JP4769090B2 - Car-mounted salinity measuring device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted salinity measuring device for measuring the concentration of salinity contained in water on a road surface in winter, while traveling.

  As a conventional example for measuring the residual salinity concentration contained in water on the road surface, for example, there is an invention disclosed in JP-A-11-337512. According to the present invention, the salinity concentration is measured by embedding a part of the electrode in an exposed state on the road surface and passing a current through the electrode to measure a current value that varies depending on a resistance value.

As another conventional example, for example, there is an invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-99779. In the present invention, a plurality of rows of a pair of electrodes are arranged along the circumferential surface of the tire, the tip of the electrode protrudes from the circumferential surface of the tire, a predetermined alternating voltage is applied between the electrodes, and the voltage between the electrodes is on the road surface. The salinity concentration is measured by measuring the voltage when changing according to the amount of salinity contained in the water.
JP 11-337512 A JP 2001-99779 A

  By the way, in the case of the first conventional example described above, there is a problem that a large number of electrodes must be embedded along the road in order to measure the salinity concentration over a wide area.

  On the other hand, in the case of the second conventional example, there is an advantage that it is possible to measure the salinity concentration of the actual traveling road and to monitor a wide area, but the salinity concentration is measured by directly contacting the electrode tip with water on the road surface. As a result, the measurement results differ depending on the amount of water on the road surface, and there is a problem that accurate salinity concentration cannot be measured.

  The present invention is intended to solve the above-described problems, and its object is to provide an on-vehicle salinity measuring device capable of accurately and stably measuring the salinity concentration on the road surface. There is.

  The vehicle-mounted salinity measuring apparatus according to the present invention achieves the above-described object, and the means of claim 1 includes a wheel to which water on the road surface adheres by rotating on the road surface and rotating, and a periphery of the wheel. Moisture amount restricting means for restricting the amount of water adhering to the surface, an electrode elastically contacting the peripheral surface of the wheel to which the water adheres, and attaching the wheel, the moisture amount restricting means and the electrode to the vehicle And a salinity concentration determination circuit for measuring the salinity concentration by measuring the resistance of water retained between the wheel and the wheel by the electrodes.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the moisture amount limiting unit is attached in a state of being in contact with the peripheral surface on the upstream side of the contact surface with which the electrode of the wheel is in contact. And it is an auxiliary | assistant rotary wheel in which many groove | channels were formed in the circumferential direction which contacts the said wheel.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the suspension mechanism includes a rotating body support fitting attached to a lower portion of the vehicle, one end pivotally supported by the rotating body support fitting, and a tip end in the road surface direction. A first arm that is spring-biased, a second arm that is pivotally supported by the first arm and is spring-biased in a direction opposite to the spring-biasing direction, and a lower end of the second arm And a support member to which the wheel, the electrode, and the auxiliary rotating wheel are attached.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the above-described third aspect, the first arm that is pivotally supported by the rotating body support fitting is configured such that the wheel is brought into contact with the road surface by a spring that biases the first arm with a spring force. It is grounded and is maintained by the locking means at a raised position away from the road surface.

  In the present invention, as described above, the moisture amount limiting means for limiting the amount of moisture is brought into contact with the wheel that contacts the road surface and adheres water on the road surface when the vehicle is running, and this moisture amount becomes substantially constant. The electrode is brought into contact with the peripheral surface of the wheel, and the change in the resistance value due to the water is measured to detect the salinity concentration. Therefore, the concentration of the salinity contained in the water on the road surface can be accurately measured. Is possible.

  In addition, as a moisture amount limiting means, it is attached in a state where it is in contact with the circumferential surface on the upstream side of the contact surface with which the electrode of the wheel is in contact, and a number of grooves are formed in the circumferential direction in contact with the wheel. Since the peripheral surface of the wheel in contact with the electrode always has a constant moisture content, the variation in the salinity concentration measurement result due to the change in the moisture content can be prevented.

  Further, the support member to which the wheel, the electrode and the auxiliary rotating wheel are attached is rotated while the wheel is kept in contact with the unevenness of the road surface by two springs with respect to the vehicle body. Adhering salt concentration can be measured accurately. When the measurement is not required, the vehicle can travel while maintaining the state where the wheel is lifted from the road surface, so that it has an effect of preventing the peripheral surface from being worn by the friction of the wheel.

