提升输气管道输气量改造方案

为解决已建长输管线输气能力不足的问题,以实际运行中的长-乌输气管道改造为例,介绍了提升输气管道输气量的改造方案。通过分析管线沿途场站的压力损失情况,分别从更换处理厂流量计与调节阀、更换末站调压阀、过滤器(分离器)降压、清管等4个方面采取了升压措施,并对改造的效果和投资效益进行了预测评估。经实际检验,采取了上述升压改造方案后,输气管道的输气量达到了预计效果,且经济上可行,从而为提升长输管道输气量提供了改造思路。     

Investigations of interactions between bus rapid transit and general traffic flows

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a popular strategy to increase transit attraction because of its high‐capacity, comfortable service, and fast travel speed with the exclusive right‐of‐way. Various engineering designs of right‐of‐way and the violation enforcement influence interactions between BRT and general traffic flows. An empirical assessment framework is proposed to investigate traffic congestion and lane‐changing patterns at one typical bottleneck along a BRT corridor. The BRT bottleneck consists of bus lane, BRT station, video enforcement zone, and transit signal priority intersection. We analyze oblique cumulative vehicle counts and oblique cumulative lane‐changing maneuvers extracted from videos. The cumulative vehicle counts method widely applied in revealing queueing dynamics at freeway bottlenecks is extended to an urban BRT corridor. In the study site, we assume four lane‐changing patterns, three of which are verified by the empirical measurements. Investigations of interactions between buses and general traffic show that abnormal behaviors (such as lane violations and slow moving of the general traffic) induce 16% reduction in the saturation rate of general traffic and 17% increase in bus travel time. Further observations show that the BRT station and its induced increasing lane‐changing maneuvers increase the downstream queue discharge flows of general traffic. The empirical results also contribute to more efficient strategies of BRT planning and operations, such as alternative enforcement methods, various lane separation types, and optimized traffic operations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

超声相控阵缺陷检测技术研究

为了将相控阵超声检测技术进一步推广应用,对带有人工缺陷的试件分别采用CR、超声相控阵检测技术进行检测,将检测结果进行比对,试验结果表明CR检测技术与相控阵检测技术在体积型缺陷与面积型缺陷检出率方面各具优势,应结合实际工件使用工况,确定可能出现的缺陷类型,采用合适的检测方法与检测工艺,最大限度地提高缺陷检出率.     

The desulphurisation of shipping: Past,present and the future under a global cap

As from January 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is implementing a global 0.5% limit on the sulphur content of fuel, commonly known as the global sulphur cap. This limit is the latest policy in the efforts to reduce sulphur emissions from shipping, following the designation of emission control areas (ECAs) and other regional regulations. In this paper, a literature review is conducted of academic studies that have dealt with issues relating to the reduction of maritime sulphur emissions. Various recurring research themes are identified, spanning the areas of operations research, maritime economics and transport policy. The effects and implications of available compliance options are then analyzed from the perspectives of ship operators, shippers and consumers. Using lessons learned from the enforcement of ECA regulations, this is followed by an appraisal of various potential issues related to the enforcement of these new global regulations. It is found that a homogeneous enforcement regime is required to ensure a level playing field amongst ship operators and that the global sulphur cap may lead to serious market distortion, due to the potential short term rise of fuel prices. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for future research on sulphur emissions from shipping in the aftermath of the global cap and, looking forward, to its relationship to the IMO strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) shipping emissions.     

腐蚀管道剩余寿命预测方法

基于可靠性理论,提出了一种预测管道腐蚀剩余寿命的新方法,即管道腐蚀可靠性寿命预测方法。该方法包括建立腐蚀管道的失效状态函数、腐蚀速率等变量的概率分布模型、管道失效概率和可靠度随时间的变化规律;然后根据管道所处地区级别和风险等级给定目标可靠度,确定管道的腐蚀剩余寿命。运用此方法预测了新疆采油一厂红浅注汽管道的腐蚀剩余寿命,为该管道腐蚀检测周期的确定提供了科学依据。     

A structural analysis of vehicle design responses to Corporate Average Fuel Economy policy

