Search results for: railway stations

Authors: S. Shakibaei, P. Alpkokin

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The railway network is one of the major components of a transportation system in a country which may be an indicator of the country’s level of economic improvement. Since 2000s on, revival of national railways and development of High Speed Rail (HSR) lines are one of the most remarkable policies of Turkish government in railway sector. Within this trend, the railway age is to be revived and coming decades will be a golden opportunity. Indubitably, major infrastructures such as road and railway networks require sizeable investment capital, precise maintenance and reparation. Traditionally, governments are held responsible for funding, operating and maintaining these infrastructures. However, lack or shortage of financial resources, risk responsibilities (particularly cost and time overrun), and in some cases inefficacy in constructional, operational and management phases persuade governments to find alternative options. Financial power, efficient experiences and background of private sector are the factors convincing the governments to make a collaboration with private parties to develop infrastructures. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP or 3P or P3) and related regulatory issues are born considering these collaborations. In Turkey, PPP approaches have attracted attention particularly during last decade and these types of investments have been accelerated by government to overcome budget limitations and cope with inefficacy of public sector in improving transportation network and its operation. This study mainly tends to present a comprehensive overview of PPP concept, evaluate the regulatory procedure in Europe and propose a general framework for Turkish State Railways (TCDD) as an outlook on privatization, liberalization and deregulation of railway network.

Keywords: deregulation, high-speed railway, liberalization, privatization, public-private partnership

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Authors: Andrei Nosov

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This paper discusses the development directions of dialogue systems within the digitalisation of the railway industry, where technologies based on conversational AI are already potentially applied or will be applied. Conversational AI is one of the popular natural language processing (NLP) tasks, as it has great prospects for real-world applications today. At the same time, it is a challenging task as it involves many areas of NLP based on complex computations and deep insights from linguistics and psychology. In this review, we focus on dialogue systems and their implementation in the railway domain. We comprehensively review the state-of-the-art research results on dialogue systems and analyse them from three perspectives: type of problem to be solved, type of model, and type of system. In particular, from the perspective of the type of tasks to be solved, we discuss characteristics and applications. This will help to understand how to prioritise tasks. In terms of the type of models, we give an overview that will allow researchers to become familiar with how to apply them in dialogue systems. By analysing the types of dialogue systems, we propose an unconventional approach in contrast to colleagues who traditionally contrast goal-oriented dialogue systems with open-domain systems. Our view focuses on considering retrieval and generative approaches. Furthermore, the work comprehensively presents evaluation methods and datasets for dialogue systems in the railway domain to pave the way for future research. Finally, some possible directions for future research are identified based on recent research results.

Keywords: digitalisation, railway, dialogue systems, conversational AI, natural language processing, natural language understanding, natural language generation

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Authors: H. J. Joshi, Satyajeet Patil, Parth Dandavate, Mihir Kulkarni, Harshita Agrawal

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As the world looks towards a sustainable future, electric vehicles have become increasingly popular. Millions worldwide are looking to switch to Electric cars over the previously favored combustion engine-powered cars. This demand has seen an increase in Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. The big challenge is that the randomness of electrical energy makes it tough for these charging stations to provide an adequate amount of energy over a specific amount of time. Thus, it has become increasingly crucial to model these patterns and forecast the energy needs of power stations. This paper aims to analyze how different machine learning models perform on Electric Vehicle charging time-series data. The data set consists of authentic Electric Vehicle Data from the Netherlands. It has an overview of ten thousand transactions from public stations operated by EVnetNL.

Keywords: forecasting, smart grid, electric vehicle load forecasting, machine learning, time series forecasting

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Authors: Maziar Yazdani, Ahmad Khodaee, Fatemeh Hajizadeh

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The purpose of this research was analysis of the reliability of the signaling system in the railway and planning repair and maintenance of its subsystems. For this purpose, it will be endeavored to introduce practical strategies for activities control and appropriate planning for repair and preventive maintenance by statistical modeling of reliability. Therefore, modeling, evaluation, and promotion of reliability of the signaling system appear very critical. Among the key goals of the railway is provision of quality service for passengers and this purpose is gained by increasing reliability, availability, maintainability and safety of (RAMS). In this research, data were analyzed, and the reliability of the subsystems and entire system was calculated and with emphasis on preservation of performance of each of the subsystems with a reliability of 80%, a plan for repair and preventive maintenance of the subsystems of the signaling system was introduced.

Keywords: reliability, modeling reliability, plan for repair and preventive maintenance, signaling system

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Authors: Robert L. Burdett, Bayan Bevrani

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Analytical techniques for measuring and planning railway capacity expansion activities have been considered in this article. A preliminary mathematical framework involving track duplication and section sub divisions is proposed for this task. In railways, these features have a great effect on network performance and for this reason they have been considered. Additional motivations have also arisen from the limitations of prior models that have not included them.

