Major Railway Lines Research Articles

Ground motion emissions due to wind turbines: observations, acoustic coupling, and attenuation relationships

Abstract. Emissions from wind turbines (WT) cover a wide range of infrasound and ground motions. When they are perceived as immissions by local residents, they can become a source of disturbance or annoyance. To mitigate such disturbances, it is necessary to better understand and, if possible, suppress WT-induced emissions. Within the project Inter-Wind we record and analyze ground motion signals in the vicinity of two wind farms on the Swabian Alb in southern Germany, simultaneously with acoustic and meteorological measurements, as well as psychological surveys done by cooperating research groups. The investigated wind farms consist of 3 and 16 WTs, respectively, and are located on the Alb peneplain at 700–800 m height, approximately 300 m higher than the two municipalities considered in our study. Our main aim is to better understand reasons why residents may be affected from WT immissions. Known ground motions include vibrations due to eigenmodes of the WT tower and blades, and the interaction between the passing blade and the tower, causing signals at constant frequencies below 12 Hz. In addition, we observe signals in ground motion recordings at frequencies up to 90 Hz which are proportional to the blade-passing frequency. We can correlate these signals with acoustic recordings and estimate sound pressure to ground motion coupling transfer coefficients of 3–16.5 µms-1Pa-1. Sources for these emissions are the WT generator and possibly the gearing box. The identification of such noise sources can help to find measures to reduce disturbances in order to increase the public acceptance of WTs. Residents perceive more disturbance at the location where the wind farm is closer to the municipality (approximately 1 km). However, there is also a major railway line which produces higher vibration and infrasound signal amplitudes compared to the WTs. Along the measurement lines the decay rate of the WT-induced ground motions is determined for a damping relation proportional to 1/rb. We find frequency-dependent b values for different scenarios at our geological setting of Jurassic limestone on marl, sandstone, and Quaternary deposits. These damping relationships can be used to estimate emissions in the far field and to plan mitigation strategies.

Spatiotemporal Variability of Lightning Activity over the Railway Network in Sri Lanka with Special Attention to the Proposed Suburban Railway Electrification Network

This study is oriented towards the investigation of the spatiotemporal variability of the lightning activity over the railway network in Sri Lanka using -lightning data from 1998 to 2014 that were downloaded from the database of Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The study has also been extended to study the lightning activity over the proposed suburban railway electrification network. GIS was used to conduct an annual and seasonal analysis of the railway network, which consists of nine major railway lines, to identify vulnerable stations and segments. The average annual lightning flash density over a 1447 km-long railway network of Sri Lanka varies between 5.08–16.58 flashes/(km2 year). The railway lines run across the western and southern regions of the country have been identified as being in areas with higher lightning activity. In comparison to other railway lines, the Kelani Valley line in the Colombo district and Colombo-Maradana to Polgahawela segment of the Mainline are particularly vulnerable to lightning activity. These areas have also been recognized as regions with higher population density. The proposed 102 km long railway electrification network in Sri Lanka is also within higher population density segments, with higher lightning flash density values between 10.55–16.53 flashes/(km2⋅year). As a result, to improve the operational efficiency of the proposed electrification network, a fully coordinated lightning protection system in accordance with the findings of this study is strongly suggested.

3D FEM ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION PIT FOR A TBM-DRIVEN FLOOD DISCHARGE GALLERY

As one speciality of the Swiss hydraulic engineering tradition, several torrent diversion schemes were undertaken dating from the 18<sup>th</sup> century, with the aim of using the natural lake as a retention basin. The recent project of flood protection of the lower Sihl valley and the City of Zurich features a gallery of 2.1km length with a 6.6m inner diameter designed for a 330m<sup>3</sup>/s free flow, discharging into Lake Zurich in an HQ<sub>500</sub> event. After a short presentation of the main features of the project, the paper concentrates on the target construction pit of the TBM drive close to a major railway line at the built-up lakeside.

