URANS analysis of a broaching event in irregular quartering seas

Ship motions in a high sea state can have adverse effects on controllability, cause loss of stability, and ultimately compromise the survivability of the ship. In a broaching event, the ship losses control, naturally turning broadside to the waves, causing a dangerous situation and possibly capsizing. Classical approaches to study broaching rely on costly experimental programs and/or time-domain potential or system-based simulation codes. In this paper the ability of Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) to simulate a broaching event in irregular waves is demonstrated, and the extensive information available is used to analyze the broaching process. The demonstration nature of this paper is stressed, as opposed to a validated study. Unsteady RANS (URANS) provides a model based on first principles to capture phenomena such as coupling between sway, yaw, and roll, roll damping, effects of complex waves on righting arm, rudders partially out of the water, etc. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method uses a single-phase level-set approach to model the free surface, and dynamic overset grids to resolve large-amplitude motions. Before evaluating irregular seas two regular wave cases are demonstrated, one causing broaching and one causing stable surf riding. A sea state 8 is imposed following an irregular Bretschneider spectrum, and an autopilot was implemented to control heading and speed with two different gains for the heading controller. It is concluded that the autopilot causes the ship to be in an adverse dynamic condition at the beginning of the broaching process, and thus is partially responsible for the occurrence of the broaching event.     

An analysis of the retail and lifecycle cost of battery-powered electric vehicles

Regulators, policy analysts, automobile manufacturers, environmental groups, and others are debating the merits of policies regarding the development and use of battery-powered electric vehicles (BPEVs). At the crux of this debate is lifecycle cost: the annualized initial vehicle cost, plus annual operating and maintenance costs, plus battery replacement costs. To address this issue of cost, we have developed a detailed model of the performance, energy use, manufacturing cost, retail cost, and lifecycle cost of electric vehicles and comparable gasoline internal-combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). This effort is an improvement over most previous studies of electric vehicle costs because instead of assuming important parameter values for such variables as vehicle efficiency and battery cost, we model these values in detail. We find that in order for electric vehicles to be cost-competitive with gasoline ICEVs, batteries must have a lower manufacturing cost, and a longer life, than the best lithium-ion and nickel–metal hydride batteries we modeled. We believe that it is most important to reduce the battery manufacturing cost to $100/kWh or less, attain a cycle life of 1200 or more and a calendar life of 12 years or more, and aim for a specific energy of around 100 Wh/kg.     

Tradeoffs in incremental changes towards pedestrian-friendly environments: Physical activity and pollution exposure

A microsimulation of individuals’ activities is used in the context of a risk analysis framework to assess the impacts of hypothesized changes to the built environment on personal energy expenditure and on inhalation of air pollutants. Uncertainty is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyzes. We find both simulated individuals that augment and others that reduce their energy expenditure and inhalation dose of pollutants, with median increases displaying larger magnitudes than the decreases. Up to 75% of the population has significant increases in energy expenditure and pollutant inhalation. We also find, however, high uncertainty associated with the estimates. Results differ considerably depending on the travel mode choice model used in the simulation.     

Postembryonic stages of Nucellicola holmanae Lamb et al., 1996 (copepoda, poecilostomatoida), an endoparasite of the dog whelk Nucella lapillus (gastropoda)

The external morphology of the first three larval stages of Nucellicola holmanae is described. These stages were cultured from eggs found with the adults in the viscera of dog whelks collected from Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire. The nauplius develops within the whelk. It moults to a metanauplius which is released as a free-swimming stage. The metanauplius moults to a free copepodid stage which exhibits a combination of characters typical of the first, second and third copepodid stages of other poecilostomatoid copepods. The infective copepodid stage which locates and penetrates the host is visible through the integument of this free-swimming copepodid.     

An object-oriented approach to transport modelling: Software development to calculate road traffic noise

A framework for developing object-oriented software in transport modelling in proposed and demonstrated with the implementation of the calculation of road traffic noise (CORTN). Major tasks in the life cycle of an object-oriented development process are identified, and illustrated with the implementation of TRANSOOP – a software library containing 33,000 lines of C++ programming code. Software re-use from this library to produce a object-oriented noise program is compared with conventional computer programming shows that almost 90 per cent of the lines of code were drawn from TRANSOOP. Advantages of the object-oriented approach are discussed.     

Characteristics and potential impacts of under-ice river plumes in the seasonally ice-covered Bothnian Bay (Baltic Sea)

The northernmost basin of the Baltic Sea, the Bothnian Bay, is ice-covered for about half the year. During this time, distinct under-ice river plumes develop, even seaward of the smallest rivers, that are substantially thicker and larger in extent than during the summer months. Wind mixing is negligible, and during late spring in April or May, the highest annual discharge occur while the sea is ice covered, thus providing conditions for the formation of extensive under-ice plumes. These plumes are characterised by high levels of trace elements (e.g., Al, Fe and Zn), organic matter (TOC and dissolved organic carbon [DOC]), nutrients and also optically active substances (colored dissolved organic matter, CDOM). The under-ice plumes provide an important pathway for undiluted transport of land-derived substances to the pelagic waters of the basin, affecting the salinity, chemistry and optical properties of coastal waters. Freshwater ice growth on the underside of an existing sea ice sheet also restricts the buildup of sea ice and under-ice algal communities, potentially in large areas along the coasts. Plume water influences the optical characteristics of coastal waters for a period of time after ice break-up, potentially affecting primary production in these areas. Furthermore, the formation of under-ice plumes potentially has a positive feedback on the ice season length due to freshening of the coastal waters (earlier freeze-up) and restricted oceanic heat flux (slower melting).     

基于熵权的TOPSIS钢桥面防水黏结材料组合体系优选分析

为合理选择钢桥-沥青混凝土铺装结构防水黏结材料，首先，制作含不同防水黏结材料组合体系的钢板-沥青混凝土复合试件，并在低温（0℃）、常温（25℃）和高温（70℃）环境下分别测试复合试件的拉拔强度（Direct Tensile Strength，DTS）、直剪强度（Direct Shear Strength，DSS）和45°斜剪强度（Skew Shear Strength，SSS）。同时，利用UTM万能试验机测试常温（25℃）状态下复合试件的疲劳寿命。构建包括拉拔强度（DTS）、直剪强度（DSS）、45°斜剪强度（SSS）、疲劳寿命（Fatigue Life，FL）和材料成本（Materials Cost，MC）在内的钢桥面防水黏结材料评价指标体系。利用"信息熵"理论对评价指标的权重进行求解，结合逼近理想解排序（TOPSIS）方法，比较不同防水黏结材料组合体系的综合性能，建立基于熵权-TOPSIS钢桥面防水黏结材料组合体系优选模型，并获取优选结论。最后，通过图像二值化验证优选结论。结果表明：图像二值化分析结果与基于熵权-TOPSIS防水黏结材料组合体系优选模型得出的优选结论一致，验证了熵权-TOPSIS方法在钢桥面防水黏结材料优选设计中的有效性。该模型排除了人为主观因素影响，可为钢桥面防水黏结材料选择提供一种客观有效的方法。