Factors affecting the environmental impact of pavement wear

Wear at the interface between flexible pavements and tires influences pavement life, pavement cycle costs, and tire consumption, and is a source of environmental harm. Wear-related processes evolve over time and are affected by a number of boundary conditions, such as interface fluids, water and fuels. We develop a model explaining and predicting mass losses in flexible pavements under carefully controlled conditions, and with estimation of the related environmental costs. We also employed an accelerated loading test. Under normal conditions, the environmental impact of pavement wear is not greatly influenced by mix type or volumetrics. Indeed, the presence of hazmat materials, traditional, dense mixes have an environmental impact that is appreciably lower than that of porous European mixes.     

Equilibria of bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting on networks

This paper proposes an equilibrium model to characterize the bilateral searching and meeting between customers and taxis on road networks. A taxi driver searches or waits for a customer by considering both the expected searching or waiting time cost and ride revenue, and a customer seeks a taxi ride to minimize full trip price. We suppose that the bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting occurs anywhere in residential and commercial zones or at prescribed taxi stands, such as an airport or a railway station. We propose a meeting function to spell out the search and meeting frictions that arise endogenously as a result of the distinct spatial feature of the area and the taxi–customer moving decisions. With the proposed meeting function and the assumptions underlying taxi–customer search behaviors, the stationary competitive equilibrium achieved at fixed fare prices is determined when the demand of the customers matches the supply of taxis or there is market clearing at the prevailing searching and waiting times in every meeting location. We establish the existence of such an equilibrium by virtue of Brouwer’s fixed-point theorem and demonstrate its principal operational characteristics with a numerical example.     

Federal‐state revenue sharing and resource management under outer continental shelf lands act section 8(g)

Abstract

Section 8(g) was added to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) in 1978. It mandated sharing of the revenues from tracts that included oil and gas pools underlying the federal‐state boundary 3 miles offshore. Revenues were to be split based on agreements negotiated by the secretary of Interior and the relevant coastal state governor or “fair and equitable”; divisions made by the federal district courts. Only one agreement was concluded. Texas and Louisiana sued to force distribution of their shares of $6.1 billion in 8(g) funds held in escrow. In 1986 Congress divided the escrowed 8(g) revenues approximately 27 percent to the adjacent states and 73 percent to the federal government and legislated the same split for all future 8(g) revenues. This article examines the complex issues that section 8(g), as amended, raises for the management of federal and state submerged lands. Cooperative federal‐state approaches to implementing amended section 8(g) are reviewed. Section 8(g)'s broader implications as the only federal‐state ocean resource, revenue‐sharing mechanism currently in place also are addressed.     

Contracting in highway maintenance and rehabilitation: Are spatial effects important?

Highway agencies around the world strive to improve practices for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, using project delivery policies that range from total ‘in-house’ responsibility to complete privatization, with a number of flexible contracting policies such as performance-based contracting, variants of design-build-maintain, and lane rentals among others between these two extremes. In this paper, we present a methodology that duly accounts for underlying spatial effects and estimates the expected cost savings of innovative contracting policies for highway maintenance and rehabilitation relative to in-house execution of these activities. Spatial econometric modeling is used to analyze highway contract data from 49 countries. We also investigate the marginal effects of key explanatory variables on contract cost savings using spatial multipliers. Our findings show that there are significant relationships between cost savings and contract characteristics, and that there is an apparent direct relationship between the average cost savings of contracts in a country and contract average cost savings and contract sizes in neighboring countries.     

天然海水中15CDV6/MDN138及15CDV6/MDN250合金的电流相互作用（英文）

The galvanic corrosion behavior of the metal combinations 15 CDV6/MDN138 and 15 CDV6/MDN250, with 1:1 area ratio, has been studied in natural seawater using the open well facility of CECRI's Offshore Platform at Tuticorin for a year. The open circuit potentials of MDN138, MDN250, and 15 CDV6 of the individual metal, the galvanic potential and galvanic current of the couples 15 CDV6/MDN138 and 15 CDV6/MDN250, were periodically monitored throughout the study period. The calcareous deposits on MDN138 and MDN250 in galvanic contact with 15 CDV6 were analyzed using XRD. The electrochemical behavior of MDN138, MDN250, and 15 CDV6 in seawater was studied using an electrochemical work station. The surface characteristics of MDN138 and MDN250 in galvanic contact with 15 CDV6 have been examined with a scanning electron microscope. The results of the study reveal that the galvanic protection offered by15 CDV6 to MDN250 and MDN138 in natural seawater amounts to 93% and 98%, respectively, implying that the galvanic protection offered by 15 CDV6 is continuous and effective, which has been further evinced from the adherent nature of the calcareous deposit film comprising compounds such as CaCO_3(calcite, aragonite, and vaterite), MgCO_3(magnesite),Mg(OH)_2(brucite), and MgO(brucite).     