Railways in Shan State

There are two major railway lines in Shan State, the largest of Burma's administrative regions. The first starts at Mandalay, crossing into Shan State after Pyin Oo Lwin and going to the railhead at Lashio. A second starts at Thazi, and passes through Kalaw to go to Shwe Nyaung near Inle Lake before continuing north to the railhead at Yaksauk. Shwe Nyaung was once connected to Taunggyi by a rail line, now long since abandoned. There is another line, isolated from the rest of the network, which runs from Taunggyi to Kakku, then on to Namsang and Mong Nai. The line is only usable as far as Htiyi. A line from Mong Nai to Kengtung, known as the Shan State Railway, was announced with much fanfare in 2009 but construction was abandoned soon after it started. This paper will discuss the need for the immediate rebuilding of the line from Shwe Nyaung to Taunggyi, and in the longer term a line linking Taunggyi to Kengtung. The new National League for Democracy government could create much political goodwill for itself by rebuilding the line from Shwe Nyaung to Taunggyi (about 21 miles); by improving the road from Taunggyi to Kengtung (a distance of 281 miles); by re-opening the line from Taunggyi to Mong Nai; and in the longer term building a railway of quality from Taunggyi to Kengtung. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in Shan State in 2013, 2016 and 2017.

Measurement and Analysis of Vibration Levels in Rail Transport in Central Europe

In the last decade, with a continued change in world economic conditions and global trade, transportation of goods has continued to increase. The opening of new and existing markets requires that products and packages move through various regions of the world using available logistical equipment and networks at a faster pace. It also requires that damage be kept at a minimum while providing maximum safety to individuals. This can be achieved by properly designing packages to transportation levels that occur in the supply chain. The purpose of this research is to both measure and analyse the vibration physical forces that occur during rail transport. Rail shipments are widely used across the world, and they are an integral part of the intermodal transfer of ISO containers from ships and trucks to rail. The aim of this paper is to provide vibration levels measured for rail shipments on a major railway line in Central Europe that has not been previously published. The vibration levels that were measured in this study were compared with American Society of Testing and Materials, United States Military Standards and United Kingdom Defense Standard standards and International Safe Transit Association procedures in the form of power spectral density spectrums. A composite power spectral density spectrum is provided which can be used to simulate the measured rail vibration levels in Central Europe. Results are also compared with rail travel in other international shipments for North America and Asia. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Practical Experiences and Lessons of Medical Response to Major Disasters in China

Introduction The construction of a medical emergency response system for disasters, which plays an important role in medical emergency response to multiple catastrophic events, has been sped up in China since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. However, the implementation process has also exposed some problems, particularly the disaster relief system. Methods In this review, we summarised and analysed emergency medical rescue efforts after major disasters in China in recent years, including 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, 2010 Yushu earthquake, ‘7.23’ Yongwen major railway line accident and 2013 Lushan earthquake. Results Critically wounded persons after Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake were managed according to the “four centralised strategies of care”, namely casualties, experts, resources and patients, which were designed to make the best use of limited resources. The collection of disaster response resources was not the sooner the better. The vulnerability and anti-disaster capacity of quake-hit zone and the degree of matching between critical elements of a response system and its supporting systems should be considered. The training of rescue teams in rural and high-altitude areas should be strengthened. Non-government organisations, the government and the public should join together to deal with the disaster. Conclusions In this paper, we evaluate the disaster relief systems in China through a retrospective analysis of medical practice of catastrophic events in recent years. This review suggests that there are a lot of experiences and lessons on how to prepare and respond to disasters in China, especially those in plateau mountain region and those considering emergency responses to catastrophic events. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2015;22:270-280)

LANDSLIDE MONITORING USING TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER: GEOREFERENCING AND CANOPY FILTERING ISSUES IN A CASE STUDY

Abstract. In order to define a methodology that faces the major critical issues, we used a Terrestrial Laser Scanner to monitor a large landslide that caused significant disruptions both to an important state road and to a major railway line in Italy. To survey the landslide we used three different models of Terrestrial Laser Scanners, including a "full wave form" one, potentially useful for filtering vegetation from the data. The output of each measurement campaign is a Digital Surface Model referred to a unique reference system. Starting from the DSMs we produced the Digital Terrain Models, one for each survey. The use of different models of TLS together with the software packages recommended by the companies for data processing, allowed us to compare the surveys and to evaluate the reliability and the accuracy of results. The comparison of data has been useful in order to identify and analyse over time the areas of greatest deformation and the directions of landslide movement and it also gives us some elements about the validity of the technique in this kind of applications. The laser surveys have shown a strong dynamic of the slope but have also highlighted some difficulties in order to efficiently filtering the data. Using two different kinds of TLS, full wave form and mono eco, on the same portion of landslide allows us to make comparisons between the two methodologies for landslide monitoring in a real-world context.

