scholarly journals Tilting Trains Shorten Transit Time

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (06) ◽  
pp. 78-81
Author(s):  
Michael Valenti

This article explains the research work done to study and implement tilling trains. Tilting trains while negotiating curves reduce centrifugal force on passengers yet maintain fast speed on the ride. London-based Virgin Rail has signed one of the largest international railroad contracts ever for a fleet of tilting trains from Fiat Ferroviaria S.p.A. in Savigliano, Italy, to run on Great Britain's high-speed West Coast Main Line. Fiat engineers house the hydraulic or electromechanical actuators of the Pendolino trains in the bogies completely under the cars to preserve space in the passenger compartments. The latest generation of Pendolino train, the ETR 460, was introduced in 1993. This train carries up to 478 passengers at a top speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Each ETR 460 is made up of three traction units, each consisting of two motor cars and one trailer. The Washington State Department of Transportation uses Talgo pendular trains, to cut the travel times of passengers traveling in the Pacific Northwest.

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. T. Ranf ◽  
M. O. Eberhard ◽  
S. Malone

Bridge damage reports from the 2001 Nisqually earthquake were correlated with estimates of ground-motion intensity at each bridge site (obtained from ShakeMaps) and with bridge properties listed in the Washington State Bridge Inventory. Of the ground-motion parameters considered, the percentage of bridges damaged correlated best with the spectral acceleration at a period of 0.3 s. Bridges constructed before the 1940s, movable bridges, and older trusses were particularly vulnerable. These bridge types were underestimated by the HAZUS procedure, which categorizes movable bridges and older trusses as “other” bridges. An inspection prioritization strategy was developed that combines ShakeMaps, the bridge inventory and newly developed fragility curves. For the Nisqually earthquake, this prioritization strategy would have made it possible to identify 80% of the moderately damaged bridges by inspecting only 481 (14%) of the 3,407 bridges within the boundaries of the ShakeMap. To identify these bridges using a prioritization strategy based solely on epicentral distance, it would have been necessary to inspect 1,447 (42%) bridges. To help the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) rapidly identify damaged bridges, the prioritization procedure has been incorporated within the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) ground-motion processing and notification software.


Author(s):  
Ryan Howell ◽  
Stephen Muench ◽  
Milad Zokaei Ashtiani ◽  
James Feracor ◽  
Mark Russell ◽  
...  

Large data sets of Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) pavement construction and condition data are linked together and used to investigate an implemented change in in-place density to lower specification limit (LSL) from 91% to 92%. This serves as a test case for using such large in-service data sets to create analysis value for a state DOT. Findings include: (1) WSDOT field density has remained relatively steady at 93% for over 20 years; (2) raising the density LSL to 92% will likely result in more contractor effort to achieve higher densities; (3) no clear trend links density with better pavement condition; (4) raising the density LSL will likely result in fewer problematically low densities; and (5) there is no evidence of differing pavement performance based on asphalt content, gradation, or nominal maximum aggregate size.


2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina E. King ◽  
Nicholas J.G. Pearce ◽  
Helen M. Roberts ◽  
Victoria C. Smith ◽  
John A. Westgate ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Kulshan caldera formed at ∼1.15 Ma on the present-day site of Mt. Baker, Washington State, northwest USA and erupted a compositionally zoned (dacite-rhyolite) magma and a correlative eruptive, the Lake Tapps tephra. This tephra has previously been described, but only from the Puget Lowland of NW Washington. Here an occurrence of a Kulshan caldera correlative tephra is described from the Quaternary Palouse loess at the Washtucna site (WA-3). Site WA-3 is located in east-central Washington, ∼340 km southeast of the Kulshan caldera and ∼300 km east-southeast of the Lake Tapps occurrence in the Puget Lowland. Major- and trace element chemistry and location of the deposit at Washtucna within reversed polarity sediments indicates that it is not correlative with the Mesa Falls, Rockland, Bishop Ash, Lava Creek B or Huckleberry Ridge tephras. Instead the Washtucna deposit is related to the Lake Tapps tephra by fractional crystallisation, but is chemically distinct, a consequence of its eruption from a compositionally zoned magma chamber. The correlation of the Washtucna occurrence to the Kulshan caldera-forming eruption indicates that it had an eruptive volume exceeding 100 km3, and that its tephra could provide a valuable early-Pleistocene chronostratigraphic marker in the Pacific Northwest.


Author(s):  
Joe P. M ahoney ◽  
Linda M. Pierce

A review of transfer functions for mechanistic-empirical design procedures is addressed. Specific emphasis is placed on those transfer functions currently used by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and shift factors that relate estimates of laboratory to field fatigue cracking. To achieve this goal, brief discussions about how the WSDOT transfer functions were developed or chosen are presented. A comparison of WSDOT with South African transfer functions is presented. This comparison is of special interest because the South African transfer functions have been updated recently and are in part based on extensive accelerated pavement testing. Finally, mechanistic-empirical overlay designs have been performed by WSDOT for more than 10 years, and a selection of prior overlay projects is reviewed to examine fatigue cracking shift factors. Only projects exhibiting fatigue cracking or its early manifestation are used. The annual visual distress surveys contained in the WSDOT Pavement Management System make this review a bit easier because all pavement sections on the WSDOT route system have been systematically monitored for the preceding 26 years. The conclusion is that the laboratory-based tensile strain relationship currently used by WSDOT must be shifted to predict field fatigue cracking. Such shift factors appear to fall most commonly into a range between 4 and 10.


Author(s):  
Linda M. Pierce ◽  
Joe P. Mahoney

During the late 1980s, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the University of Washington, and the Washington State Transportation Center developed a mechanistic-empirical flexible overlay design procedure. Following development, WSDOT implemented this overlay design procedure and has been evaluating flexible overlay projects for approximately the past 8 years. WSDOT rehabilitates about 100 projects each year; approximately 20 to 30 percent of the total projects are designed using the WSDOT overlay design procedure and the AASHTO overlay design procedure (using DARWin). These two procedures are discussed in general, and two case studies illustrate each of the overlay design procedures. Also included is the backcalculation of layer moduli from falling weight deflectometer data.


2010 ◽  
Vol 102 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F. Hamlet ◽  
Se-Yeun Lee ◽  
Kristian E. B. Mickelson ◽  
Marketa M. Elsner

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Dean A. Glawe

Chive (Allium schoenoprasum L.) is one of the specialty crops grown by farmers in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. In September, 2002, downy mildew symptoms were observed in a 0.2 hectare field planting of chive near Fall City, King County, WA. Downy mildew had not been reported previously on chive in the Pacific Northwest. Accepted for publication 15 April 2003. Published 12 May 2003.


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