High Mileage Research Articles

Criteria Pollutants and Volatile Organic Compounds Emitted from Motorcycle Exhaust under Various Regulation Phases

ABSTRACTEstablishment of emission standards is an important measure for controlling vehicle exhaust. This study examined the emission factors of air pollutants from 40 four-stroke motorcycles of various emission standard phases, ages, and mileage. Based on the emission standards, the motorcycles were divided into three groups (Phases III, IV and V). Regulated air pollutants (CO, HC, and NOx), CO2, and 52 volatile organic compounds were evaluated on a chassis dynamometer using the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) test cycle. The sequence of CO and HC emission factors was Phase III > Phase IV > Phase V, and their ratios of emission factor of Phase IV to Phase III and Phase V to Phase III were 0.66 and 0.42 for CO and 0.61 and 0.57 for HC, respectively. Exhaust from motorcycles deteriorates with age and mileage. For NOx emission, the sequence of emission factor was Phase V > Phase IV > Phase III. However, the relationship was insignificant between CO2 emission factor and motorcycle age. The total VOC emissions of Phase V motorcycles were the lowest (0.59 g km–1) among all test motorcycles; however, the fraction of VOC groups was similar among all test motorcycles regardless of different regulation phases. For organic air toxics, the emissions of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) decreased by 37–58% and 44–62%, respectively, for Phases IV and V motorcycles compared to those of Phase III motorcycles. Results also indicated that the ozone formation potential (OFP) was high in older motorcycles with high mileage. In summary, emissions of CO, HC, total VOCs, BTEX, and OFP may decrease with the decrease of motorcycle age and mileage as well as the phase of emission standards. The results implied that tightening emission standards indeed encourages motorcycle manufacturers to improve engine technology and combustion efficiency, resulting in reduced emission of air pollutants, except NOx emission in this study.

Adjustments with running speed reveal neuromuscular adaptations during landing associated with high mileage running training.

It remains to be determined whether running training influences the amplitude of lower limb muscle activations before and during the first half of stance and whether such changes are associated with joint stiffness regulation and usage of stored energy from tendons. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate neuromuscular and movement adaptations before and during landing in response to running training across a range of speeds. Two groups of high mileage (HM; >45 km/wk, n = 13) and low mileage (LM; <15 km/wk, n = 13) runners ran at four speeds (2.5-5.5 m/s) while lower limb mechanics and electromyography of the thigh muscles were collected. There were few differences in prelanding activation levels, but HM runners displayed lower activations of the rectus femoris, vastus medialis, and semitendinosus muscles postlanding, and these differences increased with running speed. HM runners also demonstrated higher initial knee stiffness during the impact phase compared with LM runners, which was associated with an earlier peak knee flexion velocity, and both were relatively unchanged by running speed. In contrast, LM runners had higher knee stiffness during the slightly later weight acceptance phase and the disparity was amplified with increases in speed. It was concluded that initial knee joint stiffness might predominantly be governed by tendon stiffness rather than muscular activations before landing. Estimated elastic work about the ankle was found to be higher in the HM runners, which might play a role in reducing weight acceptance phase muscle activation levels and improve muscle activation efficiency with running training.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although neuromuscular factors play a key role during running, the influence of high mileage training on neuromuscular function has been poorly studied, especially in relation to running speed. This study is the first to demonstrate changes in neuromuscular conditioning with high mileage training, mainly characterized by lower thigh muscle activation after touch down, higher initial knee stiffness, and greater estimates of energy return, with adaptations being increasingly evident at faster running speeds.

Numerical Investigation of Drag and Lift Forces on a Sedan Car using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The purpose of this work is to cut back the drag, lift and aerodynamic in-stability of a sedan car at high speed levels. In early times, the cars accustomed have a flat faces, sharp edge, conjointly had higher mileage and potency. However later because of the emergence of fuel crisis, scientists improved the model of cars with regard to dynamics of the fluid around the body. Thus, it changes the structure of cars with respect to aeromechanics. Simulation of a vehicle had been done using computational fluid dynamics to obtain the coefficient of drag and coefficient of lift. Finally, these coefficients from computational fluid dynamics are compared wind tunnel simulation.

