Analysis of damping performance of isolated rubber floating slabEI北大核心

Research purposes: The basic component of the track structure with isolated rubber floating slab is the concrete slab track born by the elastic element. The research was done on the mechanical properties of the floating slab, the analysis was made for the natural frequencies, mechanical response under dynamic load and damping performance, and the discussion was made on the reasonable thickness of the ballastless track to provide the reference to the track design. Research conclusions: The research results show that the natural frequency of the track system decreases with the increase of the thickness of the ballastless track, and the rate of change decreases with increase of the track thickness. The acceleration insertion loss of the track basis increases with the increase of the thickness of the ballastless track, and the rate of change decreases with increase of the track thickness. When the thickness of the ballastless track reaches at 0.4 m, the corresponding dynamic performance, the damping performance effect and the concrete amount of track bed are rather economical. From the present theoretical analysis and online testing, it can be seen the damping performance effect of the isolated rubber floating slab system is obvious, and its construction and maintenance programs are systematic.     

A New Technique of High-performance and Fast Tensioning Prestressed Anchorage CableEI北大核心

Research purposes: The large-span transition section tunnel of the Badaling Great Wall station on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway with the maximum excavation width of 32.7 m, and the largest excavation area of 494.4 m 2 , is the world's biggest traffic tunnel in the world with the largest excavation width and excavation area, which has difficult construction and high security risks. The initial support system of tunnel is mainly realized by prestressed bolt, prestressed cable and shotcrete. After test, anchor cable tension using the traditional anchor cable construction technology can't meet the design requirements, at the same time, it takes about 30 days to achieve prestressed tensioning. Therefore, we need to study the high-performance fast tensioning prestressed anchor cable technology, to effectively control surrounding rock deformation, to ensure the safety of construction, improve construction efficiency. Research conclusions:(1) The traditional anchor cable construction technology is adopted. The anchor cable tension value is mainly controlled by the grip force between the anchor rope and grouting body and the cohesive force between grouting body and surrounding rock. (2) The grip force between the anchor rope and the grouting body can be increased by about 2 times by increasing the "barb"; The cohesive force between the grouting body and the surrounding rock can be increased by 1.5 times by 6 ~ 7 MPa high-pressure grouting process. (3) The modified sulphoaluminate cement slurry can reach more than 30 MPa within 1 day of the slurry strength, so as to realize fast anchor cable tension within 1 day after grouting completion. (4)The research results can be used for reference in similar prestressed anchorage cable construction projects. © 2018, Editorial Department of Journal of Railway Engineering Society. All right reserved.     

A 3D, finite element model for baroclinic circulation on the Vancouver Island continental shelf

This paper describes the development and application of a 3-dimensional model of the barotropic and baroclinic circulation on the continental shelf west of Vancouver Island, Canada. A previous study with a 2D barotropic model and field data revealed that several tidal constituents have a significant baroclinic component (the K1 in particular). Thus we embarked on another study with a 3D model to study the baroclinic effects on the residual and several selected tidal constituents.The 3D model uses a harmonic expansion in time and a finite element discretization in space. All nonlinear terms are retained, including quadratic bottom stress, advection and wave transport (continuity nonlinearity). The equations are solved as a global and a local problem, where the global problem is the solution of the wave equation formulation of the shallow water equations, and the local problem is the solution of the momentum equation for the vertical velocity profile. These equations are coupled to the advection-diffusion equation for density so that density gradient forcing is included in the momentum equations. However, the study presented here describes diagnostic calculations for the baroclinic residual circulation only.The model is sufficiently efficient that it encourages sensitivity testing with a large number of model runs. In this sense, the model is akin to an extension of analytical solutions to the domain of irregular geometry and bottom topography where this parameter space can be explored in some detail.In particular, the consequences of the sigma coordinate system used by the model are explored. Test cases using an idealized representation of the continental shelf, shelf break and shelf slope, lead to an estimation of the velocity errors caused by interpolation errors inherent in the sigma coordinate system. On the basis of these estimates, the computational grid used in the 2D model is found to have inadequate resolution. Thus a new grid is generated with increased accuracy in the region of the shelf break. However, even with increased resolution, spurious baroclinic circulation seaward of the shelf break and in the vicinity of Juan de Fuca canyon remained a significant problem when the pressure gradient terms were evaluated using the σ coordinate system and using a realistic density profile.With the new grid, diagnostic calculations of the barotropic and baroclinic residual circulation are performed using forcing from the observed σ_t (density) field and from the gradient of this field.     

Forecasting the Suez Canal traffic: a neural network analysis

Although the Suez Canal is the most important man-made waterway in the world, rivaled perhaps only by the Panama Canal, little research has been done into forecasting its traffic flows. This paper uses both univariate ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) and Neural network models to forecast the maritime traffic flows in the Suez Canal which are expressed in tons. One of the important strengths of the ARIMA modelling approach is the ability to go beyond the basic univariate model by considering interventions, calendar variations, outliers, or other real aspects of typically observed time series. On the other hand, neural nets have received a great deal of attention over the past few years. They are being used in the areas of prediction and classification, areas where regression models and other related statistical techniques have traditionally been used. The models obtained in this paper provide useful insight into the behaviour of maritime traffic flows since the reopening of the Canal in 1975—following an 8-year closure during the Arab–Israeli wars (1967–1973)—till 1998. The paper also compares the performance of ARIMA models with that of neural networks on an example of a large monthly dataset.     

