Structural Evaluation for Maputo Airport Pavement

Introduction Structural evaluation of pavements provides awealth of information that concerns the expected be-havior of pavements[1]. Different asphalt pavementdesign and evaluation methods are described inRefs.[2-9]. Refs.[2-5,9,10] use two design meth-o…     

A GIS‐based method to identify cost‐effective routes for rural deviated fixed route transit

Deviated fixed route transit (DFRT) service connecting rural and urban areas is a growing transportation mode in the USA. Little research has been done to develop frameworks for route design. A methodology to explore the most cost‐effective DFRT route is presented in this paper. The inputs include potential DFRT demand distribution and a road network. A heuristic is used to build possible routes by starting at urban cores and extending in all network directions in certain length increments. All the DFRT routes falling in the length range desired by the users are selected. The cost effectiveness of those routes, defined by operating cost per passenger trip, is compared. The most cost‐effective route is selected and presented in a GIS map. A case study illustrates the methodology in several Tennessee metropolitan regions. The most cost‐effective route length is case specific; some routes (e.g. those out of our Nashville case) are most cost effective when short, while others (e.g. those out of Memphis) are most cost effective when long. Government agencies could use the method to identify routes with the lowest operating cost per passenger given a route length or an operating cost budget. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mathematical model for optimising the sequence for clearing snow from the manoeuvring area during winter operations

This article considers the optimisation of the sequence for clearing snow from stretches of the manoeuvring area of an airport. This issue involves the optimisation of limited resources to remove snow from taxiways and runways thereby leaving them in an acceptable condition for operating aircraft. The airfield is divided into subsets of significant stretches for the purpose of operations and target times are established during which these are open to aircraft traffic. The document contains several mathematical models each with different functions, such as the end time of the process, the sum of the end times of each stretch and gap between the estimated and the real end times. During this process, we introduce different operating restrictions on partial fulfilment of the operational targets as applied to zones of special interest, or relating to the operation of the snow‐clearing machines. The problem is solved by optimisation based on linear programming. The article gives the results of the computational tests carried out on five distinct models of the manoeuvring area, which cover increasingly complex situations and larger areas. The mathematical model is particularised for the case of the manoeuvring area of Adolfo Suarez Madrid—Barajas Airport. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Highlights
• Optimal sequence for clearing snow from the manoeuvring area of an airport.
• Contains optimising algorithms solved using CPLEX LP‐based tree search.
• Restrictions on partial fulfilment of operational targets applied to subsets of significant stretches, used for planning the operation of snow‐clearing machines.
• Model applied to the case of the manoeuvring area of Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas Airport.
• Conclusions are given on the results of the computational tests carried out. There are five models of the manoeuvring area which cover increasingly complex situations and larger areas.

     

On the implementation of an auxiliary pantograph for speed increase on existing lines

The contact between pantograph and catenary at high speeds suffers from high dynamic contact force variation due to stiffness variations and wave propagation. To increase operational speed on an existing catenary system, especially for soft catenary systems, technical upgrading is usually necessary. Therefore, it is desirable to explore a more practical and cost-saving method to increase the operational speed. Based on a 3D pantograph–catenary finite element model, a parametric study on two-pantograph operation with short spacing distances at high speeds shows that, although the performance of the leading pantograph gets deteriorated, the trailing pantograph feels an improvement if pantographs are spaced at a proper distance. Then, two main positive effects, which can cause the improvement, are addressed. Based on a discussion on wear mechanisms, this paper suggests to use the leading pantograph as an auxiliary pantograph, which does not conduct any electric current, to minimise additional wear caused by the leading pantograph. To help implementation and achieve further improvement under this working condition, this paper investigates cases with optimised uplift force on the leading pantograph and with system parameter deviations. The results show that the two positive effects still remain even with some system parameter deviations. About 30% of speed increase should be possibly achieved still sustaining a good dynamic performance with help of the optimised uplift force.     

