The social context of informal commuting: Slugs, strangers and structuration

Despite considerable interest in the role of social interactions and social context on transportation, there have been very few attempts to explore specific cases of social interaction influencing transportation systems. This paper explores the social practice of slugging, an informal system of carpooling in the Washington, DC area. Slugging emerged in response to the establishment of Virginia’s High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the early 1970s, as single drivers picked up riders alongside the road (slugs) in order to meet the requirements for driving in the less congested HOV lanes. Drawing on the work of sociologist Anthony Giddens, as well as the sociological insights of Georg Simmel and Stanley Milgram, we suggest that the practice of slugging highlights the processes of institutionalization and structuration. This paper details how the region’s mass transportation policies and urban culture have combined to result in an institutionalized practice with particular norms and logics of behavior. We conclude that looking at specific cases where social context has affected transportation, like slugging, could provide useful insights on the impact of social context on transportation policies and systems.     

Vibration control in train–bridge–track systems

To study the problems associated with vibration control of train–bridge–track systems a mathematical model with the capability of representing supplementary vibrational control devices is proposed. The train system is assumed as rigid bodies supported on double-deck suspension mechanism with semi-active features. The bridge system is modeled using the modal approach. Vibration control for bridge responses is provided by tuned mass dampers. A non-classical incremental Eigen analysis is proposed to trace the system characteristics across the time. In an example, the capability of the proposed model in investigating the vibration control prospects of a bridge–train system is shown. The results indicate the effectiveness of active suspension mechanism in reducing train's body movements, particularly the pitching angle and the vertical accelerations. Accordingly, the results also verify the potential of TMD devices in reducing the bridge responses at resonance motions.     

水平荷载作用下钢管支架的弹塑性极限承载力分析

通过考虑桩土相互作用以及材料和几何非线形，对钢管支架在水平荷栽作用下的极限承载力及其影响因素进行了分析，从而对钢管支架的安全度作出合理的评价。     

Influence of uneven rail irregularities on the dynamic response of the railway track using a three-dimensional model of the vehicle–track system

A mathematical model of the vehicle–track interaction is developed to investigate the coupled behaviour of vehicle–track system, in the presence of uneven irregularities at left/right rails. The railway vehicle is simplified as a 3D multi-rigid-body model, and the track is treated as the two parallel beams on a layered discrete support system. Besides the car-body, the bogies and the wheel sets, the sleepers are assumed to have roll degree of freedom, in order to simulate the in-plane rotation of the components. The wheel–rail interface is treated using a nonlinear Hertzian contact model, coupling the mathematical equations of the vehicle–track systems. The dynamic interaction of the entire system is numerically studied in time domain, employing Newmark's integration method. The track irregularity spectra of both the left/right rails are taken into account, as the inputs of dynamic excitations. The dynamic responses of the track system induced by such irregularities are obtained, particularly in terms of the vertical (bounce) and roll displacements. The numerical model of the present research is validated using several benchmark models reported in the literature, for both the smooth and unsmooth track conditions. Four sample profiles of the measured rail irregularities are considered as the case studies of excitation sources, examining their influences on the dynamic behaviour of the coupled system. The results of numerical simulations demonstrate that the motion of track system is significantly influenced by the presence of uneven irregularities in left/right rails. Dynamic response of the sleepers in the roll direction becomes more sensitive to the rail irregularities, as the unevenness severity of the parallel profiles (quantitative difference between left and right rail spectra) is increased. The severe geometric deformation of the track in the bounce–pitch–roll directions is mainly related to such profile unevenness (cross-level) in left/right rails.     

Influence of some vehicle and track parameters on the environmental vibrations induced by railway traffic

A study is performed on the influence of some typical railway vehicle and track parameters on the level of ground vibrations induced in the neighbourhood. The results are obtained from a previously validated simulation framework considering in a first step the vehicle/track subsystem and, in a second step, the response of the soil to the forces resulting from the first analysis. The vehicle is reduced to a simple vertical 3-dof model, corresponding to the superposition of the wheelset, the bogie and the car body. The rail is modelled as a succession of beam elements elastically supported by the sleepers, lying themselves on a flexible foundation representing the ballast and the subgrade. The connection between the wheels and the rails is realised through a non-linear Hertzian contact. The soil motion is obtained from a finite/infinite element model. The investigated vehicle parameters are its type (urban, high speed, freight, etc.) and its speed. For the track, the rail flexural stiffness, the railpad stiffness, the spacing between sleepers and the rail and sleeper masses are considered. In all cases, the parameter value range is defined from a bibliographic browsing. At the end, the paper proposes a table summarising the influence of each studied parameter on three indicators: the vehicle acceleration, the rail velocity and the soil velocity. It namely turns out that the vehicle has a serious influence on the vibration level and should be considered in prediction models.     

