocaine self-administration are substitutable as reinforcers.

Wheel running decreases the positive reinforcing effects of heroin.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Mark A; Pitts, Elizabeth G

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of voluntary wheel running on the positive reinforcing effects of heroin in rats with an established history of drug self-administration. Rats were assigned to sedentary (no wheel) and exercise (wheel) conditions and trained to self-administer cocaine under positive reinforcement contingencies. Rats acquiring cocaine self-administration were then tested with various doses of heroin during daily test sessions. Sedentary rats self-administered more heroin than exercising rats, and this effect was greatest at low and moderate doses of heroin. These data suggest that voluntary wheel running decreases the positive reinforcing effects of heroin.

Habituation contributes to the decline in wheel running within wheel-running reinforcement periods.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; McLaughlin, Ryan J

2005-02-28

Habituation appears to play a role in the decline in wheel running within an interval. Aoyama and McSweeney [Aoyama, K., McSweeney, F.K., 2001. Habituation contributes to within-session changes in free wheel running. J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 76, 289-302] showed that when a novel stimulus was presented during a 30-min interval, wheel-running rates following the stimulus increased to levels approximating those earlier in the interval. The present study sought to assess the role of habituation in the decline in running that occurs over a briefer interval. In two experiments, rats responded on fixed-interval 30-s schedules for the opportunity to run for 45 s. Forty reinforcers were completed in each session. In the first experiment, the brake and chamber lights were repeatedly activated and inactivated after 25 s of a reinforcement interval had elapsed to assess the effect on running within the remaining 20 s. Presentations of the brake/light stimulus occurred during nine randomly determined reinforcement intervals in a session. In the second experiment, a 110 dB tone was emitted after 25 s of the reinforcement interval. In both experiments, presentation of the stimulus produced an immediate decline in running that dissipated over sessions. No increase in running following the stimulus was observed in the first experiment until the stimulus-induced decline dissipated. In the second experiment, increases in running were observed following the tone in the first session as well as when data were averaged over several sessions. In general, the results concur with the assertion that habituation plays a role in the decline in wheel running that occurs within both long and short intervals. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Milestone reached for the Big Wheels of the Muon Spectrometer

CERN Multimedia

Sandro Palestini

The assembly and integration of the Big Wheels sectors of the Muon Spectrometer is reaching its conclusion, with only a few sectors of Wheel TGC-A-3 remaining on the assembly stations in building 180. The six trigger chambers (TGCs) wheels and two precision chambers wheels (MDTs) contain in total 104 sectors, which were assembled, equipped with detectors and fully tested over a period of two years. The few remaining Big Wheel sectors still stored in building 180 Most of the sectors left building 180 over the last twelve months, and form the six Wheels currently installed in the ATLAS detector. The remaining two will be installed before the end of the summer. The commitment of the personnel from the many teams who contributed to different parts of the project was essential to its success. In particular, teams coming from countries of different traditions and languages, such as China, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Russia and USA contributed and collaborated very effectively to the timely completion of the p...

Wheel liner design for improved sound and structural performances

Science.gov (United States)

Oltean, Alexandru; Diaconescu, Claudiu; Tabacu, Ştefan

2017-10-01

Vehicle noise is composed mainly of wheel-road noise and noise from the power unit. At low speeds power unit noise dominates while at high speeds wheel-road noise dominates as wheel-road noise level increases approximately logarithmically with speed. The wheel liner is designed as a component of the vehicle that has a multiple role. It has to prevent the dirt or water from the road surface that are engaged by the wheel to access the engine/front bay. Same time it has the important role to reduce perceived noised in the passenger’s compartment that comes from the wheel-road interaction. Progress in plastic injection moulding technology allowed for new structures to be developed - nonwoven materials in combination with a PP based carrier structure which benefits from a cell structure caused by MuCell injection moulding. The results are light parts with increased sound absorption performances. An adapted combination of materials and production processes can provide the solution for stiff yet soundproofing structures valued for modern vehicles. Sound absorption characteristics of materials used for wheel liners applications were reported in this study. Different polypropylene and polyester fibre-based thermally bonded nonwovens varying in weight and thickness were investigated. Having as a background the performances of the nonwoven material the microcellular structure was part of the analysis. Acoustical absorptive behaviour was explained by analysing the results obtained using the impedance tube and correlating with the knowledge of materials structure.

30 CFR 57.15014 - Eye protection when operating grinding wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Eye protection when operating grinding wheels. 57.15014 Section 57.15014 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... grinding wheels. Face shields or goggles in good condition shall be worn when operating a grinding wheel...

Stereotypic wheel running decreases cortical activity in mice

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Simon P.; Cui, Nanyi; McKillop, Laura E.; Gemignani, Jessica; Bannerman, David M.; Oliver, Peter L.; Peirson, Stuart N.; Vyazovskiy, Vladyslav V.

2016-01-01

Prolonged wakefulness is thought to gradually increase ‘sleep need' and influence subsequent sleep duration and intensity, but the role of specific waking behaviours remains unclear. Here we report the effect of voluntary wheel running during wakefulness on neuronal activity in the motor and somatosensory cortex in mice. We find that stereotypic wheel running is associated with a substantial reduction in firing rates among a large subpopulation of cortical neurons, especially at high speeds. Wheel running also has longer-term effects on spiking activity across periods of wakefulness. Specifically, cortical firing rates are significantly higher towards the end of a spontaneous prolonged waking period. However, this increase is abolished when wakefulness is dominated by running wheel activity. These findings indicate that wake-related changes in firing rates are determined not only by wake duration, but also by specific waking behaviours. PMID:27748455

The Ferris Wheel and Justifications of Curvature

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Irma E.; Moore, Kevin C.

2016-01-01

This report discusses the results of semi-structured clinical interviews with ten prospective secondary mathematics teachers who were provided with dynamic images of Ferris wheels. We asked the students to graph the relationship between the distance a rider traveled around the Ferris wheel and the height of the rider from the ground. We focus on…

Analysis of motion of the three wheeled mobile platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaskot Anna

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The work is dedicated to the designing motion of the three wheeled mobile platform under the unsteady conditions. In this paper the results of the analysis based on the dynamics model of the three wheeled mobile robot, with two rear wheels and one front wheel has been included The prototype has been developed by the author's construction assumptions that is useful to realize the motion of the platform in a various configurations of wheel drives, including control of the active forces and the direction of their settings while driving. Friction forces, in longitudinal and in the transverse directions, are considered in the proposed model. Relation between friction and active forces are also included. The motion parameters of the mobile platform has been determined by adopting classical approach of mechanics. The formulated initial problem of platform motion has been solved numerically using the Runge-Kutta method of the fourth order. Results of motion analysis with motion parameters values are determined and sample results are presented.

30 CFR 56.15014 - Eye protection when operating grinding wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Eye protection when operating grinding wheels... MINES Personal Protection § 56.15014 Eye protection when operating grinding wheels. Face shields or goggles in good condition shall be worn when operating a grinding wheel. [53 FR 32526, Aug. 25, 1988] ...

Magnetic power conversion with machines containing full or porous wheel heat exchangers

Science.gov (United States)

Egolf, Peter W.; Kitanovski, Andrej; Diebold, Marc; Gonin, Cyrill; Vuarnoz, Didier

2009-04-01

A first part of the article contains a thermodynamic theory describing the temperature distribution in a Curie wheel. The occurring nonlinear ordinary differential equation has an analytical solution. If a Curie wheel is stabilized by levitation, it is named Palmy wheel. These wheels show a full structure, and because of this reason, their uptake of heat from a flame (Curie wheel) or by (solar) light absorption (Palmy wheel) only on the periphery of a cylinder is very limited. To improve the method, a modification of the principle by introducing a convective heat transport into a porous wheel is discussed. By this the power conversion rate from a heat flux to mechanical and electric power is very much increased. The second part of the article presents results of a theoretical/numerical study on the efficiencies of magnetic power conversion plants operating with porous wheels. Furthermore, these efficiencies—which are promising—are compared with those of existing power conversion plants, as e.g. geothermal binary cycle power plants.

Magnetic power conversion with machines containing full or porous wheel heat exchangers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Egolf, Peter W.; Kitanovski, Andrej; Diebold, Marc; Gonin, Cyrill; Vuarnoz, Didier

2009-01-01

A first part of the article contains a thermodynamic theory describing the temperature distribution in a Curie wheel. The occurring nonlinear ordinary differential equation has an analytical solution. If a Curie wheel is stabilized by levitation, it is named Palmy wheel. These wheels show a full structure, and because of this reason, their uptake of heat from a flame (Curie wheel) or by (solar) light absorption (Palmy wheel) only on the periphery of a cylinder is very limited. To improve the method, a modification of the principle by introducing a convective heat transport into a porous wheel is discussed. By this the power conversion rate from a heat flux to mechanical and electric power is very much increased. The second part of the article presents results of a theoretical/numerical study on the efficiencies of magnetic power conversion plants operating with porous wheels. Furthermore, these efficiencies-which are promising-are compared with those of existing power conversion plants, as e.g. geothermal binary cycle power plants

Numerical and experimental analysis of a solid desiccant wheel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Koronaki Irene P.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The rotary desiccant dehumidifier is an important component which can be used in air conditioning systems in order to reduce the electrical energy consumption and introduce renewable energy sources. In this study a one dimensional gas side resistance model is presented for predicting the performance of the desiccant wheel. Measurements from two real sorption wheels are used in order to validate the model. One wheel uses silica gel as desiccant material and the other lithium chloride. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The model is used to compare the counter flow with the co-current wheel arrangements and to explain why the counter flow one is more efficient for air dehumidification.

Technics study on high accuracy crush dressing and sharpening of diamond grinding wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Yunhai; Lu, Xuejun; Li, Jiangang; Zhu, Lixin; Song, Yingjie

2011-05-01

Mechanical grinding of artificial diamond grinding wheel was traditional wheel dressing process. The rotate speed and infeed depth of tool wheel were main technics parameters. The suitable technics parameters of metals-bonded diamond grinding wheel and resin-bonded diamond grinding wheel high accuracy crush dressing were obtained by a mount of experiment in super-hard material wheel dressing grind machine and by analysis of grinding force. In the same time, the effect of machine sharpening and sprinkle granule sharpening was contrasted. These analyses and lots of experiments had extent instruction significance to artificial diamond grinding wheel accuracy crush dressing.

Riding the Ferris Wheel: A Sinusoidal Model

Science.gov (United States)

Mittag, Kathleen Cage; Taylor, Sharon E.

2011-01-01

When thinking of models for sinusoidal waves, examples such as tides of the ocean, daily temperatures for one year in your town, light and sound waves, and certain types of motion are used. Many textbooks [1, p. 222] also present a "Ferris wheel description problem" for students to work. This activity takes the Ferris wheel problem out of the…

49 CFR 230.112 - Wheels and tires.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... wheels mounted on the same axle shall not vary more than 1/4 inch. (d) Tire thickness. Wheels may not have tires with a minimum thickness less than that indicated in the table in this paragraph (d). When... the minimum thickness of tires may be as much below the limits specified earlier in this paragraph (d...

Effect of short-term prefeeding and body weight on wheel running and responding reinforced by the opportunity to run in a wheel.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David; Jensen, K

2004-07-30

A biobehavioural analysis of activity anorexia suggests that the motivation for physical activity is regulated by food supply and body weight. In the present experiment, food allocation was varied within subjects by prefeeding food-deprived rats 0, 5, 10 and 15 g of food before sessions of lever pressing for wheel-running reinforcement. The experiment assessed the effects of prefeeding on rates of wheel running, lever pressing, and postreinforcement pausing. Results showed that prefeeding animals 5 g of food had no effect. Prefeeding 10 g of food reduced lever pressing for wheel running and rates of wheel running without a significant change in body weight; the effect was, however, transitory. Prefeeding 15 g of food increased the animals' body weights, resulting in a sustained decrease of wheel running and lever pressing, and an increase in postreinforcement pausing. Overall the results indicate that the motivation for physical activity is regulated by changes in local food supply, but is sustained only when there is a concomitant change in body weight.

Installation of the first of the big wheels of the ATLAS muon spectrometer, a thin gap chamber (TGC) wheel

CERN Multimedia

Claudia Marcelloni

2006-01-01

The muon spectrometer will include four big moving wheels at each end, each measuring 25 metres in diameter. Of the eight wheels in total, six will be composed of thin gap chambers for the muon trigger system and the other two will consist of monitored drift tubes (MDTs) to measure the position of the muons

Out-of-round railway wheels—assessment of wheel tread irregularities in train traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Johansson, Anders

2006-06-01

Results from an extensive wheel measurement campaign performed in Sweden are given and discussed. Out-of-roundness (OOR), transverse profile and surface hardness of 99 wheels on passenger trains (X2 and intercity), freight trains, commuter trains (Regina) and underground trains (C20) were measured. Both tread and disc braked wheels were investigated. The selected wheels had travelled a distance of more than 100000 km, and the measurements were conducted when the train wagons/coaches had been taken out of traffic for maintenance, most of them due to reasons other than wheel OOR. Mechanical contact measurement methods were used. The highest roughness levels (higher than 20 dB re 1 μm for some wheels) were found on powered high-speed (X2) train wheels. The previously known polygonalization of C20 underground wheels is quantified. It is also verified that an initial irregularity is formed due to the clamping in a three-jaw chuck during profiling of new C20 wheels. Magnitudes and wavelength contents of measured wheel roughness are compared with corresponding measurements of rail roughness.

Load-bearing processes in agricultural wheel-soil systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tijink, F.G.J.

1988-01-01

In soil dynamics we distinguish between loosening and loadbearing processes. Load-bearing processes which can occur under agricultural rollers, wheels, and tyres are dealt with In this dissertation.

We classify rollers, wheels, and tyres and treat some general aspects of these

A Star-Wheel Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHANG Li; WU Bo; JIN Ai-min; JIANG Shi-hong; ZHENG Yu-fei; ZHANG Shuai

2014-01-01

In order to achieve a wheelchair climb stairs function, this paper designs a star-wheel stair-climbing mechanism. Through the effect of the lock coupling, the star-wheel stair-climbing mechanism is formed to be fixed axis gear train or planetary gear train achieving flat-walking and stair-climbing functions. Crossing obstacle analysis obtains the maximum height and minimum width of obstacle which the wheelchair can cross. Stress-strain analysis in Solidworks simulation is performed to verify material strength.

Forces on wheels and fuel consumption in cars

Science.gov (United States)

Güémez, J.; Fiolhais, M.

2013-07-01

Motivated by real classroom discussions, we analyze the forces acting on moving vehicles, specifically friction on their wheels. In typical front-wheel-drive cars when the car accelerates these forces are in the forward direction in the front wheels, but they are in the opposite direction in the rear wheels. The situation may be intriguing for students, but it may also be helpful and stimulating to clarify the role of friction forces on rolling objects. In this paper we also study the thermodynamical aspects of an accelerating car, relating the distance traveled to the amount of fuel consumed. The fuel consumption is explicitly shown to be Galilean invariant and we identify the Gibbs free energy as the relevant quantity that enters into the thermodynamical description of the accelerating car. The more realistic case of the car's motion with the dragging forces taken into account is also discussed.

Forces on wheels and fuel consumption in cars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Güémez, J; Fiolhais, M

2013-01-01

Motivated by real classroom discussions, we analyze the forces acting on moving vehicles, specifically friction on their wheels. In typical front-wheel-drive cars when the car accelerates these forces are in the forward direction in the front wheels, but they are in the opposite direction in the rear wheels. The situation may be intriguing for students, but it may also be helpful and stimulating to clarify the role of friction forces on rolling objects. In this paper we also study the thermodynamical aspects of an accelerating car, relating the distance traveled to the amount of fuel consumed. The fuel consumption is explicitly shown to be Galilean invariant and we identify the Gibbs free energy as the relevant quantity that enters into the thermodynamical description of the accelerating car. The more realistic case of the car's motion with the dragging forces taken into account is also discussed. (paper)

Reduction of extinction and reinstatement of cocaine seeking by wheel running in female rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Zlebnik, Natalie E; Anker, Justin J; Gliddon, Luke A; Carroll, Marilyn E

2010-03-01

Previous work has shown that wheel running reduced the maintenance of cocaine self-administration in rats. In the present study, the effect of wheel running on extinction and reinstatement of cocaine seeking was examined. Female rats were trained to run in a wheel during 6-h sessions, and they were then catheterized and placed in an operant conditioning chamber where they did not have access to the wheel but were allowed to self-administer iv cocaine. Subsequently, rats were divided into four groups and were tested on the extinction and reinstatement of cocaine seeking while they had varying access to a wheel in an adjoining compartment. The four groups were assigned to the following wheel access conditions: (1) wheel running during extinction and reinstatement (WER), (2) wheel running during extinction and a locked wheel during reinstatement (WE), (3) locked wheel during extinction and wheel running during reinstatement (WR), and (4) locked wheel during extinction and reinstatement (WL). WE and WR were retested later to examine the effect of one session of wheel access on cocaine-primed reinstatement. There were no group differences in wheel revolutions, in rate of acquisition of cocaine self-administration, or in responding during maintenance when there was no wheel access. However, during extinction, WE and WER responded less than WR and WL. WR and WER had lower cocaine-primed reinstatement than WE and WL. One session of wheel exposure in WE also suppressed cocaine-primed reinstatement. Wheel running immediately and effectively reduced cocaine-seeking behavior, but concurrent access to running was necessary. Thus, exercise is a useful and self-sustaining intervention to reduce cocaine-seeking behavior.

Elevator wheel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhornik, V.I.; Cherkov, Ye.M.; Simonov, A.A.

1982-01-01

An elevator wheel is suggested for unloading a sunken product from a bath of a heavy-average separator including discs of a bucket with inner walls, and covering sheets hinged to the buckets. In order to improve the degree of dehydration of the removed product, the inner wall of each bucket is made of sheets installed in steps with gaps of one in relation to the other.

Innovative grinding wheel design for cost-effective machining of advanced ceramics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Licht, R.H.; Kuo, P.; Liu, S.; Murphy, D.; Picone, J.W.; Ramanath, S.

2000-05-01

This Final Report covers the Phase II Innovative Grinding Wheel (IGW) program in which Norton Company successfully developed a novel grinding wheel for cost-effective cylindrical grinding of advanced ceramics. In 1995, Norton Company successfully completed the 16-month Phase I technical effort to define requirements, design, develop, and evaluate a next-generation grinding wheel for cost-effective cylindrical grinding of advanced ceramics using small prototype wheels. The Phase II program was initiated to scale-up the new superabrasive wheel specification to larger diameters, 305-mm to 406-mm, required for most production grinding of cylindrical ceramic parts, and to perform in-house and independent validation grinding tests.

A mechanical model for deformable and mesh pattern wheel of lunar roving vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Zhongchao; Wang, Yongfu; Chen, Gang (Sheng); Gao, Haibo

2015-12-01

As an indispensable tool for astronauts on lunar surface, the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) is of great significance for manned lunar exploration. An LRV moves on loose and soft lunar soil, so the mechanical property of its wheels directly affects the mobility performance. The wheels used for LRV have deformable and mesh pattern, therefore, the existing mechanical theory of vehicle wheel cannot be used directly for analyzing the property of LRV wheels. In this paper, a new mechanical model for LRV wheel is proposed. At first, a mechanical model for a rigid normal wheel is presented, which involves in multiple conventional parameters such as vertical load, tangential traction force, lateral force, and slip ratio. Secondly, six equivalent coefficients are introduced to amend the rigid normal wheel model to fit for the wheels with deformable and mesh-pattern in LRV application. Thirdly, the values of the six equivalent coefficients are identified by using experimental data obtained in an LRV's single wheel testing. Finally, the identified mechanical model for LRV's wheel with deformable and mesh pattern are further verified and validated by using additional experimental results.

A Multiple Data Fusion Approach to Wheel Slip Control for Decentralized Electric Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dejun Yin

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Currently, active safety control methods for cars, i.e., the antilock braking system (ABS, the traction control system (TCS, and electronic stability control (ESC, govern the wheel slip control based on the wheel slip ratio, which relies on the information from non-driven wheels. However, these methods are not applicable in the cases without non-driven wheels, e.g., a four-wheel decentralized electric vehicle. Therefore, this paper proposes a new wheel slip control approach based on a novel data fusion method to ensure good traction performance in any driving condition. Firstly, with the proposed data fusion algorithm, the acceleration estimator makes use of the data measured by the sensor installed near the vehicle center of mass (CM to calculate the reference acceleration of each wheel center. Then, the wheel slip is constrained by controlling the acceleration deviation between the actual wheel and the reference wheel center. By comparison with non-control and model following control (MFC cases in double lane change tests, the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control method has significant anti-slip effectiveness and stabilizing control performance.

Hybrid Control Design for a Wheeled Mobile Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bak, Thomas; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Ravn, Anders Peter

We present a hybrid systems solution to the problem of trajectory tracking for a four-wheel steered four-wheel driven mobile robot. The robot is modelled as a non-holonomic dynamic system subject to pure rolling, no-slip constraints. Under normal driving conditions, a nonlinear trajectory tracking...

Hybrid Control Design for a Wheeled Mobile Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bak, Thomas; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Ravn, Anders Peter

2003-01-01

We present a hybrid systems solution to the problem of trajectory tracking for a four-wheel steered four-wheel driven mobile robot. The robot is modelled as a non-holonomic dynamic system subject to pure rolling, no-slip constraints. Under normal driving conditions, a nonlinear trajectory tracking...

Hybrid Control Design for a Wheeled Mobile Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bak, Thomas; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Ravn, Anders Peter

2003-01-01

We present a hybrid systems solution to the problem of trajectory tracking for a four-wheel steered four-wheel driven mobile robot. The robot is modelled as a non-holonomic dynamic system subject to pure rolling, no-slip constraints. Under normal driving conditions, a nonlinear trajectory trackin...

Lateral ring metal elastic wheel absorbs shock loading

Science.gov (United States)

Galan, L.

1966-01-01

Lateral ring metal elastic wheel absorbs practically all shock loading when operated over extremely rough terrain and delivers only a negligible shock residue to associated suspension components. The wheel consists of a rigid aluminum assembly to which lateral titanium ring flexible elements with treads are attached.

Wheel slip dump valve for railway braking system

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xuan; Zhang, LiHao; Li, QingXuan; Shi, YanTao

2017-09-01

As we all know, pneumatic braking system plays an important role in the safety of the whole vehicle. In the anti slip braking system, the pressure of braking cylinder can be adjusted by the quick power response of wheel slip dump valve, so that the lock situation won’t occur during vehicle service. During the braking of railway vehicles, the braking force provided by braking disc reduces vehicle’s speed. But the locking slip will happen due to the oversize of braking force or the reduction of sticking coefficient between wheel and rail. It will cause not only the decline of braking performance but also the increase of braking distance. In the meanwhile, it will scratch the wheel and influence the stable running of vehicles. Now, the speed of passenger vehicle has been increased. In order to shorten the braking distance as far as possible, sticking stickiness must be fully applied. So the occurrence probability of wheel slip is increased.

Modeling of traction-coupling properties of wheel propulsor

Science.gov (United States)

Sakhapov, R. L.; Nikolaeva, R. V.; Gatiyatullin, M. H.; Makhmutov, M. M.

2017-12-01

In conditions of operation of aggregates on soils with low bearing capacity, the main performance indicators of their operation are determined by the properties of retaining the functional qualities of the propulsor. Therefore, the parameters of the anti-skid device can not be calculated by only one criterion. The equipment of propellers with anti-skid devices, which allow to reduce the compaction effect of the propulsion device on the soil, seems to be a rational solution to the problem of increasing traction and coupling properties of the driving wheels. The mathematical model is based on the study of the interaction of the driving wheel with anti-skid devices and a deformable bearing surface, which takes into account the wheel diameter, skid coefficient, the parameters of the anti-skid device, the physical and mechanical properties of the soil. As a basic mathematical model that determines the dependence of the coupling properties on the wheel parameters, the model obtained as a result of integration and reflecting the process of soil deformation from the shear stress is adopted. The total value of the resistance forces will determine the force of the hitch pressure on the horizontal soil layers, and the value of its deformation is the degree of wheel slippage. When the anti-skid devices interact with the soil, the traction capacity of the wheel is composed of shear forces, soil shear and soil deformation forces with detachable hooks. As a result of the interaction of the hook with the soil, the latter presses against the walls of the hook with the force equal to the sum of the hook load and the resistance to movement. During operation, the linear dimensions of the hook will decrease, which is not taken into account by the safety factor. Abrasive wear of the thickness of the hook is approximately proportional to the work of friction caused by the movement of the hook when inserted into the soil and slipping the wheel.

Applied design methodology for lunar rover elastic wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Cardile, Diego; Viola, Nicole; Chiesa, Sergio; Rougier, Alessandro

2012-12-01

In recent years an increasing interest in the Moon surface operations has been experienced. In the future robotic and manned missions of Moon surface exploration will be fundamental in order to lay the groundwork for more ambitious space exploration programs. Surface mobility systems will be the key elements to ensure an efficient and safe Moon exploration. Future lunar rovers are likely to be heavier and able to travel longer distances than the previously developed Moon rover systems. The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is the only manned rover, which has so far been launched and used on the Moon surface. Its mobility system included flexible wheels that cannot be scaled to the heavier and longer range vehicles. Thus the previously developed wheels are likely not to be suitable for the new larger vehicles. Taking all these considerations into account, on the basis of the system requirements and assumptions, several wheel concepts have been discussed and evaluated through a trade-off analysis. Semi-empirical equations have been utilized to predict the wheel geometrical characteristics, as well as to estimate the motion resistances and the ability of the system to generate thrust. A numerical model has also been implemented, in order to define more into the details the whole wheel design, in terms of wheel geometry and physical properties. As a result of the trade-off analysis, the ellipse wheel concept has shown the best behavior in terms of stiffness, mass budget and dynamic performance. The results presented in the paper have been obtained in cooperation with Thales Alenia Space-Italy and Sicme motori, in the framework of a regional program called STEPS . STEPS-Sistemi e Tecnologie per l'EsPlorazione Spaziale is a research project co-financed by Piedmont Region and firms and universities of the Piedmont Aerospace District in the ambit of the P.O.R-F.E.S.R. 2007-2013 program.

Experimental studies of breaking of elastic tired wheel under variable normal load

Science.gov (United States)

Fedotov, A. I.; Zedgenizov, V. G.; Ovchinnikova, N. I.

2017-10-01

The paper analyzes the braking of a vehicle wheel subjected to disturbances of normal load variations. Experimental tests and methods for developing test modes as sinusoidal force disturbances of the normal wheel load were used. Measuring methods for digital and analogue signals were used as well. Stabilization of vehicle wheel braking subjected to disturbances of normal load variations is a topical issue. The paper suggests a method for analyzing wheel braking processes under disturbances of normal load variations. A method to control wheel baking processes subjected to disturbances of normal load variations was developed.

Color Wheel Windows

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Stephanie

2012-01-01

In this article, the author describes a painting and drawing lesson which was inspired by the beautiful circular windows found in cathedrals and churches (also known as "rose windows"). This two-week lesson would reinforce both the concept of symmetry and students' understanding of the color wheel. (Contains 1 online resource.)

Study on general theory of kinematics and dynamics of wheeled mobile robots

Science.gov (United States)

Tsukishima, Takahiro; Sasaki, Ken; Takano, Masaharu; Inoue, Kenji

1992-03-01

This paper proposes a general theory of kinematics and dynamics of wheeled mobile robots (WMRs). Unlike robotic manipulators which are modeled as 3-dimensional serial link mechanism, WMRs will be modeled as planar linkage mechanism with multiple links branching out from the base and/or another link. Since this model resembles a tree with branches, it will be called 'tree-structured-link'. The end of each link corresponds to the wheel which is in contact with the floor. In dynamics of WMR, equation of motion of a WMR is derived from joint input torques incorporating wheel dynamics. The wheel dynamics determines forces and moments acting on wheels as a function of slip velocity. This slippage of wheels is essential in dynamics of WMR. It will also be shown that the dynamics of WMR reduces to kinematics when slippage of wheels is neglected. Furthermore, the equation of dynamics is rewritten in velocity input form, since most of industrial motors are velocity controlled.

The Effects of Wear upon the Axial Profile of a Grinding Wheel in the Construction of Innovative Grinding Wheels for Internal Cylindrical Grinding

OpenAIRE

Nadolny, K.; Słowiński, B.

2011-01-01

The article describes the effects of wear upon the axial profile of a grinding wheel in the axial cylindrical grinding processes. This mechanism was used to develop a grinding wheel with zone diversified structure made of microcrystalline sintered corundum abrasive grains and vitrifies bond. Such a grinding wheel is characterized by the conical rough grinding zone that is made by grains of a relatively large size, and a cylindrical finish grinding zone with grains of a smaller size and can be...

Conditioned taste avoidance induced by forced and voluntary wheel running in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Forristall, J R; Hookey, B L; Grant, V L

2007-03-01

Voluntary exercise by rats running in a freely rotating wheel (free wheel) produces conditioned taste avoidance (CTA) of a flavored solution consumed before running [e.g., Lett, B.T., Grant, V.L., 1996. Wheel running induces conditioned taste aversion in rats trained while hungry and thirsty. Physiol. Behav. 59, 699-702]. Forced exercise, swimming or running, also produces CTA in rats [e.g., Masaki, T., Nakajima, S., 2006. Taste aversion induced by forced swimming, voluntary running, forced running, and lithium chloride injection treatments. Physiol. Behav. 88, 411-416]. Energy expenditure may be the critical factor in producing such CTA. If so, forced running in a motorized running wheel should produce CTA equivalent to that produced by a similar amount of voluntary running. In two experiments, we compared forced running in a motorized wheel with voluntary running in a free wheel. Mean distance run over 30 min was equated as closely as possible in the two apparatuses. Both types of exercise produced CTA relative to sedentary, locked-wheel controls. However, voluntary running produced greater CTA than forced running. We consider differences between running in the free and motorized wheels that may account for the differences in strength of CTA.

Wheel-running activity modulates circadian organization and the daily rhythm of eating behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Pendergast, Julie S.; Branecky, Katrina L.; Huang, Roya; Niswender, Kevin D.; Yamazaki, Shin

2014-01-01

Consumption of high-fat diet acutely alters the daily rhythm of eating behavior and circadian organization (the phase relationship between oscillators in central and peripheral tissues) in mice. Voluntary wheel-running activity counteracts the obesogenic effects of high-fat diet and also modulates circadian rhythms in mice. In this study, we sought to determine whether voluntary wheel-running activity could prevent the proximate effects of high-fat diet consumption on circadian organization and behavioral rhythms in mice. Mice were housed with locked or freely rotating running wheels and fed chow or high-fat diet for 1 week and rhythms of locomotor activity, eating behavior, and molecular timekeeping (PERIOD2::LUCIFERASE luminescence rhythms) in ex vivo tissues were measured. Wheel-running activity delayed the phase of the liver rhythm by 4 h in both chow- and high-fat diet-fed mice. The delayed liver phase was specific to wheel-running activity since an enriched environment without the running wheel did not alter the phase of the liver rhythm. In addition, wheel-running activity modulated the effect of high-fat diet consumption on the daily rhythm of eating behavior. While high-fat diet consumption caused eating events to be more evenly dispersed across the 24 h-day in both locked-wheel and wheel-running mice, the effect of high-fat diet was much less pronounced in wheel-running mice. Together these data demonstrate that wheel-running activity is a salient factor that modulates liver phase and eating behavior rhythms in both chow- and high-fat-diet fed mice. Wheel-running activity in mice is both a source of exercise and a self-motivating, rewarding behavior. Understanding the putative reward-related mechanisms whereby wheel-running activity alters circadian rhythms could have implications for human obesity since palatable food and exercise may modulate similar reward circuits. PMID:24624109

49 CFR 238.119 - Rim-stamped straight-plate wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... input to the wheel during braking. (b) A rim-stamped straight-plate wheel shall not be used as a... that is periodically tread-braked for a short duration by automatic circuitry for the sole purpose of...

Measuring the Dynamic Soil Response During Repeated Wheeling Using Seismic Methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Keller, Thomas; Carizzon, Marco; Berisso, Feto Esimo

2013-01-01

was performed with an agricultural tire (60 kN wheel load) on a gleyic Cambisol. We measured Vp using an acoustic (microseismic) device at various depths before, during (i.e., below the tire), and after wheeling. In addition, we measured bulk density and penetrometer resistance before and after wheeling...

The Wheels of Stress Go 'Round and 'Round

Science.gov (United States)

Brey, Rebecca A.; Clark, Susan E.

2012-01-01

"The Wheels of Stress Go Round and Round" teaching idea uses three activity wheels to reinforce stress-related content and concepts. After presenting a definition of stress, the instructor assists students in identifying stressors, and aids in formulating a list of negative, reactive behaviors and a list of positive coping mechanisms. Using…

Word wheels

CERN Document Server

Clark, Kathryn

2013-01-01

Targeting the specific problems learners have with language structure, these multi-sensory exercises appeal to all age groups including adults. Exercises use sight, sound and touch and are also suitable for English as an Additional Lanaguage and Basic Skills students.Word Wheels includes off-the-shelf resources including lesson plans and photocopiable worksheets, an interactive CD with practice exercises, and support material for the busy teacher or non-specialist staff, as well as homework activities.

Analysis of traversable pits model to make intelligent wheeled vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Abbasi

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the issue of passing wheeled vehicles from pits is discussed. The issue is modeled by defining the limits of passing wheeled vehicles. The proposed model has been studied based on changes in the effective parameters. Finally, in order to describe the problem, the proposed model has been solved for wheeled vehicles based on the effective parameters by using one of the numerical methods.

Fluid Mechanics of a High Performance Racing Bicycle Wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Mercat, Jean-Pierre; Cretoux, Brieuc; Huat, Francois-Xavier; Nordey, Benoit; Renaud, Maxime; Noca, Flavio

2013-11-01

In 2012, MAVIC released the most aerodynamic bicycle wheel on the market, the CXR 80. The french company MAVIC has been a world leader for many decades in the manufacturing of bicycle wheels for competitive events such as the Olympic Games and the Tour de France. Since 2010, MAVIC has been in a research partnership with the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland, for the aerodynamic development of bicycle wheels. While most of the development up to date has been performed in a classical wind tunnel, recent work has been conducted in an unusual setting, a hydrodynamic towing tank, in order to achieve low levels of turbulence and facilitate quantitative flow visualization (PIV). After a short introduction on the aerodynamics of bicycle wheels, preliminary fluid mechanics results based on this novel setup will be presented.

Cyber Security Considerations for Autonomous Tactical Wheeled Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-01

Update Will Enable Autonomous Driving. Retrieved August 6, 2015, from http://spectrum.ieee.org/: http://spectrum.ieee.org/ cars -that-think...Cyber Security Considerations for Autonomous Tactical Wheeled Vehicles 1 UNCLASSIFIED Cyber Security Considerations for... Autonomous Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Sebastian C Iovannitti 4/1/2016 Submitted to Lawrence Technological University College of Management in

Development of New Wheel-Chair for Sports Competition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akira Shionoya

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to develop the new wheel-chair which had the function to drive straight by one-hand operation. To perform this purpose, the driving force transmission axis (DFTA which had transmitted the driving force from the one side of wheel to another side of that was developed. The wheel-chair could drive straight by one-hand operation by the DFTA. The large torque, however, was generated in the DFTA, because the DFTA transmitted the driving force from the one side of wheel to another side by the axis of small diameter. Furthermore, the shear stress in the DFTA generated by this torque would lead to the DFTA break. The shear stress in the DFTA was calculated to examine the axial strength and durability. On the DETA of the wheelchair, the maximum shear stress calculated from the torque in driving was 39.53 MP and this was defined as the standard of the demand specifications as a strength and durability of the DFTA.

Characterizing the Performance of the Wheel Electrostatic Spectrometer

Science.gov (United States)

Johansen, Michael R.; Mackey, P. J.; Holbert, E.; Calle, C. I.; Clements, J. S.

2013-01-01

Insulators need to be discharged after each wheel revolution. Sensor responses repeatable within one standard deviation in the noise of the signal. Insulators may not need to be cleaned after each revolution. Parent Technology- Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment/Electrometer Electrostatic sensors with dissimilar cover insulators Protruding insulators tribocharge against regolith simulant Developed for use on the scoop for the 2001 Mars Odyssey lander Wheel Electrostatic Spectrometer Embedded electrostatic sensors in prototype Martian rover wheel If successful, this technology will enable constant electrostatic testing on Mars Air ionizing fan used to neutralize the surface charge on cover insulators . WES rolled on JSClA lunar simulant Control experiment -Static elimination not conducted between trials -Capacitor discharged after each experiment Charge neutralization experiment -Static elimination conducted between trials -Capacitor discharged after each experiment. Air ionizing fan used on insulators after each wheel revolution Capacitor discharged after each trial Care was taken to roll WES with same speed/pressure Error bars represent one standard deviation in the noise of e ach sensor

The Development of Lightweight Commercial Vehicle Wheels Using Microalloying Steel

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hongzhou; Zhang, Lilong; Wang, Jiegong; Xuan, Zhaozhi; Liu, Xiandong; Guo, Aimin; Wang, Wenjun; Lu, Guimin

Lightweight wheels can reduce weight about 100kg for commercial vehicles, and it can save energy and reduce emission, what's more, it can enhance the profits for logistics companies. The development of lightweight commercial vehicle wheels is achieved by the development of new steel for rim, the process optimization of flash butt welding, and structure optimization by finite element methods. Niobium micro-alloying technology can improve hole expansion rate, weldability and fatigue performance of wheel steel, and based on Niobium micro-alloying technology, a special wheel steel has been studied whose microstructure are Ferrite and Bainite, with high formability and high fatigue performance, and stable mechanical properties. The content of Nb in this new steel is 0.025% and the hole expansion rate is ≥ 100%. At the same time, welding parameters including electric upsetting time, upset allowance, upsetting pressure and flash allowance are optimized, and by CAE analysis, an optimized structure has been attained. As a results, the weight of 22.5in×8.25in wheel is up to 31.5kg, which is most lightweight comparing the same size wheels. And its functions including bending fatigue performance and radial fatigue performance meet the application requirements of truck makers and logistics companies.

Characteristics of The Magnet Wheel As A Magnetic Levitation Device of Induction Type

OpenAIRE

藤井, 信男; 小川, 幸吉; 松本, 敏雄; Nobuo, FUJII; Kokichi, OGAWA; Toshio, MATSUMOTO; 九州大学; 大分大学; 安川電機; Kyushu University; Oita University; Yaskawa Electric Co., Ltd.

1996-01-01

A new type of magnetic wheel called the "magnet wheel" has been proposed. The magnet wheel has both magnetic levitation and linear drive functions combined into one. In the magnet wheel, the permanent magnets are rotated over the conducting plate so that an induction type of repulsive lift force is obtained. To produce thrust from the drag torque which is simultaneously induced with the lift force, the "tilt type" and "partial overlap type" magnet wheels have been proposed. Poor power factor ...

Four-wheeled walker related injuries in older adults in the Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

van Riel, K M M; Hartholt, K A; Panneman, M J M; Patka, P; van Beeck, E F; van der Cammen, T J M

2014-02-01

With ageing populations worldwide, mobility devices are used more than ever. In the current literature there is no consensus whether the available mobility devices safely improve the mobility of their users. Also, evidence is lacking concerning the risks and types of injuries sustained while using a four-wheeled walker. To assess injury risks and injury patterns in older adults (≥65 years) who presented at Emergency Departments (ED) in the Netherlands with an injury due to using a four-wheeled walker. In this study, the Dutch Injury Surveillance System was used to obtain a national representative sample of annual ED visits in the Netherlands in the adult population (≥65 years) sustaining an injury while using a four-wheeled walker. The numbers of four-wheeled walker users in the Netherlands were obtained from the national insurance board. The numbers of ED visits were divided by the numbers of four-wheeled walker users to calculate age- and sex-specific injury risks. Annually 1869 older adults visited an ED after sustaining an injury while using a four-wheeled walker. Falls were the main cause of injury (96%). The injury risk was 3.1 per 100 users of four-wheeled walkers. Women (3.5 per 100 users) had a higher risk than men (2.0 per 100 users). Injury risk was the highest in women aged 85 years and older (6.2 per 100 users). The majority of injuries were fractures (60%) with hip fracture (25%) being the most common injury. Nearly half of all four-wheeled walker related injuries required hospitalisation, mostly due to hip fractures. Healthcare costs per injury were approximately €12 000. This study presents evidence that older adults experiencing a fall while using a four-wheeled walker are at high risk to suffer severe injuries.