Keywords: capacity analysis, capacity expansion, railways, track sub division, track duplication

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Hasan Heydari

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In recent decades, locating urban services is one of the significant discussions in urban planning. Among these considerations, cities require more accurate planning in order to supply citizen needs, especially part of urban safety. In order to gain this goal, one of the main tasks of urban planners and managers is specifying suitable sites to locate firefighting stations. This study has been done to reach this purpose. Therefore effective criteria consist of coverage radius, population density, proximity to pathway network, land use (compatible and incompatible neighborhood) have been specified. After that, descriptive and local information of the criteria was provided and their layers were created in ArcGIS 9.3. Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) these criteria and their sub-criteria got the weights. These layers were classified regarding their weights and finally were overlaid by Index Overlay Model and provided the final site selection map for firefighting stations of Arak city. The results gained by analyzing in GIS environment indicate the existing fire station don’t cover the whole city sufficiently and some of the stations have established on the unsuitable sites. The output map indicates the best sites to locate firefighting stations of Arak.

Keywords: site-selection, firefighting stations, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), GIS, index overlay model

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Authors: Chiara Cesali

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The effects of climate change are increasingly evident: increases in temperature (i.e. global warming), greater frequency of extreme weather events, i.e. storms, floods, which often affect transport infrastructures. Large-scale climatological models with long-term horizons (up to 2100) show the possibility of significant increases in precipitation in the future, according to the greenhouse gas emissions scenarios from IPCC. Consequently, the insufficiency of existing hydraulic works (i.e. bridges, culverts, drainage systems) may be more frequent, or those currently being designed may become insufficient in the future. Thus, the hydraulic design methods of transport infrastructure must begin to take into account the influence of climate change. To this purpose, criteria for applying to the hydraulic design of a railway infrastructure some of the approaches currently available for determining design rainfall intensity and/or peak discharge flow on the basis of possible climate change scenarios are defined and proposed in the paper. Some application cases are also described.

Keywords: climate change, hydraulic design, precipitation, railway

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Authors: Mehrdad Abkenari, Mehmet Kunt, Mahdi Nourollahi

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Evaluating the environmental risk factors is a combination of analysis of transportation effects. Various definitions for risk can be found in different scientific sources. Each definition depends on a specific and particular perspective or dimension. The effects of potential risks present along the new proposed routes and existing infrastructures of large transportation projects like railways should be studied under comprehensive engineering frameworks. Despite various definitions provided for ‘risk’, all include a uniform concept. Two obvious aspects, loss and unreliability, have always been pointed in all definitions of this term. But, selection as the third aspect is usually implied and means how one notices it. Currently, conducting engineering studies on the environmental effects of railway projects have become obligatory according to the Environmental Assessment Act in developing countries. Considering the longitudinal nature of these projects and probable passage of railways through various ecosystems, scientific research on the environmental risk of these projects have become of great interest. Although many areas of expertise such as road construction in developing countries have not seriously committed to these studies yet, attention to these subjects in establishment or implementation of different systems have become an inseparable part of this wave of research. The present study used environmental risks identified and existing in previous studies and stations to use in next step. The second step proposes a new hybrid approach of analytical network process (ANP) and DEMATEL in fuzzy conditions for assessment of determined risks. Since evaluation of identified risks was not an easy touch, mesh structure was an appropriate approach for analyzing complex systems which were accordingly employed for problem description and modeling. Researchers faced the shortage of real space data and also due to the ambiguity of experts’ opinions and judgments, they were declared in language variables instead of numerical ones. Since fuzzy logic is appropriate for ambiguity and uncertainty, formulation of experts’ opinions in the form of fuzzy numbers seemed an appropriate approach. Fuzzy DEMATEL method was used to extract the relations between major and minor risk factors. Considering the internal relations of risk major factors and its sub-factors in the analysis of fuzzy network, the weight of risk’s main factors and sub-factors were determined. In general, findings of the present study, in which effective railway environmental risk indicators were theoretically identified and rated through the first usage of combined model of DEMATEL and fuzzy network analysis, indicate that environmental risks can be evaluated more accurately and also employed in railway projects.

Keywords: DEMATEL, ANP, fuzzy, risk

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Authors: Barenten Suciu

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In order to explain the damping mechanism, related to the hunting motion of the wheel axle of a high-speed railway vehicle, a generalized dynamic model is proposed. Based on such model, analytic expressions for the damping coefficient and damped natural frequency are derived, without imposing restrictions on the ratio between the lateral and vertical creep coefficients. Influence of the travelling speed, wheel conicity, dimensionless mass of the wheel axle, ratio of the creep coefficients, ratio of the track span to the yawing diameter, etc. on the damping coefficient and damped natural frequency, is clarified.