Model-based design of a variable nozzle turbocharger controller

Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT) was invented to solve the problem of matching an ordinary turbocharger with an engine. VNT can harness exhaust energy more efficiently, enhance intake airflow response and reduce engine emissions, especially during transient operating conditions. The difficulty of VNT control lies in how to regulate the position of the nozzle at different engine working conditions. The control strategy designed in this study is a combination of a closed-loop feedback controller and an open-loop feed-forward controller. The gain-scheduled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was implemented as the feedback controller to overcome the nonlinear characteristic. As it is difficult to tune the parameters of the gain-scheduled PID controller on an engine test bench, system identification was used to identify the plant model properties at different working points for a WP10 diesel engine on the test bench. The PID controller parameters were calculated based on the identified first-order-plus-dead-time (FOPDT) plant model. The joint simulation of the controller and the plant model was performed in Matlab/Simulink. The time-domain and frequency-domain performances of the entire system were evaluated. The designed VNT control system was verified with engine tests. The results indicated that the real boosting pressure traced the target boosting pressure well at different working conditions.     

Parameter identification for a LuGre model based on steady-state tire conditions

The purpose of this study was to effectively identify parameters for a LuGre friction model based on experimental measures. In earlier work related to this study (Yang et al., 2009), which was based on the characters of polygonal wear (Sueoka and Ryu, 1997), we showed a frictional vibration model for a mass on a moving belt. This model reflected lateral vibrations caused by velocity and toe-in angle. An important aspect of the present study is the improved friction model. A previous friction model, which divided the process into four parts, expressed the sable excited vibration well but failed to reflect the hysteresis loop change when vehicles accelerated or decelerated continuously. A LuGre friction model can solve this problem, but several model parameters must be obtained experimentally. We measured contact width and length of tires as vertical pressure changed; this provided a theoretical basis for apparent stiffness of a unit of tire tread. Based on tire data from Bakker E’s article in a SAE paper from 1987, we identified the Stribeck exponent and Stribeck velocity in LuGre. Then, the results were implemented in a vibration system that verified the rationality of the data.     

A frequency-based maritime container assignment model

This paper transfers the classic frequency-based transit assignment method of Spiess and Florian to containers demonstrating its promise as the basis for a global maritime container assignment model. In this model, containers are carried by shipping lines operating strings (or port rotations) with given service frequencies. An origin–destination matrix of full containers is assigned to these strings to minimize sailing time plus container dwell time at the origin port and any intermediate transhipment ports. This necessitated two significant model extensions. The first involves the repositioning of empty containers so that a net outflow of full containers from any port is balanced by a net inflow of empty containers, and vice versa. As with full containers, empty containers are repositioned to minimize the sum of sailing and dwell time, with a facility to discount the dwell time of empty containers in recognition of the absence of inventory. The second involves the inclusion of an upper limit to the maximum number of container moves per unit time at any port. The dual variable for this constraint provides a shadow price, or surcharge, for loading or unloading a container at a congested port. Insight into the interpretation of the dual variables is given by proposition and proof. Model behaviour is illustrated by a simple numerical example. The paper concludes by considering the next steps toward realising a container assignment model that can, amongst other things, support the assessment of supply chain vulnerability to maritime disruptions.     

Frequency-based transit assignment considering seat capacities

This paper proposes a frequency-based assignment model that considers travellers probability of finding a seat in their perception of route cost and hence also their route choice. The model introduces a “fail-to-sit” probability at boarding points with travel costs based on the likelihood of travelling seated or standing. Priority rules are considered; in particular it is assumed that standing on-board passengers will occupy any available seats of alighting passengers before newly boarding passengers can fill any remaining seats. At the boarding point passengers are assumed to mingle, meaning that FIFO is not observed, as is the case for many crowded bus and metro stops, particularly in European countries. The route choice considers the common lines problem and an user equilibrium solution is sought through a Markov type network loading process and the method of successive averages. The model is first illustrated with a small example network before being applied to the inner zone of London’s underground network. The effect of different values passengers might attach to finding a seat are illustrated. Applications of the model for transit planning as well as for information provision at the journey planner stage are discussed.