An improved formulation for bulk cargo ship scheduling with a single loading port

This paper presents an improved, significantly more efficient formulation of an existing model for bulk cargo or semi-bulk cargo ship scheduling problems with a single loading port. The original model, published by Ronen in 1986, was formulated as a non-linear, mixed integer program. In this work, the authors were able to re-formulate it into a linear one, by eliminating all the non-linearities of the original model. In addition, this model has far fewer integer variables than the original one. A numerical example has been given to illustrate the elimination of non-linearities and how 40 integer variables, in the original model, are reduced to just eight. This example also shows that this model is better at finding exact optimal solutions than the original one. It is also worth observing that the resulting model is a generalization of the ‘capacitated facility location problem’.     

Optimal traffic assignment to urban streets with air pollution consideration

Traffic assignment is usually determined solely on the basis of minimum travel time through the network. The present study on traffic assignment has taken into account not only traffic performance but also air quality over the street. A simple model of highway air pollution is developed by considering macroscopic material balance of polluted air mass over a segment of a highway that passes through an urban area, A new traffic assignment scheme has been developed based on the air pollution model. The optimal traffic assignment obtained by the new scheme is affected significantly by meteorological conditions.     

Examining the influence of firm performance on business risk-taking and the mediation effect of scale of operations in the container terminal industry

Container shipping and its related service sectors help accelerate globalization of the world economy. This industry has been experiencing rapid growth, prompting container terminal operators to increase their handling capacity in response. Providing container terminal services requires substantial capital investment in physical assets such as cargo handling facilities and information systems. On the other hand, operating container terminals is a long-term investment that typically spans several business cycles. Hence prudent asset management using appropriate tools is critical for container terminal operators to sustain their businesses. Generally, due to risk-adverseness, investors are unwilling to take more risk in their investment unless they can reap a higher return. Contrary to this argument, this study finds no direct influence of better firm performance as a proxy of higher return on business risk-taking by container terminal operators. Instead, scale of operations is positively associated with business risk-taking, suggesting that container terminal operators with a larger scale of operations are willing to take more business risk.     

Nonlinear three-dimensional wagon-track model for the investigation of rail corrugation initiation on curved track

A nonlinear wagon-track model on curved track has been developed to characterize rail corrugation formation due to self-excitation of the wheel-rail stick-slip process. In this model, wagon movements were described using up to 78 degrees of freedom (DOFs) to model a three-piece freight bogie. Innovatively, the wheelset movements are described using nine DOFs, including torsional and bending modes about the longitudinal and vertical directions. The track modelling is considered as a one-layer structure (two rail beams on discrete spring and damper elements). The wheel sliding after creepage saturation is considered in the wheel-rail interface modelling. Simulation of a case study shows that the frequencies of the wheel stick-slip process are composed of the basic frequency, which might come from the combined effect of sleeper-passing frequency and one-third of the combined torsional and bending frequency of the wheelset, and the double and triple basic frequencies, which form the wavelengths of rail corrugation at different situations.     

Short-term Hourly Traffic Forecasts using Hong Kong Annual Traffic Census

The need for acquiring the current-year traffic data is a problem for transport planners since such data may not be available for on-going transport studies. A method is proposed in this paper to predict hourly traffic flows up to and into the near future, using historical data collected from the Hong Kong Annual Traffic Census (ATC). Two parametric and two non-parametric models have been employed and evaluated in this study. The results show that the non-parametric models (Non-Parametric Regression (NPR) and Gaussian Maximum Likelihood (GML)) were more promising for predicting hourly traffic flows at the selected ATC station. Further analysis encompassing 87 ATC stations revealed that the NPR is likely to react to unexpected changes more effectively than the GML method, while the GML model performs better under steady traffic flows. Taking into consideration the dynamic nature of the common traffic patterns in Hong Kong and the advantages/disadvantages of the various models, the NPR model is recommended for predicting the hourly traffic flows in that region.     