  According to the present invention, the auxiliary rotating wheel is brought into contact with a wheel that contacts the road surface and adheres water on the road surface while the vehicle is running, thereby restricting the amount of water and constantly holding a constant amount of water between the wheel and the electrode. Thus, the salt concentration contained in the retained water was detected.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an in-vehicle salinity measuring apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a vehicle having a towing stay 1a attached to the rear, and 2 denotes a suspension mechanism for attaching a wheel 3, an electrode 4 and an auxiliary rotating wheel 5 to be described later attached to the stay 1a. A rotating body support fitting 21 is fixed to 1a. A first arm 22 is pivotally supported on the rotating body support member 21 with respect to the vertical direction, and an intermediate portion of the second arm 23 is located at the tip of the first arm 22 with respect to the horizontal direction. And pivotally supported. A pair of springs 22a are provided between the first arm 22 and the stay 1a so as to bias the tip of the first arm 22 downward. In addition, a pair of springs 23a between the first arm 22 and the second arm 23 that imposes a spring force that rotates the second arm 23 in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the vehicle shown in the drawings. Is stretched.

  Further, a support member 24 is pivotally supported at the lower end of the second arm 23 so as to be rotatable in the horizontal direction, and a triangular hanging piece 24a for rotatably supporting the wheel 3 is fixed to the support member 24. Has been. A pair of electrodes 4 that elastically contact the peripheral surface of the wheel 3 is attached to the support member 24, and auxiliary rotation that elastically contacts the peripheral surface of the wheel 3 at a position facing the wheel 3. A U-shaped support body 51 that supports the ring 5 is attached.

  In the wheel 3, styrene butadiene rubber for increasing mechanical strength such as strength and elasticity, weather resistance, and wear resistance is deposited on the aluminum wheel, and the peripheral surface of the wheel 3 increases the contact area with the road surface. Therefore, it is a smooth plane. A groove 5 a is formed in the circumferential direction on the surface of the auxiliary rotating wheel 5 that is in sliding contact with the wheel 3. Reference numeral 6 denotes a U-shaped scraper attached to the hanging piece 24a to scrape off mud and dirt adhering to the wheel 3. In addition, a spring (not shown) is built in the second arm 23 so that the drooping piece 24a can be rotated, and the followability to a curved road surface is enhanced.

  Further, the rotating body support fitting 21 and the stay 1a are attached via a vibration-proof rubber (not shown) so that vibrations generated between the wheels 3 and the road surface are not transmitted to the vehicle. Reference numeral 6 denotes a hook for lifting the suspension mechanism 2 and lifting the wheel 3 from the road surface when the salinity concentration on the road surface is not measured, thereby preventing wear of the wheel 3.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the suspension mechanism 2 described above improves the followability to the road surface unevenness and also follows the turning of the wheel 3 even when the vehicle turns a curve. Is done.

  When the wheel 3 moves on the road surface while rotating, the water on the road surface adheres to the wheel 3, but when only the wheel 3 is used, the amount of water sent to the electrode 4 is not constant. Therefore, when the wheel 3 to which water is attached contacts the auxiliary rotating wheel 5 while rotating, water on the upstream side of the auxiliary rotating wheel 5 is constant by the numerous grooves 5a formed in the auxiliary rotating wheel 5. In this state, the resistance of the water supplied to the electrode 4 and retained by the wheel 3 and the electrode 4 as shown in FIG. 5 is measured.

  FIG. 7 shows a salinity determination circuit 8 in which a fixed resistor R1 and the pair of electrodes 4 (R2) are connected in series, and in parallel to the series-connected fixed resistor R1 and resistor R2, for example, 10 KHz. Is connected to an oscillator 81 of AC voltage (5 Vp-p), a voltage measuring unit 82 is connected in parallel with the fixed resistor R1, and an A / D converter 83 is connected to the voltage measuring unit 82. Reference numeral 84 denotes a CPU that performs the operation of the flowchart shown in FIG. 8. The oscillator 81 and the A / D converter 83 are connected to the bus line of the CPU 84, and the resistance value detected by the electrode 4 is detected on the bus line. A concentration determination unit 85 that determines the salinity concentration, an output interface 86 such as a monitor, a memory, and a printer, and a concentration measurement start command from a passenger, for example, an input interface 87 such as a switch are connected.

Next, the operation of the salinity concentration measurement process by the salinity concentration determination circuit 8 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, when a measurement start command is issued, the CPU 84 operates the oscillator 82 to apply an AC voltage to the series circuit of the fixed resistor R1 and the resistor R2 that is the electrode 4 (step S1). In this state, when the vehicle is driven with the wheels 3 in contact with the road surface, a certain amount of water is supplied to the electrodes 4 by the auxiliary rotating wheels 5 as described above. The resistance value changes.

  Since the voltage V1 across the fixed resistor R1 changes due to the resistance value change due to the electrode 4, the voltage measurement unit 82 measures this voltage change (step S2). That is, the salinity concentration contained in water is detected. The voltage detected by the voltage measuring unit 82 is higher as the salinity concentration is higher. The output of the voltage measurement unit 82 is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 83 and then input to the concentration determination unit 85.