A novel instrumented multipeg running wheel system, Step-Wheel, for monitoring and controlling complex sequential stepping in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kitsukawa, Takashi; Nagata, Masatoshi; Yanagihara, Dai; Tomioka, Ryohei; Utsumi, Hideko; Kubota, Yasuo; Yagi, Takeshi; Graybiel, Ann M; Yamamori, Tetsuo

2011-07-01

Motor control is critical in daily life as well as in artistic and athletic performance and thus is the subject of intense interest in neuroscience. Mouse models of movement disorders have proven valuable for many aspects of investigation, but adequate methods for analyzing complex motor control in mouse models have not been fully established. Here, we report the development of a novel running-wheel system that can be used to evoke simple and complex stepping patterns in mice. The stepping patterns are controlled by spatially organized pegs, which serve as footholds that can be arranged in adjustable, ladder-like configurations. The mice run as they drink water from a spout, providing reward, while the wheel turns at a constant speed. The stepping patterns of the mice can thus be controlled not only spatially, but also temporally. A voltage sensor to detect paw touches is attached to each peg, allowing precise registration of footfalls. We show that this device can be used to analyze patterns of complex motor coordination in mice. We further demonstrate that it is possible to measure patterns of neural activity with chronically implanted tetrodes as the mice engage in vigorous running bouts. We suggest that this instrumented multipeg running wheel (which we name the Step-Wheel System) can serve as an important tool in analyzing motor control and motor learning in mice.

Enhanced voluntary wheel running in GPRC6A receptor knockout mice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemmensen, Christoffer; Pehmøller, Christian; Klein, Anders B

2013-01-01

to voluntary wheel running and forced treadmill exercise. Moreover, we assessed energy expenditure in the basal state, and evaluated the effects of wheel running on food intake, body composition, and a range of exercise-induced central and peripheral biomarkers. We found that adaptation to voluntary wheel...... running is affected by GPRC6A, as ablation of the receptor significantly enhances wheel running in KO relative to WT mice. Both genotypes responded to voluntary exercise by increasing food intake and improving body composition to a similar degree. In conclusion, these data demonstrate that the GPRC6A...

Wheel running decreases palatable diet preference in Sprague-Dawley rats

OpenAIRE

Moody, Laura; Liang, Joy; Choi, Pique P.; Moran, Timothy H.; Liang, Nu-Chu

2015-01-01

Physical activity has beneficial effects on not only improving some disease conditions but also by preventing the development of multiple disorders. Experiments in this study examined the effects of wheel running on intakes of chow and palatable diet e.g. high fat (HF) or high sucrose (HS) diet in male and female Sprague Dawley rats. Experiment 1 demonstrated that acute wheel running results in robust HF or HS diet avoidance in male rats. Although female rats with running wheel...

Torsional Moment Measurement on Bucket Wheel Shaft of Giant Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiří FRIES

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Bucket wheel loading at the present time (torsional moment on wheel shaft, peripheral cutting force is determined from electromotor incoming power or reaction force measured on gearbox hinge. Both methods together are weighted by steel construction absorption of driving units and by inertial forces of motor rotating parts. In the article is described direct method of the torsional moment measurement, which eliminates mentioned unfavourable impacts except absorption of steel construction of bucket wheel itself.

Multi-scale Fatigue Damage Life Assessment of Railroad Wheels

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

This study focused on the presence of a crack in the railway wheels subsurface and how it affects the wheels fatigue life. A 3-D FE-model was constructed to simulate the stress/strain fields that take place under the rolling contact of railway ...

DESIGN OF BACKWARD SWEPT TURBINE WHEEL FOR CRYOGENIC TURBOEXPANDER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

BALAJI K. CHOUDHURY

2014-08-01

Full Text Available With support from the Department of Atomic Energy, our institute has initiated a programme on development and study of a low capacity (20 liters/hr. turboexpander based Nitrogen liquefier. Hence a process design was carried out and a turboexpander was designed to meet the requirement of the liquefier. The turboexpander is used for lowering the temperature of the process gas (Nitrogen by the isenthalpic expansion. The efficiency of the turboexpander mainly depends on the specific speed and specific diameter of the turbine wheel. The paper explains a general methodology for the design of any type of turbine wheel (radial, backward swept and forward swept for any pressure ratio with different process gases. The design of turbine wheel includes the determination of dimensions, blade profile and velocity triangles at inlet and outlet of the turbine wheel. Generally radial turbine wheels are used but in this case to achieve the high efficiency at desired speed, backward curved blades are used to maintain the Mach number of the process gas at the nozzle exit, close to unity. If the velocity of fluid exceeds the speed of sound, the flow gets choked leading to the creation of shock waves and flow at the exit of the nozzle will be non-isentropic.

Assessing the influence of wheel defects of a rolling stockon railway tracks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loktev Aleksey Alekseevich

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Transfer of the load from the wheels on the rail occurs at a very small area compared with the size of the wheels and rails. The materials near this site have a very large voltage. Determination of contact stresses is complicated by the fact that the magnitude of these stresses in the rails under actually revolving wheel load exceeds the yield and compressive strength of modern rail steel. We should note that the metal of the rail head, experiencing contact stresses, especially when the location of the pads is closer to the middle of the rail head, works in the conditions close to the compression conditions, and therefore can withstand higher voltage without plastic deformation than the standard compressible sample. But, as a rule, the observed hardening of the metal in the zone of contact stresses and lapping at the edges of the rail head indicates the presence of plastic deformation and, consequently, higher stresses in the wheel-rail contact zone than the yield strength of the metal rail even in the conditions of its operation in the rail head.The use of the design equations derived on the basis of the Hertz theory for metal behavior in elastic stage, is valid. The reason is that each individual dynamic application of wheel loads on the rail is very short, and the residual plastic deformation from the individual loads of the pair of wheels on the rail is actually small. This elastic-plastic deformation of the rail becomes visible as a result of gradual gaining of a missed tonnage of rails and wheels respectively. Irregularities on the running surface of the wheels are of two types. The most common are the so-called continuous bumps on the wheel, when due to the uneven wear of rail the original shape of the wheel across the tread surface distorts. But nowadays, more and more often there occur isolated smooth irregularities of the wheel pairs, due to the increased wear of the wheel because of the stopping and blocking of wheels of the vehicles

Experimental analysis and regression prediction of desiccant wheel behavior in high temperature heat pump and desiccant wheel air-conditioning system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sheng, Ying; Zhang, Yufeng; Sun, Yuexia

2014-01-01

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the performance of desiccant wheel (DW) in the running system and obtain the useful data for practical application. The combined influences of multiple variables on the performance of desiccant wheel are investigated based on evaluating the indexes...... of moisture removal capacity, dehumidification effectiveness, dehumidification coefficient of performance and sensible energy ratio. The results show that higher effect on the dehumidification is due to the regeneration temperature and outdoor air humidity ratio rather than the outdoor air temperature...... and the ratio between regeneration and process air flow rates. A simple method based on multiple linear regression theory for predicting the performance of the wheel has been proposed. The predicted values and the experimental data are compared and good agreements are obtained. Regression models are established...

A comparison of two types of running wheel in terms of mouse preference, health, and welfare.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Michael; Mason, Georgia

2018-07-01

Voluntary wheel running occurs in mice of all strains, sexes, and ages. Mice find voluntary wheel running rewarding, and it leads to numerous health benefits. For this reason wheels are used both to enhance welfare and to create models of exercise. However, many designs of running wheel are used. This makes between-study comparisons difficult, as this variability could potentially affect the amount, pattern, and/or intensity of running behaviour, and thence the wheels' effects on welfare and exercise-related changes in anatomy and physiology. This study therefore evaluated two commercially available models, chosen because safe for group-housed mice: Bio Serv®'s "fast-trac" wheel combo and Ware Manufacturing Inc.'s stainless steel mesh 5″ upright wheel. Working with a total of three hundred and fifty one female C57BL/6, DBA/2 and BALB/c mice, we assessed these wheels' relative utilization by mice when access was free; the strength of motivation for each wheel-type when access required crossing an electrified grid; and the impact each wheel had on mouse well-being (inferred from acoustic startle responses and neophobia) and exercise-related anatomical changes (BMI; heart and hind limb masses). Mice ran more on the "fast-trac" wheel regardless of whether both wheel-types were available at once, or only if one was present. In terms of motivation, subjects required to work to access a single wheel worked equally hard for both wheel-types (even if locked and thus not useable for running), but if provided with one working wheel for free and the other type of wheel (again unlocked) accessible via crossing the electrified grid, the "fast-trac" wheel emerged as more motivating, as the Maximum Price Paid for the Ware metal wheel was lower than that paid for the "fast-trac" plastic wheel, at least for C57BL/6s and DBA/2s. No deleterious consequences were noted with either wheel in terms of health and welfare, but only mice with plastic wheels developed significantly larger

Integration of uniform design and quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization to the robust design for a railway vehicle suspension system under different wheel conicities and wheel rolling radii

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Yung-Chang; Lee, Cheng-Kang

2017-10-01

This paper proposes a systematic method, integrating the uniform design (UD) of experiments and quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO), to solve the problem of a robust design for a railway vehicle suspension system. Based on the new nonlinear creep model derived from combining Hertz contact theory, Kalker's linear theory and a heuristic nonlinear creep model, the modeling and dynamic analysis of a 24 degree-of-freedom railway vehicle system were investigated. The Lyapunov indirect method was used to examine the effects of suspension parameters, wheel conicities and wheel rolling radii on critical hunting speeds. Generally, the critical hunting speeds of a vehicle system resulting from worn wheels with different wheel rolling radii are lower than those of a vehicle system having original wheels without different wheel rolling radii. Because of worn wheels, the critical hunting speed of a running railway vehicle substantially declines over the long term. For safety reasons, it is necessary to design the suspension system parameters to increase the robustness of the system and decrease the sensitive of wheel noises. By applying UD and QPSO, the nominal-the-best signal-to-noise ratio of the system was increased from -48.17 to -34.05 dB. The rate of improvement was 29.31%. This study has demonstrated that the integration of UD and QPSO can successfully reveal the optimal solution of suspension parameters for solving the robust design problem of a railway vehicle suspension system.

Cross-stream ejection in the inter-wheel region of aircraft landing gears

Science.gov (United States)

McCarthy, Philip; Ekmekci, Alis

2014-11-01

The reduction of aircraft noise is an important challenge currently faced by aircraft manufacturers. During approach and landing, the landing gears contribute a significant proportion of the aircraft generated noise. It is therefore critical that the key noise sources be identified and understood in order for effective mitigation methods to be developed. For a simplified two-wheel nose landing gear, a strong cross stream flow ejection phenomena has been observed to occur in the inter-wheel region in presence of wheel wells. The location and orientation of these flow ejections causes highly unsteady, three dimensional flow between the wheels that may impinge on other landing gear components, thereby potentially acting as a significant noise generator. The effects of changing the inter-wheel geometry (inter-wheel spacing, the wheel well depth and main strut geometry) upon the cross-stream ejection behaviour has been experimentally investigated using both qualitative flow visualisation and quantitative PIV techniques. A summary of the key results will be presented for the three main geometrical parameters under examination and the application of these findings to real life landing gears will be discussed. Thanks to Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and NSERC for their support for this project.

Mission Analysis and Orbit Control of Interferometric Wheel Formation Flying

Science.gov (United States)

Fourcade, J.

Flying satellite in formation requires maintaining the specific relative geometry of the spacecraft with high precision. This requirement raises new problem of orbit control. This paper presents the results of the mission analysis of a low Earth observation system, the interferometric wheel, patented by CNES. This wheel is made up of three receiving spacecraft, which follow an emitting Earth observation radar satellite. The first part of this paper presents trades off which were performed to choose orbital elements of the formation flying which fulfils all constraints. The second part presents orbit positioning strategies including reconfiguration of the wheel to change its size. The last part describes the station keeping of the formation. Two kinds of constraints are imposed by the interferometric system : a constraint on the distance between the wheel and the radar satellite, and constraints on the distance between the wheel satellites. The first constraint is fulfilled with a classical chemical station keeping strategy. The second one is fulfilled using pure passive actuators. Due to the high stability of the relative eccentricity of the formation, only the relative semi major axis had to be controlled. Differential drag due to differential attitude motion was used to control relative altitude. An autonomous orbit controller was developed and tested. The final accuracy is a relative station keeping better than few meters for a wheel size of one kilometer.

Space shuttle wheels and brakes

Science.gov (United States)

Carsley, R. B.

1985-01-01

The Space Shuttle Orbiter wheels were subjected to a combination of tests which are different than any previously conducted in the aerospace industry. The major testing difference is the computer generated dynamic landing profiles used during the certification process which subjected the wheels and tires to simulated landing loading conditions. The orbiter brakes use a unique combination of carbon composite linings and beryllium heat sink to minimize weight. The development of a new lining retention method was necessary in order to withstand the high temperature generated during the braking roll. As with many programs, the volume into which this hardware had to fit was established early in the program, with no provisions made for growth to offset the continuously increasing predicted orbiter landing weight.

Procedure and applications of combined wheel/rail roughness measurement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dittrich, M.G.

2009-01-01

Wheel-rail roughness is known to be the main excitation source of railway rolling noise. Besides the already standardised method for direct roughness measurement, it is also possible to measure combined wheel-rail roughness from vertical railhead vibration during a train pass-by. This is a different

Nesting behavior of house mice (Mus domesticus) selected for increased wheel-running activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, P A; Swallow, J G; Davis, S J; Garland, T

2000-03-01

Nest building was measured in "active" (housed with access to running wheels) and "sedentary" (without wheel access) mice (Mus domesticus) from four replicate lines selected for 10 generations for high voluntary wheel-running behavior, and from four randombred control lines. Based on previous studies of mice bidirectionally selected for thermoregulatory nest building, it was hypothesized that nest building would show a negative correlated response to selection on wheel-running. Such a response could constrain the evolution of high voluntary activity because nesting has also been shown to be positively genetically correlated with successful production of weaned pups. With wheel access, selected mice of both sexes built significantly smaller nests than did control mice. Without wheel access, selected females also built significantly smaller nests than did control females, but only when body mass was excluded from the statistical model, suggesting that body mass mediated this correlated response to selection. Total distance run and mean running speed on wheels was significantly higher in selected mice than in controls, but no differences in amount of time spent running were measured, indicating a complex cause of the response of nesting to selection for voluntary wheel running.

Design of wheel-type walking-assist device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Seung Ho; Kim, Seung Ho; Kim, Chang Hoi; Seo, Yong Chil; Jung, Kyung Min; Lee, Sung Uk

2006-03-01

In this research, a outdoor wheel-type walking-assist device is developed to help an elder having a poor muscular strength at legs for walking, sitting and standing up easily at outdoors, and also for going and downing stairs. In conceptually designing, the environments of an elder's activity, the size of an elder's body and a necessary function of helping an elder are considered. This device has 4 wheels for stability. When an elder walks in incline plane with the proposed device, a rear-wing is rotated to keep the supporting device horizontal, regardless of an angle of inclination. A height-controlling device, which can control the height of the supporting device for adjusting an elder's height, is varied vertically to help an elder to sit and stand-up easily. Moreover, a outdoor wheel-type walking-assist device is conceptually designed and is made. In order to design it, the preview research is investigated firstly. On the basis of the proposed walking-assist device, the outdoor walking-assist device is designed and made. The outdoor wheel-type walking-assist device can go and down stairs automatically. This device go up and down the stair of having maximum 20cm height and an angle of 25 degrees with maximum 4 sec/stairs speed, and move at flatland with 60cm/sec speed

Nonlinear dynamics modeling and simulation of two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunping Liu

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle system is a kind of naturally unstable underactuated system with high-rank unstable multivariable strongly coupling complicated dynamic nonlinear property. Nonlinear dynamics modeling and simulation, as a basis of two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle dynamics research, has the guiding effect for system design of the project demonstration and design phase. Dynamics model of the two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle is established by importing a TSi ProPac package to the Mathematica software (version 8.0, which analyzes the stability and calculates the Lyapunov exponents of the system. The relationship between external force and stability of the system is analyzed by the phase trajectory. Proportional–integral–derivative control is added to the system in order to improve the stability of the two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle. From the research, Lyapunov exponent can be used to research the stability of hyperchaos system. The stability of the two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle is better by inputting the proportional–integral–derivative control. The Lyapunov exponent and phase trajectory can help us analyze the stability of a system better and lay the foundation for the analysis and control of the two-wheeled self-balancing vehicle system.

Design Optimization of Heat Wheels for Energy Recovery in HVAC Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefano De Antonellis

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Air to air heat exchangers play a crucial role in mechanical ventilation equipment, due to the potential primary energy savings both in case of refurbishment of existing buildings or in case of new ones. In particular, interest in heat wheels is increasing due to their low pressure drop and high effectiveness. In this paper a detailed optimization of design parameters of heat wheels is performed in order to maximize sensible effectiveness and to minimize pressure drop. The analysis is carried out through a one dimensional lumped parameters heat wheel model, which solves heat and mass transfer equations, and through appropriate correlations to estimate pressure drop. Simulation results have been compared with experimental data of a heat wheel tested in specific facilities, and good agreement is attained. The device optimization is performed through the variation of main design parameters, such as heat wheel length, channel base, height and thickness and for different operating conditions, namely the air face velocity and the revolution speed. It is shown that the best configurations are achieved with small channel thickness and, depending on the required sensible effectiveness, with appropriate values of wheel length and channel base and height.

Biologically Inspired Modular Neural Control for a Leg-Wheel Hybrid Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manoonpong, Poramate; Wörgötter, Florentin; Laksanacharoen, Pudit

2014-01-01

In this article we present modular neural control for a leg-wheel hybrid robot consisting of three legs with omnidirectional wheels. This neural control has four main modules having their functional origin in biological neural systems. A minimal recurrent control (MRC) module is for sensory signal...... processing and state memorization. Its outputs drive two front wheels while the rear wheel is controlled through a velocity regulating network (VRN) module. In parallel, a neural oscillator network module serves as a central pattern generator (CPG) controls leg movements for sidestepping. Stepping directions...... or they can serve as useful modules for other module-based neural control applications....

3D dynamic modeling of spherical wheeled self-balancing mobile robot

OpenAIRE

İnal, Ali Nail

2012-01-01

Ankara : The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2012. Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2012. Includes bibliographical references. In recent years, dynamically stable platforms that move on spherical wheels, also known as BallBots, gained popularity in the robotics literature as an alternative locomotion method to statically stable wheeled mobile robots. In contrast to wheeled ...

Voluntary resistance running wheel activity pattern and skeletal muscle growth in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Legerlotz, Kirsten; Elliott, Bradley; Guillemin, Bernard; Smith, Heather K

2008-06-01

The aims of this study were to characterize the pattern of voluntary activity of young rats in response to resistance loading on running wheels and to determine the effects of the activity on the growth of six limb skeletal muscles. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (4 weeks old) were housed individually with a resistance running wheel (R-RUN, n = 7) or a conventional free-spinning running wheel (F-RUN, n = 6) or without a wheel, as non-running control animals (CON, n = 6). The torque required to move the wheel in the R-RUN group was progressively increased, and the activity (velocity, distance and duration of each bout) of the two running wheel groups was recorded continuously for 45 days. The R-RUN group performed many more, shorter and faster bouts of running than the F-RUN group, yet the mean daily distance was not different between the F-RUN (1.3 +/- 0.2 km) and R-RUN group (1.4 +/- 0.6 km). Only the R-RUN resulted in a significantly (P RUN and R-RUN led to a significantly greater wet mass relative to increase in body mass and muscle fibre cross-sectional area in the soleus muscle compared with CON. We conclude that the pattern of voluntary activity on a resistance running wheel differs from that on a free-spinning running wheel and provides a suitable model to induce physiological muscle hypertrophy in rats.

Simulation and Measurement of Wheel on Rail Fatigue and Wear

OpenAIRE

Dirks, Babette

2015-01-01

The life of railway wheels and rails has been decreasing in recent years. This is mainly caused by more traffic and running at higher vehicle speed. A higher speed usually generates higher forces, unless compensated by improved track and vehicle designs, in the wheel-rail contact, resulting in more wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage to the wheels and rails. As recently as 15 years ago, RCF was not recognised as a serious problem. Nowadays it is a serious problem in many countries a...

Considerations on the use of elastic wheels to the urban transport vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Sebesan, Ioan; Arsene, Sorin; Manea, Ion

2018-03-01

To minimize dynamic wheel-rail interaction efforts a condition is that the unassembled mass of the vehicle is as small as possible. The elastic wheel by its construction fulfills these conditions - she has interposed between the crown and the body of the wheel, the elastic rubber elements. In this way, it can be considered that the unsupported mass is represented only by the mass of the wheel crown. Additionally, this elasticity also has a reduction effect on rolling noise. This feature makes it suitable for use on urban transport vehicles.

Naloxone attenuates the conditioned place preference induced by wheel running in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Lett, B T; Grant, V L; Koh, M T

2001-02-01

Pairings, during which an episode of wheel running is followed by confinement in a distinctive place, produce conditioned place preference (CPP) in rats. This finding indicates that wheel running has a rewarding effect that outlasts the activity itself. In two similar experiments, we tested the hypothesis that this rewarding effect of wheel running is mediated by endogenous opioids. During a paired trial, the rats in the naloxone group were first allowed to wheel run for 2 h, then injected with naloxone (0.5 or 0.1 mg/kg in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively), and 10 min later placed in a distinctive chamber. During an unpaired trial, these rats were confined in an adjoining chamber without wheel running. Naloxone was injected before placement in both chambers, so that if naloxone-induced conditioned place aversion occurred, it would have counteracting effects on performance during the preference test. The rats in the saline group were similarly treated, except that saline was injected instead of naloxone. CPP occurred in the saline group, but not in the naloxone group. Thus, naloxone attenuated the CPP induced by wheel running. This finding supports the hypothesis that the rewarding effect of wheel running is mediated by endogenous opioids.

Damages and resource of locomotive wheels used under the north operating conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. V. Grigorev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In operating railway equipment, in particular the elements, such as a wheel and a rail there is damage accumulation of any kind, causing a premature equipment failure. Thus, an analysis of the mechanisms and modeling of damage accumulation and fracture both on the surface and in the bulk material remain a challenge.Data on the defective wheel sets to be subjected to facing has been collected and analyzed to assess the locomotive wheel sets damage of the locomotive fleet company of AK «Yakutia Railways», city of Aldan, The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia. For this purpose, three main locomotives have been examined.The object of research carried out in this paper, is a locomotive wheels tire, which is subjected to cyclic impact (dynamic loads during operation. In this regard, the need arises to determine both the strength of material in response to such shock loads and the quantitative calculation of damage accumulated therein.The accumulated fatigue damage has been attributed to one radial cross section of the wheel coming into contact with the rail once per revolution of the wheel. Consequently, in one revolution a wheel is under one loading cycle. As stated, the average mileage of locomotives to have the unacceptable damages formed on the tread surface is 12 thousand km.Test results establish that along with the high-cycle loading the shock-contact action on rail joints significantly affects the accumulation of damage in the locomotive wheels tire. The number of cycles to failure due to the formation of unacceptable damage in the locomotive wheels tire is N = 2,4×106 and 6×105 cycles, respectively, for fatigue and shock-contact loading.In general, we can say that the problem of higher intensity to form the surface damage is directly related to the operation of the locomotive wheel tire under abnormally low climatic temperatures. With decreasing ambient temperature, this element material rapidly looses its plastic properties, thereby accelerating

Design and Assessment of a Machine Vision System for Automatic Vehicle Wheel Alignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rocco Furferi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Wheel alignment, consisting of properly checking the wheel characteristic angles against vehicle manufacturers' specifications, is a crucial task in the automotive field since it prevents irregular tyre wear and affects vehicle handling and safety. In recent years, systems based on Machine Vision have been widely studied in order to automatically detect wheels' characteristic angles. In order to overcome the limitations of existing methodologies, due to measurement equipment being mounted onto the wheels, the present work deals with design and assessment of a 3D machine vision-based system for the contactless reconstruction of vehicle wheel geometry, with particular reference to characteristic planes. Such planes, properly referred to as a global coordinate system, are used for determining wheel angles. The effectiveness of the proposed method was tested against a set of measurements carried out using a commercial 3D scanner; the absolute average error in measuring toe and camber angles with the machine vision system resulted in full compatibility with the expected accuracy of wheel alignment systems.

Wheels lining up for ATLAS

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

On 30 October, the mechanics test assembly of the central barrel of the ATLAS tile hadronic calorimeter was completed in building 185. It is the second wheel for the Tilecal completely assembled this year.

Innovative grinding wheel design for cost-effective machining of advanced ceramics. Phase I, final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Licht, R.H.; Ramanath, S.; Simpson, M.; Lilley, E.

1996-02-01

Norton Company successfully completed the 16-month Phase I technical effort to define requirements, design, develop, and evaluate a next-generation grinding wheel for cost-effective cylindrical grinding of advanced ceramics. This program was a cooperative effort involving three Norton groups representing a superabrasive grinding wheel manufacturer, a diamond film manufacturing division and a ceramic research center. The program was divided into two technical tasks, Task 1, Analysis of Required Grinding Wheel Characteristics, and Task 2, Design and Prototype Development. In Task 1 we performed a parallel path approach with Superabrasive metal-bond development and the higher technical risk, CVD diamond wheel development. For the Superabrasive approach, Task 1 included bond wear and strength tests to engineer bond-wear characteristics. This task culminated in a small-wheel screening test plunge grinding sialon disks. In Task 2, an improved Superabrasive metal-bond specification for low-cost machining of ceramics in external cylindrical grinding mode was identified. The experimental wheel successfully ground three types of advanced ceramics without the need for wheel dressing. The spindle power consumed by this wheel during test grinding of NC-520 sialon is as much as to 30% lower compared to a standard resin bonded wheel with 100 diamond concentration. The wheel wear with this improved metal bond was an order of magnitude lower than the resin-bonded wheel, which would significantly reduce ceramic grinding costs through fewer wheel changes for retruing and replacements. Evaluation of ceramic specimens from both Tasks 1 and 2 tests for all three ceramic materials did not show evidence of unusual grinding damage. The novel CVD-diamond-wheel approach was incorporated in this program as part of Task 1. The important factors affecting the grinding performance of diamond wheels made by CVD coating preforms were determined.

Recognition of diamond grains on surface of fine diamond grinding wheel

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Fengwei HUO; Zhuji JIN; Renke KANG; Dongming GUO; Chun YANG

2008-01-01

The accurate evaluation of grinding wheel sur-face topography, which is necessary for the investigation of the grinding principle, optimism, modeling, and simu-lation of a grinding process, significantly depends on the accurate recognition of abrasive grains from the measured wheel surface. A detailed analysis of the grain size distri-bution characteristics and grain profile wavelength of the fine diamond grinding wheel used for ultra-precision grinding is presented. The requirements of the spatial sampling interval and sampling area for instruments to measure the surface topography of a diamond grinding wheel are discussed. To recognize diamond grains, digital filtering is used to eliminate the high frequency disturb-ance from the measured 3D digital surface of the grinding wheel, the geometric features of diamond grains are then extracted from the filtered 3D digital surface, and a method based on the grain profile frequency characteris-tics, diamond grain curvature, and distance between two adjacent diamond grains is proposed. A 3D surface pro-filer based on scanning white light interferometry is used to measure the 3D surface topography of a #3000 mesh resin bonded diamond grinding wheel, and the diamond grains are then recognized from the 3D digital surface. The experimental result shows that the proposed method is reasonable and effective.

Grinding performance evaluation of porous composite-bonded CBN wheels for Inconel 718

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Zhenzhen

2014-08-01

Full Text Available For high-efficiency grinding of difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium and nickel alloys, a high porosity is expected and also a sufficient mechanical strength to satisfy the function. However, the porosity increase is a disadvantage to the mechanical strength. As a promising pore forming agent, alumina bubbles are firstly induced into the abrasive layer to fabricate porous cubic boron nitride (CBN wheels. When the wheel porosity reaches 45%, the bending strength is still high up to 50 MPa with modified orderly pore distribution. A porous CBN wheel was fabricated with a total porosity around 30%. The grinding performance of the porous composite-bonded CBN wheel was evaluated in terms of specific force, specific grinding energy, and grinding temperature, which were better than those of the vitrified one under the same grinding conditions. Compared to the vitrified CBN wheel, clear straight cutting grooves and less chip adhesion are observed on the ground surface and there is also no extensive loading on the wheel surface after grinding.

Evaluation of the 30 Ton CHA Crane Wheel Axle Modification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

RICH, J.W.

2002-01-01

An existing design for eccentric bushings was utilized and updated as necessary to accommodate minor adjustment as required to correct wheel alignment on the North West Idler wheel. The design is revised to install eccentric bushings on only one end

The time has come for retail wheeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahlen, D.O.; Achinger, S.K.

1993-01-01

Retail wheeling, the transmission and distribution of electric power for end users, fosters competition and promotes the efficient use of resources. Access to electric-utility transmission and distribution systems would establish competitive electric markets by permitting retail customers to obtain the lowest cost for energy which would meet their specific needs. Among electric utilities and their customers, the idea of allowing market forces to attract supply and set prices is a current controversy. To counter the anticompetitive effects of recent mergers in the wholesale market, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has mandated open transmission access for wholesale customers. However, the FERC denied access to retail customers and qualifying facilities (QF) in both its Northeast Utilities (FERC case No. EC-90-1 90) and PacifiCorp (U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C., 89-1333) decisions. Retail wheeling will benefit both consumers and producers. The ability of large customers to purchase power from the lowest cost sources and have it transmitted to their facilities, will save American industrial and commercial customers at least $15 billion annually. The Increased efficiency resulting from competition would also reduce residential electric bills. Through retail wheeling, independent power producers can market their capacity to a greater customer base, and traditional utilities will benefit from access to other utilities markets with the more efficient utilities prospering. Retail wheeling will, therefore, reward efficient utilities and encourage inefficient utilities to improve

Improved infrared-sensing running wheel systems with an effective exercise activity indicator.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chi-Chun; Chang, Ming-Wen; Chang, Ching-Ping; Chang, Wen-Ying; Chang, Shin-Chieh; Lin, Mao-Tsun; Yang, Chin-Lung

2015-01-01

This paper describes an infrared-sensing running wheel (ISRW) system for the quantitative measurement of effective exercise activity in rats. The ISRW system provides superior exercise training compared with commercially available traditional animal running platforms. Four infrared (IR) light-emitting diode/detector pairs embedded around the rim of the wheel detect the rat's real-time position; the acrylic wheel has a diameter of 55 cm and a thickness of 15 cm, that is, it is larger and thicker than traditional exercise wheels, and it is equipped with a rubber track. The acrylic wheel hangs virtually frictionless, and a DC motor with an axially mounted rubber wheel, which has a diameter of 10 cm, drives the acrylic wheel from the outer edge. The system can automatically train rats to run persistently. The proposed system can determine effective exercise activity (EEA), with the IR sensors (which are connected to a conventional PC) recording the rat exercise behavior. A prototype of the system was verified by a hospital research group performing ischemic stroke experiments on rats by considering middle cerebral artery occlusion. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed system provides greater neuroprotection in an animal stroke model compared with a conventional treadmill and a motorized running wheel for a given exercise intensity. The quantitative exercise effectiveness indicator showed a 92% correlation between an increase in the EEA and a decrease in the infarct volume. This indicator can be used as a noninvasive and objective reference in clinical animal exercise experiments.

Improved infrared-sensing running wheel systems with an effective exercise activity indicator.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi-Chun Chen

Full Text Available This paper describes an infrared-sensing running wheel (ISRW system for the quantitative measurement of effective exercise activity in rats. The ISRW system provides superior exercise training compared with commercially available traditional animal running platforms. Four infrared (IR light-emitting diode/detector pairs embedded around the rim of the wheel detect the rat's real-time position; the acrylic wheel has a diameter of 55 cm and a thickness of 15 cm, that is, it is larger and thicker than traditional exercise wheels, and it is equipped with a rubber track. The acrylic wheel hangs virtually frictionless, and a DC motor with an axially mounted rubber wheel, which has a diameter of 10 cm, drives the acrylic wheel from the outer edge. The system can automatically train rats to run persistently. The proposed system can determine effective exercise activity (EEA, with the IR sensors (which are connected to a conventional PC recording the rat exercise behavior. A prototype of the system was verified by a hospital research group performing ischemic stroke experiments on rats by considering middle cerebral artery occlusion. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed system provides greater neuroprotection in an animal stroke model compared with a conventional treadmill and a motorized running wheel for a given exercise intensity. The quantitative exercise effectiveness indicator showed a 92% correlation between an increase in the EEA and a decrease in the infarct volume. This indicator can be used as a noninvasive and objective reference in clinical animal exercise experiments.

Wheeling and transmission system service policy in North America

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casazza, J.A.; Schultz, A.J.; Limmer, H.D.

1991-01-01

This paper provides a review and discussion of the status of wheeling in the USA and Canada; the pros and cons of the new policies that are evolving and under consideration for wheeling and transmission access; specific case examples of some of the difficulties that have arisen; and the potential for new transmission technology. (author)

Nocturnal to Diurnal Switches with Spontaneous Suppression of Wheel-Running Behavior in a Subterranean Rodent.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Tachinardi

Full Text Available Several rodent species that are diurnal in the field become nocturnal in the lab. It has been suggested that the use of running-wheels in the lab might contribute to this timing switch. This proposition is based on studies that indicate feed-back of vigorous wheel-running on the period and phase of circadian clocks that time daily activity rhythms. Tuco-tucos (Ctenomys aff. knighti are subterranean rodents that are diurnal in the field but are robustly nocturnal in laboratory, with or without access to running wheels. We assessed their energy metabolism by continuously and simultaneously monitoring rates of oxygen consumption, body temperature, general motor and wheel running activity for several days in the presence and absence of wheels. Surprisingly, some individuals spontaneously suppressed running-wheel activity and switched to diurnality in the respirometry chamber, whereas the remaining animals continued to be nocturnal even after wheel removal. This is the first report of timing switches that occur with spontaneous wheel-running suppression and which are not replicated by removal of the wheel.

Sensor set-up for wireless measurement of automotive rim and wheel parameters in laboratory conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Borecki, M.; Prus, P.; Korwin-Pawlowski, M. L.; Rychlik, A.; Kozubel, W.

2017-08-01

Modern rims and wheels are tested at the design and production stages. Tests can be performed in laboratory conditions and on the ride. In the laboratory, complex and costly equipment is used, as for example wheel balancers and impact testers. Modern wheel balancers are equipped with electronic and electro-mechanical units that enable touch-less measurement of dimensions, including precision measurement of radial and lateral wheel run-out, automatic positioning and application of the counterweights, and vehicle wheel set monitoring - tread wear, drift angles and run-out unbalance. Those tests are performed by on-wheel axis measurements with laser distance meters. The impact tester enables dropping of weights from a defined height onto a wheel. Test criteria are the loss of pressure of the tire and generation of cracks in the wheel without direct impact of the falling weights. In the present paper, a set up composed of three accelerometers, a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor is examined as the base of a wheel tester. The sensor set-up configuration, on-line diagnostic and signal transmission are discussed.

Nocturnal to Diurnal Switches with Spontaneous Suppression of Wheel-Running Behavior in a Subterranean Rodent

Science.gov (United States)

Tachinardi, Patricia; Tøien, Øivind; Valentinuzzi, Veronica S.; Buck, C. Loren; Oda, Gisele A.

2015-01-01

Several rodent species that are diurnal in the field become nocturnal in the lab. It has been suggested that the use of running-wheels in the lab might contribute to this timing switch. This proposition is based on studies that indicate feed-back of vigorous wheel-running on the period and phase of circadian clocks that time daily activity rhythms. Tuco-tucos (Ctenomys aff. knighti) are subterranean rodents that are diurnal in the field but are robustly nocturnal in laboratory, with or without access to running wheels. We assessed their energy metabolism by continuously and simultaneously monitoring rates of oxygen consumption, body temperature, general motor and wheel running activity for several days in the presence and absence of wheels. Surprisingly, some individuals spontaneously suppressed running-wheel activity and switched to diurnality in the respirometry chamber, whereas the remaining animals continued to be nocturnal even after wheel removal. This is the first report of timing switches that occur with spontaneous wheel-running suppression and which are not replicated by removal of the wheel. PMID:26460828

A new solution method for wheel/rail rolling contact.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jian; Song, Hua; Fu, Lihua; Wang, Meng; Li, Wei

2016-01-01

To solve the problem of wheel/rail rolling contact of nonlinear steady-state curving, a three-dimensional transient finite element (FE) model is developed by the explicit software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. To improve the solving speed and efficiency, an explicit-explicit order solution method is put forward based on analysis of the features of implicit and explicit algorithm. The solution method was first applied to calculate the pre-loading of wheel/rail rolling contact with explicit algorithm, and then the results became the initial conditions in solving the dynamic process of wheel/rail rolling contact with explicit algorithm as well. Simultaneously, the common implicit-explicit order solution method is used to solve the FE model. Results show that the explicit-explicit order solution method has faster operation speed and higher efficiency than the implicit-explicit order solution method while the solution accuracy is almost the same. Hence, the explicit-explicit order solution method is more suitable for the wheel/rail rolling contact model with large scale and high nonlinearity.

Theoretical design study of the MSFC wind-wheel turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, W.; Kessel, P. A.

1982-01-01

A wind wheel turbine (WWT) is studied. Evaluation of the probable performance, possible practical applications, and economic viability as compared to other conventional wind energy systems is discussed. The WWT apparatus is essentially a bladed wheel which is directly exposed to the wind on the upper half and exposed to wind through multiple ducting on the lower half. The multiple ducts consist of a forward duct (front concentrator) and two side ducts (side concentrators). The forced rotation of the wheel is then converted to power through appropriate subsystems. Test results on two simple models, a paper model and a stainless steel model, are reported. Measured values of power coefficients over wind speeds ranging from 4 to 16 m/s are given. An analytical model of a four bladed wheel is also developed. Overall design features of the wind turbine are evaluated and discussed. Turbine sizing is specified for a 5 and 25 kW machine. Suggested improvements to the original design to increase performance and performance predictions for an improved WWT design are given.

On minimizing mechanical stresses of the rail way wheels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moosavi, H.; Esfahanian, M.

2000-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to study the behavior of elastic-plastic stresses under severe drag braking. A railway wheel performs three tasks, aiding in trian movement, supporting the car load, and acting as a brake drum. Finite element computer programs are developed for elasto-plastic stress analysis. An attempt is made here to find an improved fillet profile of the wheel with the intention of minimizing high tensile mechanical stresses. Three new fillet profiles for the wheel are tested. A penalty function is used as a criterion for comparison of stresses between the new designs and the old design. The design with the least penalty is chosen to be the improved one

Fuzzy model for predicting the number of deformed wheels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ž. Đorđević

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Deformation of the wheels damage cars and rails and affect on vehicle stability and safety. Repair and replacement cause high costs and lack of wagons. Planning of maintenance of wagons can not be done without estimates of the number of wheels that will be replaced due to wear and deformation in a given period of time. There are many influencing factors, the most important are: weather conditions, quality of materials, operating conditions, and distance between the two replacements. The fuzzy logic model uses the collected data as input variables to predict the output variable - number of deformed wheels for a certain type of vehicle in the defined period at a particular section of the railway.

Modeling and analysis of linearized wheel-rail contact dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soomro, Z.

2014-01-01

The dynamics of the railway vehicles are nonlinear and depend upon several factors including vehicle speed, normal load and adhesion level. The presence of contaminants on the railway track makes them unpredictable too. Therefore in order to develop an effective control strategy it is important to analyze the effect of each factor on dynamic response thoroughly. In this paper a linearized model of a railway wheel-set is developed and is later analyzed by varying the speed and adhesion level by keeping the normal load constant. A wheel-set is the wheel-axle assembly of a railroad car. Patch contact is the study of the deformation of solids that touch each other at one or more points. (author)

Wheel-running in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease: protection or symptom?

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Helene; Ambrée, Oliver; Lewejohann, Lars; Herring, Arne; Keyvani, Kathy; Paulus, Werner; Palme, Rupert; Touma, Chadi; Schäbitz, Wolf-Rüdiger; Sachser, Norbert

2008-06-26

Several studies on both humans and animals reveal benefits of physical exercise on brain function and health. A previous study on TgCRND8 mice, a transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease, reported beneficial effects of premorbid onset of long-term access to a running wheel on spatial learning and plaque deposition. Our study investigated the effects of access to a running wheel after the onset of Abeta pathology on behavioural, endocrinological, and neuropathological parameters. From day 80 of age, the time when Abeta deposition becomes apparent, TgCRND8 and wildtype mice were kept with or without running wheel. Home cage behaviour was analysed and cognitive abilities regarding object recognition memory and spatial learning in the Barnes maze were assessed. Our results show that, in comparison to Wt mice, Tg mice were characterised by impaired object recognition memory and spatial learning, increased glucocorticoid levels, hyperactivity in the home cage and high levels of stereotypic behaviour. Access to a running wheel had no effects on cognitive or neuropathological parameters, but reduced the amount of stereotypic behaviour in transgenics significantly. Furthermore, wheel-running was inversely correlated with stereotypic behaviour, suggesting that wheel-running may have stereotypic qualities. In addition, wheel-running positively correlated with plaque burden. Thus, in a phase when plaques are already present in the brain, it may be symptomatic of brain pathology, rather than protective. Whether or not access to a running wheel has beneficial effects on Alzheimer-like pathology and symptoms may therefore strongly depend on the exact time when the wheel is provided during development of the disease.

