The ambivalence of ridesharing

Ridesharing is quite a popular topic of discussion among transport authority personnel. It is perceived to be a viable alternative to classical modes of transportation, and receives a great deal of political support from transport planners. However, not much objective information is available on ridesharing behaviors. We use travel survey data to study the evolution of the ridesharing market in an urban area. Our study is based on data from four large-scale OD surveys conducted in the Greater Montreal Area (1987, 1993, 1998 and 2003). In the latest survey conducted in Montreal, car passengers were asked to identify the driver who gave them the opportunity to travel in this way. Their answers were classified according to the type of driver; for instance, a member of their household, a neighbor or a co-worker. We use this information to calibrate a model matching car passengers and car drivers belonging to the same household. This will be referred to as IHHR (intra-household ridesharing). Preliminary results reveal that approximately 70% of all trips made by car passengers are the result of IHHR. Furthermore, around 15% of those trips are questionable, in that they were exclusively generated for another individual’s purposes, consequently generating an additional trip for the journey back home. Moreover, this percentage increased over time. Objective data regarding ridesharing and its evolution in an urban area will undoubtedly help decision makers gain a clearer profile of this means of travel and help to realign attitudes on the issue.

The role of paratransit: some reflections based on the experience of residents’ coach services in Hong Kong

Paratransit refers to urban transport services “somewhere between private passenger transport and conventional public transport in terms of cost and quality of service” [Rimmer (1980), Paratransit: A commentary. Environ. Plan. A 12, 937–944]. Since the 1980s, a new form of paratransit—residents’ coach, which provides exclusive transport services to residents living in private housing estates—has emerged in Hong Kong. What was the background underlying the emergence and subsequent growth of residents’ coach services? Also, what was the role of residents’ coach in the public transport system of Hong Kong? With the completion of more railway extensions, should residents’ coach services be replaced? If so, what are the potential impacts on people’s life? This paper addresses the above research questions through a large-scale questionnaire survey that examined not only people’s modal choice but also their residential choice, socio-economic background and attitudes. The findings suggest that transport policy makers should pay more attention to examine new forms of paratransit and the ways of integrating them into the overall public transport system, both spatially and temporally. It is only through the development of an efficient and multi-modal transport system can the maximum potential of paratransit in filling the transport gap between conventional mass transit and private cars be realized.     

Simple estimation of high-frequency radiation from a muffler shell

The acoustic design of exhaust mufflers has mainly focused on reducing the discharge noise from the tailpipe. However, the noise that is transmitted through the muffler jacket and the endplate becomes important since the muffler reduces the amount of discharge noise when it has an optimized design. It is known that the contribution to the overall exhaust noise of the muffler shell is significant in the mid- and high-frequency ranges. The current problem is that there are no appropriate computational tools at high frequencies. A simple method to analyze the 1/3-octave band of sound radiating from an arbitrary shape (like a muffler) was employed to predict the band spectrum of the radiated noise. The calculation method included formulating the boundary integral, which was modified into a quadratic form in order to enable the prediction of the intensity levels in a band analysis. Monopole and dipole source terms in the conventional BEM were transformed into the auto- and cross-spectra of the two vibrating sources, in which the cross-spectra could be eventually omitted by assuming that the correlation coefficients were negligible. The method was adopted in an abrupt calculation of the shell noise in 1/3-octave band levels without nonuniqueness problem. In comparison with the measured data, the simulation result showed roughly 3-dB errors at most of the field points, excluding several special points that were normal to the shell and exhibited a maximum 5-dB error.     

Vibration transmission reduction from a centrifugal turbo blower in a fuel cell electric vehicle

This paper presents a multi-body flexible dynamic analysis of a centrifugal turbo blower for a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the application of computer-aided engineering (CAE) to predict the acceleration at the mount position of the blower. This predicted acceleration is validated by using the measured acceleration data. The numerical simulation for the multi-body flexible dynamics of the blower is used not only to identify the most effective mount among four mounts in an FCEV by controlling the complex stiffness of the isolator, but also to suggest the range of complex stiffness of the isolator at the most effective mount. This numerical simulation technology can be useful for the estimation of the variation of vibration transmission for the structural modification of the turbo blower.     