Chinese vehicle emissions characteristic testing with small sample size: Results and comparison

Mobile emissions represent a main source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in China, however, few studies have tested the mobile source profiles of Chinese vehicles due to the high cost. In this study, the exhaust emissions of 21 Chinese vehicles, which were divided into five groups according to weight and fuel type, were sampled using the chassis dynamometer–dilution tunnel method. PM2.5 mass, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and 190 compounds of organic matter were measured to compare emission characteristics with published mobile profiles. In this study, PM2.5 emission factors are higher for high mileage vehicles than new vehicles (255 and 115 mg/km). Among all vehicle emissions, OC averaged 55.4 ± 15.5% of PM2.5 mass while quantified organic carbon (QOC) averaged 4.5 ± 3.0% of PM2.5 mass. N-alkanes were the predominant species within QOC, averaging 57.0 ± 22.1% of QOCby mass. Normal-aliphatic acids, which are products of catalysis, were observed in the highest concentrations in light-duty gasoline cars. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with more than five rings (large PAHs) differed between gasoline and diesel vehicles, suggesting that large PAHs like benzo[ghi]perylene and coronene could be used to distinguish between fuel types. Hopanes and steranes made up a relatively small fraction of QOC compared with other species (1.1%–16.7% of the total QOC mass) but the relative concentrations of hopanes were similar among different vehicle types. The observed emission characteristics in this study are comparable with a US mobile source profiles published by Lough et al. (2007).

Prevalence in running events and running performance of endurance runners following a vegetarian or vegan diet compared to non-vegetarian endurance runners: the NURMI Study.

BackgroundBeneficial and detrimental effects of various vegetarian and vegan diets on the health status are well known. Considering the growing background numbers of vegetarians and vegans, the number of vegetarian and vegan runners is likely to rise, too. Therefore, the Nutrition and Running High Mileage (NURMI) Study was designed as a comparative study to investigate the prevalence of omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans in running events and to detect potential differences in running performance comparing these three subgroups.Methods/designThe NURMI Study will be conducted in three steps following a cross-sectional design. Step 1 will determine epidemiological aspects of endurance runners (any distance) using a short standardized questionnaire. Step 2 will investigate dietary habits and running history from eligible participants (capable of running a half-marathon at least) using an extended standardized questionnaire. Step 3 will collect data after a running event on finishing time and final ranking as well as a post-race rating of perceived exertion, mood status, nutrient and fluid intake during the race.DiscussionOur study will provide a major contribution to overcome the lack of data on the prevalence and running performance of vegetarian and vegan runners in endurance running events. We estimate the prevalence of vegetarians and vegans participating in a running event to be less compared to the respective proportion of vegetarians and vegans to the general population. Furthermore we will validate the subject’s self-assessment of their respective diet. This comparative study may identify possible effects of dietary behavior on running performance und may detect possible differences between the respective subgroups: omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan runners.Trial registration Current controlled trials, ISRCTN73074080

Analysis of High Mileage Gasoline Exhaust Particle Filters

Analysis of High Mileage Gasoline Exhaust Particle Filters

High mileage walking does not lead to osteoarthritis changes in the rat knee

High mileage walking does not lead to osteoarthritis changes in the rat knee

Optimizing charging station locations for urban taxi providers

Recently, electric vehicles are gaining importance which helps to reduce dependency on oil, increases energy efficiency of transportation, reduces carbon emissions and noise, and avoids tail pipe emissions. Because of short daily driving distances, high mileage, and intermediate waiting time, fossil-fuelled taxi vehicles are ideal candidates for being replaced by battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Moreover, taxi BEVs would increase visibility of electric mobility and therefore encourage others to purchase an electric vehicle. Prior to replacing conventional taxis with BEVs, a suitable charging infrastructure has to be established. This infrastructure consists of a sufficiently dense network of charging stations taking into account the lower driving ranges of BEVs.In this case study we propose a decision support system for placing charging stations in order to satisfy the charging demand of electric taxi vehicles. Operational taxi data from about 800 vehicles is used to identify and estimate the charging demand for electric taxis based on frequent origins and destinations of trips. Next, a variant of the maximal covering location problem is formulated and solved to satisfy as much charging demand as possible with a limited number of charging stations. Already existing fast charging locations are considered in the optimization problem. In this work, we focus on finding regions in which charging stations should be placed rather than exact locations. The exact location within an area is identified in a post-optimization phase (e.g., by authorities), where environmental conditions are considered, e.g., the capacity of the power network, availability of space, and legal issues.Our approach is implemented in the city of Vienna, Austria, in the course of an applied research project that has been conducted in 2014. Local authorities, power network operators, representatives of taxi driver guilds as well as a radio taxi provider participated in the project and identified exact locations for charging stations based on our decision support system.

