Comparing different contour methods with response-based methods for extreme ship response analysis

Environmental contours are often applied in probabilistic structural reliability analysis to identify extreme environmental conditions that may give rise to extreme loads and responses. They facilitate approximate long term analysis of critical structural responses in situations where computationally heavy and time-consuming response calculations makes full long-term analysis infeasible. The environmental contour method identifies extreme environmental conditions that are expected to give rise to extreme structural response of marine structures. The extreme responses can then be estimated by performing response calculations for environmental conditions along the contours.Response-based analysis is an alternative, where extreme value analysis is performed on the actual response rather than on the environmental conditions. For complex structures, this is often not practical due to computationally heavy response calculations. However, by establishing statistical emulators of the response, using machine learning techniques, one may obtain long time-series of the structural response and use this to estimate extreme responses.In this paper, various contour methods will be compared to response-based estimation of extreme vertical bending moment for a tanker. A response emulator based on Gaussian processes regression with adaptive sampling has been established based on response calculations from a hydrodynamic model. Long time-series of sea-state parameters such as significant wave height and wave period are used to construct N-year environmental contours and the extreme N-year response is estimated from numerical calculations for identified sea states. At the same time, the response emulator is applied on the time series to provide long time-series of structural response, in this case vertical bending moment of a tanker. Extreme value analysis is then performed directly on the responses to estimate the N-year extreme response. The results from either method will then be compared, and it is possible to evaluate the accuracy of the environmental contour method in estimating the response. Moreover, different contour methods will be compared.     

基于需求弹性的城市公交票价优化方法及实证分析

城市公交票价是公交系统健康发展的重要因素，票价制定需兼顾公交企业的市场性和公益性双重属性，在保证服务质量的同时，考虑运营成本和最大限度吸引公交需求，实现经济效益和社会效益的双赢.在本文中，根据用户均衡理论，构建了城市多方式交通出行的需求分析模型，采用灵敏度分析方法给出了城市公交价格-需求弹性的计算方法.在此基础上，充分考虑了各种方式的交通特征、公交需求弹性、公交运营成本及政府限价等因素，提出了城市公交票价优化的数学规划模型，并给出了求解算法.最后，以国内某城市居民出行调查及公交运营数据为基础，分析了不同条件下公交客运需求的变化规律及城市公交票价的优化策略.     

A systematic analysis of multimodal transport systems with road space distribution and responsive bus service

A smart design of transport systems involves efficient use and allocation of the limited urban road capacity in the multimodal environment. This paper intends to understand the system-wide effect of dividing the road space to the private and public transport modes and how the public transport service provider responds to the space changes. To this end, the bimodal dynamic user equilibrium is formulated for separated road space. The Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) model is employed to depict the dynamics of the automobile traffic for its state-dependent feature, its inclusion of hypercongestion, and its advantage of capturing network topology. The delay of a bus trip depends on the running speed which is in turn affected by bus lane capacity and ridership. Within the proposed bimodal framework, the steady-state equilibrium traffic characteristics and the optimal bus fare and service frequency are analytically derived. The counter-intuitive properties of traffic condition, modal split, and behavior of bus operator in the hypercongestion are identified. To understand the interaction between the transport authority (for system benefit maximization) and the bus operator (for its own benefit maximization), we examine how the bus operator responds to space changes and how the system benefit is influenced with the road space allocation. With responsive bus service, the condition, under which expanding bus lane capacity is beneficial to the system as a whole, has been analytically established. Then the model is applied to the dynamic framework where the space allocation changes with varying demand and demand-responsive bus service. We compare the optimal bus services under different economic objectives, evaluate the system performance of the bimodal network, and explore the dynamic space allocation strategy for the sake of social welfare maximization.     

共享自动驾驶汽车经营策略优化分析

研究共享自动驾驶汽车(SAV)与普通汽车共存背景下，SAV公司如何根据运营目标优化经营策略并影响通勤者出行方式选择. 假设高速公路上存在一定数量的独驾通勤者，无车通勤者在SAV和地铁之间进行权衡. 分析固定需求和弹性需求下，SAV公司追求系统总成本最小或系统净收益最大和利润最大时的最优经营策略，即SAV票价和容量，进而得到均衡时模式划分情况，SAV最优发车数，系统总成本或系统净收益，以及公司利润等指标. 算例对均衡结果进一步验证发现，SAV公司垄断经营会收取较高的票价，提供容量较小的车型. 在系统最优情形下，SAV公司无法获得正利润，需要政府补贴运营.     

Path-constrained traffic assignment: A trip chain analysis under range anxiety

This paper proposes and analyzes a distance-constrained traffic assignment problem with trip chains embedded in equilibrium network flows. The purpose of studying this problem is to develop an appropriate modeling tool for characterizing traffic flow patterns in emerging transportation networks that serve a massive adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. This need arises from the facts that electric vehicles suffer from the “range anxiety” issue caused by the unavailability or insufficiency of public electricity-charging infrastructures and the far-below-expectation battery capacity. It is suggested that if range anxiety makes any impact on travel behaviors, it more likely occurs on the trip chain level rather than the trip level, where a trip chain here is defined as a series of trips between two possible charging opportunities (Tamor et al., 2013). The focus of this paper is thus given to the development of the modeling and solution methods for the proposed traffic assignment problem. In this modeling paradigm, given that trip chains are the basic modeling unit for individual decision making, any traveler’s combined travel route and activity location choices under the distance limit results in a distance-constrained, node-sequenced shortest path problem. A cascading labeling algorithm is developed for this shortest path problem and embedded into a linear approximation framework for equilibrium network solutions. The numerical result derived from an illustrative example clearly shows the mechanism and magnitude of the distance limit and trip chain settings in reshaping network flows from the simple case characterized merely by user equilibrium.     

