Comparing rail fuel efficiency with truck and waterway

This paper presents a railroad energy efficiency model used to estimate the fuel economies for classes of trains transporting various commodities. Comparable procedures are used to estimate truck and waterway fuel consumption. The results show that coal unit trains are 4.5–5.0 times more energy efficient than movements in the largest trucks allowed in the eastern and western regions of the US, unit grain train movements in the central US are 4.6 times more fuel efficient, soda ash unit train and non-unit train shipments are 4.9 and 3.2 times more efficient, and ethanol unit train and non-unit train movements are 4.8 and 3.0 times more efficient. In terms of barge traffic, coal unit train and non-unit train are 1.3 and 0.9 times as energy efficient in the eastern US, grain unit train and non-unit train movements are 1.7 and 1.0 times more efficient from Minneapolis to the Gulf of Mexico, and grain unit train and non-unit train movements are 1.0 and 0.7 times more fuel efficient from the Upper Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico.     

LED灯具在高速列车照明系统中的应用

随着我国高速铁路事业的发展,旅客对车内照明环境品质的要求越来越高,在我国高速列车照明设计中广泛采用LED灯具作为光源。通过对高速动车组车载灯具与25T型列车传统车载灯具的测试对比,总结出LED灯具在发光效率等方面相对于传统灯具的优势,为高速动车组室内照明设计提供依据。     

基于LabVIEW的“海院1号”波浪发电平台浮筒取能效率数据采集系统设计

浮筒取能效率测试是波浪发电平台研究的重要组成部分。传统的测试系统不但测量精度低,而且自动化程度低、操作复杂。为此,该文基于“海院1号”波浪发电平台,采用虚拟仪器LabVIEW软件开发了浮筒取能效率数据采集系统。文中介绍了“海院1号”波浪发电平台及其浮筒,进行了测试系统的设计,实现了浮筒取能效率测试的数据采集、数据管理、曲线拟合及绘制、生成报表、信号分析以及数据处理等工程。对实际运行效果进行分析,结果表明该系统具有精度高、运行稳定可靠、自动化程度高、人机界面友好以及操作简单等特点,具有重要的工程实践意义。     

Can ports increase traffic while reducing inputs? Technical efficiency of Spanish Port Authorities using a directional distance function approach

The focus of this paper is on the productive efficiency of ports. We estimate a directional technology distance function using parametric techniques to analyze the production technology and technical efficiency of a set of Spanish Port Authorities observed over the period 1993–2012. Technical inefficiency is conceived as the ability of ports to simultaneously expand a given output and contract variable inputs while maintaining quasi-fixed inputs and other outputs constant. Thus, for containerized cargo we address the following question: Given the amount of quasi-fixed inputs used by the firm and given the volume of the other outputs (liquids, solids, non-containerized cargo and passenger traffic), could ports increase their containerized merchandise while simultaneously reducing their variable inputs? Similar questions are asked for solid bulk and non-containerized general cargo. Our results show evidence of technical inefficiency among the ports in our sample. In particular, if the ports operated efficiently, we find that containerized cargo could be expanded by an average of over 6.4%, with an equivalent reduction in variable inputs. Solid bulk cargo and general non-containerized cargo could be increased by 4.1% and 6.1% respectively, with corresponding reductions in variable inputs. An implication of our results is that there is ample scope for specialization on the part of ports with no increase in infrastructure costs. Given that large investments in infrastructure have been made in Spanish port over the last decade, this opens the possibility of moving towards a management model based on taking advantage of existing capacity rather than new investments.     

