Reducing speed and fuel transfer of the Green Flag Incentive Program in Kaohsiung Port Taiwan

This research applied the Green Flag Program to assess the benefits of reducing speed and fuel transfer for large merchant vessels (bulk and container) entering Kaohsiung Port. This study adopts an activity-based model to calculate fuel consumption and emissions, as well as setting up two scenarios, (1) decrease vessel speed to 12 knots 20 nm away from port; and (2) decrease vessel speed to 12 knots and transfer fuel 20 nm away from port, which based on the Green Flag Program in Long Beach, in the U.S. The findings are (1) In scenario one, the container and bulk vessels saw reductions in CO₂ emissions of about 41% and 14%, respectively. In scenario two, container and bulk vessels had reductions of about 48% and 43% in SO₂ emissions, respectively. (2) Large vessels are more environmentally friendly than small vessels. (3) Using the CATCH model to assess the effectiveness of the two scenarios, it was found that container vessels benefited from both reducing speed and fuel transfer, while bulk carriers only did so from the former.     

沪宁城际铁路下蜀黏土路堑边坡设计研究

在系统总结宁镇丘陵地区长江高阶地下蜀黏土的野外分布特征、物理力学性质的基础上,分析评价下蜀黏土具有弱膨胀性、水理性差等不良工程特性。以沪宁城际铁路路基工点设计为例,详细介绍下蜀黏土路堑边坡需根据工点工程地质和水文地质条件、边坡高度,结合当地气候特点,采用绿色植物防护和工程防护相结合的原则进行处理,以及重点地段采取特殊支挡防护的设计方案,提出下蜀黏土路堑边坡勘察设计需重点关注的问题。     

Reducing emissions through speed optimization in supply vessel operations

This paper examines how optimizing sailing speeds can reduce supply vessels emissions in the upstream supply chain to offshore installations. We introduce several speed optimization strategies to be used in construction of periodic vessel schedules. The strategies consider vessel waiting times before the start of service at installations and at supply base. Tests carried out on real instances from Statoil’s activities on the Norwegian continental shelf indicate that a 25% emissions and fuel cost reductions can be achieved without fleet size increase.     

Why new technologies cannot radically improve the quality of urban transportation

In recent years a great deal of time and effort has been expended on the development of new modes of transport for cities. It is argued in this paper that this work is unlikely to be very productive because the major remaining flaw in the provision of transportation services—the inability of one mode to provide a good service to concentrated and dispersed trip ends—seems unavoidable. To make the required breakthrough a new mode must be frugal in its demands for space, flexible in its operation and fast. But an analysis of the performance of existing and prototype modes suggest that there is a fundamental technological barrier that precludes any one mode from performing well in more than two out of these three ways. This implies that any further improvements in travel for the urbanite must be made through existing modes and their derivatives and will be quite limited. It also suggests that the only possible way of substantially improving urban transportation is to build or rebuild towns so that one of the important mode attributes mentioned above is rendered superfluous.     

Life cycle assessment of High Speed Rail in China

China has built the world’s largest High Speed Rail (HSR) network. Its environmental impacts have been examined by the means of life cycle assessment (LCA) which describes the whole picture of the HSR system instead of single stages, with a case study for the high-speed railway that links Beijing and Shanghai. The research employs the China-specific life cycle inventory database Chinese Core Life Cycle Database (CLCD). Vehicle operation dominates most impact categories, while vehicle manufacturing/maintenance/disposal and infrastructure construction contribute mostly to mineral consumption (43% and 38%) and organic compounds in water (54% for infrastructure construction). Several scenarios are developed to explore effects of changes in HSR development, utilization, electricity mix, and infrastructure planning and construction. Suggestions are provided for improving the life cycle environmental performance of China’s HSR systems.     

