巴黎恢复CDG快速线作为PPP项目

巴黎恢复了从市中心到戴高乐机场的快速轨道交通线，将它作为一个公私合作项目（PPP）来建设，预计2012年开通。     

Effect of mass ratio on hydrodynamic response of a flexible cylinder

The effect of the mass ratio on the flow-induced vibration (FIV) of a flexible circular cylinder is experimentally investigated in a towing tank. A Tygon tube with outer and inner diameters of 7.9 mm and 4.8 mm, respectively, was employed for the study. The tube was connected to a carriage and towed from rest to a steady speed up to 1.6 m/s before slowing down to rest again over a distance of 1.6 m in still water. Reynolds number based on the cylinder’s outer diameter was 800–13,000, and the reduced velocity (velocity normalized by the cylinder’s natural frequency and outer diameter) spanned from 2 to 25. When connected, the cylinder was elongated from 420 mm to 460 mm under an axial pre-tension of 11 N. Based on the cylinder’s elongated length, the aspect ratio (ratio of the cylinder’s length to outer diameter) was calculated as 58. Three mass ratios (ratio of the cylinder’s structural mass to displaced fluid mass, m*) of 0.7, 1.0, and 3.4 were determined by filling the cylinder’s interior with air, water, and alloy powder (nickel-chromium-boron matrix alloy), respectively. An optical method was adopted for response measurements. Multi-frequency vibrations were observed in both in-line (IL) and cross-flow (CF) responses; at high Reynolds number, vibration modes up to the 3^rd one were identified in the CF response. The mode transition was found to occur at a lower reduced velocity for the highest tested mass ratio. The vibration amplitude and frequency were quantified and expressed with respect to the reduced velocity. A significant reduced vibration amplitude was found in the IL response with increasing mass ratios, and only initial and upper branches existed in the IL and CF response amplitudes. The normalized response frequencies were revealed to linearly increase with respect to the reduced velocity, and slopes for linear relations were found to be identical for the three cases tested.     

Modeling and solving discrete network design problem with stochastic user equilibrium

In this paper, we address the discrete network design problem, which determines the addition of new roads to existing transportation network to optimize the transportation system performance. Road users are assumed to follow the traffic assignment principle of stochastic user equilibrium. A mixed‐integer nonlinear nonconvex problem is developed to model this discrete network design problem with stochastic user equilibrium. The original problem is relaxed into a convex mixed‐integer nonlinear program, whose solution provides a lower bound of the original problem. The relaxed problem is then embedded into two proposed global optimization solution algorithms to obtain the global optimal solution of the problem. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Revisiting the application of simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation towards signal timing optimization

Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) has gained favor as an efficient optimization method for calibrating computationally intensive, “black box” traffic flow simulations. Few recent studies have investigated the efficiency of SPSA for traffic signal timing optimization. It is important for this to be investigated, because significant room for improvement exists in the area of signal optimization. Some signal timing methods and products perform optimization very quickly, but deliver mediocre solutions. Other methods and products deliver high-quality solutions, but at a very slow rate. When using commercialized desktop signal timing products, engineers are often forced to choose between speed and solution quality. Real-time adaptive control products, which must optimize timings within seconds on a cycle-by-cycle basis, have limited time to reach a high-quality solution. The existing literature indicates that SPSA provides the potential for upgrading both off-line and on-line solutions alike, by delivering high-quality solutions within seconds. This article describes an extensive set of optimization tests involving SPSA and genetic algorithms (GAs). The final results suggest that GA was slightly more efficient than SPSA. Moreover, the results suggest today's signal timing solutions could be improved significantly by incorporating GA, SPSA, and “playbooks” of preoptimized starting points. However, it may take another 5–10 years before our computers become fast enough to simultaneously optimize coordination settings (i.e., cycle length, phasing sequence, and offsets) at numerous intersections, using the most powerful heuristic methods, at speeds that are compatible with real-time adaptive solutions.