Investigating the influence of soil properties on railway traffic vibration using a numerical model

This paper presents the influence of dynamic and geometrical soil parameters on the propagation of ground vibrations induced by external loads. The proposed approach is based on a three-dimensional model, focusing on realistic excitation sources like impulse loads and moving railway vehicles. For the latter, a complete vehicle/track model is developed. The simulation is performed in time domain, offering an interesting approach, compared with classic cyclic analyses. The ground is modelled initially as an elastic homogeneous half-space and additionally as a layered half-space. First, the effect of homogeneous soil properties on ground vibration is analysed. Soil stratification is then taken into account, using various configurations. Analysis reveals that as receiver distance increases ground wave reflection in a layered ground plays an important role in the reduction of ground surface motion. This effect is magnified when the phase velocity wavelength becomes large compared with the depth of the surface layer.     

快速公交客流量影响因素解释结构模型构建与应用

针对当前交通拥堵、能源紧张、尾气污染等一系列问题,为加快快速公共交通的发展、提高公共交通利用率,本文找出了影响快速公交客流的主要因素,利用系统工程学中的ISM方法,构建了快速公交客流系统解释结构模型,通过分析探讨快速公交客流的主要影响因素,进而明确了各因素间的清晰结构,得到影响快速公交客流量的5级递阶结构;最后找出影响快速公交客流因素的各影响因素.通过影响因素,建立了多元回归模型,从影响程度、影响方向、影响时期分别归类分析.通过分析各层级因素对快速公交客流量的影响,可引导更多居民选择快速公交出行,对缓解交通压力提供了一定方法指导和决策支持.并通过合理分析为快速公交运输服务提出了建议.     

Optimal selection of suspension parameters in large scale vehicle models

Optimum values are selected for the suspension damping and stiffness parameters of complex car models, subjected to road excitation, by applying suitable numerical methodologies. These models result from a detailed finite-element discretisation and possess a relatively large number of degrees of freedom. They also involve strongly nonlinear characteristics, due mostly to large rigid body rotation of some of their components and the properties of the connection elements. First, attention is focused on gaining some insight into the dynamics of the mechanical models examined, resulting when the vehicle passes over roads involving typical geometric profiles. Then, the emphasis is shifted to presenting results obtained by applying appropriate optimisation methodologies. For this purpose, three classes of design criteria are first set up, referring to passenger ride comfort, suspension travel and car road holding and yielding the most important suspension stiffness and damping parameters. Originally, the optimisation is performed by forming a composite cost function and employing a single-objective optimisation method. Since the design criteria are conflicting, a multi-objective optimisation methodology is also set up and applied subsequently.     

Influence of some vehicle and track parameters on the environmental vibrations induced by railway traffic

A study is performed on the influence of some typical railway vehicle and track parameters on the level of ground vibrations induced in the neighbourhood. The results are obtained from a previously validated simulation framework considering in a first step the vehicle/track subsystem and, in a second step, the response of the soil to the forces resulting from the first analysis. The vehicle is reduced to a simple vertical 3-dof model, corresponding to the superposition of the wheelset, the bogie and the car body. The rail is modelled as a succession of beam elements elastically supported by the sleepers, lying themselves on a flexible foundation representing the ballast and the subgrade. The connection between the wheels and the rails is realised through a non-linear Hertzian contact. The soil motion is obtained from a finite/infinite element model. The investigated vehicle parameters are its type (urban, high speed, freight, etc.) and its speed. For the track, the rail flexural stiffness, the railpad stiffness, the spacing between sleepers and the rail and sleeper masses are considered. In all cases, the parameter value range is defined from a bibliographic browsing. At the end, the paper proposes a table summarising the influence of each studied parameter on three indicators: the vehicle acceleration, the rail velocity and the soil velocity. It namely turns out that the vehicle has a serious influence on the vibration level and should be considered in prediction models.     

Flexible long range planning using low cost information

Contemporary transport planning requires a flexible modelling approach which can be used to monitor the implementation of a long term plan checking regularly its short term performance with easily available data; the original model is periodically updated using low cost information and this allows the evaluation of the changes to the plan which may be required. Such an approach requires models suited to regular updating and to the use of data from different sources. Models to update trip matrices from traffic counts have been available for some time; however, the estimation and/or updating of other model stages with low cost data has escaped analytical treatment. The paper discusses this idea and formulates the updating problem for an example involving a joint destination/mode choice model under various assumptions about the nature of the available data. Analytical solutions are proposed as well as some general conclusions.requests for offprints     

Choice of parking: Stated preference approach

Over recent years, parking policy has become a key element of transport policy in many countries. Parking policy measures can affect many different dimensions of travel behaviour but are likely to be most significant in terms of travellers' choice of parking type and location. This dimension of travel choice has, to date, received comparatively little attention, yet is of vital importance if we are to properly understand and predict the effects of parking policy measures.This paper presents two studies addressing this issue carried out in the United Kingdom and Germany. Both studies used a stated preference approach in order to collect disaggregate data on travellers responses to changes in parking attributes and used these data to build simple logit models of parking type choice. The studies were designed in order to allow comparable choice models to be estimated from the two datasets. The results obtained strongly indicate the need to separately identify the costs associated with different components of the parking activity (e.g., general in-vehicle time, parking search time, egress time) and also point to the existence of significant differences in the relative valuation of these components across different journey purposes. Where possible, the results of the choice modelling exercises are also compared with existing revealed and stated preference results and are found to be generally in line with prior expectations.     

联合站游离水脱水器数学建模与应用

结合原油物性的复杂性和多变性,讨论了建立游离水脱除模型的6个假设条件,建立了沉降分离模型,分析了影响水的密度、黏度及原油的密度的主要因素,给出温度变化对上述参数影响的计算公式。对建立的数学模型进行了计算应用,并分析了产生误差的原因,提出了改进意见。     

Analysing Demand for Suburban Trips: A Mixed RP/SP Model with Latent Variables and Interaction Effects

We analyse mode choice behaviour for suburban trips in the Grand Canary island using mixed revealed preference (RP)/stated preference (SP) information. The SP choice experiment allowed for interactions among the main policy variables: travel cost, travel time and frequency, and also to test the influence of latent variables such as comfort. It also led to discuss additional requirements on the size and sign of the estimated model parameters, to assess model quality when interactions are present. The RP survey produced data on actual trip behaviour and was used to adapt the SP choice experiment. During the specification searches we detected the presence of income effect and were able to derive willingness-to-pay measures, such as the subjective value of time, which varied among individuals. We also studied the systematic heterogeneity in individual tastes through the specification of models allowing for interactions between level-of-service and socio-economic variables. We concluded examining the sensitivity of travellers’ behaviour to various policy scenarios. In particular, it seems that contrary to political opinion, in a crowded island policies penalising the use of the private car seem to have a far greater impact in terms of bus patronage than policies implying direct improvements to the public transport service.