Highway voting system: Embracing a possible paradigm shift in traffic data acquisition

The integration of internet and mobile phones has opened the door to a new wave of utilizing private vehicles as probes not only for performance evaluation but for traffic control as well, gradually replacing the role of traffic surveillance systems as the dominant source of traffic data. To prepare for such a paradigm shift, one needs to overcome some key institutional barriers, in particular, the privacy issue. A Highway Voting System (HVS) is proposed to address this issue in which drivers provide link- and/or path-based vehicle data to the traffic management system in the form of “votes” in order to receive favorable service from traffic control. The proposed HVS offers a platform that links data from individual vehicles directly with traffic control. In the system, traffic control responds to voting vehicles in a way similar to the current system responding to prioritized vehicles and providing the requested services accordingly. We show in the paper that the proposed “voting” system can effectively resolve the privacy issue which often hampers traffic engineers from getting detailed data from drivers. Strategies to entice drivers into “voting” so as to increase the market penetration level under all traffic conditions are discussed. Though the focus of the paper is on addressing the institutional issues associated with data acquisition from individual vehicles, other research topics associated with the proposed system are identified. Two examples are given to demonstrate the impact of the proposed system on algorithm development and traffic control.     

Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment

This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.     

冲压机械振动对高铁桥梁及行车动力影响分析

高速铁路桥梁的平顺性和稳定性对运营列车的平稳性和安全性有很大影响。为研究冲压机械产生的外部振动激励对高铁桥梁的影响,首先通过对此机械引起的地面振动进行实测,并结合有限元分析软件,确定最大冲击荷载作用下产生的地面振动及传播至桥墩处的振动;然后通过建立列车-轨道-桥梁耦合动力学模型,将桥墩处的地面振动作为激励输入,分析列车以不同速度通过时车辆、桥梁动力学响应。结果表明:地面冲击振动有限元模型计算结果与实测结果基本相符,验证了模型的可靠性;地面振动对桥梁响应会产生一定的影响,距振源50 m处地面振动对桥梁所产生的影响较距振源80 m处(桥墩处)的大,但对运行车辆的影响很小;随着车速由250 km/h至350 km/h,车辆及桥梁各结构的动态响应均有所增大,但都未超出安全限值。因此,冲压机械冲击作用导致的地面振动对列车-轨道-桥梁系统动态服役性能影响非常有限。     

Nonlinear pricing in linear cities with elastic demands

Nonlinear road pricing charges each traveler based on his/her trip’s corresponding particular attribute level. In order to help authorities in designing road pricing systems at a strategic level, this paper attempts to address two fundamental questions: (i) what is the value of pricing’s nonlinearity for mitigating traffic congestion? (ii) if a nonlinear toll function is implemented, should it be convex, concave or other shape? Specifically, we consider distance-based pricing in linear cities. For linear monocentric cities with heterogeneous travelers, we show that the system optimal distance-based pricing indeed exhibits nonlinearity. It is proved that: (i) the cost-based system optimal toll function is monotonically increasing and concave with respect to the traveled distance; (ii) the time-based system optimal toll function always exists and is unique. If the initial proportion of each traveler group is invariant along a corridor and the demand function is of exponential type, then the time-based system optimal toll function enables the travelers, living further away from a city center, to face a lower toll level per unit distance. For a linear polycentric city, we demonstrate: (i) there always exists the system optimal differentiated (in terms of city centers) toll functions; (ii) it is highly possible that the system optimal non-differentiated toll function does not exist. Hence, we further propose an optimal toll design model, prove the Lipschitz continuity of its objective and adopt a global-optimization algorithm to solve it.     

从一起船舶主机拉缸故障谈柴油机润滑油的选用

通过某LPG船一起主机拉缸案例,阐述船舶柴油机润滑油合理选用和管理的重要性,讨论选用润滑油应根据船舶柴油机的型号、燃油品质等具体情况,充分考虑润滑油的黏度等级和碱度。介绍船用柴油机润滑油国内外主要生产商及其相应的产品牌号。     

流线型钢箱梁涡激振动机理与气动控制措施

以某主跨390 m的独塔流线型钢箱梁斜拉桥为工程依托，采用风洞试验与计算流体动力学（Computational Fluid Dynamics，CFD）相结合的方法对流线型钢箱梁涡激振动机理与气动控制措施进行研究。首先，采用几何缩尺比为1∶30的主梁节段模型进行主梁涡振性能与气动控制措施优化研究；其次，采用CFD方法对主梁涡振响应进行流固耦合计算，将Newmark-β算法嵌入ANSYS Fluent用户自定义函数（User Defined Functions，UDFs）实现主梁结构振动响应求解，同时结合动网格技术实现主梁断面流固耦合分析；并根据判断条件来检索箱梁壁面上的网格单元，以获得主梁断面振动过程中的表面压力，然后结合主梁结构振动响应、表面压力以及流场特征等对主梁涡激振动机理进行分析。结果表明：该桥主梁原设计方案存在涡激共振现象，将梁底检修车轨道内移120 cm可有效抑制主梁涡振响应；主梁涡激振动响应的数值模拟结果与风洞试验结果吻合较好；检修车轨道内移120 cm后主要改变了箱梁下表面平均压力系数分布特性，且箱梁表面各测点脉动压力卓越频率不一致，有效减小了主梁涡激振动响应；流线型箱梁靠近迎风侧的“被动区域”对结构涡振响应贡献较小，背风侧“驱动区域”发生周期性旋涡脱落是影响流线型箱梁涡振的主要因素。     