Multi-component lightweight gearwheels with deep-drawn wheel body for automotive applications

Science.gov (United States)

Benkert, Tim; Hiller, Maria; Volk, Wolfram

2017-09-01

Multi-component gearwheels offer great lightweight opportunities for automotive applications. An assembly of a gear ring and a wheel body joined by press fit replaces the monolithic gearwheel. To save weight, the wheel body uses lightweight design. This lightweight design influences the assembled gearwheel’s mechanical properties like stiffness, weight and torque capacity. Further, the wheel body material influences the mentioned properties as well. In this paper, the effects of the lightweight wheel body manufactured by deep-drawing on the mechanical properties of the assembled gearwheel are investigated. Three different wheel body designs are examined regarding their stiffness and weight compared to a reference gearwheel. Using the best design, the influence of five materials with increasing yield strength on the maximum torque the gearwheel can transmit is studied. All research is done virtually using Abaqus 6.12-3.

Transmission access and retail wheeling. The key questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casazza, J.A.

1996-01-01

The key questions involving transmission access and retail wheeling are discussed, distinguishing between opposing views regarding the effect on system costs and the environment, particularly on optimal planning involving matching capacity and demand, generation use, demand side management, and economic operations. Also discussed are contrasting views regarding the effect of cost control pressures, regulatory advantages and disadvantages, the impact on system reliability, and the stranding of investment. The author's key concern is the effect of retail wheeling upon optimal planning and operation i.e., will competitors be willing to provide one another with the cost and technical information required for coordination? In his worst scenario, retail wheeling may lead to substantial production cost increases, lessened reliability, and unfair cost-shifting between customer classes. More optimistically, production costs and reliability may be unaffected and the cost-shifting could be salubrious. 7 figs., 11 refs

Possibilities of using welding-on technologies in crane wheel ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

WINTEC

Abstract. The paper deals with analysis of welds-on quality of traverse crane wheels made from gr. 90–60 mate- rial, ASTM A148. Three types of welding-on technology with various filling materials were used. On wheel after wearing was welded-on one interlayer by a combination of additional materials, wire A 106 with F 11 ...

Wheel running decreases palatable diet preference in Sprague-Dawley rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Moody, Laura; Liang, Joy; Choi, Pique P; Moran, Timothy H; Liang, Nu-Chu

2015-10-15

Physical activity has beneficial effects on not only improving some disease conditions but also by preventing the development of multiple disorders. Experiments in this study examined the effects of wheel running on intakes of chow and palatable diet e.g. high fat (HF) or high sucrose (HS) diet in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Experiment 1 demonstrated that acute wheel running results in robust HF or HS diet avoidance in male rats. Although female rats with running wheel access initially showed complete avoidance of the two palatable diets, the avoidance of the HS diet was transient. Experiment 2 demonstrated that male rats developed decreased HF diet preferences regardless of the order of diet and wheel running access presentation. Running associated changes in HF diet preference in females, on the other hand, depended on the testing schedule. In female rats, simultaneous presentation of the HF diet and running access resulted in transient complete HF diet avoidance whereas running experience prior to HF diet access did not affect the high preference for the HF diet. Ovariectomy in females resulted in HF diet preference patterns that were similar to those in male rats during simultaneous exposure of HF and wheel running access but similar to intact females when running occurred before HF exposure. Overall, the results demonstrated wheel running associated changes in palatable diet preferences that were in part sex dependent. Furthermore, ovarian hormones play a role in some of the sex differences. These data reveal complexity in the mechanisms underlying exercise associated changes in palatable diet preference. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Wheel running decreases palatable diet preference in Sprague-Dawley rats

Science.gov (United States)

Moody, Laura; Liang, Joy; Choi, Pique P.; Moran, Timothy H.; Liang, Nu-Chu

2015-01-01

Physical activity has beneficial effects on not only improving some disease conditions but also by preventing the development of multiple disorders. Experiments in this study examined the effects of wheel running on intakes of chow and palatable diet e.g. high fat (HF) or high sucrose (HS) diet in male and female Sprague Dawley rats. Experiment 1 demonstrated that acute wheel running results in robust HF or HS diet avoidance in male rats. Although female rats with running wheel access initially showed complete avoidance of the two palatable diets, the avoidance of the HS diet was transient. Experiment 2 demonstrated that male rats developed decreased HF diet preferences regardless of the order of diet and wheel running access presentation. Running associated changes in HF diet preference in females, on the other hand, depended on the testing schedule. In female rats, simultaneous presentation of the HF diet and running access resulted in transient complete HF diet avoidance whereas running experience prior to HF diet access did not affect the high preference for the HF diet. Ovariectomy in females resulted in HF diet preference patterns that were similar to those in male rats during simultaneous exposure of HF and wheel running access but similar to intact females when running occurred before HF exposure. Overall, the results demonstrated wheel running associated changes in palatable diet preferences that were in part sex dependent. Furthermore, ovarian hormones play a role in some of the sex differences. These data reveal complexity in the mechanisms underlying exercise associated changes in palatable diet preference. PMID:25791204

Mathematical model of rolling an elastic wheel over deformable support base

Science.gov (United States)

Volskaia, V. N.; Zhileykin, M. M.; Zakharov, A. Y.

2018-02-01

One of the main direction of economic growth in Russia remains to be a speedy development of north and northeast regions that are the constituents of the 60 percent of the country territory. The further development of these territories requires new methods and technologies for solving transport and technological problems when off-road transportation of cargoes and people is conducting. One of the fundamental methods of patency prediction is imitation modeling of wheeled vehicles movement in different operating conditions. Both deformable properties of tires and physical and mechanical properties of the ground: normal tire deflection and gauge depth; variation of contact patch area depending on the load and pressure of air in the tire; existence of hysteresis losses in the tire material which are influencing on the rolling resistance due to friction processes between tire and ground in the contact patch; existence of the tangential reaction from the ground by entire contact area influence on the tractive patency. Nowadays there are two main trends in theoretical research of interaction wheeled propulsion device with ground: analytical method involving mathematical description of explored process and finite element method based on computational modeling. Mathematical models of interaction tire with the ground are used both in processes of interaction individual wheeled propulsion device with ground and researches of mobile vehicle dynamical models operated in specific road and climate conditions. One of the most significant imperfection of these models is the description of interaction wheel with flat deformable support base whereas profile of real support base surface has essential height of unevenness which is commensurate with radius of the wheel. The description of processes taking place in the ground under influence of the wheeled propulsion device using the finite element method is relatively new but most applicable lately. The application of this method allows

Time-resolved spectroscopy using a chopper wheel as a fast shutter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Shicong; Wendt, Amy E.; Boffard, John B.; Lin, Chun C.

2015-01-01

Widely available, small form-factor, fiber-coupled spectrometers typically have a minimum exposure time measured in milliseconds, and thus cannot be used directly for time-resolved measurements at the microsecond level. Spectroscopy at these faster time scales is typically done with an intensified charge coupled device (CCD) system where the image intensifier acts as a “fast” electronic shutter for the slower CCD array. In this paper, we describe simple modifications to a commercially available chopper wheel system to allow it to be used as a “fast” mechanical shutter for gating a fiber-coupled spectrometer to achieve microsecond-scale time-resolved optical measurements of a periodically pulsed light source. With the chopper wheel synchronized to the pulsing of the light source, the time resolution can be set to a small fraction of the pulse period by using a chopper wheel with narrow slots separated by wide spokes. Different methods of synchronizing the chopper wheel and pulsing of the light sources are explored. The capability of the chopper wheel system is illustrated with time-resolved measurements of pulsed plasmas

Rear suspension design for an in-wheel-drive electric car

NARCIS (Netherlands)

George, Ashwin Dayal; Besselink, Igo

2016-01-01

The in-wheel motor configuration can provide more flexibility to electric car design, making the car more compact and lightweight. However, current suspension systems are not designed to incorporate an in-wheel powertrain, and studies have shown deterioration in ride comfort and handling when more

Automated phased array ultrasonic inspection system for rail wheel sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grosser, Paul; Weiland, M.G.

2013-01-01

This paper covers the design, system automation, calibration and validation of an automated ultrasonic system for the inspection of new and in service wheel set assemblies from diesel-electric locomotives and gondola cars. This system uses Phased Array (PA) transducers for flaw detection and Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMAT) for the measurement of residual stress. The system collects, analyses, evaluates and categorizes the wheel sets automatically. This data is archived for future comparison and trending. It is also available for export to a portal lathe for increased efficiency and accuracy of machining, therefore allowing prolonged wheel life.

Innovative Design and Performance Evaluation of Bionic Imprinting Toothed Wheel.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhihong; Wang, Xiaoyang; Tong, Jin; Stephen, Carr

2018-01-01

A highly efficient soil-burrowing dung beetle possesses an intricate outer contour curve on its foreleg end-tooth. This study was carried out based on evidence that this special outer contour curve has the potential of reducing soil penetration resistance and could enhance soil-burrowing efficiency. A toothed wheel is a typical agricultural implement for soil imprinting, to increase its working efficiency; the approach of the bionic geometrical structure was utilized to optimize the innovative shape of imprinting toothed wheel. Characteristics in the dung beetle's foreleg end-tooth were extracted and studied by the edge detection technique. Then, this special outer contour curve was modeled by a nine-order polynomial function and used for the innovative design of imprinting the tooth's cutting edge. Both the conventional and bionic teeth were manufactured, and traction tests in a soil bin were conducted. Taking required draft force and volume of imprinted microbasin as the evaluating indexes, operating efficiency and quality of different toothed wheels were compared and investigated. Results indicate that compared with the conventional toothed wheel, a bionic toothed wheel possesses a better forward resistance reduction property against soil and, meanwhile, can enhance the quality of soil imprinting by increasing the volume of the created micro-basin.

The effect of mountain bike wheel size on cross-country performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurst, Howard Thomas; Sinclair, Jonathan; Atkins, Stephen; Rylands, Lee; Metcalfe, John

2017-07-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of different wheel size diameters on indicators of cross-country mountain bike time trial performance. Nine competitive male mountain bikers (age 34.7 ± 10.7 years; stature 177.7 ± 5.6 cm; body mass 73.2 ± 8.6 kg) performed 1 lap of a 3.48 km mountain bike (MTB) course as fast as possible on 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ wheeled MTB. Time (s), mean power (W), cadence (revs · min -1 ) and velocity (km · h -1 ) were recorded for the whole lap and during ascent and descent sections. One-way repeated measure ANOVA was used to determine significant differences. Results revealed no significant main effects for any variables by wheel size during all trials, with the exception of cadence during the descent (F (2, 16)  = 8.96; P = .002; P 2  = .53). Post hoc comparisons revealed differences lay between the 26″ and 29″ wheels (P = .02). The findings indicate that wheel size does not significantly influence performance during cross-country when ridden by trained mountain bikers, and that wheel choice is likely due to personal choice or sponsorship commitments.

Impact of wheel running on chronic ethanol intake in aged Syrian hamsters.

Science.gov (United States)

Brager, Allison J; Hammer, Steven B

2012-10-10

Alcohol dependence in aging populations is seen as a public health concern, most recently because of the significant proportion of heavy drinking among "Baby Boomers." Basic animal research on the effects of aging on physiological and behavioral regulation of ethanol (EtOH) intake is sparse, since most of this research is limited to younger models of alcoholism. Here, EtOH drinking and preference were measured in groups of aged Syrian hamsters. Further, because voluntary exercise (wheel-running) is a rewarding substitute for EtOH in young adult hamsters, the potential for such reward substitution was also assessed. Aged (24 month-old) male hamsters were subjected to a three-stage regimen of free-choice EtOH (20% v/v) or water and unlocked or locked running wheels to investigate the modulatory effects of voluntary wheel running on EtOH intake and preference. Levels of fluid intake and activity were recorded daily across 60 days of experimentation. Prior to wheel running, levels of EtOH intake were significantly less than levels of water intake, resulting in a low preference for EtOH (30%). Hamsters with access to an unlocked running wheel had decreased EtOH intake and preference compared with hamsters with access to a locked running wheel. These group differences in EtOH intake and preference were sustained for up to 10 days after running wheels were re-locked. These results extend upon those of our previous work in young adult hamsters, indicating that aging dampens EtOH intake and preference. Voluntary wheel running further limited EtOH intake, suggesting that exercise could offer a practical approach for managing late-life alcoholism. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stocks and flows of lead-based wheel weights in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Bleiwas, Donald I.

2006-01-01

Lead is used in many widely known applications, such as automobile batteries and radiation shielding. Another lesser known, but long-term, use of lead is in automotive vehicle wheel weights. Lead weights have been used to balance wheels since the 1930s because of its high specific gravity, low relative cost, and its malleability. Out-of-balance tires tend to 'cup' and vibrate and as a result cause excessive wear on tires and vehicle suspension components and result in compromised handling, especially at high speeds. The mass, number, and style of weights needed to balance a wheel depend on the tire's size and weight and on the type and condition of the wheels (rims) on the vehicle. This study addresses an accounting of the stocks and flows of lead contained in lead wheel weights from their manufacture, through use, dissipation, and recycling, and environmental issues associated with the use of lead.

Controlled braking scheme for a wheeled walking aid

OpenAIRE

Coyle, Eugene; O'Dwyer, Aidan; Young, Eileen; Sullivan, Kevin; Toner, A.

2006-01-01

A wheeled walking aid with an embedded controlled braking system is described. The frame of the prototype is based on combining features of standard available wheeled walking aids. A braking scheme has been designed using hydraulic disc brakes to facilitate accurate and sensitive controlled stopping of the walker by the user, and if called upon, by automatic action. Braking force is modulated via a linear actuating stepping motor. A microcontroller is used for control of both stepper movement...

A survey of wheel-rail contact models for rail vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Meymand, Sajjad Z.; Keylin, Alexander; Ahmadian, Mehdi

2016-03-01

Accurate and efficient contact models for wheel-rail interaction are essential for the study of the dynamic behaviour of a railway vehicle. Assessment of the contact forces and moments, as well as contact geometry provide a fundamental foundation for such tasks as design of braking and traction control systems, prediction of wheel and rail wear, and evaluation of ride safety and comfort. This paper discusses the evolution and the current state of the theories for solving the wheel-rail contact problem for rolling stock. The well-known theories for modelling both normal contact (Hertzian and non-Hertzian) and tangential contact (Kalker's linear theory, FASTSIM, CONTACT, Polach's theory, etc.) are reviewed. The paper discusses the simplifying assumptions for developing these models and compares their functionality. The experimental studies for evaluation of contact models are also reviewed. This paper concludes with discussing open areas in contact mechanics that require further research for developing better models to represent the wheel-rail interaction.

Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: effects of sucrose concentration and wheel-running reinforcer duration.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Hancock, Stephanie D

2003-03-01

Six male albino rats were placed in running wheels and exposed to a fixed-interval 30-s schedule of lever pressing that produced either a drop of sucrose solution or the opportunity to run for a fixed duration as reinforcers. Each reinforcer type was signaled by a different stimulus. In Experiment 1, the duration of running was held constant at 15 s while the concentration of sucrose solution was varied across values of 0, 2.5. 5, 10, and 15%. As concentration decreased, postreinforcement pause duration increased and local rates decreased in the presence of the stimulus signaling sucrose. Consequently, the difference between responding in the presence of stimuli signaling wheel-running and sucrose reinforcers diminished, and at 2.5%, response functions for the two reinforcers were similar. In Experiment 2, the concentration of sucrose solution was held constant at 15% while the duration of the opportunity to run was first varied across values of 15, 45, and 90 s then subsequently across values of 5, 10, and 15 s. As run duration increased, postreinforcement pause duration in the presence of the wheel-running stimulus increased and local rates increased then decreased. In summary, inhibitory aftereffects of previous reinforcers occurred when both sucrose concentration and run duration varied; changes in responding were attributable to changes in the excitatory value of the stimuli signaling the two reinforcers.

Body weight manipulation, reinforcement value and choice between sucrose and wheel running: a behavioral economic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David

2009-02-01

Twelve female Long-Evans rats were exposed to concurrent variable (VR) ratio schedules of sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement (Sucrose VR 10 Wheel VR 10; Sucrose VR 5 Wheel VR 20; Sucrose VR 20 Wheel VR 5) with predetermined budgets (number of responses). The allocation of lever pressing to the sucrose and wheel-running alternatives was assessed at high and low body weights. Results showed that wheel-running rate and lever-pressing rates for sucrose and wheel running increased, but the choice of wheel running decreased at the low body weight. A regression analysis of relative consumption as a function of relative price showed that consumption shifted toward sucrose and interacted with price differences in a manner consistent with increased substitutability. Demand curves showed that demand for sucrose became less elastic while demand for wheel running became more elastic at the low body weight. These findings reflect an increase in the difference in relative value of sucrose and wheel running as body weight decreased. Discussion focuses on the limitations of response rates as measures of reinforcement value. In addition, we address the commonalities between matching and demand curve equations for the analysis of changes in relative reinforcement value.

Position and force control of a vehicle with two or more steerable drive wheels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reister, D.B.; Unseren, M.A.

1992-10-01

When a vehicle with two or more steerable drive wheels is traveling in a circle, the motion of the wheels is constrained. The wheel translational velocity divided by the radius to the center of rotation must be the same for all wheels. When the drive wheels are controlled independently using position control, the motion of the wheels may violate the constraints and the wheels may slip. Consequently, substantial errors can occur in the orientation of the vehicle. A vehicle with N drive wheels has (N - 1) constraints and one degree of freedom. We have developed a new approach to the control of a vehicle with N steerable drive wheels. The novel aspect of our approach is the use of force control. To control the vehicle, we have one degree of freedom for the position on the circle and (N - 1) forces that can be used to reduce errors. Recently, Kankaanranta and Koivo developed a control architecture that allows the force and position degrees of freedom to be decoupled. In the work of Kankaanranta and Koivo the force is an exogenous input. We have made the force endogenous by defining the force in terms of the errors in satisfying the rigid body kinematic constraints. We have applied the control architecture to the HERMIES-III robot and have measured a dramatic reduction in error (more than a factor of 20) compared to motions without force control.

Stochastic stability of four-wheel-steering system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Dongwei; Wang Hongli; Zhu Zhiwen; Feng Zhang

2007-01-01

A four-wheel-steering system subjected to white noise excitations was reduced to a two-degree-of-freedom quasi-non-integrable-Hamiltonian system. Subsequently we obtained an one-dimensional Ito stochastic differential equation for the averaged Hamiltonian of the system by using the stochastic averaging method for quasi-non-integrable-Hamiltonian systems. Thus, the stochastic stability of four-wheel-steering system was analyzed by analyzing the sample behaviors of the averaged Hamiltonian at the boundary H = 0 and calculating its Lyapunov exponent. An example given at the end demonstrated that the conclusion obtained is of considerable significance

Stochastic Wheel-Slip Compensation Based Robot Localization and Mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SIDHARTHAN, R. K.

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Wheel slip compensation is vital for building accurate and reliable dead reckoning based robot localization and mapping algorithms. This investigation presents stochastic slip compensation scheme for robot localization and mapping. Main idea of the slip compensation technique is to use wheel-slip data obtained from experiments to model the variations in slip velocity as Gaussian distributions. This leads to a family of models that are switched depending on the input command. To obtain the wheel-slip measurements, experiments are conducted on a wheeled mobile robot and the measurements thus obtained are used to build the Gaussian models. Then the localization and mapping algorithm is tested on an experimental terrain and a new metric called the map spread factor is used to evaluate the ability of the slip compensation technique. Our results clearly indicate that the proposed methodology improves the accuracy by 72.55% for rotation and 66.67% for translation motion as against an uncompensated mapping system. The proposed compensation technique eliminates the need for extro receptive sensors for slip compensation, complex feature extraction and association algorithms. As a result, we obtain a simple slip compensation scheme for localization and mapping.

Atomic Ferris wheel beams

Science.gov (United States)

Lembessis, Vasileios E.

2017-07-01

We study the generation of atom vortex beams in the case where a Bose-Einstein condensate, released from a trap and moving in free space, is diffracted from a properly tailored light mask with a spiral transverse profile. We show how such a diffraction scheme could lead to the production of an atomic Ferris wheel beam.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasonographic spoke-wheel sign in hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yen, Y.-H.; Wang, J.-H.; Lu, S.-N.; Chen, T.-Y.; Changchien, C.-S.; Chen, C.-H.; Hung, C.-H.; Lee, C.-M.

2006-01-01

Background: To determine the utility of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in assessing hepatic tumors with central feeding arteries found by color/power Doppler ultrasonograophy (CDUS/PDUS). Methods: We prospectively studied 37 hepatic tumors (34 patients), with a mean size of 2.9 cm and each having a central feeding artery, by CDUS/PDUS. The CEUS was performed with a galactose-based microbubble contrast agent. The detection of a spoke-wheel sign was interpreted as evidence of focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH). All patients underwent tumor biopsies or surgical resection. Results: CEUS showed a central feeding artery with a spoke-wheel sign in 36 tumors, including 34 FNHs and 2 hepatocellular carcinomas. The remaining tumor was demonstrated to be FNH despite the absence of a spoke-wheel sign as detected by CEUS. The sensitivity of the spoke-wheel sign or central scar for FNH was 97.1% (34/35), 40% (14/35), 28.6% (10/35), 50% (8/16) and 0% (0/15) for CEUS, CDUS/PDUS, dynamic computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), hepatic angiography and liver scintigraphy, respectively. The two hepatocellular carcinomas showed scirrhous changes histologically. Conclusions: CEUS is more sensitive than CDUS/PDUS, dynamic CT, MRI, hepatic angiography and liver scintigraphy in the detection of the spoke-wheel sign or central scar in FNH. Scirrhous hepatocellular carcinoma should be included in the differential diagnosis for liver tumors with spoke-wheel sign detected by CEUS

Contrast-enhanced ultrasonographic spoke-wheel sign in hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yen, Y.-H. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China); Wang, J.-H. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China)]. E-mail: wajing@adm.cgmh.org.tw; Lu, S.-N. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China); Chen, T.-Y. [Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan (China); Changchien, C.-S. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China); Chen, C.-H. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China); Hung, C.-H. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China); Lee, C.-M. [Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 123 Ta-Pei Road, Kaohsiung 833, Taiwan (China)

2006-12-15

Background: To determine the utility of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in assessing hepatic tumors with central feeding arteries found by color/power Doppler ultrasonograophy (CDUS/PDUS). Methods: We prospectively studied 37 hepatic tumors (34 patients), with a mean size of 2.9 cm and each having a central feeding artery, by CDUS/PDUS. The CEUS was performed with a galactose-based microbubble contrast agent. The detection of a spoke-wheel sign was interpreted as evidence of focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH). All patients underwent tumor biopsies or surgical resection. Results: CEUS showed a central feeding artery with a spoke-wheel sign in 36 tumors, including 34 FNHs and 2 hepatocellular carcinomas. The remaining tumor was demonstrated to be FNH despite the absence of a spoke-wheel sign as detected by CEUS. The sensitivity of the spoke-wheel sign or central scar for FNH was 97.1% (34/35), 40% (14/35), 28.6% (10/35), 50% (8/16) and 0% (0/15) for CEUS, CDUS/PDUS, dynamic computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), hepatic angiography and liver scintigraphy, respectively. The two hepatocellular carcinomas showed scirrhous changes histologically. Conclusions: CEUS is more sensitive than CDUS/PDUS, dynamic CT, MRI, hepatic angiography and liver scintigraphy in the detection of the spoke-wheel sign or central scar in FNH. Scirrhous hepatocellular carcinoma should be included in the differential diagnosis for liver tumors with spoke-wheel sign detected by CEUS.

Effects of setting angle on performance of fish-bionic wind wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Li, G. S.; Yang, Z. X.; Song, L.; Chen, Q.; Li, Y. B.; Chen, W.

2016-08-01

With the energy crisis and the increasing environmental pollutionmore and more efforts have been made about wind power development. In this paper, a new type of vertical axis named the fish-bionic wind wheel was proposed, and the outline of wind wheel was constructed by curve of Fourier fitting and polynomial equations. This paper attempted to research the relationship between the setting angle and the wind turbine characteristics by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The results showed that the setting angle of the fish-bionic wind wheel has some significant effects on the efficiency of the wind turbine, Within the range of wind speed from 13m/s to 15m/s, wind wheel achieves the maximum efficiency when the setting angle is at 37 degree. The conclusion will work as a guideline for the improvement of wind turbine design.

Two wheel speed robust sliding mode control for electric vehicle drive

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdelfatah Nasri

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays the uses of electrical power resources are integrated in the modern vehicle motion traction chain so new technologies allow the development of electric vehicles (EV by means of static converters-related electric motors. All mechanical transmission devices are eliminated and vehicle wheel motion can be controlled by means of power electronics. The proposed propulsing system consists of two induction motors (IM that ensure the drive of the two back driving wheels. The proposed control structure-called independent machines- for speed control permit the achievement of an electronic differential. The electronic differential system ensures the robust control of the vehicle behavior on the road. It also allows controlling independently, every driving wheel to turn at different speeds in any curve. This paper presents the study and the sliding mode control strategy of the electric vehicle driving wheels.

Durability Characteristics Analysis of Plastic Worm Wheel with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Gun-Hee; Lee, Jeong-Won; Seo, Tae-Il

2013-05-10

Plastic worm wheel is widely used in the vehicle manufacturing field because it is favorable for weight lightening, vibration and noise reduction, as well as corrosion resistance. However, it is very difficult for general plastics to secure the mechanical properties that are required for vehicle gears. If the plastic resin is reinforced by glass fiber in the fabrication process of plastic worm wheel, it is possible to achieve the mechanical properties of metallic material levels. In this study, the mechanical characteristic analysis of the glass-reinforced plastic worm wheel, according to the contents of glass fiber, is performed by analytic and experimental methods. In the case of the glass fiber-reinforced resin, the orientation and contents of glass fibers can influence the mechanical properties. For the characteristic prediction of plastic worm wheel, computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis processes such as structural and injection molding analysis were executed with the polyamide resin reinforcement glass fiber (25 wt %, 50 wt %). The injection mold for fabricating the prototype plastic worm wheel was designed and made to reflect the CAE analysis results. Finally, the durability of prototype plastic worm wheel fabricated by the injection molding process was evaluated by the experimental method and the characteristics according to the glass fiber contents.

Multiple Wheel Throwing: And Chess Sets.

Science.gov (United States)

Sapiro, Maurice

1978-01-01

A chess set project is suggested to teach multiple throwing, the creation on a potter's wheel of several pieces of similar configuration. Processes and finished sets are illustrated with photographs. (SJL)

Electrostatic Spectrometer for Mars Rover Wheel

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Develop a simple electrostatic spectrometer that can be mounted on the wheels of a Mars rover to continuously and unobtrusively determine the mineral composition and...

General motors front wheel drive 2-mode hybrid transmission

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hendrickson, James [General Motors Corp., Pontiac, MI (United States). New Transmission Products Group.; Holmes, Alan G. [General Motors Corp., Pontiac, MI (United States). Powertrain Hybrid Architecture

2009-07-01

General Motors now expands the application of two-mode hybrid technology to front wheel drive vehicles with the development of a hybrid electric transmission packaged into essentially the same space as a conventional automatic transmission for front wheel drive. This was accomplished using a space-efficient arrangement based on two planetary gear sets and electric motor-generators with large internal diameters. A combination of damper and hydraulically-controlled clutch allow comfortable shutdown and restarting of large-displacement engines in front wheel drive vehicles. The hybrid system delivers electric low-speed urban driving, two continuously variable ranges of transmission speed ratios, four fixed transmission speed ratios, electric acceleration boosting, and regenerative braking. In the first vehicle application, the two-mode hybrid helps to reduce vehicle fuel consumption by approximately one-third. (orig.)

Development of an omnidirectional Automated Guided Vehicle with MY3 wheels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suyang Yu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an omnidirectional Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV with a novel omnidirectional wheel named MY3 wheel. Due to the special structure and material of the MY3 wheel, the AGV has full three DOFs in the motion plane and good capabilities of load carrying and slip resisting. In addition, the kinematic model of the AGV is derived, and the guiding method that can make the AGV to follow a specified path is established. Finally, experiments are performed to verify the kinematic model and guiding method.

Errors of car wheels rotation rate measurement using roller follower on test benches

Science.gov (United States)

Potapov, A. S.; Svirbutovich, O. A.; Krivtsov, S. N.

2018-03-01

The article deals with rotation rate measurement errors, which depend on the motor vehicle rate, on the roller, test benches. Monitoring of the vehicle performance under operating conditions is performed on roller test benches. Roller test benches are not flawless. They have some drawbacks affecting the accuracy of vehicle performance monitoring. Increase in basic velocity of the vehicle requires increase in accuracy of wheel rotation rate monitoring. It determines the degree of accuracy of mode identification for a wheel of the tested vehicle. To ensure measurement accuracy for rotation velocity of rollers is not an issue. The problem arises when measuring rotation velocity of a car wheel. The higher the rotation velocity of the wheel is, the lower the accuracy of measurement is. At present, wheel rotation frequency monitoring on roller test benches is carried out by following-up systems. Their sensors are rollers following wheel rotation. The rollers of the system are not kinematically linked to supporting rollers of the test bench. The roller follower is forced against the wheels of the tested vehicle by means of a spring-lever mechanism. Experience of the test bench equipment operation has shown that measurement accuracy is satisfactory at small rates of vehicles diagnosed on roller test benches. With a rising diagnostics rate, rotation velocity measurement errors occur in both braking and pulling modes because a roller spins about a tire tread. The paper shows oscillograms of changes in wheel rotation velocity and rotation velocity measurement system’s signals when testing a vehicle on roller test benches at specified rates.

Experimental investigation into the mechanism of the polygonal wear of electric locomotive wheels

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Gongquan; Wang, Linfeng; Wen, Zefeng; Guan, Qinghua; Jin, Xuesong

2018-06-01

Experiments were conducted at field sites to investigate the mechanism of the polygonal wear of electric locomotive wheels. The polygonal wear rule of electric locomotive wheels was obtained. Moreover, two on-track tests have been carried out to investigate the vibration characteristics of the electric locomotive's key components. The measurement results of wheels out-of-round show that most electric locomotive wheels exhibit polygonal wear. The main centre wavelength in the 1/3 octave bands is 200 mm and/or 160 mm. The test results of vibration characteristics indicate that the dominating frequency of the vertical acceleration measured on the axle box is approximately equal to the passing frequency of a polygonal wheel, and does not vary with the locomotive speed during the acceleration course. The wheelset modal analysis using the finite element method (FEM) indicates that the first bending resonant frequency of the wheelset is quite close to the main vibration frequency of the axle box. The FEM results are verified by the experimental modal analysis of the wheelset. Moreover, different plans were designed to verify whether the braking system and the locomotive's adhesion control have significant influence on the wheel polygon or not. The test results indicate that they are not responsible for the initiation of the wheel polygon. The first bending resonance of the wheelset is easy to be excited in the locomotive operation and it is the root cause of wheel polygon with centre wavelength of 200 mm in the 1/3 octave bands.

Effects of genetic background and environmental novelty on wheel running as a rewarding behaviour in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

de Visser, Leonie; van den Bos, Ruud; Stoker, Astrid K; Kas, Martien J H; Spruijt, Berry M

2007-02-27

Recent studies suggest running wheel activity to be naturally rewarding and reinforcing; considering the shared neuro-behavioural characteristics with drug-induced reward situations, wheel running behaviour gains interest as a tool to study mechanisms underlying reward-sensitivity. Previously, we showed that wheel running has the potential to disrupt the daily organization of home cage behaviour in female C57BL/6 [de Visser L, van den Bos R, Spruijt BM. Automated home cage observations as a tool to measure the effects of wheel running on cage floor locomotion. Behav Brain Res 2005;160:382-8]. In the present study, we investigated the effects of novelty-induced stress on wheel running and its impact on home cage behaviour in male C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice. Our aim was to determine whether wheel running may be used as a tool to study both genetic and environmentally induced differences in sensitivity to rewarding behaviour in mice. One group of male mice was placed in an automated home cage observation system for 2 weeks with a wheel integrated in the cage. A second group of mice was allowed to habituate to this cage for 1 week before a running wheel was introduced. Results showed a pronounced sensitising effect of novelty on the level of wheel running in C57Bl/6 mice but not in DBA mice. Overall levels of wheel running were higher in DBA/2 mice. Furthermore, wheel running affected circadian rhythmicity in DBA/2 mice but not in C57BL/6 mice. From these findings we tentatively suggest that wheel running behaviour could serve as a tool to study the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in sensitivity to rewarding behaviour in mice. As it is displayed spontaneously and easy to monitor, wheel running may be well suitable to be included in high-throughput phenotyping assays.

APPLIED PROBLEMS OF CURVILINEAR MOTION DYNAMICS OF ALL-WHEEL DRIVE TRACTION MEANS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. S. Gorin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Fundamental principles for hybrid theory on turning of an all-wheel drive system are given in the paper. The paper shows expediency of accounting longitudinal additional tangential reactions (parasitic forces in contacts of central and lateral wheels with foundation. Algorithms for calculating additional tangential reactions have been proposed in the paper. The paper presents calculation kinematics model for turning of steered and rigid bogie with inter-wheel differential at various axial drive.

Characterizing Wheel-Soil Interaction Loads Using Meshfree Finite Element Methods: A Sensitivity Analysis for Design Trade Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Contreras, Michael T.; Trease, Brian P.; Bojanowski, Cezary; Kulakx, Ronald F.

2013-01-01

A wheel experiencing sinkage and slippage events poses a high risk to planetary rover missions as evidenced by the mobility challenges endured by the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project. Current wheel design practice utilizes loads derived from a series of events in the life cycle of the rover which do not include (1) failure metrics related to wheel sinkage and slippage and (2) performance trade-offs based on grouser placement/orientation. Wheel designs are rigorously tested experimentally through a variety of drive scenarios and simulated soil environments; however, a robust simulation capability is still in development due to myriad of complex interaction phenomena that contribute to wheel sinkage and slippage conditions such as soil composition, large deformation soil behavior, wheel geometry, nonlinear contact forces, terrain irregularity, etc. For the purposes of modeling wheel sinkage and slippage at an engineering scale, meshfree nite element approaches enable simulations that capture su cient detail of wheel-soil interaction while remaining computationally feasible. This study implements the JPL wheel-soil benchmark problem in the commercial code environment utilizing the large deformation modeling capability of Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) meshfree methods. The nominal, benchmark wheel-soil interaction model that produces numerically stable and physically realistic results is presented and simulations are shown for both wheel traverse and wheel sinkage cases. A sensitivity analysis developing the capability and framework for future ight applications is conducted to illustrate the importance of perturbations to critical material properties and parameters. Implementation of the proposed soil-wheel interaction simulation capability and associated sensitivity framework has the potential to reduce experimentation cost and improve the early stage wheel design proce

TECHNO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF WHEELS OF PERSPECTIVE STRUCTURAL SCHEME FOR RAILWAY VEHICLES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Semenov

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The article is aimed to the definition of technical and economic efficiency from the use of wheels of perspective structural scheme in the undercarriage of the rail vehicles (wagon. Methodology. The use efficiency of wheels of promising design scheme by reducing the motion resistance and wear of the wheel flanges is estimated by calculated values of estimated annual economic effect of implementation and payback period of the costs required for the development and implementation of the proposed wheel. Non-recurring costs include the cost associated with conducting research and development work, as well as the additional costs required for the manufacture of wheels of promising design scheme. Findings. In the course of computation and analysis of the economic efficiency from introductions of wheels of promising design concept, carried out on the basis of the initial data for the South-West railway, it was determined the profit which can be obtained by reducing the following operating costs: cost of returning the wheel flange on wheel sets; cost of fuel and energy resources for train traction; the value of the idle of cars in the current uncoupling repair; cost of repairs and current maintenance of rail track. In addition, it can be additionally released a number of cars by reducing their downtime. The calculation of net discounted income is carried out with the following assumptions: calculation period; estimated increase in the cost of wheel sets with wheels of promising constructive scheme compared to the model, the values of net profit for the accounting period, which was calculated by calculating the average value minus the cost of research, development and manufacturing of wheelset park with wheels of new design scheme. For a given billing period, the calculated value of the net discounted income was obtained and the payback period of the project was determined. Originality. The approaches to the perfection of design scheme of wheels

Reinforcement of wheel running in BALB/c mice: role of motor activity and endogenous opioids.

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas-Pérez, Héctor; Sellings, Laurie H L; Paredes, Raúl G; Prado-Alcalá, Roberto A; Díaz, José-Luis

2008-11-01

The authors investigated the effect of the opioid antagonist naloxone on wheel-running behavior in Balb/c mice. Naloxone delayed the acquisition of wheel-running behavior, but did not reduce the expression of this behavior once acquired. Delayed acquisition was not likely a result of reduced locomotor activity, as naloxone-treated mice did not exhibit reduced wheel running after the behavior was acquired, and they performed normally on the rotarod test. However, naloxone-blocked conditioned place preference for a novel compartment paired previously with wheel running, suggesting that naloxone may delay wheel-running acquisition by blocking the rewarding or reinforcing effects of the behavior. These results suggest that the endogenous opioid system mediates the initial reinforcing effects of wheel running that are important in acquisition of the behavior.

Modelling of a mecanum wheel taking into account the geometry of road rollers

Science.gov (United States)

Hryniewicz, P.; Gwiazda, A.; Banaś, W.; Sękala, A.; Foit, K.

2017-08-01

During the process planning in a company one of the basic factors associated with the production costs is the operation time for particular technological jobs. The operation time consists of time units associated with the machining tasks of a workpiece as well as the time associated with loading and unloading and the transport operations of this workpiece between machining stands. Full automation of manufacturing in industry companies tends to a maximal reduction in machine downtimes, thereby the fixed costs simultaneously decreasing. The new construction of wheeled vehicles, using Mecanum wheels, reduces the transport time of materials and workpieces between machining stands. These vehicles have the ability to simultaneously move in two axes and thus more rapid positioning of the vehicle relative to the machining stand. The Mecanum wheel construction implies placing, around the wheel free rollers that are mounted at an angle 450, which allow the movement of the vehicle not only in its axis but also perpendicular thereto. The improper selection of the rollers can cause unwanted vertical movement of the vehicle, which may cause difficulty in positioning of the vehicle in relation to the machining stand and the need for stabilisation. Hence the proper design of the free rollers is essential in designing the whole Mecanum wheel construction. It allows avoiding the disadvantageous and unwanted vertical vibrations of a whole vehicle with these wheels. In the article the process of modelling the free rollers, in order to obtain the desired shape of unchanging, horizontal trajectory of the vehicle is presented. This shape depends on the desired diameter of the whole Mecanum wheel, together with the road rollers, and the width of the drive wheel. Another factor related with the curvature of the trajectory shape is the length of the road roller and its diameter decreases depending on the position with respect to its centre. The additional factor, limiting construction of

Experimental Setup for Diamond Grinding Using Electrochemical InProcess Controlled Dressing (ECD of Grinding Wheel

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M. A. Shavva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The most effective method for finish machining of hard-metals and alloys is to use the diamond grinding wheels for grinding. An application of diamond wheels significantly increases the employee output, reduces costs, and raises manufacturing efficiency with achieving the high performance properties of treated surfaces.During grinding a working surface of diamond wheel wears out. It adversely affects the cutting capability of the diamond grains, and depending on the grinding conditions can occur through different mechanisms. Wear of diamond wheel causes distortion of its shape and reduces cutting properties. However, dressing of diamond wheels is a complicated and time-consuming operation in terms of manufacturing technique.Methods to make dressing of diamond grinding wheel have different types of classification. Classification of dressing methods by the type of energy used is as follows: mechanical, chemical, electrophysical, electromechanical, and electrochemical. All these methods have their advantages and disadvantages.Electrochemical method of dressing is the most productive and efficient. Electrochemical method comprises anode-mechanical dressing and electrochemical (electrolytic one. The paper presents the electrochemical in-process dressing (ECD and the electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID.The source of energy, grinding a wheel with metal bond, and an electrode are necessary for providing ELID. The ELID consists of several stages. The first stage is preliminary electrolytic dressing of diamond wheel. The electrolyte is placed into the gap between the wheel and electrode. The bond of the wheel is oxidized. An insulating layer is formed. It reduces an electrical conductivity of the wheel and controls consumption of diamond grains, as well as polishes the surface of the work piece. Further, the insulating layer is destroyed. The cycle of dressing begins anew.The ECD proceeds in the same way as ELID. However during the ECD-process there

Just-In-Time predictive control for a two-wheeled robot

OpenAIRE

Nakpong, Nuttapun; Yamamoto, Shigeru

2012-01-01

In this paper, we introduce the use of Just-In-Time predictive control to enhance the stability of a two-wheeled robot. Just-In-Time predictive control uses a database which includes a huge amounts of input-output data of the two-wheeled robot and predicts its future movements based on a Just-In-Time algorithm. © 2012 IEEE.

