Cruise Traffic Seasonality Patterns in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea: A Challenge to Port Operators

The positive trend in the cruise industry since the beginning of the twenty-first century brings with it a series of challenges, mainly for cruise lines and ports. Among them is the seasonality of cruise traffic. This study examines the seasonality of the cruise traffic in the Western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea. A sample of 26 ports in 7 countries forms the basis of the empirical analysis, which uses the monthly total cruise passenger movements of each port during the period from 2005 to 2015 as a variable. Methodologically, a “dynamic” classification of ports structured in three sizes is proposed, the seasonality pattern of each port is determined, a cluster analysis is applied to group the ports in clusters with homogeneous patterns, and the changes in seasonal concentration during the analysis period are determined using a Gini coefficient. The main findings suggest the heterogeneity of the ports in the analyzed area and the existence of two clusters with different seasonality patterns. Furthermore, a list of strategies is provided to address the negative effects of cruise traffic seasonality in the management of cruise terminals, taking into account that each cluster obtained requires different strategies.     

Passengers’ activities during short trips on the London Underground

The present study considers underground passengers and investigates the ways in which they spend their time during a trip of average length or shorter. Using a structured procedure that had been refined after a preliminary study, more than 1,700 passengers were observed in London. The results showed that even when the length of travel is very short (2–6 stops), underground passengers engage in several occupations, especially those involving the use of mobile Information and Communication Technologies. These occupations depend on the specific spatial and temporal conditions of the travel, as well as on gender and age. These results should be useful in designing travel services that enhance passengers’ experiences; they also suggest a criterion for comparing trips using different transportation modes (i.e., looking at the time point during the trip at which the ratio of active versus passive occupations changes).     

阻尼车轮噪声鉴定

铁路车轮阻尼被公认为是减少滚动噪声的可能措施之一.本文介绍了约束层阻尼车轮性能鉴定的试验方法和试验结果.     

A finite element model for the Venice Lagoon. Development, set up, calibration and validation

The development, calibration and validation of a two-dimensional finite element model for the Venice Lagoon is described. The model uses a staggered grid for the spatial integration of the water levels and velocities. A semi-implicit numerical time stepping scheme is implemented, which guarantees unconditional stability for the gravity wave propagation. Because of the shallow depths in the lagoon, the model deals also with areas where flooding and drying occur.A first calibration of the model has been performed against harmonic constants of 12 tide gauges located in the lagoon. After this calibration, model output shows a good agreement with a set of water level data referring to a period of calm winds and to another data set of water level data measured in 38 stations during a period of strong winds.Meteorological data and river discharges are used to set up a 1-year long simulation that models the salinity and temperature fields. The temperature time evolution is well simulated. Comparison of model output to salinity data is not straightforward, since input data for the main rivers that discharge freshwater into the lagoon is not available for the year of reference. However, yearly averages of observed values of salinity are in a reasonable agreement with results of a climatological simulation.The presented model shows good propagation of the tidal wave and stability characteristics. It is the first step for a comprehensive model of the Venice Lagoon that deals not only with hydrodynamic variables, but also with sediment transport and ecological processes.     

Temporal variations of water flow between the Venetian lagoon and the open sea

Long-term measurements of the water flow at three Venice Lagoon inlets with the bottom-mounted ADCPs show that the main part of the variance (>90%) is associated with the tidal variability. Semi-diurnal constituents (mainly M2 and S2) are responsible for about 80% of the flow variance. Phase-lag between the axial current and sea-level is on the order of 2 h for M2 and 4 h for the K1, the maximum inflow leading the sea-level maximum. Phase-difference of tidal flows between inlets shows that Chioggia leads both Malamocco and Lido, suggesting that tidal signal progresses northward, thus in the opposite direction of both the semi-diurnal and diurnal tidal signals in the open Adriatic currents. The sea-level slope between the open sea and the lagoon interior controls the inlet flow, which is due to the time lag being constant for all tidal constituents. It was shown that tidal oscillations at Punta Salute (lagoon interior) lag those in Lido by about 45 min. The pressure gradient due to the sea-level slope generates the flow acceleration. Only for large current speeds (>0.5 m/s), the bottom friction term becomes equally important as the local acceleration and the horizontal pressure gradient terms. Wind effects manifest as a remote forcing through Adriatic seiches at semi-diurnal and diurnal scales, and as a local forcing at very long time scales on the order of a month. This latter mechanism is limited to a winter period (November–January). Seiches are present over the entire year, being however, more energetic and frequent during autumn and winter.     

