Distribution of suspended sediment in the coastal sea off the Ganges–Brahmaputra River mouth: observation from TM data

Remote sensing technique was applied to estimate suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and to understand transportation, distribution and deposition of suspended sediment in the estuary and throughout the coastal sea, off the Ganges–Brahmaputra River mouth. During low river discharge period, zone of turbidity maximum is inferred in the estuary near the shore. SSC map shows that maximum SSC reaches 1050 mg/l in this period. Magnitude of SSC is mainly owing to resuspension of the bottom surface sediments induced by tidal currents flowing over shallow water depths. The influence of depth on resuspension is farther revealed from the distribution and magnitude of SSC along the head of Swatch of No Ground (SNG) submarine canyon. During high river discharge period, huge river outflow pushed the salt wedge and flashes away the suspended sediments in the coastal sea off the river mouth. Zone of turbidity maximum is inferred in the coastal water approximately within 5–10 m depth of water, where the maximum SSC reaches 1700 mg/l. In this period, huge fluvial input of the suspended sediments including the resuspended bottom sediments and the particles remaining in suspension for longer period of time since their initial entry control mainly the magnitude of SSC. In the estuary near the shore, seasonal variation in the magnitude of SSC is not evident. In the coastal sea (>5 m water depth), seasonal influence in the magnitude of SSC could be concluded from the discrepancy between SSC values of two different seasons. Transportation and deposition of suspended sediments also experiences seasonal variations. At present, suspended sediments are being accumulated on the shallow shelf (between 5 and 10 m water depth) in low discharge period and on the mid-shelf (between 10 and 75 m water depth) during high discharge period. An empirical (exponential) relationship was found between gradual settle down of suspended sediments in the coastal sea and its lateral distance from the turbidity maximum.     

Daily activity and travel sequences of students,faculty and staff at a large Canadian university

This paper examines the activity engagement, sequencing and timing of activities for student, faculty and staff commuter groups at the largest university in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. The daily activity patterns of all university community groups are modeled using the classification and regression tree classifier algorithm. The data used for this study are derived from the Environmentally Aware Travel Diary Survey (EnACT) conducted in spring 2016 at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. Results show that there are significant differences in activity and travel behavior between university population segments and the general population in the region, and between campus groups. For example, students participate in more recreation activities compared to faculty and staff. They also take more trips to and from campus, and are more flexible in their scheduling of trips. The insights gained from this study will provide helpful information for promoting sustainability across university campuses, and for development of campus-based travel demand management strategies.     

Response spectrum method for extreme wave loading with higher order components of drag force

Response spectra of fixed offshore structures impacted by extreme waves are investigated based on the higher order components of the nonlinear drag force. In this way, steel jacket platforms are simplified as a mass attached to a light cantilever cylinder and their corresponding deformation response spectra are estimated by utilizing a generalized single degree of freedom system. Based on the wave data recorded in the Persian Gulf region, extreme wave loading conditions corresponding to different return periods are exerted on the offshore structures. Accordingly, the effect of the higher order components of the drag force is considered and compared to the linearized state for different sea surface levels. When the fundamental period of the offshore structure is about one third of the main period of wave loading, the results indicate the linearized drag term is not capable of achieving a reliable deformation response spectrum.     

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Bow Profiles on Resistance of an Underwater Vehicle in Free Surface Motion

In this paper, towing tank experiments are conducted to study the behavior of flow on a model of the underwater vehicle with various shapes of bows, i.e. tango and standard bows in free surface motion ...     

Tractor-semitrailer model for vehicles carrying liquids

This article presents a model for solving solid-fluid interactions in vehicles carrying liquids. A tractor-semitrailer model is developed by incorporating suspension systems and tire dynamics. Owing to the solid-fluid interaction, equations of motion for the vehicle system are coupled. To simplify the complicated solution procedure, the coupled equations are solved separately using two different codes. Each code is analyzed separately; but as the parameters of the two codes depend on each other, the codes must be connected at the end of each time step. To determine the dynamic behavior of the system, different braking moments are applied. As the braking moments increase, braking time decreases. However, it turns out that increasing the braking moment to more than a certain level produces no significant results. It is also shown that vehicles carrying fluids need a greater amount of braking moments in comparison to vehicles carrying solids during braking. In addition, as the level of the fluid inside the tanker increases, from one-third to two-third of the tanker's volume, the sloshing forces applied to the tanker's walls increase. It was also concluded that the strategy used in this article to solve for the solid-fluid interaction by incorporating vehicle dynamic effects represents an effective method for determining the dynamic behavior of vehicles carrying fluids in other critical maneuvers.     

