Search

Emissions reductions from automotive vehicles are significant in protecting the environment. This study presents the development of new Indian motorcycle driving cycles (IMDC-1 & IMDC-2) based on the maximum speed and average speed of micro-trips. Time-speed data were collected using popular make motorcycles fitted with GPS on four different routes in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). The new IMDC cycles are comparable to WMTC when comparing the driving cycle parameters; however, they differ significantly from WMTC with a higher rate of acceleration and decoration. The fuel economy of new cycles was lower with higher CO and HC with insignificant change in NOx emissions compared to WMTC. The higher emissions with fuel penalty may be due to the higher rate of acceleration and deceleration experienced by the vehicles on Indian roads. Compared to WMTC, the IMDC cycles were found severe and very close to on-road driving patterns on comparing the driving cycle parameters; this indicates that the new cycles represent the real-world driving patterns experienced by vehicles in India. The new WMTC cycles can estimate realistic emissions factors that will support policymakers to form a new framework to reduce vehicular emissions to protect the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

general neural network based methodology that has the potential to replace the computationally-intensive site-specific seismic analysis of structures is proposed in this paper. The basic framework of the methodology consists of a feed forward back propagation neural network algorithm with one hidden layer to represent the seismic potential of a region and soil amplification effects. The methodology is implemented and verified with parameters corresponding to Delhi city in India. For this purpose, strong ground motions are generated at bedrock level for a chosen site in Delhi due to earthquakes considered to originate from the central seismic gap of the Himalayan belt using necessary geological as well as geotechnical data. Surface level ground motions and corresponding site-specific response spectra are obtained by using a one-dimensional equivalent linear wave propagation model. Spectral acceleration values are considered as a target parameter to verify the performance of the methodology. Numerical studies carried out to validate the proposed methodology show that the errors in predicted spectral acceleration values are within acceptable limits for design purposes. The methodology is general in the sense that it can be applied to other seismically vulnerable regions and also can be updated by including more parameters depending on the state-of-the-art in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An endeavor is made to compute peak ground horizontal accelerations at bedrock level in the Delhi region due to the seismogenic sources present around Delhi. The entire area is divided into six seismogenic sources for which seismic hazard analysis is carried out using the complete and extreme part of the seismicity data. Maximum likelihood estimates of hazard parameters viz., seismic activity rate λ, b value and maximum probable earthquake Mmax are made for each zone. The return periods and the probabilities of occurrence of various magnitudes for return periods of 50, 100 and 1000 years are also computed for each zone. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) values for 20% exceedance in 50 years are then computed for the Delhi region from each zone. The maximum PGA value considering all the zones is 0.34 g, which is due to the Mathura fault zone. The seismogenic zones V and VI, i.e., Mathura fault zone and the Sohna fault zone are observed to be contributing maximum PGA values in the Delhi region governing the isoacceleration contours computed for the region. The seismic zonation map for the PGA values at the bedrock level is obtained for the Delhi region. This can be used directly as input for the microzonation of ground motion at the surface by incorporating the local site conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]