Passenger Comfort Research Articles

Analisis Karakteristik Angkutan Penumpang

Passenger comfort in using public transportation is the main factor in satisfaction with the transportation services used. This lack of satisfaction will affect the use of transportation services which will reduce the income from transportation services. The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics, level of passenger/customer satisfaction based on (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness) and factors that influence the level of passenger satisfaction. This research uses a quantitative method, which was carried out in September-November 2022 at a tourist bus shelter in Tana Toraja Regency using SPSS analysis. The results of the research show that the analysis of 5 dimensions, namely tangibles (physical evidence) 0.131, reliability (reliability) 0.084, responsiveness (responsiveness) 0.082, confidence (belief) 0.117, empathy (attention) 0.0120. The most influential factor is the tangibles dimension (physical evidence), which is 0.131.

Heat Characteristics and Emission Effect of a Fuel-operated Auxiliary Air Heater Fed with Fuel E10, E30 and E100

In order to increase the comfort of vehicle passengers in specific vehicle categories, the heating of the passenger compartment is not provided by the heat from the engine driving the vehicle but by an additional heating device. The study examines the effect of auxiliary heaters that use liquid fuels to heat the passenger compartment of vehicles. The device was operated during the test with two different mixtures containing bioethanol (E30, E100) and the original motor gasoline (E10). It aimed to understand the effects of different fuels, particularly heating performance, operating time and emissions. Based on the results, as the ethanol content increases, the temperature of the device’s flame and heating air decreases. The experiments showed that in the case of E100 bioethanol, the average temperature measured in stable operating conditions was significantly lower than in the case of E10 motor gasoline. That suggests that an increase in the ethanol content reduces the heating performance. Another significant result of the study was that in the case of mixtures containing ethanol, a longer operating time is required to achieve the same amount of heat, which leads to additional fuel consumption. In addition, when using E100 bioethanol, the amount of harmful gases that are emitted increases significantly during the longer operating time. This observation can be important for evaluating the environmental impact and efficiency of vehicles.

Development and Evaluation of Vibration Canceling System Utilizing Macro-Fiber Composites (MFCs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Vibration Prediction AI Algorithms for Road Driving Vibrations.

This study developed an innovative active vibration canceling (AVC) system designed to mitigate non-periodic vibrations during road driving to enhance passenger comfort. The macro-fiber composite (MFC) used in the system is a smart material that is flexible, soft, lightweight, and applicable in many fields as a dual-purpose sensor and actuator. The target vibrations are road vibration data that were collected while driving on standard urban (Seoul) and highway roads at 40 km/s. To predict and cancel the target vibration accurately before passing it, we modeled the vibration prediction algorithm using a long short-term memory recurrent neural network (LSTM RNN). We regenerated vibrations on Seoul and highway roads at 40 km/s using MFCs and measured the displacements of the measured, predicted, and AVC vibrations of each road condition. To evaluate the vibration, we computed the root mean squared error (RMSE) and compared standard deviation (SD) values. The accuracies of LSTM RNN vibration prediction algorithms are 97.27% and 96.36% on Seoul roads and highway roads, respectively, at 40 km/s. Although the vibration ratio compared with the AVC results are different, there was no difference between the values of the AVC vibrations. According to a previous study and the principle of the AVC system, the target vibrations decrease by canceling the inverse vibration of the MFC actuator.

Static and dynamic stiffness optimization on the body structure of an electric quadricycle

Reducing vehicle vibrations is of particular importance due to the adverse effect of vibrations on the ride comfort of passengers. Electric quadricycles are growing rapidly because they are quieter and less polluting than fossil-fuelled vehicles, and these reasons make them a green alternative to personal transportation, and their popularity increases day by day. In this article, the optimization of the body structure of EQ10, an electric quadricycle under development, is discussed to reduce the weight and vibrations transmitted to the passengers with the constraints of bending stiffness and torsional stiffness and yield stress of the elements. The vibrations transmitted to the occupants are measured beneath the driver’s seat by reading the acceleration resulting from the EQ10 excitation sources vibrations. First, a finite element model of the body structure was designed. Then, for optimization, the EQ10 body structure is divided into 29 modules, and in the optimization process, the thickness of these 29 modules is considered as a design variable. The BIGOPT gradient-based method was chosen to solve the optimization problem due to its superior performance to other numerical solution algorithms. To calculate static and dynamic stiffness, modal analyses, and frequency transfer function are conducted to evaluate its general behavior under various functional conditions. Following optimization, results show that the bending and torsional stiffness increased by 45% and 31%, respectively; such fascinating results could not have been obtained without the methods employed in this investigation.

