Efficient intersection control for minimally guided vehicles: A self-organised and decentralised approach

An important question for the practical applicability of the highly efficient traffic intersection control is about the minimal level of intelligence the vehicles need to have so as to move beyond the traffic light control. We propose an efficient intersection traffic control scheme without the traffic lights, that only requires a majority of vehicles on the road to be equipped with a simple driver assistance system. The algorithm of our scheme is completely decentralised, and takes into full account the non-linear interaction between the vehicles at high density. For vehicles approaching the intersection in different directions, our algorithm imposes simple interactions between vehicles around the intersection, by defining specific conditions on the real-time basis, for which the involved vehicles are required to briefly adjust their dynamics. This leads to a self-organised traffic flow that is safe, robust, and efficient. We also take into account of the driver comfort level and study its effect on the control efficiency. The scheme has low technological barrier, minimal impact on the conventional driving behaviour, and can coexist with the traffic light control. It also has the advantages of being easily scalable, and fully compatible with both the conventional road systems as well as the futuristic scenario in which driverless vehicles dominate the road. The mathematical formulation of our scheme permits large scale realistic numerical simulations of busy intersections, allowing a more complete evaluation of the control performance, instead of just the collision avoidance at the intersection.     

Effects of switching costs on customer attitude loyalty to an airport in a multi-airport region

The purpose is to analyze impacts of switching costs on customer attitude loyalty to an airport operator in a Norwegian multi-airport region. A sample of 167 respondents is analyzed by a structural equations modelling approach. Irrespective of customers’ perceptions of switching costs, service quality seems to be the most important customer loyalty driver. For low switching costs customers flight offers are also an important loyalty driver. For high switching costs customers facilities are important. An anticipated reduction in switching costs due to improvements in the regions’ infrastructure thus implies that more attention should be paid to an upgrading of the flight offers in order to create more airport loyalty in future. This may also have some interesting policy implications, which is briefly discussed in the paper.     

Inland waterways—their role and significance in European transport

Summary

1) Western Europe has a navigable waterways‐network of about 19,000 kms. For the coming decades, however, about 40 percent of the length of these waterways has a very limited relevance, because of the small capacity of the barges that can pass along them.

2) Of the different types of barges the majority are the self‐propelled type. The importance of the pull‐towed barges is declining quickly, whereas the push‐towed barges are on the upswing.

3) The relative importance of inland shipping in comparison with rail transport is far from uniform. In The Netherlands inland shipping is dominant. On the other hand, in France, this mode of transport has only 30 percent of the total number of tons transported by inland shipping and railways together.

4) May the relative importance defer, there is a strong resemblance between the types of goods that are transported via the waterways with crude and manufactured minerals as well as building materials ranking high. In general, inland shipping is primarily involved in the transport of basic products and is of vital importance to the functioning of the West‐European economy.

5) The rather complicated legal regime of the waterways in Western Europe is certainly not the only reason why the integration in the transportation sector of the European Communities hardly moves on.

A fundamental discussion about the basic conceptions of the transport policy in the Common Market is unavoidable before real progress can be made. The entrance of the United Kingdom into the European Community may give an opening on this point.

6) Life goes on, with or without transport‐integration. Inland shipping moves forward too, paying for the use of infrastructure or not.

The general trends in transport support the expectation that the relative importance of inland shipping will increase in the coming decades. The increase in size of shipments and transport distances works in favour of this mode of transport. Besides this, inland shipping still has many possibilities to improve its productivity.

7) The future of inland shipping will be found in bulk transport and the transport of general cargo that has a volume per destination that goes far beyond the quantities for which the container or comparable types of transport units are better suited.     

高比转速跨声离心/斜流压气机流动特点分析

  目的  压气机是燃气轮机的核心部件之一,它直接决定了燃气轮机性能的优劣。斜流压气机是介于轴流压气机和离心压气机之间的一种形式,兼具离心压气机高压比和轴流压气机流通能力强的优点。  方法  采用一套通用于轴流、离心和斜流压气机的S2流面气动设计和任意中弧线叶片造型的程序,对某斜流+轴流组合式多级压气机进行气动设计,研究确定压气机的流道形式、环量分布,并对其进行叶片造型。在设计时,结合商用数值模拟软件对该组合式压气机进行流场数值分析。  结果  结果表明,该斜流轴流组合式压气机的各项参数均满足设计指标,压气机两级总压比和绝热效率分别达到4.3和88%。  结论  \t\t 该斜流轴流组合式的压气机设计有如下难度：一是斜流级静子进口处马赫数较高,在斜流静子中控制气流流动的难度较大;二是为控制气流在斜流静子中的分离,斜流级静子弯度较小,导致轴流级处于较大的负攻角状态,斜流与轴流的级间匹配难度较大。     

A procedure for predicting the permanent rotation of monopiles in sand supporting offshore wind turbines

Foundations for Offshore Wind Turbines (OWTs) are designed following the limit state philosophy. One of the considered states is the Serviceability Limit State (SLS), which verifies that the permanent rotation of the foundation generated from accumulated strains in the soil is below a project specific criterion. Despite design codes requiring an estimation of the permanent rotation, there is not clear guidance on how to implement this. This paper describes a methodology to estimate the monopile permanent rotation for SLS and discusses its advantages and limitations. The methodology combines an accumulation method with results from 3D Finite Element Analyses (FEA) and a soil model that accounts for strain accumulation as a function of the number of cycles, relative density and load characteristics. The performance of the proposed methodology is compared against experimental centrifuge tests and results from advanced 3D FEA, indicating that it can predict the permanent rotation with satisfactory accuracy, and with a considerable reduction in computational effort. This is important for the design of OWTs, where different load histories might be required to be checked – often under tight time constraints – to find which load history leads to the largest permanent rotation, and therefore is more critical to SLS design.     