  The concentration determination unit 85 measures the salinity concentration with respect to the voltage in advance and sets a plurality of threshold values for the voltage. For example, when the voltage value is equal to or higher than the first threshold value (3 V), the salinity concentration is 10. %, If the voltage value is greater than or equal to the second threshold (2.5V) and less than the first threshold, set multiple thresholds such that the salinity is between 5% and 10%. The salinity concentration is determined based on the voltage value from the A / D converter 83 (step S3). Then, the salinity concentration determined by the concentration determination unit 85 is determined by, for example, a monitor that is the output interface 86, or the determination result is stored as data and printed (step S4).

  The result of measurement by the above-described vehicle-mounted salinity measuring apparatus of the present invention and the vehicle tire or the tire which is the invention of Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-240663 (hereinafter referred to as the prior application invention) already filed by the applicant company FIG. 9 to FIG. 12 will be used for comparison with the results measured by contacting electrodes on different independent wheels.

  9 and 10 show the case where the salt concentration contained in the water on the road surface is 1%, FIGS. 11 and 12 show the case where the salt concentration is 5%, and FIGS. 10 and 12 show the measurement results obtained according to the present invention, and the vehicle speed is 40 km / h (solid line) and 40 km / h (dotted line). ) And 50 km / h (one-dot chain line) are output (voltage) results with respect to measurement time (number of measurements).

As can be seen from this characteristic diagram, when the salinity concentration is 1%, the measurement result of the present invention is distributed around 1.5V compared to the measurement result of the prior invention, and the change in speed is It shows that there is little variation and stable measurement is possible.
Similarly, when the salinity concentration is 5%, the measurement results of the present invention are distributed around 2.5 V when the distribution of 20 to 60 times when the measured value is stable is compared. In the invention of the prior application, in addition to the large variation in the measurement result even at the same speed, it is widely distributed in the range of 2.5V to 3V +, and the auxiliary rotating wheel 5 of the present invention is affected by the difference in speed. This proved to be effective for the stable measurement of salinity.

1 is a side view of a vehicle-mounted salinity concentration measuring device according to the present invention mounted on a vehicle. It is a top view same as the above. It is the perspective view which looked at the part of the concentration measuring device from the front. It is the perspective view seen from the back same as the above. It is a side view same as the above. It is a side view of the state where the movement of the wheel with respect to the unevenness of the road surface and the wheel in the non-measurement state are fixed up. It is a block diagram which shows a salt concentration determination circuit. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement same as the above. It is a characteristic view which shows the output result with respect to time when the vehicle speed differs when the salinity concentration of the present invention is 1%. It is a characteristic view which shows the output result with respect to time when the vehicle speed at the time of the salt concentration of 1% of prior invention differs. It is a characteristic view which shows the output result with respect to time when the vehicle speeds when the salinity concentration of the present invention is 5% are different. It is a characteristic view which shows the output result with respect to time when the vehicle speed differs when the salinity concentration of the prior invention is 5%.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle 2 Suspension mechanism 3 Wheel 4 Electrode 5 Auxiliary rotating wheel 6 Scraper 7 Hook 8 Salinity determination circuit

Claims (4)

A wheel to which water on the road surface adheres by grounding and rotating on the road surface;
Moisture amount limiting means for limiting the amount of moisture adhering to the peripheral surface of the wheel;
An electrode that elastically contacts the peripheral surface of the wheel to which the water adheres;
A suspension mechanism for attaching the wheel, moisture amount limiting means and electrode to the vehicle;
A salinity determination circuit for measuring the salinity by measuring the resistance of water retained between the wheel and the electrode;
A vehicle-mounted salinity measuring apparatus characterized by comprising: The moisture amount limiting means is attached in a state where it is in contact with the peripheral surface on the upstream side of the contact surface with which the electrode of the wheel is in contact, and a plurality of grooves in the circumferential direction in contact with the wheel. The in-vehicle salinity measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary rotating wheel is formed. The suspension mechanism includes a rotating body support fitting attached to a lower portion of a vehicle, a first arm whose one end is pivotally supported on the rotating body support fitting and a tip is spring-biased in a road surface direction, and the first arm A second arm that is pivotally supported by the other arm and is spring-biased in a direction opposite to the spring biasing direction, and the wheel, electrode, and auxiliary rotating wheel that are attached to the lower end of the second arm are attached to the second arm. The in-vehicle salinity measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: The first arm that is pivotally supported by the rotating body support bracket is configured such that the wheel comes into contact with the road surface by a spring that biases the first arm with a spring force, and is locked by a locking means at a raised position away from the road surface. The on-vehicle salinity measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the apparatus is maintained.

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