Chapter Sulla bellezza delle immagini per la narrazione del pensiero architettonico. Riflessioni sui disegni di progetto di Francesco Cellini

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Fractional Calculus Approach to Reproduce Material Viscoelastic Behavior, including the Time–Temperature Superposition Phenomenon

The design of modern products and processes cannot prescind from the usage of viscoelastic materials that provide extreme design freedoms at relatively low cost. Correct and reliable modeling of these materials allows effective use that involves the design, maintenance, and monitoring phase and the possibility of reuse and recycling. Fractional models are becoming more and more popular in the reproduction of viscoelastic phenomena because of their capability to describe the behavior of such materials using a limited number of parameters with an acceptable accuracy over a vast range of excitation frequencies. A particularly reliable model parametrization procedure, using the poles-zeros formulation, allows researchers to considerably reduce the computational cost of the calibration process and avoid convergence issues typically occurring for rheological models. The aim of the presented work is to demonstrate that the poles-zeros identification methodology can be employed not only to identify the viscoelastic master curves but also the material parameters characterizing the time-temperature superposition phenomenon. The proposed technique, starting from the data concerning the isothermal experimental curves, makes use of the fractional derivative generalized model to reconstruct the master curves in the frequency domain and correctly identify the coefficients of the WLF function. To validate the methodology, three different viscoelastic materials have been employed, highlighting the potential of the material parameters' global identification. Furthermore, the paper points out a further possibility to employ only a limited number of the experimental curves to feed the identification methodology and predict the complete viscoelastic material behavior

Review on friction and wear test rigs: An overview on the state of the art in tyre tread friction evaluation

The future evolution of autonomous mobility and road transportation will require substantial improvements in tyre adherence optimization. As new technologies being deployed in tyre manufacturing reduce total vehicle energy consumption, the contribution of tyre friction for safety and performance enhancement continues to increase. For this reason, the tyre’s grip is starting to drive the focus of many tyre developments nowadays. This is because the tread compound attitude to maximize the interaction forces with the ground is the result of a mix of effects, involving polymer viscoelastic characteristics, road roughness profiles and the conditions under which each tyre works during its lifespan. In such a context, mainly concerning the automotive market, the testing, analysis and objectivation of the friction arising at the tread interface is performed by means of specific test benches called friction testers. This paper reviews the state of the art in such devices’ development and use, with a global overview of the measurement methodologies and with a classification based on the working and specimen motion principle. Most tyre friction testers allow one to manage the relative sliding speed and the contact pressure between the specimen and the counter-surface, while just some of them are able to let the user vary the testing temperature. Few devices can really take into account the road real roughness, carrying out outdoor measurements, useful because they involve actual contact phenomena, but very complex to control outside the laboratory environment

Torque Vectoring Control for fully electric Formula SAE cars

Fully electric vehicles with individually controlled powertrains can achieve significantly enhanced vehicle response, in particular by means of Torque Vectoring Control (TVC). This paper presents a TVC strategy for a Formula SAE (FSAE) fully electric vehicle, the “T-ONE” car designed by “UninaCorse E-team” of the University of Naples Federico II, featuring four in-wheel motors. A Matlab-Simulink double-track vehicle model is implemented, featuring non-linear (Pacejka) tyres. The TVC strategy consists of: i) a reference generator that calculates the target yaw rate in real time based on the current values of steering wheel angle and vehicle velocity, in order to follow a desired optimal understeer characteristic; ii) a high-level controller which generates the overall traction/braking force and yaw moment demands based on the accelerator/brake pedal and on the error between the target yaw rate and the actual yaw rate; iii) a control allocator which outputs the reference torques for the individual wheels. A driver model was implemented to work out the brake/accelerator pedal inputs and steering wheel angle input needed to follow a generic trajectory. In a first implementation of the model, a circular trajectory was adopted, consistently with the "skid-pad" test of the FSAE competition. Results are promising as the vehicle with TVC achieves up to � 9% laptime savings with respect to the vehicle without TVC, which is deemed significant and potentially crucial in the context of the FSAE competition

Study on the generalized formulations with the aim to reproduce the viscoelastic dynamic behavior of polymers

Appropriate modelling of the real behavior of viscoelastic materials is of fundamental importance for correct studies and analyses of structures and components where such materials are employed. In this paper, the potential to employ a generalized Maxwell model and the relative fraction derivative model is studied with the aim to reproduce the experimental behavior of viscoelastic materials. For both models, the advantage of using the pole-zero formulation is demonstrated and a specifically constrained identification procedure to obtain the optimum parameters set is illustrated. Particular emphasis is given on the ability of the models to adequately fit the experimental data with a minimum number of parameters, addressing the possible computational issues. The question arises about the minimum number of experimental data necessary to estimate the material behavior in a wide frequency range, demonstrating that accurate results can be obtained by knowing only the data of the upper and low frequency plateaus plus the ones at the loss tangent peak

