• Composites Research
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.192-198
• /
• 2021

Due to enormous market growing of electric vehicles without combustion engine, reducing unwanted BSR (buzz, squeak, and rattle) noise is highly demanded for vehicle quality and performance. Particularly, innerbelt weatherstrips which not only block wind noise, rain, and dust from outside, but also reduce noise and vibration of door glass and vehicle are required to exhibit high damping properties for improved BSR performance of the vehicle. Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), which can be recycled and have lighter weight than thermoset elastomers, are receiving much attention for weatherstrip material, but TPEs exhibit low material damping and compression set causing frictional noise and vibration between the door glass and the weatherstrip. In this study, high damping EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer)/PP (polypropylene) thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) were investigated by varying EPDM/PP ratio and ENB (ethylidene norbornene) fraction in EPDM. Viscoelastic properties of TPV materials were characterized by assuming that the material damping is directly related to the viscoelasticity. The optimum material damping factor (tanδ peak 0.611) was achieved with low PP ratio (14 wt%) and high ENB fraction (8.9 wt%), which was increased by 140% compared to the reference (tanδ 0.254). The improved damping is believed due to high fraction of flexible EPDM chains and higher interfacial slippage area of EPDM particles generated by increasing ENB fraction in EPDM. The stick-slip test was conducted to characterize frictional noise and vibration of the TPV weatherstrip. With improved TPV material damping, the acceleration peak of frictional vibration decreased by about 57.9%. This finding can not only improve BSR performance of electric vehicles by designing material damping of weatherstrips but also contribute to various structural applications such as urban air mobility or aircrafts, which require lightweight and high damping properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.19-29
• /
• 2022

The result of a questionnaire survey conducted on fishermen using coastal fish traps shows that fall accidents during trap dropping and pulling constitute the highest proportion of accidents at 42.1 %, whereas slipping accidents on the deck or stricture accidents to the body due to the trap winding device constitute 21.1 % each. In addition, 53.2 % of all surveyed subjects responded that trap pulling is the most dangerous task, followed by fish sorting 33.8 %, and trap dropping 9.1 %. As for the main items requested by fishermen for improving the trap winding device, 36.8 % indicated a method to easily lift the trap from the water to the work deck, and 31.6 % indicated a method to overcome the rope tension and prevent slip when pulling the trap to reduce the accidents. The small trap fishing vessel winding device proposed herein can increase the winding force by strengthening the rope contact area and friction coefficient via an appropriate contact angle between the driving roller of the winding device and the rope. When the contact angles between the driving roller and the rope are 1°, 5°, 9°, 14° and 19°, the rope tension showed a difference according to each contact angle. When the contact angle is 9°, the rope tension is the highest at 392.62 kgf. Based on these experimental results, a prototype winding device is manufactured, and 25 traps are installed on a rope with a total length of 100 m at 4 m intervals in the sea, and then the rope tension is measured during trap pulling. As a result, the rope tension increases rapidly at the initial stage of trap pulling and shows the highest value of 31.89 kgf, which subsequently decreases significantly. Therefore, it is appropriate to design the winding force of a small trap fishing vessel winding device based on the maximum tension value of the rope specified at the beginning of the trap pulling operation.