Design of a real-time tyre pressure monitoring system for LMVs
The tyre pressure is not adequately maintained by the majority of automobile drivers, even though they drop more than one pounds per square inch (PSI) of air pressure a month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics show that low-tyre pressure-related crashes cause 660 fatalities and 33,000 injuries every year. At present, the tyre pressure is monitor from differences in the rotational speed and deduces the pressure differences between tyres. The anti-lock braking system (ABS) sensors can be used to measure it. The proposed system employs advanced integration techniques to provide a TPMS solution that provides real-time tyre pressure monitoring (both stationary and movement condition of the vehicle) and alerts the driver about improperly inflated tyres. The unit includes a pressure sensor, microcontroller, RF transmitter and long life battery. The TPMS unit communicates by an on- board RF receiver and displays real-time tyre pressure of all tyres. Tyre pressure is monitored in the stationary condition of the vehicle at present. This project can be extended to read pressure values in the moving condition of vehicle and generate the alert signal to the driver when the threshold value is reached. The entire design is envisaged to be developed as a small and compact unit that can be easily fitted onto a tyre.
Design and development of indigenous tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS)
It is not an overstatement to say that the whole world is becoming wireless. In recent years, wireless systems have emerged to make a huge impact in the world of communications with flexible sets of alternatives combined with rich and varied features. Radio frequency (RF) communications is now prevalent in the modern world and has paved the way for improvements over past technologies. There exist a wide range of technologies and hence it becomes very important to select the right technology that works reliably with a given application. RF technology is being used effectively to monitor the tyre pressure of a vehicle. Improper tyre pressure is a safety issue that is often overlooked or ignored. A drop in tyre pressure by just a few pounds per square inch (psi) can result in the reduction of mileage, tyre life, vehicle safety and performance. On the other hand, regular RF devices embedded in tyres have an unacceptably short range due to losses in the tyre wall. The present design of tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) addresses most of these problems. It uses RF communication coupled with microcontroller. Tyre pressure is measured in real time which helps eliminating many tyre pressure related challenges.
Computational fluid dynamics as a development tool for rotary blood pumps.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is beginning to significantly impact the development of biomedical devices, in particular rotary cardiac assist devices. The University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development has extensively used CFD as the primary tool to analyze and design a novel axial flow blood pump having a magnetically suspended rotor. The blood-contacting surfaces of the pump were developed using a design strategy based on CFD that involved closely coupling a Navier-Stokes solver to a parameterized geometry modeler and advanced mesh movement techniques. CFD-based blood damage models for shear-induced hemolysis as well as surrogate functions describing thrombosis potential were employed to help guide design improvements. This CFD-based design approach resulted in the timely development of a pump subjected to multiple geometric refinements without building expensive physical prototypes for each design iteration. A physical prototype of the final improved pump was fabricated and experimentally analyzed using particle imaging flow visualization. The CFD predicted results correlated well with the experimental data including pressure-flow (H-Q) performance and specific flow field features. It is estimated that the present CFD-based design approach shortened the overall design time frame from an order of years to months.