Energetic Efficiency Evaluation of the Lunar Roving Vehicles Using Computer Simulation

This paper studies the energetic performance of a Lunar Roving Vehicle using computer simulation with the AVL Cruise software. The simulation tasks include an energy consumption calculation over the determined extra vehicular activity and based on the simulation results, a comparative analysis is performed between the AVL Cruise simulation results and the NASA recordings of the energy balance resulting from computer simulations made in 1971, as well as the real results recorded by the crew of astronauts during the Apollo 15 mission. The purpose of this paper is to design a virtual Lunar Roving Vehicle and to simulate its operation in the lunar environment. The architecture of the Lunar Roving Vehicle will be based on the original NASA LRV design, but using current technology for the battery pack. Finally, the rovers will be simulated using the AVL Cruise software by implementing the digitized paths of the rovers during the Apollo 15 missions. The purpose of this simulation is to extract operating data of the old and the new rovers and compare their performances. This will allow us to highlight the technological advances made in the last 40 years and to have an idea of the new rover’s capabilities should it be used during a future lunar mission

Autonomous Vehicles Technological Trends

Twenty years ago, only the most adventurous scientist might have been in the position of dreaming up such a dramatic change for the automotive industry, where fossil fuels are in a position of being banned and vehicles are driverless [...

ELECTRIC BUSES FOR URBAN TRANSPORTATION - ASSESSMENTS ON COST, INFRASTRUCTURE AND EXPLOITATION

Urban transport is one of the most challenging sectors of the public administration of a metropolitan area. Fuel cost, maintenance, transport capacity, pollution represent only a small amount of the data that is taken into consideration in the decision of purchasing a new fleet of urban buses for public transport. Electrification of the public transport is not a new solution; there is the tram, the trolleybus. Is there going to be a place for the electric bus taking into consideration the purchasing cost of the bus, the battery need to be replaced, the weight of the bus, the charging infrastructure, the limitations of the bus due to the range of no more than 150 (km), battery charging time and road gradient. It is possible that these limitations overcome the benefit of zero local emissions reduced the cost of exploitation, and almost no maintenance of the power-train, all of them being immediate benefits of the electric buses use as a solution in the urban transportation environment

Possibility to Increase Biofuels Energy Efficiency used for Compression Ignition Engines Fueling

The paper presents the possibilities of optimizing the use of biofuels in terms of energy efficiency in compression ignition (CI) engines fueling. Based on the experimental results was determinate the law of variation of the rate of heat released by the combustion process for diesel fuel and different blends of biodiesel. Using this law, were changed parameters of the engine management system (fuel injection law) and was obtain increased engine performance (in terms of energy efficiency) for use of different biofuel blends