The impacts of changing flight demands and throughput performance on airport delays through the Great Recession

Several significant events between 2007 and 2009 impacted flight demands and the abilities of the three major New York area airports to handle demand. This paper assesses the results of applying a probabilistic simulation method – which isolates the individual contributions of changes in flight demand and changes in airport throughput performance to changes in flight delays – to diagnose how these different events may have caused operational changes at these airports, and in turn, how the results may be used to inform policies for appropriate countermeasures. The analysis revealed two key observations. Firstly, certain patterns in throughput performance shifts caused the most significant delays, and were more likely to have been caused by controller staffing issues rather than caps. Secondly, relatively constant average delays from one year to the next may result from significant demand drops accompanied by large throughput performance degradations at an airport. This suggests that not only operational limitations on capacity encourage airlines to reduce schedules, but that changed demands can also impact throughput performance. Overall, the analysis indicates that caps may not have provided their fully intended delay benefits. Although they successfully reduced overall flight demands at LGA and JFK, they also directly limited throughput performance at critical times, in turn limiting delay benefits. In addition, demands at the busiest times of the day appear to be relatively inelastic to these operational limitations, insofar as demand profiles at EWR and JFK remained “peaky” in 2008 and 2009. Also, the recession was largely responsible for reducing demands at the airports in 2009, but the delay benefits of this were dampened by a corresponding throughput performance degradation. Based on the above observations, a more direct demand management policy combined with policies that focus on maintaining high staffing capabilities at critical times of the day may be considered, to reduce the likelihood of major queue formation on days that do experience sustained demands. The results also suggest that a more flexible caps system, particularly during times of heavy queues, could be explored. Although airport practitioners have keen understandings of how their airports operate, without the support of quantitative analysis tools, it can be more difficult to argue the need for appropriate countermeasures. An analysis such as the one presented here can provide the detailed quantitative substantiation required to build cases for these targeted policy directives and infrastructure investments.     

Towards a generic benchmarking platform for origin–destination flows estimation/updating algorithms: Design,demonstration and validation

Estimation/updating of Origin–Destination (OD) flows and other traffic state parameters is a classical, widely adopted procedure in transport engineering, both in off-line and in on-line contexts. Notwithstanding numerous approaches proposed in the literature, there is still room for considerable improvements, also leveraging the unprecedented opportunity offered by information and communication technologies and big data. A key issue relates to the unobservability of OD flows in real networks – except from closed highway systems – thus leading to inherent difficulties in measuring performance of OD flows estimation/updating methods and algorithms. Starting from these premises, the paper proposes a common evaluation and benchmarking framework, providing a synthetic test bed, which enables implementation and comparison of OD estimation/updating algorithms and methodologies under “standardized” conditions. The framework, implemented in a platform available to interested parties upon request, has been flexibly designed and allows comparing a variety of approaches under various settings and conditions. Specifically, the structure and the key features of the framework are presented, along with a detailed experimental design for the application of different dynamic OD flow estimation algorithms. By way of example, applications to both off-line/planning and on-line algorithms are presented, together with a demonstration of the extensibility of the presented framework to accommodate additional data sources.     

Optimization models for differentiating quality of service levels in probabilistic network capacity design problems

This paper develops various chance-constrained models for optimizing the probabilistic network design problem (PNDP), where we differentiate the quality of service (QoS) and measure the related network performance under uncertain demand. The upper level problem of PNDP designs continuous/discrete link capacities shared by multi-commodity flows, and the lower level problem differentiates the corresponding QoS for demand satisfaction, to prioritize customers and/or commodities. We consider PNDP variants that have either fixed flows (formulated at the upper level) or recourse flows (at the lower level) according to different applications. We transform each probabilistic model into a mixed-integer program, and derive polynomial-time algorithms for special cases with single-row chance constraints. The paper formulates benchmark stochastic programming models by either enforcing to meet all demand or penalizing unmet demand via a linear penalty function. We compare different models and approaches by testing randomly generated network instances and an instance built on the Sioux–Falls network. Numerical results demonstrate the computational efficacy of the solution approaches and derive managerial insights.     

