Toward harmonizing prospective effectiveness assessment for road safety: Comparing tools in standard test case simulations

Abstract

Objective: With the overall goal to harmonize prospective effectiveness assessment of active safety systems, the specific objective of this study is to identify and evaluate sources of variation in virtual precrash simulations and to suggest topics for harmonization resulting in increased comparability and thus trustworthiness of virtual simulation-based prospective effectiveness assessment.

Methods: A round-robin assessment of the effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems was performed using an array of state-of-the-art virtual simulation tools on a set of standard test cases. The results were analyzed to examine reasons for deviations in order to identify and assess aspects that need to be harmonized and standardized. Deviations between results calculated by independent engineering teams using their own tools should be minimized if the research question is precisely formulated regarding input data, models, and postprocessing steps.

Results: Two groups of sources of variations were identified; one group (mostly related to the implementation of the system under test) can be eliminated by using a more accurately formulated research question, whereas the other group highlights further harmonization needs because it addresses specific differences in simulation tool setups. Time-to-collision calculations, vehicle dynamics, especially braking behavior, and hit-point position specification were found to be the main sources of variation.

Conclusions: The study identified variations that can arise from the use of different simulation setups in assessment of the effectiveness of active safety systems. The research presented is a first of its kind and provides significant input to the overall goal of harmonization by identifying specific items for standardization. Future activities aim at further specification of methods for prospective assessments of the effectiveness of active safety, which will enhance comparability and trustworthiness in this kind of studies and thus contribute to increased traffic safety.     

Spatial cost efficiency in waste paper handling: the case of corrugated board in Sweden

This paper analyzes the spatial cost efficiency of the Swedish legislation regarding waste disposal handling. We focus on the case of corrugated board and recognize that the different counties in Sweden possess different economic prerequisites in terms of waste paper recovery and utilization potential. We employ data for six corrugated board mills and 20 counties and a non-linear programming model to identify the least cost strategy for reaching the politically specified recycling target of a 65% recovery rate for corrugated board. That is, the total costs of recovering a minimum of 65% in each county are calculated and compared with the case when the country as a whole recovers 65% of all old corrugated board is collected but there exist no uniform target for each county. The conclusion is that from an efficiency point of view the recovery efforts should be concentrated to the highly populated and urbanized counties, and not be uniformly divided throughout the country. In the base case, the results suggest that the cost efficient county-specific recovery rates should range from 51 to 72%.     

Assessing protected area effectiveness using surrounding (buffer) areas environmentally similar to the target area

Many studies are based on the assumption that an area and its surrounding (buffer) area present similar environmental conditions and can be compared. For example, in order to assess the effectiveness of a protected area, the land use/cover changes are compared inside the park with its surroundings. However, the heterogeneity in spatial variables can bias this assessment: we have shown that most of the protected areas in Mexico present significant environmental differences between their interior and their surroundings. Therefore, a comparison that aims at assessing the effectiveness of conservation strategies, must be cautioned. In this paper, a simple method which allows the generation of a buffer area that presents similar conditions with respect to a set of environmental variables is presented. The method was used in order to assess the effectiveness of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, a protected area located in the south-eastern part of Mexico. The annual rate of deforestation inside the protected area, the standard buffer area (based upon distance from the protected area only) and the similar buffer area (taking into account distance along with some environmental variables) were 0.3, 1.3 and 0.6%, respectively. These results showed that the protected area was effective in preventing land clearing, but that the comparison with the standard buffer area gave an over-optimistic vision of its effectiveness.     

海水电磁屏蔽体

目的将海水作为一种电磁屏蔽材料,研究其电磁屏蔽效能以及影响因素。方法基于海水和玻璃的电磁特性参数,并利用电场和磁场切向分量连续边界条件,推导由双层玻璃封装海水所构成的复合电磁屏蔽体结构的屏蔽效能计算公式。结果具有一定厚度和盐度的海水墙体可以展示出良好的电磁屏蔽效能。通过增加海水层的厚度,提高海水的盐度以及温度,均可以有效增强海水电磁屏蔽体的屏蔽效能。改变封装海水的玻璃层厚度,对海水电磁屏蔽体的屏蔽效能影响较小。结论海水可以作为一种有效的电磁屏蔽材料,并具有光波透明、电磁屏蔽效能易重构、可循环导热等独特的优势。在军事和民用领域,海水电磁屏蔽体将具有重要的理论和应用价值。     

