Comparing different contour methods with response-based methods for extreme ship response analysis

Environmental contours are often applied in probabilistic structural reliability analysis to identify extreme environmental conditions that may give rise to extreme loads and responses. They facilitate approximate long term analysis of critical structural responses in situations where computationally heavy and time-consuming response calculations makes full long-term analysis infeasible. The environmental contour method identifies extreme environmental conditions that are expected to give rise to extreme structural response of marine structures. The extreme responses can then be estimated by performing response calculations for environmental conditions along the contours.Response-based analysis is an alternative, where extreme value analysis is performed on the actual response rather than on the environmental conditions. For complex structures, this is often not practical due to computationally heavy response calculations. However, by establishing statistical emulators of the response, using machine learning techniques, one may obtain long time-series of the structural response and use this to estimate extreme responses.In this paper, various contour methods will be compared to response-based estimation of extreme vertical bending moment for a tanker. A response emulator based on Gaussian processes regression with adaptive sampling has been established based on response calculations from a hydrodynamic model. Long time-series of sea-state parameters such as significant wave height and wave period are used to construct N-year environmental contours and the extreme N-year response is estimated from numerical calculations for identified sea states. At the same time, the response emulator is applied on the time series to provide long time-series of structural response, in this case vertical bending moment of a tanker. Extreme value analysis is then performed directly on the responses to estimate the N-year extreme response. The results from either method will then be compared, and it is possible to evaluate the accuracy of the environmental contour method in estimating the response. Moreover, different contour methods will be compared.     

地下工程注浆技术研究新进展

注浆是土木、水利和矿山等工程建设中重要的防渗和加固技术。文章基于国内外注浆技术研究文献,总结了水泥等颗粒性浆液的“渗滤效应”及“黏度时空变异性”等理论研究成果,论述了非水反应高聚物、CW环氧树脂和微生物菌液等注浆新材料的应用现状及发展前景,介绍了细观力学数值模拟研究的突破性进展,可为地下工程注浆技术发展提供借鉴和启发作用。     

桥墩及桩基形式对墩底平转施工转盘设计的影响

以新建福厦(福州—厦门)高速铁路17500 t转体刚构为背景,采用实体有限元方法分析了不同桥墩类型及桩基布置对墩底平转转体中转盘受力的影响,并对桥墩及桩基进行了优化。结果表明:实体墩对上转盘受力最有利,其次是空心墩,最不利的是双薄壁墩;增加墩底实体段能够有效降低空心墩、双薄壁墩上转盘的主拉应力;随着墩底实体段高度的增加,主拉应力降低的幅度逐渐变小;球铰正下方有桩基时对下转盘底部受力更加有利;距离球铰中心越远,桩基受力越小,适当增加中桩桩径,可使各桩基应力状态更加均衡。     

车辆隔热壁K值计算中空气层的处理方法

对轨道交通车辆多层复合结构的隔热壁进行隔热性能理论计算与仿真计算的对比,对隔热壁内部空气层的隔热性能进行分析。结论为:在车辆多层复合结构的隔热壁K值计算中,当空气层厚度大于一定厚度时,流体自然对流对隔热壁的隔热性能影响较大。利用多项式密度(Polynomial Denisity)和Boussinesq模型两种算法,对所得结论进行了验证。     

Free-floating bike sharing: Solving real-life large-scale static rebalancing problems

Free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) is an innovative bike sharing model. FFBS saves on start-up cost, in comparison to station-based bike sharing (SBBS), by avoiding construction of expensive docking stations and kiosk machines. FFBS prevents bike theft and offers significant opportunities for smart management by tracking bikes in real-time with built-in GPS. However, like SBBS, the success of FFBS depends on the efficiency of its rebalancing operations to serve the maximal demand as possible.Bicycle rebalancing refers to the reestablishment of the number of bikes at sites to desired quantities by using a fleet of vehicles transporting the bicycles. Static rebalancing for SBBS is a challenging combinatorial optimization problem. FFBS takes it a step further, with an increase in the scale of the problem. This article is the first effort in a series of studies of FFBS planning and management, tackling static rebalancing with single and multiple vehicles. We present a Novel Mixed Integer Linear Program for solving the Static Complete Rebalancing Problem. The proposed formulation, can not only handle single as well as multiple vehicles, but also allows for multiple visits to a node by the same vehicle. We present a hybrid nested large neighborhood search with variable neighborhood descent algorithm, which is both effective and efficient in solving static complete rebalancing problems for large-scale bike sharing programs.Computational experiments were carried out on the 1 Commodity Pickup and Delivery Traveling Salesman Problem (1-PDTSP) instances used previously in the literature and on three new sets of instances, two (one real-life and one general) based on Share-A-Bull Bikes (SABB) FFBS program recently launched at the Tampa campus of University of South Florida and the other based on Divvy SBBS in Chicago. Computational experiments on the 1-PDTSP instances demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms a tabu search algorithm and is highly competitive with exact algorithms previously reported in the literature for solving static rebalancing problems in SBSS. Computational experiments on the SABB and Divvy instances, demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to deal with the increase in scale of the static rebalancing problem pertaining to both FFBS and SBBS, while deriving high-quality solutions in a reasonable amount of CPU time.     

