A New Method to Calculate Centrifugal Pump Performance Parameters for Industrial Oils

Pumping of oil instead of water using centrifugal pumps causes rapid increase in the hydraulic losses which results significant reduction in head and efficiency. Therefore, deriving analytical methods to calculate variation of pump performance parameters versus working fluid viscosity is very important. In the present study, a novel method is proposed to calculate the head (H), efficiency ( ) and input power ( in P ) based on the loss analysis for pumps using industrial oils. A computer code is developed based on represented method and the results of this method are compared with experimental results for a centrifugal pump of type KWP KBloc65- 200. The results show good agreement between analytical and experimental methods. Finally, using such computer code, diagrams of head, efficiency and input power versus working fluid viscosity are plotted.The results show an interesting point known as “sudden rising head” which is observed experimentally and numerically in literatures

Development and Validation of a Safety Climate Scale for Manufacturing Industry

Background: This paper describes the development of a scale for measuring safety climate. Methods: This study was conducted in six manufacturing companies in Iran. The scale developed through conducting a literature review about the safety climate and constructing a question pool. The number of items was reduced to 71 after performing a screening process. Results: The result of content validity analysis showed that 59 items had excellent item content validity index (≥ 0.78) and content validity ratio (> 0.38). The exploratory factor analysis resulted in eight safety climate dimensions. The reliability value for the final 45-item scale was 0.96. The result of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the safety climate model is satisfactory. Conclusion: This study produced a valid and reliable scale for measuring safety climate in manufacturing companies

Parametric Modal Study and Optimization of the Floor Pan of a B-Segment Automotive Using a Hybrid Method of Taguchi and a Newly Developed MCDM Model

Abstract The floor pan is an important component that connects the front and rear segments of the automotive underbody structure. Global stiffness and NVH characteristics of BIW are highly dependent to shape, thickness and mass of the body panels and could be evaluated by modal characteristics of these panels. The feeling of solidness and comfort of passengers in an automotive is also dependent to the modal behavior of the underbody components as well as the floor pan. On the other hand, it is desired to reduce the total mass of the floor pan, in order to have a lighter vehicle with better fuel economy and emission standards. In this paper, the effect of geometrical parameters on natural frequency and total mass of the floor pan of a conventional B-Segment automotive body is investigated using finite element simulation. The finite element model is verified using an experimental test on the floor pan. Taguchi L 16 orthogonal array is used to design the numerical experiments. Subsequently, S/N ratio analysis is performed to evaluate the effect of each design variable on the output functions. The panel's thickness is determined to have the most contribution in affecting the natural frequency and weight using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The best combination of geometrical variables which leads to the trade-off results is then figured out by a new multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method developed in this study. Accuracy of this method is verified by comparing the trade-off results with TOPSIS, as a conventional MCDM method

Investigation on the optimal simplified model of BIW structure using FEM

Abstract At conceptual phases of designing a vehicle, engineers need simplified models to examine the structural and functional characteristics and apply custom modifications for achieving the best vehicle design. Using detailed finite-element (FE) model of the vehicle at early steps can be very conducive; however, the drawbacks of being excessively time-consuming and expensive are encountered. This leads engineers to utilize trade-off simplified models of body-in-white (BIW), composed of only the most decisive structural elements that do not employ extensive prior knowledge of the vehicle dimensions and constitutive materials. However, the extent and type of simplification remain ambiguous. In fact during the procedure of simplification, one will be in the quandary over which kind of approach and what body elements should be regarded for simplification to optimize costs and time, while providing acceptable accuracy. Although different approaches for optimization of timeframe and achieving optimal designs of the BIW are proposed in the literature, a comparison between different simplification methods and accordingly introducing the best models, which is the main focus of this research, have not yet been done. In this paper, an industrial sedan vehicle has been simplified through four different simplified FE models, each of which examines the validity of the extent of simplification from different points of views. Bending and torsional stiffness are obtained for all models considering boundary conditions similar to experimental tests. The acquired values are then compared to that of target values from experimental tests for validation of the FE-modeling. Finally, the results are examined and taking efficacy and accuracy into account, the best trade-off simplified model is presented

Sensitivity analysis and optimization for occupant safety in automotive frontal crash test

<div><p>Abstract Nowadays, safety is a competitive advantage for automotive products and therefore receives considerable attention by automotive research centers. In this paper, a frontal crash test of sedan product of an under development platform is simulated and occupant head injuries are investigated based on ECE R94 regulation. First, an initial evaluation of the crash behavior of the sedan car is carried out and then airbag, dummy and seat belt are added to the model to study occupant head injuries under crash test. In this study, peak head acceleration and head injury criteria (HIC36) are considered as two output parameters based on ECE R94 regulation. Considering these two output parameters, sensitivity analysis and optimization are performed using Taguchi and analysis of variance (ANOVA) methods. In this way, airbag distance to dummy, trigger time, initial inflator gas temperature and tank pressure are considered as input parameters. Obtained results show that in all computer experiments designed by Taguchi responses values satisfy the requirements of ECE R94. Two different out-of-position conditions are considered by reducing the distance between dummy and airbag relative to the optimum design obtained by Taguchi. The worst case of design and its response values are also predicted using Taguchi. Finally, re-evaluating finite element analyses are performed based on the optimum and the worst cases. The results of these simulations show the validity of approach of this paper.</p></div

Topic-Based Technology Mapping Using Patent Data Analysis: A Case Study of Vehicle Tires

The analysis of patent certificates for the purpose of determining the technologies of an industry is a method that has been used by experts and researchers of technology management and technology forecasting for nearly two decades. Meanwhile, using different techniques and software and completing the experiences of past researches have increased the speed, accuracy, and practicality of the relevant reports. In this study, the tire industry has been investigated with regard to its prominent role in the future automobile and transportation industry. All tire-related patent certificates in the last 20 years were extracted from the Derwent Innovation Index database using a search string and IPC codes, and with the help of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) which is an unsupervised machine learning method, the relevant technology areas were extracted. The analysis of technologies and forecasting future technology areas were conducted regarding the share and growth rate of each technology in two 10-year periods (2000–2009 and 2010–2019) and the study of trends and technical indicators related to the industry and value chain. The analysis of nine technology areas considered by tire industry innovators during the last 20 years, as well as the analysis of trends and effective factors on these technologies indicated that the fields of airless tires and intelligent tires technology areas would be highly welcomed in the future and become the dominant and extensively-used technologies of the tire industry in the future