Papers Published

1. Wilson, James F. and Carrato, Peter J., DYNAMICALLY OPTIMAL GUIDEWAYS BASED ON MULTIPLE DISTRIBUTED PARAMETERS., Journal of Advanced Transportation, vol. 20 no. 3 (1986), pp. 203 - 221 .
   (last updated on 2007/04/09)

   Abstract:
   The present study is concerned with the effects on guideway performance of three distributed span parameters: support spacing, unitmass and bending stiffness. As in previous studies, the vehicle is simulated as a constant point load at constant speed along a multiply supported, horizontal, straight, elastic beam. The measure of span performance is phi , defined as a linear combination of four weighted, dimensionless span characteristics: the peak dynamic stress; the peak live load stress difference between span segments; the rms vertical deflection under the transit point load; and the total span mass. For a given range of the three distributed span parameters and a fixed vehicle speed parameter, a minimum phi is sought. A continuous, three span-configuration is chosen to illustrate the direct-search methodology for evaluating the relative performance of alternative designs. An analysis of the dynamics of the system is followed by its experimental validation.

   Keywords:
   RAPID TRANSIT;COMPUTER SIMULATION;DYNAMICS - Analysis;VEHICLES;BEAMS AND GIRDERS;