Crash protection of Hybrid Electrical Vehicles for amending the KMVSS No. 91

This paper explores issues related to the electrical safety of Hybrid Electrical Vehicles (HEVs) during and after various crash events. Japanese and American federal regulations regarding occupant protection against high voltages in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and HEVs were surveyed and analyzed in this study. Front, side and rear impact tests for two types of HEVs were conducted to investigate electrolyte spillage, the retention of the propulsion battery system and the electrical isolation of the occupant. The test results met the related criteria. The test procedures and the criteria for occupant protection established through this study were amended to Korean Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (KMVSS) No. 91 to add the crash protection of the EVs and the HEVs.     

Experimental study of lightweight expanded polystyrene aggregate concrete containing silica fume and polypropylene fibers

We developed a new structural lightweight concrete by totally or partially replacing coarse and fine aggregates in high performance concrete by expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads. In this work,the sizes of EPS bead were 1.0,2.5 and 6.3 mm. Lightweight EPS concretes with a wide range of concrete densities and compressive strengths were successfully developed. Compressive strength,splitting tensile strength,shrinkage,and water absorption were examined. Additionally,fine silica fume (SF) and polypropylene (PP) f...     

Method for workspace calculation of 6R serial manipulator based on surface enveloping and overlaying

Aiming at the workspace calculation problem of multi-joint serial manipulators, a surface enveloping and overlaying (SEO) method is presented to identify and visualize the manipulator workspace. The SEO method is composed of two stages: the first stage is to choose reference points of the manipulator and calculate their boundary surfaces using the nth enveloping method; the second stage is to overlay these boundary surfaces to identify the final workspace. The SEO method is basically a combination of the analytic method and the numerical method. By delineating the graphic representation of the workspace step by step, the SEO method is easy to analyze the existence and the shape of voids and holes. The basic theory of the SEO method and formulas for workspace calculation are presented based on a 6R serial manipulator. By showing the workspace calculation results, the SEO method is proved working correctly.     

Fuzzy optimization of storage space allocation in a container terminal

A fuzzy optimization model of storage space allocation is proposed, and a rolling-planning method is derived. The model takes the uncertainty of departure time of import containers and arrival time of export containers into account. For each planning horizon, the problem is decomposed into two levels: the first level minimizes the unbalanced workloads among blocks using hybrid intelligence algorithm; based on block workloads allocated in the above level, the second level minimizes the number of blocks to which the same group of import containers are split. Numerical results show that the model reduces workload imbalance, and speeds up the vessel loading and discharging process.     

Initial conditions of impact dynamics

The effects of the initial conditions of impact dynamics equations are investigated numerically and experimentally. The inadequacies of previous studies on initial conditions are pointed out. Then a coefficient of velocity jump at the moment of impact is introduced, and the experiments for the mental rods are implemented to validate the appending constraints modeling methods for impact process. The comparisons between the experimental and simulated results at different coefficients are used to study the effects of the velocity jump conditions to the numerical simulation. The results indicate that the physical velocity response of bodies during impact is smooth; the different values of velocity jump only have small effects on numerical oscillation of velocity response, and they have no effects on the time history of impact force.     

A Discrete Bat Algorithm for Disassembly Sequence Planning

Based on the bat algorithm (BA), this paper proposes a discrete BA (DBA) approach to optimize the disassembly sequence planning (DSP) problem, for the purpose of obtaining an optimum disassembly sequence (ODS) of a product with a high degree of automation and guiding maintenance operation. The BA for solving continuous problems is introduced, and combining with mathematical formulations, the BA is reformed to be the DBA for DSP problems. The fitness function model (FFM) is built to evaluate the quality of disassembly sequences. The optimization performance of the DBA is tested and verified by an application case, and the DBA is compared with the genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and differential mutation BA (DMBA). Numerical experiments show that the proposed DBA has a better optimization capability and provides more accurate solutions than the other three algorithms.