An integrated multiple criteria preference ranking approach to the Canadian west coast port congestion conflict

An integrative conflict analysis approach, incorporating an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based preference ranking method into the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR), is employed to investigate the Canadian west coast port congestion dispute. The Canadian west coast has historically been an important gateway connecting North America to Asia thanks to its specific geographical and strategic location. Despite successful operations and maintenance of the port facilities to handle international trade during the past few decades, the west coast is now facing increasing congestion problems, resulting in significant delays in transporting goods from the west coast to other parts of Canada and the USA. The strategic analyses carried out in this research suggest potential resolutions in which Canada would expand port facilities at various locations, encouraging traders to continue choosing the Canadian west coast as one of their trade gateways to North America.     

Investigation of work zone crash casualty patterns using association rules

Investigation of the casualty crash characteristics and contributory factors is one of the high-priority issues in traffic safety analysis. In this paper, we propose a method based on association rules to analyze the characteristics and contributory factors of work zone crash casualties. A case study is conducted using the Michigan M-94/I-94/I-94BL/I-94BR work zone crash data from 2004 to 2008. The obtained association rules are divided into two parts including rules with high-lift, and rules with high-support for the further analysis. The results show that almost all the high-lift rules contain either environmental or occupant characteristics. The majority of association rules are centered on specific characteristics, such as drinking driving, the highway with more than 4 lanes, speed-limit over 40 mph and not use of traffic control devices. It should be pointed out that some stronger associated rules were found in the high-support part. With the network visualization, the association rule method can provide more understandable results for investigating the patterns of work zone crash casualties.     

In-depth analysis of drivers’ merging behavior and rear-end crash risks in work zone merging areas

This study investigates the drivers’ merging behavior and the rear-end crash risk in work zone merging areas during the entire merging implementation period from the time of starting a merging maneuver to that of completing the maneuver. With the merging traffic data from a work zone site in Singapore, a mixed probit model is developed to describe the merging behavior, and two surrogate safety measures including the time to collision (TTC) and deceleration rate to avoid the crash (DRAC) are adopted to compute the rear-end crash risk between the merging vehicle and its neighboring vehicles. Results show that the merging vehicle has a bigger probability of completing a merging maneuver quickly under one of the following situations: (i) the merging vehicle moves relatively fast; (ii) the merging lead vehicle is a heavy vehicle; and (iii) there is a sizable gap in the adjacent through lane. Results indicate that the rear-end crash risk does not monotonically increase as the merging vehicle speed increases. The merging vehicle's rear-end crash risk is also affected by the vehicle type. There is a biggest increment of rear-end crash risk if the merging lead vehicle belongs to a heavy vehicle. Although the reduced remaining distance to work zone could urge the merging vehicle to complete a merging maneuver quickly, it might lead to an increased rear-end crash risk. Interestingly, it is found that the rear-end crash risk could be generally increased over the elapsed time after the merging maneuver being triggered.     

纤维布混杂形式对混凝土界面力学性能的影响

针对CFS-GFS混杂加固钢筋混凝土梁的一种新型加固方法,通过建立不同材料本构方程,对8种不同加固模型做了非线性界面有限元数值计算.分析了不同加固形式下界面端部剪应力与正应力的分布规律,结果表明界面剪应力与正应力极大值均出现在加固界面端部,且在较短的距离内迅速减小.CFS-GFS混杂加固可以有效降低界面剥离应力,通过控制GFS在加固中所占比例,能够在保证承载力足够的情况下,改善加固界面力学性能,避免端部处发生界面或保护层剥离破坏现象.     

大吨位预应力时混凝土局部应力的测试与分析

大桥采用挂篮悬臂浇筑法施工,每个悬臂施工段张拉锚固两到四束纵向预应力束.为了掌握大桥结构局部受力情况,确保施工和结构安全,在橹尾撬大桥49#墩的2#块纵向预应力张拉施工时,测试了錨垫板附近箱梁混凝土的应变分布,进行了空间有限元分析,并对理论计算与实测进行了分析比较.     

Making adaptive cruise control (ACC) limits visible

Previous studies have shown adaptive cruise control (ACC) can compromise driving safety when drivers do not understand how the ACC functions, suggesting that drivers need to be informed about the capabilities of this technology. This study applies ecological interface design (EID) to create a visual representation of ACC behavior, which is intended to promote appropriate reliance and support effective transitions between manual and ACC control. The EID display reveals the behavior of ACC in terms of time headway (THW), time to collision (TTC), and range rate. This graphical representation uses emergent features that signal the state of the ACC. Two failure modes—exceedance of braking algorithm limits and sensor failures—were introduced in the driving contexts of traffic and rain, respectively. A medium-fidelity driving simulator was used to evaluate the effect of automation (manual, ACC control), and display (EID, no display) on ACC reliance, brake response, and driver intervention strategies. Drivers in traffic conditions relied more appropriately on ACC when the EID display was present than when it was not, proactively disengaging the ACC. The EID display promoted faster and more consistent braking responses when braking algorithm limits were exceeded, resulting in safe following distances and no collisions. In manual control, the EID display aided THW maintenance in both rain and traffic conditions, reducing the demands of driving and promoting more consistent and less variable car-following performance. These results suggest that providing drivers with continuous information about the state of the automation is a promising alternative to the more common approach of providing imminent crash warnings when it fails. Informing drivers may be more effective than warning drivers.     

