Model based urban traffic control,part II: Coordinated model predictive controllers

The present paper describes how to use coordination between neighbouring intersections in order to improve the performance of urban traffic controllers. Both the local MPC (LMPC) introduced in the companion paper (Hao et al., 2018) and the coordinated MPC (CMPC) introduced in this paper use the urban cell transmission model (UCTM) (Hao et al., 2018) in order to predict the average delay of vehicles in the upstream links of each intersection, for different scenarios of switching times of the traffic lights at that intersection. The feedback controller selects the next switching times of the traffic light corresponding to the shortest predicted average delay. While the local MPC (Hao et al., 2018) only uses local measurements of traffic in the links connected to the intersection in comparing the performance of different scenarios, the CMPC approach improves the accuracy of the performance predictions by allowing a control agent to exchange information about planned switching times with control agents at all neighbouring intersections. Compared to local MPC the offline information on average flow rates from neighbouring intersections is replaced in coordinated MPC by additional online information on when the neighbouring intersections plan to send vehicles to the intersection under control. To achieve good coordination planned switching times should not change too often, hence a cost for changing planned schedules from one decision time to the next decision time is added to the cost function. In order to improve the stability properties of CMPC a prediction of the sum of squared queue sizes is used whenever some downstream queues of an intersection become too long. Only scenarios that decrease this sum of squares of local queues are considered for possible implementation. This stabilization criterion is shown experimentally to further improve the performance of our controller. In particular it leads to a significant reduction of the queues that build up at the edges of the traffic region under control. We compare via simulation the average delay of vehicles travelling on a simple 4 by 4 Manhattan grid, for traffic lights with pre-timed control, traffic lights using the local MPC controller (Hao et al., 2018), and coordinated MPC (with and without the stabilizing condition). These simulations show that the proposed CMPC achieves a significant reduction in delay for different traffic conditions in comparison to these other strategies.     

Congestion and pollution consequences of driving-to-school trips: A case study in Beijing

Parents compete for high-quality education for their children by enrolling them in good schools. However, in a Chinese mega-city like Beijing, three factors jointly lead to the spatial separation between schools and homes: the centralized public goods provision mechanism, the historical dependency in school location, and the constrained supply of housing in downtown. Without an adequate number of school buses, this spatial separation of schools and homes triggers the numerous long-distance driving-to-school trips by private vehicle during workday morning rush hours in Beijing. We use the start and end dates of “school holiday” as exogenous repeated shocks to the aggregate traffic congestion, and employ the two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression approach to examine the congestion and pollution consequences of such driving-to-school trips in Beijing. We find that, all else being equal, workdays during school holidays have a traffic congestion index 20% lower than that of non-school-holiday workdays. Such a sharp reduction in congestion leads to a significant decrease in PM₁₀ concentration. Policymakers should lower such “extra” congestion and environmental costs via optimizing the spatial balance between school supply and demand.     

Conflict-free arrival and departure trajectory planning for parallel runway with advanced point-merge system

In this paper, an efficient trajectory planning system is proposed to solve the integration of arrivals and departures on parallel runways with a novel route network system. Our first effort is made in designing an advanced Point Merge (PM) route network named Multi-Level Point Merge (ML-PM) to meet the requirements of parallel runway operations. Then, more efforts are paid on finding a complete and efficient framework capable of dynamically modelling the integration of arrival and departure trajectories on parallel runways, modelling the conflict detection and resolution in presence of curved trajectory and radius-to-fix merging process. After that, a suitable mathematical optimization formulation is built up. Receding Horizon Control (RHC) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithms are proposed to search the near-optimal solution for the large scale trajectories in routine dense operations. Taking Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) as a study case, the experimental results show that our system shows good performances on the management of arrivals and departures. It can automatically solve all the potential conflicts in presence of dense traffic flows. With its unique ML-PM route network, it can realize a shorter flying time and a near-Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) descent for arrival aircraft, an economical climbing for departure aircraft, an easier runway allocation together with trajectory control solutions. It shows a good and dynamic sequencing efficiency in Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA). In mixed ML-PM mode, under tested conditions, our proposed system can increase throughput at BCIA around 26%, compared with baseline. The methodology defined here could be easily applied to airports worldwide.     

铁路路基动态变形模量的数值模拟分析

介绍铁路路基动态变形模量理论计算公式的推导及动态变形模量的测试原理,采用有限元软件模拟动态变形模量的测试过程,分析承载板与土体接触压力、路基动态变形模量的影响因素,并计算动态变形模量的有效测试深度.结果表明:在承载板中心一定范围内,接触压力模拟结果较理论计算值大;土体的动弹性模量对接触压力影响很小,可以忽略;路基动态变形模量测试冲击荷载作用下,土体只发生弹性变形;动态变形模量与土体动弹性模量呈线性关系,路基动态变形模量的模拟结果大于理论计算值;土体的泊松比对动态变形模量影响较小;动态变形模量有效测试深度建议取0.5~0.6 m.     

