Modeling the spatial and temporal dimensions of recreational activity participation with a focus on physical activities

This study presents a unified framework to understand the weekday recreational activity participation time-use of adults, with an emphasis on the time expended in physically active recreation pursuits by location and by time-of-day. Such an analysis is important for a better understanding of how individuals incorporate physical activity into their daily activities on a typical weekday, and can inform the development of effective policy interventions to facilitate physical activity. Furthermore, such a study of participation and time use in recreational activity episodes contributes to activity-based travel demand modeling, since recreational activity participation comprises a substantial share of individuals’ total non-work activity participation. The methodology employed here is the multiple discrete continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model, which provides a unified framework to explicitly and endogenously examine time use by type, location, and timing. The data for the empirical analysis is drawn from the 2000 Bay Area Travel Survey (BATS), supplemented with other secondary sources that provide information on physical environment variables. To our knowledge, this is the first study to jointly address the issues of ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how much’ individuals choose to participate in ‘what type of (recreational) activity’.     

Advances in population synthesis: fitting many attributes per agent and fitting to household and person margins simultaneously

Agent-based microsimulation models of transportation, land use or other socioeconomic processes require an initial synthetic population derived from census data, conventionally created using the iterative proportional fitting (IPF) procedure. This paper introduces a novel computational method that allows the synthesis of many more attributes and finer attribute categories than previous approaches, both of which are long-standing limitations discussed in the literature. Additionally, a new approach is used to fit household and person zonal attribute distributions simultaneously. This technique was first adopted to address limitations specific to Canadian census data, but could also be useful in U.S. and other applications. The results of each new method are evaluated empirically in terms of goodness-of-fit.     

Investigation on maneuverability of a twin-screw ship driven by one screw

It is possible for a twin-screw ship that one screw failure occurs during navigation, and the maneuverability in this case should be noticed by ship designers and operators. It is of great significance to evaluate the related risk. Firstly, a mathematical model for the twin-screw ship maneuvering motion with one failed screw is developed based on the maneuvering model group (MMG) equations, and verified by the model test results. Secondly, the maneuvering motions of a twin-screw liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship with one free rotating failure screw or with one locked failure screw are simulated and compared by using the mathematical model. It is shown that the numerical modeling results are in agreement with the model test results. Compared with those of normal navigation, the port turning ability of the ship with one failed port screw is better, but the starboard turning ability and yaw checking ability become worse. The maneuverability of the ship with locked failure screw is better than that with free failure screw, although the ship speed drops obviously.     

Warship spare parts configuration optimization for stock control: Investigating the gap between qualitative and quantitative constraints

This paper investigates the gap between qualitative and quantitative constraints in spare parts stock control, with specific reference to warship spare parts support projects. A critical literature review of theoretical contributions about qualitative or quantitative factors for warship spare parts warehouse management is firstly provided, which allows to analyze the reasons for this qualitative-quantitative gap by addressing the limitations of spare parts models developed in the literature. Therefore a model including cloud model, marginal analysis and Lagrange multiplier method (CML) for study is proposed in this paper to bridge the gap. The model is used to solve the mix-constraints (both qualitative and quantitative constraints are considered) problem in a logic decision diagram particularly at the different decision nodes of the diagram. Finally, verifying test results show that the algorithm is feasible and its optimal support project meets the needs of engineering practices.     

Theoretical analysis of Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped telluride glass fiber amplifier for 2.700 μm laser amplification

The rate equations and power evolution equations of erbium-doped telluride glass fiber amplifier for both 1.530 and 2.700 μm lasers are solved numerically, the dependences of gain spectra on fiber length, dopant concentration and pump power are analyzed, and the gain of 2.700 μm laser is calculated and compared with the experimental result from reference. The numerical analysis shows that with 8 × 10²⁴ ion/m³ erbium ion concentration, 5m fiber length and 600mW pump power, the gains at 1.530 and 2.700 μm may achieve 23dB or so. With larger power pump and higher dopant concentration, a net gain of 17 dB is obtained from the Er³⁺-doped telluride glass fiber amplifier for 110mW input signal. This fiber amplifier is promising for both 1.530 μm signal amplification and 2.700 μm laser amplification.     

