Simulation on progressive collapse behaviour of whole ship model under extreme waves using idealized structural unit method

To ensure the safety of navigating ship, working loads and structural load-carrying capacity are two important aspects. In the present paper, a total simulation system combing load calculation and structural collapse analysis is applied to simulate progressive collapse behaviour of a single-hull Kamsarmax type bulk carrier. A three dimensional singularity distribution method is adopted to calculate pressure distribution with time history. A mixed structural model, collapse part simulated by ISUM elements and remaining part by elastic FEM elements with relative coarse mesh, is proposed for collapse analysis. Progressive collapse behaviour obtained by ISUM is good agreement with that by nonlinear software package, MARC. However, the calculation time of ISUM analysis is about 1/70 of MARC analysis. The applicability to structure system, high accuracy and sufficient efficiency of ISUM had been demonstrated.     

Vehicle kilometers traveled reduction impacts of Transit-Oriented Development: Evidence from Shanghai City

The role of residential self-selection has become a major subject in the debate over the relationships between the built environment and travel behavior. Numerous previous empirical studies on this subject have provided valuable insights into the associations between the built environment and travel behavior. However, the vast majority of the studies were conducted in North American and European cities; yet this research is still in its infancy in most developing countries, including China, where residential and transport choices are likely to be more constrained and travel-related attitudes quite different from those in the developed world. Using the data collected from 2038 residents currently living in TOD neighborhoods and non-TOD neighborhoods in Shanghai City, this paper aims to partly fill the gaps by investigating the causal relationship between the built environment and travel behavior in the Chinese context. More specifically, this paper employs Heckman’s sample selection model to examine the reduction impacts of TOD on personal vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT), controlling for self-selection. The results show that whilst the effects of residential self-selection are apparent; the built environment exhibits the most significant impacts on travel behavior, playing the dominant role. These findings produce a sound basis for local policymakers to better understand the nature and magnitude toward the impacts of the built environment on travel behavior. Providing the government department with reassurance that effective interventions and policies on land use aimed toward altering the built environment would actually lead to meaningful changes in travel behavior.     

基于Prover的联锁软件形式化验证过程研究

计算机联锁系统是铁路信号控制系统的核心设备,是有着苛刻安全要求的复杂控制系统。本文采用Prover形式化开发工具对联锁软件安全需求进行形式化验证。通过模型检验的形式化验证方法,遍历系统输入变量的所有状态空间.验证联锁特定应用满足系统安全需求,确保系统的安全性得以正确实现。在保证系统安全性的基础上,以全状态空间查找反例的检验方法进一步提升产品的质量。     

Investigation of tailpipe and evaporative emissions from China IV and Tier 2 passenger vehicles with different gasolines

The limited understanding of vehicular emissions in China, especially evaporative emissions, is one obstacle to establishing tighter standards. To evaluate tailpipe and evaporative emissions, two typical China IV vehicles and one Tier 2 vehicle with an onboard refuelling vapour recovery (ORVR) system were selected and tested. One of the China IV vehicles was fuelled with gasoline, E10 and M15, respectively, to investigate the effect of fuel properties on vehicular emissions. For each vehicle, cold-start tailpipe emission tests were conducted first, followed by an evaporation test. Based on the emission factors and real-world vehicle activity data, the annual tailpipe and evaporative hydrocarbon (HC) emissions of each vehicle were calculated and compared. The results show that E10 and M15 significantly reduced the tailpipe CO and particle number (PN) emissions but seriously aggravated the NOx emissions, especially for M15. The hot soak losses (HSLs) and diurnal breathing losses (DBLs) were slightly impacted by the fuel properties. The annual evaporative emissions with E10 and M15 were higher than that with gasoline. The ORVR system effectively controlled the evaporative emissions, especially for DBLs. Evaporative emissions from the China IV vehicles were 1.1–1.4 times the tailpipe HC emissions. Additionally, the evaporative emission factors of the China IV vehicles were almost 50% lower than the standard (2.0 g/test), whereas their annual evaporative emissions were almost 1.8–2.8 times higher than those from the Tier 2 vehicle. Therefore, controlling evaporative emissions currently remains a great need in China, and the ORVR might be a recommended evaporative control technology.     