Solving the gate assignment problem through the Fuzzy Bee Colony Optimization

In the field of Swarm Intelligence, the Bee Colony Optimization (BCO) has proven to be capable of solving high-level combinatorial problems, like the Flight-Gate Assignment Problem (FGAP), with fast convergence performances. However, given that the FGAP can be often affected by uncertainty or approximation in data, in this paper we develop a new metaheuristic algorithm, based on the Fuzzy Bee Colony Optimization (FBCO), which integrates the concepts of BCO with a Fuzzy Inference System. The proposed method assigns, through the multicriteria analysis, airport gates to scheduled flights based on both passengers’ total walking distance and use of remote gates, to find an optimal flight-to-gate assignment for a given schedule. Comparison of the results with the schedules of real airports has allowed us to show the characteristics of the proposed concepts and, at the same time, it stressed the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Dynamic loading history and collapse analysis of the pipe during deepwater S-lay operation

In the deepwater S-lay operations depending on the required stinger radius and rollers configuration, relatively large plastic deformation is induced when the pipe passes over the stinger, under the combined loadings of bending, axial tension, roller reaction force and the pipelay vessel motion. The resulting plastic deformation does not vanish after the pipe leaves the stinger. It accumulates until the pipe reaches the seabed. The inherited residual deformation might reduce the collapse capacity of the pipe under the external pressure loading. The present paper investigates the dynamic loading history of the pipe during the S-lay operation based on a test-verified finite element model, and then calculates the residual plastic deformation of the pipe cross-section after the pipe reaches the seabed. Finally, the nonlinear collapse analysis is implemented based on the modified RIKS method to evaluate the capacity of the installation-induced deformed pipe. The results confirm that the deepwater S-lay operation will lead to obvious plastic deformation of the pipe, which decreases the pipe collapse capacity to some extent.     

Towards a model of hydrodynamic damping for a circular cylinder with helical strakes at low KC

This paper investigates the hydrodynamic damping of a circular cylinder with helical strakes at Keulegan-Carpenter (KC) number from 0.07 to 3 in the presence of steady currents. Experiments were performed with a straked cylinder oscillating in either in-line or cross currents over Reynolds number (based on the oscillating velocity amplitude) varying from 1260 to 54,000. With in-line current being present, the measured drag coefficients of the straked cylinder are found to depend on the ratio between the oscillating velocity amplitude and the steady current velocity. This phenomenon is further confirmed by computational fluid dynamics using large-eddy simulations. The drag coefficients obtained from the numerical simulations agree well with the experimentally determined values. Similar phenomenon is observed for the cases with cross background current. Based on the experimental data, empirical formulae are proposed to evaluate drag coefficients. These results are of importance in estimating the resonant motion and the fatigue life of risers, e.g. water intake risers, in the flow regime of low KC. Finally, recommendations are provided for fatigue analysis of risers with helical strakes from the perspective of engineering practice.     

A generic data assimilation framework for vehicle trajectory reconstruction on signalized urban arterials using particle filters

With trajectory data, a complete microscopic and macroscopic picture of traffic flow operations can be obtained. However, trajectory data are difficult to observe over large spatiotemporal regions—particularly in urban contexts—due to practical, technical and financial constraints. The next best thing is to estimate plausible trajectories from whatever data are available. This paper presents a generic data assimilation framework to reconstruct such plausible trajectories on signalized urban arterials using microscopic traffic flow models and data from loops (individual vehicle passages and thus vehicle counts); traffic control data; and (sparse) travel time measurements from whatever source available. The key problem we address is that loops suffer from miss- and over-counts, which result in unbounded errors in vehicle accumulations, rendering trajectory reconstruction highly problematic. Our framework solves this problem in two ways. First, we correct the systematic error in vehicle accumulation by fusing the counts with sparsely available travel times. Second, the proposed framework uses particle filtering and an innovative hierarchical resampling scheme, which effectively integrates over the remaining error distribution, resulting in plausible trajectories. The proposed data assimilation framework is tested and validated using simulated data. Experiments and an extensive sensitivity analysis show that the proposed method is robust to errors both in the model and in the measurements, and provides good estimations for vehicle accumulation and vehicle trajectories with moderate sensor quality. The framework does not impose restrictions on the type of microscopic models used and can be naturally extended to include and estimate additional trajectory attributes such as destination and path, given data are available for assimilation.     

Probabilistic fatigue analysis of marine structures using the univariate dimension-reduction method

Probabilistic fatigue analysis of offshore structures requires the numerical simulation of a huge number of loading cases to compute the long-term multi-dimensional integral associated to the fatigue damage assessment. This paper proposes the implementation of the univariate dimension-reduction method developed by Rahman and Xu [1] in order to compute the long-term fatigue damage more efficiently. This method is particularly attractive because it reduces significantly the number of simulations by decomposing the N-dimensional integral associated to expected long-term fatigue damage assessment into the sum of N one-dimensional integrals. In addition, this paper compares the univariate-dimension reduction method with the brute force direct integration methodology and other methods based on Taylor expansions, such as perturbation approach and asymptotic expansion method discussed by Low and Cheung [2]. Two comprehensive examples are included to show the effectiveness of the method. At first, the performance of the univariate dimension-reduction method is evaluated by assessing the fatigue damage of a theoretical structure represented by a single stress response amplitude operator (RAO). Then, in order to show a case of practical application, the fatigue damage is evaluated for a Steel Lazy Wave Riser (SLWR) connected to an FPSO in a water depth of 2200 m.