The intention of this collaborative research effort is to create an accurate digital 3D model of the City of Toronto waterfront that can be used by city planners to visualize factors relevant to the city when making high-level decisions regarding infrastructure and policy. This project is a collaboration between OCAD University and Esri Canada Limited, a software company that specializes in geographical information systems (GIS). EC has offered the use of their proprietary software CityEngine, which optimizes the process of creating realistic 3D city and geographical models.
A strainburst is a sudden violent failure of rock triggered around a tunnel boundary. They are often unpredictable and pose an extreme risk to workers in deep underground mines and tunnels. The goal of this project is to investigate the fundamental mechanisms by which these failures can occur. This knowledge will be used to better identify high risk environments and to design risk mitigation strategies that target site specific failure mechanisms.
Sound barriers can be seen beside highways across Ontario and are designed to protect residents from the noise produced by traffic. However, these barriers do little in the way of protecting residents from the pollution produced by nearby vehicles. This project combines a novel sound barrier design with a new pollution control technology that will help reduce the level of traffic related pollutants that those living near major roadways will be exposed to.
With the ongoing threat of anthropogenic climate warming, understanding how stakeholders in Ontario can accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) to maximize their environmental and economic benefits is of great importance. The large-scale adoption of EVs requires further research to understand consumer demand and social valuations. Ontario has over 5,000 EV drivers on the road that make up 32% of Canada’s total EV drivers. However, there is virtually no information about their demographic profile, where they drive or why they bought an EV.
Hydra Energy Corporation Commercial Demonstration Project will be based in Prince George, British Columbia 12.4 MT/day of waste hydrogen will be captured, purified and transported to an onsite hydrogen refueling station from which (at least) 53 Class 8 tractor-trailer trucks will refuel daily. Hydraâs demonstration project can provide a significant reduction in fleet greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions, Particulate Matter and other air emissions. Hydra is currently testing the first prototype dual-fuel hydrogen/diesel heavy-duty class 8 truck in North America.
Present car navigation systems provide drivers with route guidance information relying mostly on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). There is a growing demand at the present time to achieve decimeter-level accuracy for the purpose of accurate lane-level car navigation. This research aims at the development of reliable, accurate and continuous lane-level car navigation integrating the emerging GNSS precise point positioning (PPP) technology with motion sensors in land vehicles.
Agility Fuel Systems manufactures fuel systems for converting heavy-duty trucks from diesel fuel to compressed natural gas. The system components are typically situated between the cab and the trailer or along the sides of the truck. Because natural-gas components are typically larger than their conventional counterparts, the converted trucks may experience a larger aerodynamic drag, which decreases its fuel efficiency.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process family which is widely used for deposition of thin protective layers of novel alloy materials on components operating in severe conditions, and also for fabrication and repair of complex 3D parts. The scope of this research is to establish a process planning framework for metal based bead deposition processes that considers the various machine, materials, and process parameters.
There is a strong push toward producing fuel cells on a commercial scale. This means a greater focus on production speed and yields with a need to understand the unintended features that arise from larger-scale manufacturing processes. This project requires the set up of state-of-the-art, camera-vision, defect detection equipment to find and collect observed membrane features. These features will then be catalogued and tested to determine their impact on membrane durability and whether they affect later processing steps.
Hydrogen powered polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are a clean energy technology that generates electricity without harmful emissions at the point of use. Current R&D efforts mainly target to commercialize PEMFCs through cost reduction and durability enhancement. The lifetime of PEMFC is limited by the degradation and failure of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM). The proposed research project addresses the mechanical degradation mechanism, a key factor reducing the lifetime of PEMs, by developing in-house ex-situ mechanical durability evaluation tools.