Estimation of Vehicle Longitudinal Velocity with Artificial Neural Network

Vehicle dynamics control systems have a fundamental role in smart and autonomous mobility, where one of the most crucial aspects is the vehicle body velocity estimation. In this paper, the problem of a correct evaluation of the vehicle longitudinal velocity for dynamic control applications is approached using a neural networks technique employing a set of measured samples referring to signals usually available on-board, such as longitudinal and lateral acceleration, steering angle, yaw rate and linear wheel speed. Experiments were run on four professional driving circuits with very different characteristics, and the vehicle longitudinal velocity was estimated with different neural network training policies and validated through comparison with the measurements of the one acquired at the vehicle’s center of gravity, provided by an optical Correvit sensor, which serves as the reference (and, therefore, exact) velocity values. The results obtained with the proposed methodology are in good agreement with the reference values in almost all tested conditions, covering both the linear and the nonlinear behavior of the car, proving that artificial neural networks can be efficiently employed onboard, thereby enriching the standard set of control and safety-related electronics

A real-time thermal model for the analysis of tire/road interaction in motorcycle applications

While in the automotive field the relationship between road adherence and tire temperature is mainly investigated with the aim to enhance the vehicle performance in motorsport, the motorcycle sector is highly sensitive to such theme also from less extreme applications. The small extension of the footprint, along with the need to guarantee driver stability and safety in the widest possible range of riding conditions, require that tires work as most as possible at a temperature able to let the viscoelastic compounds - constituting the tread and the composite materials of the whole carcass structure - provide the highest interaction force with soil. Moreover, both for tire manufacturing companies and for single track vehicles designers and racing teams, a deep knowledge of the thermodynamic phenomena involved at the ground level is a key factor for the development of optimal solutions and setup. This paper proposes a physical model based on the application of the Fourier thermodynamic equations to a three-dimensional domain, accounting for all the sources of heating like friction power at the road interface and the cyclic generation of heat due to rolling and to asphalt indentation, and for the cooling effects due to air forced convection, to road conduction and to turbulences in the inflation chamber. The complex heat exchanges in the system are fully described and modelled, with particular reference to the management of contact patch position, correlated to camber angle and requiring the adoption of an innovative multi-ribbed and multilayered tire structure. The completely physical approach induces the need of a proper parameterization of the model, whose main stages are described, both from the experimental and identification points of view, with particular reference to non-destructive procedures for thermal parameters definition

Development of a grip and thermodynamics sensitive tyre/road interaction forces characterization procedure employed in high-performance vehicles simulation

The target of the activities described in the PhD thesis, fixed in collaboration with a motorsport racing team, with a high performance vehicle manufacturing company and with a tyre research and development technical centre is the development of a procedure able to estimate tyre interaction characteristics, reproducing them in simulation environments taking into account the fundamental friction and thermal phenomena concerning with tyre/road interaction. A first tool, called TRICK, has been developed with the aim to process data acquired from experimental test sessions, estimating tyre interaction forces and slip indices. Once characterized the vehicle, filtering and sensors output correction techniques have been employed on the available data, creating a robust procedure able to generate as an output a "virtual telemetry" and, following a specifically defined track driving routine, to provide tyre interaction experimental curves. TRICK virtual telemetry can be employed as an input for the second tool, TRIP-ID, developed with the aim to identify the parameters of a Pacejka Magic Formula tyre model. The advantage of this kind of procedure is the possibility to simulate the behaviour of a tyre without the bench characterizations provided by tyremakers, with the further benefit to reproduce the real interactions with road and the phenomena involved with it, commonly neglected in bench data. Among such phenomena, one of the most important is surely the effect that temperature induces on tyre performances, especially in racing applications. For this reason a specific model, called TRT, has been realized and characterized by means of proper thermodynamic tests, becoming a fundamental instrument for the simulation of a tyre behaviour as close to reality as possible. One of the most useful features provided by the model is the prediction of the so called "bulk temperature", recognized as directly linked with the tyre frictional performances. With the aim to analyse and understand the complex phenomena concerning with local contact between viscoelastic materials and rough surfaces, GrETA grip model has been developed. The main advantage to which the employment of the grip model conducts is constituted by the possibility to predict the variations induced by different tread compounds or soils on vehicle dynamics, leading to the definition of a setup able to optimise performances as a function of tyre the working conditions. The described models and procedures can cooperate, generating a many-sided and powerful instrument of analysis and simulation; the main features of the available employment solutions can be summarised as follows: full geometric, thermodynamic, viscoelastic and structural characterization of tyres on which the analyses are focused; estimation of the tyre interaction characteristic curves from experimental outdoor test data; definition of a standard track driving procedure that employs tyres in multiple dynamic and thermal conditions; identification of Pacejka Magic Formula tyre models parameters on the basis of the estimated tyre interaction characteristic curves; estimation of surface, bulk and inner liner tyre temperatures for variable working conditions and real-time reproduction of tyre thermodynamic behaviour in simulation applications; correlation of tyre thermal conditions with friction phenomena observable at the interface with road; prediction of tyre frictional behaviour at tread compound and soil roughness variations; modelling of tyre interaction by means of MF innovative formulations able to take into account grip and thermodynamic effects on vehicle dynamics; definition of the optimal wheels and vehicle setup in order to provide the maximum possible performances improvement