Normal Traffic Load Research Articles

Investigation of shear resistance of steel bridge girders by load testing and monitoring of load response data under highway traffic conditions

A recent strength evaluation of the Hogg’s Hollow Bridge on Highway 401 in Ontario revealed a significant deficiency in the shear resistance of the existing girders at support locations. This was attributed to the absence of transverse stiffeners at the extreme ends of the girders. However, none of the bridge girders showed any signs of distress. The Ontario Ministry of Transportation recently conducted a field study to investigate this shear issue in greater detail. To that end, a test program was devised to (a) monitor the real stresses in the end panels of two selected girders in the Hogg’s Hollow Bridge when subjected to (i) a test truck with known axle loads and (ii) normal highway traffic loading, and (b) calibrate the observed stresses against theoretically expected responses in the girders and calculate the live load capacity factor using the shear data derived from the field measurements.

Architecture design, performance analysis and VLSI implementation of a reconfigurable shared buffer for high‐speed switch/router

AbstractModern switches and routers require massive storage space to buffer packets. This becomes more significant as link speed increases and switch size grows. From the memory technology perspective, while DRAM is a good choice to meet capacity requirement, the access time causes problems for high‐speed applications. On the other hand, though SRAM is faster, it is more costly and does not have high storage density. The SRAM/DRAM hybrid architecture provides a good solution to meet both capacity and speed requirements. From the switch design and network traffic perspective, to minimize packet loss, the buffering space allocated for each switch port is normally based on the worst‐case scenario, which is usually huge. However, under normal traffic load conditions, the buffer utilization for such configuration is very low. Therefore, we propose a reconfigurable buffer‐sharing scheme that can dynamically adjust the buffering space for each port according to the traffic patterns and buffer saturation status. The target is to achieve high performance and improve buffer utilization, while not posing much constraint on the buffer speed. In this paper, we study the performance of the proposed buffer‐sharing scheme by both a numerical model and extensive simulations under uniform and non‐uniform traffic conditions. We also present the architecture design and VLSI implementation of the proposed reconfigurable shared buffer using the 0.18 µm CMOS technology. Our results manifest that the proposed architecture can always achieve high performance and provide much flexibility for the high‐speed packet switches to adapt to various traffic patterns. Furthermore, it can be easily integrated into the functionality of port controllers of modern switches and routers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Synchronous ethernet: a method to transport synchronization

This article discusses the evolving transport architecture, covering some of the synchronization distribution problems to many endpoints where mobile backhaul and TDM emulation occur. It shows how synchronous Ethernet fits into both the Ethernet and synchronization architectures, and discusses how this helped development in standardization bodies. Standardization allows the key building blocks of Ethernet silicon and specific timing devices to be developed, which allows a robust system implementation to be constructed while allowing interworking with and migration from existing SONET/SDH-based transport infrastructure. Finally, results are shown that indicate a very high level of performance is achievable with Synchronous Ethernet not subject to the normal packet delay variation and traffic load conditions that can occur in packet based networks.

Fatigue stress monitoring and analyses for steel box girder of Runyang Suspension Bridge

The monitoring of fatigue stress of steel bridge is a key issue of bridge health monitoring and safety assessment. This paper aims to find out the strain history features of the girder components of Runyang Suspension Bridge (RYSB) under vehicle and environmental loading during its first year of service based on the strain-history data recorded by structural health monitoring system installed in the bridge. The fatigue stress spectrums of steel box girders under normal traffic load, heavy trucks and typhoon loads were studied as well as the correlation between varying strain and temperature based on real-time monitoring of temperature histories. The results show that, monitoring on local strain in health monitoring systems of RYSB can effectively provide the information on fatigue stresses. The range of the equivalent fatigue stress on the monitoring location of the bridge is currently low, mainly due to varying traffic loading and temperature. There exists significant correlation between varying temperature and mean value of fatigue stress. Effect of the passing of heavy trucks on bridge fatigue is quite significant since the value of the cumulative fatigue damage generated by heavy trucks is 10 to 100 times larger than that by normal traffic. Therefore, the effect on fatigue cumulative damage due to heavy trucks or overloaded vehicles needs to be monitored and paid much attention to.

In Situ Pore Pressure Responses of Native Peat and Soil under Train Load: A Case Study

Settlement and formation of piping holes on surfaces were observed along a rail embankment subject to normal traffic load. Piezometers were installed in the native peat and soil underneath the embankment inside and outside problematic area to measure the pore pressure responses during train traffic. Peculiar pore pressure responses were observed. Cyclic pore pressures were only measured during the first 60–80 s of the 6-min train passage, and thereafter the pressures decayed rapidly to the initial values. The pore pressure changes in the shallow peat layer were lower than those in the deep soil layer. Possible mechanisms causing such peculiar pore pressure responses, surface settlement, and piping holes were explored and identified. It was found that the stiffness contrast between the stiff, upper granular fill and the soft, native peat material could lead to a redistribution of tensile stress in the granular fill layer to the peat layer due to the moving train load. This stress redistribution promotes th...