An improved cellular automaton with axis information for microscopic traffic simulation

Cellular Automaton (CA), an efficient dynamic modeling method that is widely used in traffic engineering, is newly introduced for traffic load modeling. This modeling method significantly addresses the modest traffic loads for long-span bridges. It does, however, require improvement to calculate precise load effects. This paper proposed an improved cellular automaton with axis information, defined as the Multi-axle Single-cell Cellular Automaton (MSCA), for the precise micro-simulation of random traffic loads on bridges. Four main ingredients of lattice, cells’ states, neighborhoods and transition rules are redefined in MSCA to generate microscopic vehicle sequences with detailed vehicle axle positions, user-defined cell sizes and time steps. The simulation methodology of MSCA is then proposed. Finally, MSCA is carefully calibrated and validated using site-specific WIM data. The results indicate: (1) the relative errors (REs) for the traffic parameters, such as volumes, speeds, weights, and headways, from MSCA are basically no more than ±10% of those of WIM data; (2) the load effects of three typical influence lines (ILs) with varied lengths of 50, 200 and 1000 m are also confidently comparable, both of which validate the rationality and precision of MSCA. Furthermore, the accurate vehicle parameters and gaps generated from MSCA can be applied not only for precise traffic loading on infrastructures but also for the accurate estimation of vehicle dynamics and safety. Hence, wide application of MSCA can potentially be expected.     

软弱富水地层浅埋暗挖隧道地表沉降和支护结构受力的模型试验

以莞惠城际轨道交通工程项目GZH-5标段中DK32+300~DK32+927.303段为背景,通过2组模型试验,其中一组无超前注浆,另一组进行超前注浆,研究软弱富水地层浅埋暗挖隧道地表沉降和支护结构受力规律及超前注浆对其受力变形造成的影响,最后,针对软弱富水地层浅埋暗挖隧道施工,提出几点隧道工程设计和施工的相关建议。     

Estimating traffic volumes for signalized intersections using connected vehicle data

Recently connected vehicle (CV) technology has received significant attention thanks to active pilot deployments supported by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). At signalized intersections, CVs may serve as mobile sensors, providing opportunities of reducing dependencies on conventional vehicle detectors for signal operation. However, most of the existing studies mainly focus on scenarios that penetration rates of CVs reach certain level, e.g., 25%, which may not be feasible in the near future. How to utilize data from a small number of CVs to improve traffic signal operation remains an open question. In this work, we develop an approach to estimate traffic volume, a key input to many signal optimization algorithms, using GPS trajectory data from CV or navigation devices under low market penetration rates. To estimate traffic volumes, we model vehicle arrivals at signalized intersections as a time-dependent Poisson process, which can account for signal coordination. The estimation problem is formulated as a maximum likelihood problem given multiple observed trajectories from CVs approaching to the intersection. An expectation maximization (EM) procedure is derived to solve the estimation problem. Two case studies were conducted to validate our estimation algorithm. One uses the CV data from the Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) project, in which around 2800 CVs were deployed in the City of Ann Arbor, MI. The other uses vehicle trajectory data from users of a commercial navigation service in China. Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the estimation is found to be 9–12%, based on benchmark data manually collected and data from loop detectors. Considering the existing scale of CV deployments, the proposed approach could be of significant help to traffic management agencies for evaluating and operating traffic signals, paving the way of using CVs for detector-free signal operation in the future.     

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.     

Adoption of alternative fuel vehicles: Influence from neighbors,family and coworkers

During the last years, many governments have set targets for increasing the share of biofuels in the transportation sector. Understanding consumer behavior is essential in designing policies that efficiently increase the uptake of cleaner technologies. In this paper we analyze adopters and non-adopters of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). We use diffusion of innovation theory and the established notion that the social system and interpersonal influence play important roles in adoption. Based on a nationwide database of car owners we analyze interpersonal influence on adoption from three social domains: neighbors, family and coworkers. The results point primarily at a neighbor effect in that AFV adoption is more likely if neighbors also have adopted. The results also point at significant effects of interpersonal influence from coworkers and family members but these effects weaken or disappear when income, education level, marriage, age, gender and green party votes are controlled for. The results extend the diffusion of innovation and AFV literature with empirical support for interpersonal influence based on objective data where response bias is not a factor. Implications for further research, environmental and transport policy, and practitioners are discussed.     

Liner shipping network design with emission control areas: A genetic algorithm-based approach

To curb emissions, containerized shipping lines face the traditional trade-off between cost and emissions (CO₂ and SO_x) reduction. This paper considers this element in the context of liner service design and proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model based on a multi-commodity pickup and delivery arc-flow formulation. The objective is to maximize the profit by selecting the ports to be visited, the sequence of port visit, the cargo flows between ports, as well as the number/operating speeds of vessels on each arc of the selected route. The problem also considers that Emission Control Areas (ECAs) exist in the liner network and accounts for the vessel carrying capacity. In addition to using the MILP solver of CPLEX, we develop in the paper a specific genetic algorithm (GA) based heuristic and show that it gives the possibility to reach an optimal solution when solving large size instances.