Keywords: high-speed railway vehicle, hunting motion, wheel axle, damping, creep, vibration model, analysis.

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Authors: Shadi Fathi, Moura Mehravar, Mujib Rahman

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Over the years,increased demands on railways, the emergence of high-speed trains and heavy axle loads, ageing, and deterioration of the existing tracks, is imposing costly maintenance actions on the railway sector. The need for developing a fast andcost-efficient non-destructive assessment method for the structural evaluation of railway tracksis therefore critically important. The layer modulus is the main parameter used in the structural design and evaluation of the railway track substructure (foundation). Among many recently developed NDTs, Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test, widely used in pavement evaluation, has shown promising results for railway track substructure monitoring. The surface deflection data collected by FWD are used to estimate the modulus of substructure layers through the back-analysis technique. Although there are different commerciallyavailableback-analysis programs are used for pavement applications, there are onlya limited number of research-based techniques have been so far developed for railway track evaluation. In this paper, the suitability, accuracy, and reliability of the BAKFAAsoftware are investigated. The main rationale for selecting BAKFAA as it has a relatively straightforward user interfacethat is freely available and widely used in highway and airport pavement evaluation. As part of the study, a finite element (FE) model of a railway track section near Leominsterstation, Herefordshire, UK subjected to the FWD test, was developed and validated against available field data. Then, a virtual experimental database (including 218 sets of FWD testing data) was generated using theFE model and employed as the measured database for the BAKFAA software. This database was generated considering various layers’ moduli for each layer of track substructure over a predefined range. The BAKFAA predictions were compared against the cone penetration test (CPT) data (available from literature; conducted near to Leominster station same section as the FWD was performed). The results reveal that BAKFAA overestimatesthe layers’ moduli of each substructure layer. To adjust the BAKFA with the CPT data, this study introduces a correlation model to make the BAKFAA applicable in railway applications.

Keywords: back-analysis, bakfaa, railway track substructure, falling weight deflectometer (FWD), cone penetration test (CPT)

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Authors: Saad M. Algharib

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The major concern of planners when placing fire stations is finding their optimal locations such that the fire companies can reach fire locations within reasonable response time or distance. Planners are also concerned with the numbers of fire stations that are needed to cover all service areas and the fires, as demands, with standard response time or distance. One of the tools for such analysis is location-allocation models. Location-allocation models enable planners to determine the optimal locations of facilities in an area in order to serve regional demands in the most efficient way. The purpose of this study is to examine the geographic distribution of the existing fire stations in Kuwait City. This study utilized location-allocation models within the Geographic Information System (GIS) environment and a number of statistical functions to assess the current locations of fire stations in Kuwait City. Further, this study investigated how well all service areas are covered and how many and where additional fire stations are needed. Four different location-allocation models were compared to find which models cover more demands than the others, given the same number of fire stations. This study tests many ways to combine variables instead of using one variable at a time when applying these models in order to create a new measurement that influences the optimal locations for locating fire stations. This study also tests how location-allocation models are sensitive to different levels of spatial dependency. The results indicate that there are some districts in Kuwait City that are not covered by the existing fire stations. These uncovered districts are clustered together. This study also identifies where to locate the new fire stations. This study provides users of these models a new variable that can assist them to select the best locations for fire stations. The results include information about how the location-allocation models behave in response to different levels of spatial dependency of demands. The results show that these models perform better with clustered demands. From the additional analysis carried out in this study, it can be concluded that these models applied differently at different spatial patterns.

Keywords: geographic information science, GIS, location-allocation models, geography

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Authors: M. Magrini, D. Moroni, G. Palazzese, G. Pieri, D. Azzarelli, A. Spada, L. Fanucci, O. Salvetti

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Railway crossings are complex entities whose optimal management cannot be addressed unless with the help of an intelligent transportation system integrating information both on train and vehicular flows. In this paper, we propose an integrated system named SIMPLE (Railway Safety and Infrastructure for Mobility applied at level crossings) that, while providing unparalleled safety in railway level crossings, collects data on rail and road traffic and provides value-added services to citizens and commuters. Such services include for example alerts, via variable message signs to drivers and suggestions for alternative routes, towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and efficient urban mobility. To achieve these goals, SIMPLE is organized as a System of Systems (SoS), with a modular architecture whose components range from specially-designed radar sensors for obstacle detection to smart ETSI M2M-compliant camera networks for urban traffic monitoring. Computational unit for performing forecast according to adaptive models of train and vehicular traffic are also included. The proposed system has been tested and validated during an extensive trial held in the mid-sized Italian town of Montecatini, a paradigmatic case where the rail network is inextricably linked with the fabric of the city. Results of the tests are reported and discussed.