Assessment of submarine pipeline damages subjected to falling object impact considering the effect of seabed

Untrenched submarine pipelines lying on the seabed are vulnerable and can be damaged by the impact of falling objects. This may cause significant economic costs for repair and even environmental contamination in case of rupture and oil leakage. This paper presents assessment of submarine pipeline damage subjected to falling object impact considering the effect of seabed through nonlinear explicit dynamic finite element modelling. The numerical model was first verified against existing experimental results and established studies. A total of 209 cases of parametric study was then conducted to assess pipeline damage by accounting for various factors, including object mass, velocity and seabed conditions. The results show that the pipeline damage can be directly related to the impact kinetic energy of the falling object for pipelines sitting on rigid bed. In other words, falling objects with the same impact energy (while mass and velocity may vary) cause the same damage to a pipeline. For a pipeline on a soil seabed, however, this study shows that pipeline damage is no longer simplistically determined by the impact kinetic energy of the falling objects. Falling objects with different mass and velocity may cause different pipeline damages, even though the impact energy is the same. It is interesting to find out that objects with a smaller mass (i.e. higher velocity) tend to cause greater damage than objects with a greater mass (i.e. lower velocity), when the total impact kinetic energy of the falling objects is the same. These observations are explored in this paper, which is explained with the variation of the energy absorption due to the existence of soil seabed.     

Sequential data assimilation in an upwelling influenced estuary

We have evaluated the impact of assimilating chlorophyll, nitrate, phosphate, silicate and ammonium into a coupled 1D hydrodynamic ecosystem model (GOTM-ERSEM) in an upwelling influenced estuary. The assimilation method chosen is the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), which has been demonstrated to improve field estimates of key variables (chlorophyll, nutrients) for bulk algal bloom prediction. The 1D model has been set up for a central station inside the Ría de Vigo (Spain). Data from bi-weekly surveys are used to constrain the model. Temperature and salinity profiles are used to ensure the correct representation of the water structure through a relaxation scheme. Chlorophyll extracts and nutrients at three depths are assimilated sequentially during 1 year simulation (1991). The assimilation period includes episodes of active upwelling and downwelling. All five assimilated variables are successfully constrained and represent a large improvement on the reference simulation (without assimilation). Small divergences can be related to poorly resolved physical processes in the model. The assimilation was further evaluated by comparing observed biomass partitioning with model results. Diatoms accounted for the largest biomass update and the largest improvement in terms of percentage of variance explained (R²). This is particularly significant as they represent the 46% of the yearly integrated observed biomass of the planktonic autotrophs. Nonetheless the R² value was low for all phytoplankton groups. Bacteria and nanoflagellates showed an improvement with respect to their yearly Root Mean Square (RMS), while the other functional groups worsen or remained unaffected. Chlorophyll assimilation was responsible for most of the impact on the phytoplankton biomass with small contributions from the silicate. It had minor impact on the updates of nutrients which in turn corrected the state variables related to the detrital pool. In this current setting, combined assimilation of chlorophyll and nutrients is not sufficient to produce a skillful simulation of the phytoplankton succession.     

An aggregate demand model for intercity passenger travel in Sri Lanka

Inspite of the inherent weaknesses in aggregate demand models, they continue to be used in everyday applications, especially in developing countries. The largely data intensive disaggregate model preclude its application in many cases. This paper attempts the formulation and calibration of an aggregate total demand model for estimating inter-district passenger travel by public transport in Sri Lanka. In its process, an investigation is made of the common problems in the aggregate approach while examining possible remedial measures to improve the accuracy and (hence) the usability of the aggregate model. It is argued that commonly used variables and functional forms are inappropriate for making accurate estimates in developing countries. Consequently, the model calibration is shown to incorporate variables representing urbanisation, under-development, transfers, a mode-abstract cost function and intrinsic features. The necessity for functional form for each variable to be based on behavioral assumptions that are tested using the Box-Cox transformation for ensuring the best fit of the data is also observed. Although, the model form was calibrated for Sri Lanka, the model is generalised in order for its applications to other countries as well as, both, inter-district and intercity travel demand estimation.     

The undrained bearing capacity of a spudcan foundation under combined loading in soft clay

Mobile jack-up drilling rigs are typically supported by individual, large diameter spudcan foundations. Before deployment, the suitability of a jack-up to a location must be shown in a site-specific assessment under loads associated with a 50-year return period storm, which ultimately need to be resisted by the foundations. The capacity of the spudcans under combined vertical, horizontal and moment loading is therefore integral to the overall site-specific assessment of the jack-up.In soft clays, spudcans can penetrate deeply into the seabed, sometimes up to several footing diameters, with soil flowing around the downward penetrating footing, sealing the cavity. Although this is generally believed to provide some additional bearing capacity to the footing, no detailed study or formal guidance is available to date. This study, therefore, investigates the influence of soil back-flow on the failure mechanisms and quantifies the effect on the capacity of a spudcan under general loading through finite element analyses. A closed-form analytical expression is developed that describes the capacity envelope under combined loading, applicable to embedment depths ranging from shallow to deep.     

实船数据处理建模及仿真系统

为了使科研人员更方便地使用船舶试验数据,采用VB与Matlab混合编程,开发了一套集数据提取、数据处理、建模、仿真及比较功能于一体的实船数据处理、建模及仿真系统,利用育鲲轮试验数据对本系统进行测试,测试效果令人满意。系统界面美观,简捷易用,功能完备。