Viability of electric vehicles in combined day and night delivery: a total cost of ownership example in Germany

A review of the body of literature yields general indications that electric freight vehicles can improve emissions and costs in off-hour delivery schemes. However, the literature fails to quantify the savings potential in a combined day and off-hours double-shift usage. Hence, this article qualitatively clusters the advantages of electric vehicles in off-hours delivery schemes and provides quantitative exemplary model calculations on the total costs of ownership in single- and double- shift usage. Surprisingly, the calculations contradict the hypothesis that is commonly deduced in the literature that with a higher utilisation, electric vehicles generally become more competitive compared to their conventional siblings. This study finds that electric medium-duty vehicles are only financially competitive at higher mileages, if the savings achieved by lower operational costs are greater than the costs for battery replacements. These become more frequent at higher mileages; hence a long battery warranty is essential when planning to operate EVs in double-shifts. An elasticity analysis finds that further important parameters influencing the competitiveness of medium-duty electric vehicle compared to conventional diesel models are the discount rate, purchase prices, and the cost of diesel fuel. In conclusion, financial subsidies for purchasing freight EVs might lead to higher numbers of these vehicles. However, increasing the per-kilometre cost advantage of electric freight vehicles would support their utilisation, i.e. in combined day and night shifts, and hence would further mitigate the road freight transport emissions in cities.

Size-segregated emissions and metal content of particles emitted by vehicles with low and high mileage: Implications to population exposure

Size-segregated emissions and metal content of particles emitted by vehicles with low and high mileage: Implications to population exposure

What is needed for battery electric vehicles to become socially cost competitive?

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) could be key to decarbonizing transport, but are heavily subsidized. Most assessments of BEVs use highly taxed road fuel prices and ignore efficient pricing of electricity. We use efficient prices for transport fuels and electricity, to judge what battery costs would make BEVs cost competitive. High mileage, low discount rates and high oil prices could make BEVs cost competitive by 2020, and by 2030 fuel costs are comparable over a wider range. Its contribution lies in careful derivation of efficient fuel and electricity prices and the concept of a target battery cost.

What is the market potential of plug-in electric vehicles as commercial passenger cars? A case study from Germany

Commercial passenger cars are a possible early market segment for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Compared to privately owned vehicles, the commercial vehicle segment is characterized by higher mileage and a higher share of vehicle sales in Germany. To this point, there are only few studies which analyze the commercial passenger car sector and arrive at contradictory results due to insufficient driving profile data with an observation period of only one day. Here, we calculate the market potential of PEVs for the German commercial passenger car sector by determining the technical and economical potential for PEVs in 2020 from multi-day driving profiles. We find that commercial vehicles are better suited for PEVs than private ones since they show higher average annual mileage and drive more regularly. About 87% of the analyzed three-week vehicle profiles can technically be fulfilled by battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with an electric driving range of about 110km while plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) with an electric range of 40km could obtain an electric driving share of 60% on average. In moderate energy price scenarios, PEVs can reach a market share of 2–4% in the German commercial passenger car sales by 2020 and especially the large commercial branches (Trade, Manufacturing, Administrative services and Other services) are important. However, our analysis shows a high sensitivity of results to energy and battery prices as well as electric consumptions.

