A medium term transport research strategy for the EEC

Abstract

Part 1 elicited major research issues and opportunities in the transport sector in the EEC from an examination of a range of planning scenarios. This article relates those issues and opportunities to the needs of the EEC transport sector policy formation and derives a set of research recommendations. The respective roles of the EEC and other institutions in developing and meeting the research needs are then discussed, concluding with some institutional proposals for the strengthening of the organization of the strategic research effort of the EEC in the transport sector.     

Determining the effects of scheduling on automated automobile guideway utilization

This paper develops an analytic approach for measuring the effect of vehicle scheduling and of metering methods required to balance entrance rates among stations on lane capacity utilization of automated automobile guideways. The scheduling process at each entrance is represented by a probabilistic model which generates a system of nonlinear equations. The solution of this system yields the maximum steady state input rates at the entrances to the guideway system. The method developed is applicable to network configurations in which a small number of merges must be scheduled for each vehicle before it enters the guideway. It is demonstrated by application to a corridor guideway serving a major activity center during peak inbound demand, and also it is shown how the approach may be extended to more complex networks.     

Rail travel and the Leisure market in great Britain

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing and inducing leisure travel; to convey the sensitivity of rail travel receipts to the performance of the economy and more particularly family and personal disposable incomes; to examine the potential for further market research; and finally, to determine ways and means of attracting marginal revenue in the sustainable recreation/tourism sphere to a major public sector asset.

The paper focuses on leisure marketing by Britain's national railway corporation, British Rail (BR), and the relevant activities of its three passenger business sectors: Network SouthEast (NSE), which operates regional and local services in London and the South East (though not the London ‘tube’ system); Regional Railways, which operates regional and local services elsewhere in Great Britain; and InterCity, which operates the long distance express services.

The paper reviews BR's fares promotions of recent years and in particular draws on some examples taken from Regional Railways. This sector is now the only business of British Rail which in principle is subject to a significant public grant, to meet the obligation of a minimum level of service on social grounds. Of the other two passenger businesses, Network SouthEast receives a grant but the current intention is that it should operate on a breakeven basis from the 1992/93 financial year; InterCity runs on a purely commercial basis.     

Causal linkages between highways and sector-level employment

While transport infrastructure investments have usually been viewed to have long-term impacts on employment, what is perhaps not immediately clear is the direction of causality. This paper has sought to disentangle the causal relationship between highway infrastructure and employment, using panel data for the 48 contiguous US states from 1984 to 1997. Of particular emphasis in this analysis is the sectoral differences in the causal and spatial effects of highway capacity expansions for employment growth in alternative sectors of the economy. The results indicate that lane-mile additions of own-state major highways could increase state employment growth in the services sector while reducing growth in manufacturing. However, the causal relationship is also found to work the other way around. That is, both the rapid growth in services employment and the slowdown in manufacturing jobs temporally lead to increases in roadway capacity of non-interstate major roads. Our analysis also shows that highway infrastructure could produce both positive and negative employment spillovers across states. We find that improvements in non-interstate major roads outside the state border are beneficial to the manufacturing sector which generally serves regional and national markets. For the services sector, however, employment gains from interstate highways in the same state may come at the expense of other states as there is clear evidence of negative employment spillovers from interstate lane-mile additions.     

Data display techniques for transportation analysis and planning: an investigation of three computer‐produced graphics

Graphics are a powerful but often costly means of communication. Computer‐drawn graphics offer a new and relatively inexpensive way to assist the communication of complex technical information to both planners and non‐technical people whose full potential is now beginning to be realized. This paper discusses the utility of graphics and introduces three computer‐drawn graphic techniques which may be useful, both for analysis and presentation of results, in the transportation planning process. CENVUE(S) produces a three‐dimensional, perspective‐view map, on which virtually any type of transportation data or performance indicator can be displayed. VAP is designed to display origin‐destination travel patterns in any region. TDN transforms a physical‐distance network into a time‐distance network so that effects of different speeds in the transportation network can be readily seen. The cost‐effectiveness of each technique is briefly discussed and some recommendations for evaluating computer graphics techniques are provided to aid the user in further assessing their utility in the transportation planning process.     