Tilted wheel satellite attitude control with air-bearing table experimental results

Science.gov (United States)

Inumoh, Lawrence O.; Forshaw, Jason L.; Horri, Nadjim M.

2015-12-01

Gyroscopic actuators for satellite control have attracted significant research interest over the years, but their viability for the control of small satellites has only recently started to become clear. Research on variable speed gyroscopic actuators has long been focused on single gimbal actuators; double gimbal actuators typically operate at constant wheel spin rate and allow tilt angle ranges far larger than the ranges needed to operate most satellite missions. This research examines a tilted wheel, a newly proposed type of inertial actuator that can generate torques in all three principal axes of a rigid satellite using a spinning wheel and a double tilt mechanism. The tilt mechanism tilts the angular momentum vector about two axes providing two degree of freedom control, while variation of the wheel speed provides the third. The equations of motion of the system lead to a singularity-free system during nominal operation avoiding the need for complex steering logic. This paper describes the hardware design of the tilted wheel and the experimental setup behind both standalone and spherical air-bearing tables used to test it. Experimental results from the air bearing table are provided with the results depicting the high performance capabilities of the proposed actuator in torque generation.

Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: effect of pre-running.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W

2006-01-10

Six male albino Wistar rats were placed in running wheels and exposed to a fixed interval 30-s schedule that produced either a drop of 15% sucrose solution or the opportunity to run for 15s as reinforcing consequences for lever pressing. Each reinforcer type was signaled by a different stimulus. To assess the effect of pre-running, animals were allowed to run for 1h prior to a session of responding for sucrose and running. Results showed that, after pre-running, response rates in the later segments of the 30-s schedule decreased in the presence of a wheel-running stimulus and increased in the presence of a sucrose stimulus. Wheel-running rates were not affected. Analysis of mean post-reinforcement pauses (PRP) broken down by transitions between successive reinforcers revealed that pre-running lengthened pausing in the presence of the stimulus signaling wheel running and shortened pauses in the presence of the stimulus signaling sucrose. No effect was observed on local response rates. Changes in pausing in the presence of stimuli signaling the two reinforcers were consistent with a decrease in the reinforcing efficacy of wheel running and an increase in the reinforcing efficacy of sucrose. Pre-running decreased motivation to respond for running, but increased motivation to work for food.

Thermal modal analysis of novel non-pneumatic mechanical elastic wheel based on FEM and EMA

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Youqun; Zhu, Mingmin; Lin, Fen; Xiao, Zhen; Li, Haiqing; Deng, Yaoji

2018-01-01

A combination of Finite Element Method (FEM) and Experiment Modal Analysis (EMA) have been employed here to characterize the structural dynamic response of mechanical elastic wheel (ME-Wheel) operating under a specific thermal environment. The influence of high thermal condition on the structural dynamic response of ME-Wheel is investigated. The obtained results indicate that the EMA results are in accordance with those obtained using the proposed Finite Element (FE) model, indicting the high reliability of this FE model applied in analyzing the modal of ME-Wheel working under practical thermal environment. It demonstrates that the structural dynamic response of ME-Wheel operating under a specific thermal condition can be predicted and evaluated using the proposed analysis method, which is beneficial for the dynamic optimization design of the wheel structure to avoid tire temperature related vibration failure and improve safety of tire.

Analysis of the distribution of temperature fields in the braked railway wheel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suchánek Andrej

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with detection of reduced stress in a braked railway wheel, based on thermal transient analysis on virtual models, which influence the characteristics of the railway wheels. Structural analysis was performed by means of the ANSYS Multiphysics program system package. Thermal transient analysis deals with detection of temperature fields which are a result of braking by brake block. The applied heat flux represents the heat generated by friction of brake block. It is applied to a quarter model of the wheel to speed up the calculation. This analysis simulates two braking processes with subsequent cooling. Distribution of the equivalent stress was detected in the railway wheel cross section, at selected points. The input parameters were taken from the thermal transient analysis. These equivalent stresses result from thermal load.

Robust Feedback Linearization-based Control Design for a Wheeled Mobile Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Andersen, Palle; Pedersen, Tom Søndergaard

This paper considers the trajectory tracking problem for a four-wheel driven, four-wheel steered mobile robot moving in outdoor terrain. The robot is modeled as a non-holonomic dynamic system subject to pure rolling, no-slip constraints. A nonlinear trajectory tracking feedback control law based...

Influence of Wheel Eccentricity on Vertical Vibration of Suspended Monorail Vehicle: Experiment and Simulation

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Kaikai Lv

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the influence of wheel eccentricity on vertical vibration of suspended monorail vehicle based on experiment and simulation. Two sets of tests are conducted in the first Chinese suspended monorail, and the tested acceleration is analyzed and exhibited. A multibody dynamic model of the suspended monorail vehicle is established to simulate the vertical vibration of car body excited by wheel eccentricity. The results show that there are three factors which may cause an abnormal vibration considering the track and the vehicle system. The influence of wheel eccentricity on the car body vibration was firstly analyzed. Simulated acceleration of car body has a great accordance with test. The wheel eccentricity could excite the resonance of car body at the speed of 21 km/h, and the vertical acceleration would increase considerably. Decreasing the secondary stiffness can effectively reduce the vertical vibration caused by wheel eccentricity, especially at the resonant speed. In the secondary test, the peak of car body acceleration at speed of 20 km/h is not appearing when only renewing the wheels, and the acceleration is decreasing obviously at the domain frequency. It is further determined that the abnormal vibration is mainly caused by the wheel eccentricity.

Preliminary Design and Investigation of Integrated Compressor with Composite Material Wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jifeng; Müller, Norbert

2012-06-01

An integrated water vapor compressor with composite material wheel is developed and strength analysis using FEM is presented. The design of wound composite material allows for integrating all rotating parts of the drive that may simply reduce to only the rotor of the electrical motor, since no drive shaft is required anymore. This design can reduce the number of parts and mass, which is convenient for engineers to maintain the compressor. The electrical motors are brushless DC motors operating through a frequency drive and apply a torque on the wheels through the materials bonded in the wheel shrouds. This system allows a large amount of compression to be produced in a multi-stage compression setup. To determine the stress and vibration characteristics of this integrated compressor, numerical analysis is carried out using FEM. The simulation result shows that the integrated compressor with composite material wheel can be used in a chiller system where water as a refrigerant.

High levels of wheel running protect against behavioral sensitization to cocaine.

Science.gov (United States)

Renteria Diaz, Laura; Siontas, Dora; Mendoza, Jose; Arvanitogiannis, Andreas

2013-01-15

Although there is no doubt that the direct action of stimulant drugs on the brain is necessary for sensitization to their behavioral stimulating effects, several experiments indicate that drug action is often not sufficient to produce sensitization. There is considerable evidence that many individual characteristics and experiential variables can modulate the behavioral and neural changes that are seen following repeated exposure to stimulant drugs. In the work presented here, we examined whether chronic wheel running would modulate behavioral sensitization to cocaine, and whether any such influence was contingent on individual differences in wheel running. We found that a 5- or 10-week experience with wheel running protects against behavioral sensitization to cocaine but only in animals with a natural tendency to run the most. Understanding the mechanism underlying the modulating effect of wheel running on behavioral sensitization may have important implications for future studies on the link between drug-induced behavioral and neural adaptations. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wheeling and Banking Strategies for Optimal Renewable Energy Deployment. International Experiences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heeter, Jenny [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Vora, Ravi [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Mathur, Shivani [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Madrigal, Paola [Energy Regulatory Commission (Mexico); Chatterjee, Sushanta K. [Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (India); Shah, Rakesh [SunEdison, Mumbai (India)

2016-03-01

This paper defines the principles of wheeling (i.e., transmission) tariffs and renewable energy (RE) banking provisions and their role in RE deployment in countries with plans for large-scale RE. It reviews experiences to date in the United States, Mexico, and India and discusses key policy and regulatory considerations for devising more effective wheeling and/or banking provisions for countries with ambitious RE deployment targets. The paper addresses the challenges of competing needs of stakeholders, especially those of RE generators, distribution utilities, and transmission network owners and operators. The importance of wheeling and banking and their effectiveness for financial viability of RE deployment is also explored. This paper aims to benefit policymakers and regulators as well as key renewable energy stakeholders. Key lessons for regulators include: creating long-term wheeling and banking policy certainty, considering incentivizing RE through discounted transmission access, and assessing the cost implications of such discounts, as well as expanding access to renewable energy customers.

Wheels Optimization and Vision Control of Omni-directional Mobile Microrobot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianghao Li

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a millimeters scale omni-directional mobile microrobot with special dual-wheel structure. The microrobot was actuated by three electromagnetic micromotors of 2mm diameter. Dynamic analysis of translational and steering movements presented the relationship between the sizes of the dual-wheel structure and the output torque of the micromotor. Genetic algorithm (GA was employed to optimize the dual-wheel's sizes for reducing the unnecessary torque consumption and improving the driving ability of the microrobot. A computer vision system contained two sets of feedback control is devised for the microrobot. Torque self-balance and current-limiting control approach are presented to ensure the accuracy of step movement. Experiment results demonstrate the feasibility of these concepts.

Running in a running wheel substitutes for stereotypies in mink (Mustela vison) but does it improve their welfare?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Steffen W; Damgaard, Birthe Marie

2009-01-01

This experiment investigated whether access to a running wheel affects the development of stereotypies during restricted feeding and whether selection for high or low levels of stereotypy affects the use of the running wheel. Sixty-two female mink kept in standard cages and selected for high or low...... levels of stereotypy were used. Thirty of these females had access to a running wheel whereas thirty-two female mink had no access to running wheels. The number of turns of the running wheel, behaviour, feed consumption, body weight and the concentration of plasma cortisol were measured during the winter...... period. Mink with access to a running wheel did not perform stereotypic behaviour and mink selected for a high level of stereotypies had more turns in the running wheel than mink selected for low levels of stereotypies. Mink with access to a running wheel used the running wheel for the same amount...

New Record Five-Wheel Drive, Spirit's Sol 1856

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images that have been combined into this stereo, 180-degree view of the rover's surroundings during the 1,856th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's surface mission (March 23, 2009). The center of the view is toward the west-southwest. The rover had driven 25.82 meters (84.7 feet) west-northwestward earlier on Sol 1856. This is the longest drive on Mars so far by a rover using only five wheels. Spirit lost the use of its right-front wheel in March 2006. Before Sol 1856, the farthest Spirit had covered in a single sol's five-wheel drive was 24.83 meters (81.5 feet), on Sol 1363 (Nov. 3, 2007). The Sol 1856 drive made progress on a route planned for taking Spirit around the western side of the low plateau called 'Home Plate.' A portion of the northwestern edge of Home Plate is prominent in the left quarter of this image, toward the south. This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.

Bucket wheel excavators for open-cast mining all over the world

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Durst, W.

1979-04-01

A report is given on the use of bucket wheel excavators, spreaders and tripper cars in open-cast mining of brown coal, oilsand and other minerals in Australia, Canada, India, Spain, USA and Yugoslavia as well as on the use of bucket wheel excavators for land reclamation in Singapore.

Comparative Analysis of Lightweight Robotic Wheeled and Tracked Vehicle

OpenAIRE

Johnson, Christopher Patrick

2012-01-01

This study focuses on conducting a benchmarking analysis for light wheeled and tracked robotic vehicles. Vehicle mobility has long been a key aspect of research for many organizations. According to the Department of Defense vehicle mobility is defined as, "the overall capacity to move from place to place while retaining its ability to perform its primary mission"[1]. Until recently this definition has been applied exclusively to large scale wheeled and tracked vehicles. With new development l...

A Ferris Wheel Accident at a Movable Amusement Park.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Young-Jin; Ji, Hong-Keun; Moon, Byung-Sun; Park, Ha-Sun; Goh, Jae-Mo; Park, Nam-Kyu; Choi, Don-Mook

2017-05-01

This study presented a Ferris wheel accident case. A Ferris wheel is composed of many parts, and the outmost ring of it is assembled using a lock pin. This accident occurred because the lock pin caught the door of a gondola and the gondola overturned. Five of the seven passengers in the gondola fell to the ground, along with the gondola's viewing window. The investigation revealed that the gondola became stuck when its door was caught by a lock pin at the Ferris wheel's three o'clock position. The contact between the door and the lock pin was due to a structural problem: There was not enough space allotted between the door and the lock pin. Therefore, if a passenger pushed on the gondola's door, the potential existed for contact between the door and the lock pin. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Wheel/rail noise generated by a high-speed train investigated with a line array of microphones

Science.gov (United States)

Barsikow, B.; King, W. F.; Pfizenmaier, E.

1987-10-01

Radiated noise generated by a high-speed electric train travelling at speeds up to 250 km/h has been measured with a line array of microphones mounted along the wayside in two different orientations. The test train comprised a 103 electric locomotive, four Intercity coaches, and a dynamo coach. Some of the wheels were fitted with experimental wheel-noise absorbers. By using the directional capabilities of the array, the locations of the dominant sources of wheel/rail radiated noise were identified on the wheels. For conventional wheels, these sources lie near or on the rim at an average height of about 0·2 m above the railhead. The effect of wheel-noise absorbers and freshly turned treads on radiated noise were also investigated.

Assessment of a rail vehicle running with the damaged wheel on a ride comfort for passengers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dižo Ján

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In certain conditions rail vehicles wheels can be during operation damaged. Then, the profile of wheels is no longer circular, but it is changed depending on the type and severity of defects. When such rail vehicle with the damaged wheel operates, the quality of a ride comfort for passenger is degraded. This article is focused on the assessment of ride comfort for passenger based on results obtained from dynamic analyses. Simulations and calculations were carried out in commercial multibody software. In our research we considered one type of the railway wheel untrueness – wheel-flat. This type of wheel damaging is relatively common and has such influence on the ride comfort for passenger worsening, which needs to be detected and investigated.

Evolutionary algorithm for vehicle driving cycle generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Perhinschi, Mario G; Marlowe, Christopher; Tamayo, Sergio; Tu, Jun; Wayne, W Scott

2011-09-01

Modeling transit bus emissions and fuel economy requires a large amount of experimental data over wide ranges of operational conditions. Chassis dynamometer tests are typically performed using representative driving cycles defined based on vehicle instantaneous speed as sequences of "microtrips", which are intervals between consecutive vehicle stops. Overall significant parameters of the driving cycle, such as average speed, stops per mile, kinetic intensity, and others, are used as independent variables in the modeling process. Performing tests at all the necessary combinations of parameters is expensive and time consuming. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for building driving cycles at prescribed independent variable values using experimental data through the concatenation of "microtrips" isolated from a limited number of standard chassis dynamometer test cycles. The selection of the adequate "microtrips" is achieved through a customized evolutionary algorithm. The genetic representation uses microtrip definitions as genes. Specific mutation, crossover, and karyotype alteration operators have been defined. The Roulette-Wheel selection technique with elitist strategy drives the optimization process, which consists of minimizing the errors to desired overall cycle parameters. This utility is part of the Integrated Bus Information System developed at West Virginia University.

A development of the distributive law of points on the multi-wheeled machine wheels with electro-mechanical transmission, made under the scheme "motor-axis"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. M. Jileikin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, developers of multi-wheeled vehicles (MWV show growing interest in electromechanical drive in the «motor-axis» implementation. However, in designing the traction electric drive (TED based on such approach the problems arise, primarily, from a lack of creating experience and of ready algorithmic solutions to control the traction motors. The use of methods to implement the individual TED is impossible because of the presence of cross-axle differential in the leading axle drive, which does not allow the input torque control of each wheel singly. The paper offers a law to control a traction electric drive of MWV leading axles that comprises the law to control the tractive effort torque and braking moment on the leading axles as well as algorithms of anti-lock brake and traction control systems.An analysis of simulation modeling results shows an efficiency of the developed law that allows control of the traction electric drive of MWV leading axles. The control law includes an algorithm to control the tractive effort torque and braking moment on the driving-wheels, as well as algorithms of anti-lock brake and traction systems.At stationary (constant speed rotation and non-stationary (elk test maneuvering there was no spin of vehicle wheels. Angular speeds of the wheels vary smoothly. Partial loss of vehicle stability when making maneuvers on ice may be reduced through development of algorithms for dynamic stabilization, which will improve the MWV road-holding and trajectory ability. Fullscale tests of MWV with traction electric drive implemented using a “motor-axis" approach are required to have a final answer on the performance and effectiveness of the developed control law.

Evolutionary Nephrology.

Science.gov (United States)

Chevalier, Robert L

2017-05-01

Progressive kidney disease follows nephron loss, hyperfiltration, and incomplete repair, a process described as "maladaptive." In the past 20 years, a new discipline has emerged that expands research horizons: evolutionary medicine. In contrast to physiologic (homeostatic) adaptation, evolutionary adaptation is the result of reproductive success that reflects natural selection. Evolutionary explanations for physiologically maladaptive responses can emerge from mismatch of the phenotype with environment or evolutionary tradeoffs. Evolutionary adaptation to a terrestrial environment resulted in a vulnerable energy-consuming renal tubule and a hypoxic, hyperosmolar microenvironment. Natural selection favors successful energy investment strategy: energy is allocated to maintenance of nephron integrity through reproductive years, but this declines with increasing senescence after ~40 years of age. Risk factors for chronic kidney disease include restricted fetal growth or preterm birth (life history tradeoff resulting in fewer nephrons), evolutionary selection for APOL1 mutations (that provide resistance to trypanosome infection, a tradeoff), and modern life experience (Western diet mismatch leading to diabetes and hypertension). Current advances in genomics, epigenetics, and developmental biology have revealed proximate causes of kidney disease, but attempts to slow kidney disease remain elusive. Evolutionary medicine provides a complementary approach by addressing ultimate causes of kidney disease. Marked variation in nephron number at birth, nephron heterogeneity, and changing susceptibility to kidney injury throughout life history are the result of evolutionary processes. Combined application of molecular genetics, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), developmental programming and life history theory may yield new strategies for prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Evolutionary Nephrology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert L. Chevalier

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Progressive kidney disease follows nephron loss, hyperfiltration, and incomplete repair, a process described as “maladaptive.” In the past 20 years, a new discipline has emerged that expands research horizons: evolutionary medicine. In contrast to physiologic (homeostatic adaptation, evolutionary adaptation is the result of reproductive success that reflects natural selection. Evolutionary explanations for physiologically maladaptive responses can emerge from mismatch of the phenotype with environment or from evolutionary tradeoffs. Evolutionary adaptation to a terrestrial environment resulted in a vulnerable energy-consuming renal tubule and a hypoxic, hyperosmolar microenvironment. Natural selection favors successful energy investment strategy: energy is allocated to maintenance of nephron integrity through reproductive years, but this declines with increasing senescence after ∼40 years of age. Risk factors for chronic kidney disease include restricted fetal growth or preterm birth (life history tradeoff resulting in fewer nephrons, evolutionary selection for APOL1 mutations (which provide resistance to trypanosome infection, a tradeoff, and modern life experience (Western diet mismatch leading to diabetes and hypertension. Current advances in genomics, epigenetics, and developmental biology have revealed proximate causes of kidney disease, but attempts to slow kidney disease remain elusive. Evolutionary medicine provides a complementary approach by addressing ultimate causes of kidney disease. Marked variation in nephron number at birth, nephron heterogeneity, and changing susceptibility to kidney injury throughout the life history are the result of evolutionary processes. Combined application of molecular genetics, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo, developmental programming, and life history theory may yield new strategies for prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Steady state modeling of desiccant wheels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bellemo, Lorenzo; Elmegaard, Brian; Kærn, Martin Ryhl

2014-01-01

Desiccant wheels are rotary desiccant dehumidifiers used in air conditioning and drying applications. The modeling of simultaneous heat and mass transfer in these components is crucial for estimating their performances, as well as for simulating and optimizing their implementation in complete...

Investigation of diamond wheel topography in Elliptical Ultrasonic Assisted Grinding (EUAG) of monocrystal sapphire using fractal analysis method.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qiuyan; Zhao, Wenxiang; Liang, Zhiqiang; Wang, Xibin; Zhou, Tianfeng; Wu, Yongbo; Jiao, Li

2018-03-01

The wear behaviors of grinding wheel have significant influence on the work-surface topography. However, a comprehensive and quantitative method is lacking for evaluating the wear conditions of grinding wheel. In this paper, a fractal analysis method is used to investigate the wear behavior of resin-bonded diamond wheel in Elliptical Ultrasonic Assisted Grinding (EUAG) of monocrystal sapphire, and a series of experiments on EUAG and conventional grinding (CG) are performed. The results show that the fractal dimension of grinding wheel topography is highly correlated to the wear behavior, i.e., grain fracture, grain pullout, and wheel loading. An increase in cutting edge density on the wheel surface results in an increase of the fractal dimension, but an increase in the grain pullout and wheel loading results in a decrease in the fractal dimension. The wheel topography in EUAG has a higher fractal dimension than that in CG before 60 passes due to better self-sharpening behavior, and then has a smaller fractal dimension because of more serious wheel loadings after 60 passes. By angle-dependent distribution analysis of profile fractal dimensions, the wheel surface topography is transformed from isotropic to anisotropic. These indicated that the fractal analysis method could be further used in monitoring of a grinding wheel performance in EUAG. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Four-Wheel-Rhombus-Arranged Mobility System for a New Lunar Robotic Rover

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guilin Wen

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Different from traditional ground vehicles, planetary robotic rovers with limited weight and power need to travel in unfamiliar and extremely arduous environments. In this paper, a newly developed four-wheel-rhombus-arranged (FWRA mobility system is presented as a lunar robotic rover with high mobility and a low-weight structure. The mobility system integrates independent active suspensions with a passive rotary link structure. The active suspension with swing arms improves the rover's capacity to escape from a trapped environment whereas the passive rotary link structure guarantees continuous contact between the four wheels and the terrain. The four-wheel-three-axis rhombus configuration of the mobility system gives a high degree of lightweight structure because it has a simple mechanism with the minimum number of wheels among wheeled rovers with three-axis off-road mobility. The performance evaluation of the lightweight nature of the structure, manoeuvrability and the mobility required in a planetary exploring environment are illustrated by theoretical analysis and partly shown by experiments on the developed rover prototype.

Investigating Functions with a Ferris Wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Heather Lynn; Hornbein, Peter; Azeem, Sumbal

2016-01-01

The authors provide a dynamic Ferris wheel computer activity that teachers can use as an instructional tool to help students investigate functions. They use a student's work to illustrate how students can use relationships between quantities to further their thinking about functions.

49 CFR 215.103 - Defective wheel.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... of the rim; or, (i) A wheel on the car has been welded unless the car is being moved for repair in... on the car shows evidence of being loose such as oil seepage on the back hub or back plate; (h) A...

Uptake of wheel-filtration among clients of a supervised injecting facility: Can structured education work?

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Maureen; Silins, Edmund; Flaherty, Ian; Hiley, Sarah; van Breda, Nick; Jauncey, Marianne

2018-01-01

Wheel-filtration of pharmaceutical opioid tablets is a recognised harm reduction strategy, but uptake of the practice among people who inject drugs is low. The study aimed to: (i) examine perceptions of filtration practices; (ii) provide structured education on wheel-filtration; and (iii) assess uptake of the practice. Frequent opioid tablet injectors (n = 30) attending a supervised injecting facility in Sydney, Australia, received hands-on instruction on wheel-filtration based on recommended practice. Pre-education, post-education and follow-up questionnaires were administered. Wheel-filtration was generally regarded as better than cotton-filtration (the typical method) in terms of perceived effects on health, ease of use and overall drug effect. Sixty-eight percent of those who said they would try wheel-filtration after the education had actually done so. Of those who usually used cotton-filtration, over half (60%) had used wheel-filtration two weeks later. Uptake of safer preparation methods for pharmaceutical opioid tablets increases after structured education in wheel-filtration. Findings suggest that SIFs are an effective site for this kind of education. Supervised injecting facility workers are uniquely positioned to provide harm reduction education at the time of injection. [Steele M, Silins E, Flaherty I, Hiley S, van Breda N, Jauncey M. Uptake of wheel-filtration among clients of a supervised injecting facility: Can structured education work? Drug Alcohol Rev 2018;37:116-120]. © 2017 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Elimination of torque pulsations in a direct drive EV wheel motor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hredzak, B.; Gair, S. [Napier Univ., Edinburgh (United Kingdom); Eastham, J.F. [Univ. of Bath (United Kingdom)

1996-09-01

Double sided axial field machines are attractive for direct wheel drives in electric vehicles. This is due to the fact that stator/rotor misalignments can be accommodated. In this case the stator of the machine is envisaged mounted on the chassis of the car while the rotor directly drives the road wheel. Since the wheel is perturbed by the road surface the rotor will move vertically between the outside stator assemblies and thus give rise to torque pulsations. A vector control scheme has been implemented whereby the torque pulsations are eliminated by (i) calculation of the flux variation due to the rotor perturbation and (ii) using this signal for the modulation of the motor input current.

Stress Distribution around Laser-Welded Cutting Wheels Using a Spherical Indentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Yun Hee; Lee, Wan Kyu; Jeong, In Hyeon; Nahm, Seung Hoon [KRISS, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2008-04-15

A spherical indentation has been proposed as a nondestructive method of measuring local residual stress field in laser-voided joints. The apparent yield strengths interpreted from the spherical indentation data of as-welded cutting wheel were compared with the intrinsic yield strengths measured at nearly equivalent locations in annealed wheel. Their difference along the distance from the welding line is welding stress distribution because the intrinsic yield strength is invariant regardless of the elastic residual stress. The spherical indentations show that the laser-welded diamond cutting wheel displays a 10 min-wide distribution of the welding residual stress and has peak compressive and tensile stresses in the shank and tip regions, respectively.

Taste avoidance induced by wheel running: effects of backward pairings and robustness of conditioned taste aversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne; Pierce, W David; Heth, Donald C; Russell, James C

2004-09-15

Rats repeatedly exposed to a distinctive novel solution (conditioned stimulus, CS) followed by the opportunity to run in a wheel subsequently drink less of this solution. Investigations on this phenomenon indicate that wheel running is an effective unconditioned stimulus (US) for establishing conditioned taste aversion (CTA) when using a forward conditioning procedure (i.e., the US-wheel running follows the CS-taste). However, other studies show that wheel running produces reliable preference for a distinctive place when pairings are backward (i.e., the CS-location follows the US-wheel running). One possibility to account for these results is that rewarding aftereffects of wheel running conditioned preference to the CS. The main objective of the present study was to assess the effects of backward conditioning using wheel running as the US and a distinctive taste as the CS. In a between-groups design, two experimental groups [i.e., forward (FC) and backward conditioning (BC)] and two control groups [CS-taste alone (TA) and CS-US unpaired (UNP)] were compared. Results from this experiment indicated that there is less suppression of drinking when a CS-taste followed a bout of wheel running. In fact, rats in the BC group drank more of the paired solution than all the other groups.

Evolutionary molecular medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M; Ganten, Detlev; Gregory, T Ryan; Omenn, Gilbert S

2012-05-01

Evolution has long provided a foundation for population genetics, but some major advances in evolutionary biology from the twentieth century that provide foundations for evolutionary medicine are only now being applied in molecular medicine. They include the need for both proximate and evolutionary explanations, kin selection, evolutionary models for cooperation, competition between alleles, co-evolution, and new strategies for tracing phylogenies and identifying signals of selection. Recent advances in genomics are transforming evolutionary biology in ways that create even more opportunities for progress at its interfaces with genetics, medicine, and public health. This article reviews 15 evolutionary principles and their applications in molecular medicine in hopes that readers will use them and related principles to speed the development of evolutionary molecular medicine.

Diabetes education on wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardway, D; Weatherly, K S; Bonheur, B

1993-01-01

Diabetes education programs remain underdeveloped in the pediatric setting, resulting in increased consumer complaints and financial liability for hospitals. The Diabetes Education on Wheels program was designed to provide comprehensive, outcome-oriented education for patients with juvenile diabetes. The primary goal of the program was to enhance patients' and family members' ability to achieve self-care in the home setting. The program facilitated sequential learning, improved consumer satisfaction, and promoted financial viability for the hospital.

A Study of Torque Vectoring and Traction Control for an All-Wheel Drive Electric Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maharun Mui’nuddin

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Common vehicle always experience energy loss during cornering manoeuver. Thus, to ensure it did not happened especially at high speed, a study of torque vectoring and traction control need to be made since it can increase the traction control of tyres during cornering at high speed. The study of torque vectoring and traction control for an all-wheel drive electric vehicle was conducted by modelling an all-wheel drive electric vehicle (EV in ADAMS/Car software. In addition, an optimal control algorithm will be developed for best performance to minimize energy losses using MATLAB/Simulink software. Furthermore, to prove the effectiveness of the all-wheel drive electric, the torque and traction control simulation of the all-wheel drive electric vehicle will be compared with uncontrolled electric vehicle model. According to the result, torque vectoring and traction control of in-wheel motor in all wheel drive EV can help to increase the performance of the electric vehicle during cornering manoeuver. In conclusion, this study of torque vectoring and traction control for an all-wheel drive electric vehicle will help researchers to improve the design of the future electric vehicle in term of the vehicle performance during cornering manoeuvre.

INFLUENCE OF USUAL AND DUAL WHEELS ON SOIL PENETRATION RESISTANCE: THE GIS-APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhukov A. V.

2015-12-01

Full Text Available GIS-APPROACH application has allowed establishing that usual wheels of machine-tractor units carry out considerable influence on soil which exceeds visible borders of a track of wheels on the dimensions. This influence shows in augmentation of soil penetration resistance at 100-155 % in comparison with the control on depth of 0-10 cm and on 20-30 % on depth of 45-50 %. It is impossible to exclude that influence of wheels proceeds more deeply, than tests have been conducted. Critical for cultivated plants value of soil penetration resistance in 3 MPa under the influence of usual wheels of agricultural machinery comes nearer practically to a surface. Character of profile changes of hardness in various regions influences of wheels allows assuming the long season of a relaxation of soil for achievement of background values of soil penetration resistance. The further researches are necessary for an establishment of concrete indicators of dynamics. Negative influence of an overstocking does not confine only deterioration of conditions of growth of assemblages of rootlets of plants. Infringement of processes of moving of moisture in the soil, the accelerated evaporation and the slowed down processes of a filtration and an infiltration, destruction of modular frame, activization of erosive processes is possible. The understanding of these processes will give the chance volume understanding of real influence of running systems of machine-tractor devices on bedrock. Region intensive influence of dual wheels is circumscribed by the top soil layers (0-15 cm. The major feature of influence of dual wheels is absence of an overstocking above critical levels. It is impossible to exclude possible positive influence of moderate inspissations of soil under the influence of dual wheels for growth of agricultural crops and moisture conservation in soil. The cumulative negative effect on soil crossed vehicles traces is probable. The long season of a relaxation of

Wheel running reduces high-fat diet intake, preference and mu-opioid agonist stimulated intake

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Nu-Chu; Bello, Nicholas T.; Moran, Timothy H.

2015-01-01

The ranges of mechanisms by which exercise affects energy balance remain unclear. One potential mechanism may be that exercise reduces intake and preference for highly palatable, energy dense fatty foods. The current study used a rodent wheel running model to determine whether and how physical activity affects HF diet intake/preference and reward signaling. Experiment 1 examined whether wheel running affected the ability of intracerebroventricular (ICV) µ opioid receptor agonist D-Ala2, NMe-Phe4, Glyol5-enkephalin (DAMGO) to increase HF diet intake. Experiment 2 examined the effects of wheel running on the intake of and preference for a previously preferred HF diet. We also assessed the effects of wheel running and diet choice on mesolimbic dopaminergic and opioidergic gene expression. Experiment 1 revealed that wheel running decreased the ability of ICV DAMGO administration to stimulate HF diet intake. Experiment 2 showed that wheel running suppressed weight gain and reduced intake and preference for a previously preferred HF diet. Furthermore, the mesolimbic gene expression profile of wheel running rats was different from that of their sedentary paired-fed controls but similar to that of sedentary rats with large HF diet consumption. These data suggest that alterations in preference for palatable, energy dense foods play a role in the effects of exercise on energy homeostasis. The gene expression results also suggest that the hedonic effects of exercise may substitute for food reward to limit food intake and suppress weight gain. PMID:25668514

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF ATTITUDE CONTROL BUCKET‐WHEEL EXCAVATOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana ONDERKOVÁ

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This lecture deals with the application problems of convertibility GPS system at paddle excavator K 800. The claims of the modern operating surface mining of the excavators requires a lot of information for monitoring of mining process, capacity mining, selective extraction etc. The utilization of monitoring the excavator setting by GPS system proved to be the only one proper because the receivers are resistant to the vibration, dust, temperature divergence and weather changeable. Only the direct contact with communications satellite is required. It means that they can´t be located in a metal construction space (shadow caused by construction elements, influence of electrical high voltage cables even they can´t be located close to the paddle wheel on the paddle boom (shadow possibility caused by cuttinng edge created during lower gangplanks mining. This is the reason that GPS receivers are set uppermost on the metal construction excavator and the mathematical formulation is required for determination of paddle wheel petting. The relations for calculation of the paddle wheel coordinate were defined mathematically and after that the mathematical model was composed.

Dynamic analysis of elastic rubber tired car wheel breaking under variable normal load

Science.gov (United States)

Fedotov, A. I.; Zedgenizov, V. G.; Ovchinnikova, N. I.

2017-10-01

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the dynamics of the braking of the wheel under normal load variations. The paper uses a mathematical simulation method according to which the calculation model of an object as a mechanical system is associated with a dynamically equivalent schematic structure of the automatic control. Transfer function tool analyzing structural and technical characteristics of an object as well as force disturbances were used. It was proved that the analysis of dynamic characteristics of the wheel subjected to external force disturbances has to take into account amplitude and phase-frequency characteristics. Normal load variations impact car wheel braking subjected to disturbances. The closer slip to the critical point is, the higher the impact is. In the super-critical area, load variations cause fast wheel blocking.

Soft Legged Wheel-Based Robot with Terrestrial Locomotion Abilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Sadeghi

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years robotics has been influenced by a new approach, soft-robotics, bringing the idea that safe interaction with user and more adaptation to the environment can be achieved by exploiting easily deformable materials and flexible components in the structure of robots. In 2016, the soft-robotics community has promoted a new robotics challenge, named RoboSoft Grand Challenge, with the aim of bringing together different opinions on the usefulness and applicability of softness and compliancy in robotics. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a terrestrial robot based on two soft legged wheels. The tasks predefined by the challenge were set as targets in the robot design, which finally succeeded to accomplish all the tasks. The wheels of the robot can passively climb over stairs and adapt to slippery grounds using two soft legs embedded in their structure. The soft legs, fabricated by integration of soft and rigid materials and mounted on the circumference of a conventional wheel, succeed to enhance its functionality and easily adapt to unknown grounds. The robot has a semi stiff tail that helps in the stabilization and climbing of stairs. An active wheel is embedded at the extremity of the tail in order to increase the robot maneuverability in narrow environments. Moreover two parallelogram linkages let the robot to reconfigure and shrink its size allowing entering inside gates smaller than its initial dimensions.

About the influence of wheel slide protection devices action on longitudinal dynamic of trains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cruceanu Cătălin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Wheel slide protection devices (WSPD are destined to avoid important sliding of wheels during braking actions in case of temporarily impaired wheel-rail adhesion by correspondent reductions of air pressure in brake cylinders. Accordingly, longer braking distances and higher longitudinal in-train forces occur, potentially affecting the traffic safety and the passengers comfort. A general analyse and evaluation of these effects are the main targets of the present study. The theoretical considerations are sustained by simulations of braking process, considering situations of normal, respectively diminished wheel-rail adhesion determining random actuations of WSPD. The air pressure evolution in brake cylinders of was experimentally determined on a computerized brake system test stand and adequately used as input in simulations. The results indicate an increase of in-train forces and a more complex evolution of the longitudinal dynamic actions between the vehicles in the case of degraded wheel-rail adhesion, when the random actuation of WSPD have major influence in the whole braking process.

Tire-rim interface pressure of a commercial vehicle wheel under radial loads: theory and experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Xiaofei; Shan, Yingchun; Liu, Xiandong; He, Tian; Wang, Jiegong

2017-11-01

The simulation of the radial fatigue test of a wheel has been a necessary tool to improve the design of the wheel and calculate its fatigue life. The simulation model, including the strong nonlinearity of the tire structure and material, may produce accurate results, but often leads to a divergence in calculation. Thus, a simplified simulation model in which the complicated tire model is replaced with a tire-wheel contact pressure model is used extensively in the industry. In this paper, a simplified tire-rim interface pressure model of a wheel under a radial load is established, and the pressure of the wheel under different radial loads is tested. The tire-rim contact behavior affected by the radial load is studied and analyzed according to the test result, and the tire-rim interface pressure extracted from the test result is used to evaluate the simplified pressure model and the traditional cosine function model. The results show that the proposed model may provide a more accurate prediction of the wheel radial fatigue life than the traditional cosine function model.

Asymmetric Barrier Lyapunov Function-Based Wheel Slip Control for Antilock Braking System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaolei Chen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available As an important device of the aircraft landing system, the antilock braking system (ABS has a function to avoid aircraft wheels self-locking. To deal with the strong nonlinear characteristics, complex nonlinear control schemes are applied in ABS. However, none of existing control schemes focus on the braking operating status, which directly reflects wheels self-locking degree. In this paper, the braking operating status region is divided into three regions: the healthy region, the light slip region, and the deep slip region. An ABLF-based wheel slip controller is proposed for ABS to constrain the braking system operating status in the healthy region and the light slip region. Therefore the ABS will be prevented from operating in the deep slip region. Under the proposed control scheme, self-locking is avoided completely and zero steady state error tracking of the wheel optimal slip ratio is implemented. The Hardware-In-Loop (HIL experiments have validated the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

[Active and safe with wheeled walkers : Pilot study on feasibility of mobility exercises for wheeled walker users].

Science.gov (United States)

Pflaum, Marina; Lang, Frieder R; Freiberger, Ellen

2016-07-01

The number of older people with mobility impairments using wheeled walkers is increasing; however, the handling of these walking aids is often ineffective. Moreover, age-associated functional loss, environmental demands and fear of falling may additionally challenge mobility. The new training program "Active and safe with wheeled walkers" aims to enhance skills and to improve mobility. The present pilot study was carried out to assess the feasibility of the training as well as to identify training effects and methodological insights for further research. The study was carried out with 28 wheeled walker users (age 68-91 years) in assisted living facilities using a pre-post design. Of the participants 13 persons were trained for 10 weeks (90 min, twice a week) and 15 persons served as a control group. Data were collected on functional mobility, hand strength, leg strength, balance, walker handling and fear of falling. The drop-out rate for the training was 38 % due to health concerns (n = 2), lack of time (n = 1) and changes in health status independent of training (n = 3). Medium to large effects were detected. Data regarding the recruitment strategy and the acceptance of individual exercises are available. The results indicate a good feasibility and effectiveness of the training. The simple accessibility of the training was conducive for the regular participation. The everyday relevance of the results and the lack of comparable interventions suggest that further research efforts be carried out. Recruitment strategies, training requirements and data collection methods need to be optimized.

