In a context of growing electrification of road transport, Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) appears as an appealing alternative technology as it enables Electric Vehicles (EVs) to charge while driving and without any mechanical contact (with overhead cables or rails in the ground). Although the WPT technology background dates from the end of 20th century, recent advances in semiconductor technologies have enabled the first real demonstrations. Within the FABRIC European project, the French research Institute VEDECOM and its partners implemented a whole prototype wireless power transfer charging infrastructure. The first demonstrations of Inductive WPT in different real driving conditions (up to 20 kW, from 0 to 100 km/h, with one or two serial vehicles) were provided. This paper describes the prototype equipment and its instrumentation and provides the system characterization results. The future of the Inductive WPT technology is further discussed considering its different technical and economic challenges. In parallel, how this technology could be part of future generation road infrastructures is discussed. Future research and demonstration steps are presented in the conclusion.

Javelin vibrations in flight are caused by large forces applied transversely to the javelin's long axis during its acceleration. These decay throughout the early portion of the flight but can have substantial effects on aerodynamic lift and drag forces. Vibration decay is due to two main factors: aerodynamic dissipation and material, or hysteretic, damping. The relative contributions of these two factors are identified using theoretical models and laboratory experiments. With models for vibration decay, flight simulations can include realistic, if hypothetical, vibrational effects on the achievable range.

A straightforward method of checking pendulum impact testing machines was developed at the end of the 1970s at the request of French industrialists. This method was based on the use of reference test pieces to compare the energy provided by a reference machine with that of test (or industrial) machines. These principles are outlined in French standard NFA 03-508 and France had a national source of unnotched, reference test pieces. The manufacture of reference test pieces, characterization of calibrated batches and the indirect verification of industrial machinery therefore have been practised for twelve years or so. Various European studies and changes in standardisation protocols have led to the replacement of unnotched test pieces by Charpy notched test pieces. France developed a source of reference test pieces of this type in the early 1990s. The French system, which is based on a partnership comprising the Fédération Française de l'Acier (French Steel Federation), steelmakers Aubert and Duval, and national laboratories (CTA and LNE), has been in operation since European standard EN 10 045-2 was first applied in 1993. Experience together with discussions between partners and users has led to considerable advances in the processes used to manufacture these test pieces, thus improving the dispersion obtained. The quality situation, especially accreditation procedures implemented by national organisations such as COFRAC (Comité Français d'Accréditation — French Accreditation Comity), has also contributed to advances in perfecting methods and assessing approximations.

Good quality water is crucial to most developing nations' sustainability. However, there is a clear lack of affordable and reliable solutions to monitor water quality. According to the WHO 2022 Sustainable Development Goals report, about 3 billion people do not have information on their water quality. While off-line measurements are commonly practiced, the availability of in-situ monitoring solutions is considered critical to the generalization of water monitoring, but current technologies are bulky, expensive and usually do not target a sufficient number of quality parameters. [1]To meet this challenge, the LOTUS project (https://www.lotus-india.eu/) brings forward a low-cost, compact, versatile multiparametric chemical sensor aiming at real-time monitoring of chlorine, pH, temperature and conductivity in potable water. The proposed solution –a tube of 21.2 cm in length by 3.5 cm in diameter – is composed of a replaceable sensor head incorporating the sensing elements and a sensor body containing the acquisition and communication electronics. The sensor head integrates a 1cm² silicon chip with 2 temperature sensors (serpentine-shaped thermistors), 3 conductivity sensors (parallel electrodes in a 4-probe configuration) and a 10x2 sensor array of multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) chemistors. The CNT are arranged in random networks between interdigitated electrodes and are either non-functionalized or functionalized with a dedicated polymer. [1]We evaluated the performance of 7 units of this solution in Sense-city facility (located at University Gustave Eiffel, France - https://sense-city.ifsttar.fr/ ), exploiting its 44m potable water loop with 93.8-mm PVC pipes. The system was operated at 25 m3/h and 1 bar, at temperature ranging between 15°C and 20°C, conductivity between 870 µS/cm and 1270 µS/cm; and chlorine between 0 and 5 mg/L. Because of the high-level of electromagnetic interferences in Sense-City and limited shielding of the acquisition system, the sensor signal is severely noisy and various steps of denoising are required. From the initial dataset were extracted a small number of devices and time periods with both sufficient variations in the target parameters and manageable level of signal-over-noise ratio. For chip 141, over 150hours of testing, CNT-based chemistors showed sensitivity to pH and active chlorine (HClO) with differentiated response between functionalized and non-functionalized devices. However, pH and chlorine can only be estimated with MAE respectively 0.17 and 0.18mg/L due to the high noise level. Over 400h, with chip 141, the real-time temperature of the water can be estimated with an MAE of 0.4°C in flowing water and 0.1°C in static water. The chip 141 dataset did not feature enough conductivity variation to assess performances. This was achieved on chip AS001 with an MAE of 176.2 µS/cm over 80 hours.Overall, these results provide a preliminary proof of operation of the solution in realistic environment, with the high noise level being a major limitation. A new version of system is being designed to reduce the noise, to be tested in Sense-City in 2023.[1] Cousin, P. et al. (2022). Improving Water Quality and Security with Advanced Sensors and Indirect Water Sensing Methods. Springer Water. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08262-7_

Climate change has significant impacts on urban climate and people's thermal comfort. Cities are especially sensitive to Urban Heat Island effect (UHI). As a result, more and more local cooling solutions (grey, green, blue) are implemented for city adaptation to climate change. Preliminary laboratory tests, mainly at the material level, are rarely conducted to evaluate their thermal performance. Cooling solutions are often directly deployed in the real urban environment and sometimes tested in the changing weather conditions, which complicates the microclimatic evaluation and the comparison of cooling solutions. In response to the limited availability of real-world controlled testing, our experimental protocol uses the Sense-City climate chamber to reproducibly assess microclimatic gains and thermal comfort indicators. A differential approach comparing the Sense-City reference configuration with a cooling solution configuration is considered. The proposed microclimatic evaluation strategy is applied to a white shading cooling solution. The white shading solution primarly reduces the surface temperature by 17.5°C and the solar lamp irradiance by 83%, resulting in a significant decrease in the mean radiant temperature of approximately 10°C. In terms of thermal comfort, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UCTI) is reduced by 2.8°C and the Physiological Equivalent Temperature by 5.6°C, nearly enabling a shift from the “extreme heat stress” to “strong heat stress” category. This experimental strategy provides a valuable framework for comparing the effectiveness of cooling solutions, thereby supporting local authorities in their decision-making processes.