Analysis of disc brake instability due to friction-induced vibration using a distributed parameter model

This paper deals with friction-induced vibration of a disc brake system with a constant friction coefficient. A linear, lumped, and distributed parameter model to represent the floating caliper disc brake system is proposed. The complex eigenvalues are used to investigate the dynamic stability, and, in order to verify simulations which are based on the theoretical model, an experimental modal test and dynamometer test are performed. The comparison of experimental and theoretical results shows good agreement, and the analysis indicates that modal coupling due to friction forces is responsible for disc brake squeal. Also, squeal type instability is investigated, using a parametric analysis. This indicates which parameters have influence on the propensity of brake squealing. This is helpful for validating the analysis model and establishing confidence in the experimental results of the modified system. These results may also be useful during system development or diagnostic analysis.     

Investigation of the shear flows over a sunroof opening based on a linear inviscid instability analysis

The large-scale shear flows over the sunroof opening of a mid-sized SUV measured using a PIV system were investigated. The shear flows were measured for five different cases of deflector protrusion (one case was the baseline test without deflector) at two different free stream flow velocities below the critical velocity where the buffeting noise level reached a maximum. The structures of the shear flows were observed to differ, apparently depending on whether the radiated buffeting noise is relatively strong or not. For strongly buffeting experimental cases, the momentum thicknesses of the shear layers were observed to grow rapidly and saturated at a station near the downstream edge of the sunroof opening, where the saturation of the transverse velocity fluctuations was also observed, and where the vortex coalescence process was presumably completed. On the other hand, no discrete large-scale vortex structures were observed for none-buffeting or weakly buffeting cases. Streamwise growth of the velocity fluctuations was found to be well predicted by a linear hydrodynamic instability analysis for the strongly buffeting cases. Numerical results obtained from a linear inviscid instability analysis using a hyperbolic tangent mean velocity profile were used to calculate the amplification factors with the initial momentum thickness and the streamwise fluctuation wavenumber. The shear flows were found to form large-scale discrete vortices when the linear inviscid amplification factors exceeded a threshold amplification factor.     

Effects of mixture stratification on HCCI combustion of DME in a rapid compression and expansion machine

Compression ignition of homogeneous charges in internal combustion (IC) engines is expected to offer high efficiency of DI diesel engines without high levels of NOx and particulate emissions. This study is intended to find ways of extending the rich limit of HCCI operation, one of the problems yet to be overcome. Exhaust emissions characteristics are also explored through analyses of the combustion products. DME fuel, either mixed with air before induction or directly injected into the combustion chamber of a rapid compression and expansion machine, is compressed to ignite under various conditions of compression ratio, equivalence ratio, and injection timing. The characteristics of the resulting combustion and exhaust emissions are discussed in terms of the rate of heat release computed from the measured pressure, and the concentrations of THC, CO, and NOx are measured by FT-IR and CLD. The experimental data to date show that operation without knock is possible with mixtures of higher equivalence ratio when DME is directly injected rather than when it is inducted in the form of a perfectly homogeneous fuel-air mixture. Although fuel injected early in the compression stroke promotes homogeneity of the DME-air mixture in the cylinder, it causes the mixture to ignite too early to secure good thermal efficiency and knock-free operation at high loads. Low temperature reactions occur at about 660K regardless of the fueling methods, fuel injection timing and equivalence ratio. The main components of hydrocarbon emissions turned out to be unburned fuel (DME), formaldehyde and methane.     

Study of RCM-based maintenance planning for complex structures using soft computing technique

To guarantee the efficiency of maintenance strategies for a complex structure, safety and cost limitations must be considered. This research introduces RCM-based (Reliability Centered Maintenance) life cycle optimization for reasonable maintenance. The design variable is the reliability of each part, which consists of a complex structure, while the objective is to minimize the total cost function in order to maintain the system within the desired system reliability. This research constructs the cost function that can reflect the current operating condition and maintenance characteristics of individual parts by generating essential cost factors. To identify the optimal reliability of each component in a system, this paper uses a Neuro-Evolutionary technique. Additionally, this research analyzes the reliability growth of a system by using the AMSAA (Army Material Systems Analysis Activity) model to estimate the failure rate of each part. The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) and the failure rate of the whole system, which is responding to the individual parts, are estimated based on the history data by using neural networks. Finally, this paper presents the optimal life cycle of a complex structure by applying the optimal reliability and the estimated MTBF to the RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety) algorithm.