Surrogate-based aerodynamic shape optimization of high-speed train heads: A review of four key technologies

With the increase in running speed, the aerodynamic characteristics of high-speed trains have a significant impact on running stability, energy consumption and passenger comfort. Since the shape of the high-speed train head can directly influence the surrounding airflow, optimizing the head shape is the primary way to improve the aerodynamic performance of the train. This paper reviews current research studies on the surrogate-based aerodynamic shape optimization of high-speed train heads, aiming to provide a comprehensive reference for designers to enhance design efficiency and optimization performance. The entire optimization process is divided into four essential steps, and the key optimization technologies in each step are discussed, including parametric modeling, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, surrogate model and optimization algorithm. By introducing the practical applications of these technologies, we summarize their advantages and disadvantages and suggest four potential research directions for the future.

Structural Analysis of an Off-Road Vehicle Suspension System Using CATIA and ANSYS

This project delves into the structural analysis of an off-road vehicle suspension system, employing cutting-edge software tools such as CATIA and ANSYS. Off-road vehicles necessitate robust suspension systems capable of withstanding harsh terrain conditions while ensuring vehicle stability, manoeuvrability, and passenger comfort. The study focuses on evaluating the structural integrity, performance, and behaviour of the suspension system under diverse load conditions and terrain scenarios. This project focuses on conducting a comprehensive structural analysis of an off-road vehicle suspension system using advanced engineering software tools, specifically CATIA and ANSYS. CATIA is a powerful computer-aided design (CAD) software known for its capabilities in creating detailed 3D models, while ANSYS is a leading finite element analysis (FEA) software used for simulating structural behaviour and analyzing mechanical systems. Keywords: suspension system, CATIA v5, ANSYS, iterations, FEA.

Soil mechanics principles for modelling railway track performance

Predicting the performance of railway track is difficult owing to the complex and repeated nature of the loading, the many millions of cycles applied over the life of the structure, the need to characterise the often-infinitesimal rate of accumulation of plastic settlement, and the importance of differential settlements in the along-track direction, which can adversely impact train ride and passenger comfort. These come in addition to the usual soil mechanics challenges of reproducing in a constitutive model the real behaviour of soil and soil-like materials such as railway ballast. Degradation of the geomaterials comprising the trackbed and the underlying ground or earthwork owing to mechanical and environmental effects is a further concern. The paper discusses these issues and explores the application of fundamental soil mechanics principles and advanced constitutive models to understanding and quantifying their effects on railway track and trackbed performance. Recommendations for future research are made.

Study of Orifice Design on Oleo-Pneumatic Shock Absorber

Aircraft oil-strut shock absorbers rely on orifice designs to control fluid flow and optimize damping performance. However, the complex nature of cavitating flows poses significant challenges in predicting the influence of orifice geometry on energy dissipation and system reliability. This study presents a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the effects of circular, rectangular, semicircular, and cutback orifice profiles on the internal flow characteristics and damping behavior of oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers. High-fidelity simulations reveal that the rectangular orifice generates higher damping pressures and velocity magnitude than those generated by others designs, while the semicircular shape reduces cavitation inception and exhibits a more gradual pressure recovery. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of considering both geometric and thermodynamic factors in the design and analysis of cavitating flow systems, as liquid properties and vapor pressure significantly impact bubble growth and collapse behavior. Increasing the orifice length had a negligible impact on damping but moderately raised orifice velocities. This research provides valuable insights for optimizing shock absorber performance across a range of operating conditions, ultimately enhancing vehicle safety and passenger comfort.

Theoretical study on the most unfavorable tunnel length (MUTL) based on the interior pressure variations of high-speed subway trains

When a high-speed subway passes through a tunnel, the external aerodynamic pressure of the train is transmitted into the train interior, which adversely affects the passenger comfort. The effect of tunnel length on the interior pressure variation of the train cannot be ignored. According to previous studies, there is a most unfavorable tunnel length (abbreviated as MUTL in this paper) for the exterior pressure of the train. However, MUTL for the interior pressure variation is still a research gap. In this study, the effect of tunnel length on the interior pressure variation of tunnel and train was investigated using numerical simulation and TWS method. Additionally, the theoretical formula of MUTL based on the internal pressure variation at the head and tail of the train was established and verified using the results of past field measurements and TWS method. The findings indicate that the interior pressure variation with tunnel lengths within a certain time interval is not monotonic. Moreover, there may be two or even more MUTLs, and the MUTL is also be influenced by the dynamic sealing index. MUTL decreases with increasing train speed and increases with increasing number of cars. The research findings of this paper address the research gap in the study of MUTL on the pressure variation inside trains. These findings offer new theoretical guidance for the research of aerodynamic effects in high-speed subway tunnels, and provide a valuable reference engineering design and optimization.

