Elsevier Vernet, N.; Ruiz, E.; Advani, S.; Alms, JB.; Aubert, M.; Barburski, M.; Barari, B.... (2014) Abstract:In this second international permeability benchmark, the in-plane permeability values of a carbon fabric were determined by 12 participants worldwide. One other participant also investigated the deformation of this fabric. The aim of this work was to obtain comparable results in order to make a step towards standardization of permeability measurements of fibrous reinforcements. The procedures used by most participants were according to the guidelines defined for this exercise after the first benchmark. Unidirectional injections in three in-plane directions of the fabric were conducted to determine the unsaturated in-plane permeability tensor. Parameters such as fiber volume fraction, injection pressure and fluid viscosity have been fixed in order to minimize sources of scatter. The comparison of the results from each participant was encouraging. The scatter between data obtained while respecting the test guidelines was close to the scatter of the setups themselves. A slightly 2 higher dispersion was observed when some parameters differed from the recommendations.Overall, a good correlation is observed between all the results of this exercise.

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This study aimed to identify critical factors that influence acceptance of automated vehicles among drivers. The focus of this study was on automated vehicles (AVs) of level 3 (conditional driving automation) as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. A research model was proposed here by using the technology acceptance model (TAM) with trust, risk perception (perceived safety risk and perceived privacy risk), compatibility, and system quality. A cross-sectional structured questionnaire survey was used to collect quantitative data from 237 drivers in Hong Kong. The data were analyzed to test the proposed research model by structural equation modeling. The proposed research model was found to explain 68% of the variance in intention to use AVs. In contrast with the TAM constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, the results of this study indicated that trust was the most important factor in shaping a positive attitude towards using AVs, which affected driver intention to use AVs. Also, trust was found to be influenced by perceived safety risk, compatibility, and system quality. This study is the first attempt to consider technological factors related to AVs (compatibility and system quality) in explaining AV acceptance among drivers and highlighted the importance of the technological factors in the context of driver acceptance of AVs. Based on the findings of this study, several recommendations are discussed to help AV developers and governments to improve driver attitudes towards adoption of AVs.

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To alleviate the uneven production of extreme heterogeneous reservoirs, we developed a high-strength natural gas foamed gel system by adding a gel system to the foaming agent solution. The Ostwald ripening rate and the gas molecular diffusion coefficient (D diff) were calculated. The number of bubbles, the average diameter­(D ad), and the poly-dispersion coefficient (U poly) of the foamed gel system have been considered within, as well as the different temperature, salinity, pressure, and crude oil conditions and the stability of the foamed gel system. Moreover, combining laboratory displacement experiments and core nuclear magnetic (NMR) experiments, the oil displacement ability of natural gas foamed gel was studied. The results showed that different from the previous phenomenon of “defoaming with oil”, adding a certain amount of crude oil into the natural gas foamed gel could improve its foaming performance. According to this phenomenon, we conducted experiments on the stability and viscosity enhancement of the emulsion and explored the stability of the pseudo-emulsion film of foamed gel. In addition, this natural gas foamed gel system had a better ability to control profile and enhance oil recovery when the permeability ratio was 75–150. When the permeability ratio was 150, the low-permeability core diversion rate was about 38%, and the EOR was 35.27%. Finally, the core NMR results showed that the main contribution of water flooding recovery came from macropores. In construct, the recovery efficiency of natural gas foamed gel system mainly came from medium and small pores (effective areas not affected by water flooding). This study would provide a different thought for foam in production while dealing with extreme heterogeneity formations.