Performance assessment of bus transport reform in Seoul

Seoul city authority implemented an innovative bus transport reform (BTR) in July 2004. This paper evaluates the performance of that reform. To this end, the paper includes a discussion of the features of the reform, an explanation of the fields and the contents of the reform, and an assessment of the performance of the reform formulated by comparing pertinent circumstances in place before and after its inception. The performance of eight fields: bus routes, bus fares, bus management, bus operation, a new smart card, a median bus lane system, vehicles and stops, and the promotion of the BTR, are measured, as are the performances of four groups influenced by the BTR. Those groups are bus passengers, bus operators, transport regulators, and members of the wider civil community. The results indicate a readily apparent decrease in traffic density in Seoul after the introduction of the reform, and it would appear that the increase in the number of public transport users bears an inverse relationship with the decrease in the transport share of private cars.     

A study on slamming pressure on a flat stiffened plate considering fluid–structure interaction

Normally, the design slamming pressure on the bottomof a semi-submersible-type floating rig is determined in a simple way using the relative speed obtained from an air-gap analysis. However, few studies have taken a thorough, robust, and deep-background approach to the estimation of design pressure. To investigate the slamming pressure on the bottom of a semi-submersible rig, a simplified deformable stiffened plate of a zero-degree deadrise angle is simulated using the nonlinear FEM software LS-DYNA, which can take the influence of fluid–structure interaction (FSI) into account. Various parametric studies are carried out to examine the effects of structural flexibility, coupling stiffness, mesh size, velocity, stiffener size, and air cushion. The pressure response on the plate by the coupling of fluid and structure is studied and the FSI effect of each parameter is discussed. Then, equivalent transient and static loads that result in the same maximum or permanent deformation as FSI are evaluated for design purposes through a series of parametric studies.