A new method of calculating crown projection area and its comparative accuracy with conventional calculations for asymmetric tree crowns

This paper introduces a new method of calculating crown projection area(CPA),the area of level ground covered by a vertical projection of a tree crown from measured crown radii through numerical interpolation and integration.This novel method and other four existing methods of calculating CPA were compared using detailed crown radius measurements from 30 tall trees of Eucalyptus pilularis variable in crown size,shape,and asymmetry.The four existing methods included the polygonal approach and three ways of calculating CPA as the area of a circle using the arithmetic,geometric and quadratic mean radius.Comparisons were made across a sequence of eight non-consecutive numbers(from 2 to 16)of measured crown radii for each tree over the range of crown asymmetry of the 30 trees through generalized linear models and multiple comparisons of means.The sequence covered the range of the number of crown radii measured for calculating the CPA of a tree in the literature.A crown asymmetry index within the unit interval was calculated for each tree to serve as a normative measure.With a slight overestimation of 2.2%on average and an overall mean error size of 7.9%across the numbers of crown radii that were compared,our new method was the least biased and most accurate.Calculating CPA as a circle using the quadratic mean crown radius was the second best,which had an average overestimation of 4.5%and overall mean error size of 8.8%.These two methods remained by and large unbiased as crown asymmetry increased,while the other three methods showed larger bias of underestimation.For the conventional method of using the arithmetic mean crown radius to calculate CPA as a circle,bias correction factors were developed as a function of crown asymmetry index to delineate the increasing magnitude of bias associated with greater degrees of crown asymmetry.This study reveals and demonstrates such relationships between the accuracy of CPA calculations and crown asymmetry and will help increase awareness among researchers and practitioners on the existence of bias in their CPA calculations and for the need to use an unbiased method in the future.Our new method is recommended for calculating CPA where at least four crown radius measurements per tree are available because that is the minimum number required for its use.

Automated pavement horizontal curve measurement methods based on inertial measurement unit and 3D profiling data

Pavement horizontal curve is designed to serve as a transition between straight segments, and its presence may cause a series of driving-related safety issues to motorists and drivers. As is recognized that traditional methods for curve geometry investigation are time consuming, labor intensive, and inaccurate, this study attempts to develop a method that can automatically conduct horizontal curve identification and measurement at network level. The digital highway data vehicle （DHDV） was utilized for data collection, in which three Euler angles, driving speed, and acceleration of survey vehicle were measured with an inertial measurement unit （IMU）. The 3D profiling data used for cross slope calibration was obtained with PaveVision3D Ultra technology at 1 mm resolution. In this study, the curve identification was based on the variation of heading angle, and the curve radius was calculated with ki- nematic method, geometry method, and lateral acceleration method. In order to verify the accuracy of the three methods, the analysis of variance （ANOVA） test was applied by using the control variable of curve radius measured by field test. Based on the measured curve radius, a curve safety analysis model was used to predict the crash rates and safe driving speeds at horizontal curves. Finally, a case study on 4.35 km road segment demonstrated that the proposed method could efficiently conduct network level analysis.

A progressive approach to predict shot peening process parameters for forming integral panel of Al7050-T7451

In this paper,a progressive approach to predict the multiple shot peening process parameters for complex integral panel is proposed.Firstly,the invariable parameters in the forming process including shot size,mass flow,peening distance and peening angle are determined according to the empirical and machine type.Then,the optimal value of air pressure for the whole shot peening is selected by the experimental data.Finally,the feeding speed for every shot peening path is predicted by regression equation.The integral panel part with thickness from 2 mm to 5 mm and curvature radius from 3200 mm to 16000 mm is taken as a research object,and four experiments are conducted.In order to design specimens for acquiring the forming data,one experiment is conducted to compare the curvature radius of the plate and stringer-structural specimens,which were peened along the middle of the two stringers.The most striking finding of this experiment is that the outer shape error range is below 3.9%,so the plate specimens can be used in predicting feeding speed of the integral panel.The second experiment is performed and results show that when the coverage reaches the limit of 80%,the minimum feeding speed is 50 mm/s.By this feeding speed,the forming curvature radius of the specimens with different thickness from the third experiment is measured and compared with the research object,and the optimal air pressure is 0.15 MPa.Then,the plate specimens with thickness from 2 mm to 5 mm are peened in the fourth experiment,and the measured curvature radius data are used to calculate the feeding speed of different shot peening path by regressive analysis method.The algorithm is validated by forming a test part and the average deviation is 0.496 mm.It is shown that the approach can realize the forming of the integral panel precisely.