双电机耦合驱动电动汽车驱动模式划分与优化

为充分发挥一款双电机耦合驱动系统电动汽车(DMCP-EV)多驱动模式的节能优势,制定了基于系统效率最优的驱动模式控制策略。根据该双电机耦合驱动系统的结构特点,定义了电机4种驱动模式并分别建立其动力学驱动模型和系统效率模型。在满足动力性要求的前提下,分析并划分了各驱动模式的工作范围,以系统效率为优化目标,采用粒子群优化算法进行优化,获得最佳的驱动模式切换控制和转矩分配策略。开展了Matlab/Simulink仿真和硬件在环试验验证。结果表明,经系统效率优化的驱动模式在满足动力性要求的前提下,有效提高了双电机耦合驱动系统的经济性,能耗降低11%。     

铁路隧道使用凿岩台车与风钻钻爆的比较研究

为进一步分析研究高铁隧道凿岩台车与风钻钻爆的优劣及适用性问题,以郑万高铁小三峡隧道工程为依托,介绍风钻钻爆 的施工应用情况及凿岩台车钻爆在施工应用方面的制约因素,并从施工工效、人员配置、安全性、超欠挖控制、成本投入等方面对比 分析。 主要研究结论如下: 1)采用凿岩台车钻爆,在硬岩条件下钻爆速度较快,Ⅲ、Ⅳ级围岩可通过工法调整来提高凿岩台车的施 工效率,遇软弱围岩时应慎重选用; 2)凿岩台车钻爆与风钻钻爆相比,劳动强度低、节省劳动力、安全风险小等方面具有突出成效; 3)理论分析凿岩台车钻爆较风钻钻爆平均线性超挖小,但实际施工过程中却反之,可通过加强管理来缩小与人工钻爆之间的超挖 差距; 4)凿岩台车对风钻钻爆的优势显而易见,随着隧道施工机械化进程不断地发展,将来一段时间凿岩台车钻爆替代风钻钻爆 施工是未来地下工程开挖的发展方向之一。     

机械式变速箱传动效率实验研究分析

传动效率是机汽车变速箱传动效率是直接反映变速箱设计、制造水平的一项重要参数。文章对汽车变速箱传动效率测量影响因素、测试方法、及数据处理方面进行探讨,并结合实际测试工作中的经验总结了一些实际应用方法及对此参数的影响因素,藉此对机械式变速器效率测量精度提高方面起到参考及指导作用。     

Efficiency evaluation and PM emission reallocation of China ports based on improved DEA models

The emission of particulate matter (PM) and other atmospheric pollutants in port operations and shipping have caused a huge negative impact on the environment. Consequently, how to evaluate the environmental efficiency of ports and put forward corresponding countermeasures on this basis is becoming a more important issue than ever before from the perspectives of the government, academia, and society. We construct three data envelopment analysis (DEA) models to evaluate the environmental efficiency of ports under the circumstances of environmental control, non-environmental control and PM emission through inter-ports cooperation. The innovation of the DEA models constructed in this paper lies in: (1) Setting environmental control parameters to uniformly manipulate the situations of environmental control and non-environmental control, etc.; (2) Allowing non-equal proportional change of input index, expected output and non-expected output index; (3) Setting preference coefficients for ports to admit favorable decisions; (4) Providing a distance formula of expected output for PM emission reallocation. Further, data from 11 major ports in China are collected to compare the expected output under different PM emission standards assuming the situation of environmental control and non-environmental control, port cooperation, and non-cooperative sewage discharge. The empirical results show that: (1) Ports in the eastern China (Shanghai, Ningbo, and Nanjing) have higher port efficiency; (2) Port cooperation can improve the overall expected output but it will lose its edge with the improvement of PM emission standards. (3) Ports follow the same trend of output loss regardless of favorable decisions. In the end, the author makes a summary, puts forward relevant policy suggestions and makes the recommendation for future research.     

Railway reforms: do they influence operating efficiency?

This paper considers railway operations in 23 European countries during 1995–2001, where a series of reform initiatives were launched by the European Commission, and analyses whether these reform initiatives improved the efficiency of the railway systems. Efficiency is measured using Multi-directional Efficiency Analysis, which enables investigation of how railway reforms affect the inefficiencies of specific cost drivers. The main findings are that the reform initiatives generally improve technical efficiency but potentially differently for different cost drivers. Specifically, the paper provides empirical evidence that accounting separation is important for improving the efficiency in the use of both material and staff costs, whereas other reforms only influenced one of these factors.