高速路网不停车收费车道优化布设方法

合理设置高速公路收费站ETC (Electronic Toll Collection)车道数量，对高速公路通行效率至关重要。针对目前路网中ETC与MTC (Manual Toll Collection)车辆混行的情况，考虑ETC的普及率，结合多用户路网均衡模型和排队论方法，建立基于双层规划模型的高速路网ETC车道优化布设方法。上层模型以车辆总通行时间最小为目标，优化设置进出收费站的ETC车道数量；下层模型为多用户路网均衡模型，反映ETC和MTC车辆的路径和收费车道选择行为。下层模型通过设计收费站的等价拓扑结构，表征收费站的车道使用规则及车辆的收费车道选择行为，并采用排队论方法估计ETC和MTC车道的收费排队时间。根据模型的特点设计了基于主动集的启发式算法，利用参数二进制与拉格朗日函数法确定迭代下降方向，解决了下降方向与步长难以计算的问题；通过内嵌优化函数的方式，保证在主动集转化过程中上层约束均不会失效，且避免了迭代过程中的模型解退化问题。基于上海市绕城高速进行实证分析，结果表明：随着ETC普及率的提升，收费排队时长按照负指数趋势下降；与按比例布设ETC车道的方法相比，所提方法最高可降低57.4%的收费排队时间，且该方法可以避免ETC车道布设过多对于MTC车道通行能力挤压造成的负面效果。研究成果可以有效指导高速路网ETC车道的布设，提高路网通行效率。     

Optimal joint distance and time toll for cordon-based congestion pricing

This paper addresses the optimal toll design problem for the cordon-based congestion pricing scheme, where both a time-toll and a nonlinear distance-toll (i.e., joint distance and time toll) are levied for each network user’s trip in a pricing cordon. The users’ route choice behaviour is assumed to follow the Logit-based stochastic user equilibrium (SUE). We first propose a link-based convex programming model for the Logit-based SUE problem with a joint distance and time toll pattern. A mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) is developed to formulate the optimal joint distance and time toll design problem. The developed MPEC model is equivalently transformed into a semi-infinite programming (SIP) model. A global optimization method named Incremental Constraint Method (ICM) is designed for solving the SIP model. Finally, two numerical examples are used to assess the proposed methodology.     

A traffic-condition-based route guidance strategy for a single destination road network

Most of existing route guidance strategies achieves user optimal equilibrium by comparing travel time. Measuring travel time, however, might be uneasy on an urban road network. To contend with the issue, the paper mainly considers easily obtained inflow and outflow of a link and road capacity as input, and proposes a route guidance strategy for a single destination road network based on the determination of free-flow or congested conditions on alternative routes. An extended strategy for a complex network and a feedback approximation for avoiding forecast are further explored. Weaknesses of the strategy are also explicitly analyzed. To test the strategy, simulation investigations are conducted on two networks with multiple parallel routes. The results indicate that the strategy is able to provide stable splitting rates and to approximate user optimal equilibrium in different conditions, in particular when traffic demand is high. This strategy has potential to be applied in an urban road network due to its simplicity and easily obtained input data. The strategy is also applicable for single destination if some alternatives and similar routes are available.     

Optimal placement of omnidirectional sensors in a transportation network for effective emergency response and crash characterization

Rapid motor vehicle crash detection and characterization is possible through the use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and sensors are an integral part of any ITS system. The major focus of this paper is on developing optimal placement of accident detecting omnidirectional sensors to maximize incident detection capabilities and provide ample opportunities for data fusion and crash characterization. Both omnidirectional sensors (placed in suitable infrastructure locations) and mobile sensors are part of our analysis. The surrogates used are acoustic sensors (omnidirectional) and Advanced Automated Crash Notification (AACN) sensors (mobile). This data fusion rich placement is achieved through a hybrid optimization model comprising of an explicit–implicit coverage model followed by an evaluation and local search optimization using simulation. The compound explicit–implicit model delivers good initial solutions and improves the detection and data fusion capabilities compared to the explicit model alone. The results of the studies conducted quantify the use of a data fusion capable environment in crash detection scenarios, and the simulation tool developed helps a decision maker evaluate sensor placement strategy.     

Subjective-utility travel time budget modeling in the stochastic traffic network assignment

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose a new model called subjective-utility travel time budget (SU-TTB) model to capture travelers' risk-averse route choices. In the travel time budget (TTB) and mean-excess travel time (METT) model, a predefined confidence level is needed to capture the risk-aversion in route choice. Due to the day-to-day route travel time variations, the exact confidence level is hard to be predicted. With the SU-TTB model, we assume travelers' confidence level belongs to an interval that they may comply with in the route choice. The two main components of SU-TTB are the utility function and the TTB model. We can show that the SU-TTB can be reduced to the TTB and METT model with proper utility function for the confidence levels. We can also prove its equivalence with our recently proposed nonlinear-expectation route travel time (NERTT) model in some cases and give some new interpretation on the NERTT with this equivalence. Finally, we formulate the SU-TTB model as a variational inequality (VI) problem to model the risk-averse user equilibrium (RAUE), termed as generalized RAUE (GRAUE). The GRAUE is solved via a heuristic gradient projection algorithm, and the model and solution algorithm are demonstrated with the Braess's traffic network and the Nguyen and Dupuis's traffic network.