Sustainable City Development: Implementation Practices in Riga

To develop potential of the cities in the field of energy efficiency improvements and use of renewables, there is a need for new and more ambitious goals in line with the actual situation. Growing concern of smart city development and urban resilience has become increasingly embedded in urban planning, national security and energy policy. One of the main city documents focused on actions and measures to be implemented in City is Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), which is the key document in which the Covenant signatory outlines how it intends to reach its CO2 reduction target by 2020. Taking into account specifics of modern cities and future city development at Smart City level the existing SEAP should be enhanced. Nowadays it is necessary to bring existing standalone energy actions at cross sector level in order to ensure urban resilience. Currently there are 3414 cities across the Europe and eastern partners which already have developed SEAP. The paper draws attention to areas with high impact to smart city development. In terms of Smart Cities the most powerful actions are those which directly affect at least these three sectors - energy, ICT and transport. Paper provides some good practice examples from the city of Riga. The losses of the heat transmitted to consumers by JSC "Rigas Siltums" - main heat supplier of Riga have been decreased by 667 thous. MWh or 2.45 times in comparison to year 1996/1997. Following the completion of reconstruction of the boiler houses, construction of a biofuel fired water heating boiler, construction of the biofuel fired cogeneration plant, installation of flue gas condensers for biofuel fired boilers at the DHP the share of biofuel utilization within the fuel balance of the JSC „RĪGAS SILTUMS” will reach 20.4% in fiscal year 2013/2014. The total energy produced from renewable energy sources since 01.01.1996 until 8.04.2014 is 920463.107 MWh. The project “Heat meters automatic remote reading system” proved to be a successful and reliable solution for the control and accounting of consumed heat, as well as related tasks enabling “online communication” with 8000 individual heating units throughout the Riga city. Development and introduction of electric cars and filling station infrastructure in Riga was one more step on the way to the SMART CITY status. Despite a fairly long payback period electric cars are quite beneficial solution for some companies whose activities are related with vehicles’ high mileage within the city as LLC “Rigas Satiksme

Consumer Valuation of Fuel Costs and the Effectiveness of Tax Policy: Evidence from the European Car Market

To what extent do car buyers undervalue future fuel costs, and what does this imply for the effectiveness of alternative tax policies? To address both questions, we show it is crucial to account for consumer heterogeneity in mileage and other dimensions. We use detailed product-level data for a long panel of European countries, and exploit variation in fuel prices by engine type. We find there is only modest undervaluation of fuel costs. As a consequence, fuel taxes are unambiguously more effective in reducing fuel usage than product taxes based on fuel economy, because fuel taxes better target high mileage consumers.

New emission deterioration rates for gasoline cars – Results from long-term measurements

Vehicle emission control systems have been found to degrade with use resulting in increasing emission rates with vehicle age. Standard European data for deterioration factors have only been based on a sample of vehicles with limited high mileage ranges, with only few Euro 3 and Euro 4 vehicles, and on laboratory tests only. Here we present deterioration rates derived from more than 110′000 records collected over the past thirteen years from on-road emission remote sensing in Zurich/Switzerland. Deterioration rates for hot NOx and CO emissions of older gasoline vehicles are much lower than assumed so far, but significantly higher for Euro 3 and Euro 4 cars. There is no evidence of high emitters but equipment gradually degrades across the fleet. Deterioration rates do not seem to depend on engine load. Routine idle emission tests have not resulted in measurable emission reductions of the inspected vehicles. National emission inventories should be updated in the light of this new data.

