The main objective of the research presented in this paper is to enhance driver-passengers comfort of a vehicle that in turn leads to better vehicle safety and stability. The focus was put on studying the interior vibration and noise contributions originated from tire-road and engine-transmission subsystems, due to their significant impact on the dynamic performance of the vehicle. The noise and vibration measurements were recorded at the driver’s head position and on the driver legs room. Furthermore, the influence of different tire types and road surface textures on the vehicle interior noise and vibration were considered. The results indicate that the widely used conventional engine mounts and tires in commercial vehicles cannot fulfill the conflicting requirements for the best isolation concerning both road surface and engine-transmission induced excitations. The values of driver’s head position sound pressure level and floor vibration acceleration broadband averages originate for engine-transmission are lower than that for tire-road interaction. Furthermore, the values of RMS, crest factor, kurtosis and IRI for the vehicle waveform were estimated for vehicle speeds, tire types and road surface textures. Moreover, the percentage contribution for both interior noise and vibration originated from tire-road interaction is higher than the one from vehicle engine-transmission system in all the vehicle speed range, tire type and road surface texture considered.

The normalization of marine pilotage within the maritime code, the statute of maritime safety, and the executive regulations of these statutes is controversial in many aspects regarding their technical and substantive correctness. This is especially apparent in light of the fact that the service is not provided by the state (maritime administration) but by private operators who are taking advantage of their constitutional rights to conduct business. Furthermore, the service is realized by pilots who enjoy these same rights as well as the freedom to work. This article includes a critical analysis of these regulations regarding state control of pilotage and provides material for analyses to formulate proper conclusions both de lege lata and de lege freneda. Over fifty propositions for urgent revisions of the maritime code, including the pilotage issue, have been published in the relevant literature. These regulations appear to be the weakest section of the code. However, the author analyzes only article 229. Combined with article 36 of the statute of maritime safety and executive acts for these rules, this article presents a very poor picture of the legislation in this field.

Temperature related decrease of steam turbine components is one of the main transient processes that occur during a typical long-term operation. With a natural cooling (no user interference) it takes more than 14 days before the temperature of components reaches the level that allows to open and repair a turbine. It is then reasonable to apply a forced cooling in order to decrease the time between a shut-down of a power generating unit and a beginning of a repair. This paper presents the analysis of application of a forced cooling process to supercritical steam turbines. The main problems under the investigation are the safety issues of the process and the optimization of cooling conditions. The paper describes the safety restrictions and the optimization criteria. The process is analyzed in numerical simulations conducted for various cooling conditions.