The US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations are intended to influence automaker vehicle design and pricing choices. CAFE policy has been in effect for the past three decades, and new legislation has raised standards significantly. We present a structural analysis of automaker responses to generic CAFE policies. We depart from prior CAFE analyses by focusing on vehicle design responses in long-run oligopolistic equilibrium, and we view vehicles as differentiated products, taking demand as a general function of price and product attributes. We find that under general cost, demand, and performance functions, single-product profit maximizing firm responses to CAFE standards follow a distinct pattern: firms ignore CAFE when the standard is low, treat CAFE as a vehicle design constraint for moderate standards, and violate CAFE when the standard is high. Further, the point and extent of first violation depends upon the penalty for violation, and the corresponding vehicle design is independent of further standard increases. Thus, increasing CAFE standards will eventually have no further impact on vehicle design if the penalty for violation is also not increased. We implement a case study by incorporating vehicle physics simulation, vehicle manufacturing and technology cost models, and a mixed logit demand model to examine equilibrium powertrain design and price decisions for a fixed vehicle body. Results indicate that equilibrium vehicle design is not bound by current CAFE standards, and vehicle design decisions are directly determined by market competition and consumer preferences. We find that with increased fuel economy standards, a higher violation penalty than the current stagnant penalty is needed to cause firms to increase their design fuel economy at equilibrium. However, the maximum attainable improvement can be modest even if the penalty is doubled. We also find that firms’ design responses are more sensitive to variation in fuel prices than to CAFE standards, within the examined ranges.     

埋地压力管道检验周期确定方法

结合完整性检测技术和基于风险的检验技术,介绍了两种确定埋地压力管道检验周期的方法以及在检测项目中的应用情况,并对这些方法进行了对比.第一种方法既考虑到管道失效造成的后果,又考虑到管道的失效可能性,是一种比较准确地确定埋地压力管道检验周期的方法.第二种方法仅考虑到失效的可能性,但计算过程简便,适用于粗略估算.用两种方法分别对相同管道进行了检验周期评价,计算过程还需要在将来的工程应用中逐步完善.这些方法的应用,避免了目前确定埋地压力管道检验周期的盲目性,降低了企业生产成本,减少了检验检测单位的工作量.     

Improved customs inspection at a small international airport: Case study: Colombo

The present procedures for processing arriving passengers at the Colombo International Airport cause inordinte waiting times. An alternate plan, which is based on state of the art customs procedures, and which can reduce waiting times significantly while maintaining a high level of enforcement, is proposed. The present and proposed procedures are analyzed and compared with respect to passenger waiting times, using deterministic queueing theory. An optimal inspection rate of passengers by the customs service is proposed taking into account the fraction of inspected passengers, the waiting time of passengers and the cost of customs processing.     

基于绿色经济的高速铁路潜在价值研究

Logit模型是一种较为成熟的旅客运输分担率分析方法,它在旅客运输领领域有着广泛的应用。参照绿色经济的定义,首先,本文分析各运输方式的安全性效用、经济性效用、时效性效用、准时性效用、方便性效用、舒适性效用和绿色性效用7个服务特征属性并建立广义效用函数;其次,研究高速铁路客流分担率模型;再次,运用相关数据及最大似然估计法来确定模型的参数;最后,以武汉~广州间各运输方式的客流分担率来研究该模型的应用。     

What is behind fare evasion in urban bus systems? An econometric approach

Fare evasion is a problem in many public transport systems around the world and policies to reduce it are generally aimed at improving control and increasing fines. We use an econometric approach to attempt explaining the high levels of evasion in Santiago, Chile, and guide public policy formulation to reduce this problem. In particular, a negative binomial count regression model allowed us to find that fare evasion rates on buses increase as: (i) more people board (or alight) at a given bus door, (ii) more passengers board by a rear door, (iii) buses have higher occupancy levels (and more doors) and (iv) passengers experience longer headways. By controlling these variables (ceteris paribus), results indicate that evasion is greater during the afternoon and evening, but it is not clear that it is higher during peak hours. Regarding socioeconomic variables, we found that fare evasion at bus stops located in higher income areas (municipalities) is significantly lower than in more deprived areas. Finally, based on our results we identified five main methods to address evasion as alternatives to more dedicated fine enforcement or increased inspection; (i) increasing the bus fleet, (ii) improving the bus headway regularity, (iii) implementing off-board payment stations, (iv) changing the payment system on board and (v) changing the bus design (number of doors or capacity). Our model provides a powerful tool to predict the reduction of fare evasion due to the implementation of some of these five operational strategies, and can be applied to other bus public transport systems.     