Modeling free-flow speed according to different water depths—From the viewpoint of dynamic hydraulic pressure

In this paper, we propose a method of modeling free flow speed from the viewpoint of hydroplaning. First, the lift forces for different water depths were estimated using Bernoulli’s equation. Compared with the result of the experimental test performed by the Japan Automobile Research Institute, the hydrodynamic pressure coefficient was determined to be 0.03 (tf s²/m⁴). The validation of the predicted lift force is found in another published paper. A very good match is found between the computed values by the proposed numerical model and the data in other published papers. Then, the loss of contact force is considered to evaluate the hydroplaning performance of a tire. To simulate the hydroplaning speed, a tire-sliding model was utilized to obtain the traction and friction forces between the road surface and the tire. The observation data obtained in Japan in 2009 is compared with the physically computed hydroplaning speed, yielding the conclusion that the traction force at the measured desired speed is, on average, 23.4% of the traction force at hydroplaning speed. The analytical model offers a useful tool to quantitatively show that the free flow speed changes as the water depth increase.     

缓波型非粘接柔性立管的干涉敏感性

针对非粘接柔性立管在波浪和海流作用下易发生立管干涉的问题,以我国南海某油田输油立管和相邻锚链为例,分别对拖曳力系数、管道单位长度质量、外径、内部介质密度、立管抗拉弯扭刚度和悬挂角度等参数进行敏感性分析,得出不同参数的敏感性情况,并在此基础上提出一些建议供实际工程设计参考.     

南昌地铁砾砂层渣土改良技术试验研究

随着土压平衡盾构的广泛推广和应用,其地层适应性也越来越强,但盾构机在一些特殊地层中掘进时,渣土无法满足盾构施工对渣土流塑性的要求,易造成刀盘结饼、掌子面压力不稳定、刀盘磨损严重等问题。泡沫渣土改良技术是保证施工安全、顺利进行的关键技术之一。本文针对两种工程现场常用的泡沫进行泡沫基础性能试验,并以南昌地铁3号线盾构区间为工程背景,针对该区间砾砂地层进行改良渣土坍落度试验,对不同注入率和不同发泡剂的改良效果进行分析。研究发现,两种泡沫剂的建议使用浓度为3%;渣土流动性随泡沫注入率的增大而提高。在试验所用土样条件下,建议施工时使用的泡沫注入率为20%~30%。     

深海超高压环境模拟容器裂纹评定

深海超高压环境模拟容器用于模拟水下压力环境,其容器壁上承受反复载荷,容易产生疲劳裂纹.疲劳裂纹扩展是影响其断裂的主要因素.本文旨在分析半椭圆裂纹在老化的深海超高压环境模拟容器中的扩展行为,评估容器的安全性,因此对材料20MnMoNb钢的裂纹扩展特性进行了试验研究,首先考虑三角形和梯形加载情况,通过比较两组实验结果,考察了其材料对保载时间的敏感性.采用基于统一的裂纹扩展率模型的三维有限元方法进行了疲劳裂纹扩展计算,并通过CT试样的一组数值和实验结果进行了验证,最后建立了不同初始尺寸、展弦比和倾角的裂纹有限元模型,并根据裂纹在容器内壁的容许深度准则,计算了容器的剩余寿命.其分析结果可为深海超高压环境模拟容器可靠性评估提供参考.     

Structural safety assessment procedure for membrane-type LNG CCS considering hydroelasticity effect

As environmental regulations have become more onerous, the demand for LNG and LNG carriers has increased. The LNG cargo containment system (LNG CCS) is one of the most important facilities in LNG carriers, and many membrane types of LNG CCS have been developed so far. Traditionally, sloshing model tests are performed and a series of statistical approaches are used to obtain design sloshing pressures. Then, these design loads are utilized to analyze the structural safety of LNG CCS. In the sloshing model test, the flat and almost rigid plate is used as the LNG CCS instead of a real model, and thus, the hydroelasticity effect cannot be considered. In the present research, the effect of hydroelasticity on sloshing pressure was investigated in a fluid-structure interaction simulation. A wet drop simulation was conducted, and its results subsequently were compared with wet drop experimental test results to ensure their validity. Then, two types of structure model, namely a flat-rigid plate model and a flat-flexible CCS model, were generated to investigate the effect of hydroelasticity. Also, a fluid hitting analysis model was devised to realize the sloshing phenomenon, and the two generated structure models were applied as the structure domain in the analysis. In the fluid hitting simulations, it was found that the hydroelasticity effect on sloshing pressure is significant. Thus, correction factors, which are quantitative values of the effect of hydroelasticity, were derived (and are proposed herein). Finally, a structural safety assessment procedure for consideration of the hydroelasticity effect was derived (and is suggested herein).