天津西南环线铁路钢横梁框架墩设计

当前,新建铁路临近市区或车站地段,往往铁路密集、纵横交错,新建线路与既有铁路、公路小角度交叉的情况不可避免;加之临近车站时线路纵断面抬高困难,需严格限制上跨线路的结构建筑高度.钢横梁框架墩的建筑高度较低,而横向跨度相对较大,是此类工点较好的解决方案.本文介绍了钢横梁框架墩的结构特点,分析比较了不同的墩顶固结方式,并总结了设计注意事项.     

船舶柴油机数字式调速器仿真系统设计

文章以DGS8800e数字式调速器作为仿真对象,对调速器仿真系统的结构组成、调节器、执行器、监控系统以及监控面板进行了仿真设计。该系统界面友好、工作可靠且具有面向训练的功能特征,可以满足教学及海员适任证书培训评估的需要。     

The perception of Bus Rapid Transit: a passenger survey from Beijing Southern Axis BRT Line 1

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a cost-effective transport system for urban mobility. As a relatively new form of Mass Transit, its ability to provide a high-quality transport service and potential to stimulate land development remain largely unexplored. This study intends to investigate the public attitude towards BRT services, as well as respondents’ perception of living near BRT stations, using the Beijing Southern Axis BRT system as a case study. A data-set of responses to 525 questionnaires were assembled and analysed using a combination of statistical techniques. The results show that BRT has gained great popularity among passengers, and brought about a positive impact on the attractiveness of residential property. The data identify that the majority of passengers are work-related commuters and use BRT more than once a day. The captive users have a higher satisfaction than choice users with respect to reliability, comfort & cleanliness and overall satisfaction with the BRT service. It is argued that the BRT has significantly improved the attractiveness of residential property along the BRT corridor.     

列控联锁一体化系统设计方案探讨

结合列控联锁一体化设计经验和发展现状，从系统处理能力、输入输出控制、轨道电路编码和统一接口等方面，对列控联锁一体化系统的设计方案提出建议供探讨。     

铁路新型钢混组合独塔部分斜拉桥设计研究

以在建的银川机场黄河特大桥主桥为工程依托,结合国内外钢混组合结构的研究现状,推出一种新型大跨钢-混凝土组合独塔部分斜拉桥结构。根据钢-混凝土组合独塔部分斜拉桥的特点,采用空间杆系与实体有限元分析方法,对结构的构造细节及受力特征进行分析,以确定本结构应用于高速铁路的可行性。采用有限元仿真分析与概念设计相结合,对钢-混凝土组合独塔部分斜拉桥的结构体系、承载形式、钢混结合形式、截面构造、拉索锚固等一系列技术重难点进行研究。研究结果表明:新型钢混组合独塔部分斜拉桥,可应用于高速铁路;结构受力合理,可充分发挥材料特性以减小结构自重;结构整体刚度好,可满足高速铁路行车要求;施工安全可控,可降低施工干扰;结构造型优美,经济性能佳;桥型新颖,技术先进创新性突出。     

CFC复频电导法与TEM瞬变电磁法在某隧道中的应用对比

CFC复频电导法与TEM瞬变电磁法是我国目前较为先进的隧道超前探水技术。以CFC与TEM在我国某铁路隧道中的应用为例,简述CFC与TEM的方法原理,并结合开挖实际情况进行对比。试验对比表明,CFC探水技术抗干扰能力更强,探水预报结果更为准确,特别是在电磁环境复杂的隧道。     

九岭山隧道塌方治理及塌方治理效果检测

武吉高速公路九岭山隧道是大庆至广州国家高速公路的重要控制性工程,当隧道开挖至ZK102 217时出现了塌方,滑塌范围高约19 m、宽约13 m,塌方量为4 000 m3。根据现场地质条件,分析认为围岩结构(弱风化板岩,钙质或硅质胶结,岩质坚硬,呈块状镶嵌结构)及地下裂隙水是产生塌方的主要原因。采用的处理措施是加强区段支护、回填塌腔、提高松散体的整体强度,并采用"稳住塌方区、固结塌体、超前加固"的分阶段处理方法。施工中采用φ42超前小导管超前支护、φ42系统小导管压浆固结等措施;开挖采用正台阶法以及拱脚加设锁脚小导管、侧壁施作中空注浆锚杆等措施;通过地质雷达无损检测手段对塌方处理效果进行检测,并根据检测结果进行二次处理。