INTELLIGENT CAR STYLING TECHNIQUE AND SYSTEM BASED ON A NEW AERODYNAMIC-THEORETICAL MODEL

Car styling technique based on a new theoretical model of automotive aerodynamics is introduced, which is proved to be feasible and effective by wind tunnel tests. Development of a multi-module software system from this technique, including modules of knowledge processing, referential styling and ANN aesthetic evaluation etc, capable of assisting car styling works in an intelligent way, is also presented and discussed.     

Lighting for road tunnels: The influence of CCT of light sources on reaction time

Drivers’ visual performance is closely related to traffic safety in a real driving environment. In order to improve the traffic safety of road tunnel lighting, the effect of LED lighting on human visual performance was investigated using reaction time as a parameter. The experiment was performed with a scale model that can simulate a road tunnel lighting environment. Reaction times were measured under different values of luminance, correlated colour temperature (CCT), eccentricity, and contrast. The results show that visual performance can be improved by increasing the CCT of the light sources. The improvement of visual performance is greater in peripheral vision than that in foveal vision. The shortest reaction times were measured at a luminance level of 10 cd/m² and at a CCT of 5000 K. An appropriate luminance value with high CCT is recommended for tunnel lighting in interior and transition zones.     

竖向荷载作用下斜桩承载特性模型试验研究

通过模型试验研究了竖向荷载作用下砂土中单斜桩的承载特性,分析了斜桩倾角对荷载-沉降特性、桩身轴力、弯矩、剪力及桩侧摩阻力的影响,并与直桩的承载特性进行了比较。试验结果表明:1斜桩沉降大于直桩沉降,斜桩倾角越大,斜桩与直桩沉降差越大。2相同桩顶荷载作用下,斜桩轴力小于直桩轴力,斜桩倾角越大,轴力沿深度衰减得越快。3斜桩弯矩主要发生于1/2桩长范围内,且均随着荷载和倾角的增大而增大;4不论斜桩倾角的大小,桩侧摩阻力沿深度分布均可以分成3个区段,在第1区段,斜桩倾角越大,桩侧摩阻力越小;在第2区段,斜桩倾角越大,桩侧摩阻力越大;在第3区段,斜桩倾角越大,桩侧摩阻力越小。     

Group-based spectrum assignment in dynamic flex-grid optical networks

Traditional wavelength switched optical network employing wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) technology, allocates constant spectrum band to different kinds of services, which lacks flexibility in spectrum provisioning and thus reduces the resource utilization efficiency. Flex-grid technology, which introduces a finer spectrum granularity and allocates spectrum to different services flexibly according to their required bandwidth, is considered a promising candidate solution to improve the resource utilization efficiency of an optical network. However, since multiple contiguous spectrum granularities are usually assigned to a single service in such flex-grid optical network, the spectrum continuity and contiguity constraints should always be guaranteed, which may induce spectrum fragmentation. With the accumulation of spectrum fragmentation, available spectrum resources decrease, and this will greatly worsen the performance of the whole network, especially in networking. Therefore, spectrum fragmentation is considered a serious problem in flex-grid optical networks and many schemes have been proposed to solve it. These existing schemes, known as defragmentation, can reduce spectrum fragmentation either by rerouting the lightpath or by reallocating the spectrum for a service, which re-optimizes the spectrum resources. However, in the rerouting or reallocation procedure, existing traffic may be disrupted or extra resources, such as alternative spectrum or expensive spectrum convertors, are needed. None of these schemes can solve spectrum fragmentation with both no disrupted traffic and extra resources. It is because all these schemes utilize remedial methods to solve fragmentation problem and either disrupted traffic or extra resources are the cost when they cope with the defragmented spectrum. Different from all the above schemes, we propose a precautionary method to solve fragmentation problem in this paper. By introducing group-based spectrum assignment algorithm into flex-grid optical networks, spectrum resources are sorted into groups and each spectrum group only accommodates one specific kind of services. Since released spectrum can always be reused by the services of the same kind, spectrum fragmentation is prevented from its generation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm induces no spectrum fragmentations and is suitable to accommodate high-speed services.