Foundation for Transport and Energy Research and Development

For use as a heat storage material, CaCl 2 is often impregnated into porous materials. This is done to stabilize the salt against conglomeration and its dissolution due to the low deliquescence relative humidity. However, CaCl 2 has overlapping temperature and water vapor pressure conditions for its trito- and monohydrate, which are kinetically hindered against each other creating path-dependent (de-)hydration steps. These pathways may change under the influence of confinement. These changes can influence the temperature output for heat batteries using CaCl 2 composites and could make the taken pathways for hydration and dehydration either more complex or simpler than the pure salt. So, in this research, the hydration and dehydration steps of CaCl 2 inside different clays (Vermiculite, Halloysite, and Sepiolite) and silica gels were investigated with respect to their transformations compared to the bulk salt. Therefore, the kinetic phase transition onsets were determined with isobaric TGA measurements together with PXRD in situ experiments to confirm or identify the crystalline phases. This showed that inside pores, CaCl 2 forms the monohydrate rather than the tritohydrate. The decrease of pore diameter leads to easier formation of monohydrate over tritohydrate. This trend can be explained by the crystal structures of the hydrates and their unit cell volumes considering that larger crystals are difficult to form in the limited space inside the pore systems. This change in phase transition steps influences the transition temperatures, which affects its application for heat storage.

Objective Safety restraint systems have enhanced occupants’ safety in case of collision. However, they are designed to protect occupants in standard sitting posture and different sitting postures are not evaluated in current legal and rating tests. The goal of this study was to address the reclined posture under oblique pole side impact conditions. Different airbag systems were proposed and analyzed for protecting reclined occupants, providing a general overview of the restraint systems performance across these conditions. Methods Simulations were performed with a subsystem Finite Elements (FE) vehicle model developed and validated against side impact tests. A reclined occupant position was analyzed using WorldSID 50th male dummy under Euro NCAP oblique pole side impact test conditions. Three different seat-mounted side restraint system solutions optimized according to standard EuroNCAP position were proposed to enhance reclined occupant safety. Additionally, three time-to-fire strategies were considered, a conventional time-to-fire and two pre-crash triggering that lead to an earlier deployment of the restraint systems. Results In the reclined posture, the conventional time of activation led to higher occupant injury values for all the restraint systems proposed. As the firing time was brought forward, the measured injury values were reduced. The double side airbag head + thorax-pelvis system with a pre-crash triggering (time-to-fire −5 ms) was predicted as the safest case scoring the higher overall rating and five Euro NCAP stars. Conclusions This study investigated three side airbag systems capable of providing good protection under Euro NCAP oblique pole side impact conditions (upright posture), considering triggering times earlier than conventional in combination with optimized airbag design parameters, these systems were able to provide also adequate protection (4-5 stars) in reclined occupant positions. The results showed that the airbag inflation time is significant in reclined positions.

Objective Autonomous driving cars must be developed to ensure that children will have the highest level of protection in case of collision. Changes to the vehicle cabin design (different seat orientations, fully reclining seats, etc.) may significantly impact child occupant safety. Understanding child occupant responses under these new conditions is necessary to decrease risk and enhance child safety. In this study, child occupant response in different seating orientations exposed to frontal impacts with a focus on the head injuries and kinematics was analyzed. Methods Finite elements simulations were performed using the PIPER 6-year-old human body model (HBM). All simulations were carried out in a generic full vehicle environment. The child model was positioned in an adequate generic car restraint system (CRS) in the left rear vehicle seat in 4 seating orientations: 0° (forward-facing position), 30°, 60°, and 90° (living room position). Two scenarios were evaluated for all seating orientations according to the left front seat backrest position: reclined position nominal upright and rest position (55°). All seat configurations were subjected to the mobile progressive deformable barrier frontal impact (European New Car Assessment Programme [Euro NCAP] frontal impact testing protocol). A total of 8 scenarios were simulated in LS-DYNA. Results Based on the Euro NCAP injury risk rate, 90° seating orientation (living room position) was the safest among all selected scenarios independent of the left front seat backrest position. The worst case was found in 60° seat rotation. The highest values for Head Injury Criterion (HIC) and head acceleration (Acc 3 ms) were noted for this case. Higher Brain Injury Criterion (BrIC) values were observed at higher seat rotation angles. Hence, a 90° seating orientation showed the highest BrIC value. Attending to the skull stress, greater head injuries were caused principally by contact with the vehicle interior (seat headrest). Maximum stress values were reached at 30° and 60° seating orientations with the front seat in rest position. In 90° seating orientation, high stress values were also identified. Conclusions These results show that attending to these new seating orientations, current child safety standards are not sufficient to ensure children the highest level of protection. Other additional criteria such as BrIC or skull stress that offer a way to capture brain injuries should be used.

