Flutter and Divergence Instabilities in Systems of Railway Wheelsets with Semi-rigid Articulation

For railway vehicles having coned wheels mounted on solid axles there is, in general, a conflict between stability of lateral deviations from the motion along the track and ability to steer round curves. However, certain configurations of three-axle vehicle can satisfy the requirement of perfect curving and for certain values of the system parameters are dynamically stable. In the case where three wheelsets have semi-rigid articulation and either the distribution of conicity amongst the wheelsets or the position of the articulation joint are varied, it is shown that both flutter and divergence instabilities can occur at low speeds, in contrast to the more common dynamic instabilities of other forms of railway vehicle which are driven by the inertia forces.     

Roll Dynamics of Commercial Vehicles

An analytical model is developed here for studying the roll dynamics of commercial vehicles. Large displacements and rotations are accounted for in this nonlinear model so that it can be used for the study of roll dynamics well beyond the limits of wheel lift-off. The model is used to illustrate some of the dynamic phenomena in vehicle rollover, especially the interactive coupling between the roll and the vertical modes of motion. The influence of suspension backlash on rollover resistance is demonstrated, and the phenomenon of roll motion resonance is illustrated to suggest new means for evaluating vehicle rollover sensitivity.     

The dynamic relationships between paper petroleum refining and physical trade of crude oil into the United States

This article examines the relationship between refinery margins traded on paper using petroleum futures (the paper refinery) and the physical trade of crude oil into the US. Computations of a 3:2:1 crack spread were constructed using daily observations of second- and third-nearby unleaded gasoline and heating oil futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NY MEX) and spot Brent crude oil prices. The crack spread represents the margin between the cost of crude oil feed stock today and the value of the products produced by a refinery in the future. Unit root tests on each of the time series found crack spreads to be stationary while crude oil imports were found to be non-stationary. A s the two series were found to be integrated of different order, cointegration analysis of the two series was not deemed appropriate. Instead, linear relationships between crack spreads and imports were examined using causality tests. It was found that the 2-month 3:2:1 crack spread Granger-causes crude oil imports and that this causality is unidirectional. The significance of these findings lies in the fact that other industries like tanker shipping derive their demand from the demand for, and trade in, petroleum. Crack spreads, therefore, can provide a leading indicator for short term developments in tanker demand. For a chartering manager who has ships on the spot market, crack spreads can help him/her anticipate demand developments and influence vessel deployment and chartering decisions.     

A bi‐level programming approach — Optimal transit fare under line capacity constraints

The fare of a transit line is one of the important decision variables for transit network design. It has been advocated as an efficient means of coordinating the transit passenger flows and of alleviating congestion in the transit network. This paper shows how transit fare can be optimized so as to balance the passenger flow on the transit network and to reduce the overload delays of passengers at transit stops. A bi‐level programming method is developed to optimize the transit fare under line capacity constraints. The upper‐level problem seeks to minimize the total network travel time, while the lower‐level problem is a stochastic user equilibrium transit assignment model with line capacity constraints. A heuristic solution algorithm based on sensitivity analysis is proposed. Numerical example is used to illustrate the application of the proposed model and solution algorithm.