Keywords: Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), railway, railroad crossing, smart camera networks, radar obstacle detection, real-time traffic optimization, IoT, ETSI M2M, transport safety

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Authors: Tapan Upadhyay, Aqib Siddiqui, Sameer Khan

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Railway crossing system in India is a manually operated level crossing system, either manned or unmanned. The main aim is to protect pedestrians and vehicles from colliding with trains, which pass at regular intervals, as India has the largest and busiest railway network. But because of human error and negligence, every year thousands of lives are lost due to accidents at railway crossings. To avoid this, we suggest a solution, by using Programmable Logical Controller (PLC) based automatic system, which will automatically control the barrier as well as roadblocks to stop people from crossing while security warning is given. Often people avoid security warning, and pass two-wheelers from beneath the barrier, while the train is at a distance away. This paper aims at reducing the fatality and accident rate by controlling barrier and roadblocks using sensors which sense the incoming train and vehicles and sends a signal to PLC. The PLC in return sends a signal to barrier and roadblocks. Once the train passes, the barrier and roadblocks retrieve back, and the passage is clear for vehicles and pedestrians to cross. PLC’s are used because they are very flexible, cost effective, space efficient, reduces complexity and minimises errors. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) is used to monitor the functioning.

Keywords: level crossing, PLC, sensors, SCADA

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Authors: Giulio Nisoli, Jonas Brüngger, Karin Hostettler, Nicole Stoller, Katrin Fischer

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Technical operators in the railway domain are experts responsible for the supervisory control of the railway power grid as well as of the railway tunnels. The technical systems used to master these demanding tasks are constantly increasing in their degree of automation. It becomes therefore difficult for technical operators to maintain the control over the technical systems and the processes of their job. In particular, the operators must have the necessary experience and knowledge in dealing with a malfunction situation or unexpected event. For this reason, it is of growing importance that the skills relevant for the execution of the job are maintained and further developed beyond the basic training they receive, where they are educated in respect of technical knowledge and the work with guidelines. Training methods aimed at improving the cognitive skills needed by technical operators are still missing and must be developed. Goals of the present study were to identify which are the relevant cognitive skills of technical operators in the railway domain and to define which topics should be addressed by the training of these skills. Observational interviews were conducted in order to identify the main tasks and the organization of the work of technical operators as well as the technical systems used for the execution of their job. Based on this analysis, the most demanding tasks of technical operators could be identified and described. The cognitive skills involved in the execution of these tasks are those, which need to be trained. In order to identify and analyze these cognitive skills a cognitive task analysis (CTA) was developed. CTA specifically aims at identifying the cognitive skills that employees implement when performing their own tasks. The identified cognitive skills of technical operators were summarized and grouped in training topics. For every training topic, specific goals were defined. The goals regard the three main categories; knowledge, skills and attitude to be trained in every training topic. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to develop specific training methods to train the relevant cognitive skills of the technical operators.

Keywords: cognitive skills, cognitive task analysis, technical operators in the railway domain, training topics

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Authors: Eric Wilson Santos Cabral, Marta Monteiro Da Costa Cruz, Rodrigo Pirola Pestana, Vivian Andréa Parreira

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In the transportation sector in Brazil, there is a great challenge that is the maintenance of profit in the face of the great variation in the price of diesel. This directly affects the variable cost of transport companies. Within the railways, part of the great challenges is to overcome the annual budget, cargo and ore transported, thus reducing costs compared to previous years, becoming more efficient each year. Within this scenario, the railway companies are looking for effective measures, aiming at reducing the ratio of liter of diesel consumed by KTKB (Kilometer Gross Ton multiplied by thousand). This ratio represents the indicator of energy efficiency of some railroads in Brazil and in other countries. In this study, we sought to analyze the behavior of the energy efficiency indicator on two parts: The first, with the application of technologies used in locomotives, such as the start-stop system of the diesel engine and the system of tracking and monitoring of fuel. The second, evaluation of the behavior of the variation of the type of cargo transported (loading mix). The study focused on locomotive technology will be carried out using statistical analysis, behavioral evaluation in different operating conditions, such as maneuvers for trains, service trains and freight trains. The analysis will also cover the evaluation of the loading mix made using statistical analysis of the existing railroad database, comparing the energy efficiency per loading mine and type of product. With the completion of this study, the railway undertakings should be able to better target decision-making in order to achieve substantial reductions in transport costs.