Optimal Electrical Energy Slewing for Reaction Wheel Spacecraft

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh, Harleigh Christian

The results contained in this dissertation contribute to a deeper level of understanding to the energy required to slew a spacecraft using reaction wheels. This work addresses the fundamental manner in which spacecrafts are slewed (eigenaxis maneuvering), and demonstrates that this conventional maneuver can be dramatically improved upon in regards to reduction of energy, dissipative losses, as well as peak power. Energy is a fundamental resource that effects every asset, system, and subsystem upon a spacecraft, from the attitude control system which orients the spacecraft, to the communication subsystem to link with ground stations, to the payloads which collect scientific data. For a reaction wheel spacecraft, the attitude control system is a particularly heavy load on the power and energy resources on a spacecraft. The central focus of this dissertation is reducing the burden which the attitude control system places upon the spacecraft in regards to electrical energy, which is shown in this dissertation to be a challenging problem to computationally solve and analyze. Reducing power and energy demands can have a multitude of benefits, spanning from the initial design phase, to in-flight operations, to potentially extending the mission life of the spacecraft. This goal is approached from a practical standpoint apropos to an industry-flight setting. Metrics to measure electrical energy and power are developed which are in-line with the cost associated to operating reaction wheel based attitude control systems. These metrics are incorporated into multiple families of practical high-dimensional constrained nonlinear optimal control problems to reduce the electrical energy, as well as the instantaneous power burdens imposed by the attitude control system upon the spacecraft. Minimizing electrical energy is shown to be a problem in L1 optimal control which is nonsmooth in regards to state variables as well as the control. To overcome the challenge of nonsmoothness, a

Voluntary wheel running in dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice: Relationships between exercise parameters and exacerbation of the dystrophic phenotype

OpenAIRE

Smythe, Gayle M; White, Jason D

2012-01-01

Voluntary wheel running can potentially be used to exacerbate the disease phenotype in dystrophin-deficient mdx mice. While it has been established that voluntary wheel running is highly variable between individuals, the key parameters of wheel running that impact the most on muscle pathology have not been examined in detail. We conducted a 2-week test of voluntary wheel running by mdx mice and the impact of wheel running on disease pathology. There was significant individual variation in the...

PARAMETER MATCHING OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE AND ELECTROMECHANICAL POWER TRAIN OF WHEEL TRACTOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. V. Kliuchnikov

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The paper considers stepless electromechanical power train of a wheel tractor. Methodology for parameter matching of electromechanical transmission and internal combustion engine for their optimum performance as part of a power wheel tractor unit. 

Development of Composite Grinding Wheels for Hard and Soft Metals

OpenAIRE

Pruti, Faruk

2012-01-01

This research investigates the performance of grinding wheel in terms of its internal granular particles and their effect on the surface finish for both soft and hard metals subjected to both dry and wet conditions of use. The study considers the properties of materials of construction including hardness of the granular particles and their size and distributions that affects the grinding wheel efficiency in abrading of soft and hard metal surfaces. Furthermore, in order to improve grinding pe...

Wheeled Vehicle Steering Systems. Military Curriculum Materials for Vocational and Technical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Army Ordnance Center and School, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

This course is one of several subcourses that make up the entire Army correspondence course on wheeled vehicle maintenance. The subcourse is designed to provide the student with information about the operation, malfunction diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of wheeled vehicle steering systems. It provides the basic theory, and also includes…

Wheeled Vehicle Electrical Systems. Military Curriculum Materials for Vocational and Technical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Army Ordnance Center and School, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

This course is one of several subcourses that make up the entire Army correspondence course on wheeled vehicle maintenance. The subcourse is designed to provide the student with information about the operation, malfunction diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of wheeled vehicle electrical systems. It provides the basic theory, and also includes…

Deformation and lifetime behaviour of cyclic loaded rail and wheel steels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Denne, B.; Lang, K.-H.; Loehe, D. [Karlsruhe Univ. (T.H.) (Germany). Inst. fuer Werkstoffkunde 1

2000-07-01

Corrugation, shelling and squats are some unexpected technical problems caused by increasing service tonnage, increasing load of the rails and increasing train speed at Deutsche Bahn AG lines since the last decades. As the complex phenomena of rolling contact fatigue in the rail / wheel system is difficult to understand extensive investigations have to be done to describe the multiaxial rolling contact fatigue processes and to develop and verify multiaxial fatigue criteria and lifetime predictions. To reach this aim a reliable fatigue data base of the utilised steels is required. To obtain such data, specimens were worked out of rails and wheels used in high speed traffic. With these specimens the lifetime behaviour and the endurance limit were estimated from push-pull tests. For the rail steel stress and total strain controlled fatigue tests were performed. The resulting lifetime behaviour is compared. In the wheel there are several regions with different microstructures due to the heat treatment at the end of the manufacturing process. Specimens were taken from the wheel rim representing these different microstructures. With these specimens stress controlled fatigue tests were performed. The influence of the different microstructures on the deformation and lifetime behaviour is showed. (orig.)

A novel dual motor drive system for three wheel electric vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Panmuang, Piyapat; Thongsan, Taweesak; Suwapaet, Nuchida; Laohavanich, Juckamass; Photong, Chonlatee

2018-03-01

This paper presents a novel dual motor drive system used for three wheel electric vehicles that have one free wheel at the front and two wheels with a drive system at the end of the vehicles. A novel dual motor drive system consists of two identical DC motors that are independently controlled by its speed-torque controller. Under light load conditions, only one of the DC motors will operate around it rated whilst under hard load conditions both of the DC motors will operate. With this drive system, the motors will operate only at its high performance at rated or else no operate to retain longer lifetime. The simulated results for the Skylab three wheel electric vehicle prototype with 8kW at full load (high torque, low speed) and around 4kW at light/normal operating loads (regular speed-torque) showed that the proposed system provides better dynamic responses with faster overshoot current/voltage recovery time, has lower investment costs, has longer lifetime of the motors and allows the motors to always operate at their high performance and thus achieve more cost effective system compared to a single motor drive system with 8kW DC motors.

Wheel Slip Control of Vehicle ABS Using Piezoactuator-Based Valve System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juncheol Jeon

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel piezoactuator-based valve for vehicle ABS. The piezoactuator located in one side of a rigid beam makes a displacement required to control the pressure at a flapper-nozzle of the pneumatic valve. In order to obtain the wide control range of the pressure, a pressure modulator comprised of dual-type cylinder and piston is proposed. The governing equation of the piezovalve system which consists of the proposed piezoactuator-based valve and the pressure modulator is obtained. The longitudinal vehicle dynamics and the wheel slip condition are then formulated. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed piezovalve system from the viewpoint of the vehicle ABS, a sliding mode controller is designed for wheel slip control. The tracking control performances for the desired wheel slip rate are evaluated and the braking performances in terms of braking distance are then presented on different road conditions (dry asphalt, wet asphalt, and wet jennite. It is clearly shown that the desired wheel slip rate is well achieved and the braking distance and braking time can be significantly reduced by using the proposed piezovalve system associated with the slip rate controller.

Simulation modeling of wheeled vehicle dynamics on the stand "Roller"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. O. Kotiev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The tests are an integral part of the wheeled vehicle design, manufacturing, and operation. The need for their conducting arises from the research and experimental activities to assess the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the vehicles in general, as well as the individual components and assemblies. It is obvious that a variety of design features of wheeled vehicles request a development of methods both for experimental studies and for creating the original bench equipment for these purposes.The main positive feature of bench tests of automotive engineering is a broad capability to control the combinations of traction loads, speed rates, and external input conditions. Here, the steady state conditions can be used for a long time, allowing all the necessary measurements to be made, including those with video and photo recording experiment.It is known that the benefits of test "M" type (using a roller dynamometer include a wide range of test modes, which do not depend on the climatic conditions, as well as a capability to use a computer-aided testing programs. At the same time, it is known that the main drawback of bench tests of full-size vehicle is that the tire rolling conditions on the drum mismatch to the real road pavements, which are difficult to simulate on the drum surface. This problem can be solved owing to wheeled vehicle tests at the benches "Roller" to be, in efficiency, the most preferable research method. The article gives a detailed presentation of developed at BMSTU approach to its solving.Problem of simulation mathematical modeling has been solved for the vehicle with the wheel formula 8 × 8, and individual wheel-drive.The simulation results have led to the conclusion that the proposed principle to simulate a vehicle rolling on a smooth non-deformable support base using a bench " Roller " by simulation modeling is efficient.

Light and Heavy Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Fuel Consumption Evaluations Using Fuel Efficient Gear Oils (FEGO)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-05-01

UNCLASSIFIED LIGHT AND HEAVY TACTICAL WHEELED VEHICLE FUEL CONSUMPTION EVALUATIONS USING FUEL EFFICIENT GEAR OILS (FEGO) FINAL... HEAVY TACTICAL WHEELED VEHICLE FUEL CONSUMPTION EVALUATIONS USING FUEL EFFICIENT GEAR OILS (FEGO) FINAL REPORT TFLRF No. 477 by Adam C...August 2014 – March 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE LIGHT AND HEAVY TACTICAL WHEELED VEHICLE FUEL CONSUMPTION EVALUATIONS USING FEUL EFFICIENT GEAR OILS

Analysing a Relationship Between Wheel Wear and Cutting Forces During Diamond Grinding

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M. A. Shavva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In diamond grinding cutting forces affect the quality of the machined surface. We can estimate a wear rate of the diamond wheel by the magnitude of the forces and promptly resort to the restoration of its cutting properties. To solve this problem it is necessary to define a relationship between grinding wheel wear and cutting forces. There was no this dependence found in the sources of literature.The forces acting on a single worn diamond grain are considered to find the relationship between wheel wear and cutting forces. The main forces acting on the diamond grain are such as a reaction force of machining material, a frictional force over a worn place of the grain, and a total pressure on the contact surface of the grain and machining material. According to calculation results, in grinding the cutting forces are proportional to the hardness of machining material, and depend on the grain wear, as well as on the process operation conditions.The paper presents a technique for calculating the number of cutting (active grains per unit surface of diamond wheel to determine a total cutting force in grinding. The number of cutting grains depends on the properties of diamond wheel and on the operation conditions of grinding process.During grinding a total cutting force is calculated through the single grain cutting force, the number of cutting grains per unit surface of the grinding wheel and the contact area between the wheel and the work piece. Theoretical calculation of the forces is based on the condition that protrusions of all cutting grains are identical and all grains have a maximum wear, i.e. maximum worn place of grain.Calculations based on proposed theoretical formulas are compared with the calculations from the empirical formulas given in the literature. Varying the operation conditions of grinding makes the comparison. Convergence of results in the range of 5-20% is regarded as acceptable.On the BMSTU base flat diamond grinding of tungsten

Omnidirectional Wheel-Legged Hybrid Mobile Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

István Vilikó

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of developing hybrid locomotion systems is to merge the advantages and to eliminate the disadvantages of different type of locomotion. The proposed solution combines wheeled and legged locomotion methods. This paper presents the mechatronic design approach and the development stages of the prototype.

The physics of wheel-rail stability

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, B. T. G.

2018-05-01

This article discusses, at a simple level, the dynamics of the wheel-rail interface, which is fundamental to the stability of rail vehicles. The physics underlying this topic deserves to be better known by physicists and physics students, as it underpins such an important part of our technological infrastructure.

The Physics of Wheel-Rail Stability

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, B. T. G.

2018-01-01

This article discusses, at a simple level, the dynamics of the wheel-rail interface, which is fundamental to the stability of rail vehicles. The physics underlying this topic deserves to be better known by physicists and physics students, as it underpins such an important part of our technological infrastructure

Genetic algorithm–based varying parameter linear quadratic regulator control for four-wheel independent steering vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linlin Gao

2015-11-01

Full Text Available From the perspective of vehicle dynamics, the four-wheel independent steering vehicle dynamics stability control method is studied, and a four-wheel independent steering varying parameter linear quadratic regulator control system is proposed with the help of expert control method. In the article, a four-wheel independent steering linear quadratic regulator controller for model following purpose is designed first. Then, by analyzing the four-wheel independent steering vehicle dynamic characteristics and the influence of linear quadratic regulator control parameters on control performance, a linear quadratic regulator control parameter adjustment strategy based on vehicle steering state is proposed to achieve the adaptive adjustment of linear quadratic regulator control parameters. In addition, to further improve the control performance, the proposed varying parameter linear quadratic regulator control system is optimized by genetic algorithm. Finally, simulation studies have been conducted by applying the proposed control system to the 8-degree-of-freedom four-wheel independent steering vehicle dynamics model. The simulation results indicate that the proposed control system has better performance and robustness and can effectively improve the stability and steering safety of the four-wheel independent steering vehicle.

Effect of sucrose availability and pre-running on the intrinsic value of wheel running as an operant and a reinforcing consequence.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David

2014-03-01

The current study investigated the effect of motivational manipulations on operant wheel running for sucrose reinforcement and on wheel running as a behavioral consequence for lever pressing, within the same experimental context. Specifically, rats responded on a two-component multiple schedule of reinforcement in which lever pressing produced the opportunity to run in a wheel in one component of the schedule (reinforcer component) and wheel running produced the opportunity to consume sucrose solution in the other component (operant component). Motivational manipulations involved removal of sucrose contingent on wheel running and providing 1h of pre-session wheel running. Results showed that, in opposition to a response strengthening view, sucrose did not maintain operant wheel running. The motivational operations of withdrawing sucrose or providing pre-session wheel running, however, resulted in different wheel-running rates in the operant and reinforcer components of the multiple schedule; this rate discrepancy revealed the extrinsic reinforcing effects of sucrose on operant wheel running, but also indicated the intrinsic reinforcement value of wheel running across components. Differences in wheel-running rates between components were discussed in terms of arousal, undermining of intrinsic motivation, and behavioral contrast. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DETERMINATION OF STEERING WHEEL ANGLES DURING CAR ALIGNMENT BY IMAGE ANALYSIS METHODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Mueller

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Optical systems for automatic visual inspections are of increasing importance in the field of automation in the industrial domain. A new application is the determination of steering wheel angles during wheel track setting of the final inspection of car manufacturing. The camera has to be positioned outside the car to avoid interruptions of the processes and therefore, oblique images of the steering wheel must be acquired. Three different approaches of computer vision are considered in this paper, i.e. a 2D shape-based matching (by means of a plane to plane rectification of the oblique images and detection of a shape model with a particular rotation, a 3D shape-based matching approach (by means of a series of different perspectives of the spatial shape of the steering wheel derived from a CAD design model and a point-to-point matching (by means of the extraction of significant elements (e.g. multifunctional buttons of a steering wheel and a pairwise connection of these points to straight lines. The HALCON system (HALCON, 2016 was used for all software developments and necessary adaptions. As reference a mechanical balance with an accuracy of 0.1° was used. The quality assessment was based on two different approaches, a laboratory test and a test during production process. In the laboratory a standard deviation of ±0.035° (2D shape-based matching, ±0.12° (3D approach and ±0.029° (point-to-point matching could be obtained. The field test of 291 measurements (27 cars with varying poses and angles of the steering wheel results in a detection rate of 100% and ±0.48° (2D matching and ±0.24° (point-to-point matching. Both methods also fulfil the request of real time processing (three measurements per second.

Modelling and simulation of dynamic wheel-rail interaction using a roller rig

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anyakwo, A; Pislaru, C; Ball, A; Gu, F

2012-01-01

The interaction between the wheel and rail greatly influences the dynamic response of railway vehicles on the track. A roller rig facility can be used to study and monitor real time parameters that influence wheel-rail interaction such as wear, adhesion, friction and corrugation without actual field tests being carried out. This paper presents the development of the mathematical models for full scale roller rig and 1/5 scale roller rig and the wear prediction model based on KTH wear function. The simulated critical speed for the 1/5 scale roller rig is about one-fifth of the critical speed for the full scale model so the simulated results compare well with the theory related to wheel-rail contact and dynamics. Also the differences between the simulated rolling radii for the full scale model with and without wear function are analysed. This paper presents the initial stage of a large scale research project where the influence of wear on the wheel-rail performance will be studied in more depth.

Evolutionary thinking

Science.gov (United States)

Hunt, Tam

2014-01-01

Evolution as an idea has a lengthy history, even though the idea of evolution is generally associated with Darwin today. Rebecca Stott provides an engaging and thoughtful overview of this history of evolutionary thinking in her 2013 book, Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution. Since Darwin, the debate over evolution—both how it takes place and, in a long war of words with religiously-oriented thinkers, whether it takes place—has been sustained and heated. A growing share of this debate is now devoted to examining how evolutionary thinking affects areas outside of biology. How do our lives change when we recognize that all is in flux? What can we learn about life more generally if we study change instead of stasis? Carter Phipps’ book, Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea, delves deep into this relatively new development. Phipps generally takes as a given the validity of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. His story takes us into, as the subtitle suggests, the spiritual and cultural implications of evolutionary thinking. Can religion and evolution be reconciled? Can evolutionary thinking lead to a new type of spirituality? Is our culture already being changed in ways that we don't realize by evolutionary thinking? These are all important questions and Phipps book is a great introduction to this discussion. Phipps is an author, journalist, and contributor to the emerging “integral” or “evolutionary” cultural movement that combines the insights of Integral Philosophy, evolutionary science, developmental psychology, and the social sciences. He has served as the Executive Editor of EnlightenNext magazine (no longer published) and more recently is the co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a public policy think tank addressing the cultural roots of America's political challenges. What follows is an email interview with Phipps. PMID:26478766

Assistive devices alter gait patterns in Parkinson disease: advantages of the four-wheeled walker.

Science.gov (United States)

Kegelmeyer, Deb A; Parthasarathy, Sowmya; Kostyk, Sandra K; White, Susan E; Kloos, Anne D

2013-05-01

Gait abnormalities are a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) and contribute to fall risk. Therapy and exercise are often encouraged to increase mobility and decrease falls. As disease symptoms progress, assistive devices are often prescribed. There are no guidelines for choosing appropriate ambulatory devices. This unique study systematically examined the impact of a broad range of assistive devices on gait measures during walking in both a straight path and around obstacles in individuals with PD. Quantitative gait measures, including velocity, stride length, percent swing and double support time, and coefficients of variation were assessed in 27 individuals with PD with or without one of six different devices including canes, standard and wheeled walkers (two, four or U-Step). Data were collected using the GAITRite and on a figure-of-eight course. All devices, with the exception of four-wheeled and U-Step walkers significantly decreased gait velocity. The four-wheeled walker resulted in less variability in gait measures and had less impact on spontaneous unassisted gait patterns. The U-Step walker exhibited the highest variability across all parameters followed by the two-wheeled and standard walkers. Higher variability has been correlated with increased falls. Though subjects performed better on a figure-of-eight course using either the four-wheeled or the U-Step walker, the four-wheeled walker resulted in the most consistent improvement in overall gait variables. Laser light use on a U-Step walker did not improve gait measures or safety in figure-of-eight compared to other devices. Of the devices tested, the four-wheeled-walker offered the most consistent advantages for improving mobility and safety. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Design and development of automatic sharia compliant wheelchair wheels cleaner

Science.gov (United States)

Shaari, Muhammad Farid; Rasli, Ibrahim Ismail Mohammad; Jamaludin, M. Z. Z. Wan; Isa, W. A. Mohamad; M., H.; Rashid, A. H. Abdul

2017-04-01

Sharia compliant wheelchair wheel cleaner was developed in order to assist the muslim Person with Disabilities (PWD) to pray in the mosque without leaving their wheelchair because of the filthy wheels. Though there are many wheelchair wheel cleaning system in the market, it is very rare to find sharia compliant cleaning system that applies sertu concept which is one of the cleaning and purification technique in Islamic practice. The sertu concept is based on 6:1 ratio that refers to the six times pipe water cleaning and one time soiled water cleaning. The development process consists of design stage, fabrication and system installation stage and followed by testing stage. During the design stage, the proposed prototype underwent design brainstorming, operation programming and structural simulation analysis. Once fabricated, the cleaner prototype underwent was tested. The results showed that the prototype can cater load up to 100kg with 1.31×10-6 mm shaft bending displacement. The water ejection timing varied approximately 3% compared to the program.

Mathematical Modeling of the Braking System of Wheeled Mainline Aircraft

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. S. Shumilov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The braking system of the landing gear wheels of a mainline aircraft has to meet mandatory requirements laid out in the Aviation Regulations AP-25 (Para 25.735. «Brakes and brake systems". These requirements are essential when creating the landing gear wheel brake control system (WBCS and are used as main initial data in its mathematical modeling. The WBCS is one of the most important systems to ensure the safe completion of the flight. It is a complex of devices, i.e. units (hydraulic, electrical, and mechanical, connected through piping, wiring, mechanical constraints. This complex should allow optimizing the braking process when a large number of parameters change. The most important of them are the following: runway friction coefficient (RFC, lifting force, weight and of the aircraft, etc. The main structural elements involved in braking the aircraft are: aircraft wheels with pneumatics (air tires and brake discs, WBCS, and cooling system of gear wheels when braking.To consider the aircraft deceleration on the landing run is of essence at the stage of design, development, and improvement of brakes and braking systems. Based on analysis of equation of the aircraft motion and energy balance can be determined energy loading and its basic design parameters, braking distances and braking time.As practice and analysis of energy loading show, they (brake + wheel absorb the aircraftpossessed kinetic energy at the start of braking as much as 60-70%, 70-80%, and 80-90%, respectively, under normal increased, and emergency operating conditions. The paper presents a procedure for the rapid calculation of energy loading of the brake wheel.Currently, the mainline aircrafts use mainly electrohydraulic brake systems in which there are the main, backup, and emergency-parking brake systems. All channels are equipped with automatic anti-skid systems. Their presence in the emergency (the third reserve channel significantly improves the reliability and safety of

Experimental analysis on performance of high temperature heat pump and desiccant wheel system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sheng, Ying; Zhang, Yufeng; Deng, Na

2013-01-01

In order to solve the problem of high energy consumption for regeneration of desiccant wheel in the rotary desiccant system, high temperature heat pump and desiccant wheel (HTHP&DW) system and corresponding air conditioning unit is built and tested in the extensive thermal hygrometric environment...

Optimization of wheel-rail interface friction using top-of-rail friction modifiers: State of the art

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, M. Roshan; Dasaka, Satyanarayana Murty

2018-05-01

High Speed Railways and Dedicated Freight Corridors are the need of the day for fast and efficient transportation of the ever growing population and freight across long distances of travel. With the increase in speeds and axle loads carried by these trains, wearing out of rails and train wheel sections are a common issue, which is due to the increase in friction at the wheel-rail interfaces. For the cases where the wheel-rail interface friction is less than optimum, as in case of high speed trains with very low axle loads, wheel-slips are imminent and loss of traction occurs when the trains accelerate rapidly or brake all of a sudden. These vast variety of traction problems around the wheel-rail interface friction need to be mitigated carefully, so that the contact interface friction neither ascents too high to cause material wear and need for added locomotive power, nor be on the lower side to cause wheel-slips and loss of traction at high speeds. Top-of-rail friction modifiers are engineered surface coatings applied on top of rails, to maintain an optimum frictional contact between the train wheels and the rails. Extensive research works in the area of wheel-rail tribology have revealed that the optimum frictional coefficients at wheel-rail interfaces lie at a value of around 0.35. Application of top-of-rail (TOR) friction modifiers on rail surfaces add an extra layer of material coating on top of the rails, with a surface frictional coefficient of the desired range. This study reviews the common types of rail friction modifiers, the methods for their application, issues related with the application of friction modifiers, and a guideline on selection of the right class of coating material based on site specific requirements of the railway networks.

Modeling of Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Robot Driven by DC Gearmotors

Science.gov (United States)

Frankovský, P.; Dominik, L.; Gmiterko, A.; Virgala, I.; Kurylo, P.; Perminova, O.

2017-08-01

This paper is aimed at modelling a two-wheeled self-balancing robot driven by the geared DC motors. A mathematical model consists of two main parts, the model of robot's mechanical structure and the model of the actuator. Linearized equations of motion are derived and the overall model of the two-wheeled self-balancing robot is represented in state-space realization for the purpose of state feedback controller design.

Construction substantiation of the combined packer wheel of the seed drill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Дмитро Юрійович Артеменко

2016-11-01

Full Text Available It was determined that the main factors affecting the packing process are the construction of the working body and physical - mechanical properties of the soil. The destruction process of soil particles in the interaction with the wheel was investigated. It was established that the maximum impact on a soil particle occurs when it remains stationary and fixed. An improved construction of the combined packer wheel was proposed

Three-wheeled scooter taxi: A safety analysis

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Three-wheel scooter taxis (TSR) form an essential part of public transport for the urban ... These low cost vehicles will remain a major mode of travel in the South Asian region ... commercial codes can be avoided for computational efficiency.

Automatic stair-climbing algorithm of the planetary wheel type mobile robot in nuclear facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Byung Soo; Kim, Seung Ho; Lee, Jong Min [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1995-10-01

A mobile robot, named KAEROT, has been developed for inspection and maintenance operations in nuclear facilities. The main feature of locomotion system is the planetary wheel assembly with small wheels. This mechanism has been designed to be able to go over the stairs and obstacles with stability. This paper presents the inverse kinematic solution that is to be operated by remote control. The automatic stair climbing algorithm is also proposed. The proposed algorithms the moving paths of small wheels and calculates the angular velocity of 3 actuation wheels. The results of simulations and experiments are given for KAEROT performed on the irregular stairs in laboratory. It is shown that the proposed algorithm provides the lower inclination angle of the robot body and increases its stability during navigation. 14 figs., 16 refs. (Author).

Automatic stair-climbing algorithm of the planetary wheel type mobile robot in nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Byung Soo; Kim, Seung Ho; Lee, Jong Min

1995-01-01

A mobile robot, named KAEROT, has been developed for inspection and maintenance operations in nuclear facilities. The main feature of locomotion system is the planetary wheel assembly with small wheels. This mechanism has been designed to be able to go over the stairs and obstacles with stability. This paper presents the inverse kinematic solution that is to be operated by remote control. The automatic stair climbing algorithm is also proposed. The proposed algorithms the moving paths of small wheels and calculates the angular velocity of 3 actuation wheels. The results of simulations and experiments are given for KAEROT performed on the irregular stairs in laboratory. It is shown that the proposed algorithm provides the lower inclination angle of the robot body and increases its stability during navigation. 14 figs., 16 refs. (Author)

Dissociation of conditioned taste avoidance from conditioned disgust reactions induced by wheel running in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Virginia L; McDonald, Sarah V; Sheppard, Robyn C; Caldwell, Catherine L; Heeley, Thomas H; Brown, Adam R; Martin, Gerard M

2012-06-01

It is well established that wheel running in rats produces conditioned taste avoidance; that is, rats that run in wheels after consuming a novel-tasting solution later consume less of that solution than rats that do not run. In experiment 1, we found that wheel running also produces conditioned disgust reactions, indicated by gapes elicited by both the taste and context that were experienced before running. Experiment 2 showed that the conditioned disgust reactions were likely not due to running itself but to a by-product of running, the rocking of the wheel that occurs when the running stops. When rocking was reduced, the disgust reactions were also reduced, but consumption of the taste solution was not changed, showing dissociation of conditioned taste avoidance and disgust. These findings indicate that the taste avoidance induced by wheel running itself is more like the taste avoidance produced by rewarding drugs than that produced by nausea-inducing drugs. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PIV measurement of the flow past a generic car body with wheels at LES applicable Reynolds number

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gulyás, András; Bodor, Ágnes; Regert, Tamas; Jánosi, Imre M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Two reviewers required changes that were feasible to carry out. • Two changes were domanded from the first reviewer which were effectuated. • Twenty eight minor changes were asked by the second reviewer, which are corrected in detail. • Figures are updated to higher resolution and improved in quality in general. -- Abstract: Experiments by using 2D–2C Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) were carried out and reported concerning the flow field past a generic car body (modified Ahmed body) which is equipped with wheels and wheel-arches. The Reynolds number was chosen to not exceed 2E+5 based on the height of the Ahmed body which makes it possible to investigate the same configuration by means of Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The wheels were rotating but the ground was stationary. The wheel-ground contact was realized by means of small rectangular openings below the wheels in the ground plane in which the wheels were immersed. The transition contour of the immersed wheels and the ground, as well as the rectangular openings below the wheels were properly sealed to prevent parasite flow and to provide well defined boundary conditions for an upcoming LES investigation. The flow field was measured in several planes with normal vectors pointing towards the directions normal to the free stream. Statistical characteristics of the flow are provided and discussed

Examination of a failed fifth wheel coupling

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Fernandes, PJL

1998-03-01

Full Text Available Examination of a fifth wheel coupling which had failed in service showed that it had been modified and that the operating handle had been moved from its original design position. This modification completely eliminated the safety device designed...

A novel mouse running wheel that senses individual limb forces: biomechanical validation and in vivo testing

Science.gov (United States)

Roach, Grahm C.; Edke, Mangesh

2012-01-01

Biomechanical data provide fundamental information about changes in musculoskeletal function during development, adaptation, and disease. To facilitate the study of mouse locomotor biomechanics, we modified a standard mouse running wheel to include a force-sensitive rung capable of measuring the normal and tangential forces applied by individual paws. Force data were collected throughout the night using an automated threshold trigger algorithm that synchronized force data with wheel-angle data and a high-speed infrared video file. During the first night of wheel running, mice reached consistent running speeds within the first 40 force events, indicating a rapid habituation to wheel running, given that mice generated >2,000 force-event files/night. Average running speeds and peak normal and tangential forces were consistent throughout the first four nights of running, indicating that one night of running is sufficient to characterize the locomotor biomechanics of healthy mice. Twelve weeks of wheel running significantly increased spontaneous wheel-running speeds (16 vs. 37 m/min), lowered duty factors (ratio of foot-ground contact time to stride time; 0.71 vs. 0.58), and raised hindlimb peak normal forces (93 vs. 115% body wt) compared with inexperienced mice. Peak normal hindlimb-force magnitudes were the primary force component, which were nearly tenfold greater than peak tangential forces. Peak normal hindlimb forces exceed the vertical forces generated during overground running (50-60% body wt), suggesting that wheel running shifts weight support toward the hindlimbs. This force-instrumented running-wheel system provides a comprehensive, noninvasive screening method for monitoring gait biomechanics in mice during spontaneous locomotion. PMID:22723628

THE PROCESS OF FORMATION OF RAILWAY WHEEL DAMAGES AND TIRES IN OPERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. A. Grischenko

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The dependence analysis of structural changes in the metal of railway wheels and tires from indicated influences in operation, for the further development of strategy of service reliability growth. Methodology. Test materials are the details selected from railway wheels which were taken out of operation beforehand because of various damages. Micro-structural researches were made with the use of light microscope Epiquant and electron microscope. The sizing of structural elements was done by using the methods of quantitative metallography. Findings. Over the past few decades the rapid development of industry was supported by the steady growth of intensity of using railway transport. In this case simultaneous increase of load at wheel set axle, with the increase of speed was accompanied by natural increase of the amount of cases of premature wheels and tires’ withdrawing out of operation. Railway wheel, except the formation of metal layer at rolling surface with the high defects concentration of crystal structure and first of all dislocations, falls under thermal influence from interaction with break blocks. The nature of joint influence (cold deformation and heating on the metal rim of a wheel is conditioned by the appearance of sufficiently high gradients of structural changes that can be considered as the influence on the level of internal residual stresses. In case of the rise of volume part of carbide phase at a constant ferrite grain size, it is achieved only by the increasing of dislocation nucleation sources without changing the number of annihilation positions. In this case the accumulation of dislocations at the initial stages of plastic deformation (in metal volume in front of delta arm crack will lead to the formation of cementite globes around certain interlocked dislocation density. In contrast the sharp increase of deformation hardening carbon steel parameters is observed. Originality. During the braking of locomotive the

Reaction Wheel Disturbance Model Extraction Software, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Reaction wheel mechanical noise is one of the largest sources of disturbance forcing on space-based observatories. Such noise arises from mass imbalance, bearing...

Mathematical modeling of porosity formation in die cast A356 wheels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maijer, D.; Cockcroft, S.L.; Wells, M.A.; Luciuk, T.; Hermesmann, C.

2000-01-01

In an effort to leverage recent advances in modeling and process simulation tools, a mathematical model has been developed to predict porosity formation in die cast A356 wheels as part of a collaborative research agreement between researchers at the University of British Columbia and Canadian Autoparts Toyota Incorporated. The heat transfer model represents a three-dimensional, 30 o , slice of the wheel and die and is based on the commercial finite element code ABAQUS. Extensive temperature measurements in the die and in the wheel taken over several cycles in the casting process were used to fine tune and validate the model. Initial work on predicting porosity formation has focused on using the Niyama parameter as a measure of the probability of porosity. To date Niyama porosity predictions agree well with plant experience and show promise for reducing losses associated with porosity. (author)

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF WHEELSET OSCILLATIONS WITH INDEPENDENT WHEEL ROTATION IN THE HORIZONTAL PLANE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. V. Myamlin

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The work is devoted to the study of horizontal oscillation and the assessment of the motion stability of a single wheelset with independent wheel rotation, and to the comparison of stability indicators of the typical wheelset and the wheelset with independent wheel rotation. This is connected with the necessity to increase traffic speed of rolling stock, improve road safety and comfort of passengers. Methodology. To achieve this purpose we used the methods of mathematical simulation of railway rolling stock dynamics, as well as the linear algebra methods to assess the stability of solutions of the linear homogeneous differential equations. Findings. To solve the set task the design model of a single wheelset with independent wheel rotation was created. The wheelset is not a single solid body; each of the wheelset axles has a surplus degree of freedom. Thus, we obtained the system with 4 degrees of freedom. The design model allowed to obtain the system of linear homogeneous differential equations describing the oscillations of the represented wheelset in a horizontal plane on a straight track section. On the basis of the computer modeling were calculated the eigenvalues of the differential equation system coefficients and the asymptotic stability analysis of the wheelset motion with independent wheel rotation. The increment and the frequency of fluctuations were compared with similar indicators for the standard wheelset. The authors also discussed non-oscillatory forms of the wheelset motion and the issues of wheelset self-centering on the track. Originality. The result of the work is the mathematical model of the sinuous movement of a single wheelset, in two-dimensional formulation, with independent wheel rotation and the estimate of the dynamic indices during its motion on a straight track section without any irregularities. There were also proposed the ways to ensure the self-centering on the track of the wheelset with independent

Simulation of the ATLAS New Small Wheel trigger

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00399900; The ATLAS collaboration

2018-01-01

The instantaneous luminosity of the LHC will increase up to a factor of seven with respect to the original design value to explore physics at higher energy scale. The inner station of the ATLAS muon end-cap system (Small Wheel) will be replaced by the New Small Wheel (NSW) to benefit from the high luminosity. The NSW will provide precise track-segment information to the Level-1 trigger system in order to suppress the trigger rate from fake muon tracks. This article summarizes the NSW trigger decision system and track-segment finding algorithm implemented in the trigger processor, and discusses results of performance studies on the trigger system. The results demonstrate that the NSW trigger system is capable of working with good performance satisfying the requirements.

Evolutionary Stable Strategy

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 21; Issue 9. Evolutionary Stable Strategy: Application of Nash Equilibrium in Biology. General Article Volume 21 Issue 9 September 2016 pp 803- ... Keywords. Evolutionary game theory, evolutionary stable state, conflict, cooperation, biological games.

Modeling of Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Robot Driven by DC Gearmotors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frankovský P.

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This paper is aimed at modelling a two-wheeled self-balancing robot driven by the geared DC motors. A mathematical model consists of two main parts, the model of robot’s mechanical structure and the model of the actuator. Linearized equations of motion are derived and the overall model of the two-wheeled self-balancing robot is represented in state-space realization for the purpose of state feedback controller design.

Desiccant wheels for air humidification: An experimental and numerical analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Antonellis, Stefano; Intini, Manuel; Joppolo, Cesare Maria; Molinaroli, Luca; Romano, Francesco

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The use of desiccant wheel to humidify an air stream is investigated. • Air humidification is obtained by extracting water vapour from outdoor air. • Experimental tests in winter humidification conditions are performed. • The design of the proposed humidification system is numerically analyzed. • Effects of boundary conditions on humidification capacity are investigated. - Abstract: In this work the use of a desiccant wheel for air humidification is investigated through a numerical and experimental approach. In the proposed humidification system, water vapour is adsorbed from outdoor environment and it is released directly to the air stream supplied to the building. Such a system can be an interesting alternative to steam humidifiers in hospitals or, more generally, in applications where air contamination is a critical issue and therefore adiabatic humidifiers are not allowed. Performance of the proposed system is deeply investigated and optimal values of desiccant wheel configuration parameters are discussed. It is shown that in the investigated conditions, which are representative of Southern Europe winter climate, the system can properly match the latent load of the building. Finally, power consumption referred to the primary source of the proposed humidification system is compared to the one of steam humidifiers. The present analysis is carried out through experimental tests of a desiccant wheel in winter humidification conditions and through a phenomenological model of the device, based on heat and mass transfer equations.

2009 Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference (TWV)

Science.gov (United States)

2009-02-03

fields. 5 ... Spent $265.2 Million in Reset of TWVs … or larger than the entire 2007 revenue of the Los Angeles Dodgers . ... Spent $265.2 Million in...Reset of T Vs or larger than the entire 2007 revenue of the Los Angeles Dodgers . ... Maintains over 29,000 Tactical Wheeled Vehicles in theater … or

Proposal to use vibration analysis steering components and car body to monitor, for example, the state of unbalance wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Janczur, R.

2016-09-01

The results of road tests of car VW Passat equipped with tires of size 195/65 R15, on the influence of the unbalancing front wheel on vibration of the parts of steering system, steering wheel and the body of the vehicle have been presented in this paper. Unbalances wheels made using weights of different masses, placed close to the outer edge of the steel rim and checked on the machine Hunter GSP 9700 for balancing wheels. The recorded waveforms vibration steering components and car body, at different constant driving speeds, subjected to spectral analysis to determine the possibility of isolating vibration caused by unbalanced wheel in various states and coming from good quality asphalt road surface. The results were discussed in terms of the possibility of identifying the state of unbalancing wheels and possible changes in radial stiffness of the tire vibration transmitted through the system driving wheel on the steering wheel. Vibration analysis steering components and car body, also in the longitudinal direction, including information from the CAN bus of the state of motion of the car, can be used to monitor the development of the state of unbalance wheel, tire damage or errors shape of brake discs or brake drums, causing pulsations braking forces.

An indentation depth-force sensing wheeled probe for abnormality identification during minimally invasive surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, H; Puangmali, P; Zbyszewski, D; Elhage, O; Dasgupta, P; Dai, J S; Seneviratne, L; Althoefer, K

2010-01-01

This paper presents a novel wheeled probe for the purpose of aiding a surgeon in soft tissue abnormality identification during minimally invasive surgery (MIS), compensating the loss of haptic feedback commonly associated with MIS. Initially, a prototype for validating the concept was developed. The wheeled probe consists of an indentation depth sensor employing an optic fibre sensing scheme and a force/torque sensor. The two sensors work in unison, allowing the wheeled probe to measure the tool-tissue interaction force and the rolling indentation depth concurrently. The indentation depth sensor was developed and initially tested on a homogenous silicone phantom representing a good model for a soft tissue organ; the results show that the sensor can accurately measure the indentation depths occurring while performing rolling indentation, and has good repeatability. To validate the ability of the wheeled probe to identify abnormalities located in the tissue, the device was tested on a silicone phantom containing embedded hard nodules. The experimental data demonstrate that recording the tissue reaction force as well as rolling indentation depth signals during rolling indentation, the wheeled probe can rapidly identify the distribution of tissue stiffness and cause the embedded hard nodules to be accurately located.

Restricted vs. unrestricted wheel running in mice: Effects on brain, behavior and endocannabinoids.

Science.gov (United States)

Biedermann, Sarah V; Auer, Matthias K; Bindila, Laura; Ende, Gabriele; Lutz, Beat; Weber-Fahr, Wolfgang; Gass, Peter; Fuss, Johannes

2016-11-01

Beneficial effects of voluntary wheel running on hippocampal neurogenesis, morphology and hippocampal-dependent behavior have widely been studied in rodents, but also serious side effects and similarities to stereotypy have been reported. Some mouse strains run excessively when equipped with running wheels, complicating the comparability to human exercise regimes. Here, we investigated how exercise restriction to 6h/day affects hippocampal morphology and metabolism, stereotypic and basal behaviors, as well as the endocannabinoid system in wheel running C57BL/6 mice; the strain most commonly used for behavioral analyses and psychiatric disease models. Restricted and unrestricted wheel running had similar effects on immature hippocampal neuron numbers, thermoregulatory nest building and basal home-cage behaviors. Surprisingly, hippocampal gray matter volume, assessed with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 9.4 Tesla, was only increased in unrestricted but not in restricted runners. Moreover, unrestricted runners showed less stereotypic behavior than restricted runners did. However, after blockage of running wheels for 24h stereotypic behavior also increased in unrestricted runners, arguing against a long-term effect of wheel running on stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behaviors correlated with frontal glutamate and glucose levels assessed by 1 H-MR spectroscopy. While acute running increased plasma levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide in former studies in mice and humans, we found an inverse correlation of anandamide with the daily running distance after long-term running. In conclusion, although there are some diverging effects of restricted and unrestricted running on brain and behavior, restricted running does not per se seem to be a better animal model for aerobic exercise in mice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Simulation of the ATLAS New Small Wheel Trigger Sysmtem

CERN Document Server

Saito, Tomoyuki; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

The instantaneous luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be increased up to a factor of five with respect to the original design value to explore higher energy scale. In order to benefit from the expected high luminosity performance, the first station of the ATLAS muon end-cap Small Wheel system will be replaced by a New Small Wheel (NSW) detector. The NSW provide precise track segment information to the muon Level-1 trigger to reduce fake triggers. This contribution will summarize a detail of the NSW trigger decision system, track reconstruction algorithm implemented into the trigger processor and results of performance studies on the trigger system.