Research on ice shedding experiment for large civil aircraft to exit ice protection mode

While aircraft flying, once the icing detector finds the icing environment, the stall protection system will turn on the icing stall protection mode. After aircraft leaves the icing environment, due to the lack of effective means to determine whether there is still ice on the unprotected surface of the aircraft, it is impossible to exit the icing stall protection mode, which can lead to issues such as high approach speed of the aircraft, affecting landing safety and passenger comfort. To solve this problem, this paper conducts experimental research on ice shedding time under different temperature conditions, simulating the phenomenon of ice shedding during aircraft fight. This work helps formulate the logic of aircraft exiting icing protection mode, and lays a basis for future work of aircraft performance optimization.

Tracking of car body vibration performance of centralized power EMU

The centralized power EMU is a new type of passenger transport vehicle in the process of upgrading the transportation equipment of China’s ordinary speed railways. It can significantly improve the transportation efficiency and passenger comfort of ordinary-speed railways. Detailed research on its dynamic performance during service can guide the widespread use and maintenance of this type of EMU. This paper conducted long-term tracking tests on a centralized power EMU. It analyzes the dynamic performance and evolution rule of the centralized power EMU during long-term service from the perspectives of wheel wear and car body vibration. It compares the performance differences between the control and the trailer car. In the tracking experiment, it was found that the car body exhibits vertical low-frequency vibration. Many experimental studies have shown that the frequency at which the vehicle passes through a bridge that stretches across a distance of 32 meters on the bridge pier at 160 km/h is 1.3 Hz, which excites the nodding mode and causes significant vertical harmonic vibration of the car body.

An intelligent thermal comfort control strategy for air conditioning of fuel cell vehicles

Thermal comfort is an important indicator for evaluating vehicle air conditioning, with many influencing factors, but traditional vehicle air conditioning control only take temperature as the control target, neglecting the passenger's actual thermal comfort situation, which cannot automatically adapt to the thermal comfort needs of different passengers. To address this issue, this paper establishes an air conditioning model based on a fuel cell vehicle (FCV) and proposes a control strategy based on thermal comfort, using deep reinforcement learning based on PPO algorithm to establish the control model. Which can automatically control the compressor and blower, this paper conducts simulation analysis under four different environmental conditions which including static and dynamic situations. The results show that when using the intelligent thermal comfort control strategy, the overall thermal sensation values of passengers are 0.006, 0.005, 0.033, and 0.102, respectively; which are 0.088, 0.333, 0.093, and 0.120 lower than the temperature-based control strategy, this proves that the control strategy proposed in this paper can achieve better thermal comfort for passengers.

An approach for offloading with multi-hop considerations in an RSU signal overlay setting

In recent years, significant advancements in vehicle technology have spurred growing interest in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). This interest is driven by concerns for road safety and the need to alleviate network congestion, leading to the emergence of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). ITS focuses on improving road traffic management and safety through the utilization of wireless and mobile network communication technologies. VANETs play a pivotal role within the realm of ITS, facilitating tasks such as enhancing road safety, traffic monitoring, and ensuring passenger comfort by mitigating accidents and congestion. These objectives rely on the timely and accurate delivery of data to vehicle agents and relevant authorities, facilitated by reliable VANETs and Road Signal Units (RSUs). Achieving this necessitates identifying optimal routes with minimal distance, high radio access, and quality-awareness levels. To address these objectives, this study proposes the utilization of the Congestion Network with Predicted K-means multi-hop RSU algorithm (CN-MHMR) to enhance vehicular networking and communication. This algorithm facilitates efficient node transfer from base nodes to destination nodes via the shortest and energy-efficient paths, thereby enabling viable and reliable vehicular communications. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated based on various metrics, including energy consumption, throughput, delay, packet delivery ratio, accuracy, precision, and recall values.