Keywords: railway transport, energy efficiency, railway technology, fuel consumption

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Authors: Samet Sen, Yalcin Alver

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Before Izmir Commuter Rail System (IZBAN), most of the respondents along the railway were making their trips by city buses, minibuses or private cars. After IZBAN was put into service, some people changed their previous trip behaviors and they started travelling by IZBAN. Therefore a big travel demand in IZBAN occurred. In this study, the characteristics of passengers and their trip behaviors are found out based on the longitudinal data conducted via two wave trip surveys. Just after one year from IZBAN's opening, the first wave of the surveys was carried out among 539 passengers at six stations during morning peak hours between 07.00 am-09.30 am. The second wave was carried out among 669 passengers at the same six stations two years after the first wave during the same morning peak hours. As a result of this study, the respondents' socio-economic specifications, the distribution of trips by region, the impact of IZBAN on transport modes, the changes in travel time and travel cost and satisfaction data were obtained. These data enabled to compare two waves and explain the changes in socio-economic factors and trip behaviors. In both waves, 10 % of the respondents stopped driving their own cars and they started to take IZBAN. This is an important development in solving traffic problems. More public transportation means less traffic congestion.

Keywords: commuter rail system, comparative study, longitudinal survey, public transportation

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Authors: Ercan Kızılay, Mustafa Demi̇rel, Selçuk Coşkun

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Railway signaling systems consist of vital products that regulate railway traffic and provide safe route arrangements and maneuvers of trains. SIL 4 signal lamps are produced by many manufacturers today. There is a need for systems that enable these signal lamps to be controlled by commands from the interlocking. These systems should act as fail-safe and give error indications to the interlocking system when an unexpected situation occurs for the safe operation of railway systems from the RAMS perspective. In the past, driving and proving the lamp in relay-based systems was typically done via signaling relays. Today, the proving of lamps is done by comparing the current values read over the return circuit, the lower and upper threshold values. The purpose is an analog electronic object controller with the possibility of easy integration with vital systems and the signal lamp itself. During the study, the EN50126 standard approach was considered, and the concept, definition, risk analysis, requirements, architecture, design, and prototyping were performed throughout this study. FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and FTA (Fault Tree) Analysis) have been used for safety analysis in accordance with EN 50129. Concerning these analyzes, the 1oo2D reactive fail-safe hardware design of a controller has been researched. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) effects on the functional safety of equipment, insulation coordination, and over-voltage protection were discussed during hardware design according to EN 50124 and EN 50122 standards. As vital equipment for railway signaling, railway signal object controllers should be developed according to EN 50126 and EN 50129 standards which identify the steps and requirements of the development in accordance with the SIL 4(Safety Integrity Level) target. In conclusion of this study, an analog railway signal object controller, which takes command from the interlocking system, is processed in driver cards. Driver cards arrange the voltage level according to desired visibility by means of semiconductors. Additionally, prover cards evaluate the current upper and lower thresholds. Evaluated values are processed via logic gates which are composed as 1oo2D by means of analog electronic technologies. This logic evaluates the voltage level of the lamp and mitigates the risks of undue dimming.

Keywords: object controller, railway electronic, analog electronic, safety, railway signal

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Authors: Abdullah Kaymakci, Daniel M. Madyira, Hilda Moseme

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Repairing railway wheels by weld build-up is one of the technological solutions that have been applied in the past. However, the effects of this process on the material properties are not well established. The effects of the weld build-up on the mechanical properties of the wheel material in comparison to the required mechanical properties for proper service performance were investigated in this study. A turning process was used to remove the worn surface from the railway wheel. During this process 5mm thickness was removed to ensure that, if there was any weld build-up done in the previous years, it was removed. This was followed by welding a round bar on the sides of the wheel to provide build-up guide. There were two welding processes performed, namely submerged arc welding (SAW) and gas metal arc welding (GMAW). Submerged arc welding (SAW) was used to build up weld on one rim while the other rim was just left with metal arc welding of the round bar at the edges. Both processes produced hardness values that were lower than that of the parent material of 195 HV as the GMAW welds had an average of 184 HV and SAW had an average of 194 HV. Whilst a number of defects were noted on the GMAW welds at both macro and micro levels, SAW welds had less defects and they were all micro defects. All the microstructures were ferritic but with differences in grain sizes. Furthermore, in the SAW weld build up, the grains of the weld build-up appeared to be elongated which was a result of the cooling rate. Using GMAW instead of SAW would result in improved wear and fatigue performance.