Advanced Control of Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Systems

CERN Document Server

Li, Zhijun; Fan, Liping

2013-01-01

Advanced Control of Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Systems is an orderly presentation of recent ideas for overcoming the complications inherent in the control of wheeled inverted pendulum (WIP) systems, in the presence of uncertain dynamics, nonholonomic kinematic constraints as well as underactuated configurations. The text leads the reader in a theoretical exploration of problems in kinematics，dynamics modeling, advanced control design techniques,and trajectory generation for WIPs. An important concern is how to deal with various uncertainties associated with the nominal model, WIPs being characterized by unstable balance and unmodelled dynamics and being subject to time-varying external disturbances for which accurate models are hard to come by.   The book is self-contained, supplying the reader with everything from mathematical preliminaries and the basic Lagrange-Euler-based derivation of dynamics equations to various advanced motion control and force control approaches as well as trajectory generation met...

Utilizing wheel-ring architecture for stable and selectable single-longitudinal-mode erbium fiber laser

Science.gov (United States)

Yeh, Chien-Hung; Yang, Zi-Qing; Huang, Tzu-Jung; Chow, Chi-Wai

2018-03-01

To achieve a steady single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser, the wheel-ring architecture is proposed in the laser cavity. According to Vernier effect, the proposed wheel-ring can produce three different free spectrum ranges (FSRs) to serve as the mode-filter for suppressing the densely multi-longitudinal-mode (MLM). Here, to complete wavelength-tunable EDF laser, an optical tunable bandpass filter (OTBF) is utilized inside the cavity for tuning arbitrarily. In addition, the entire output performances of the proposed EDF wheel-ring laser are also discussed and analyzed experimentally.

Increasing coupling properties of locomotive by magnetizing contact area of wheel with rail

Science.gov (United States)

Antipin, D. Ya; Vorobyov, V. I.; Korchagin, V. O.; Kobishchanov, V. V.; Shorokhov, S. G.

2017-10-01

The authors of the paper consider a section of the magnetic circuit, which includes a band of a wheel pair, a railhead and an air gap between them. The parameters of the magnetic field and magnetic resistance between the wheel and the rail are obtained. Attention is paid to the decrease in the magnetic permeability of saturated steel regions and to the change in the magnetic susceptibility of the contact regions at high temperatures in the contact spot. The epicenters of the magnetic field concentration at different modes of magnetization are determined taking into account the change in the wheel position relative to the rail.

Decrease in Ground-Run Distance of Small Airplanes by Applying Electrically-Driven Wheels

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Nishizawa, Akira

A new takeoff method for small airplanes was proposed. Ground-roll performance of an airplane driven by electrically-powered wheels was experimentally and computationally studied. The experiments verified that the ground-run distance was decreased by half with a combination of the powered driven wheels and propeller without increase of energy consumption during the ground-roll. The computational analysis showed the ground-run distance of the wheel-driven aircraft was independent of the motor power when the motor capability exceeded the friction between tires and ground. Furthermore, the distance was minimized when the angle of attack was set to the value so that the wing generated negative lift.

The use of a running wheel to measure activity in rodents: relationship to energy balance, general activity, and reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Novak, Colleen M; Burghardt, Paul R; Levine, James A

2012-03-01

Running wheels are commonly employed to measure rodent physical activity in a variety of contexts, including studies of energy balance and obesity. There is no consensus on the nature of wheel-running activity or its underlying causes, however. Here, we will begin by systematically reviewing how running wheel availability affects physical activity and other aspects of energy balance in laboratory rodents. While wheel running and physical activity in the absence of a wheel commonly correlate in a general sense, in many specific aspects the two do not correspond. In fact, the presence of running wheels alters several aspects of energy balance, including body weight and composition, food intake, and energy expenditure of activity. We contend that wheel-running activity should be considered a behavior in and of itself, reflecting several underlying behavioral processes in addition to a rodent's general, spontaneous activity. These behavioral processes include defensive behavior, predatory aggression, and depression- and anxiety-like behaviors. As it relates to energy balance, wheel running engages several brain systems-including those related to the stress response, mood, and reward, and those responsive to growth factors-that influence energy balance indirectly. We contend that wheel-running behavior represents factors in addition to rodents' tendency to be physically active, engaging additional neural and physiological mechanisms which can then independently alter energy balance and behavior. Given the impact of wheel-running behavior on numerous overlapping systems that influence behavior and physiology, this review outlines the need for careful design and interpretation of studies that utilize running wheels as a means for exercise or as a measurement of general physical activity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The use of a running wheel to measure activity in rodents: Relationship to energy balance, general activity, and reward

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, James A.

2015-01-01

Running wheels are commonly employed to measure rodent physical activity in a variety of contexts, including studies of energy balance and obesity. There is no consensus on the nature of wheel-running activity or its underlying causes, however. Here, we will begin by systematically reviewing how running wheel availability affects physical activity and other aspects of energy balance in laboratory rodents. While wheel running and physical activity in the absence of a wheel commonly correlate in a general sense, in many specific aspects the two do not correspond. In fact, the presence of running wheels alters several aspects of energy balance, including body weight and composition, food intake, and energy expenditure of activity. We contend that wheel-running activity should be considered a behavior in and of itself, reflecting several underlying behavioral processes in addition to a rodent's general, spontaneous activity. These behavioral processes include defensive behavior, predatory aggression, and depression- and anxiety-like behaviors. As it relates to energy balance, wheel running engages several brain systems—including those related to the stress response, mood, and reward, and those responsive to growth factors—that influence energy balance indirectly. We contend that wheel-running behavior represents factors in addition to rodents' tendency to be physically active, engaging additional neural and physiological mechanisms which can then independently alter energy balance and behavior. Given the impact of wheel-running behavior on numerous overlapping systems that influence behavior and physiology, this review outlines the need for careful design and interpretation of studies that utilize running wheels as a means for exercise or as a measurement of general physical activity. PMID:22230703

A study on the implementation of in-wheel motors in a VW Lupo

NARCIS (Netherlands)

George, A.D.; Nijmeijer, H.; Besselink, I.J.M.

2012-01-01

This report presents the results of the study on the implementation of an In-Wheel Motor (IWM) propulsion system and the design of a rear suspension for such a system for a Volkswagen Lupo. Previous research has been conducted at the Eindhoven University of Technology on the impact of in-wheel

Influence of wheel size on muscle activity and tri-axial accelerations during cross-country mountain biking.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurst, Howard Thomas; Sinclair, Jonathan; Atkins, Stephen; Rylands, Lee; Metcalfe, John

2017-07-01

This study aimed to investigate the influence of different mountain bike wheel diameters on muscle activity and whether larger diameter wheels attenuate muscle vibrations during cross-country riding. Nine male competitive mountain bikers (age 34.7 ± 10.7 years; stature 177.7 ± 5.6 cm; body mass 73.2 ± 8.6 kg) participated in the study. Riders performed one lap at race pace on 26, 27.5 and 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes. sEMG and acceleration (RMS) were recorded for the full lap and during ascent and descent phases at the gastrocnemius, vastus lateralis, biceps brachii and triceps brachii. No significant main effects were found by wheel size for each of the four muscle groups for sEMG or acceleration during the full lap and for ascent and descent (P > .05). When data were analysed between muscle groups, significant differences were found between biceps brachii and triceps brachii (P biking. However, more activity was observed in the biceps brachii during 26 inch wheel descending. This is possibly due to an increased need to manoeuvre the front wheel over obstacles.

Study on control schemes of flexible steering system of a multi-axle all-wheel-steering robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pingxia Zhang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available It is well known that a multi-axle wheeled robot possesses larger load capability and also higher drive performance. However, its steering flexibility is degraded due to the large number of wheels. In order to solve this problem, in this article, we proposed three control schemes based on the center of rotation or the steering angles of both the first- and last-axle wheels. To release these control schemes, steering mode selection and also the left wheel’s steering angle in a specific axle are added approaching a practical application. Thereafter, the remaining wheels’ steering angles can be calculated with the Ackerman steering theorem. In order to verify the control effects, a five-axle all-wheel-steering wheeled robot has been developed with the Bluetooth wireless monitor system. Based on the newly designed robot, validation experiments are carried out, such as lateral movement, situ rotation, and multi-mode steering within a narrow space. The results indicate that the proposed design in this article can ensure a more flexible and faster movement within a narrow space. It shows large potential in obstacle avoidance compared with the conventional partial-wheel steering mode.

Wheel-running activity and energy metabolism in relation to ambient temperature in mice selected for high wheel-running activity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaanholt, Lobke M.; Garland, Theodore; Daan, Serge; Visser, G. Henk; Garland Jr., Theodore; Heldmaier, G.

Interrelationships between ambient temperature, activity, and energy metabolism were explored in mice that had been selectively bred for high spontaneous wheel-running activity and their random-bred controls. Animals were exposed to three different ambient temperatures (10, 20 and 30 degrees C) and

Exercise training effects on hypoxic and hypercapnic ventilatory responses in mice selected for increased voluntary wheel running.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Scott A; Rezende, Enrico L; Chappell, Mark A; Gomes, Fernando R; Kolb, Erik M; Malisch, Jessica L; Rhodes, Justin S; Mitchell, Gordon S; Garland, Theodore

2014-02-01

What is the central question of this study? We used experimental evolution to determine how selective breeding for high voluntary wheel running and exercise training (7-11 weeks) affect ventilatory chemoreflexes of laboratory mice at rest. What is the main finding and its importance? Selective breeding, although significantly affecting some traits, did not systematically alter ventilation across gas concentrations. As with most human studies, our findings support the idea that endurance training attenuates resting ventilation. However, little evidence was found for a correlation between ventilatory chemoreflexes and the amount of individual voluntary wheel running. We conclude that exercise 'training' alters respiratory behaviours, but these changes may not be necessary to achieve high levels of wheel running. Ventilatory control is affected by genetics, the environment and gene-environment and gene-gene interactions. Here, we used an experimental evolution approach to test whether 37 generations of selective breeding for high voluntary wheel running (genetic effects) and/or long-term (7-11 weeks) wheel access (training effects) alter acute respiratory behaviour of mice resting in normoxic, hypoxic and hypercapnic conditions. As the four replicate high-runner (HR) lines run much more than the four non-selected control (C) lines, we also examined whether the amount of exercise among individual mice was a quantitative predictor of ventilatory chemoreflexes at rest. Selective breeding and/or wheel access significantly affected several traits. In normoxia, HR mice tended to have lower mass-adjusted rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Chronic wheel access increased oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production in both HR and C mice during hypercapnia. Breathing frequency and minute ventilation were significantly reduced by chronic wheel access in both HR and C mice during hypoxia. Selection history, while significantly affecting some traits

Performance Studies of Micromegas Chambers for the New Small Wheel Upgrade Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leontsinis S.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The ATLAS collaboration has chosen the Micromegas technology along with the small-strip Thin Gap Chambers for the upgrade of the inner muon station in the high-rapidity region, the so called New Small Wheel upgrade project. It will employ eight layers of Micromegas and eight layers of small-strip Thin Gap Chambers per wheel. The New Small Wheel project requires fully efficient Micromegas chambers, able to cope with the maximum expected rate of 15 kHz/cm2 featuring single plane spatial resolution better than 100 μm. The Micromegas detectors will cover a total active area of ~ 1200 m2 and will be operated in a moderate magnetic field (≤ 0.3 T. Moreover, together with their precise tracking capability the New Small Wheel Micromegas chambers will contribute to the ATLAS Level-1 trigger system. Several studies have been performed on small (10 × 10 cm2 and medium (1 × 0.5 m2 size prototypes using medium (1 − 5 GeV/c and high momentum (120 – 150 GeV/c hadron beams at CERN. A brief overview of the results obtained is presented.

Numerical investigation on effect of blade shape for stream water wheel performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Yah, N. F.; Oumer, A. N.; Aziz, A. A.; Sahat, I. M.

2018-04-01

Stream water wheels are one of the oldest and commonly used types of wheels for the production of energy. Moreover, they are economical, efficient and sustainable. However, few amounts of research works are available in the open literature. This paper aims to develop numerical model for investigation of the effect of blade shape on the performance of stream water wheel. The numerical model was simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method and the developed model was validated by comparing the simulation results with experimental data obtained from literature. The performance of straight, curved type 1 and curved type 2 was observed and the power generated by each blade design was identified. The inlet velocity was set to 0.3 m/s static pressure outlet. The obtained results indicate that the highest power was generated by the Curved type 2 compared to straight blade and curved type 1. From the CFD result, Curved type 1 was able to generate 0.073 Watt while Curved type 2 generate 0.064 Watt. The result obtained were consistent with the experiment result hence can be used the numerical model as a guide to numerically predict the water wheel performance

Wheel Slip Control for Improving Traction-Ability and Energy Efficiency of a Personal Electric Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kanghyun Nam

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a robust wheel slip control system based on a sliding mode controller is proposed for improving traction-ability and reducing energy consumption during sudden acceleration for a personal electric vehicle. Sliding mode control techniques have been employed widely in the development of a robust wheel slip controller of conventional internal combustion engine vehicles due to their application effectiveness in nonlinear systems and robustness against model uncertainties and disturbances. A practical slip control system which takes advantage of the features of electric motors is proposed and an algorithm for vehicle velocity estimation is also introduced. The vehicle velocity estimator was designed based on rotational wheel dynamics, measurable motor torque, and wheel velocity as well as rule-based logic. The simulations and experiments were carried out using both CarSim software and an experimental electric vehicle equipped with in-wheel-motors. Through field tests, traction performance and effectiveness in terms of energy saving were all verified. Comparative experiments with variations of control variables proved the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed control design.

Robust balancing and position control of a single spherical wheeled mobile platform

OpenAIRE

Yavuz, Fırat; Yavuz, Firat; Ünel, Mustafa; Unel, Mustafa

2016-01-01

Self-balancing mobile platforms with single spherical wheel, generally called ballbots, are suitable example of underactuated systems. Balancing control of a ballbot platform, which aims to maintain the upright orientation by rejecting external disturbances, is important during station keeping or trajectory tracking. In this paper, acceleration based balancing and position control of a single spherical wheeled mobile platform that has three single-row omniwheel drive m...

On-Line Path Generation and Tracking for High-Speed Wheeled Autonomous Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

2006-02-17

On-Line Path Generation and Tracking for High-Speed Wheeled Autonomous Vehicles Report Title ABSTRACT In this work we proposed two semi-analytic...298-102 Enclosure 1 On-Line Path Generation and Tracking for High-Speed Wheeled Autonomous Vehicles by...Specifically, the following problems will be addressed during this project: 2.1 Challenges The problem of trajectory planning for high-speed autonomous vehicles is

The effects of rear-wheel camber on the kinematics of upper extremity during wheelchair propulsion.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Chung-Ying; Lin, Chien-Ju; Huang, Yueh-Chu; Lin, Po-Chou; Su, Fong-Chin

2012-11-22

The rear-wheel camber, defined as the inclination of the rear wheels, is usually used in wheelchair sports, but it is becoming increasingly employed in daily propulsion. Although the rear-wheel camber can increase stability, it alters physiological performance during propulsion. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of rear-wheel cambers on temporal-spatial parameters, joint angles, and propulsion patterns. Twelve inexperienced subjects (22.3±1.6 yr) participated in the study. None had musculoskeletal disorders in their upper extremities. An eight-camera motion capture system was used to collect the three-dimensional trajectory data of markers attached to the wheelchair-user system during propulsion. All participants propelled the same wheelchair, which had an instrumented wheel with cambers of 0°, 9°, and 15°, respectively, at an average velocity of 1 m/s. The results show that the rear-wheel camber significantly affects the average acceleration, maximum end angle, trunk movement, elbow joint movement, wrist joint movement, and propulsion pattern. The effects are especially significant between 0° and 15°. For a 15° camber, the average acceleration and joint peak angles significantly increased (p propulsion patterns and joint range of motion. When choosing a wheelchair with camber adjustment, the increase of joint movements and the base of support should be taken into consideration.

EvoluCode: Evolutionary Barcodes as a Unifying Framework for Multilevel Evolutionary Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Linard, Benjamin; Nguyen, Ngoc Hoan; Prosdocimi, Francisco; Poch, Olivier; Thompson, Julie D

2012-01-01

Evolutionary systems biology aims to uncover the general trends and principles governing the evolution of biological networks. An essential part of this process is the reconstruction and analysis of the evolutionary histories of these complex, dynamic networks. Unfortunately, the methodologies for representing and exploiting such complex evolutionary histories in large scale studies are currently limited. Here, we propose a new formalism, called EvoluCode (Evolutionary barCode), which allows the integration of different evolutionary parameters (eg, sequence conservation, orthology, synteny …) in a unifying format and facilitates the multilevel analysis and visualization of complex evolutionary histories at the genome scale. The advantages of the approach are demonstrated by constructing barcodes representing the evolution of the complete human proteome. Two large-scale studies are then described: (i) the mapping and visualization of the barcodes on the human chromosomes and (ii) automatic clustering of the barcodes to highlight protein subsets sharing similar evolutionary histories and their functional analysis. The methodologies developed here open the way to the efficient application of other data mining and knowledge extraction techniques in evolutionary systems biology studies. A database containing all EvoluCode data is available at: http://lbgi.igbmc.fr/barcodes.

An Omni-Directional Wall-Climbing Microrobot with Magnetic Wheels Directly Integrated with Electromagnetic Micromotors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoning Tang

2012-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an omni-directional wall-climbing microrobot with magnetic wheels. The integral design with an actuator and adhesive is realized by integrating stators and rotors of an MEMS-based electromagnetic micromotor with a magnetic wheel. The omni-directional wall-climbing mechanism is designed by a set of steering gears and three standard magnetic wheels. The required torque and magnetic force for microrobot movement are derived by its static analysis. The size of the magnetic wheel is optimized, with consideration of its own design constraints, by ANSOFT and Pro/Engineer simulation so as to reduce unnecessary torque consumption under the same designed load. Related experiments demonstrate that the microrobot (diameter: 26mm; height: 16.4; mass: 7.2g; load capacity: 3g we have developed has a good wall-climbing ability and flexible mobility, and it can perform visual detection in a ferromagnetic environment.

Effect of uphill and downhill walking on walking performance in geriatric patients using a wheeled walker.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindemann, Ulrich; Schwenk, Michael; Schmitt, Syn; Weyrich, Michael; Schlicht, Wolfgang; Becker, Clemens

2017-08-01

Wheeled walkers are recommended to improve walking performance in older persons and to encourage and assist participation in daily life. Nevertheless, using a wheeled walker can cause serious problems in the natural environment. This study aimed to compare uphill and downhill walking with walking level in geriatric patients using a wheeled walker. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of using a wheeled walker with respect to dual tasking when walking level. A total of 20 geriatric patients (median age 84.5 years) walked 10 m at their habitual pace along a level surface, uphill and downhill, with and without a standard wheeled walker. Gait speed, stride length and cadence were assessed by wearable sensors and the walk ratio was calculated. When using a wheeled walker while walking level the walk ratio improved (0.58 m/[steps/min] versus 0.57 m/[steps/min], p = 0.023) but gait speed decreased (1.07 m/s versus 1.12 m/s, p = 0.020) when compared to not using a wheeled walker. With respect to the walk ratio, uphill and downhill walking with a wheeled walker decreased walking performance when compared to level walking (0.54 m/[steps/min] versus 0.58 m/[steps/min], p = 0.023 and 0.55 m/[steps/min] versus 0.58 m/[steps/min], p = 0.001, respectively). At the same time, gait speed decreased (0.079 m/s versus 1.07 m/s, p walker improved the quality of level walking but the performance of uphill and downhill walking was worse compared to walking level when using a wheeled walker.

The rolling motion of an eccentrically loaded wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Theron, W. F. D.

2000-09-01

This article discusses the rolling motion on a rough plane of a wheel whose center of mass does not coincide with the axis; for example, when a heavy particle is fixed to the rim of a rigid hoop. In cases with large eccentricity, the resulting motion is surprisingly complex, with four phases being identified, namely rolling (without slipping), spinning, skidding, and "hopping," by which is meant that the wheel actually leaves the plane. The main result of this analysis is the identification of the conditions that are required for hopping to occur. A second result is that faster than gravity accelerations occur when the mass of the particle is greater than the mass of the hoop. Massless hoops are briefly discussed as a special case of the general results.

Wind-powered wheel locomotion, initiated by leaping somersaults, in larvae of the southeastern beach tiger beetle (Cicindela dorsalis media.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan Harvey

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Rapid movement is challenging for elongate, soft-bodied animals with short or no legs. Leaping is known for only a few animals with this "worm-like" morphology. Wheel locomotion, in which the animal's entire body rolls forward along a central axis, has been reported for only a handful of animals worldwide. Here we present the first documented case of wind-powered wheel locomotion, in larvae of the coastal tiger beetle Cicindela dorsalis media. When removed from their shallow burrows, larvae easily can be induced to enter a behavioral sequence that starts with leaping; while airborne, larvae loop their body into a rotating wheel and usually either "hit the ground rolling" or leap again. The direction larvae wheel is closely related to the direction in which winds are blowing; thus, all our larvae wheeled up-slope, as winds at our study site consistently blew from sea to land. Stronger winds increased both the proportion of larvae wheeling, and the distance traveled, exceeding 60 m in some cases. In addition, the proportion of larvae that wheel and the distance traveled by wheeling larvae are significantly greater on smooth sandy beaches than on beach surfaces made rough and irregular by pedestrian, equestrian, and vehicular traffic. Like other coastal species of tiger beetles, C. dorsalis media has suffered major declines in recent years that are clearly correlated with increased human impacts. The present study suggests that the negative effects of beach traffic may be indirect, preventing larvae from escaping from predators using wheel locomotion by disrupting the flat, hard surface necessary for efficient wheeling.

Production of A356 aluminum alloy wheels by thixo-forging combined with a low superheat casting process

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Wang Shuncheng

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The A356 aluminum alloy wheels were produced by thixo-forging combined with a low superheat casting process. The as-cast microstructure, microstructure evolution during reheating and the mechanical properties of thixo-forged wheels made from the A356 aluminum alloy were studied. The results show that the A356 aluminum alloy round billet with fine, uniform and non-dendritic grains can be obtained when the melt is cast at 635 篊. When the round billet is reheated at 600 篊 for 60 min, the non-dendritic grains are changed into spherical ones and the round billet can be easily thixo-forged into wheels. The tensile strength, yield strength and elongation of the thixo-forged wheels with T6 heat treatment are 327.6 MPa, 228.3 MPa and 7.8%, respectively, which are higher than those of a cast wheel. It is suggested that the thixo-forging combined with the low superheat casting process is an effective technique to produce aluminum alloy wheels with high mechanical properties.

Selection of methods for evaluating the cost of transmission wheeling services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Happ, H.H.

1995-01-01

Wheeling has been defined as the use of a utility's transmission facilities to transmit power for other buyers and sellers. On October 26, 1994, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced a POLICY STATEMENT, concerning the Commission's Pricing transmission services. It follows a Pricing inquiry conducted by FERC in 1993, and an analysis of the 165 responses FERC had received to that inquiry including one from the Department with which this author is associated. The single most important new element introduced in FERC's Policy Statement of October 26, is flexibility in methodologies which are allowed for determining costs and, thus, prices for transmission services. FERC stated that the respondents to the Pricing Inquiry of 1993 almost unanimously requested that the Commission allow such flexibility. The Policy Statement may lead to experimentation on the part of users of transmission systems, to determine the magnitude of costs predicted by various cost of wheeling methodologies. It is the objective of this paper to outline the steps which New York State has taken and started over five years ago, in executing an investigation of wheeling costs which are generated by a number of cost of wheeling methodologies; documents which are available will be indicated, which should help other investigators in the execution of a similar study. A summary of FERC's Policy Statement dated October 26, 1994 appears in the Appendix

Defining Toll Fee of Wheeling Renewable with Reference to a Gas Pipeline in Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Hakim, Amrullah

2017-07-01

Indonesia has a huge number of renewable energy sources (RE) however; the utilization of these is currently very low. The main challenge of power production is its alignment with consumption levels; supply should equal demand at all times. There is a strong initiative from corporations with high energy demand, compared to other sectors, to apply a renewable portfolio standard for their energy input, e.g. 15% of their energy consumption requirement must come from a renewable energy source. To support this initiative, the utilization of power wheeling will help large factories on industrial estates to source firm and steady renewables from remote sites. The wheeling renewable via PLN’s transmission line has been regulated under the Ministry Decree in 2015 however; the tariff or toll fee has not yet been defined. The potential project to apply wheeling renewable will obtain power supply from a geothermal power plant, with power demand from the scattered factories under one company. This is the concept driving the application of power wheeling in the effort to push the growth of renewable energy in Indonesia. Given that the capacity of PLN’s transmission line are normally large and less congested compared to distribution line, the wheeling renewable can accommodate the scattered factories locations which then results in the cheaper toll fee of the wheeling renewable. Defining the best toll fee is the main topic of this paper with comparison of the toll fee of the gas pipeline infrastructure in Indonesia, so that it can be applied massively to achieve COP21’s commitment.

Depression of home cage wheel running: a reliable and clinically relevant method to assess migraine pain in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Kandasamy, Ram; Lee, Andrea T; Morgan, Michael M

2017-12-01

The development of new anti-migraine treatments is limited by the difficulty inassessing migraine pain in laboratory animals. Depression of activity is one of the few diagnostic criteria formigraine that can be mimicked in rats. The goal of the present study was to test the hypothesis thatdepression of home cage wheel running is a reliable and clinically relevant method to assess migraine painin rats. Adult female rats were implanted with a cannula to inject allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) onto the dura to induce migraine pain, as has been shown before. Rats recovered from implantation surgery for 8 days in cages containing a running wheel. Home cage wheel running was recorded 23 h a day. AITC and the migraine medication sumatriptan were administered in the hour prior to onset of the dark phase. Administration of AITC caused a concentration-dependent decrease in wheel running that lasted 3 h. The duration and magnitude of AITC-induced depression of wheel running was consistent following three repeated injections spaced 48 h apart. Administration of sumatriptan attenuated AITC-induced depressionof wheel running when a large dose (1 mg/kg) was administered immediately following AITC administration. Wheel running patterns did not change when sumatriptan was given to naïve rats. These data indicate that home cage wheel running is a sensitive, reliable, and clinically relevant method to assess migraine pain in the rat.

Reinforcement Value and Substitutability of Sucrose and Wheel Running: Implications for Activity Anorexia

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W.; Duncan, Ian D.; Pierce, W. David

2006-01-01

Choice between sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement was assessed in two experiments. In the first experiment, ten male Wistar rats were exposed to concurrent VI 30 s VI 30 s schedules of wheel-running and sucrose reinforcement. Sucrose concentration varied across concentrations of 2.5, 7.5, and 12.5%. As concentration increased, more behavior…

Effects of Post-Session Wheel Running on Within-Session Changes in Operant Responding

Science.gov (United States)

Aoyama, Kenjiro

2007-01-01

This study tested the effects of post-session wheel running on within-session changes in operant responding. Lever-pressing by six rats was reinforced by a food pellet under a continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule in 30-min sessions. Two different flavored food pellets were used as reinforcers. In the wheel conditions, 30-min operant-sessions…

Wheel slip control with torque blending using linear and nonlinear model predictive control

Science.gov (United States)

Basrah, M. Sofian; Siampis, Efstathios; Velenis, Efstathios; Cao, Dongpu; Longo, Stefano

2017-11-01

Modern hybrid electric vehicles employ electric braking to recuperate energy during deceleration. However, currently anti-lock braking system (ABS) functionality is delivered solely by friction brakes. Hence regenerative braking is typically deactivated at a low deceleration threshold in case high slip develops at the wheels and ABS activation is required. If blending of friction and electric braking can be achieved during ABS events, there would be no need to impose conservative thresholds for deactivation of regenerative braking and the recuperation capacity of the vehicle would increase significantly. In addition, electric actuators are typically significantly faster responding and would deliver better control of wheel slip than friction brakes. In this work we present a control strategy for ABS on a fully electric vehicle with each wheel independently driven by an electric machine and friction brake independently applied at each wheel. In particular we develop linear and nonlinear model predictive control strategies for optimal performance and enforcement of critical control and state constraints. The capability for real-time implementation of these controllers is assessed and their performance is validated in high fidelity simulation.

A Null Space Control of Two Wheels Driven Mobile Manipulator Using Passivity Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Shibata, Tsuyoshi; Murakami, Toshiyuki

This paper describes a control strategy of null space motion of a two wheels driven mobile manipulator. Recently, robot is utilized in various industrial fields and it is preferable for the robot manipulator to have multiple degrees of freedom motion. Several studies of kinematics for null space motion have been proposed. However stability analysis of null space motion is not enough. Furthermore, these approaches apply to stable systems, but they do not apply unstable systems. Then, in this research, base of manipulator equips with two wheels driven mobile robot. This robot is called two wheels driven mobile manipulator, which becomes unstable system. In the proposed approach, a control design of null space uses passivity based stabilizing. A proposed controller is decided so that closed-loop system of robot dynamics satisfies passivity. This is passivity based control. Then, control strategy is that stabilizing of the robot system applies to work space observer based approach and null space control while keeping end-effector position. The validity of the proposed approach is verified by simulations and experiments of two wheels driven mobile manipulator.

The medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens mediate the motivation for voluntary wheel running in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Basso, Julia C; Morrell, Joan I

2015-08-01

Voluntary wheel running in rats provides a preclinical model of exercise motivation in humans. We hypothesized that rats run because this activity has positive incentive salience in both the acquisition and habitual stages of wheel running and that gender differences might be present. Additionally, we sought to determine which forebrain regions are essential for the motivational processes underlying wheel running in rats. The motivation for voluntary wheel running in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats was investigated during the acquisition (Days 1-7) and habitual phases (after Day 21) of running using conditioned place preference (CPP) and the reinstatement (rebound) response after forced abstinence, respectively. Both genders displayed a strong CPP for the acquisition phase and a strong rebound response to wheel deprivation during the habitual phase, suggesting that both phases of wheel running are rewarding for both sexes. Female rats showed a 1.5 times greater rebound response than males to wheel deprivation in the habitual phase of running, while during the acquisition phase, no gender differences in CPP were found. We transiently inactivated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the nucleus accumbens (NA), hypothesizing that because these regions are involved in the acquisition and reinstatement of self-administration of both natural and pharmacological stimuli, they might also serve a role in the motivation to wheel run. Inactivation of either structure decreased the rebound response in the habitual phase of running, demonstrating that these structures are involved in the motivation for this behavior. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of a Hardware-In-Loop (HIL Simulator for Spacecraft Attitude Control Using Momentum Wheels

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Dohee Kim

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a Hardware-In-the-Loop simulator to simulate attitude control of spacecraft using momentum wheels is developed. The simulator consists of a spherical air bearing system allowing rotation and tilt in all three axes, three momentum wheels for actuation, and an AHRS (Attitude Heading Reference System. The simulator processes various types of data in PC104 and wirelessly communicates with a host PC using TCP/IP protocol. A simple low-cost momentum wheel assembly set and its drive electronics are also developed. Several experiments are performed to test the performance of the momentum wheels. For the control performance test of the simulator, a PID controller is implemented. The results of experimental demonstrations confirm the feasibility and validity of the Hardware-In-the-Loop simulator developed in the current study.

Automated home cage observations as a tool to measure the effects of wheel running on cage floor locomotion.

Science.gov (United States)

de Visser, Leonie; van den Bos, Ruud; Spruijt, Berry M

2005-05-28

This paper introduces automated observations in a modular home cage system as a tool to measure the effects of wheel running on the time distribution and daily organization of cage floor locomotor activity in female C57BL/6 mice. Mice (n = 16) were placed in the home cage system for 6 consecutive days. Fifty percent of the subjects had free access to a running wheel that was integrated in the home cage. Overall activity levels in terms of duration of movement were increased by wheel running, while time spent inside a sheltering box was decreased. Wheel running affected the hourly pattern of movement during the animals' active period of the day. Mice without a running wheel, in contrast to mice with a running wheel, showed a clear differentiation between novelty-induced and baseline levels of locomotion as reflected by a decrease after the first day of introduction to the home cage. The results are discussed in the light of the use of running wheels as a tool to measure general activity and as an object for environmental enrichment. Furthermore, the possibilities of using automated home cage observations for e.g. behavioural phenotyping are discussed.

Real-time Non-linear Target Tracking Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

YU Wenyong

2006-01-01

A control strategy for real-time target tracking for wheeled mobile robots is presented. Using a modified Kalman filter for environment perception, a novel tracking control law derived from Lyapunov stability theory is introduced. Tuning of linear velocity and angular velocity with mechanical constraints is applied. The proposed control system can simultaneously solve the target trajectory prediction, real-time tracking, and posture regulation problems of a wheeled mobile robot. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracking control laws.

A Theoretical Hypothesis on Ferris Wheel Model of University Social Responsibility

OpenAIRE

Le Kang

2016-01-01

According to the nature of the university, as a free and responsible academic community, USR is based on a different foundation —academic responsibility, so the Pyramid and the IC Model of CSR could not fully explain the most distinguished feature of USR. This paper sought to put forward a new model— Ferris Wheel Model, to illustrate the nature of USR and the process of achievement. The Ferris Wheel Model of USR shows the university creates a balanced, fairness and neutrality systemic structu...

Bucket wheel rehabilitation of ERC 1400-30/7 high-capacity excavators from lignite quarries

Science.gov (United States)

Vîlceanu, Fl; Iancu, C.

2016-11-01

The existence of bucket wheel equipment type ERC 1400-30/7 in lignite quarries with lifetime expired, or in the ultimate life period, together with high cost investments for their replacement, makes rational the efforts made to rehabilitation in order to extend their life. Rehabilitation involves checking operational safety based on relevant expertise of metal structures supporting effective resistance but also the replacement (or modernization) of subassemblies that can increase excavation process productivity, lowering energy consumption, reducing mechanical stresses. This paper proposes an analysis of constructive solution of using a part of the classical bucket wheel, on which are located 9 cutting cups and 9 chargers cups and adding a new part so that the new redesigned bucket-wheel will contain 18 cutting-chargers cups, compared to the classical model. On the CAD model of bucket wheel was performed a static and a dynamic FEA, the results being compared with the yield strength of the material of the entire structure, were checked mechanical stresses in the overall distribution map, and were verified the first 4 vibrating modes the structure compared to real loads. Thus was verified that the redesigned bucket-wheel can accomplish the proposed goals respectively increase excavation process productivity, lowering energy consumption and reducing mechanical stresses.

Effects of hardness of abrasive grains on surface roughness of work piece in PVA bonded grinding wheel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nitta, S.; Takata, A.; Ishizaki, K.

2000-01-01

The purpose of this study is to clarify relation between hardness of abrasive grains and surface roughness of work piece in the case of PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol) bonded grinding wheels. Two PVA bonded grinding wheels; with diamond or silicon carbide as abrasive grains and grinding of glass and aluminum alloy was performed. The PVA bonded grinding wheels The PVA bonded grinding wheel with silicon carbide could not grind the glass. Because insufficiency in hardness, the PVA bonded grinding wheel with the diamond abrasive grains caused deep scratch on the aluminum alloy. It was found that the final surface roughness of the work piece was not proportional to the hardness of abrasive grains. The suitable hardness of abrasive grains will be obtained by the hardness of work piece. Copyright (2000) AD-TECH - International Foundation for the Advancement of Technology Ltd

On-machine measurement of the grinding wheels' 3D surface topography using a laser displacement sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Yongcheng; Zhao, Qingliang; Guo, Bing

2014-08-01

A method of non-contact, on-machine measurement of three dimensional surface topography of grinding wheels' whole surface was developed in this paper, focusing on an electroplated coarse-grained diamond grinding wheel. The measuring system consists of a Keyence laser displacement sensor, a Keyence controller and a NI PCI-6132 data acquisition card. A resolution of 0.1μm in vertical direction and 8μm in horizontal direction could be achieved. After processing the data by LabVIEW and MATLAB, the 3D topography of the grinding wheel's whole surface could be reconstructed. When comparing the reconstructed 3D topography of the grinding wheel's marked area to its real topography captured by a high-depth-field optical digital microscope (HDF-ODM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), they were very similar to each other, proving that this method is accurate and effective. By a subsequent data processing, the topography of every grain could be extracted and then the active grain number, the active grain volume and the active grain's bearing ration could be calculated. These three parameters could serve as the criterion to evaluate the grinding performance of coarse-grained diamond grinding wheels. Then the performance of the grinding wheel could be evaluated on-machine accurately and quantitatively.

Investigation of pre-pubertal sex differences in wheel running and social behavior in three mouse strains.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Elizabeth A; Corbitt, Cynthia

2015-08-01

Sex differences in social behaviors exist in mammals during adulthood, and further evidence suggests that sex differences in behavior are present before sexual maturity. In order to model behavioral disorders in animals, it is important to assess baseline sex-related behavioral differences, especially when studying disorders for which sex-related behavioral effects are expected. We investigated the effect of sex on behavior in 3 strains of pre-pubertal mice (C57BL/6, CFW, and CF1) using a wheel-running assay. We found no significant sex differences in latency to run on the wheel or total duration of wheel running within each strain. During the social interaction test, there were no differences between sexes in latency or total duration of contact or following between a subject and novel mouse. We also evaluated behavioral patterns of wheel running and stereotypical behaviors, such as burrowing and grooming. Both sexes showed characteristic wheel running behavior, spending the majority of each trial interacting with the wheel when it was free and more time performing other activities ( e.g. , stereotypical behaviors, general locomotion) when it was jammed. These results provide evidence that, among various strains of pre-pubertal mice, baseline sex-related behavioral differences are not strong enough to influence the measured behaviors.

Railway bogie vibration analysis by mathematical simulation model and a scaled four-wheel railway bogie set

Science.gov (United States)

Visayataksin, Noppharat; Sooklamai, Manon

2018-01-01

The bogie is the part that connects and transfers all the load from the vehicle body onto the railway track; interestingly the interaction between wheels and rails is the critical point for derailment of the rail vehicles. However, observing or experimenting with real bogies on rail vehicles is impossible due to the operational rules and safety concerns. Therefore, this research aimed to develop a vibration analysis set for a four-wheel railway bogie by constructing a four-wheel bogie with scale of 1:4.5. The bogie structures, including wheels and axles, were made from an aluminium alloy, equipped with springs and dampers. The bogie was driven by an electric motor using 4 round wheels instead of 2 straight rails, with linear velocity between 0 to 11.22 m/s. The data collected from the vibration analysis set was compared to the mathematical simulation model to investigate the vibration behavior of the bogie, especially the hunting motion. The results showed that vibration behavior from a scaled four-wheel railway bogie set significantly agreed with the mathematical simulation model in terms of displacement and hunting frequency. The critical speed of the wheelset was found by executing the mathematical simulation model at 13 m/s.

Finishing aeronautical planetary herringbone gear wheels in container vibrating smoothing machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacek MICHALSKI

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the technological process of abrasive-chemical machining wheel bearing surface of the cylindrical herringbone gears planetary gear in vibrating container smoothing machine according to Isotropic Finishing ISF® technology of the REM Chemicals Inc. company. Gear wheels are made of stainless Pyrowear 53 and subjected to carburizing, hardening, cold working and low tempering. The change in value of deviation indicators for the kinematic accuracy, smoothness and geometric structure of the machined surfaces of the gear teeth after smoothing compared with the contoured grinding were analyzed. The findings are different a characteristic performance on the surface of the tooth side along the outline, especially with a higher value at the head of the tooths. This creates a need for appropriate modification of the lateral surface of the teeth in the process of contoured grinding. The results of the mechanical strength of the samples gear wheel after the smoothing process and evaluating the hydrogen embrittlement are presented.

An overview on real-time control schemes for wheeled mobile robot

Science.gov (United States)

Radzak, M. S. A.; Ali, M. A. H.; Sha’amri, S.; Azwan, A. R.

2018-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to review real-time control motion algorithms for wheeled mobile robot (WMR) when navigating in environment such as road. Its need a good controller to avoid collision with any disturbance and maintain a track error at zero level. The controllers are used with other aiding sensors to measure the WMR’s velocities, posture, and interference to estimate the required torque to be applied on the wheels of mobile robot. Four main categories for wheeled mobile robot control systems have been found in literature which are namely: Kinematic based controller, Dynamic based controllers, artificial intelligence based control system, and Active Force control. A MATLAB/Simulink software is the main software to simulate and implement the control system. The real-time toolbox in MATLAB/SIMULINK are used to receive/send data from sensors/to actuator with presence of disturbances, however others software such C, C++ and visual basic are rare to be used.