Scour failure of bridges

In recent years there have been several bridge collapses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland that have been caused by scour. Towns in the north west of England have been cut off and loss of life occurred. Major railway lines have been closed for extended periods. Although scour is basically the removal of bed material due to flowing water, it has a number of different causes and takes different forms. The paper describes the different forms of scour and looks at a number of case studies to illustrate the different ways in which scour has caused structures to collapse or require protection. The case studies are of railway bridges and are drawn from official investigation reports and underwater examinations carried out by the author. The paper concludes by illustrating ways in which failures due to scour could be avoided by the employment of good bridge management systems.

Fractured Narratives: Masculinities, Traumatic Histories and Margins

The onlookers go rigid when the train goes past. 1 1Kafka 1910. The Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, as the terminus of the first major railway line in a German state, from the moment it opened in 1840 ...

Thomas Brassey and the railways of Italy

The acquisition by the Institution of Civil Engineers of the letters and other papers of Charles Jones, a long-serving agent of the outstanding contractor Thomas Brassey, has shed light on the terms embodied in several of Brassey's railway building concessions and the methods used to manage and finance his work outside Britain in places as widely dispersed as western France and southern Poland. Among Brassey's numerous assignments in the 1860s, the final decade of his life, were contracts for the construction of two major railway lines, the Maremma and Meridionali, on the Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts of Italy respectively. The Charles Jones archive shows how Brassey subcontracted much of the work to Italians and, as a result of his immense reputation, was able to attract financial support from his fellow British contractors. A huge quantity of documents must have passed through the hands of Brassey and his staff but, to the frustration of those interested in his achievements today, comparatively little primary evidence is extant. The papers of Charles Jones show that much of this evidence was systematically destroyed.

On railway noise modelling - an approach to the european interim method

Railway noise results from a number of sources, with airborne and structure borne transmission mechanisms being responsible for the noise radiation and propagation. The European Directive 2002/49/EC requires the drawing of noise maps for areas near major transport infrastructures. The Portuguese Noise Act of 2007 further requires the drawing of noise maps for all transport infrastructures. This paper reports on our experience on noise mapping of the major Portuguese railway lines. The interim calculation model RMR96/SRMII, recommended in Directive 2002/49/EC, was adopted for the prediction of the railway noise, where a 1/1 octave band noise spectrum curve fitting approach was followed. Details on the implementation, adaptation and validation of the calculation procedure are reported. Emphasis on the required data such as train categories, superstructure, and speed profiles will be given. Examples and results for a number of major railway lines will be presented.

The Brenner Freeway (Austria-Italy): Mountain Highway of Controversy

Alpine passes have historically provided a transportation and communication link between the core regions of Western and Central Europe and those of Mediterranean Europe. Due to the geographic advantages of its low elevation and the possibility of crossing the Alps on a single pass, the Brenner route has had an eminent transportation function at least since Roman times. Today, the Brenner Pass is crossed by a major railway line, a highway, and a freeway-the first one in the Alps. This paper discusses the alpine section of the Brenner Freeway between the Austrian city of Innsbruck and the Italian city of Brixen/Bressanone with its triple transportation function for local commuter traffic, for tourist traffic to the resorts of the region, and for transalpine freight and passenger traffic. It is the latter which recently has aroused a considerable amount of controversy. This great traffic artery has had major effects on the natural environment, the settlements, the economic and social structures, and the life of the people adjacent to the Freeway. Among the positive impacts of the Freeway are: the traffic diversion from the highway which runs through many villages; the enhanced mobility, accessibility, and ease of transalpine transportation; the attraction of enterprises to the region, and the creation of jobs. The major negative impacts, apart from the visual impairment of alpine valleys and the land consumption of the Freeway, are mostly seen in the production of massive amounts of traffic-generated toxic emissions and of high noise levels which have negatively affected the quality of life of the local population and have been a major deterrent for tourists. The multiple impacts of the Brenner Freeway are portrayed in a conceptual model.

An Estimation of Land Price Function Using a Fuzzy Linear Regression Model

There have been many studies about estimation of residential bid rent function. Most of those studies commonly use ordinary regression model as a tool of analysis. In ordinary regression models, the deviations of the data set from the regression line can occur because of measurement errors and/or modeling errors.In this paper, a new approach, that is, a fuzzy regression analysis based on fuzzy set theory is introduced for estimating land price function. In the fuzzy regression model, the deviations between the observed values and the estimated values are assumed to result from the fuzziness of a system structure itself. From this point of view, we use this model for the estimation and obtain the fuzzy number of a parameter vector in a linear land price function which fits well with the land price data which are accumulated along major railway lines in Tokyo metropolitan area. This paper is the first step to explain the vague urban phenomena in which human recognition and decision-making are involved.