Keywords: submerged arc welding, gas metal arc welding, railway wheel, microstructure, micro hardness

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Authors: Hasan Kalyoncu, Ayşe Güneş

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This study was carried on 12 determined stations, on Alara and Karpuz Streams, between January and November 2014. Seasonal samples were taken from the stations to analyze physicochemical parameters and Plecoptera Fauna in the water. The correlation between identified taxa and physicochemical data were tried to determine. As the result of the study, 2088 individuals from Plecoptera fauna were examined, 3 genera and 13 species were identified. The taxa of Brachyptera risi, Capnia bifrons, Dinocras cephalotes, Diura bicaudata, Isogenus nebecula, Isogenus sp., Isoperla grammatica, Leuctra hippopus, Leuctra inermis, Leuctra moselyi, Leuctra sp., Nemoura sp., Perla bipunctata, Perla marginata, Protonemura meyeri and Rhabdiopteryx acuminata were determined. In Alara Stream, the dominant species were; Isogenus nebecula at stations I and IV, Leuctra moselyi at station II, Leuctra hippopus at stations III, V and VI. In Karpuz Stream, Brachyptera risi was the dominant species in all stations. While Leuctra hippopus was the dominant taxon in Alara Stream, in Karpuz Stream it was Brachyptera risi. The highest diversity value was at station III and the lowest was at station VI in Alara Stream and the lowest diversity value was at station VI, while the highest was at station I in Karpuz Stream. In Alara Stream, the most similar stations were I and III, while in Karpuz Stream the highest similarity was determined between stations I and II. As for the evaluation result, the water quality of Alara and Karpuz Streams were determined as at oligosaprobic level.

Keywords: Alara stream, Karpuz stream, plecoptera, water quality

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Authors: Abu Bakr Ahmed Shater

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Hypocenters of 250 earthquakes recorded by more than 5 stations from the Egyptian seismic network around the Gulf of Suez were relocated and the seismic stations correction for the P-wave is estimated, using the modified joint hypocenter method determination. Five stations TR1, SHR, GRB, ZAF and ZET have minus signs in the station P-wave travel time corrections and their values are -0.235, -0.366, -0.288, -0.366 and -0.058, respectively. It is possible to assume that, the underground model in this area has a particular characteristic of high velocity structure in which the other stations TR2, RDS, SUZ, HRG and ZNM have positive signs and their values are 0.024, 0.187, 0.314, 0.645 and 0.145, respectively. It is possible to assume that, the underground model in this area has particular characteristic of low velocity structure. The hypocenteral location determined by the Modified joint hypocenter method is more precise than those determined by the other routine work program. This method simultaneously solves the earthquake locations and station corrections. The station corrections reflect, not only the different crustal conditions in the vicinity of the stations, but also the difference between the actual and modeled seismic velocities along each of the earthquake - station ray paths. The stations correction obtained is correlated with the major surface geological features in the study area. As a result of the relocation, the low velocity area appears in the northeastern and southwestern sides of the Gulf of Suez, while the southeastern and northwestern parts are of high velocity area.

Keywords: gulf of Suez, seismicity, relocation of hypocenter, joint hypocenter determination

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Authors: Marcel Schneider, Nils Nießen

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Microscopic simulation programs enable the description of the two processes of railway operation and the previous timetabling. Occupation conflicts are often solved based on defined train priorities on both process levels. These conflict resolutions produce knock-on delays for the involved trains. The sum of knock-on delays is commonly used to evaluate the quality of railway operations. It is either compared to an acceptable level-of-service or the delays are evaluated economically by linearly monetary functions. It is impossible to properly evaluate dispatching decisions without a well-founded objective function. This paper presents a new approach for evaluation of dispatching decisions. It uses models of choice of transport and considers the behaviour of the end-costumers. These models evaluate the knock-on delays in more detail than linearly monetary functions and consider other competing modes of transport. The new approach pursues the coupling of a microscopic model of railway operation with the macroscopic model of choice of transport. First it will be implemented for the railway operations process, but it can also be used for timetabling. The evaluation considers the possibility to change over to other transport modes by the end-costumers. The new approach first looks at the rail-mounted and road transport, but it can also be extended to air transport. The split of the end-costumers is described by the modal-split. The reactions by the end-costumers have an effect on the revenues of the railway undertakings. Various travel purposes has different pavement reserves and tolerances towards delays. Longer journey times affect besides revenue changes also additional costs. The costs depend either on time or track and arise from circulation of workers and vehicles. Only the variable values are summarised in the contribution margin, which is the base for the monetary evaluation of the delays. The contribution margin is calculated for different resolution decisions of the same conflict. The conflict resolution is improved until the monetary loss becomes minimised. The iterative process therefore determines an optimum conflict resolution by observing the change of the contribution margin. Furthermore, a monetary value of each dispatching decision can also be determined.