A study on the role of powertrain system dynamics on vehicle driveability

Vehicle driveability describes the complex interactions between the driver and the vehicle, mainly related to longitudinal vibrations. Today, a relevant part of the driveability process optimisation is realised by means of track tests, which require a considerable effort due to the number of parameters (such as stiffness and damping components) affecting this behaviour. The drawback of this approach is that it is carried on at a stage when a design iteration becomes very expensive in terms of time and cost. The objective of this work is to propose a light and accurate tool to represent the relevant quantities involved in the driveability analysis, and to understand which are the main vehicle parameters that influence the torsional vibrations transmitted to the driver. Particular attention is devoted to the role of the tyre, the engine mount, the dual mass flywheel and their possible interactions. The presented nonlinear dynamic model has been validated in time and frequency domain and, through linearisation of its nonlinear components, allows to exploit modal and energy analysis. Objective indexes regarding the driving comfort are additionally considered in order to evaluate possible driveability improvements related to the sensitivity of powertrain parameters.     

Breaking wave at the bow of a fast displacement ship model

We investigated the flow structures under the bow wave generated by a fast displacement ship model (INSEAN model 2340) in the presence of wave breaking. The data acquired were also used for a detailed database for CFD validation. The mean and r.m.s. point-wise values of the wave height were measured by means of a finger probe. The intensity of the breaking wave was taken as the r.m.s value of the wave height. The mean velocity field under the free surface was measured at 0.15 L _PP and 0.2 L _PP downstream of the fore perpendicular by means of a 5-hole Pitot probe. Uncertainty assessment of the wave height and velocity field results was performed following the AIAA Standards S-071-1995. Preliminary CFD results from a RANSE code with a breaking model are shown in comparison with the measured data.     

Experimental modeling of controlled suspension vehicles from onboard sensors

In this article, identification of vertical dynamics of vehicles with controlled suspensions is considered. Identification is performed from experimental data measured on a four-poster bench test of a segment C car, equipped with a CDC-Skyhook dampers control system. The measurements are obtained from the onboard accelerometers needed by the control system. A nonlinear model in regression form is identified, having the road profile and damper control currents as inputs and chassis accelerations as outputs. The model is identified by means of a set membership structured identification method, which takes advantage of physical information on the structure of the system, decomposing the system into three subsystems: one represents the chassis and engine and the other two represent the overall behavior of front and rear suspensions, wheels and tires. This decomposition allows us to avoid the complexity accuracy problems derived from the high dimension of required regression space. Indeed, the overall high-dimensional identification problem is reduced to the identification of lower dimensional subsystems and to the estimation of their interactions. An iterative scheme is used for solving the decomposed identification problem. As the chassis pitch is small for the usual road profiles, the chassis-engine block is considered linear and standard linear methods are used for its identification. The other two subsystems are the main sources of nonlinearities in the system, mainly due to the significant nonlinearities of controlled dampers and of tires. Owing to the complexity/accuracy problems of a physical modeling of these subsystems, an input-output approach is taken. In particular, a nonlinear set membership method that does not require the search of the functional form of involved nonlinearities is used for the identification of these subsystems. The iterative algorithm converged in two iterations to a model providing a quite satisfactory simulation accuracy for all the considered road profiles and CDC-Skyhook settings.