Swap Bodies Research Articles

Framework to benchmark sustainability of biomethane supply chains: Facilitating sustainability decision making in adopting biomethane as a public transportation fuel in Western Europe

ABSTRACTThis article presents a framework from a systems’ perspective to benchmark biomethane supply chains consisting of biogas upgrading, biomethane distribution, and refilling in the context of Western Europe.Compressed biomethane is already widely adopted as a vehicle fuel, whereas liquefied biomethane is also a vialble alternative. Distribution in gas grids is a feasible option only in short distances and large scale, whereas trucks with composite swap bodies is the preferable alternative otherwise. As a whole, liquefied biomethane supply chains manifests better attributes from both climate and cost perspectives, whereas compressed biomethane supply chains imply better energy intensity.

A general variable neighborhood search for the swap-body vehicle routing problem

The Swap-Body Vehicle Routing Problem, a generalization of the well known Vehicle Routing Problem, can be stated as follows: the vehicle fleet consisting of trucks, semi-trailers, and swap bodies, is available at a single depot to serve a given set of customers. To serve a subset of customers, one may use either a truck carrying one swap body or a train (a truck with a semi-trailer attached to it) carrying two swap bodies. In both cases, a vehicle (a truck or a train) must perform a route starting and ending at the depot, so to satisfy demands of visited customers, maximal allowed route duration, allowed load on the used vehicle, and accessibility constraint of each customer. The accessibility constraint indicates whether a customer is allowed to be visited by a train or not. In addition, a set of swap locations is given where semi-trailers and swap bodies may be parked or swapped. The goal of the Swap-Body Vehicle Routing Problem is to minimize the total costs consisting of the fixed costs for using vehicles and costs for performing routes. In this paper, we propose two general variable neighborhood search heuristics to solve this problem. The quality of the proposed methods is evaluated on the instances provided by the organizers of VeRolog Solver Challenge 2014.

Multi-agent Simulation of SWAP BODIES application in manufacturing supply chain

This paper introduces a systematic approach to the Multi-agent simulation Supply Chain Dynamics organization and management of motor vehicle traffic on a long distance in the case of swap body. Ways of solving the problem of technological interaction between the participants of the combined road transport logistics are offered in the form of a distributed product transportation technology, built on the basis of experience with the use of operational management.

Design of a Multi-agent System to Manage Relay Intercity Freighting

The paper presents a multi-agent system design technique and algorithms for relay intercity freighting within a geographical cluster using swap body trucks. The efficiency of the technique proposed is understood as the stability of a compound dynamic system. An approach to system’s stability margin prediction based on associative search and wavelet analysis is offered.

Can you tickle yourself if you swap bodies with someone else?

The effect of the body transfer illusion on the perceived strength of self- and externally-generated "tickle" sensations was investigated. As expected, externally generated movement produced significantly higher ratings of tickliness than those associated with self-generated movements. Surprisingly, the body transfer illusion had no influence on the ratings of tickliness, suggesting that highly surprising, and therefore hard to predict, experiences of body image and first-person perspective do not abolish the attenuation of tickle sensations. In addition, evidence was found that a version of the rubber hand illusion exists within the body transfer illusion. We situate our findings within the larger debate over sensory attenuation: (1) there is an attenuation of prediction errors that depends upon the context in which sensory input is predicted (i.e., efference copy), and (2) sensory attenuation is a necessary consequence of self-generated movement irrespective of context (i.e., active inference). The results support the notion of active inference.

Identification causes of cracking on the underframe of wagon for containers transportation – Fatigue strength assessment of wagon welded joints

This paper describes a methodology used to identify causes of cracking nearby the welded joint on the underframe of wagon type Sgmns for the transportation of containers and swap bodies. Because of complex mounting, bending and welding technology of underframe bottom part, it was not possible to solve this problem with a commercial software. The aim of this analysis is to identify and register the residual stresses that appear after the process of mounting of the underframe bottom part. According to the TSI standard and norm EN 12663:2000, the fatigue strength analysis of Sgmns wagon for containers transportation was done. The analysis was done to discover kind of loads which induce cracks in the welded joints. The obtained results for the case of maximum vertical load were shown. The analysis of obtained results identified that cause of cracking on the bottom part of underframe of wagon type Sgmns is fatigue.