Keywords: choice of transport, knock-on delays, monetary evaluation, railway operations

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Authors: Kuo-Wei Hsu, Jen-Chih, Chao, Pei-Chen, Wu

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With the rapid development of global economy, the increasing population, the highly industrialization, greenhouse gas emission and the ozone layer damage, the Global Warming happens. Facing the impact of global warming, the issue of “green transportation” began to be valued and promoted in each city. Taichung has been elected as the model of low-carbon city in Taiwan. To comply with international trends and the government policy, we tried to promote the energy saving and carbon reduction to create a “low-carbon Taichung with green life and eco-friendly economy”. To cooperate with the “green transportation” project, Taichung has promoted a number of public transports constructions and traffic policy in recent years like BRT, MRT, etc. The elevated railway is one of those important constructions. Cooperating with the green transport policy, elevated railway could help to achieve the carbon reduction for this low-carbon city. The current studies of the carbon emissions associated with railways and roads are focusing on the assessment on paving material, institutional policy and economic benefit. Except for changing the mode of transportation, elevated railways/roads also create space under the bridge. However, there is no research about the carbon emissions of the space underneath the elevated section up until now. This study investigated the effect of railway track elevation project in Taichung based on the carbon emissions and the factors that affect carbon emissions by research related theory and literature analysis. This study concluded that : railway track elevation increased the public transit, the bike lanes, the green areas and walking spaces. In the other hand it reduced the traffic congestions, the use of motorcycles as well as automobiles for carbon emissions.

Keywords: low-carbon city, green transportation, carbon emissions, Taichung, Taiwan

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Authors: Emily J. Morey, Kevin Galvin, Thomas Riley, R. Eddie Wilson

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The key challenges faced by integrating autonomous rail operations into the existing mainline railway environment have been identified through the understanding and framing of the problem space and stakeholder analysis. This was achieved through the completion of the first four steps of Soft Systems Methodology, where the problem space has been expressed via conceptual models. Having identified these challenges, we investigated one of them, namely capacity, via the use of models and simulation. This paper examines the approach used to move from the conceptual models to a simulation which can determine whether the integration of autonomous trains can plausibly increase capacity. Within this approach, we developed an architecture and converted logical models into physical resource models and associated design features which were used to build a simulator. From this simulator, we are able to analyse mixtures of legacy-autonomous operations and produce fundamental diagrams and trajectory plots to describe the dynamic behaviour of mixed mainline railway operations.

Keywords: autonomy, executable architecture, modelling and simulation, railway capacity

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Authors: Surachai Ampawasuvan, Supornchai Utainarumol

Abstract:

Most of fuel station’ customers, who drive on the major arterial road wants to use the stations to fill fuel to their vehicle during their journey to destinations. According to the survey of traffic volume of the vehicle using fuel stations by video cameras, automatic counting tools, or questionnaires, it was found that most users prefer to use fuel stations on holiday rather than on working day. They also prefer to use fuel stations in the morning rather than in the evening. When comparing the ratio of the distribution pattern of traffic volume of the vehicle using fuel stations by video cameras, automatic counting tools, there is no significant difference. However, when comparing the ratio of peak hour (peak hour rate) of the results from questionnaires at 13 to 14 percent with the results obtained by using the methods of the Institute of Transportation Engineering (ITE), it is found that the value is similar. However, it is different from a survey by video camera and automatic traffic counting at 6 to 7 percent of about half. So, this study suggests that in order to forecast trip generation of vehicle using fuel stations on major arterial road which is mostly characterized by Though Traffic, it is recommended to use the value of half of peak hour rate, which would make the forecast for trips generation to be more precise and accurate and compatible to surrounding environment.

Keywords: peak rate, trips generation, fuel station, arterial road

Procedia PDF Downloads 408

Authors: Mizam Doğan

Abstract:

Adapazarı railway car factory, the only railway car factory of Turkey, was constructed in 1950. It was a steel design and it had filled beam sections and truss beam systems. Columns were steel profiles and box sections. The factory was damaged heavily on Izmit Earthquake and closed. In this earthquake 90% of damaged structures are reinforced concrete, the others are %7 prefabricated and 3% steel construction. As can be seen in statistical data, damaged industrial buildings in this earthquake were generally reinforced concrete and prefabricated structures. Adapazari railway car factory is the greatest steel structure damaged in the earthquake. This factory has 95% of the total damaged steel structure area. In this paper; earthquake damages on beams and columns of the factory are studied by considering TS648 'Turkish Standard Building Code for Steel Structures' and also damaged connection elements as welds, rivets and bolts are examined. A model similar to the damaged system is made and high-stress zones are searched. These examinations, conclusions, suggestions are explained by damage photos and details.

