SVTRIP (Stochastic Vehicle Trip Prediction) generates a naturalistic vehicle speed profile (vehicle speed as a function of time at 1 Hz or more) for a given trip or route. The trip provided as an input is defined by the attributes of its sub-segments, such as travel time, distance and speed limit. The inputs can be provided directly by the user, extracted from digital maps, or generated from macroscopic or mesoscopic traffic flow simulators. The generated speed profiles can be used to predict vehicle energy consumption and operations for trips with low-resolution information. The algorithm used for generation relies on Markov Chains, making the generated speed profiles stochastic.

A bipolar plate supported solid oxide fuel cell with a sealed anode compartment is provided. The solid oxide fuel cell includes a cathode, an electrolyte, and an anode, which are supported on a metallic bipolar plate assembly including gas flow fields and the gas impermeable bipolar plate. The electrolyte and anode are sealed into an anode compartment with a metal perimeter seal. An improved method of sealing is provided by extending the metal seal around the entire perimeter of the cell between an electrolyte and the bipolar plate to form the anode compartment. During a single-step high temperature sintering process the metal seal bonds to the edges of the electrolyte and anode layers, the metal foam flow field and the bipolar plate to form a gastight containment.

The novel lubricants made of carbon-based particles suspended in a liquid hydrocarbon carrier, significantly lower friction and wear resulting in improved fuel economics and durability.

The energy efficiency, durability, and environmental compatibility of all kinds of moving mechanical systems (including engines) are closely related to the effectiveness of the lubricants being used on their rolling, rotating, and sliding surfaces. Therefore, lubricants play a vital role in machine life, efficiency, and overall performance. Poor or inefficient lubrication always result in higher friction and severe wear losses, which can in turn adversely impact the performance and durability of mechanical systems. In particular, progressive wear due to inadequate lubrication is one of the most serious causes of component failure. Inadequate lubrication can also cause significant energy losses in the above-mentioned industrial systems mainly because of high friction. There is an ongoing need for new lubricant compositions that are environmentally friendly or benign, and which provide reduced friction and wear. The present invention addresses this need.

The present invention relates to the design and development of novel carbon-based materials as anti-friction and anti-wear additives for advanced lubrication purposes. The carbon-based materials have various shapes, sizes, and structures and are synthesized by autogenic reactions under extreme conditions of high temperature and pressure. The materials of the invention are created typically by the dissociation of organic, organo-metallic or polymeric compounds, such as plastic waste in absence or presence of a catalyst in a closed, ventable reactor in which the pressure in the reactor is provided solely by vaporization of carbon-based precursors (i.e., autogenic pressure generation). The resulting carbon products are typically in the form of carbon nanotubes, fibers, spheres or clusters that can optionally contain elements such as B, Fe, Co, Ni, Mo, W, Ag, Au, Sn, Bi or their oxides, carbides, borides, nitrides and sulfides. Under severe tribological conditions, these carbon-based additives can improve lubrication properties without having a negative environmental impact. Specifically, the novel lubricants have the ability to significantly lower friction and wear, which can translate, for example, into improved fuel economies and longer durability of engines and mechanical devices.

US Patent 9,441,178 Materials as additives for advanced lubrication
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US Patent 8,648,019 Materials as additives for advanced lubrication
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Publication

Pol, V.G. et al., Carbon Spherules: Synthesis, Properties and Mechanistic Elucidation, Carbon (2004) 42, 111-116.

The improved coating material includes the use of a noble metal or soft metal homogeneously distributed within a hard nitride material. The addition of small amounts of such metals into nitrides such as molybdenum nitride, titanium nitride, and chromium nitride results in as much as increasing of the hardness of the material as well as decreasing the friction coefficient and increasing the oxidation resistance.

From a tribological standpoint, a combination of high mechanical hardness with low friction is always desired but seldom achieved in most sliding surfaces. With many conventional coatings, base steel sliding against itself gives friction coefficients of 0.12 to 0.16 even under the best lubrication conditions.

An improved coating material is based on the use of a noble and soft metals such as Au, or a soft metal such as Cu, In, Sn, Sb, Ga and Bi, with hard nitrides, carbonitrides, and borides such as MoN, CrN, TiN, TiCN, TiB2 and ZrN. The addition of small amounts of these metals into MoN, CrN and TiN results in an increase of the hardness of the nitride coatings, in addition to improving the lubricity of these coatings. In particular, it has been found that concentrations of about 1–3 at % of the materials described herein provide for substantial increases in lubricity of the nitride coatings.