A new fractal model of elastic,elastoplastic and plastic normal contact stiffness for slow sliding interface considering dynamic friction and strain hardening

The deflection properties of elastic stage, elastoplastic stage and plastic stage of elastomer were analyzed. Taking account of the kinetic friction force in friction interface and strain hardening in slow sliding interface, the elastic, elastoplastic and plastic normal contact stiffness model for harsh surface was established, which revised the Majumdar-Bhushan fractal model and made it more perfect. In the combination of macro and micro perspective, the effects of coarse surface fractal variables, kinetic friction force in the friction interface, material characters of the friction couples on the contact status and contact property were discussed by the study of digital analysis. Results imply that the normal contact stiffness improves with the increasing real contact area and normal contact load, and reduces with the augment of kinetic friction coefficient. When the kinetic friction coefficient is smaller than 0.3, the normal contact stiffness comprises a linear decrease with the increment of kinetic friction coefficient. When the kinetic friction coefficient is bigger than 0.3, the normal contact stiffness has an exponential decrease with the increasing kinetic friction coefficient.     

Substructuring technique for dynamics analysis of flexible beams with large deformation

In this paper, the substructuring technique is extended for the dynamics simulation of flexible beams with large deformation. The dynamics equation of a spatial straight beam undergoing large displacement and small deformation is deduced by using the Jourdain variation principle and the model synthesis method. The longitudinal shortening effect due to the transversal deformation is taken into consideration in the dynamics equation. In this way, the geometric stiffening effect, which is also called stress stiffening effect, is accounted for in the dynamics equation. The transfer equation of the flexible beam is obtained by assembling the dynamics equation and the kinematic relationship between the two connection points of the flexible beam. Treating a flexible beam with small deformation as a substructure, one can solve the dynamics of a flexible beam with large deformation by using the substructuring technique and the transfer matrix method. The dynamics simulation of a flexible beam with large deformation is carried out by using the proposed approach and the results are verified by comparing with those obtained from Abaqus software.     

Minimum resistance ship hull uncertainty optimization design based on simulation-based design method

In the ship hull optimization design based on simulation-based design (SBD) technology, low precision of the approximate model leads to an uncertainty form of optimization model. In order to enable the approximate model with finite precision to maximize the effectiveness, uncertainty optimization method is introduced here. Wave resistance coefficient approximation model, built by back propagation (BP) neural network, is represented as a form of interval. Afterwards, a minimum resistance optimization model is established with the design space constituted by principal dimensions and ship form coefficients. Double-level nested optimization architecture is proposed: for outer layer, improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm with learning factor improvement strategy is used to generate design variables, and for inner layer, modified very fast simulated annealing (MVFSA) algorithm is used to solve the objective function interval with uncertainty region. Cases calculation proves the effectiveness and superiority of uncertainty optimization method for ship hull SBD optimization design, thus providing a good way for finding optimal designs.     

Multi-scale simulation for the forming of a heavy vessel head considering the evolution of defects and microstructure

The head of nuclear pressure vessel is a key component to guarantee the safety of nuclear power plant, so it is necessary to improve its mechanical properties during manufacturing. In the practical production, due to the huge size of the ingots from which the head is manufactured, coarse grains and voids are common defects existing in the material. Furthermore, cracks may appear in the forming process. It is highly demanded that the forming process must be properly designed with suitable parameters to compact the voids, to refine and homogenize the grains and to avoid cracks. Therefore, the research on the evolution of internal voids, grain size and cracks is very important to determine the forming process of huge components. SA508-3 steel is the material to manufacture the head of pressure vessel in the nuclear island. In the previous studies, we have separately built models to evaluate the evolution of internal voids, grain size and cracks during the hot forming process for SA508-3 steel. This study integrates the models for multi-scale simulation of the forging process of the head of nuclear pressure vessel in order to control the quality of the forgings. Through the software development, the models are integrated with a commercial finite element code DEFORM. Then, the extended forging and final forging processes of the head are investigated, and some appropriate deformation parameters are recommended.     

Priority based data reporting algorithm in wireless sensor networks

A cluster-based organization with two phases to separate priority calculation and network activity operations is developed. In the election-state phase, clusters are organized by those nodes with sufficient residual energy level (REL) that are distributed as evenly as possible in the network. For each network round, each node decides its role (such as, cluster header (CH) or a normal node) and its priority level for activity operation. The priority level also affects the active/sleep scheduling in the node. In the steady-state phase, the positive priority levels of active nodes determine their activity order to avoid transmission collision, and to reduce redundant data transmission and sensing coverage. Since the data reporting to the sink is usually performed by a CH delivery chain, subsidiary CHs are selected to assist with data delivery and to share the loading of CHs. The formulae for computing priority levels are analyzed and verified by the examples with valid parameters. The experimental results show that the two phases efficiently consume node energy and achieve energy savings.