Keywords: column-beam connection, seismic analysis, seismic load, steel structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: I. Szer, J. Szer, M. Pieńko, A. Robak, P. Jamińska-Gadomska

Abstract:

Work at height, such as construction works on scaffoldings, is associated with a considerable risk. Scaffolding workers are usually exposed to changing weather conditions what can additionally increase the risk of dangerous situations. Therefore, it is very important to foresee the risk of adverse conditions to which the worker may be exposed. The data from meteorological stations may be used to asses this risk. However, the dependency between weather conditions on a scaffolding and in the vicinity of meteorological station, should be determined. The paper presents an analysis of two selected environmental parameters which have influence on the behavior of workers – air temperature and wind speed. Measurements of these parameters were made between April and November of 2016 on ten scaffoldings located in different parts of Poland. They were compared with the results taken from the meteorological stations located closest to the studied scaffolding. The results gathered from the construction sites and meteorological stations were not the same, but statistical analyses have shown that they were correlated.

Keywords: scaffolding, health and safety at work, temperature, wind velocity

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: J. E. Jung, J. M. Yang, J. W. Kim

Abstract:

The railway market across the world has been standardized with the globalization strategy of Europe. On the other hand, the Korean urban railway system is operated by 10 operators which have established their standards and independently managed BOMs. When operators manage different BOMs, lack of system compatibility prevents them from sharing information and hinders work linkage and efficiency. Europe launched a large-scale railway project in 1993 when the European Union went into effect. In particular, the recent standardization efforts of the EU-funded MODTRAIN project are similar to the approach of the urban rail system standardization research that is underway in Korea. This paper looks into the BOMs of Koran urban rail transit operators and suggests the standard BOM for the rail transit system in Korea by reviewing rail vehicle technologies and the MODTRAIN project of Europe. The standard BOM is structured up to the key device level or module level, and it allows vehicle manufacturers and component manufacturers to manage their lower-level BOMs and share them with each other and with operators.

Keywords: BOM, Korean rail, urban rail, standardized

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Riccardo Loggia, Francesca Pizzimenti, Francesco Lelli, Luigi Martirano

Abstract:

Recent air emission regulations point toward the complete electrification of road vehicles. An increasing number of users are beginning to prefer full electric or hybrid, plug-in vehicle solutions, incentivized by government subsidies and the lower cost of electricity compared to gasoline or diesel. However, it is necessary to optimize charging stations so that they can simultaneously satisfy as many users as possible. The purpose of this paper is to present optimization algorithms that enable simultaneous charging of multiple electric vehicles while ensuring maximum performance in relation to the type of charging station.

Keywords: electric vehicles, charging stations, sharing model, fast charging, car park, power profiles

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: N. Samarinas, C. Evangelides, C. Vrekos

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is the comparison of three different methods, in order to produce fuzzy tolerance relations for rainfall data classification. More specifically, the three methods are correlation coefficient, cosine amplitude and max-min method. The data were obtained from seven rainfall stations in the region of central Greece and refers to 20-year time series of monthly rainfall height average. Three methods were used to express these data as a fuzzy relation. This specific fuzzy tolerance relation is reformed into an equivalence relation with max-min composition for all three methods. From the equivalence relation, the rainfall stations were categorized and classified according to the degree of confidence. The classification shows the similarities among the rainfall stations. Stations with high similarity can be utilized in water resource management scenarios interchangeably or to augment data from one to another. Due to the complexity of calculations, it is important to find out which of the methods is computationally simpler and needs fewer compositions in order to give reliable results.

Keywords: classification, fuzzy logic, tolerance relations, rainfall data

Procedia PDF Downloads 314

Authors: Mohammed Abdullah Alrajhi

Abstract:

The rapid growth in the number of mobile phone subscribers has resulted in an increased number of mobile base stations all over the world. Generally, mobile base stations are existing in huge numbers in populated areas than in non-populated ones to serve the largest number of users. The total number of mobile subscriptions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reached around 50 million at the end of 2014, with a penetration rate of 165.1% according to the quarterly electronic newsletter issued by the Communications and Information Technology Commission. The current investigation was conducted primarily to measure the level of electromagnetic fields emitted from 400 mobile base stations for the purpose of environmental safety and radiation protection in light of national guidelines for public exposure as well as the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The outcomes of this investigation provide valuable comments and recommendation for safety and protection of electromagnetic fields emitted from mobile base stations.

Keywords: electromagnetic fields, mobile, safety, protection, ICNIRP

Procedia PDF Downloads 421