Dynamic diurnal social taxonomy of urban environments using data from a geocoded time use activity-travel diary and point-based business establishment inventory

In this paper, we explore the diurnal dynamics of joint activity participation in a small city in Pennsylvania, USA, using behavioral data and an inventory of business establishments. We account for the variation caused by the collective impact of social, temporal and spatial choices of individuals to produce predicted space–time visualizations of activity participation. The focus is on how social contexts of an activity impact the temporal and spatial decisions regarding the activity locations and how this impact varies depending on activity types. A comparison across activity types and social interaction types is made among spatial patterns during a day. The CentreSIM dataset, which is a household-based activity diary survey collected in Centre County (Pennsylvania, USA) in 2003, provides very detailed social interaction information enabling the analysis of social, spatial and temporal aspects of activity participation. In this paper we use this information to develop a spatio-temporal interpolation method and demonstration based on kriging. In this way, we extract the dynamic social taxonomy of places from the behavioral information in the dataset and suggest how urban and transportation models can be informed from the dynamics of places by observing “what is taking place” (activities being pursued in the context of this paper) combined with “what exists” (business establishments) or “what is available” (businesses that are open). The method here can also be used to improve the design of urban environments (e.g., filling gaps in desired activity locations), manage specific places (e.g., extending the opening and closing times of businesses), study transportation policies that are sensitive to time of day (e.g., pricing of parking to discourage crowding and traffic congestion), and modeling of spatio-temporal decisions of social activities in travel demand models (e.g., to guide the development of model specification and representation of the space in which behavioral models are applied).     

桥面不平顺对下承式系杆拱桥振动影响的试验和模拟研究

为了获得下承式系杆拱桥的汽车荷载冲击系数，在桥面间隔布置橡胶减速条带以形成周期性的不平顺输入，对下承式钢管混凝土系杆拱桥的动挠度进行现场实测。结合自编的车桥耦合（VBI）单元，建立车-桥耦合振动三维有限元分析模型，通过与实测结果对比验证VBI单元的正确性。在此基础上，引入另外3座标准拱桥以形成涵盖4种跨径的下承式系杆拱桥研究对象，输入规范规定的A~D级不平顺，研究车速、车重和桥梁基频对系梁冲击系数的影响。研究结果表明：汽车通过周期间隔布置的减速带时会形成稳态激振，当激振频率接近桥梁的前2阶基频时，引起的系梁动挠度响应最大；系梁的汽车荷载冲击系数随着桥梁基频的增加呈现出先增大后减小的趋势，当小汽车（总重低）行驶于差桥面（D级不平顺）时，规范值明显低估了系梁的冲击系数。     

Sail–sail and sail–hull interaction effects of hybrid-sail assisted bulk carrier

In a previously reported study, wind tunnel experiments were undertaken to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of hybrid-sails in isolation. Such sails are seen as providing a worthwhile reduction in the delivered power to the propeller and hence the engine generated thrust, with a corresponding reduction in the CO₂ production of diesel engine exhaust. In this paper, wind tunnel testing is used to investigate sail–sail interaction effects for two sets of four identical hybrid-sails, and the sail–hull interaction effects for the same two sets of four identical sails in the presence of a bulk carrier hullform. The analysis presented suggests that to build a sail-assisted ship requires an appreciation of the sail–sail and sail–hull interaction effects.     

暗挖双连拱隧道穿越浅基础高层楼群区施工技术

北京城市铁路东直门区间采用双连拱隧道结构形式 ,在富水松散地层中从两栋浅基础高层居民楼中间采用浅埋暗挖法通过 ,施工难度极大。本文主要阐述针对该段复杂的施工边界及约束条件 ,在处理地层与结构、隧道施工与既有建筑物相互作用 ,所采用的技术方法和特殊条件下的高层建筑防护技术 ,以及监测在施工中的应用 ,以期为今后类似工程的施工提供参考和借鉴。     

分层饱和土中横向受荷桩动力阻抗分析方法

考虑饱和土的成层性和孔隙流体与土骨架变形的相互作用,用积分变换方法构建盘面和柱面荷载作用下土体与结构动力相互作用影响函数,用边界元方法建立相应的考虑饱和土成层性的地基与桩基础动力相互作用分析方法。以层状饱和土中横向受荷桩动力阻抗分析表明分析方法的可行性。