Design of curvilinear sections in vertical alignment of roads and railways using general transition curves

Creation of road and railway routes in general and also design of vertical alignment in particular constitute an significant engineering problem. The vertical alignment of roads, and especially of railways, is of great importance for passenger comfort under high-speed driving conditions. This requires alignment smoothness to a greater extent. In practice, the dominant tendency is to consider vertical arcs as parabolic curves (quadratic or cubic). Other solutions have been also proposed and analyzed in the literature, thus providing an alternative approach to traditional methods. This paper describes a design method of vertical arcs using the so-called general transition curves. These curves describe the entire curvilinear transition between two straight lines using a single equation, and the curvature at the contact points with the straight lines is zero, which is of great practical significance in the light of vehicle motion dynamics. As a result, relevant research shows that general transition curves, compared to other curves, provide a more favorable distribution of lateral changes of acceleration. The paper deals not only with appropriate design procedures of a general nature, but also specific procedures of fitting vertical arcs to preset points. The methods for designing vertical arcs constitute a useful extension of available methods, and offer a valuable tool for engineers and designers of road and railway routes.

Strategies to Improve Competitiveness at Nusantara 1 and 2 Passenger Terminals through Enhanced Service Facilities

Tanjung Priok Port is one of Indonesia's largest and busiest ports, playing a vital role in goods trade and passenger transportation. This research focuses on enhancing the infrastructure at the Nusantara 1 and 2 passenger terminals to increase the port's competitiveness and value, particularly in the passenger terminal area. Using GAP Analysis, literature review, interviews, observations, and documentation, the study aims to provide solutions for improving and expanding passenger terminal facilities to enhance passenger service and value. The findings indicate that optimal maintenance of port infrastructure significantly enhances the port's value and passenger comfort. Observations reveal a yearly increase in passengers at the PURA 1 & 2 terminals, reaching 353,005 passengers in 2022. The temporary waiting room accommodates 1,600 passengers, while the general waiting room holds 3,666 passengers. Despite the good maintenance of these facilities, further improvements are necessary to meet the growing demands.

Suppression of horizontal vibrations in high-speed elevators using active shock absorber to assist traditional damping systems

PurposeThis paper aims to design an active shock absorber scheme for use in conjunction with a passive shock absorber to suppress the horizontal vibration of elevator cars in a smaller range and shorter time. The developed active shock absorber will also improve the safety and comfort of passengers driving in ultra-high-speed elevators.Design/methodology/approachA six-degree of freedom dynamic model is established according to the position and condition of the car. Then the active shock absorber and disturbance compensation-based adaptive control scheme are designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. The results are analysed and compared with the traditional shock absorber.FindingsThe results show that, compared with traditional spring-based passive damping systems, the designed active shock absorber can reduce vibration displacement by 60%, peak acceleration by 50% and oscillation time by 2/3 and is more robust to different spring stiffness, damping coefficient and load.Originality/valueThe developed active shock absorber and its control algorithm can significantly reduce vibration amplitude and converged time. It can also adjust the damping strength according to the actual load of the elevator car, which is more suitable for high-speed elevators.

Feasibility investigation of tuned mass damper for vibration control of curved floating bridge in winds and waves

This paper investigates the feasibility and operability of a tuned mass damper (TMD) to control the lateral vibrations of a curved floating bridge. A curved floating bridge was designed with a bridge girder, 38 columns, and 19 pontoons, which was the same concept proposed for crossing Bjørnafjorden in Norway, except that the cable-stayed bridge was excluded in the present model. TMD was then attached to the mid-length of the bridge girder. Time-domain model was built to consider the girder-column-pontoon interaction based on the Cummins equation for pontoons and the lumped-mass line model for the bridge girder and columns, while TMD was modeled by the mass-spring-damper system. First, the genetic algorithm was employed to optimize the spring and damping coefficients of TMD at a fixed TMD mass under white noise wave excitations, and the fitness function was a summation of the standard deviation of the sway motion of 19 pontoons. Then, its feasibility was evaluated by comparing lateral vibrations and vertical bending moments with and without TMD under various combinations of wind/wave/current loads. Results demonstrate that TMD contributes to a reduction in the lateral vibration when resonance at the second wet natural frequency occurs, which can improve passenger comfort. Wind-induced lateral motions are significantly reduced at the second wet natural frequency while TMD has limited effects under other environmental loads. Moreover, bending moments are governed by higher modes mostly induced by storm waves, which cannot be controlled by TMD effectively.