Freight transportation in railway networks with automated terminals: A mathematical model and MIP heuristic approaches

In this paper we propose a planning procedure for serving freight transportation requests in a railway network with fast transfer equipment at terminals. We consider a transportation system where different customers make their requests (orders) for moving boxes, i.e., either containers or swap bodies, between different origins and destinations, with specific requirements on delivery times. The decisions to be taken concern the route (and the corresponding sequence of trains) that each box follows in the network and the assignment of boxes to train wagons, taking into account that boxes can change more than one train and that train timetables are fixed. The planning procedure includes a pre-analysis step to determine all the possible sequences of trains for serving each order, followed by the solution of a 0–1 linear programming problem to find the optimal assignment of each box to a train sequence and to a specific wagon for each train in the sequence. This latter is a generalized assignment problem which is NP-hard. Hence, in order to find good solutions in acceptable computation times, two MIP heuristic approaches are proposed and tested through an experimental analysis considering realistic problem instances.

ALLOTMENT BOOKING IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

The article presents a valuable concept seeking to solve the problem of demand uncertainty in intermodal transport. Regular traffic is quite important for moving containers, trailers and swap bodies. To keep regularity with uncertain demand means to have backlogs or empty space. Both of them are inefficient from an economical point of view. In practice, a day‐by‐day demand forecast is meaningful only for the next two or three days. This poses serious allotment management problems to freight forwarders and shippers since long‐term contract allotments need to be planned many months ahead. The article presents a stochastic dynamic programming model for a short‐term allotment planning a model that would be very valuable for implementing intermodal solutions. The presented model evaluates optimal cost policy based on the economic trade‐off between the cost of backlogged shipment and the cost of acquiring additional allotment.

Neuroscience: In their minds, volunteers swap bodies with woman, mannequin: Illusion could help scientists study self‐identity, body image

Neuroscience: In their minds, volunteers swap bodies with woman, mannequin: Illusion could help scientists study self‐identity, body image

Intermodal Rail Freight in Britain: A Terminal Problem?

Rail has increased its share of the British freight market in the past decade. One particular growth market has been intermodal traffic, where consignments are carried in unit loads (i.e. containers and swap bodies): these accounted for one-fifth of rail freight volumes in 2006/07. In this paper, the key trends are identified, considering both port and domestic services. A critical component of the rail system in allowing further development is the availability and capability of rail terminals. An analysis of terminal provision has been conducted, examining the relationship between the development of intermodal terminals and service provision, and identifying the key challenges for the future.

Analytical Models For Ro-Ro And Lo-Lo Terminals In A Multipurpose Port

Freight transport plays an important role in the transport system, insofar as it is a fundamental element for the economic development of an area and a country in general. In Italy over 80’%of freight travels by road, despite the country’s 7400km coastline which is particularly suited to short-sea shipping. The ports are organized as freight interchange centres: they are equipped to integrate with road transport for the initial and final links, and use sea and rail routes for long distances. The elements that form an integrated freight transport system, whether it be multimodal (fkeight transfer by two or more transport systems), “complex” monomodal (freight transfer that uses only one mode of transport but with different vehicles) or intermodal (fi-eight transfer that uses more than one transport mode but using the same container) or combined defmited also piggyback transport (intermodal transport by means of container, swap body or semitrailer, and using road for final haulage, and rail or sea for the intermediate leg), can be aggregated into three categories: Loading Unit (UL); Movement Units (UM); Transportation Units (UT). The freight transport systems that use more than one mode have acquired greater importance as they lead to a total reduction in costs, One of the main hubs of the intermodal system is the port because of the modal change involved. It is thus necessary to have a supply model that allows, in the planning phase, cost and performance of the specific hub in the transport system to be estimated,