Fatigue criteria for integrity assessment of long-span steel bridge with health monitoring

A structural health assessment (SHA) methodology is developed using data acquired from structural health monitoring (SHM) system installed on long-span bridges. A set of fatigue criteria has been proposed for pre-determining the global state of the bridge structure failure due to fatigue. This involves finding the threshold of fatigue initiation, below which the rate of fatigue damage may be undetectable under current technology or it is economically unfeasible. The state-of-art for large structures corresponds to the initiation of macro-cracks caused by the accumulation of damage generated by actual service loads for the case of bridges. In what follows, consideration is given to developing fatigue crack growth criterion based on the concept of the continuum damage mechanics (CDM). Fatigue accumulative is included in the model where a fatigue limit for multi-axial stress state is considered. The proposed criterion advocates the evolution of micro-crack growth up to the stage of macro-crack formulation. Considered are the loading histories that correspond to normal traffic loading for highways and railways, incidental or accident loadings such as those caused by typhoons and effective environmental loadings. The potential sites of damage are determined are discussed. The proposed criterion is applied to analyze the fatigue damage of the Tsing Ma Bridge with online strain history data acquired by the SHM system that is permanently installed in the bridge.

A New delay control method for real-time flows

This paper presents a novel control algorithm to decrease the worst-case delay bound for high rate homogeneous and heterogeneous real-time flows when the network traffic load becomes heavy. The algorithm is adaptive based on the instantaneous network situations. It employs a generalized form of traditional (σ,ρ) regulator called the generalized (σ,ρ,λ) regulator that operates like the (σ,ρ) regulator under the normal network traffic load situation, but provides more regulations for the heavy network traffic load situation. For a set of real-time flows, we can show that Drg≤Dg where Drg and Dg are the worst-case delay bounds with the (σ,ρ,λ) regulator and the (σ,ρ) regulator respectively. More specifically, we have developed a set of formulas to set the parameters for the new regulator so as to reduce the worst-case delay bounds for the real-time flows. We can prove that there exists a threshold input rate ρ* such that Drg = Dg for ρ≤ρ* and Drg ρ*. When the average input rate of real-time flows is very high, the generalized regulator can effectively control the delay. The extensive experiment data match our theoretical results.

Evaluation of typhoon induced fatigue damage using health monitoring data for the Tsing Ma Bridge

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of typhoons on fatigue damage accumulation in steel decks of long-span suspension bridges. The strain-time histories at critical locations of deck sections of long-span bridges during different typhoons passing the bridge area are investigated by using on-line strain data acquired from the structural health monitoring system installed on the bridge. The fatigue damage models based on Miner's Law and Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) are applied to calculate the increment of fatigue damage due to the action of a typhoon. Accumulated fatigue damage during the typhoon is also calculated and compared between Miner's Law and the CDM method. It is found that for the Tsing Ma Bridge case, the stress spectrum generated by a typhoon is significantly different than that generated by normal traffic and its histogram shapes can be described approximately as a Rayleigh distribution. The influence of typhoon loading on accumulative fatigue damage is more significant than that due to normal traffic loading. The increment of fatigue damage generated by hourly stress spectrum for the maximum typhoon loading may be much greater than those for normal traffic loading. It is, therefore, concluded that it is necessary to evaluate typhoon induced fatigue damage for the purpose of accurately evaluating accumulative fatigue damage for long-span bridges located within typhoon prone regions.

Evaluation of typhoon induced fatigue damage for Tsing Ma Bridge

This paper aims to evaluate the effect of a typhoon on fatigue damage in steel decks of long-span bridges. The strain-time histories at critical locations of deck sections of long-span bridges during a typhoon passing the bridge area are investigated by using on-line strain data acquired from the structural health monitoring system permanently installed on the bridge. The fatigue damage models based on Miner’s law and the continuum damage mechanics are applied to calculate increment of fatigue damage due to the action of a typhoon. The analytical results for the Tsing Ma Bridge show that the stress spectrum generated by a typhoon is much different than that by the normal traffic and its histogram shapes can be described approximately as a Rayleigh distribution. The influence of typhoon loading on accumulative fatigue damage is more significant than that due to normal traffic loading. The increment of fatigue damage generated by hourly stress spectrum for the maximum typhoon loading may be much greater than that by daily stress spectrum for normal traffic loading. The results suggest that it is necessary to evaluate typhoon induced fatigue damage for the purpose of accurately evaluating accumulative fatigue damage for the long-span bridge located at the typhoon prone region.

Electronic flight progress strip prototype for en route ATC

An electronic flight progress strip (FPS) display and a color plan view display (CPVD) as a laboratory prototype are described. The purposes of prototype development are to examine the effectiveness and problems of the electronic FPS display in comparison to the current system and to identify the controller-workstation requirements, which are necessary to decide a future planning of a production prototype development. The evaluation and additional test were conducted for a typical en route transition sector. It was found that electronic FPS was useful in the normal traffic load. Some possible improvements were identified in the heavy traffic load situations represented in the additional test.