Post-buckling behaviour and strength of multi-stiffened aluminium panels under combined axial compression and lateral pressure

This paper presents the results of complementary numerical study done in the continuation of the activities carried out by the Committee III.1 “Ultimate Strength” of ISSC'2003 (Ref. [28] ).The main focus of the paper concerns the post-buckling behaviour and strength characteristics of the aluminium multi-stiffened panels under combined axial compression and lateral pressure.The finite element model proposed by the Committee III.1 “Ultimate Strength” of ISSC'2003 is used in the present investigation. Material is aluminium alloy AA6082-T6 and the multi-stiffened panel is a triple-span structure. Stiffeners are of either extruded or non-extruded angle-bar profiles. An initial deflection is imposed on the model in a procedure similar to that applied by the Committee III.1. General purpose finite element code ANSYS is used for non-linear elastic–plastic analyses.Main objectives are to study the influence of initial deflections and also HAZ on the post-buckling behaviour and collapse characteristics of aluminium stiffened panels under combined axial compression and lateral pressure. Different values of lateral pressure are exerted on the model in a systematic manner to simulate various levels of lateral pressure loading on multi-stiffened aluminium panels used in the construction of high-speed crafts.     

Women’s mode and trip structure choices in daily activity-travel: a developing country perspective

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we analyze the travel patterns of Iranian women, where typical patriarchal views and specific social and cultural norms may differ from the patterns of those in western societies. In addition to inherent psycho-physical gender differences, women in Iran can face special constraints forcing them not to be involved in all activity-travel patterns that people in developed countries usually undertake. We pay special attention to the role of marital and employment status on women’s activity-travel patterns. To this end, we develop a joint mode and daily activity pattern (DAP) discrete choice model, which is a two-level mixed nested Logit. The upper nest of the proposed model embodies women’s DAP choices, and the lower nest belongs to the mode choices. In this paper, we try to show how different factors in a patriarchal Muslim society like Iran affect or restrict women’s type and structure of activity-travel patterns.     

Prediction of Tyre-Road Friction with an Inverted-Boat Shaped Pressure Distribution

In this paper, a predictive model is formulated to describe the frictional forces between the tyre and road. The model is based on an inverted-boat normal pressure distribution. The determination of the input parameters is simplified by the suggested stationary point approach for calculation of the frictional coefficients, which are analytically obtained. The verification of the established model shows that the predicted values are in a good agreement with measured data. A sensitivity study of the shape factors demonstrates that it is necessary to take the unsymmetric normal pressure distribution proposed in this paper into consideration to accurately predict frictional forces.     

双平面焊接圆管截面DKT节点的中心撑杆鞍点及冠点位置的应力集中系数(英文)

A set of parametric stress analyses was carried out for two-planar tubular DKT-joints under different axial loading conditions.The analysis results were used to present general remarks on the effects of the geometrical parameters on stress concentration factors(SCFs) at the inner saddle,outer saddle,and crown positions on the central brace.Based on results of finite element(FE) analysis and through nonlinear regression analysis,a new set of SCF parametric equations was established for fatigue design purposes.An assessment study of equations was conducted against the experimental data and original SCF database.The satisfaction of acceptance criteria proposed by the UK Department of Energy(UK DoE) was also checked.Results of parametric study showed that highly remarkable differences exist between the SCF values in a multi-planar DKT-joint and the corresponding SCFs in an equivalent uni-planar KT-joint having the same geometrical properties.It can be clearly concluded from this observation that using the equations proposed for uni-planar KT-connections to compute the SCFs in multi-planar DKT-joints will lead to either considerably under-predicting or over-predicting results.Hence,it is necessary to develop SCF formulae specially designed for multi-planar DKT-joints.Good results of equation assessment according to UK DoE acceptance criteria,high values of correlation coefficients,and the satisfactory agreement between the predictions of the proposed equations and the experimental data guarantee the accuracy of the equations.Therefore,the developed equations can be reliably used for fatigue design of offshore structures.     

A time-use activity-pattern recognition model for activity-based travel demand modeling

This study develops a new comprehensive pattern recognition modeling framework that leverages activity data to derive clusters of homogeneous daily activity patterns, for use in activity-based travel demand modeling. The pattern recognition model is applied to time use data from the large Halifax STAR household travel diary survey. Several machine learning techniques not previously employed in travel behavior analysis are used within the pattern recognition modeling framework. Pattern complexity of activity sequences in the dataset was recognized using the FCM algorithm, and resulted in identification of twelve unique clusters of homogeneous daily activity patterns. We then analysed inter-dependencies in each identified cluster and characterized the cluster memberships through their socio-demographic attributes using the CART classifier. Based on the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals we were able to correctly identify which cluster individuals belonged to, and also predict various information related to their activities, such as start time, duration, travel distance, and travel mode, for use in activity-based travel demand modeling. To execute the pattern recognition model, the 24-h activity patterns are split into 288 three dimensional 5 min intervals. Each interval includes information on activity types, duration, start time, location, and travel mode if applicable. Results from aggregated statistical evaluation and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests indicate that there is heterogeneous diversity among identified clusters in terms of temporal distribution, and substantial differences in a variety of socio-demographic variables. The homogeneous clusters identified in this study may be used to more accurately predict the scheduling behavior of specific population groups in activity-based modeling, and hence to improve prediction of the times and locations of their travel demands. Finally, the results of this study are expected to be implemented within the activity-based travel demand model, Scheduler for Activities, Locations, and Travel (SALT).