Sight distance red zones on combined horizontal and sag vertical curves

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser Hassan ◽  
Said M Easa

Coordination of highway horizontal and vertical alignments is based on subjective guidelines in current standards. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of coordinating horizontal and sag vertical curves that are designed using two-dimensional standards. The locations where a horizontal curve should not be positioned relative to a sag vertical curve (called red zones) are identified. In the red zone, the available sight distance (computed using three-dimensional models) is less than the required sight distance. Two types of red zones, based on stopping sight distance (SSD) and preview sight distance (PVSD), are examined. The SSD red zone corresponds to the locations where an overlap between a horizontal curve and a sag vertical curve should be avoided because the three-dimensional sight distance will be less than the required SSD. The PVSD red zone corresponds to the locations where a horizontal curve should not start because drivers will not be able to perceive it and safely react to it. The SSD red zones exist for practical highway alignment parameters, and therefore designers should check the alignments for potential SSD red zones. The range of SSD red zones was found to depend on the different alignment parameters, especially the superelevation rate. On the other hand, the results showed that the PVSD red zones exist only for large values of the required PVSD, and therefore this type of red zones is not critical. This paper should be of particular interest to the highway designers and professionals concerned with highway safety.Key words: sight distance, red zone, combined alignment.

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ihab F. Z. Fanous ◽  
Maher Y. A. Younan ◽  
Abdalla S. Wifi

The structure in which the welding process is performed highly affects the residual stresses generated in the welding. This effect is simulated by choosing the appropriate boundary conditions in modeling the welding process. The major parameters of the boundary conditions are the method by which the base metal is being fixed and the amount of heat being applied through the torch. Other parameters may include the coefficients of thermal heat loss from the plate which may simulate the media in which the welding is taking place. In modeling the welding process, two-dimensional forms of approximation were developed in analyzing most of the models of such problem. Three-dimensional models analyzing the welding process were developed in limited applications due to its high computation time and cost. With the development of new finite element tools, namely the element movement technique developed by the authors, full three-dimensional analysis of the welding process is becoming in hand. In the present work, three different boundary conditions shall be modeled comparing their effect on the welding. These boundary conditions shall be applied to two models of the welding process: one using the element birth technique and the other using the element movement technique showing the similarity in their responses verifying the effectiveness of the latter being accomplished in a shorter time.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Sarhan ◽  
Yasser Hassan

The potential usefulness of reliability analysis has recently been stressed in many engineering applications. Given the variability in the design parameters, a reliability-based probabilistic approach is well suited to replace the current deterministic highway design practice. However, progress in this regard is generally slow. In this study, the reliability analysis was used to estimate the probability of hazard (POH) that might result from insufficiency of sight distances. As an application, the available sight distance was checked against required stopping sight distance on an assumed road segment. Variation of the design parameters was addressed with Monte Carlo simulation using 100,000 sets of design parameters based on distributions available in the literature. A computer program was developed to use these sets of design parameters to calculate the profiles of available and required stopping sight distances in two- and three-dimensional projections as well as the profile of POH. The approach was applied to a horizontal curve overlapping with flat grade, crest curves, and sag curves in a cut section where the side slope would restrict the sightline. The analysis showed that the current deterministic approach yields very conservative estimates of available and required stopping sight distance, resulting in very low POH. The application example also showed the change of POH with the change of vertical alignment parameters.


Author(s):  
J.L. Carrascosa ◽  
G. Abella ◽  
S. Marco ◽  
M. Muyal ◽  
J.M. Carazo

Chaperonins are a class of proteins characterized by their role as morphogenetic factors. They trantsiently interact with the structural components of certain biological aggregates (viruses, enzymes etc), promoting their correct folding, assembly and, eventually transport. The groEL factor from E. coli is a conspicuous member of the chaperonins, as it promotes the assembly and morphogenesis of bacterial oligomers and/viral structures.We have studied groEL-like factors from two different bacteria:E. coli and B.subtilis. These factors share common morphological features , showing two different views: one is 6-fold, while the other shows 7 morphological units. There is also a correlation between the presence of a dominant 6-fold view and the fact of both bacteria been grown at low temperature (32°C), while the 7-fold is the main view at higher temperatures (42°C). As the two-dimensional projections of groEL were difficult to interprete, we studied their three-dimensional reconstruction by the random conical tilt series method from negatively stained particles.


Author(s):  
Olivier Ozenda ◽  
Epifanio G. Virga

AbstractThe Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis expresses a kinematic constraint that is assumed to be valid for the deformations of a three-dimensional body when one of its dimensions is much smaller than the other two, as is the case for plates. This hypothesis has a long history checkered with the vicissitudes of life: even its paternity has been questioned, and recent rigorous dimension-reduction tools (based on standard $\varGamma $ Γ -convergence) have proven to be incompatible with it. We find that an appropriately revised version of the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis is a valuable means to derive a two-dimensional variational model for elastic plates from a three-dimensional nonlinear free-energy functional. The bending energies thus obtained for a number of materials also show to contain measures of stretching of the plate’s mid surface (alongside the expected measures of bending). The incompatibility with standard $\varGamma $ Γ -convergence also appears to be removed in the cases where contact with that method and ours can be made.


