大跨径连续刚构桥的温度效应分析

以魏家洲特大桥为例,按照我国公路桥涵设计规范、英国BS5400规范、新西兰规范确定不同的计算模式,对大跨径连续刚构桥进行温度效应分析,得出：温度应力在大跨径连续刚构桥整个桥梁设计中占有很大的比重,且采用不同的温度梯度计算模式,所得到的梁内温度应力值相差较大,甚至出现异号的温度应力.     

Wheel-rail contact models for vehicle system dynamics including multi-point contact

Advanced modelling of rail vehicle dynamics requires realistic solutions of contact problems for wheels and rails that are able to describe contact singularities, encountered for wheels and rails. The basic singularities demonstrate themselves as double and multiple contact patches. The solutions of the contact problems have to be known practically in each step of the numerical integration of the differential equations of the model. The existing fast, approximate methods of solution to achieve this goal have been outlined. One way to do this is to replace a multi-point contact by a set of ellipses. The other methods are based on so-called virtual penetration. They allow calculating the non-elliptical, multiple contact patches and creep forces online, during integration of the model. This allows nearly real-time simulations. The methods are valid and applicable for so-called quasi-Hertzian cases, when the contact conditions do not deviate much from the assumptions of the Hertz theory. It is believed that it is worthwhile to use them in other cases too.     

Fuzzy-logic applied to yaw moment control for vehicle stability

In this paper, we propose a new yaw moment control based on fuzzy logic to improve vehicle handling and stability. The advantages of fuzzy methods are their simplicity and their good performance in controlling non-linear systems. The developed controller generates the suitable yaw moment which is obtained from the difference of the brake forces between the front wheels so that the vehicle follows the target values of the yaw rate and the sideslip angle. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method when the vehicle is subjected to different cornering steering manoeuvres such as change line and J-turn under different driving conditions (dry road and snow-covered).     

Visualisation of uncertainty in probabilistic traffic models for policy and operations

This study investigates different methods to visualise uncertainty in static representations of probabilistic traffic models predictions on road-networks. Although various graphical cues may be used to represent uncertainty it is not a priori clear which of them are most suited for this purpose, since their legibility, intelligibility and the degree to which they interfere with other graphical elements in a representation differ widely. Several graphical uncertainty representations were therefore developed and analysed in expert sessions. A selection of the initial set of uncertainty visualisations was further evaluated in a cognitive alternative task-switching experiment. The results show that graphical representations are able to convey uncertainty information relatively accurately, while some uncertainty visualisations outperform others. It depends on the model and scenario which representation is most suited for a given application. This paper presents an overview of possible graphic uncertainty representations and the considerations involved when applying them to uncertainty in traffic model visualisations.     

Fully autonomous vehicles: analyzing transportation network performance and operating scenarios in the Greater Toronto Area,Canada

Fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to considerably change urban mobility in the future. This study simulates potential AV operating scenarios in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada, and assesses transportation system performance on a regional level. For each scenario, the base capacities of certain types of road links are modified to simulate the theoretical increase in throughput enabled by AV driving behavior. Another scenario examines driverless parking operations in downtown Toronto. Simulation results indicate that the increased attractiveness of freeways relative to other routes leads to slightly increased average travel distance as vehicles divert to access higher capacity road links. Average travel time is found to decrease by up to one-fifth at the 90% AV market penetration level. Concurrently, localized increases in congestion suggest that proactive transportation planning will be needed to mitigate negative consequences of AV adoption, especially in relation to induced demand for personal automobile travel.     

The identification and empirical characterization of vehicular (Lagrangian) fundamental diagrams in multilane traffic flow

Traditional macroscopic traffic flow modeling framework adopts the spatial–temporal coordinate system to analyze traffic flow dynamics. With such modeling and analysis paradigm, complications arise for traffic flow data collected from mobile sensors such as probe vehicles equipped with mobile phones, Bluetooth, and Global Positioning System devices. The vehicle‐based measurement technologies call for new modeling thoughts that address the unique features of moving measurements and explore their full potential. In this paper, we look into the concept of vehicular fundamental diagram (VFD) and discuss its engineering implications. VFD corresponds to a conventional fundamental diagram (FD) in the kinematic wave (KW) theory that adopts space–time coordinates. Similar to the regular FD in the KW theory, VFD encapsulates all traffic flow dynamics. In this paper, to demonstrate the full potential of VFD in interpreting multilane traffic flow dynamics, we generalize the classical Edie's formula and propose a direct approach of reconstructing VFD from traffic measurements in the vehicular coordinates. A smoothing algorithm is proposed to effectively reduce the nonphysical fluctuation of traffic states calculated from multilane vehicle trajectories. As an example, we apply the proposed methodology to explore the next‐generation simulation datasets and identify the existence and forms of shock waves in different coordinate systems. Our findings provide empirical justifications and further insight for the Lagrangian traffic flow theory and models when applied in practice. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Home-to-work commuting,urban form and potential energy savings: A local scale approach to regional statistics

The link between transport energy consumption and land use patterns has been the focus of a considerable amount of academic works over the past decades. While many empirical researches are backed up with solid statistical techniques, most of them do not fully consider the influence of scale underlying empirical quantitative investigations. Using fine-scale home-to-work commuting data for Wallonia (Belgium), this paper re-evaluates Breheny’s (1995) assertion that urban structure should hold the characteristics of major cities if substantial energy savings are to be achieved. A local scale approach highlights efficient settlements in terms of transport energy consumption not only within major towns, but also within remote rural areas. Furthermore, results suggest that influencing the urban form following local energy efficient examples rather than regional ones could also yield significant gains, without an extreme policy stance of re-urbanisation in major cities.     

Redefining activity types: Who participates in which leisure activity?

This paper analyzes the activity choices of individuals and the links between socio-demographics, daily schedules and activity attributes using a new activity choice framework. Activities are first clustered into groups based on their salient attributes, such as duration, frequency, flexibility, planning times, and number of involved persons, rather than their functional types (work, leisure and household obligations), using a K-means cluster technique. This led to the creation of several new activity groups such as “long, temporally fixed, personally flexible activities”, “short and flexible activities”. These activity groups form the choice set for the mixed logit activity choice modeling structure developed for the leisure activities in the second part of the paper. The model results reveal the significant relationships between socio-demographics, temporal characteristics, and characteristics of the schedules on leisure activity choice. The results demonstrate how changing demographics and other activities in individuals’ schedules may affect the nature of the leisure activities and present the substitution and complimentary effects that these new activity groups have on one another.     

Influence of vehicle driving parameters on the noise caused by passenger cars in urban traffic

In this work, a sample of vehicles has been instrumented to measure of variables that influence vehicle noise emissions in Madrid. A circuit reproducing a normal travel pattern in large city is traveled by a fleet of vehicle models representing the fleets of cars in a European city. A sample of drivers covers the test track under different traffic conditions. Driving parameters and noise emitted have been recorded in each test and average values have been extracted. These data have been analyzed to define the noise emissions produced by a vehicle in real driving conditions and to identify the noisiest driving behaviors.