Modelling of load interaction and overload effect on fatigue damage of steel bridges

This paper studies the effects of load sequence and interaction, and overloading effect on the fatigue damage of bridges on the basis of a non‐linear fatigue damage model. The model is derived from the theory of continuum damage mechanics for high‐cycle fatigue. Fatigue behaviour at two levels of constant stress range is first discussed in detail. The formulation for the effective fatigue strength of the predamaged members is then derived, and the results predicted by the model are compared with the experimental data for two stress level tests and other results obtained from linear and double linear fatigue damage models. The variation of cycle ratio and fatigue life due to overloading is secondly investigated; the equations for evaluating the effect of overloading on fatigue damage accumulation on bridges at normal traffic loading are then derived. It has been demonstrated that the developed model can well describe the effect of load sequence and interaction and has also been verified by comparing the predicted results obtained by the model with the experimental data based on two levels of stress tests. The effect of accidental overloading on the fatigue damage of existing bridges can also be evaluated using the model. The model is applied to evaluate the fatigue damage and service life of the Tsing Ma Bridge, an essential portion of the transport network for the Hong Kong airport, under normal traffic loading and possible accidental overloading.

Behavior of RC Bridge Decks with Flexible Girders

The current design practice for concrete bridge decks requires a top mat and a bottom mat of reinforcing bars. The chloride attack of the top mat of reinforcing bars is a major cause of deterioration of bridge decks. Empirical evidence has indicated that the top transverse reinforcing bars can essentially be eliminated without jeopardizing the structural integrity of a deck. To explore this issue, the behavior of a four-span highway bridge deck subjected to a test truck and normal traffic loads is being investigated. The behavior of the bridge deck under the test truck and various combinations of truck loads has been analyzed with the finite-element method. These results confirm the fact that a properly designed bridge deck does not require top transverse reinforcement for sustaining the negative bending moment induced by traffic loads.

A framework for adaptive routing in multicomputer networks

Message-passing concurrent computers, also known as multicomputers, such as the Caltech Cosmic Cube [47] and its commercial descendents, consist of many computing nodes that interact with each other by sending and receiving messages over communication channels between the nodes. The communication networks of the second-generation machines, such as the Symult Series 2010 and the Intel iPSC2 [2], employ an oblivious wormhole-routing technique that guarantees deadlock freedom. The network performance of this highly evolved oblivious technique has reached a limit of being capable of delivering, under random traffic, a stable maximum sustained throughput of ~~45 to 50% of the limit set by the network bisection bandwidth, while maintaining acceptable network latency. This thesis examines the possibility of performing adaptive routing as an approach to further improving upon the performance and reliability of these networks. In an adaptive multipath routing scheme, message trajectories are no longer deterministic, but are continuously perturbed by local message loading. Message packets will tend to follow their shortest-distance routes to destinations in normal traffic loading, but can be detoured to longer but less-loaded routes as local congestion occurs. A simple adaptive cut-through packet-switching framework is described, and a number of fundamental issues concerning the theoretical feasibility of the adaptive approach are studied. Freedom of communication deadlock is achieved by following a coherent channel protocol and by applying voluntary misrouting as needed. Packet deliveries are assured by resolving channel-access conflicts according to a priority assignment. Fairness of network access is assured either by sending round-trip packets or by having each node follow a local injection-synchronization protocol. The performance behavior of the proposed adaptive cut-through framework is studied with stochastic modeling and analysis, as well as through extensive simulation experiments for the 2D and 3D rectilinear networks. Theoretical bounds on various average network-performance metrics are derived for these rectilinear networks. These bounds provide a standard frame of reference for interpreting the performance results. In addition to the potential gain in network performance, the adaptive approach offers the potential for exploiting the inherent path redundancy found in richly connected networks in order to perform fault-tolerant routing. Two convexity-related notions are introduced to characterize the conditions under which our adaptive routing formulation is adequate to provide fault-tolerant routing, with minimal change in routing hardware, The effectiveness of these notions is studied through extensive simulations, The 2D octagonal-mesh network is suggested; this displays excellent fault-tolerant potential under the adaptive routing framework. Both performance and reliability behaviors of the octagonal mesh are studied in detail. A number of

Flow Control in Local-Area Networks of Interconnected Token Rings

We investigate flow-control issues in local-area networks consisting of multiple token rings interconnected through bridges. To achieve high throughput, bridges perform only a very simple routing and store-and-forward function, but are not involved in error- or flowcontrol. In case of congestion, bridges discard arriving frames, which will be recovered through an appropriate end-to-end protocol between the communicating stations. The end-to-end protocol considered is the IEEE 802.2 type-2 logical-link-control (LLC) protocol. Extensive simulations show that performance can be severely degraded if, in such a network, the LLC protocol is employed as defined today. Therefore, we suggest an enhancement to this protocol in the form of a dynamic flow-control algorithm. As our results demonstrate, this enhancement guarantees close-to-optimal network performance under both normal traffic load and overload conditions.