An analysis of the pricing system in the Greek–Italian coastal routes

Price discrimination is practiced by oligopolistic coastal shipping companies in the ‘unregulated’ Greece–Italy routes in the year 2002. Investigation has been carried out ‘per route’—in a doctoral thesis—instead of ‘per market’ which was the so-far erroneous approach of shipping economists. This is so for a host of differentiating factors play a considerable and non-negligible role (like geography, distance, demand, seasonality and others). Service—and price-discrimination—in coastal shipping is affected also by the predetermined ship design which thus is a special feature—but not exclusively—in coastal shipping. Companies in the Adriatic Sea try to extract the greater possible value of the user's willingness to pay, peak and off-peak, group and ungrouped, for social groups (clubs, families and students). Marketing and economics interfere in a complicated—far from the nice world of theory—situation, where maximization of revenue and profit, capacity utilization, intense seasonality and high fixed cost (common and joint costs as well) are a few of the factors that interplay. This paper can be considered as a case study for applied pricing. Excess capacity is also a strategic factor affecting pricing. It is our opinion that the analysis here gives for the first time a complete theoretical and practical account—based on the price lists of the companies—of the pricing policy of the ferry boats running in the Adriatic Sea belonging to coastal shipping companies connecting Italy with Greece and Greece with the European Union (EU). We believe this work to be useful for maritime Europe.     

The importance of industrial and socio-economic considerations for maritime management and newly developed ecosystem based management plans

Commercial maritime management activities have significant industrial and socio-economic dimensions that need to be addressed from the onset of the policy planning and policy-making process. This commentary addresses the importance of industrial and socio-economic dimensions and the need to formalize their role in newly developed ecosystem based fisheries management plans that are currently being considered in the USA. It builds upon a discussion presented in this journal by Everett (2005).     

Testing port choice models using physical and monetary data: a comparative case study for the Spanish container trades

ABSTRACT

Transport costs are useful explanatory variables in port choice research. Nevertheless, the availability of such information usually poses a problem. Thus, the formulation of an alternative approach, to be used as a proxy of these variables, would be desirable. The objective of this study is to improve the analysis of container port choice using logit models by adopting physical non-monetary indicators based on maritime distance and ship size. The statistical tests of logit models on port choice using these new variables are compared with the result of using cost variables for the same data set of choice positions. The statistical outcome is good and allows us to present this new approach as a contribution to the literature on port choice modeling.     

The Brazilian National Plan for Coastal Management (PNGC)

The article is divided into three clearly defined sections. The first outlines the Brazilian National Coastal Zone Management Plan. The second offers a critical assessment of its introduction. To conclude, some general considerations are made. In this way, the author aims to achieve two objectives: to disseminate the aforementioned plan and offer a critical opinion of it.     

How Are Our MPAs Doing? Challenges in Assessing Global Patterns in Marine Protected Area Performance

Without effective management, protected areas are unlikely to achieve the high expectations the conservation and development sectors have for them: conserving biodiversity and alleviating poverty. Numerous marine protected area (MPA) assessment initiatives have been developed at various spatial and temporal scales, including the guidebook How is your MPA doing? These management assessments have been useful to sites to clarify and evaluate their objectives, yet efforts to examine broader regional or global patterns in MPA performance are only beginning. The authors conducted exploratory trend analyses on How is your MPA doing? indicator data collected by 24 MPAs worldwide to identify challenges and areas for future work. Wide variability across sites with regard to the indicators examined and the constructs used to measure them prevented a true meta-analysis. Managers assessed biophysical indicators more often than socioeconomic and governance constructs. Investment by the conservation community to support collecting and reporting high-quality data at the site level would enable a better understanding of the variation in MPA performance, clarify the contribution of MPAs to both biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, and help drive better MPA performance. The absence of rigorous and consistent monitoring protocols and instruments and a platform to turn raw MPA monitoring data into actionable information is a critical but under-recognized obstacle to cross-project learning, comparative analyses, and adaptive resource management.     

Developing management guidelines for oil and gas activities: The louisiana experience

Abstract

Preliminary management guidelines have been derived for oil and gas activities in coastal Louisiana. Derivation of these guidelines was done in terms of the natural function of the coastal ecosystem; this means that all economic activities should be designed to complement natural function as much as possible. The guidelines range in scope from very specific, almost performance standards, to very general admonitions. For example, we have suggested that spoil banks, produced as a result of dredging, should not be higher than the height of the daily tide or roughly 15 cm in coastal Louisiana, and at the other extreme, we have suggested that all dredging should be done with great care during wildlife migrations, spawning, and nesting times.