The impact of ignition delay and further fuel properties on combustion and emissions in a compression ignition engine

Better understanding of combustion and formation of exhaust gas pollutants of fuels is needed in order to meet stringent regulation standards of a diesel engine. The cetane number is one of the most-cited indicators of diesel fuel quality. This paper presents experimental studies with a wide range of fuels to investigate the effect of cetane number on combustion and exhaust emissions (CO, NOx, PM, particle number size distribution). The fuel ignitability was controlled in two different ways: naturally, by using seven fuels (Dearomatised Hydrotreated Stream, Hydrotreated Non-Dearomatised Stream, Soy Methyl Ester, Rapeseed Methyl Ester, Heavy Paraffinic Stream, C10-C14 Paraffins, and C14-C17 Paraffins) with different cetane numbers, and through the use of an ignition improver blended into a single base fuel (Hydrotreated Non-Dearomatised Stream (NDH)) to change the ignition chemistry of the fuel while keeping physical properties unchanged. The tests were performed in naturally-aspirated single-cylinder DI diesel engine at 1200 rpm and 600 bar injection pressure at 4 bar and 6 bar IMEP. The engine tests were carried out at constant fuel injection timing and constant start of combustion timing. A strong positive correlation was found between ignition delay and CO emissions. The effect of physical and chemical properties of the fuel on NOx and particulate emissions became more dominant at higher load. Overall the results showed that changes in the fuel physical properties and molecular structure, in particular, the incorporation of oxygen, impacted on combustion and emissions through various routes in addition to the effects of ignition delay only

Computer Modeling of Personal Autonomy and Legal Equilibrium

Empirical studies of personal autonomy as state and status of individual freedom, security, and capacity to control own life, particularly by independent legal reasoning, are need dependable models and methods of precise computation. Three simple models of personal autonomy are proposed. The linear model of personal autonomy displays a relation between freedom as an amount of agent's action and responsibility as an amount of legal reaction and shows legal equilibrium, the balance of rights and duties needed for sustainable development of any community. The model algorithm of judge personal autonomy shows that judicial decision making can be partly automated, like other human jobs. Model machine learning of autonomous lawyer robot under operating system constitution illustrates the idea of robot rights. Robots, i.e. material and virtual mechanisms serving the people, deserve some legal guarantees of their rights such as robot rights to exist, proper function and be protected by the law. Robots, actually, are protected as any human property by the wide scope of laws, starting with Article 17 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the current level of human trust in autonomous devices and their role in contemporary society needs stronger legislation to guarantee the robot rights.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, presented at Computer Science On-line Conference 201

Security-voting structure and bidder screening

This paper demonstrates that non-voting shares can promote takeovers. When the bidder has private information, shareholders may refuse to tender because they suspect to sell at an ex post unfavourable price. The ensuing friction in the sale of cash flow rights can prevent an efficient change of control. Separating cash flow and voting rights alters the degree of cross-subsidization among bidder types. It can therefore be used as an instrument to promote takeover activity and to discriminate between efficient and inefficient bidders. The optimal fraction of non-voting shares decreases with managerial ability, implying an inverse relationship between firm value and non-voting shares

Design of Energy Management System of a PEMFC–Battery– Supercapacitor Hybrid Tramway

In this chapter, a hybrid power system that consists of multiple proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems, batteries, and supercapacitors (SCs) is developed for a hybrid tramway. Three energy management strategies that included a fuzzy logic control (FLC), an equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS), and a state machine strategy based on droop control (SMS-DC) are utilized to coordinate multiple power sources, avoid the transients and rapid changes of power demand, and achieve high efficiency without degrading the mechanism performance for an energy management system of hybrid tramway. A hybrid system model of tramway is established with commercially available devices, and then the different energy management strategies are evaluated with a real driving cycle of tramway from Turkey. The results compared with these strategies demonstrate that the higher average efficiencies of the tramway, the lower tramway-equivalent hydrogen consumptions, and more efficient use of the batteries and SCs energy are achieved by the SMS-DC. Therefore, the appropriate energy management system for high-power hybrid tramway will improve the hydrogen consumptions of overall hybrid system and the efficiencies of each power source