Shipping control and the changing use of marine space

In this paper Professor Couper discusses the divisions of marine space as set out in the Revised Single Negotiating Text of UNCLOS III in relation to maritime accidents. This is followed by a contribution by Mr Burger on statistical material related to the incidence of marine accidents in North-West European waters. The third section of the paper by Captain S. Abdelgalil, is devoted to a technical discussion on traffic lanes in confined waters.     

Estimation of origin‐destination matrices for a multimodal public transit network

This paper presents a procedure for the estimation of origin‐destination (O‐D) matrices for a multimodal public transit network. The system consists of a number of favored public transit modes that are obtained from a modal split process in a traditional four‐step transportation model. The demand of each favored mode is assigned to the multimodal network, which is comprised of a set of connected links of different public transit modes. An entropy maximization procedure is proposed to simultaneously estimate the O‐D demand matrices of all favored modes, which are consistent with target data sets such as the boarding counts and line segment flows that are observed directly in the network. A case study of the Hong Kong multimodal transit network is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

美国铁路车钩缓冲装置的发展（续完）

3　关节式连接器和牵引杆3.1　关节式连接器 　　关节式连接器在客车上已有多年的使用历史，主要用于20世纪30年代一些轻型流线型客车上，但很少在货车上运用。1968年为切萨皮克*俄亥俄铁路制造的活顶漏斗车，其车体间的连接采用由美国铸钢公司研制的关节式连接器，不过并没有收到此类车的订单。20世纪70年代后期，开始使用长途拖车，这时使用单节具有足够长度的车体运载2个拖车已不再合理。虽然可以制造用于运载单节拖车的较短的普通车辆，但这种车辆不能有效利用2个四轮转向架的承载能力。1977年制造出了采用关节式连接器、6节编组的列车，每个车体都运载1个拖车。关节式连接器以切萨皮克*俄亥俄漏斗车连接器为设计原型，相邻车体共同支承在1台四轮转向架上，允许相互间在水平和垂直方向上有一定转角。位于端部2节车的外端以常规方式支撑在独立的转向架上。这样，6节车体（1个车组）仅由7台转向架支承，如按普通结构则需要12台转向架。这种车每辆有10个车体，取得了很大成功。     

Crosswind Sensitivity of Passenger Cars and the Influence of Chassis and Aerodynamic Properties on Driver Preferences

Results of vehicle crosswind research involving both full-scale driver-vehicle tests and associated analyses are presented. The paper focuses on experimental crosswind testing of several different vehicle configurations and a group of seven drivers. A test procedure, which utilized wind-generating fans arranged in alternating directions to provide a crosswind “gauntlet”, is introduced and described. Driver preferences for certain basic chassis and aerodynamic properties are demonstrated and linked to elementary system responses measured during the crosswind gauntlet tests. Based on these experimental findings and confirming analytical results, a two-stage vehicle design process is then recommended for predicting and analyzing the crosswind sensitivity of a particular vehicle or new design.     

Simplical decomposition of the asymmetric traffic assignment problem

This paper presents a convergent simplicial decomposition algorithm for the variational inequality formulation of the asymmetric traffic assignment problem. It alternates between generating minimum path trees based on the cost function evaluated at the current iterate and the approximate solving of a master variational inequality subject to simple convexity constraints. Thus it generalizes the popular Frank-Wolfe method (where the master problem is a line search) to the asymmetric problem. Rules are given for dropping flow patterns which are not needed to express the current iterate as a convex combination of previous patterns. The results of some computational testing are reported.     

Spatial price equilibrium sensitivity analysis

A direct approach to performing sensitivity analysis for a spatial price equilibrium problem with nonlinear transportation cost, commodity supply and commodity demand functions is presented. The first order derivatives of all decision variables with respect to parameter perturbations are shown to be expressable in a simple from which requires inversion of a matrix whose rank is the number of regions considered. A typical network usually involves several hundred regions and several thousand links; thus, by working with a matrix whose rank depends only on the number of regions rather than the number of links, computer storage is minimized and the necessary matrix inversion is made feasible, enabling us to perform the sensitivity analyses of very large nonlinear equilibrium problems. An example is presented to demonstrate application of the method. The approach taken here is also adaptable to the sensitivity analysis of Wardropian equilibrium problems.     

Thermal deformations in typical maglev guideway structures

Thermal gradients and related deformations induced in elevated Maglev guideways by temperature variations in their environment have been predicted by a mathematical model. The deflections induced by thermal gradients in typical guideways are found to exceed specified limits for acceptable operation of an electromagnetic suspension system vehicle unless measures are taken to reduce the thermal gradients and related deflections by suitable treatment of the guideway surfaces.     

A spatial equilibrium port cargo projection model

A mathematical spatial programming model developed to analyse changes in international and hinterland commodity flows through a regional port system is applied to wheat shipments through the U.S. Pacific Northwest port system. Two scenarios, one focusing on a Chinese quarantine on wheat shipments from the Pacific Northwest and the other on possible closure of barge transportation on the Columbia-Snake River, illustrate the capacity of the model to evaluate the impacts of international and hinterland shocks on the regional port system.