Concept of Smart City: First Experience from City of Riga

Growing concern of smart city development and urban resilience has become increasingly embedded in urban planning, national security and energy policy. One of the main city documents focused on actions and measures to be implemented in City is Sustainable Energy Action Plan. Taking into account specifics of modern cities and future city development at Smart City level the existing Sustainable Energy Action Plans should be enhanced. Nowadays it is necessary to bring existing standalone energy actions at cross sector level in order to ensure urban resilience. Currently there are 3414 cities across the Europe and eastern partners which already have developed Sustainable Energy Action Plan. The paper draws attention to areas with high impact to smart city development. In terms of Smart Cities the most powerful actions are those which directly affect at least these three sectors - energy, ICT and transport.Paper provides some Good Practice examples from city of Riga. The losses of the heat transmitted to consumers by JSC "Rigas Siltums" - main heat supplier of Riga have been decreased by 667 thous. MWh or 2.45 times in comparison to year 1996/1997. Following the completion of reconstruction of the boiler houses, construction of a biofuel fired water heating boiler, construction of the biofuel fired cogeneration plant, installation of flue gas condensers for biofuel fired boilers at the DHP the share of biofuel utilisation within the fuel balance of the JSC „RĪGAS SILTUMS” will reach 20.4% in fiscal year 2013/2014. The total energy produced from renewable energy sources since 01.01.1996 until 8.04.2014 is 920463.107 MWh.The project “Heat meters automatic remote reading system” proved to be a successful and reliable solution for the control and accounting of consumed heat, as well as related tasks enabling “online communication” with 8000 individual heating units throughout the Riga city.Development and introduction of electric cars and filling station infrastructure in Riga was one more step on the way to the SMART CITY status. Despite a fairly long payback period electric cars are quite beneficial solution for some companies whose activities are related with vehicles’ high mileage within the city as LLC “Rigas Satiksme”.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.7.2.6932

Reliability assessment based on degradation measurements: How to compare some models?

An important issue in the validation of mechanical parts for vehicles is reliability assessment for high mileages, by means of tests. Since the tests should be as short as possible, and for parts subjected to degradation mechanism, such as wear or crack propagation, it would be appropriate using degradation measurements (such as mass loss or crack length) in order to estimate reliability. In this study, we present some statistical approaches responding to this concern and propose a method to compare theses models. Different types of data can be available; in this paper, we only consider the case in which one measure is available for each part. Only linear degradation is studied.

Do Amateur Sellers Adopt The Professionals Price Ending Formats? Lessons From The Used Car Market

This study investigates the differences between professional retailers and amateur resellers in their adoption of different price ending formats. We conduct our analysis on a 1,700 ads car pool representative of the French used car market to demonstrate how seller profiles and car attributes impact price ending formats adoption. The results reveal that amateur sellers are more likely to use round ending prices than professionals, especially for expensive and high mileage cars. Furthermore, product attributes (extras) and obsolescence indicators significantly moderate the choices of price ending formats.

The impact of range anxiety and home, workplace, and public charging infrastructure on simulated battery electric vehicle lifetime utility

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) offer the potential to reduce both oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions, but have a limited utility due to factors including driver range anxiety and access to charging infrastructure. In this paper we apply NREL's Battery Lifetime Analysis and Simulation Tool for Vehicles (BLAST-V) to examine the sensitivity of BEV utility to range anxiety and different charging infrastructure scenarios, including variable time schedules, power levels, and locations (home, work, and public installations). We find that the effects of range anxiety can be significant, but are reduced with access to additional charging infrastructure. We also find that (1) increasing home charging power above that provided by a common 15 A, 120 V circuit offers little added utility, (2) workplace charging offers significant utility benefits to select high mileage commuters, and (3) broadly available public charging can bring many lower mileage drivers to near-100% utility while strongly increasing the achieved miles of high mileage drivers.

Optimization of Charging Infrastructure for Electric Taxis

For the transportation sector, electromobility presents a chance both to abolish oil dependency and to open the possibility of using sustainable energy sources. In the case of taxis, the substitution of electric vehicles for conventional vehicles with an internal combustion engine may be especially favorable because the driving patterns involve several waiting periods, which can be used for recharging the battery. An infrastructure consisting of charging stations at taxi stands needs to be developed to ensure the energy supply of these taxis. Designing a charging infrastructure requires the development of an optimization method to maximize the economic benefit of the whole system, consisting of electric taxis (e-taxis) and charging stations (CSs). The number of charging stations should be kept as minimal as possible to reduce costs. Simultaneously, the energy supply for these taxis has to be ensured to enable high mileage and earnings. This study introduces an event-based simulation of the e-taxis’ mileage and an economic analysis that evaluates the benefit of possible configurations of numbers of e-taxis and numbers of CSs per taxi stand. Because the number of possible configurations is high, an optimization algorithm is presented to reduce the calculation time and to find configurations with the highest economic efficiency. One result of the infrastructure optimization indicates that 445 CSs would be economically ideal for a taxi fleet in Munich, Germany, with 3,402 vehicles with a battery capacity of 20 kW-h.