Background of Ecoquest
Transport is one of Europe’s strengths but at the same time has a tremendous impact on environment and citizens. Surface transport creates 11% of the EU GDP with an estimated 15 million jobs. While further developing and securing the leading role of European industry in the global market, future research must strongly focus on developing greener and smarter transport systems.
The European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) sets “noise reduction” as one of the major goals for future surface transport research: “Noise levels (must be) appropriate to individual locations including quiet zones. ... The research challenge is to deliver low emissions while also meeting ... vehicle performance, reduction in green house gas emissions and improvements in energy efficiency.” (ERTRAC, Strategic Research Agenda 2020, www.ertrac.org, April 2008)
The European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC) identifies very similar future efforts: “Simulation tools for noise assessment, the effectiveness of noise reduction measures .... are all areas for further study.... Deliverables include reduction in noise .... in addition to what will have been achieved through the FP6 projects SILENCE and QCITY.” (ERRAC, Strategic Rail Research Agenda 2020, www.errac.org, April 2008)
An important subsystem in nearly all vehicles is the cooling module with its demand of external energy and its sound emission. Under specific operational conditions the cooling system is the major noise source and the component with the largest consumption of energy. For instance present locomotives cool down their engines upon arriving at a station, with a tremendous emission of sound. Or: Car engine cooling systems and air conditioning systems require forced air operation preferable at standstill at red traffic lights or traffic jams. According to the latest European standards for interoperability of rail bound traffic within Europe the averaged sound pressure level LpAeq,T must not exceed 75 dB for both, electric power units and power units with internal combustion engines (EU 2005); ISO 3095 (CEN 2005). In contrast to the automotive industry extensive testing of prototypes in the pre-production phase of trains is prohibitive because of small numbers of pieces, high costs and timing. However, not meeting the standards at the end of a long development cycle may lead to an economical disaster. Hence, an important issue for train manufactures and suppliers is the accurate prediction of the expected energetic performance and noise emitted by a new vehicle within the design process.
Remarkably, the stringent EU6 emission limits expected to come into effect in 2014 may require up to a doubling (!!) of cooling power in road vehicles. The automotive and heavy duty vehicle industry is undertaking an ongoing effort towards low noise and emission vehicles. Interior noise affects the passenger comfort, exterior noise affects the urban areas and their neighbourhoods with their increasing stop and go traffic. Also vehicle exterior noise in cities will be affected by stricter legislation for noise emission during the night and from building sites, which will be necessary if the future noise reduction targets in the EU are going to be met. Furthermore, the proposed future EU-requirements for CO2-reduction require a review of all components of cars, particularly the weight and energy consumption of cooling systems.
The demand for highly efficient and low noise cooling systems for ground vehicles (rail bound, automotive and heavy duty (trucks, wheel loaders, etc.)) is expected to increase, even with the advent of new drive technologies such as hybrid or fuel cells in automotive applications. In contrast with nonmobile cooling units the specifications for mobile units are severe with respect low weight and compactness, energy consumption and thus CO2 emissions and last but not least overall noise. Manufactures need novel methods and ideas for optimizing their components with respect to noise, reducing costs for development and testing and thus further improving the competitiveness attained by the European industries in the global market.