ANALISIS PENGENDALIAN MUTU PROSES MACHINING ALLOY WHEEL MENGGUNAKAN METODE SIX SIGMA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ong Andre Wahyu Rijanto

2014-12-01

Full Text Available PT. Meshindo Alloy Wheel adalah perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang manufaktur alloy wheel atau dikenal dengan sebutan velg racing untuk didistribusikan ke industri mobil atau dikenal sebagai OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer baik untuk industri otomotif di Indonesia maupun di Jepang. Mutu merupakan syarat penting dalam sukses bisnis. Kehandalan kinerja proses dan keakuratan pencapaian persyaratan mutu harus dapat dipenuhi. Proses dikatakan capable jika dapat memenuhi spesifikasi pelanggan, variasi yang terjadi pada proses relatif kecil, dan defect atau DPMO yang terjadi kecil. Artikel ini menganalisis pengendalian mutu proses pembuatan valve hole location pada alloy wheel type MS 511 YA. Pengendalian variasi proses produksi dan pengukuran dengan menggunakan metode six sigma DMAIC (Define Measure Analysis Improve Control untuk dapat mencapai target penurunan cacat sampai mencapai 3,4 DPMO (defect per million opportunities, Cp 1,54 dan Cpk 1,54. Setelah proses six sigma selesai, diharapkan implementasi six sigma dapat memberikan saran-saran perbaikan pada proses-proses yang lain.

ANALISIS PENGENDALIAN MUTU PROSES MACHINING ALLOY WHEEL MENGGUNAKAN METODE SIX SIGMA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ong Andre Wahyu Rijanto

2014-12-01

Full Text Available PT. Meshindo Alloy Wheel adalah perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang manufaktur alloy wheel atau dikenal dengan sebutan velg racing untuk didistribusikan ke industri mobil atau dikenal sebagai OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer baik untuk industri otomotif di Indonesia maupun di Jepang. Mutu merupakan syarat penting dalam sukses bisnis. Kehandalan kinerja proses dan keakuratan pencapaian persyaratan mutu harus dapat dipenuhi. Proses dikatakan capable jika dapat memenuhi spesifikasi pelanggan, variasi yang terjadi pada proses relatif kecil, dan defect atau DPMO yang terjadi kecil.  Artikel ini menganalisis pengendalian mutu proses pembuatan valve hole location pada alloy wheel type MS 511 YA. Pengendalian variasi proses produksi dan pengukuran dengan menggunakan metode six sigma DMAIC (Define Measure Analysis Improve Control untuk dapat mencapai target penurunan cacat sampai mencapai 3,4 DPMO (defect per million opportunities, Cp 1,54 dan Cpk 1,54. Setelah proses six sigma selesai, diharapkan implementasi six sigma dapat memberikan saran-saran perbaikan pada proses-proses yang lain.

The reinforcing property and the rewarding aftereffect of wheel running in rats: a combination of two paradigms.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Wagner, Jason P

2005-02-28

Wheel running reinforces the behavior that generates it and produces a preference for the context that follows it. The goal of the present study was to demonstrate both of these effects in the same animals. Twelve male Wistar rats were first exposed to a fixed-interval 30 s schedule of wheel-running reinforcement. The operant was lever-pressing and the reinforcer was the opportunity to run for 45 s. Following this phase, the method of place conditioning was used to test for a rewarding aftereffect following operant sessions. On alternating days, half the rats responded for wheel-running reinforcement while the other half remained in their home cage. Upon completion of the wheel-running reinforcement sessions, rats that ran and rats that remained in their home cages were placed into a chamber of a conditioned place preference (CPP) apparatus for 30 min. Each animal received six pairings of a distinctive context with wheel running and six pairings of a different context with their home cage. On the test day, animals were free to move between the chambers for 10 min. Results showed a conditioned place preference for the context associated with wheel running; however, time spent in the context associated with running was not related to wheel-running rate, lever-pressing rate, or post-reinforcement pause duration. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Vegetation response to wagon wheel camp layouts.

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Wagon wheel camp layouts have been favoured, in some quarters, for rotational grazing due to the economy and convenience of having the camps radially arranged around central facilities. A possible disadvantage of such layouts is the tendency for over-grazing near the hub and under-grazing at the extremities.

Dynamic Measurement for the Diameter of A Train Wheel Based on Structured-Light Vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Zheng; Sun, Junhua; Zhang, Guangjun

2016-04-20

Wheels are very important for the safety of a train. The diameter of the wheel is a significant parameter that needs regular inspection. Traditional methods only use the contact points of the wheel tread to fit the rolling round. However, the wheel tread is easily influenced by peeling or scraping. Meanwhile, the circle fitting algorithm is sensitive to noise when only three points are used. This paper proposes a dynamic measurement method based on structured-light vision. The axle of the wheelset and the tread are both employed. The center of the rolling round is determined by the axle rather than the tread only. Then, the diameter is calculated using the center and the contact points together. Simulations are performed to help design the layout of the sensors, and the influences of different noise sources are also analyzed. Static and field experiments are both performed, and the results show it to be quite stable and accurate.

Dynamic Measurement for the Diameter of A Train Wheel Based on Structured-Light Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Gong

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Wheels are very important for the safety of a train. The diameter of the wheel is a significant parameter that needs regular inspection. Traditional methods only use the contact points of the wheel tread to fit the rolling round. However, the wheel tread is easily influenced by peeling or scraping. Meanwhile, the circle fitting algorithm is sensitive to noise when only three points are used. This paper proposes a dynamic measurement method based on structured-light vision. The axle of the wheelset and the tread are both employed. The center of the rolling round is determined by the axle rather than the tread only. Then, the diameter is calculated using the center and the contact points together. Simulations are performed to help design the layout of the sensors, and the influences of different noise sources are also analyzed. Static and field experiments are both performed, and the results show it to be quite stable and accurate.

Decoupling control of steering and driving system for in-wheel-motor-drive electric vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Han; Zhao, Wanzhong

2018-02-01

To improve the maneuverability and stability of in-wheel-motor-drive electric vehicle, a control strategy based on nonlinear decoupling control method is proposed in this paper, realizing the coordinated control of the steering and driving system. At first, the nonlinear models of the in-wheel-motor-drive electric vehicle and its sub-system are constructed. Then the inverse system decoupling theory is applied to decompose the nonlinear system into several independent subsystems, which makes it possible to realize the coordinated control of each subsystem. Next, the μ-Synthesis theory is applied to eliminate the influence of model uncertainty, improving the stability, robustness and tracking performance of in-wheel-motor-drive electric vehicle. Simulation and experiment results and numerical analyses, based on the electric vehicle actuated by in-wheel-motors, prove that the proposed control method is effective to accomplish the decoupling control of the steering and driving system in both simulation and real practice.

Evaluation of four steering wheels to determine driver hand placement in a static environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mossey, Mary E; Xi, Yubin; McConomy, Shayne K; Brooks, Johnell O; Rosopa, Patrick J; Venhovens, Paul J

2014-07-01

While much research exists on occupant packaging both proprietary and in the literature, more detailed research regarding user preferences for subjective ratings of steering wheel designs is sparse in published literature. This study aimed to explore the driver interactions with production steering wheels in four vehicles by using anthropometric data, driver hand placement, and driver grip design preferences for Generation-Y and Baby Boomers. In this study, participants selected their preferred grip diameter, responded to a series of questions about the steering wheel grip as they sat in four vehicles, and rank ordered their preferred grip design. Thirty-two male participants (16 Baby Boomers between ages 47 and 65 and 16 Generation-Y between ages 18 and 29) participated in the study. Drivers demonstrated different gripping behavior between vehicles and between groups. Recommendations for future work in steering wheel grip design and naturalistic driver hand positioning are discussed. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection for increased voluntary wheel-running affects behavior and brain monoamines in mice

Science.gov (United States)

Waters, R.Parrish; Pringle, R.B.; Forster, G.L.; Renner, K.J.; Malisch, J.L.; Garland, T.; Swallow, J.G.

2013-01-01

Selective-breeding of house mice for increased voluntary wheel-running has resulted in multiple physiological and behavioral changes. Characterizing these differences may lead to experimental models that can elucidate factors involved in human diseases and disorders associated with physical inactivity, or potentially treated by physical activity, such as diabetes, obesity, and depression. Herein, we present ethological data for adult males from a line of mice that has been selectively bred for high levels of voluntary wheel-running and from a non-selected control line, housed with or without wheels. Additionally, we present concentrations of central monoamines in limbic, striatal, and midbrain regions. We monitored wheel-running for 8 weeks, and observed home-cage behavior during the last 5 weeks of the study. Mice from the selected line accumulated more revolutions per day than controls due to increased speed and duration of running. Selected mice exhibited more active behaviors than controls, regardless of wheel access, and exhibited less inactivity and grooming than controls. Selective-breeding also influenced the longitudinal patterns of behavior. We found statistically significant differences in monoamine concentrations and associated metabolites in brain regions that influence exercise and motivational state. These results suggest underlying neurochemical differences between selected and control lines that may influence the observed differences in behavior. Our results bolster the argument that selected mice can provide a useful model of human psychological and physiological diseases and disorders. PMID:23352668

Engineering report. Part 1: NASA wheel air seal development for space shuttle type environmental requirements

Science.gov (United States)

1973-01-01

The sealing techniques are studied for existing aircraft wheel-tire designs to meet the hard vacuum .00001 torr and cold temperature -65 F requirements of space travel. The investigation covers the use of existing wheel seal designs.

Using wheel availability to shape running behavior of the rat towards improved behavioral and neurobiological outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Basso, Julia C; Morrell, Joan I

2017-10-01

Though voluntary wheel running (VWR) has been used extensively to induce changes in both behavior and biology, little attention has been given to the way in which different variables influence VWR. This lack of understanding has led to an inability to utilize this behavior to its full potential, possibly blunting its effects on the endpoints of interest. We tested how running experience, sex, gonadal hormones, and wheel apparatus influence VWR in a range of wheel access "doses". VWR increases over several weeks, with females eventually running 1.5 times farther and faster than males. Limiting wheel access can be used as a tool to motivate subjects to run but restricts maximal running speeds attained by the rodents. Additionally, circulating gonadal hormones regulate wheel running behavior, but are not the sole basis of sex differences in running. Limitations from previous studies include the predominate use of males, emphasis on distance run, variable amounts of wheel availability, variable light-dark cycles, and possible food and/or water deprivation. We designed a comprehensive set of experiments to address these inconsistencies, providing data regarding the "microfeatures" of running, including distance run, time spent running, running rate, bouting behavior, and daily running patterns. By systematically altering wheel access, VWR behavior can be finely tuned - a feature that we hypothesize is due to its positive incentive salience. We demonstrate how to maximize VWR, which will allow investigators to optimize exercise-induced changes in their behavioral and/or biological endpoints of interest. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Integrated modeling and design for realizing a two-wheeled wheelchair for disabled.

Science.gov (United States)

Altalmas, Tareq; Aula, Abqori; Ahmad, Salmiah; Tokhi, M O; Akmeliawati, Rini

2016-01-01

Two-wheeled wheelchairs are considered highly nonlinear and complex systems. The systems mimic a double-inverted pendulum scenario and will provide better maneuverability in confined spaces and also to reach higher level of height for pick and place tasks. The challenge resides in modeling and control of the two-wheeled wheelchair to perform comparably to a normal four-wheeled wheelchair. Most common modeling techniques have been accomplished by researchers utilizing the basic Newton's Laws of motion and some have used 3D tools to model the system where the models are much more theoretical and quite far from the practical implementation. This article is aimed at closing the gap between the conventional mathematical modeling approaches where the integrated 3D modeling approach with validation on the actual hardware implementation was conducted. To achieve this, both nonlinear and a linearized model in terms of state space model were obtained from the mathematical model of the system for analysis and, thereafter, a 3D virtual prototype of the wheelchair was developed, simulated, and analyzed. This has increased the confidence level for the proposed platform and facilitated the actual hardware implementation of the two-wheeled wheelchair. Results show that the prototype developed and tested has successfully worked within the specific requirements established.

Grinding Wheel Profile

Science.gov (United States)

2004-01-01

This graphic dubbed by engineers as the 'Grinding Wheel Profile' is the detective's tool used by the Opportunity team to help them understand one of the processes that formed the interior of a rock called 'McKittrick.' Scientists are looking for clues as to how layers, grains and minerals helped create this rock, and the engineers who built the rock abrasion tool (RAT) wanted to ensure that their instrument's handiwork did not get confused with natural processes.In the original microscopic image underlaying the graphics, engineers and scientists noticed 'layers' or 'scratches' on the spherical object nicknamed 'blueberry' in the lower right part of the image. The designers of the rock abrasion tool noticed that the arc length and width of the scratches were similar to the shape and size of the rock abrasion tool's grinding wheel, which is made out of a pad of diamond teeth.The scrapes on the bottom right blueberry appear to be caused by the fact that the berry got dislodged slightly and its surface was scraped with the grinding pad. In this image, the largest yellow circle is the overall diameter of the hole ground by the rock abrasion tool and the largest yellow rectangular shape is the area of the grinding wheel bit. The smaller yellow semi-circle is the path that the center of the grinding tool follows. The orange arrow arcing around the solid yellow circle (center of grinding tool) indicates the direction that the grinding tool spins around its own center at 3,000 revolutions per minute. The tool simultaneously spins in an orbit around the center of the hole, indicated by the larger orange arrow to the left.The grinding tool is 22 millimeters (0.9 inches) in length and the actual grinding surface, which consists of the diamond pad, is 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inches) in length, indicated by the two smaller rectangles. You can see that the smaller bottom rectangle fits exactly the width of the scrape marks.The grooves on the blueberry are also the same as the

Complex eigenvalue analysis of railway wheel/rail squeal

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR OKE

Squeal noise from wheel/rail and brake disc/pad frictional contact is typical in railways. ... squeal noise by multibody simulation of a rail car running on rigid rails. ... system, traditional complex eigenvalue analysis by finite element was used.

Vehicle wheel drag coefficient in relation to travelling velocity - CFD analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Leśniewicz, P.; Kulak, M.; Karczewski, M.

2016-10-01

In order to understand the aerodynamic losses associated with a rotating automobile wheel, a detailed characteristics of the drag coefficient in relation to the applied velocity are necessary. Single drag coefficient value is most often reported for the commercially available vehicles, much less is revealed about the influence of particular car components on the energy consumption in various driving cycles. However, detailed flow potential losses determination is desired for performance estimation. To address these needs, the numerical investigation of an isolated wheel is proposed herein.

Investigation on novel raceway pond with inclined paddle wheels through simulation and microalgae culture experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Fanxue; Huang, Jianke; Meng, Chen; Zhu, Fachao; Chen, Jianpei; Li, Yuanguang

2016-01-01

The open raceway ponds are nowadays the most used large-scale reactors for microalgae culture. To avoid the stacking of microalgae, the paddle wheels are the most widely used to circulate and mix the culture medium. In this paper, a numerical simulation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of open raceway ponds with different types of paddle wheels (the traditional paddle wheels and the novel paddle wheels with specially inclined angle of the blades). The particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to validate the reliability of the CFD model. The CFD simulation results showed that the novel raceway pond with 15° inclined angle of the blades had the best mixing efficiency under the same power consumption. Lastly, the results of microalgae culture experiments showed that the growth rates of Chlorella pyrenoidosa in the novel raceway pond with 15° inclined angle of the blades were higher than those in the traditional reactor. The results of the culture experiments and CFD simulations were identical with each other. Therefore, a novel paddle wheel with 15° inclined angle of the blades was obtained for better microalgae cultivation.

Wheeled Vehicle Clutches, Transmissions, and Transfers. Military Curriculum Materials for Vocational and Technical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Army Ordnance Center and School, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

This course is one of several subcourses that make up the entire Army correspondence course on wheeled vehicle maintenance. The subcourse is designed to provide the student with information about the operation, malfunction diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of wheeled vehicle clutches, transmissions, and transfer cases. It provides the basic…

Trigger algorithms and electronics for the ATLAS muon new small wheel upgrade

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guan, L.

2016-01-01

The New Small Wheel Upgrade for the ATLAS experiment will replace the innermost station of the Muon Spectrometer in the forward region in order to maintain its current performance during high luminosity data-taking after the LHC Phase-I upgrade. The New Small Wheel, comprising Micromegas and small Thin Gap Chambers, will reduce the rate of fake triggers coming from backgrounds in the forward region and significantly improve the Level-1 muon trigger selectivity by providing precise on-line segment measurements with ∼ 1 mrad angular resolution. Such demanding precision, together with the short time (∼ 1 μs) to prepare trigger data and perform on-line reconstruction, implies very stringent requirements on the design of trigger system and trigger electronics. This paper presents an overview of the design of the New Small Wheel trigger system, trigger algorithms and processor hardware

Utilization of wheel dop based on ergonomic aspects

Science.gov (United States)

Widiasih, Wiwin; Murnawan, Hery; Setiawan, Danny

2017-06-01

Time is an important thing in life. People need a tool or equipment to measure time which is divided into two types, namely clock and watch. Everyone needs those kinds of tool. It becomes an opportunity for manufacturer to build a business. However, establishing a business by depending on the demand is not enough, it is necessary to take a consideration of making innovation. Innovation is a difficult thing to find out, but it is not impossible to do it. By creating an innovative product, it can be a strategy to win the competitive market. This study aimed to create an innovative product based on the ergonomic aspects, which was by utilizing wheel dop. This methodology consisted of pre-study, planning and product development, and product analysis. This product utilized wheel dop and was made based on the ergonomic aspects.

Evidence for positive, but not negative, behavioral contrast with wheel-running reinforcement on multiple variable-ratio schedules.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David

2016-12-01

Rats responded on a multiple variable-ratio (VR) 10 VR 10 schedule of reinforcement in which lever pressing was reinforced by the opportunity to run in a wheel for 30s in both the changed (manipulated) and unchanged components. To generate positive contrast, the schedule of reinforcement in the changed component was shifted to extinction; to generate negative contrast, the schedule was shifted to VR 3. With the shift to extinction in the changed component, wheel-running and local lever-pressing rates increased in the unchanged component, a result supporting positive contrast; however, the shift to a VR 3 schedule in the changed component showed no evidence of negative contrast in the unaltered setting, only wheel running decreased in the unchanged component. Changes in wheel-running rates across components were consistent in showing a compensation effect, depending on whether the schedule manipulation increased or decreased opportunities for wheel running in the changed component. These findings are the first to demonstrate positive behavioral contrast on a multiple schedule with wheel running as reinforcement in both components. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Performance Evaluation of Abrasive Grinding Wheel Formulated ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper presents a study on the formulation and manufacture of abrasive grinding wheel using locally formulated silicon carbide abrasive grains. Six local raw material substitutes were identified through pilot study and with the initial mix of the identified materials, a systematic search for an optimal formulation of silicon ...

An elevator wheel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhornik, V.I.; Cherkov, Ye.M.; Simonov, A.A.

1982-01-01

This invention deals with mineral enrichment and is primarily for unloading submerged products of enrichment during separation in heavy mediums. An elevator wheel is proposed for unloading the submerged product from the bath of a heavy to medium separator which includes ladle disks with internal walls and overlapping sheets hinged to the ends. In order to increase the degree of dehydration of the unloaded product, the internal wall of each ladle is made of sheets installed in stages with clearances relative to each other. The advantages of the proposed device include an improvement in the degree of dehydration of the submerged product in the ladles and a reduction in the carry away of the heavy medium with the enrichment products.

Feasibility study on an energy-saving desiccant wheel system with CO2 heat pump

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yefeng; Meng, Deren; Chen, Shen

2018-02-01

In traditional desiccant wheel, air regeneration process occurs inside an open loop, and lots of energy is consumed. In this paper, an energy-saving desiccant wheel system with CO2 heat pump and closed loop air regeneration is proposed. The general theory and features of the desiccant wheel are analysed. The main feature of the proposed system is that the air regeneration process occurs inside a closed loop, and a CO2 heat pump is utilized inside this loop for the air regeneration process as well as supplying cooling for the process air. The simulation results show that the proposed system can save significant energy.

Effect of wheelchair design on wheeled mobility and propulsion efficiency in less-resourced settings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher J. Stanfill

2017-09-01

Conclusion: Use of wheel-mounted accelerometers as a means to test user mobility proved to be a feasible methodology in rural settings. Variability in wheeled mobility data could be decreased with longer acclimatisation periods. The data suggest that push rim users experience an easier transition to a dual-lever propulsion system.

Effective pathfinding for four-wheeled robot based on combining Theta* and hybrid A* algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Віталій Геннадійович Михалько

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Effective pathfinding algorithm based on Theta* and Hybrid A* algorithms was developed for four-wheeled robot. Pseudocode for algorithm was showed and explained. Algorithm and simulator for four-wheeled robot were implemented using Java programming language. Algorithm was tested on U-obstacles, complex maps and for parking problem

Strain measurement of wheel by a super-small size strain history recorder and its application to fatigue design; Chokogata jitsudo hizumi keisoku sochi ni yoru wheel no hizumi keisoku to hiro kyodo sekkei eno oyo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murakami, Y [Kyushu University, Fukuoka (Japan); Mineki, K; Wakamatsu, K [Central Motor Wheel, Tokyo (Japan); Morita, T

1997-10-01

A very small strain history recorder based on the rainflow method has been developed and applied to strain measurement of car wheels under several road tests. Various strain amplitude histogram data under mountain road, city road and high-way were acquired by the recorder for various types of wheels. The data were studied from the viewpoint of random fatigue and the fatigue damages were evaluated by Miner`s rule. The results of the damage evaluation were used for the improvement of shapes of wheels. 2 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

STABILITY OF WHEELED VEHICLES AS COMPLEX OPERATIONAL PROPERTIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Artemov

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Different views on the definition of «stability of wheeled vehicles» are considered and the author’s own definition is offered. A version of the structure of stability properties as a complex op-erational property is offered.

Plasma adiponectin is increased in mice selectively bred for high wheel-running activity, but not by wheel running per se

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaanholt, L. M.; Meerlo, P.; Garland, T.; Visser, G. H.; van Dijk, G.

2007-01-01

Mice selectively bred for high wheel-running activity (S) have decreased fat content compared to mice from randomly bred control (C) lines. We explored whether this difference was associated with alterations in levels of circulating hormones involved in regulation of food intake and energy balance,

Greasing the Wheels of Trade

OpenAIRE

Hendrik P. van Dalen; Aico P. van Vuuren

2003-01-01

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in 'De Economist' , 2005, 153(2), 139-165. How much does a nation spend on resources to 'grease the wheels of trade'? To examine this question the Dutch economy is used as an exemplary case as the Netherlands are known as a nation of traders. This image was derived in the seventeenth century from successes in long distance trade, shipping and financial innovations. Despite its historical background in trading the potential to 'truck and barter' ...

Fermented soymilk increases voluntary wheel running activity and sexual behavior in male rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Takuya; Shinohara, Yasutomo; Kaneko, Daisuke; Nishimura, Ikuko; Matsuyama, Asahi

2010-12-01

Wheel running by rodents is thought to reflect voluntary exercise in humans. The present study examined the effect of fermented soymilk (FSM) on voluntary wheel running in rats. FSM was prepared from soymilk (SM) using the bacteria Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides. The rats were fed a normal diet for 3 weeks followed by a 3-week administration of diet containing FSM or SM (5% w/w), and then the diets were switched back to a normal diet for 3 weeks. The voluntary wheel running activity was increased by FSM administration, although no changes were observed by SM administration. This effect was observed 2 weeks after FSM administration and lasted 1 week after deprivation of FSM. Then we evaluated the effect of FSM on sexual behavior in male rats. FSM administration for 10 days significantly increased the number of mounts. The protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) increased in the hippocampus by FSM administration and it is suggested that FSM may change norepinephrine or dopamine signaling in the brain. Our study provides the first evidence that FSM increases voluntary wheel running activity and sexual behavior and suggests that TH may be involved in these effects.

Mono- and multilayers of molecular spoked carbazole wheels on graphite.

Science.gov (United States)

Jester, Stefan-S; Aggarwal, A Vikas; Kalle, Daniel; Höger, Sigurd

2014-01-01

Self-assembled monolayers of a molecular spoked wheel (a shape-persistent macrocycle with an intraannular spoke/hub system) and its synthetic precursor are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at the liquid/solid interface of 1-octanoic acid and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The submolecularly resolved STM images reveal that the molecules indeed behave as more or less rigid objects of certain sizes and shapes - depending on their chemical structures. In addition, the images provide insight into the multilayer growth of the molecular spoked wheels (MSWs), where the first adlayer acts as a template for the commensurate adsorption of molecules in the second layer.

Mono- and multilayers of molecular spoked carbazole wheels on graphite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan-S. Jester

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Self-assembled monolayers of a molecular spoked wheel (a shape-persistent macrocycle with an intraannular spoke/hub system and its synthetic precursor are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM at the liquid/solid interface of 1-octanoic acid and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The submolecularly resolved STM images reveal that the molecules indeed behave as more or less rigid objects of certain sizes and shapes – depending on their chemical structures. In addition, the images provide insight into the multilayer growth of the molecular spoked wheels (MSWs, where the first adlayer acts as a template for the commensurate adsorption of molecules in the second layer.

Polymorphic Evolutionary Games.

Science.gov (United States)

Fishman, Michael A

2016-06-07

In this paper, I present an analytical framework for polymorphic evolutionary games suitable for explicitly modeling evolutionary processes in diploid populations with sexual reproduction. The principal aspect of the proposed approach is adding diploid genetics cum sexual recombination to a traditional evolutionary game, and switching from phenotypes to haplotypes as the new game׳s pure strategies. Here, the relevant pure strategy׳s payoffs derived by summing the payoffs of all the phenotypes capable of producing gametes containing that particular haplotype weighted by the pertinent probabilities. The resulting game is structurally identical to the familiar Evolutionary Games with non-linear pure strategy payoffs (Hofbauer and Sigmund, 1998. Cambridge University Press), and can be analyzed in terms of an established analytical framework for such games. And these results can be translated into the terms of genotypic, and whence, phenotypic evolutionary stability pertinent to the original game. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Remembering the evolutionary Freud.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Allan

2006-03-01

Throughout his career as a writer, Sigmund Freud maintained an interest in the evolutionary origins of the human mind and its neurotic and psychotic disorders. In common with many writers then and now, he believed that the evolutionary past is conserved in the mind and the brain. Today the "evolutionary Freud" is nearly forgotten. Even among Freudians, he is regarded to be a red herring, relevant only to the extent that he diverts attention from the enduring achievements of the authentic Freud. There are three ways to explain these attitudes. First, the evolutionary Freud's key work is the "Overview of the Transference Neurosis" (1915). But it was published at an inopportune moment, forty years after the author's death, during the so-called "Freud wars." Second, Freud eventually lost interest in the "Overview" and the prospect of a comprehensive evolutionary theory of psychopathology. The publication of The Ego and the Id (1923), introducing Freud's structural theory of the psyche, marked the point of no return. Finally, Freud's evolutionary theory is simply not credible. It is based on just-so stories and a thoroughly discredited evolutionary mechanism, Lamarckian use-inheritance. Explanations one and two are probably correct but also uninteresting. Explanation number three assumes that there is a fundamental difference between Freud's evolutionary narratives (not credible) and the evolutionary accounts of psychopathology that currently circulate in psychiatry and mainstream journals (credible). The assumption is mistaken but worth investigating.

Accounting of possibilities of blade oscillation emergence at the calculation of operating wheel of turbomolecular vacuum pump

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pereslavlev, A.V.

1988-01-01

Possibilities of blade oscillation emergence in the operating wheel of turbomolecular vacuum pump (TVP) are considered. Permissible value of safety factor for tensile strength in the operating wheel blade root section, at which the necessary fatigue limit of a material is provided for (k=2 for aluminium alloys and k=1.5 for VT-8 titanium alloy) is determined. Methods of calculating the main dimensions of blade operating wheel on the basis of the specified maximum pumping speed, taking account of possibilities of blade oscillation emergence are presented. Results of calculating the 4S max/πD 2 2 complex, characterizing maximum speed of operating wheel pumping, depending on permissible tensipn in the blade root section (σ), are given. It is shown that (σ increase above (2.5 2.7)x10 8 Pa for aluminium alloys and above ∼ 4x10 8 Pa for VT titanium alloy don't cause increase of operating wheel maximum pumping speed. 8 refs.; 6 figs

Durability Characteristics Analysis of Plastic Worm Wheel with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide

OpenAIRE

Kim, Gun-Hee; Lee, Jeong-Won; Seo, Tae-Il

2013-01-01

Plastic worm wheel is widely used in the vehicle manufacturing field because it is favorable for weight lightening, vibration and noise reduction, as well as corrosion resistance. However, it is very difficult for general plastics to secure the mechanical properties that are required for vehicle gears. If the plastic resin is reinforced by glass fiber in the fabrication process of plastic worm wheel, it is possible to achieve the mechanical properties of metallic material levels. In this stud...

Risk of Motor Vehicle Accidents Related to Sleepiness at the Wheel: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Bioulac, Stéphanie; Franchi, Jean-Arthur Micoulaud; Arnaud, Mickael; Sagaspe, Patricia; Moore, Nicholas; Salvo, Francesco; Philip, Pierre

2017-10-01

Sleepiness at the wheel is widely believed to be a cause of motor vehicle accidents. Nevertheless, a systematic review of studies investigating this relationship has not yet been published. The objective of this study was to quantify the relationship between sleepiness at the wheel and motor vehicle accidents. A systematic review was performed using Medline, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science. The outcome measure of interest was motor vehicle accident defined as involving four- or two-wheeled vehicles in road traffic, professional and nonprofessional drivers, with or without objective consequences. The exposure was sleepiness at the wheel defined as self-reported sleepiness at the wheel. Studies were included if they provided adjusted risk estimates of motor vehicle accidents related to sleepiness at the wheel. Risk estimates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were extracted and pooled as odds ratios (ORs) using a random-effect model. Heterogeneity was quantified using Q statistics and the I2 index. The potential causes of heterogeneity were investigated using meta-regressions. Ten cross-sectional studies (51,520 participants), six case-control studies (4904 participants), and one cohort study (13,674 participants) were included. Sleepiness at the wheel was associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents (pooled OR 2.51 [95% CI 1.87; 3.39]). A significant heterogeneity was found between the individual risk estimates (Q = 93.21; I2 = 83%). Sleepiness at the wheel increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents and should be considered when investigating fitness to drive. Further studies are required to explore the nature of this relationship. PROSPERO 2015 CRD42015024805. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Miniature Reaction Wheel for Small Satellite Control, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The overall goal of this project is to design, develop, demonstrate, and deliver a miniature, high torque, low-vibration reaction wheel for use on small satellites....

Understanding the mind from an evolutionary perspective: an overview of evolutionary psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Shackelford, Todd K; Liddle, James R

2014-05-01

The theory of evolution by natural selection provides the only scientific explanation for the existence of complex adaptations. The design features of the brain, like any organ, are the result of selection pressures operating over deep time. Evolutionary psychology posits that the human brain comprises a multitude of evolved psychological mechanisms, adaptations to specific and recurrent problems of survival and reproduction faced over human evolutionary history. Although some mistakenly view evolutionary psychology as promoting genetic determinism, evolutionary psychologists appreciate and emphasize the interactions between genes and environments. This approach to psychology has led to a richer understanding of a variety of psychological phenomena, and has provided a powerful foundation for generating novel hypotheses. Critics argue that evolutionary psychologists resort to storytelling, but as with any branch of science, empirical testing is a vital component of the field, with hypotheses standing or falling with the weight of the evidence. Evolutionary psychology is uniquely suited to provide a unifying theoretical framework for the disparate subdisciplines of psychology. An evolutionary perspective has provided insights into several subdisciplines of psychology, while simultaneously demonstrating the arbitrary nature of dividing psychological science into such subdisciplines. Evolutionary psychologists have amassed a substantial empirical and theoretical literature, but as a relatively new approach to psychology, many questions remain, with several promising directions for future research. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Steel Housing - The Reinvention of the Square Wheel?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willems, M.H.P.M.

2002-01-01

Steel housing has some remarkable resemblance with a square wheel. Both combine a simple concept, uncommon appearance and lack of appreciation. The title furthermore refers to the repeated stubborn efforts over the last decennia to develop prefabricated steel-based housing systems. Steel has

Analysis of torque transmitting behavior and wheel slip prevention control during regenerative braking for high speed EMU trains

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Kun; Xu, Guo-Qing; Zheng, Chun-Hua

2016-04-01

The wheel-rail adhesion control for regenerative braking systems of high speed electric multiple unit trains is crucial to maintaining the stability, improving the adhesion utilization, and achieving deep energy recovery. There remain technical challenges mainly because of the nonlinear, uncertain, and varying features of wheel-rail contact conditions. This research analyzes the torque transmitting behavior during regenerative braking, and proposes a novel methodology to detect the wheel-rail adhesion stability. Then, applications to the wheel slip prevention during braking are investigated, and the optimal slip ratio control scheme is proposed, which is based on a novel optimal reference generation of the slip ratio and a robust sliding mode control. The proposed methodology achieves the optimal braking performance without the wheel-rail contact information. Numerical simulation results for uncertain slippery rails verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Design of the Dual Offset Active Caster Wheel for Holonomic Omni-Directional Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Woojin Chung

2010-12-01

Full Text Available It is shown how a holonomic and omni-directional mobile robot is designed towards indoor public services. Dual offset steerable wheels with orthogonal velocity components are proposed. The proposed wheel provides precise positioning and reliable navigation performance as well as durability. A fabricated prototype is introduced, then, an experiment is carried out.

Effect of machinery wheel load on grass yield

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Green, Ole; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm; Kristensen, Kristian

2010-01-01

Effect of machinery wheel load on grass   Ole Green1, Rasmus N. Jørgensen2, Kristian Kristensen3, René Gislum3, Dionysis Bochtis1, & Claus G. Sørensen1   1University of Aarhus, Dept. of Agricultural Engineering 2University of Southern Denmark, Inst. of Chemical Eng., Biotechnology and Environmental...... 3University of Aarhus, Dept. of Genetics and Biotechnology   Corresponding author: Ole Green Address & e-mail: Research Centre Foulum, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele. Ole.Green@agrsci.dk     Abstract   Different traffic intensities have been shown to have a negative influence on the yield of grass...... and clover. A full scale grass-clover field trial was established to estimate the effect on clover-grass yields as a function of different wheel loads and tire pressures. The trial comprised 16 different traffic intensities with 35 replicates and 1 traffic free treatment with 245 replicates, totalling 17...

Sex differences in the effect of wheel running on subsequent nicotine-seeking in a rat adolescent-onset self-administration model

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Victoria; Moore, Catherine F; Brunzell, Darlene H; Lynch, Wendy J

2014-01-01

Rationale Wheel running attenuates nicotine-seeking in male adolescent rats; however it is not known if this effect extends to females. Objective To determine if wheel running during abstinence would differentially attenuate subsequent nicotine-seeking in male and female rats that had extended access to nicotine self-administration during adolescence. Methods Male (N = 49) and female (N = 43) adolescent rats self-administered saline or nicotine (5μg/kg) under an extended access (23-hour) paradigm. Following the last self-administration session, rats were moved to polycarbonate cages for an abstinence period where they either had access to a locked or unlocked running wheel for 2-hours/day. Subsequently, nicotine-seeking was examined under a within-session extinction/cue-induced reinstatement paradigm. Due to low levels of nicotine-seeking in females in both wheel groups, additional groups were included that were housed without access to a running wheel during abstinence. Results Females self-administered more nicotine as compared to males; however, within males and females, intake did not differ between groups prior to wheel assignment. Compared to saline controls, males and females that self-administered nicotine showed a significant increase in drug-seeking during extinction. Wheel running during abstinence attenuated nicotine-seeking during extinction in males. In females, access to either locked or unlocked wheels attenuated nicotine-seeking during extinction. While responding was reinstated by cues in both males and females, levels were modest and not significantly affected by exercise in this adolescent-onset model. Conclusions While wheel running reduced subsequent nicotine-seeking in males, access to a wheel, either locked or unlocked, was sufficient to suppress nicotine-seeking in females. PMID:24271035

New methodology for fast prediction of wheel wear evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Apezetxea, I. S.; Perez, X.; Casanueva, C.; Alonso, A.

2017-07-01

In railway applications wear prediction in the wheel-rail interface is a fundamental matter in order to study problems such as wheel lifespan and the evolution of vehicle dynamic characteristic with time. However, one of the principal drawbacks of the existing methodologies for calculating the wear evolution is the computational cost. This paper proposes a new wear prediction methodology with a reduced computational cost. This methodology is based on two main steps: the first one is the substitution of the calculations over the whole network by the calculation of the contact conditions in certain characteristic point from whose result the wheel wear evolution can be inferred. The second one is the substitution of the dynamic calculation (time integration calculations) by the quasi-static calculation (the solution of the quasi-static situation of a vehicle at a certain point which is the same that neglecting the acceleration terms in the dynamic equations). These simplifications allow a significant reduction of computational cost to be obtained while maintaining an acceptable level of accuracy (error order of 5-10%). Several case studies are analysed along the paper with the objective of assessing the proposed methodology. The results obtained in the case studies allow concluding that the proposed methodology is valid for an arbitrary vehicle running through an arbitrary track layout.

Design and experimental study of a micro-groove grinding wheel with spray cooling effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shi Chaofeng

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The effectiveness of grinding fluid supply has a crucial impact on grinding quality and efficiency in high speed grinding. In order to improve the cooling and lubrication, through in-depth research of self-inhaling internal cooling method and intermittent grinding mechanism, a new spray cooling method used in high speed grinding is proposed. By referring to the structure of bowl-shaped dispersion disk, the grinding wheel matrix with atomization ability is designed; through studying heat transfer of droplet collision and the influence of micro-groove on the boiling heat transfer, grinding segment with micro-groove is designed to enhance the heat flux of coolant and achieve maximum heat transfer between droplets and grinding contact zone. High-speed grinding experiments on GH4169 with the developed grinding wheel are carried out. The results show that with the micro-groove grinding wheel just 5.4% of pump outlet flow rate and 0.5% of spindle energy is needed to reduce the grinding temperature to 200 °C, which means the developed grinding wheel makes cooling high efficient and low energy consuming.

Simulation of Intelligent Single Wheel Mobile Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maki K. Rashid

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Stabilization of a single wheel mobile robot attracted researcher attentions in robotic area. However, the budget requirements for building experimental setups capable in investigating isolated parameters and implementing others encouraged the development of new simulation methods and techniques that beat such limitations. In this work we have developed a simulation platform for testing different control tactics to stabilize a single wheel mobile robot. The graphic representation of the robot, the dynamic solution, and, the control scheme are all integrated on common computer platform using Visual Basic. Simulation indicates that we can control such robot without knowing the detail of it's internal structure or dynamics behaviour just by looking at it and using manual operation tactics. Twenty five rules are extracted and implemented using Takagi-Sugeno's fuzzy controller with significant achievement in controlling robot motion during the dynamic simulation. The resulted data from the successful implementation of the fuzzy model are used to utilize and train a neurofuzzy controller using ANFIS scheme to produce further improvement in robot performance

Developing a trend prediction model of subsurface damage for fixed-abrasive grinding of optics by cup wheels.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Zhichao; Cheng, Haobo

2016-11-10

Fixed-abrasive grinding by cup wheels plays an important role in the production of precision optics. During cup wheel grinding, we strive for a large removal rate while maintaining fine integrity on the surface and subsurface layers (academically recognized as surface roughness and subsurface damage, respectively). This study develops a theoretical model used to predict the trend of subsurface damage of optics (with respect to various grinding parameters) in fixed-abrasive grinding by cup wheels. It is derived from the maximum undeformed chip thickness model, and it successfully correlates the pivotal parameters of cup wheel grinding with the subsurface damage depth. The efficiency of this model is then demonstrated by a set of experiments performed on a cup wheel grinding machine. In these experiments, the characteristics of subsurface damage are inspected by a wedge-polishing plus microscopic inspection method, revealing that the subsurface damage induced in cup wheel grinding is composed of craterlike morphologies and slender cracks, with depth ranging from ∼6.2 to ∼13.2  μm under the specified grinding parameters. With the help of the proposed model, an optimized grinding strategy is suggested for realizing fine subsurface integrity as well as high removal rate, which can alleviate the workload of subsequent lapping and polishing.

