Origin of synchronized traffic flow on highways and its dynamic phase transitions

We study the traffic flow on a highway with ramps through numerical simulations of a hydrodynamic traffic flow model. It is found that the presence of the external vehicle flux through ramps generates a new state of recurring humps (RH). This novel dynamic state is characterized by temporal oscillations of the vehicle density and velocity which are localized near ramps, and found to be the origin of the synchronized traffic flow reported recently [PRL 79, 4030 (1997)]. We also argue that the dynamic phase transitions between the free flow and the RH state can be interpreted as a subcritical Hopf bifurcation.Comment: 4 pages, source TeX file and 4 figures are tarred and compressed via uufile

Automatic collision avoidance of ships

One of the key elements in automatic simulation of ship manoeuvring in confined waterways is route finding and collision avoidance. This paper presents a new practical method of automatic trajectory planning and collision avoidance based on an artificial potential field and speed vector. Collision prevention regulations and international navigational rules have been incorporated into the algorithm. The algorithm is fairly straightforward and simple to implement, but has been shown to be effective in finding safe paths for all ships concerned in complex situations. The method has been applied to some typical test cases and the results are very encouraging

Duality relation for frustrated spin models

We consider discrete spin models on arbitrary planar graphs and lattices with frustrated interactions. We first analyze the Ising model with frustrated plaquettes. We use an algebraic approach to derive the result that an Ising model with some of its plaquettes frustrated has a dual which is an Ising model with an external field $i\pi/2$ applied to the dual sites centered at frustrated plaquettes. In the case that all plaquettes are frustrated, this leads to the known result that the dual model has a uniform field $i\pi/2$ whose partition function can be evaluated in the thermodynamic limit for regular lattices. The analysis is extended to a Potts spin glass with analogous results obtained.Comment: Several relevant references are added. Comments on their relation to this work are also adde

The NSNS High Energy Beam Transport Line

In the National Spallation Neutron Source (NSNS) design, a 180 meter long transport line connects the 1 GeV linac to an accumulator ring. The linac beam has a current of 28 mA, pulse length of 1 ms, and 60 Hz rep rate. The high energy transport line consists of sixteen 60 degrees FODO cells, and accommodates a 90 degrees achromatic bend, an energy compressor, collimators, part of injection system, and enough diagnostic devices to measure the beam quality before injection. To reduce the uncontrolled beam losses, this line has nine beam halo scrapers and very tight tolerances on both transverse and longitudinal beam dynamics under space charge conditions. The design of this line is presented.Comment: 3 pages, transfer line desig

Integrated Educational Project of Theoretical, Experimental, and Computational Analyses

This research demonstrates how to design an integrated capstone project by including theoretical, experimental and computational analyses of a truss bridge. The project mainly focused on leading students to approach engineering problems with various methods and to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each method. The students applied three methods to acquire the values of stresses and deflections of members in the given truss bridge. First, they calculated the stresses and deformations theoretically. Second, they actually conducted an experiment of the truss bridge with electronic measuring equipment. Lastly, they built two simulation models with Autodesk Inventor and Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks. From the comparisons of above three methods, students were guided to the validation of assumptions of theories.Cockrell School of Engineerin