Interactive travel choices and traffic forecast in a doubly dynamical system with user inertia and information provision

This study models the joint evolution (over calendar time) of travelers’ departure time and mode choices, and the resulting traffic dynamics in a bi-modal transportation system. Specifically, we consider that, when adjusting their departure time and mode choices, travelers can learn from their past travel experiences as well as the traffic forecasts offered by the smart transport information provider/agency. At the same time, the transport agency can learn from historical data in updating traffic forecast from day to day. In other words, this study explicitly models and analyzes the dynamic interactions between transport users and traffic information provider. Besides, the impact of user inertia is taken into account in modeling the traffic dynamics. When exploring the convergence of the proposed model to the dynamic bi-modal commuting equilibrium, we find that appropriate traffic forecast can help the system converge to the user equilibrium. It is also found that user inertia might slow down the convergence speed of the day-to-day evolution model. Extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted to account for the impacts of inaccurate parameters adopted by the transport agency.     

Formal scientific research of traffic collision data utilizing GIS

This paper explores the tenuous link between speeding behavior and accident causation, one that has not been well established in the international literature to date. Taking advantage of established engineering conventions and formulae, we were able to set up an a priori hypothesis suitable for testing. Utilizing this formal scientific method (which GIS researchers have been criticised for not using) we establish a statistical link for this relationship. Our methodology can be used to support all police intervention strategies, including the controversial photo radar systems. The results from our research have been entered into a GIS in order to create a map for spatial display. This map illustrates the relative probability or risk of collision occurrence resulting from speeding at all intersections and interchanges within the scope of the study. It is suggested that this methodology could easily be maintained with periodic updates of data, thus creating a dynamic model from which to monitor traffic safety within the city. Furthermore, this model can be utilized to study specific strategies, allowing for the scrutiny of before, during and after effects. The study area is the entire city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and includes all traffic collisions occurring during the year of 1994.     

Modelling,simulation and applications of longitudinal train dynamics

ABSTRACT

Significant developments in longitudinal train simulation and an overview of the approaches to train models and modelling vehicle force inputs are firstly presented. The most important modelling task, that of the wagon connection, consisting of energy absorption devices such as draft gears and buffers, draw gear stiffness, coupler slack and structural stiffness is then presented. Detailed attention is given to the modelling approaches for friction wedge damped and polymer draft gears. A significant issue in longitudinal train dynamics is the modelling and calculation of the input forces – the co-dimensional problem. The need to push traction performances higher has led to research and improvement in the accuracy of traction modelling which is discussed. A co-simulation method that combines longitudinal train simulation, locomotive traction control and locomotive vehicle dynamics is presented. The modelling of other forces, braking propulsion resistance, curve drag and grade forces are also discussed. As extensions to conventional longitudinal train dynamics, lateral forces and coupler impacts are examined in regards to interaction with wagon lateral and vertical dynamics. Various applications of longitudinal train dynamics are then presented. As an alternative to the tradition single wagon mass approach to longitudinal train dynamics, an example incorporating fully detailed wagon dynamics is presented for a crash analysis problem. Further applications of starting traction, air braking, distributed power, energy analysis and tippler operation are also presented.     

State estimation in roll dynamics for commercial vehicles

Accurate lateral load transfer estimation plays an important role in improving the performance of the active rollover prevention system equipped in commercial vehicles. This estimation depends on the accurate prediction of roll angles for both the sprung and the unsprung subsystems. This paper proposes a novel computational method for roll-angle estimation in commercial vehicles employing sensors which are already used in a vehicle dynamic control system without additional expensive measurement units. The estimation strategy integrates two blocks. The first block contains a sliding-mode observer which is responsible for calculating the lateral tyre forces, while in the second block, the Kalman filter estimates the roll angles of the sprung mass and those of axles in the truck. The validation is conducted through MATLAB/TruckSim co-simulation. Based on the comparison between the estimated results and the simulation results from TruckSim, it can be concluded that the proposed estimation method has a promising tracking performance with low computational cost and high convergence speed. This approach enables a low-cost solution for the rollover prevention in commercial vehicles.