On two speed optimization problems for ships that sail in and out of emission control areas

This paper deals with two speed optimization problems for ships that sail in and out of Emission Control Areas (ECAs) with strict limits on sulfur emissions. For ships crossing in and out of ECAs, such as deep-sea vessels, one of the common options for complying with these limits is to burn heavy fuel oil (HFO) outside the ECA and switch to low-sulfur fuel such as marine gas oil (MGO) inside the ECA. As the prices of these two fuels are generally very different, so may be the speeds that the ship will sail at outside and inside the ECA. The first optimization problem examined by the paper considers an extension of the model of Ronen (1982) in which ship speeds both inside and outside the ECA are optimized. The second problem is called the ECA refraction problem, due to its conceptual similarity with the refraction problem when light travels across two different media, and also involves optimizing the point at which the ship crosses the ECA boundary. In both cases the objective of the problem is to maximize daily profit. In addition to mathematical formulations, examples and sensitivity analyses are presented for both problems.     

Effectiveness of graphic-aided portable changeable message signs in reducing vehicle speeds in highway work zones

Portable changeable message signs (PCMSs) have been employed in highway work zones as a temporary traffic control device for decades in the United States. Results of previous research showed that the traditional text-based PCMS had several limitations, such as having a short range of legibility and being difficult to read by elderly and non-English-speaking drivers. A few simulation studies indicated that using graphic-aided PCMSs could likely overcome these limitations. This paper presents the results of field experiments that were conducted to determine the effectiveness of graphic-aided PCMS in reducing vehicle speeds in the upstream of highway work zones. In field experiment Phase I, a full-matrix PCMS was programmed to display a work zone graphic and a flagger graphic, which were similar to the W21-1 sign and W20-7 sign, respectively, specified by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. In field experiment Phase II, the PCMS was programmed to display two alternative work zone graphics along with the original work zone graphic. 1115 and 1600 valid vehicle speed data were collected during field experiments Phase I and Phase II, respectively. The results of data analysis suggested that graphic-aided PCMSs reduced mean vehicle speeds between 13% and 17% in the upstream of a work zone. This study provided valuable knowledge to government agencies and the transportation industry on how to regulate and implement graphic-aided PCMS in highway work zones.     

基于中观仿真的城市快速路速度诱导控制模型研究

利用中观交通流模型对城市快速路瞬时交通量进行预测,并在此基础上对车辆进行速度诱导控制,建立了以车辆总行程时间为目标函数的诱导优化模型,并利用C++实现了该模型.最后以上海南北高架南段西线为例建立了仿真场景,进行模型的参数标定与校验.通过统计分析与物理特性分析:速度诱导控制后,速度方差与均方差均有显著下降,说明速度诱导控制后,降低了路段上交通流的整体速度差异,提高了交通安全性.     

A methodology for vehicle sideslip angle identification: comparison with experimental data

Sideslip angle could provide important information concerning vehicle's stability. Unfortunately direct measurement of sideslip angle requires a complex and expensive experimental set-up, which is not suitable for implementation on ordinary passenger cars; thus, this quantity has to be estimated starting from the measurements of vehicle lateral/longitudinal acceleration, speed, yaw rate and steer angle. According to the proposed methodology, sideslip angle is estimated as a weighted mean of the results provided by a kinematic formulation and those obtained through a state observer based on vehicle single-track model. Kinematical formula is considered reliable for a transient manoeuvre, while the state observer is used in nearly quasi-state condition. The basic idea of the work is to make use of the information provided by the kinematic formulation during a transient manoeuvre to update the single-track model parameters (tires cornering stiffnesses). A fuzzy-logic procedure was implemented to identify steady state or transient conditions.     

基于试验场道路的变速器台架载荷谱研究

通过实车采集试验样车在试验场道路上行驶时的CAN BUS数据,可直接获得发动机转速、扭矩和档位等信号;把传统的载荷-时间频次关系,转变为载荷-发动机飞轮旋转频次关系,同时记录各载荷等级对应的各个挡位的频次,这样可获得在各个档位下,不同载荷等级对应转速区间内的飞轮旋转频次,根据齿轮材料的S-N曲线和疲劳累积Miner理论,计算出各档位的疲劳强度,然后基本疲劳损伤等效原理选取各档位下产生较大疲劳强度的扭矩和转速,作为台架试验输入的载荷和转速,可有效避免载荷和转速选取的盲目性,为科学的制定台架试验载荷谱提供了依据。