Design of Test Tracks for Odometry Calibration of Wheeled Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Changbae Jung

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Pose estimation for mobile robots depends basically on accurate odometry information. Odometry from the wheel's encoder is widely used for simple and inexpensive implementation. As the travel distance increases, odometry suffers from kinematic modeling errors regarding the wheels. Therefore, in order to improve the odometry accuracy, it is necessary that systematic errors be calibrated. The UMBmark test is a practical and useful scheme for calibrating the systematic errors of two-wheeled mobile robots. However, the square path track size used in the test has not been validated. A consideration of the calibration equations, experimental conditions, and modeling errors is essential to improve the calibration accuracy. In this paper, we analyze the effect on calibration performance of the approximation errors of calibration equations and nonsystematic errors under experimental conditions. Then, we propose a test track size for improving the accuracy of odometry calibration. From simulation and experimental results, we show that the proposed test track size significantly improves the calibration accuracy of odometry under a normal range of kinematic modeling errors for robots.

Responding for sucrose and wheel-running reinforcement: effect of D-amphetamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Belke, T W; Oldford, A C; Forgie, M Y; Beye, J A

2005-07-01

The present study assessed the effect of D-amphetamine on responding maintained by wheel-running and sucrose reinforcement. Six male albino Wistar rats were placed in running wheels and exposed to a fixed-interval 30-s schedule that produced either a drop of 5% sucrose solution or the opportunity to run for 15 s as reinforcing consequences for lever pressing. Each reinforcer type was signaled by a different stimulus. Doses of 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 3.0 mg/kg D-amphetamine were administered by i.p. injection 20 min prior to a session. As the dose increased, index of curvature values decreased toward zero and rate-dependency plots revealed increases in lower rates early in the interval and decreases in higher rates toward the end of the interval. Effects were similar in the presence of both stimuli. However, an analysis of post-reinforcement pauses and local response rates broken down by transitions revealed a differential effect. As the dose increased, local response rates following a wheel-running reinforcer were affected more than those following a sucrose reinforcer.

Wheel arch aerodynamics of a modern road vehicle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apsley, S.; Aroussi, A.

2003-01-01

A geometrically faithful model of the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish was formed in 3D CAD and used to perform an extensive CFD study into the airflow in and around the wheel arch of the vehicle. Parameters such as spin ratio, ground clearance, vertical and horizontal insertion into the wheel arch and the yaw angles experienced during cornering, were all under investigation. The additional aim of the research was to validate or refute the use of CFD as a tool in this complex area of fluid flow. This research serves to highlight a number of problems and potential solutions in the use of CFD. Meshing problems can be eliminated with increased computational power and suggestions have been made to improve the modeling of rotating boundaries that include radial features such as wheel spokes. Much of the CFD data ties well with previously conducted experimental work, if not numerically then in trend. Without additional physical validation however, it is difficult to ascertain the overall accuracy and usefulness of the remaining results, which have not yet been conducted in physical reality. Despite its limitations, the use of CFD permitted an extensive analysis in a comparatively short length of time and served to highlight potential areas for increased scrutiny. As an example, results from the final yaw angle case drew attention to a potential concern for aerodynamic destabilisation of the vehicle during cornering, generating lift on the front arch of the car that is already lifted due to cornering forces and body roll. (author)

Final version of the pick-up wheels in the Pelletron tandem accelerator at Lund

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hakansson, K.; Hellborg, R.

1993-01-01

A new type of pick-up wheel has been designed and constructed for the charge transport system of the Lund 3UDH Pelletron tandem accelerator. The major improvements compared with older types are a slender design with only one ball bearing and more robust contact pins with a rubber ring between the pinhead and the wheel nave. (orig.)

Design of an Axial-Flux permanent magnet machine for an in-wheel direct drive application

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bastiaens, K.; Jansen, J.W.; Jumayev, S.; Lomonova, E.A.

2017-01-01

This paper concerns the optimization and comparison of six different axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machine topologies for an in-wheel direct drive application. The objective of the optimization is to reach maximum power density, which is of essence for an in-wheel motor. The machine topologies

[Evolutionary medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Wjst, M

2013-12-01

Evolutionary medicine allows new insights into long standing medical problems. Are we "really stoneagers on the fast lane"? This insight might have enormous consequences and will allow new answers that could never been provided by traditional anthropology. Only now this is made possible using data from molecular medicine and systems biology. Thereby evolutionary medicine takes a leap from a merely theoretical discipline to practical fields - reproductive, nutritional and preventive medicine, as well as microbiology, immunology and psychiatry. Evolutionary medicine is not another "just so story" but a serious candidate for the medical curriculum providing a universal understanding of health and disease based on our biological origin. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Core principles of evolutionary medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Grunspan, Daniel Z; Nesse, Randolph M; Barnes, M Elizabeth; Brownell, Sara E

2018-01-01

Abstract Background and objectives Evolutionary medicine is a rapidly growing field that uses the principles of evolutionary biology to better understand, prevent and treat disease, and that uses studies of disease to advance basic knowledge in evolutionary biology. Over-arching principles of evolutionary medicine have been described in publications, but our study is the first to systematically elicit core principles from a diverse panel of experts in evolutionary medicine. These principles should be useful to advance recent recommendations made by The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to make evolutionary thinking a core competency for pre-medical education. Methodology The Delphi method was used to elicit and validate a list of core principles for evolutionary medicine. The study included four surveys administered in sequence to 56 expert panelists. The initial open-ended survey created a list of possible core principles; the three subsequent surveys winnowed the list and assessed the accuracy and importance of each principle. Results Fourteen core principles elicited at least 80% of the panelists to agree or strongly agree that they were important core principles for evolutionary medicine. These principles over-lapped with concepts discussed in other articles discussing key concepts in evolutionary medicine. Conclusions and implications This set of core principles will be helpful for researchers and instructors in evolutionary medicine. We recommend that evolutionary medicine instructors use the list of core principles to construct learning goals. Evolutionary medicine is a young field, so this list of core principles will likely change as the field develops further. PMID:29493660

Optimization of an Autonomous Car Controller Using a Self-Adaptive Evolutionary Strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tae Seong Kim

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Autonomous cars control the steering wheel, acceleration and the brake pedal, the gears and the clutch using sensory information from multiple sources. Like a human driver, it understands the current situation on the roads from the live streaming of sensory values. The decision-making module often suffers from the limited range of sensors and complexity due to the large number of sensors and actuators. Because it is tedious and difficult to design the controller manually from trial-and-error, it is desirable to use intelligent optimization algorithms. In this work, we propose optimizing the parameters of an autonomous car controller using self-adaptive evolutionary strategies (SAESs which co-evolve solutions and mutation steps for each parameter. We also describe how the most generalized parameter set can be retrieved from the process of optimization. Open-source car racing simulation software (TORCS is used to test the goodness of the proposed methods on 6 different tracks. Experimental results show that the SAES is competitive with the manual design of authors and a simple ES.

Jitter reduction of a reaction wheel by management of angular momentum using magnetic torquers in nano- and micro-satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Inamori, Takaya; Wang, Jihe; Saisutjarit, Phongsatorn; Nakasuka, Shinichi

2013-07-01

Nowadays, nano- and micro-satellites, which are smaller than conventional large satellites, provide access to space to many satellite developers, and they are attracting interest as an application of space development because development is possible over shorter time period at a lower cost. In most of these nano- and micro-satellite missions, the satellites generally must meet strict attitude requirements for obtaining scientific data under strict constraints of power consumption, space, and weight. In many satellite missions, the jitter of a reaction wheel degrades the performance of the mission detectors and attitude sensors; therefore, jitter should be controlled or isolated to reduce its effect on sensor devices. In conventional standard-sized satellites, tip-tilt mirrors (TTMs) and isolators are used for controlling or isolating the vibrations from reaction wheels; however, it is difficult to use these devices for nano- and micro-satellite missions under the strict power, space, and mass constraints. In this research, the jitter of reaction wheels is reduced by using accurate sensors, small reaction wheels, and slow rotation frequency reaction wheel instead of TTMs and isolators. The objective of a reaction wheel in many satellite missions is the management of the satellite's angular momentum, which increases because of attitude disturbances. If the magnitude of the disturbance is reduced in orbit or on the ground, the magnitude of the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain from attitude disturbances in orbit becomes smaller; therefore, satellites can stabilize their attitude using only smaller reaction wheels or slow rotation speed, which cause relatively smaller vibration. In nano- and micro-satellite missions, the dominant attitude disturbance is a magnetic torque, which can be cancelled by using magnetic actuators. With the magnetic compensation, the satellite reduces the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain, and therefore, satellites do

Rolling Friction on a Wheeled Laboratory Cart

Science.gov (United States)

Mungan, Carl E.

2012-01-01

A simple model is developed that predicts the coefficient of rolling friction for an undriven laboratory cart on a track that is approximately independent of the mass loaded onto the cart and of the angle of inclination of the track. The model includes both deformation of the wheels/track and frictional torque at the axles/bearings. The concept of…

Butt pressure welding of wheels from vehicles consisting of steel and aluminium; Pressstumpfschweissen von Fahrzeugraedern aus Stahl und Aluminium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grobelin, K. [Hess Engineering AG, Frauenfeld (Switzerland)

2001-07-01

Every year in Europe 35 million wheels for vehicles are produced. Most of them are wheels consisting of metal tapes, both of steel and of aluminium alloys. The manufacturing of wheels is explained, in detail the method known as DC upset welding used for butt joints of wheel-rims. The engaged machinery, the specials of welding various materials, the limits of the method, and the quality assurance are discussed. Advantages of the applied method are joints of first-class quality, high productivity, energy saving and environmental cleanness. (orig.)

A multi-mode real-time terrain parameter estimation method for wheeled motion control of mobile robots

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuankai; Ding, Liang; Zheng, Zhizhong; Yang, Qizhi; Zhao, Xingang; Liu, Guangjun

2018-05-01

For motion control of wheeled planetary rovers traversing on deformable terrain, real-time terrain parameter estimation is critical in modeling the wheel-terrain interaction and compensating the effect of wheel slipping. A multi-mode real-time estimation method is proposed in this paper to achieve accurate terrain parameter estimation. The proposed method is composed of an inner layer for real-time filtering and an outer layer for online update. In the inner layer, sinkage exponent and internal frictional angle, which have higher sensitivity than that of the other terrain parameters to wheel-terrain interaction forces, are estimated in real time by using an adaptive robust extended Kalman filter (AREKF), whereas the other parameters are fixed with nominal values. The inner layer result can help synthesize the current wheel-terrain contact forces with adequate precision, but has limited prediction capability for time-variable wheel slipping. To improve estimation accuracy of the result from the inner layer, an outer layer based on recursive Gauss-Newton (RGN) algorithm is introduced to refine the result of real-time filtering according to the innovation contained in the history data. With the two-layer structure, the proposed method can work in three fundamental estimation modes: EKF, REKF and RGN, making the method applicable for flat, rough and non-uniform terrains. Simulations have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method under three terrain types, showing the advantages of introducing the two-layer structure.

Performance Evaluation of an In-Wheel Motor Cooling System in an Electric Vehicle/Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dong Hyun Lim

2014-02-01

Full Text Available High power and miniaturization of motors in an in-wheel drive system, which is installed inside the wheels of a vehicle, are required for directly driving the wheels. In addition, an efficient cooling system is required to ensure high driving performance and durability. This study experimentally evaluated the heat dissipation performance of a 35-kW-class large-capacity in-wheel motor equipped with an internal-circulation-type oil-cooling system that exhibits high cooling performance and can be easily miniaturized to this motor. Temperatures of the coil and stator core of cooling systems with and without a radiator were measured in real time under in-wheel motor driving conditions. It was found that operating the cooling system at a continuous-rating maximum speed without the radiator was difficult. We confirmed that under continuous-rating base speed and continuous-rating maximum speed driving conditions, the cooling system with the radiator showed thermally stable operation. Furthermore, under maximum-rating base speed and maximum-rating maximum speed driving conditions, the cooling system with the radiator provided additional driving times of approximately 22 s and 2 s, respectively.

Applying evolutionary anthropology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Mhairi A; Lawson, David W

2015-01-01

Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. This integrative and pluralistic field, combining ethnographic, demographic, and sociological methods, has provided new insights into the ultimate forces and proximate pathways that guide human adaptation and variation. Here, we present the argument that evolutionary anthropological studies of human behavior also hold great, largely untapped, potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and public health policy. Focusing on the key anthropological themes of reproduction, production, and distribution we highlight classic and recent research demonstrating the value of an evolutionary perspective to improving human well-being. The challenge now comes in transforming relevance into action and, for that, evolutionary behavioral anthropologists will need to forge deeper connections with other applied social scientists and policy-makers. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Applying Evolutionary Anthropology

Science.gov (United States)

Gibson, Mhairi A; Lawson, David W

2015-01-01

Evolutionary anthropology provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding how both current environments and legacies of past selection shape human behavioral diversity. This integrative and pluralistic field, combining ethnographic, demographic, and sociological methods, has provided new insights into the ultimate forces and proximate pathways that guide human adaptation and variation. Here, we present the argument that evolutionary anthropological studies of human behavior also hold great, largely untapped, potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and public health policy. Focusing on the key anthropological themes of reproduction, production, and distribution we highlight classic and recent research demonstrating the value of an evolutionary perspective to improving human well-being. The challenge now comes in transforming relevance into action and, for that, evolutionary behavioral anthropologists will need to forge deeper connections with other applied social scientists and policy-makers. We are hopeful that these developments are underway and that, with the current tide of enthusiasm for evidence-based approaches to policy, evolutionary anthropology is well positioned to make a strong contribution. PMID:25684561

Development of phased array UT technique for inspection of turbine wheel rim

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komura, I.; Nagal, S.; Goto, M.; Ohmatsu, K.

1986-01-01

A phased array UT technique has been developed for the improvement of defect detection under the keyway region of shrunk-on type turbine wheel. The sector scanning mode operation with plexiglas wedge of phased array capability was applied to construct the B-scope image of turbine wheel rim region. Preceding to the inspection test of the model specimen having real shape of rim region, the distribution of sound field intensity along the steering angle of the scanning line was measured on the test block. Then, the minimum depth of detectable defect by the B-scope imaging was evaluated on the dovetail shape specimens which had different depth EDM notches at the each hook fillet. As the results, it has been realized that the B-scope imaging of the sector scanning mode phased array technique has a capability for distinguishing the defect echoes from the many reflection echoes caused by the complexed shape of wheel rim region

The effect of mountain bike wheel size on Cross-Country performance

OpenAIRE

Hurst, Howard Thomas; Atkins, Stephen; Metcalfe, John; Sinclair, Jonathan Kenneth; Rylands, Lee

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of different wheel size diameters on indicators of cross-country mountain bike time trial performance. Nine competitive male mountain bikers (age 34.7 ± 10.7 years; stature 177.7 ± 5.6 cm; body mass 73.2 ± 8.6 kg) performed 1 lap of a 3.48 km mountain bike (MTB) course as fast as possible on 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ wheeled MTB. Time (s), mean power (W), cadence (revs · min−1) and velocity (km · h−1) were recorded for the whole lap and during...

Low Voltage Power for the ATLAS New Small Wheel Muon Detector

CERN Document Server

Edgar, Ryan Christopher; The ATLAS collaboration

2016-01-01

The New Small Wheel (NSW) is an upgrade for enhanced triggering and reconstruction of muons in the forward region of the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The large LV power demands necessitate a point-of-load architecture with on-detector power conversion. We present final results from an extensive campaign to test commercial power devices in radiation and magnetic fields, and describe an alternate solution based on a radiation-hard power conversion ASIC (the FEAST) produced by CERN microelectronics. We detail the challenges and solutions in integrating this device into the New Small Wheel, and outline the full resulting power system.

Desiccant wheels as gas-phase absorption (GPA) air cleaners: evaluation by PTR-MS and sensory assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fang, Lei; Zhang, G.; Wisthaler, A.

2008-01-01

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the use of the co-sorption effect of a desiccant wheel for improving indoor air quality. One experiment was conducted in a climate chamber to investigate the co-sorption effect of a desiccant wheel on the chemical removal of indoor air pollutants......; another experiment was conducted in an office room to investigate the resulting effect on perceived air quality. A dehumidifier with a silica-gel desiccant wheel was installed in the ventilation system of the test chamber and office room to treat the recirculation airflow. Human subjects, flooring...

Wheels Optimization and Vision Control of Omni-directional Mobile Microrobot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianghao Li

2008-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a millimeters scale omni-directional mobile microrobot with special dual-wheel structure. The microrobot was actuated by three electromagnetic micromotors of 2mm diameter. Dynamic analysis of translational and steering movements presented the relationship between the sizes of the dual-wheel structure and the output torque of the micromotor. Genetic algorithm (GA was employed to optimize the dualwheel's sizes for reducing the unnecessary torque consumption and improving the driving ability of the microrobot. A computer vision system contained two sets of feedback control is devised for the microrobot. Torque self-balance and current-limiting control approach are presented to ensure the accuracy of step movement. Experiment results demonstrate the feasibility of these concepts.

The inertial effect of acceleration fields on a self-decoupled wheel force transducer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lihang Feng

Full Text Available AbstractWheel force transducer (WFT is a tool which can measure the three-axis forces and three-axis torques applied to the wheel in vehicle testing applications. However, the transducer is generally mounted on the wheel of a moving vehicle, when abruptly accelerating or braking, the mass/inertia of the transducer itself has extra effects on the sensor response so that inertia/mass loads will be detected and coupled into the signal outputs. This is the inertia coupling effect that decreases the sensor accuracy and should be avoided. In this paper, the inertia coupling problem induced by six dimensional accelerations is investigated for a universal WFT. Inertia load distribution of the WFT is solved based on the principle of equivalent mass and rotary inertia firstly, thus then its impact can be identified with the theoretical derivation. FEM simulation and experimental verification are performed as well. Results show that strains in simulation agree well with the theoretical derivation. The relationship between the applied acceleration and inertia load for both wheel force and moment is the approximate linear respectively. The relative errors are acceptable within less than 5% and the maximum impact of inertia loads on the signal output is about 1.5% in the measuring range.

performance (assessment) of two- wheel tractors for small holder

African Journals Online (AJOL)

CHIKA

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Commissioning a Rotating Target Wheel Assembly for Heavy Element Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Fields, L. D.; Bennett, M. E.; Mayorov, D. A.; Folden, C. M.

2013-10-01

The heaviest elements are produced artificially by fusing nuclei of light elements within an accelerator to form heavier nuclei. The most direct method to increase the production rate of nuclei is to increase the beam intensity, necessitating the use of a rotating target to minimize damage to the target by deposited heat. Such a target wheel was constructed for heavy element research at Texas A&M University, Cyclotron Institute, consisting of a wheel with three banana-shaped target cutouts. The target is designed to rotate at 1700 rpm, and a fiber optic cable provides a signal to trigger beam pulsing in order to avoid irradiating the spokes between target segments. Following minor mechanical modifications and construction of a dedicated electrical panel, the rotating target assembly was commissioned for a beam experiment. A 15 MeV/u beam of 20Ne was delivered from the K500 cyclotron and detected by a ruggedized silicon detector. The beam pulsing response time was characterized as a function of the rational frequency of the target wheel. Preliminary analysis suggests that the K500 is capable of pulsing at rates of up to 250 Hz, which is sufficient for planned future experiments. Funded by DOE and NSF-REU Program.

Mechatronic modeling of real-time wheel-rail contact

CERN Document Server

Bosso, Nicola; Gugliotta, Antonio; Somà, Aurelio

2013-01-01

Real-time simulations of the behaviour of a rail vehicle require realistic solutions of the wheel-rail contact problem which can work in a real-time mode. Examples of such solutions for the online mode have been well known and are implemented within standard and commercial tools for the simulation codes for rail vehicle dynamics. This book is the result of the research activities carried out by the Railway Technology Lab of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. This book presents work on the project for the development of a real-time wheel-rail contact model and provides the simulation results obtained with dSpace real-time hardware. Besides this, the implementation of the contact model for the development of a real-time model for the complex mechatronic system of a scaled test rig is presented in this book and may be useful for the further validation of the real-time contact model with experiments on a full scale test rig.

Voluntary wheel running in dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice: Relationships between exercise parameters and exacerbation of the dystrophic phenotype.

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Smythe, Gayle M; White, Jason D

2011-12-18

Voluntary wheel running can potentially be used to exacerbate the disease phenotype in dystrophin-deficient mdx mice. While it has been established that voluntary wheel running is highly variable between individuals, the key parameters of wheel running that impact the most on muscle pathology have not been examined in detail. We conducted a 2-week test of voluntary wheel running by mdx mice and the impact of wheel running on disease pathology. There was significant individual variation in the average daily distance (ranging from 0.003 ± 0.005 km to 4.48 ± 0.96 km), culminating in a wide range (0.040 km to 67.24 km) of total cumulative distances run by individuals. There was also variation in the number and length of run/rest cycles per night, and the average running rate. Correlation analyses demonstrated that in the quadriceps muscle, a low number of high distance run/rest cycles was the most consistent indicator for increased tissue damage. The amount of rest time between running bouts was a key factor associated with gastrocnemius damage. These data emphasize the need for detailed analysis of individual running performance, consideration of the length of wheel exposure time, and the selection of appropriate muscle groups for analysis, when applying the use of voluntary wheel running to disease exacerbation and/or pre-clinical testing of the efficacy of therapeutic agents in the mdx mouse.

The Influence of Wet Dressing of Grinding Wheel on the Grinding Performance

OpenAIRE

重松, 日出見; 冨田, 進

1989-01-01

Experiments on the relation between the form of working plane of grinding wheel which was formed by dressing, and the grinding performance of working plane of grinding wheel in the early stage of grinding, were carried out supplying the same grinding fluid in dressing time and grinding time. As a result, it was found that the difference of the action or the effect of grinding fluids on the working plane of grinding fluid were related to the grinding performance in the early stage of grinding....

The Comparative Analysis and Evaluation of Ecological Characteristics of Drum and Disk Wheel Brakes

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Aleksandr Revin

2011-04-01

Full Text Available It is well-known that automobile transport as well as industry are the main sources of air pollution. In addition to exhaust gases, the flow of traffic releases a cloud of dust, consisting of over 60% of micro- and ultramicroscopic particles with radius of 10.0–0.25 µm, which are formed due to wheel abrasion (caused by the road grip of a tyre and the use of the brake blocks (in braking. The products formed in the process of wearing of the wheel brake pads are also the sources of the mass of fine dispersed particles over an urban highway. The authors analyse and evaluate ecological characteristics of drum and disk wheel brakes of vehicles.Article in Russian

Evolutionary Expectations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nash, Ulrik William

2014-01-01

, they are correlated among people who share environments because these individuals satisfice within their cognitive bounds by using cues in order of validity, as opposed to using cues arbitrarily. Any difference in expectations thereby arise from differences in cognitive ability, because two individuals with identical...... cognitive bounds will perceive business opportunities identically. In addition, because cues provide information about latent causal structures of the environment, changes in causality must be accompanied by changes in cognitive representations if adaptation is to be maintained. The concept of evolutionary......The concept of evolutionary expectations descends from cue learning psychology, synthesizing ideas on rational expectations with ideas on bounded rationality, to provide support for these ideas simultaneously. Evolutionary expectations are rational, but within cognitive bounds. Moreover...

Evolutionary Awareness

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Gregory Gorelik

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In this article, we advance the concept of “evolutionary awareness,” a metacognitive framework that examines human thought and emotion from a naturalistic, evolutionary perspective. We begin by discussing the evolution and current functioning of the moral foundations on which our framework rests. Next, we discuss the possible applications of such an evolutionarily-informed ethical framework to several domains of human behavior, namely: sexual maturation, mate attraction, intrasexual competition, culture, and the separation between various academic disciplines. Finally, we discuss ways in which an evolutionary awareness can inform our cross-generational activities—which we refer to as “intergenerational extended phenotypes”—by helping us to construct a better future for ourselves, for other sentient beings, and for our environment.

Circadian rhythm disruption by a novel running wheel: Roles of exercise and arousal in blockade of the luteinizing hormone surge

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Marilyn J.; Franklin, Kathleen M.; Peng, Xiaoli; Yun, Christopher; Legan, Sandra J.

2014-01-01

Exposure of proestrous Syrian hamsters to a new room, cage, and novel running wheel blocks the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge until the next day in ~75% of hamsters (Legan et al, 2010) [1]. The studies described here tested the hypotheses that 1) exercise and/or 2) orexinergic neurotransmission mediate novel wheel blockade of the LH surge and circadian phase advances. Female hamsters were exposed to a 14L:10D photoperiod and activity rhythms were monitored with infra-red detectors. In Expt. 1, to test the effect of exercise, hamsters received jugular cannulae and on the next day, proestrus (Day 1), shortly before zeitgeber time 5 (ZT 5, 7 hours before lights-off) the hamsters were transported to the laboratory. After obtaining a blood sample at ZT 5, the hamsters were transferred to a new cage with a novel wheel that was either freely rotating (unlocked), or locked until ZT 9, and exposed to constant darkness (DD). Blood samples were collected hourly for 2 days from ZT 5–11 under red light for determination of plasma LH levels by radioimmunoassay. Running rhythms were monitored continuously for the next 10–14 days. The locked wheels were as effective as unlocked wheels in blocking LH surges (no Day 1 LH surge in 6/9 versus 8/8 hamsters, P>0.05) and phase advances in the activity rhythms did not differ between the groups (P= 0.28), suggesting that intense exercise is not essential for novel wheel blockade and phase advance of the proestrous LH surge. Expt. 2 tested whether orexin neurotransmission is essential for these effects. Hamsters were treated the same as in Expt. 1 except they were injected (i.p.) at ZT 4.5 and 5 with either the orexin 1 receptor antagonist SB334867 (15 mg/kg per injection) or vehicle (25% DMSO in 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HCD). SB-334867 inhibited novel wheel blockade of the LH surge (surges blocked in 2/6 SB334867-injected animals versus 16/18 vehicle-injected animals, Pwheel running and circadian phase shifts, indicating that

The Effect of First-Order Bending Resonance of Wheelset at High Speed on Wheel-Rail Contact Behavior

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Shuoqiao Zhong

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The first-order bending deformation of wheelset is considered in the modeling vehicle/track coupling dynamic system to investigate its effect on wheel/rail contact behavior. In considering the effect of the first-order bending resonance on the rolling contact of wheel/rail, a new wheel/rail contact model is derived in detail in the modeling vehicle/track coupling dynamic system, in which the many intermediate coordinate systems and complex coordinate system transformations are used. The bending mode shape and its corresponding frequency of the wheelset are obtained through the modal analysis by using commercial software ANSYS. The modal superposition method is used to solve the differential equations of wheelset motion considering its flexible deformation due to the first-order bending resonance. In order to verify the present model and clarify the influence of the first-order bending deformation of wheelset on wheel/track contact behavior, a harmonic track irregularity with a fixed wavelength and a white-noise roughness are, respectively used as the excitations in the two models of vehicle-rail coupling dynamic system, one considers the effect of wheelset bending deformation, and the other does not. The numerical results indicate that the wheelset first-order bending deformation has an influence on wheel/rail rolling contact behavior and is easily excited under wheel/rail roughness excitation.

Effect of chain wheel shape on crank torque, freely chosen pedal rate, and physiological responses during submaximal cycling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Ernst Albin; Jensen, Kurt; Hallen, Jostein

2009-01-01

at preset pedal rates as well as resulting in lower pedal rate and metabolic response at freely chosen pedal rate. Ten trained cyclists (mean+/-SD: 27+/-3 years of age, 182+/-4 cm tall, 77.5+/-7.0 kg of body mass, and peak oxygen uptake of 61.7+/-4.4 ml kg(-1) min(-1)) cycled with a Biopace and a circular...... chain wheel at 180 W at 65 and 90 rpm for recording of crank torque profiles, and at their freely chosen pedal rate for recording of pedal rate and metabolic response, including oxygen uptake and blood lactate concentration. Crank torque profiles were similar between the two chain wheels during cycling...... at preset pedal rates. During cycling at the freely chosen pedal rate (being 93+/-6 and 93+/-4 rpm for the Biopace and circular chain wheel, respectively), blood lactate concentration was significantly different between the two chain wheels, being on average 0.2 mmol l(-1) lower with the Biopace chain wheel...

Improving yaw dynamics by feedforward rear wheel steering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Besselink, I.J.M.; Veldhuizen, T.J.; Nijmeijer, H.

2008-01-01

Active rear wheel steering can be applied to improve vehicle yaw dynamics. In this paper two possible control algorithms are discussed. The first method is a yaw rate feedback controller with a reference model, which has been reported in a similar form previously in literature. The second controller

EVOLUTIONARY FOUNDATIONS FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE

Science.gov (United States)

Nesse, Randolph M.; Ganten, Detlev; Gregory, T. Ryan; Omenn, Gilbert S.

2015-01-01

Evolution has long provided a foundation for population genetics, but many major advances in evolutionary biology from the 20th century are only now being applied in molecular medicine. They include the distinction between proximate and evolutionary explanations, kin selection, evolutionary models for cooperation, and new strategies for tracing phylogenies and identifying signals of selection. Recent advances in genomics are further transforming evolutionary biology and creating yet more opportunities for progress at the interface of evolution with genetics, medicine, and public health. This article reviews 15 evolutionary principles and their applications in molecular medicine in hopes that readers will use them and others to speed the development of evolutionary molecular medicine. PMID:22544168

Stability Simulation of a Vehicle with Wheel Active Steering

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Brabec Pavel

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the possibility of increasing the vehicle driving stability at a higher speed. One of the ways how to achieve higher stability is using the 4WS system. Mathematical description of vehicle general movement is a very complex task. For simulation, models which are aptly simplified are used. For the first approach, so-called single-truck vehicle model (often linear is usually used. For the simulation, we have chosen to extend the model into a two-truck one, which includes the possibility to input more vehicle parameters. Considering the 4WS system, it is possible to use a number of potential regulations. In our simulation model, the regulation system with compound coupling was used. This type of regulation turns the rear wheels depending on the input parameters of the system (steering angle of the front wheels and depending on the output moving quantities of the vehicle, most frequently the yaw rate. Criterion for compensation of lateral deflection centre of gravity angle is its zero value, or more precisely the zero value of its first-order derivative. Parameters and set-up of the simulation model were done in conjunction with the dSAPACE software. Reference performances of the vehicle simulation model were made through the defined manoeuvres. But the simulation results indicate that the rear-wheels steering can have a positive effect on the vehicle movement stability, especially when changing the driving direction at high speed.

Study on the ultrasonic inspection method using the full matrix capture for the in service railway wheel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peng, Jianping; Wang, Li; Zhang, Yu; Gao, Xiaorong; Wang, Zeyong; Peng, Chaoyong [NDT Research Center, School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031 (China)

2014-02-18

The quality of wheel is especially important for the safety of high speed railway. In this paper, a new ultrasonic array inspection method, the Full Matrix Capture (FMC) has been studied and applied to the high speed railway wheel inspection, especially in the wheel web from the tread. Firstly, the principle of FMC and TFM algorithm is discussed, and then the new optimization is applied to the standard FMC; Secondly the fundamentals of optimization is described in detail and the performance is analyzed. Finally, the experiment has been built with a standard phased array block and railway wheel, and then the testing results are discussed and analyzed. It is demonstrated that this change for the ultrasonic data acquisition and image reconstruction has higher efficiency and lower cost comparing to the FMC's procedure.

Influence of photoperiod and running wheel access on the entrainment of split circadian rhythms in hamsters

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Elliott Jeffrey A

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In the laboratory, behavioral and physiological states of nocturnal rodents alternate, with a period near 24 h, between those appropriate for the night (e.g., elevated wheel-running activity and high melatonin secretion and for the day (e.g., rest and low melatonin secretion. Under appropriate 24 h light:dark:light:dark conditions, however, rodents may be readily induced to express bimodal rest/activity cycles that reflect a global temporal reorganization of the central neural pacemaker in the hypothalamus. We examine here how the relative length of the light and dark phases of the environmental cycle influences this rhythm splitting and the necessity of a running wheel for expression of this entrainment condition. Results Rhythm splitting was observed in wheel-running and general locomotion of Siberian and Syrian hamsters. The latter also manifest split rhythms in body temperature. Access to a running wheel was necessary neither for the induction nor maintenance of this entrainment pattern. While rhythms were only transiently split in many animals with two 5 h nights, the incidence of splitting was greater with twice daily nights of shorter duration. Removal of running wheels altered the body temperature rhythm but did not eliminate its clear bimodality. Conclusion The expression of entrained, split circadian rhythms exhibits no strict dependence on access to a running wheel, but can be facilitated by manipulation of ambient lighting conditions. These circadian entrainment patterns may be of therapeutic value to human shift-workers and others facing chronobiological challenges.

Continuous Wheel Momentum Dumping Using Magnetic Torquers and Thrusters

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Oh, Hwa-Suk; Choi, Wan-Sik; Eun, Jong-Won

1996-12-01

Two momentum management schemes using magnetic torquers and thrusters are sug-gested. The stability of the momentum dumping logic is proved at a general attitude equilibrium. Both momentum dumping control laws are implemented with Pulse-Width- Pulse-Frequency Modulated on-off control, and shown working equally well with the original continuous and variable strength control law. Thrusters are assummed to be asymmetrically configured as a contingency case. Each thruster is fired following separated control laws rather than paired thrusting. Null torque thrusting control is added on the thrust control calculated from the momentum control law for the gener-ation of positive thrusting force. Both magnetic and thrusting control laws guarantee the momentum dumping, however, the wheel inner loop control is needed for the "wheel speed" dumping, The control laws are simulated on the KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite (KOMPSAT) model.

Effects of acute voluntary loaded wheel running on BDNF expression in the rat hippocampus.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Minchul; Soya, Hideaki

2017-12-31

Voluntary loaded wheel running involves the use of a load during a voluntary running activity. A muscle-strength or power-type activity performed at a relatively high intensity and a short duration may cause fewer apparent metabolic adaptations but may still elicit muscle fiber hypertrophy. This study aimed to determine the effects of acute voluntary wheel running with an additional load on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the rat hippocampus. Ten-week old male Wistar rats were assigned randomly to a (1) sedentary (Control) group; (2) voluntary exercise with no load (No-load) group; or (3) voluntary exercise with an additional load (Load) group for 1-week (acute period). The expression of BDNF genes was quantified by real-time PCR. The average distance levels were not significantly different in the No-load and Load groups. However, the average work levels significantly increased in the Load group. The relative soleus weights were greater in the No-load group. Furthermore, loaded wheel running up-regulated the BDNF mRNA level compared with that in the Control group. The BDNF mRNA levels showed a positive correlation with workload levels (r=0.75), suggesting that the availability of multiple workload levels contributes to the BDNF-related benefits of loaded wheel running noted in this study. This novel approach yielded the first set of findings showing that acute voluntary loaded wheel running, which causes muscular adaptation, enhanced BDNF expression, suggesting a possible role of high-intensity short-term exercise in hippocampal BDNF activity. ©2017 The Korean Society for Exercise Nutrition

Spontaneous appetence for wheel-running: a model of dependency on physical activity in rat.

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Ferreira, Anthony; Lamarque, Stéphanie; Boyer, Patrice; Perez-Diaz, Fernando; Jouvent, Roland; Cohen-Salmon, Charles

2006-12-01

According to human observations of a syndrome of physical activity dependence and its consequences, we tried to examine if running activity in a free activity paradigm, where rats had a free access to activity wheel, may present a valuable animal model for physical activity dependence and most generally to behavioral dependence. The pertinence of reactivity to novelty, a well-known pharmacological dependence predictor was also tested. Given the close linkage observed in human between physical activity and drugs use and abuse, the influence of free activity in activity wheels on reactivity to amphetamine injection and reactivity to novelty were also assessed. It appeared that (1) free access to wheel may be used as a valuable model for physical activity addiction, (2) two populations differing in activity amount also differed in dependence to wheel-running. (3) Reactivity to novelty did not appeared as a predictive factor for physical activity dependence (4) activity modified novelty reactivity and (5) subjects who exhibited a high appetence to wheel-running, presented a strong reactivity to amphetamine. These results propose a model of dependency on physical activity without any pharmacological intervention, and demonstrate the existence of individual differences in the development of this addiction. In addition, these data highlight the development of a likely vulnerability to pharmacological addiction after intense and sustained physical activity, as also described in man. This model could therefore prove pertinent for studying behavioral dependencies and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. These results may influence the way psychiatrists view behavioral dependencies and phenomena such as doping in sport or addiction to sport itself.

Wheel running exercise attenuates vulnerability to self-administer nicotine in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Victoria; Lycas, Matthew D; Lynch, Wendy J; Brunzell, Darlene H

2015-11-01

Preventing or postponing tobacco use initiation could greatly reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths. While evidence suggests that exercise is a promising treatment for tobacco addiction, it is not clear whether exercise could prevent initial vulnerability to tobacco use. Thus, using an animal model, we examined whether exercise attenuates vulnerability to the use and reinforcing effects of nicotine, the primary addictive chemical in tobacco. Initial vulnerability was assessed using an acquisition procedure wherein exercising (unlocked running wheel, n=10) and sedentary (locked or no wheel, n=12) male adolescent rats had access to nicotine infusions (0.01-mg/kg) during daily 21.5-h sessions beginning on postnatal day 30. Exercise/sedentary sessions (2-h/day) were conducted prior to each of the acquisition sessions. The effects of exercise on nicotine's reinforcing effects were further assessed in separate groups of exercising (unlocked wheel, n=7) and sedentary (no wheel, n=5) rats responding for nicotine under a progressive-ratio schedule with exercise/sedentary sessions (2-h/day) conducted before the daily progressive-ratio sessions. While high rates of acquisition of nicotine self-administration were observed among both groups of sedentary controls, acquisition was robustly attenuated in the exercise group with only 20% of exercising rats meeting the acquisition criterion within the 16-day testing period as compared to 67% of the sedentary controls. Exercise also decreased progressive-ratio responding for nicotine as compared to baseline and to sedentary controls. Exercise may effectively prevent the initiation of nicotine use in adolescents by reducing the reinforcing effects of nicotine. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Prototype Bucket Wheel Excavator for the Moon, Mars and Phobos

Science.gov (United States)

Muff, T.; Johnson, L.; King, R.; Duke, M. B.

2004-02-01

Excavation of surface regolith material is the first step in processes to extract volatile materials from planetary surface regolith for the production of propellant and life support consumables. Typically, concentrations of volatiles are low, so relatively large amounts of material must be excavated. A bucket wheel excavator is proposed, which has the capability of continuous excavation, which is readily adapted to granular regolith materials as found on the Moon, in drift deposits on Mars, and probably on the surface of asteroids and satellites, such as Phobos. The bucket wheel excavator is relatively simple, compared to machines such as front end loaders. It also has the advantage that excavation forces are principally horizontal rather than vertical, which minimizes the need for excavator mass and suits it to operations in reduced gravity fields. A prototype small bucket wheel excavator has been built at approximately the scale of the rovers that are carried to Mars on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. The prototype allows the collection of data on forces exerted and power requirements for excavation and will provide data on which more efficient designs can be based. At excavation rates in the vicinity of one rover mass of material excavated per hour, tests of the prototype demonstrate that the power required is largely that needed to operate the excavator hardware and not related strongly to the amount of material excavated. This suggests that the excavation rate can be much larger for the same excavation system mass. Work on this prototype is continuing on the details of transfer of material from the bucket wheel to an internal conveyor mechanism, which testing demonstrated to be problematic in the current design.

Attractive evolutionary equilibria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Joosten, Reinoud A.M.G.; Roorda, Berend

2011-01-01

We present attractiveness, a refinement criterion for evolutionary equilibria. Equilibria surviving this criterion are robust to small perturbations of the underlying payoff system or the dynamics at hand. Furthermore, certain attractive equilibria are equivalent to others for certain evolutionary

Prediction of bead area contact load at the tire-wheel interface using NASTRAN

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Chen, C. H. S.

1982-01-01

The theoretical prediction of the bead area contact load at the tire wheel interface using NASTRAN is reported. The application of the linear code to a basically nonlinear problem results in excessive deformation of the structure and the tire-wheel contact conditions become impossible to achieve. A psuedo-nonlinear approach was adopted in which the moduli of the cord reinforced composite are increased so that the computed key deformations matched that of the experiment. Numerical results presented are discussed.

Reasons for service failure of an ÉKG-20 power shovel bogie wheel

Science.gov (United States)

Yakovleva, S. P.; Milokhin, S. E.

1985-10-01

Early failure of a bogie wheel is caused by the occurrence after heat treatment of a working surface structure with insufficient resistance to plastic deformation, which under the specific conditions of contact loading causes flattening of it with the formation of accumulations of material on the side surfaces. This leads to the occurrence of significant stresses on the faces of the wheel which intensify the nonuniformity of the structure obtained after machining of the side surface.

Running wheel exercise enhances recovery from nigrostriatal dopamine injury without inducing neuroprotection.