A new approach for modeling of Fundamental Diagrams

According to the intra-vehicle interaction, a traffic flow can generally be divided into three homogeneous states (1) that of free driving, (2) that of bunched driving, and (3) that of standing. The parameter describing the state of free driving is the desired speed, for the state of bunching it is the intra-vehicle gaps (time headway) within the convoy and the mean speed of the convoy, and for the state of standing it is the maximum jam density. These are the most essential parameters which do not depend on the actual traffic situation.This paper introduces a new model which considers the Fundamental Diagram (equilibrium speed–flow–density relationship) as a function of the homogeneous states. All traffic situations in reality can be considered as combinations of the homogeneous states and therefore can be described by the essential parameters mentioned above. The non-congested (fluid) traffic is a combination (superposition) of the states of free driving and bunched driving, the congested (jam, stop, and go) traffic is a combination of the states of bunched driving (go) and standing (stop). The contribution of the traffic states within the differently congested traffic situations can then be easily obtained from the queuing and probability theory. As a result, Fundamental Diagram in all equilibrium traffic situations is derived as simple functions of the essential parameters.According to the new model the capacity of freeways and rural highways can be determined by measuring the essential parameters. This is much easier than measuring the capacity directly.Furthermore, the probabilities of the various traffic states can be obtained from the new model. This leads to new possibilities in real-time controlling and telematics.The new model is verified by comprehensive measurements carried out on freeways and rural highways in Germany.     

A model of traffic dispersion from a congested road

The study of traffic flow dynamics is developed by defining and clarifying traffic divergence, continuity, congestion and dispersion. Velocity potential is introduced as a gravity function generated by the interaction of two or more motorists occupying neighbouring points in space and describes interference to continuous traffic flow. The relationship between the potential function and carrying capacity is developed and dispersion, when considered as a random walk, satisfies a diffusion equation. A model of traffic dispersion along a maximum congested road in space and time is presented as eigenfunctions of the velocity potential. This suggests that traffic can be dispersed by a series of quantum steps. A probability density function is introduced to define the probability of locating a motorist in a congestion zone.     

Optimization of a container vessel fleet and its propulsion plant to articulate sustainable intermodal chains versus road transport

The recent European regulations on emissions from heavy duty vehicles (Euro VI) along with the enforcement of ECA regulations have represented an additional challenge for the sustainability of the motorways of the sea. The main aim of this paper is to identify the optimal sizing and the most adequate propulsion plant for a fleet of feeder vessels that, by operating under motorways of the sea conditions, is able to articulate competitive intermodal chains versus the road for the door-to-door transport by ensuring the sustainability of the intermodality in the current normative framework. Thus, a mathematical model is developed to evaluate, aside from the total costs and the time invested in the transport, the environmental costs of the unimodal transport and of intermodal chains with different sizing and technologies for the vessels. The resolution of this multiobjective model was carried out with an NSGA-II algorithm in an application to a transport network between Spain and France. This application concluded that fast and small vessels with LNG propulsion plants are the most convenient to maximize the competitiveness advantage against the road alternative. Likewise, the analysis of the environmental performance of both transport systems in the application case from 2010 to 2015 shows an unfavourable environmental evolution for the intermodality.     

航道行政执法的制约因素与对策

文章结合梧州辖区航道行政执法情况,以河道采砂为切入点,分析了航道行政执法的制约因素,提出了相应的解决对策。     

Failure rates and data driven policies for vehicle safety inspections in Pennsylvania

Rail, truck, commercial bus, and aircraft have federally mandated safety inspection programs in the United States, while inspections of personal vehicles, which make up the majority of passenger miles, are optionally imposed at the state level. In recent years, some states have chosen to eliminate the vehicle safety inspection program because of budget constraints and concerns about program effectiveness. Currently, 26 states have a schedule for conducting safety inspections, but Pennsylvania is one of thirteen states that currently require all personal light duty vehicles to be inspected every year. The remaining states have completely eliminated safety inspection programs. However, as automobiles become safer, Pennsylvania legislators are now pushing to phase out the inspection program to reduce the costs of owning a vehicle. This study combines Pennsylvania vehicle registration data with two large samples of results from state safety inspections. We find that the state safety inspection fail rate for light-duty vehicles is 12–18%, well above the often-cited rate of 2%. Vehicles that are older than three years old or have more than about 30,000 miles can have much higher rates. When analyzing new vehicles, less than or equal to one year old, it is found that even these vehicles have a failure rate greater than zero. Furthermore, while the vehicle fleet appears to be getting safer over the past few years by improvements in technology or other external circumstances, the inspection failure rate does not appear to be trending toward zero in the near future. We also show that accurate inspection data is limited and often incorrectly analyzed. Lastly, the importance of vehicle maintenance over a vehicle’s lifetime is proven to be evident, since regular usage causes vehicles to deteriorate. We conclude that vehicle safety inspections should continue to be implemented in order to keep driving conditions safe.     