El presente trabajo recoge la metodología y los resultados del diseño de una arquitectura de vehículo ligero y seguro, basada en acero de altas prestaciones, para su introducción en entornos urbanos. La estructura se basa en un diseño de chasis tubul

\n Em nível mundial, os produtos oriundos da madeira cresceram uma média de 1% nos entre 2011 e 2015. Esse crescimento tem demandado aumento da área plantada, que, no Brasil, foi de 14% nos últimos cinco anos. Com a crescente procura por madeira, os silvicultores buscam aumentar a produtividade, reduzindo, porém, os custos. Nesse contexto, boas práticas de cultivo são imprescindíveis para o sucesso da produção. Segundo Hakamada et al. (2015), povoamentos florestais com estabelecimento inicial e uniformidade satisfatórios tendem a ser mais produtivos ao final do ciclo. Apesar de existirem diversos trabalhos sobre qualidade de mudas e sua influência em sobrevivência e crescimento, os trabalhos, em geral, fazem as avaliações na fase inicial ou juvenil de crescimento. Também faltam trabalhos que relacionam as qualidade de mudas com aspectos operacionais, como o aproveitamento de mudas ao longo do processo de produção, transporte e plantio, dificultando, assim, a tomada de decisão dos silvicultores no que se refere à expedição, ou não, de certos padrões de mudas. Desse modo, objetivou-se com esse estudo i) avaliar os impactos das diferentes qualidades de mudas nos descartes ocorridos antes do plantio e nas taxas de replantio; ii) avaliar a produtividade inicial e ao final do ciclo de uma floresta clonal de Eucalyptus grandis x urophylla, iii) calcular o impacto das diferentes qualidades das mudas na uniformidade da floresta aos dois anos de idade e a diferença na distribuição de biomassa inicial e iv) determinar padrões de qualidades de mudas para um povoamento clonal de E. grandis x urophylla. A qualidade de mudas possui um grande impacto no aproveitamento final, diferenças acima de 14% quando comparamos uma muda de qualidade ideal e uma de qualidade inferior. Durante o estabelecimento, a muda considerada ideal para expedição apresentou falhas de 2%, enquanto a muda com padrão inferior apresentou falhas de 6% e o crescimento inicial foi afetado até os 64 meses com diferenças superiores a 10% na produtividade quando o plantio foi realizado com mudas velhas. Tal pesquisa foi feita com um povoamento de E. grandis x urophylla no sudeste de São Paulo.\n

Noise pollution coming from traffic noise has become an important issue in urban areas. Road noise is one of the main sources of high-level traffic noise. Road noise depends not only on tires but on the pavement. Therefore, a study of mixture parameters should be performed to achieve good acoustic performance. Another important point which has to be taken into account is the acoustic performance durability. Gap-graded mixtures were selected for this project due to poor experiences with open-graded mixtures in terms of performance durability, where texture and clogging issues appeared a few years after paving. The LIFE SOUNDLESS project is seeking different ways to modify stone mastic asphalt mixes to improve the noise attenuation of pavements. A selection of mixes with different additives were created, where some waste materials were used. The selection of the best mixtures was done not only according to traditional mechanical parameters but also others, such as damping and dynamic stiffness. Once the best mixtures had been paved, the acoustic performances were measured several times to evaluate the performance durability. Several experimental methods like the close proximity (CPX) method and statistical pass by (SPB) method were used to check the sound generation and propagation of every pavement. The project was carried out on two roads overseen by the Junta de Andalucía in Seville (Spain). The difference between both roads was the traffic density and the average speed. The noise level has since been reduced by 3 dB and 7 dB on both sites.