When being moved with the high speed engines vehicle is undergone high dynamic loads stress. Each of these dynamic phenomena is well known in scientific literature, the phenomenon of hunting. Through the hunting shall mean the coupling of the lateral oscillations of flexuosity. Hunting oscillations arise when a vehicle properly maintained and increasing lateral oscillations develop due to component subassemblies, the resultant reaction forces concerned interacting at the level of the forces that rolling the device as well as the engine drive system of the wheelsets, but also at the level of floors suspension systems and damping. One of the significant meaningful features of the phenomenon of hunting is the fact that which it is composed oscillations appearing even in the case of perfect rails track.

Spheroidal graphite cast iron (SGI) is mainly used in the transportation industry for applications such as engine blocks, turbo housings and exhaust manifolds because of its good castability, machinability, thermal exposure resistance, low cost, high Young’s modulus and tensile strength. Nowadays, a new kind of cast iron known as Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) or vermicular graphite iron, is replacing SGI because of its better thermal conductivity. This paper presents comparing analysis of SGI and CGI specimens tested under uniaxial tensile loading. Examinations were carried out on tensile specimens, in order to obtain results of Young’s modulus, yield stress, ultimate tensile strength and elongation to failure. Referring to the fact that type, amount and distribution of microstructural constituents dictate the mechanical behaviour, tensile specimens cut from different cast plates were subjected to optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Differences in microstructures were identified as causes of the different tensile properties.

This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the operating performance of an Onshore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) converter submitted to a typical southern Brazilian coast wave. The numerical modelling has been performed using the FLUENT CFD code based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM). The mixture water-air flow is considered to be two-dimensional, laminar and unsteady. The Constructal Design has been applied in order to determine the optimum dimensions of the air chamber of the OWC device. The optimization purpose is to investigate the H₁/L₁ ratio that reaches the highest power extracted from the device.

Among used in today's engineering materials, the more attention is attached to active materials, defined most often as SMART. Smart Magnetic Materials (SMM) play a big part in this numerous group of materials, from which chosen are an object of described hereafter investigations. One type of SMM are Giant Magnetostrictive Materials (GMM) which can be represented by i.e. Terfenol-D. The biggest difficulty with mechanical application of GMM is its brittleness, as well as appearing of eddy currents near frequencies of work and high price. These disadvantages tend scientists to search new solutions in a form of composite materials with giant magnetostriction (GMMc). The purpose of this paper was to manufacture magnetically polarized (anisotropic) magnetostrictive composites (GMMc) and to investigate their magnetomechanical properties. The materials were based on an epoxy resin matrix and Terfenol-D particles which were added with different volume fraction. A manufacturing procedure was developed to create specimens with magnetic field-oriented microstructure. GMMc with various volume fraction of Terfenol-D particles were subjected to quasi-static investigation of their properties with the use of a dedicated test stand. The results revealed that selected properties of magnetostrictive composites differ markedly depending on the value of used prestress and intensity of magnetic field.

The purpose of this paper was to present the manufacturing process of magnetically polarized (anisotropic) magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) and to investigate their magnetomechanical properties. The materials were based on a thermoplastic matrix, iron particles and additives which improved the plasticity of a resulting composite. A procedure was developed to create specimens with magnetic field-oriented microstructure. MRE with various chemical compositions were subjected to cyclic shearing with the use of a dedicated test stand. The results revealed that selected properties of magnetorheological elastomers differ markedly depending on the plasticity of the matrix.