1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Hammack ◽  
Frederic Raichlen

A linear theory is presented for waves generated by an arbitrary bed deformation {in space and time) for a two-dimensional and a three -dimensional fluid domain of uniform depth. The resulting wave profile near the source is computed for both the two and three-dimensional models for a specific class of bed deformations; experimental results are presented for the two-dimensional model. The growth of nonlinear effects during wave propagation in an ocean of uniform depth and the corresponding limitations of the linear theory are investigated. A strategy is presented for determining wave behavior at large distances from the source where linear and nonlinear effects are of equal magnitude. The strategy is based on a matching technique which employs the linear theory in its region of applicability and an equation similar to that of Korteweg and deVries (KdV) in the region where nonlinearities are equal in magnitude to frequency dispersion. Comparison of the theoretical computations with the experimental results indicates that an equation of the KdV type is the proper model of wave behavior at large distances from the source region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 2157-2174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Menelaou ◽  
M. K. Yau ◽  
Tsz-Kin Lai

Abstract It is known that concentric eyewalls can influence tropical cyclone (TC) intensity. However, they can also influence TC track. Observations indicate that TCs with concentric eyewalls are often accompanied by wobbling of the inner eyewall, a motion that gives rise to cycloidal tracks. Currently, there is no general consensus of what might constitute the dominant triggering mechanism of these wobbles. In this paper we revisit the fundamentals. The control case constitutes a TC with symmetric concentric eyewalls embedded in a quiescent environment. Two sets of experiments are conducted: one using a two-dimensional nondivergent nonlinear model and the other using a three-dimensional nonlinear model. It is found that when the system is two-dimensional, no wobbling of the inner eyewall is triggered. On the other hand, when the third dimension is introduced, an amplifying wobble is evident. This result contradicts the previous suggestion that wobbles occur only in asymmetric concentric eyewalls. It also contradicts the suggestion that environmental wind shear can be the main trigger. Examination of the dynamics along with complementary linear eigenmode analysis revealed the triggering mechanism to be the excitation of a three-dimensional exponentially growing azimuthal wavenumber-1 instability. This instability is induced by the coupling of two baroclinic vortex Rossby waves across the moat region. Additional sensitivity analyses involving reasonable modifications to vortex shape parameters, perturbation vertical length scale, and Rossby number reveal that this instability can be systematically the most excited. The growth rates are shown to peak for perturbations characterized by realistic vertical length scales, suggesting that this mechanism can be potentially relevant to actual TCs.


1976 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 345-351
Author(s):  
S. I. Vainshtein

It is well know that the ‘dynamo’ theory has a number of vetoes; e.g. axisymmetric, two-dimensional, central-symmetric, etc. dynamo are impossible. In principle, the problem is essentially three-dimensional in any coordinate system. This is the main difficulty of both the theory itself and its possible applications. In fact, one prefers to believe that, for example, a non-rigid body-rotating star or convection in the Earth's nucleus possesses axis symmetry. However, due to the above vetoes one has to add finer effects (Coriolis strength, density, inhomogeneity) to create asymmetrical convection. On the other hand, the authors try to find the most simple movements with minimum deviations from axial symmetry. Thus, the Herzenberg's dynamo (Herzenberg, 1958) is realized by two rotating cylinders, axes of which are parallel to each other (see also Galaitis, 1973; Galaitis and Freinberg, 1974), the Lortz's dynamo-spiral movement (Lortz, 1968; Ponomarenko, 1973). Nevertheless, the mentioned vetoes possess a common feature, the assumption regarding the symmetry extends both to the movement and to the field. Hence, it makes sense to raise a question whether symmetric movements are able to generate an asymmetric field. A positive answer to this question, in particular, is given by Tverskoy's model (Tverskoy, 1966) – the toroidal vortex. The latter possesses axial symmetry. Nevertheless, the toroidal vortex is a complex motion; we will proceed along the path of a minimum simplification.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 7118
Author(s):  
Yonghong Yang ◽  
Jiecong Wang ◽  
Yuanbo Xia ◽  
Lan Huang

Sight distance is an important indicator to ensure the safety of drivers, and is also an indispensable evaluation basis in highway safety engineering. In mountainous highways, high slopes and small radius often lead to poor visibility and traffic accidents. Through the combined calculation of horizontal and vertical sections, this paper comprehensively considers the specific sizes of roadside clearance, high slope, as well as the position and height of the driver’s view point and other factors, and it analyzes the limited visibility of the driver in the process of driving right turn. An effective and simplified calculation method based on design data for three dimensional (3D) stopping sight distance (S.S.D.) in high fill sections is proposed. Finally, the S.S.D. inspection of the actual highway, based on design speed and operating speed, is carried out, and the sight distance of the calculated point is judged by comparing the value with the normal value and the calculation result of the horizontal sightline offset. The results show that the method proposed in this paper is consistent with the sight distance results obtained by the horizontal sightline offset method, which indicates the calculation method is accurate and provides a technical reference for S.S.D. evaluation in highway safety engineering.


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