Prospects for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the United States and Japan: A general equilibrium analysis

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) may offer a potential near term, low-carbon alternative to today’s gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. A representative vehicle technology that runs on electricity in addition to conventional fuels was introduced into the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model as a perfect substitute for internal combustion engine (ICE-only) vehicles in two likely early-adopting markets, the United States and Japan. We investigate the effect of relative vehicle cost and all-electric range on the timing of PHEV market entry in the presence and absence of an advanced cellulosic biofuels technology and a strong (450 ppm) economy-wide carbon constraint. Vehicle cost could be a significant barrier to PHEV entry unless fairly aggressive goals for reducing battery costs are met. If a low-cost PHEV is available we find that its adoption has the potential to reduce CO₂ emissions, refined oil demand, and under a carbon policy the required CO₂ price in both the United States and Japan. The emissions reduction potential of PHEV adoption depends on the carbon intensity of electric power generation. Thus, the technology is much more effective in reducing CO₂ emissions if adoption occurs under an economy-wide cap and trade system that also encourages low-carbon electricity generation.     

Perturbation/correlation based optimal internal combustion engine tuning

This paper addresses the application of the perturbation/correlation method to optimizing the torque output of internal combustion engines. This application was inspired by observations of the limitations in current techniques of the automotive performance tuning industry. Performance issues such as errors from true optimum spark timing and fuel injector pulse width values as well as convergence were considered for optimal tuning. The ability of the system to deal with engine cycle-to-cycle variations and their effect on input parameters is also analyzed.     

Access control policies without inside queues: Their properties and public policy implications

An access control policy that eliminates all queues beyond the entry points to a network has obvious benefits, which include smooth travel and predictable travel times inside the network. Yet it has never been proven, to the best of our knowledge, whether excluding inside queues yields sub-optimal network performance or, in other words, allowing inside queues can actually further reduce the system travel cost. Moreover, it is not clear whether an optimal control policy derived from efficiency considerations can also be a fair policy to all road users. This paper provide answers to these questions in the context of a monocentric network. By analyzing the structure of the access control problem considering all feasible policies (with/without inside queues), we show that the minimal system cost realizable by access control can be obtained without directly solving a non-convex optimization program, and can indeed always be achieved by a control policy excluding all of the inside queues. These optimal policies are defined by a polyhedral set and a Finite Generation Algorithm can be applied to derive the analytical form of this set. The optimal policies are not unique in general, thus making it possible to achieve both minimal system cost and fairness simultaneously.     

Equilibria of bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting on networks

This paper proposes an equilibrium model to characterize the bilateral searching and meeting between customers and taxis on road networks. A taxi driver searches or waits for a customer by considering both the expected searching or waiting time cost and ride revenue, and a customer seeks a taxi ride to minimize full trip price. We suppose that the bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting occurs anywhere in residential and commercial zones or at prescribed taxi stands, such as an airport or a railway station. We propose a meeting function to spell out the search and meeting frictions that arise endogenously as a result of the distinct spatial feature of the area and the taxi–customer moving decisions. With the proposed meeting function and the assumptions underlying taxi–customer search behaviors, the stationary competitive equilibrium achieved at fixed fare prices is determined when the demand of the customers matches the supply of taxis or there is market clearing at the prevailing searching and waiting times in every meeting location. We establish the existence of such an equilibrium by virtue of Brouwer’s fixed-point theorem and demonstrate its principal operational characteristics with a numerical example.     

Tests on ultimate strength of hull box girders made of high tensile steel

The experimental results of the collapse of three box girders subjected to pure bending moment are presented. The structures are made of high tensile steel of 690 MPa of nominal yield stress reinforced with bar stiffeners of the same material. The moment curvature curves are presented covering the pre- and post-collapse regions. The modes of collapse for each box girder are discussed considering the variation on the panel's slenderness. The concept of efficiency of high tensile steel structures is introduced. The concept is very useful to identify the governing parameters affecting the ultimate strength of 3D structures under predominant bending moment.     

Cost-time Minimization in a Transportation Problem with Fuzzy Parameters: A Case Study

In real world applications the supply, the demand and the transportation cost per unit of the quantities in a transportation problem are hardly specified precisely because of the changing economic and environmental conditions. It is also important that the time required for transportation should be minimum. In this paper a method has been proposed for the minimization of transportation cost as well as time of transportation when the demand, supply and transportation cost per unit of the quantities are fuzzy. The problem is modeled as multi objective linear programming problem with imprecise parameters. Fuzzy parametric programming has been used to handle impreciseness and the resulting multi objective problem has been solved by prioritized goal programming approach. A case study has been made using the proposed approach.     

Development of models for predicting roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations and their evaluation against datasets measured in Dublin,Ireland

Different methods for predicting levels of roadside NO₂ from NO_x concentrations have been proposed. Prior work suggests that either a linear or a logarithmic relationship exists among the roadside NO₂ and NO_x concentrations. We modify and compare those methods with new formulations based on the principles of the original methods for datasets pertaining to Dublin. A new relationship based on the power law is developed to better model the decay of the ratio of (NO₂/NO_x)_road ratio with increasing NO_x concentration. These formulations are compared and examined at two study sites: at an intermittently congested urban street canyon and a free-flowing motorway.     

Changing ownership structures in the Dutch fleet

The new Dutch shipping policy has given rise to high expectation and curiosity in the world of shipping. This, together with the obvious difficulties of an ex-post study of the effectiveness of such innovative policy, has prompted the authors to take an interest in attempting to investigate changes in ownership of the Dutch fleet 2 years after the new policy has been introduced. To do this, a rather new concept of ‘flagging out’ has been adopted, which is interpreted as a process leading to different degrees of ‘foreignness’ in a shipping operation. In this paper, a method to structure is presented, and ownership information, and changes in it are presented, that are essentially based on the theory of stochastic processes. The data used is the Dutch fleet data, which includes information on the nationality of the flag, parent ownership and management over the period 1994–1998. The results yield interesting insights in the shifts in the ownership and operational structure of shipping companies induced by the new policy. In particular, they allow one to establish the origin of new vessels, in which stage of ownership/operation it is most likely that shifts occur, and to determine the relationship between the different stages of the ‘flagging out’ process. These results, thus, enable an evaluation of the areas in which the policy can be expected to yield results.     

Assessing the CO2 impact of current and future rail track in the UK

This paper investigates the CO₂ impact of current and future UK rail track and estimates the material, process and transport emissions associated with construction, maintenance and end-of-life activities for designs at high and low traffic loads. Analysis shows that for current track configurations, track with concrete sleepers has the lowest CO₂ impact, followed by steel, hardwood and softwood. Several potential future rail track designs have been analysed including embedded rail and double and quadruple-headed rail. All future track designs have a lower impact than current designs, but this improvement is more marked at high traffic loads. Up to a 40% reduction in CO₂ impact could be achieved if the UK rail network was to move from conventional track design to a double-headed embedded rail design. Key levers for reducing the CO₂ impact of track are identified as service life extension, traffic load reduction and the selection of low impact track designs.