Evaluation of expected maximum values of forces acting on containers and lashing rods on a container ship

The appearance of a number of large container ships in the 8000 TEU range raises the importance of a plan for container lashing arrangements on deck in relation to the design of the ship. Therefore, it is expected that a new method for evaluating the lashing arrangements on deck will be introduced which is applicable regardless of the ship's size and the lashing pattern, instead of using the standards of several different societies, as happens at present. To evaluate the lashing arrangements on deck, the expected maximum values of the forces acting on the containers and lashing rods should be evaluated. This paper presents a new method of evaluating the container lashing arrangements on a container ship using an "acceleration ellipsoid." The applicability of the acceleration ellipsoid to an evaluation of the expected maximum values of the forces was examined by comparing the expected maximum values of the forces calculated by the long-term distribution calculation known as the "Fukuda method," to those calculated using the acceleration ellipsoid. By comparing these results, it was confirmed that the expected maximum values of the forces calculated using the acceleration ellipsoid were not less than those calculated through by the long-term distribution calculation. It is concluded that the acceleration ellipsoid can be used to evaluate the expected maximum values of the forces acting on containers and lashing rods. Received: December 14, 2000 / Accepted: March 22, 2001     

The reconstruction of transportation and environmental infrastructure in rural areas

On March 11, 2011 a massive, magnitude 9.0 earthquake destroyed most of the rural areas along the Pacific Coast of eastern Japan, an area that had been facing issues of depopulation and aging even before the earthquake. In this paper I discuss reconstruction plans for depopulated rural areas from the perspectives of transportation infrastructure, residential areas, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, consensus building, and nature restoration. We must take a “backcasting” approach to sustainable development, one in which planning strategies lead to successful outcomes. An organizational and planning support platform is needed to build a consensus within an area.     

中间车端部结构压缩性能评价

当运行的列车与障碍物相撞时，通常来说，头车和中间车都会受到可能损坏端部结构的冲击。由于车体底架的强度高于车辆其他部件的强度，因此，就意味着两相邻车辆底架在同一高度碰撞和一辆车底架跨骑在另一辆车底架上2种情况车体的变形模式是明显不同的。因此，在讨论碰撞中列车的安全特性时，弄清楚列车中中间车端部结构的碰撞性能就显得尤为重要。     

Verification and validation study of URANS simulations for an axial waterjet propelled large high-speed ship

The accurate prediction of waterjet propulsion using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is of interest for performance analyses of existing waterjet designs as well as for improvement and design optimization of new waterjet propulsion systems for high-speed marine vehicles. The present work is performed for three main purposes: (1) to investigate the capability of a URANS flow solver, CFDSHIP-IOWA, for the accurate simulation of waterjet propelled ships, including waterjet–hull interactions; (2) to carry out detailed verification and validation (V&V) analysis; and (3) to identify optimization opportunities for intake duct shape design. A concentrated effort is applied to V&V work and performance analysis of waterjet propelled simulations which form the focus of this paper. The joint high speed sealift design (JHSS), which is a design concept for very large high-speed ships operating at transit speeds of at least 36 knots using four axial flow waterjets, is selected as the initial geometry for the current work and subsequent optimization study. For self-propelled simulations, the ship accelerates until the resistance equals the prescribed thrust and added tow force, and converges to the self propulsion point (SPP). Quantitative V&V studies are performed on both barehull and waterjet appended designs, with corresponding experimental fluid dynamics (EFD) data from 1/34 scale model testing. Uncertainty assessments are performed on iterative convergence and grid size. As a result, the total resistance coefficient for the barehull case and SPP for the waterjet propelled case are validated at the average uncertainty intervals of 7.0 and 1.1%D, respectively. Predictions of CFD computations capture the general trend of resistance over the speed range of 18–42 knots, and show reasonable agreement with EFD with average errors of 1.8 and 8.0%D for the barehull and waterjet cases, respectively. Furthermore, results show that URANS is able to accurately predict the major propulsion related features such as volume flow rate, inlet wake fraction, and net jet thrust with an accuracy of ~9%D. The flow feature details inside the duct and interference of the exit jets are qualitatively well-predicted as well. It is found that there are significant losses in inlet efficiency over the speed range; hence, one objective for subsequent optimization studies could be maximizing the inlet efficiency. Overall, the V&V work indicates that the present approach is an efficient tool for predicting the performance of waterjet propelled JHSS ships and paves the way for future optimization work. The main objective of the optimization will be reduction of powering requirements by increasing the inlet efficiency through modification of intake duct shape.     

Productive efficiency of public and private solid waste logistics and its implications for waste management policy

This paper measures the productive efficiency of municipal solid waste (MSW) logistics by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to cross-sectional data of prefectures in Japan. Either through public operations or by outsourcing to private waste collection operators, prefectural governments possess the fundamental authority over waste processing operations in Japan. Therefore, we estimate a multi-input multi-output production efficiency at the prefectural level via DEA, employing several different model settings. Our data classify the MSW into household solid waste (HSW) and business solid waste (BSW) collected by both private and public operators as separate outputs, while the numbers of trucks and workers used by private and public operators are used as inputs. The results consistently show that geographical characteristics, such as the number of inhabited remote islands, are relatively more dominant factors for determining inefficiency. While the implication that a minimum efficient scale is not achieved in these small islands is in line with the literature suggesting that waste logistics has increasing returns at the municipal level, our results indicate that waste collection efficiency in Japan is well described by CRS technology at the prefectural level. The results also show that prefectures with higher private-sector participation, measured in terms of HSW collection, are more efficient, whereas a higher private–labor ratio negatively affects efficiency. We also provide evidence that prefectures with inefficient MSW logistics have a higher tendency of suffering from the illegal dumping of industrial waste.     

辅助框架内部环形结构对车体侧面的增强作用

为确保铁道车辆的生存空间,可将辅助框架连接成车内环形结构附在车体内侧,以提高车体的强度.通过静强度试验和有限元分析,认为该方法可行.