Practicability study on the suitability of artificial,neural networks for the approximation of unknown steering torques

For steer-by-wire systems, the steering feedback must be generated artificially due to the system characteristics. Classical control concepts require operating-point driven optimisations as well as increased calibration efforts in order to adequately simulate the steering torque in all driving states. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are an innovative control concept; they are capable of learning arbitrary non-linear correlations without complex knowledge of physical dependencies. The present study investigates the suitability of neural networks for approximating unknown steering torques. To ensure robust processing of arbitrary data, network training with a sufficient volume of training data is required, that represents the relation between the input and target values in a wide range. The data were recorded in the course of various test drives. In this research, a variety of network topologies were trained, analysed and evaluated. Though the fundamental suitability of ANNs for the present control task was demonstrated.     

The chatter of racing motorcycles

The chatter of motorcycles appears during braking and consists of a vibration of the rear and front unsprung masses at a frequency in the range of 17-22 Hz depending on the motorcycle. This vibration could be very strong and acceleration of the unsprung masses can reach 5-10 g. The chatter is an auto-excited vibration and this fact explains why it appears suddenly when the mechanism of auto-excitation is generated. This paper presents the chatter phenomenon both from an experimental and a numerical point of view. First, the chatter is defined on the basis of some experimental data from racing motorcycles and from the comments of some racing teams technicians. Then, chatter is analysed in different motion conditions and for different braking styles by means of linear and non-linear simulations of the motorcycle dynamics. A physical interpretation of the phenomenon is also proposed.     

A fundamental investigation of tilt control systems for narrow commuter vehicles

One way of addressing traffic congestion is by efficiently utilizing the existing highway infrastructure. Narrow tilting vehicles that need a reduced width lane can be part of the solution if they can be designed to be safe, stable, and easy to operate. In this paper, a control system that stabilizes the tilt mode of such a vehicle without affecting the handling of the vehicle is proposed. This control system is a combination of two different types of control schemes known as steering tilt control (STC) and direct tilt control (DTC) systems. First, different existing variations of both STC and DTC systems are considered and their shortcomings analysed. Modified control schemes are then suggested to overcome the deficiencies. Then a new method of integrating these two control schemes that guarantees smooth switchover between the controllers as a function of vehicle velocity is proposed. The performance of the proposed STC, DTC, and integrated systems is evaluated by carrying out simulations for different operating conditions and some experimental work. The design of a second-generation narrow tilting vehicle on which the developed control system has been implemented is presented.     

Transient design waves for green-water loading on bulk carriers

The wave surface profiles associated with extreme relative motion between a slender stationary vessel and the adjacent wave surface are investigated for long-crested head seas. The methodology is based upon an established statistical relationship for a Gaussian random process which indi-cates that in the vicinity of an extreme event the most probable shape of the time history approaches that of the autocorrelation function. Attention is given to the relative motion at a longitudinal position which is representative of the No. 1 hatch cover location on a bulk carrier. Second-order corrections to the wave surface profiles are used to provide estimates of nonlinear relative motions. It is shown that extreme relative motion at the hatch cover location is associated with the vessel encountering a steep-fronted wave with pronounced asymmetry in the horizontal and vertical directions. In order to evaluate the exceedence probabilities, it is hypothesized that the peaks of the nonlinear relative motions are closely correlated with the peaks of an underlying linear process. The overall methodology is applied to an investigation of relative motion exceedence probabilities for vessel lengths of 250 m and 300 m over a range of survival seastates. Received: July, 1999 / Accepted: November, 1999     

Roll-on/roll-off semi-trailer models: a comparison of results

A comparison is made of the various mathematical models that have been constructed, over the past 15 years, of a semi-trailer that can be carried on roll-on/roll-off ships, and some results from five of the models developed by the author are given. The purpose of this comparison is to show that even in the absence of reliable experimental evidence, there is such good agreement between the models that the results from each of them can be relied upon. Problems resulting from large lashing loads and deck loads are highlighted, and it is suggested that the present codes which govern the way semi-trailers are secured on board ship need further scrutiny. Received: January 28, 2000 / Accepted: December 6, 2000     

Windows CE操作系统在机车显示器上的应用研究

介绍Windows CE操作系统的特点,阐述了将嵌入式操作系统Windows CE应用在机车显示器上的整个开发过程,并对其应川结果进行了总结。