石油野外施工作业OSH、HSE管理

长庆钻井野外施工作业队伍依据OSH，HSE管理体系的基本要求和国际通用做法，吸取与壳牌公司在长北区块的合作经验。学习国际上杜邦，阿莫科等石油公司的HSE合作案卷，翻阅了苏丹中国项目组HSE例卷，结合长庆钻井的实际情况。在野外施工作业队伍实施OSH，HSE管理，创新了17项管理技术。提升了作业队伍现场管理水平，步入与国际惯例接轨的行列，提高了经济效益。     

复杂工业系统中班组人因失误分析

在复杂工业系统中 ,人因可靠性分析 (HRA)是预防和减少人因失误的有效方法。人在复杂工业系统中的生产活动 ,往往是由组织中班组成员集体完成的 ,完整的HRA必须充分考虑班组人误的产生。班组人误的产生有其自身的规律 ,如何合理地定义人员行为形成因子 (PSFs)是班组人因失误分析的难点 ,也是班组人因失误分析的重要手段 ,被广泛应用在核电厂 ,航空和造船工业领域的事故分析中。笔者详细分析和探讨了班组人因失误的定义、产生过程及相关的人的行为形成因子 ,以期能使大规模工业系统中的人因失误分析更加合理和完善。     

长江大保护试点城市水环境治理模式及成效

长江流域城市水环境治理取得阶段成果,全面评估其治理成效,总结城市水环境治理经验至关重要。以长江大保护4个试点城市水环境提质增效工程PPP项目为研究对象,评估城市水环境治理成效。结果表明：管网工程中,各试点城市生活污水集中收集率达标,污水厂进厂生活污水化学需氧量 (COD) 达标率75%,九江和岳阳老旧小区改造后污水收集率为100%,改造后出口管网污水COD明显提升;污水处理工程中,试点城市污水厂处理率均达标,平均水力负荷达标率46.2%,平均COD负荷达标率30.8%,出水达标排放,九江白水湖、芳兰污水厂处理单位污水电耗较高;污泥处理处置工程中,各厂污泥含水率满足合同要求,处理吨水及单位污水COD去除的污泥产生量均较高;生态环境改善方面,试点城市水环境治理工程大幅削减污染物负荷,但工程影响范围内地表水质均未达标,超标因子为氨氮、总氮、总磷和COD;工程范围内黑臭水体治理达到合同要求,宜昌生态化岸线比例提高38.9%;社会文化贡献方面,试点城市水环境治理工程建设取得较好的社会贡献。评估结果对完善水环境治理项目,促进长江流域经济社会可持续发展有着重要意义。     

防烟空气幕防烟有效性模拟实验研究

利用火灾模拟软件FDS,以四川消防研究所高层实验塔二层为原型建立模型,对防烟空气幕的防烟有效性进行研究。本次实验在前室内设置测点,测定前室内的温度及CO浓度。实验结果表明:在未设置防烟空气幕时,前室内1.25m高度以上的测点温度稳定后均在35～45℃之间,CO浓度最大达到180ppm;在设置风幕后,前室内1.25m高度以上的测点温度稳定后在20～30℃之间,CO浓度最大为75.7ppm。因此,防烟空气幕能有效的减少烟气的进入量,降低进入前室的烟气的温度及有害气体浓度,为人员的安全疏散赢得时间。     

二茂铁灭火实验平台研制与灭火有效性研究

虽然二茂铁作为新型的灭火剂已经受到很多学者的关注,且进行了大量的研究工作,但还没有二茂铁时于液相或固相燃烧的火焰的作用方面的相关研究.为此,建造了小尺寸的二茂铁灭火实验平台,用于二茂铁对液体火焰抑制作用的研究.该实验台可以测试二茂铁灭火过程中火焰的温度、烟气的成分和燃料的质量等参数的变化.本文对该实验台的装置的设计进行了详细的介绍,并列出了实验中的部分数据,实验数据表明,二茂铁在实验设计的工况下可以有效地熄灭酒精火.