Development of hot stamped center pillar using form die with channel type indirect blank holder

The hot stamping process has been used in the automotive industry to reduce the weight of the body-in-white and to increase passenger safety via improved crashworthiness. However, defects such as fracture and wrinkle occur when hot stamping is performed using a conventional drawing or forming method. In this study, a channel-type indirect blank holder (CIBH) is proposed to develop a high-strength center pillar in form-type hot stamping, so that the aforementioned drawbacks are overcome. This type of blank holder plays an important role in reducing severe wrinkling at the flange; such wrinkling leads to folding after the completion of form-type hot-stamping. First, we investigated the effect of the channel shape on the indirect blank holding force by using a simplified two-dimensional plane-strain stamping process. Second, we selected the slope angle and corner radius of the channel as the main shape parameters by finite element analysis and artificial neural network (ANN). It is known that fracture at the hot formed wall and wrinkle at the flange are significantly affected by the slope angle of the channel, and the appropriate value for eliminating fracture and wrinkle is determined to be 99°. By performing hot stamping using a form die with the selected channel, we can manufacture a high-strength center pillar without wrinkle and fracture.     

Computer Simulation of Thermal-Mechanical Processing

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Implementation of discharging/charging current sensorless state-of-charge estimator reflecting cell-to-cell variations in lithium-ion series battery packs

This paper offers novel insights to the design and implementation of an innovative state-of-charge (SOC) estimator for the lithium-ion (Li-Ion) series battery pack. The most interesting feature of this approach is that it can utilize information from each filtered terminal voltage of the Li-Ion cells connected in series for SOC estimation of the battery pack. Without actual sensing each discharging/charging current (DCC) applied to the Li-Ion cells, it is possible to extract each DCC estimation from the corresponding filtered terminal voltages with an equivalent electrical circuit model (EECM) identification of all Li-Ion cells in the battery pack. There are two advantages to SOC estimation of the battery pack with this approach. First, the proposal can be implemented simply and effectively, reducing the computational steps required for SOC estimation. By reducing computational steps, the proposal is expected to be more cost-effective. Second, the approach guarantees an improved SOC performance, even if the battery pack results in inevitable cell-to-cell variation among Li-Ion cells. Accordingly, there are fewer differences to previously estimated DCCs among Li-Ion cells. Specifically, all values from the estimated DCCs are properly compensated for by simultaneous parameter modification according to each cell’s electrochemical characteristics. Experimental results clearly demonstrate that our DCC sensorless SOC estimator provides robust SOC performance for the battery pack. This approach considered an experimental battery pack (12S1P) connected in series using 2.6 Ah LiCoO2 cells produced by Samsung SDI.     

Study of in-vehicle route guidance systems for improvement of right-side drivers in the Japanese traffic system

A country can adopt one of two standards for traffic flow — cars may travel on the left or right side of the road. When drivers who are accustomed to driving on the right side of the road drive on the left side, and vice versa, the mental workload is likely increased due to the driver’s unfamiliarity with a new language, the position of the driver’s seat, different driving directions, and other factors that differ from those of their home country. One method of doing this is to make sure that the in-vehicle route guidance information (RGI) is not overly complicated — thereby assisting drivers in improving their safety. Consequently, the aim of this study was to facilitate mobility and improve safety for natural right-side drivers driving temporarily in left-side traffic. In this study, driver behavior and workload — given various types of RGI — were evaluated in a driving simulator with a variety of prescribable test conditions. This research was composed of two experiments. In the first, various types of in-vehicle route guidance systems were tested and evaluated in terms of their characteristics and associated driver behaviors (while driving). In the second experiment, systemic factors and effectiveness were evaluated by two combined systems, arrow and map-type information, based on the results of the first experiment. In light of both experiments, the various types of route guidance systems were discussed in terms of their results. A navigation system was proposed to alleviate some of the secondary tasks such as route selection.