Effective arterial road incident detection: A Bayesian network based algorithm

Timely and accurate incident detection is an essential part of any successful advanced traffic management system. The complex nature of arterial road traffic makes automated incident detection a real challenge. Stable performance and strong transferability remain major issues concerning the existing incident detection algorithms. A new arterial road incident detection algorithm TSC_ar is presented in this paper. In this algorithm, Bayesian networks are used to quantitatively model the causal dependencies between traffic events (e.g. incident) and traffic parameters. Using real time traffic data as evidence, the Bayesian networks update the incident probability at each detection interval through two-way inference. An incident alarm is issued when the estimated incident probability exceeds the predefined decision threshold. The Bayesian networks allow us to subjectively build existing traffic knowledge into their conditional probability tables, which makes the knowledge base for incident detection robust and dynamic. Meanwhile, we incorporate intersection traffic signals into traffic data processing. A total of 40 different types of arterial road incidents are simulated to test the performance of the algorithm. The high detection rate of 88% is obtained while the false alarm rate of the algorithm is maintained as low as 0.62%. Most importantly, it is found that both the detection rate and false alarm rate are not sensitive to the incident decision thresholds. This is the unique feature of the TSC_ar algorithm, which suggests that the Bayesian network approach is advanced in enabling effective arterial road incident detection.     

Prospect Theory for joint time and money consequences in risk and ambiguity

Transport users face complex decisions. Not only are the consequences of their choices uncertain, but they generally involve several attributes, such as time and money. Time-money tradeoffs have been studied in depth in transport economics, and research is now paying increasing attention to the role of uncertainty and information in transport decisions. This paper aims to measure the impact of uncertainty and information on multi-attribute decisions using Prospect Theory. In doing so, the study makes two contributions to transportation literature: one methodological and the other empirical. First, we propose a fast and tractable method for measuring Prospect Theory parameters that capture attitudes towards probabilities (probability weighting function) and attitudes towards losses (loss aversion). The elicitation method does not require the elicitation of the utility function. This makes it particularly suitable in complex multi-attribute decisions where the shape of the utility function is unknown. Second, we present the results of an experiment that uses the proposed method to measure, at the individual level, probability weighting in decisions involving joint time and money consequences in two decision contexts: risk (where probabilities are given) and ambiguity (where the probability distribution is unknown). An experimental setup that exposes subjects to real gains and losses for money and time has been built for this purpose. We observe inverse S-shaped probability weighting and loss aversion for risk. Probability weighting is even more pronounced in ambiguity, where subjects do not have precise information about the probability distribution. We explain how these results and the analysis of ambiguity attitudes in general can offer a better understanding of travelers’ route or transport mode choices.     

跨海架空管道检测评价技术与应用

跨海架空管道主要位于浅海区域,检验人员难以接近,大部分检验项目只能采用非接触式检验方法。根据跨海架空管道的特点,介绍了管体腐蚀状况检测及安全评价方法,并提出了具体步骤和方法。该方法可实现对管体缺陷的检测,对检测中发现的超标缺陷进行安全评价,且具有检测时不停输、不去除防腐涂层、实时在线检测的特点。应用上述方法对某跨海架空管道进行了检测评价,通过对管体腐蚀缺陷的检测评价,提出了确保管道安全运行应采取的措施。     

Non-discriminatory train dispatching in a rail transport market with multiple competing and collaborative train operating companies

Train dispatching is vital for the punctuality of train services, which is critical for a train operating company (TOC) to maintain its competitiveness. Due to the introduction of competition in the railway transport market, the issue of discrimination is attracting more and more attention. This paper focuses on delivering non-discriminatory train dispatching solutions while multiple TOCs are competing in a rail transport market, and investigating impacting factors of the inequity of train dispatching solutions. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is first proposed, in which the inequity of competitors (i.e., trains and TOCs) is formalized by a set of constraints. In order to provide a more flexible framework, a model is further reformulated where the inequity of competitors is formalized as the maximum individual deviation of competitors’ delay cost from average delay cost in the objective function. Complex infrastructure capacity constraints are considered and modelled through a big M-based approach. The proposed models are solved by a standard MILP solver. A set of comprehensive experiments is conducted on a real-world dataset adapted from the Dutch railway network to test the efficiency, effectiveness, and applicability of the proposed models, as well as determine the trade-off between train delays and delay equity.     

A novel approach for systematically calibrating transport planning model systems

Calibration of a transport planning model system is a complex process. While trial-and-error methods and modelling expertise are still the backbone of calibration of transport models, analytical approaches automating the calibration process can improve the accuracy of the models. Introducing a model to guide modellers in the calibration process of large-scale transport planning model systems is the core of this study, where a systematic model for choosing the most appropriate models and parameters is discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed model is investigated by comparing three scenarios which are built on the Travel/Activity Scheduler for Household Agents model as a large-scale agent-based model system.