Driving Towards Sustainable Future Through EV Health Monitoring System

Driving is a complex activity performed in a continually varying and stimulating environment. The coordination and execution of various skills like cognitive, sensory, psychomotor and physical are extremely necessary to drive safe. Most of the studies related to driving highlighted that 75% of traffic accidents occurs due to human factors including driver’s fatigue, deprived health condition, attention loss, bad emotional state, and lack of skills. Most of the developed country is ageing. Hence, the drivers above 60 years is also increasing. Ageing results are weakening in cognitive function and threaten driver safety. The aged drivers (age above 60 years) have a comparatively more significant risk of accident due to medical emergency than other factors like bad emotional state and lack of skills. The wellness of drivers’ is considered as a key factor of traffic accidents. Heart failure and non-traumatic disease (i.e., stroke) are the main risk factors for drivers’ death. Many of the victims have no prior knowledge of the presence of the condition. Stroke is a disease caused due to the disturbance in blood supply to the parts of the brain. After experiencing stroke, a driver’s ability to drive is generally affected by the visual, perceptual, motor, and cognitive deficits. Stroke leads to arm weakness, facing dropping, blurred vision, dizziness, coordination issue and speech difficulties of victims which are essential for driving. It is necessary to protect the driver’s those are possibly be the victims for stroke. Since, stroke onset during driving lead a serious threat to the other drivers and the general public. Now-a-days, there are lots of automotive industry competing not only to provide better performance in terms of the vehicle but also to provide the driver with better comfort even in long rides. Automakers are developing vehicle that could provide health monitoring service with Internet of Things (IoT). In IoT, an automobile or vehicle-treated as a “thing”. IoT plays an important role in connected vehicles development. It provide us cloud connectivity, health monitoring, safety and security. Automakers are developing vehicles with IoT enabled including healthcare, accident prevention, vehicle safety, driver safety, driver and passenger comfort, vehicle monitoring, etc. The paper aimed on summarizing the current developments in driver’s health and comfort monitoring through IoT.

МОДЕРНІЗАЦІЯ СТРУМОПРИЙМАЛЬНОЇ ГОЛОВКИ ТРОЛЕЙБУСА

The article deals with the issue of improving the reliability of the existing fleet of passenger trolleybuses. One of the possible options for increasing the reliability of operation of the trolleybus fleet is presented. Based on the collected statistical data, the typical causes of trolleybus failures were identified. It has been shown that the largest number of trolleybus failures is associated with electrical equipment malfunctions. It is determined that one of the most promising ways to reduce the number of failures is to improve the reliability of current collectors. To this end, the general state of affairs in this field was analyzed. A method for improving the reliability of current collector operation in adverse weather conditions is proposed. To solve this problem, it is proposed to change the design of the current collectors. The existing ways of solving this problem are investigated. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing methods are determined. The paper proposes a new constructive solution, which, according to the authors' idea, allows solving the problem. The essence of the solution is the simultaneous installation of two current-collecting inserts on the current collector rod. The current collecting inserts used have different physical properties and, when working together, improve the operating conditions of the trolleybus current collecting system. The proposed solution reduces the number of trolleybus current-collecting rod disconnections from the contact network. This leads to an increase in the stability of the trolleybus electrical system. At the same time, the operating conditions of the mechanical part of the trolleybus structure are improved. This leads to an increase in the stability of the trolleybus electrical system. At the same time, the operating conditions of the mechanical part of the trolleybus structure are improved. By reducing the number of forced braking of the trolleybus, the level of safety and comfort of passengers increases. Reducing the total number of failures of the current collector system and reducing the level of loads on the mechanical systems of the trolleybus allows to increase the overhaul mileage and reduce the level of costs in the operation of the trolleybus fleet

Recovery of engine waste heat in low temperature environment of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

The performance and life of electric vehicle power batteries will be reduced at low temperatures, and the lower temperature in the electric vehicle will also affect the comfort of drivers and passengers. Taking into account the winter temperatures and the unique drive structure of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, a specially designed driving mode for low-temperature environment is implemented. Based on this drive mode, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) integrated thermal management structure is proposed to heat the battery and the passenger compartment, thereby improving energy efficiency. A mathematical model is used to establish the entire vehicle thermal management system, which is then experimentally validated. Under the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) at ambient temperatures of −5°C, −10°C, −15°C, and −20°C, the calculation results of engine waste heat utilization and PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) heating are compared and analyzed. The results show that the average heating rate of the thermal management system proposed in this study is 23% faster than that of PTC heating at low temperature. The SOC decreases to 63.43% when engine waste heat utilization is adopted. When PTC heating is used, the SOC decreases to 49.18%. However, the advantage of the faster rate of engine waste heat compared to PTC heating becomes less pronounced as the ambient temperature decreases.