automotive engineering

Determinants of sustainable mode choice in different socio-cultural contexts: A comparison of Rome and San Francisco

This paper is a part two of a study investigating the relative importance of the built environment, sociodemographic,
and attitudinal factors on mode choice. A semi-experimental approach that aims to
measure causal effects of the built environment is utilized. This paper reports spatial analysis, survey and
modeling results for San Francisco, CA, USA and compares the results with a previous similar study in
Rome, Italy. Results reveal that the local street network’s integration is important in both cities and that in

Techno-economic sizing of auxiliary-battery-based substations in DC railway systems

Auxiliary-battery-based substations (ABSs) can enhance conventional railway feeder systems. In particular, ABSs make dc feeders located in areas far from the ac grid able to power high-performance passenger and freight trains and store their braking energy. This paper proposes a techno-economic method to define size, position along the track, and control parameters of an ABS, with the goal to minimize the annual cost of energy. Our approach takes into account the replacements of battery modules within the ABS's expected lifetime in order to reduce costs.

Monitoring systems for pipeline safety based on FBG sensors

Events like earthquakes, landslides, tsunami and other important occurrences, related to human activities could affect heavily the security of the pipeline constructions. Pipeline used for transportation of gas, petroleum and other hydrocarbons could become dangerous for three main problems that can occur during the operation process:1-Explosions related to malfunction of the system itself; 2-defects of the utilized material; 3-Robbery and sabotage operations.

Present and future operation of rail freight terminals

Rail freight has not progressed coherently to economy: during the last century, the wagonload was the core business of railways, later declining in favor of combined transport, which include the notion of transshipment in an intermediate terminal. Terminals are a key element of transport services and, in this study, the main goal are methods suitable to evaluate the performances of different types of rail freight terminals: Rail to road for long distance and shorter range units transfer, Rail to rail for shunting and/or gauge interchange, Rail to waterways (sea and inland).

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