Alterable-element method for vehicle-bridge interaction considering the transient jump of wheel

The so called "alterable-element method" (AEM) was introduced to deal with the coupling interac-tion of vehicle and sub-structure considering the actual transient jump of wheel, while the classical "contact allalong" assumption based on which wheels and lower structure are always contact was abandoned. The alterableelement used in this method is a conceptional element, which is used to calculate the coupling interaction ofupper and lower structures and has some typical characteristics: firstly it flows along with the moving of contactpoint; secondly whether it is used for calculation depends on the contact state; thirdly its sizes could changeaccording to specific problems and so on. VISUAL FORTRAN program was coded, and different moving vehiclemodels were presented taking into consideration the effects of random corrugation in the numerical study. Thenumerical solutions are favored comparing with the results obtained by alternative methods when there is nojump phenomenon existed. With abrupt irregularity, the transient jump of wheel was studied using the presentmethod.     

A co-integration approach to forecasting container carriers’ time charter rates

A vector autoregressive model was developed for a sample of container carrier time charter rates.Although the series of time charter rates are themselves found non-stationary, thus precluding the use of manymodeling methodologies, evidence provided by co-integration tests points to the existence of stable long-termrelationships between the series. An assessment of the forecasts derived from the model suggests that the spec-ification of these long-term relationships does not improve the accuracy of long-term forecasts. These resultsare interpreted as a corroboration of the efficient market hypothesis.     

Parallel processing based on ship maneuvering in identification of interaction force coefficients

The parallel processing based on the free running model test was adopted to predict the interac-tion force coefficients (flow straightening coefficient and wake fraction) of ship maneuvering. And the multi-population genetic algorithm (MPGA) based on real coding that can contemporarily process the data of freerunning model and simulation of ship maneuvering was applied to solve the problem. Accordingly the optimalindividual was obtained using the method of genetic algorithm. The parallel processing of multi-populationsolved the prematurity in the identification for single population, meanwhile, the parallel processing of the dataof ship maneuvering (turning motion and zigzag motion) is an attempt to solve the coefficient drift problem.In order to validate the method, the interaction force coefficients were verified by the procedure and thesecoefficients measured were compared with those ones identified. The maximum error is less than 5%, and theidentification is an effective method.     

Production balance of ship erection

A network plan model of ship erection was established based on the network planning technologyand the work-package breakdown system. The load-oriented production control method was introduced to buildup a throughput diagram model thus it is possible to describe the ship erection process numerically. Based onthe digitaiized models some cases of production balance of ship erection were studied and three balance indexeswere put forward, they are the load balance rate, the input manpower balance rate and the maximum gantrycrane operating times. Such an analytic method based on the balance evaluation is the important foundationfor digitization and intelligentization of shipyard production management.     

Structural intensity characterization of composite laminates subjected to impact load

Structural intensity (SI) characterization of composite laminates subjected to impact load was dis-cussed. The SI pattern of the laminates which have different fiber orientations and boundary conditions wasanalyzed. The resultant forces and velocities of the laminates were calculated, and the structural intensity wasevaluated. The SI streamlines of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates and the steel plates werediscussed. The results show that the SI streamlines of the graphite/epoxy laminates are different from that ofthe steel plates, and the SI streamlines are influenced by the boundaries, the stacking sequence of the compositelaminates. The change of the historical central displacement of the graphite/epoxy laminates is fasten thanthat of the steel plates.     

Performance analysis of AF relaying based on water-filling power allocation over Nakagami-<Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis> fading

This paper investigates exact performance of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay system based on water-filling power allocation in Nakagami-m fading environment, where m is a nonnegative integer plus one half. We first offer the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a destination. Then outage probability, moments of SNR, higher-order statistics of the capacity are explicitly conducted. Especially, average symbol error rate (SER) under an additive white generalized Gaussian noise (AWGGN) is developed for water-filling power allocation scheme. While the average SER subjected by an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) can be regarded as a special case. Finally, all theoretical formulas are truly attested by various simulation results.     

A multiscale superpixel-level salient object detection model using local-global contrast cue

The goal of salient object detection is to estimate the regions which are most likely to attract human’s visual attention. As an important image preprocessing procedure to reduce the computational complexity, salient object detection is still a challenging problem in computer vision. In this paper, we proposed a salient object detection model by integrating local and global superpixel contrast at multiple scales. Three features are computed to estimate the saliency of superpixel. Two optimization measures are utilized to refine the resulting saliency map. Extensive experiments with the state-of-the-art saliency models on four public datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.     

Automatically finding the number of clusters based on simulated annealing

Based on simulated annealing (SA), automatically finding the number of clusters (AFNC) is proposed in this paper to determine the number of clusters and their initial centers. It is a simple and automatic method that combines local search with two widely-accepted global analysis techniques, namely careful-seeding (CS) and distance-histogram (DH). The procedure for finding a cluster is formulated as mountain-climbing, and the mountain is defined as the convergent domain of SA.When arriving at the peak of one mountain, AFNC has found one of the clusters in the dataset, and its initial center is the peak. Then, AFNC continues to climb up another mountain from a new starting point found by CS till the termination condition is satisfied. In the procedure of climbing-up mountain, the local dense region for searching the next state of SA is found by analyzing the distance histogram. Experimental results show that AFNC can achieve consistent performance for a wide range of datasets.     

Optimization of CMOS repeater driven interconnect RC line using genetic algorithm

In this work, optimization of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) repeater driven interconnect resistive-capacitive (RC) line is carried out using genetic algorithm (GA). This work is aimed at powerdelay- product (PDP) minimization of RC interconnect at 180 nm technology node. The algorithm simultaneously optimizes the values of supply voltage, number of repeaters and repeater width for delay and PDP minimization. The accuracy of results obtained is verified by simulations from Cadence virtuoso tool. For delay minimization, comparison of GA results with previous results of the literature shows an improvement of 44.4% in the value of the optimal number of repeaters required. This improvement is obtained by increasing the repeater size, which also increases power dissipation, so a tradeoff has also been achieved in terms of PDP minimization. The comparison of PDP results obtained in this work, with the results at 70, 100, and 130 nm technologies from literature shows improvement in optimal number of repeaters required. The results of algorithm and simulations are in good agreement and demonstrate the validity of proposed algorithm.     

Numerical study on water depth effects on hydrodynamic forces acting on berthing ships

Due to the restrictions of ports, maneuverability of berthing ships will be affected significantly by water depth. In the present study, numerical simulation of the berthing maneuver of a ship with prescribed translational motion is performed by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations based on overset grid, and the effects of the quaywall and freesurface are taken into consideration. To validate the present numerical method, comparison is performed between our results and the other results or measurements. It is found that the agreement is significantly better than that resulting from previous CFD-based approach. Subsequently, the effects of various water depths are investigated to evaluate their influences on hydrodynamic forces. The present results can provide helpful guidance on safe maneuvering for vessels’ berthing and fender system design in quays.