Estimation of disaggregate mode choice models to estimate the ridership share on a proposed new (or improved) intercity travel service and to identify the modes from which existing intercity travelers will be diverted to the new or upgraded service constitutes a critical part of evaluating alternative travel service proposals to alleviate intercity travel congestion. This paper develops a new h...

The creep of reticulated metallic foams is studied through the finite element method using three-dimensional, periodic unit cells with four different architectures characterized by struts which deform primarily by: (i) simple bending, (ii) compression, (iii) a combination of simple bending and compression and (iv) double bending (for Kelvin space-filling tetrakaidecahedra). The creep behavior o...

The identification of infrastructure critical to regional rail freight operations has many implications. Primarily, such a process informs policy-makers and directs funding to areas of high importance and/or greatest need. For the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), analysts at Cambridge Systematics developed an infrastructure identification process designed to evaluate which key a...

the ability to perform rolling contact fatigue (rcf) experiments in wheel–rail material is provided by a new small–scale test rig, manifesting the actual dynamic behaviour of the railway system. in this paper, a multi-body dynamics (mbd) model is proposed, simulating the vibration behaviour of the prescribed rig. the new testing facility is modelled using a three-dimensional model of the vehicl...

We develop a model to determine the optimal structure and size of a rail car fleet at a chemical company under uncertainty in demand and travel times as well as substitution between rail car types. First, we formulate an MILP model that accounts for the substitution relations between the types and minimizes the total direct rail car cost under given rail car availability constraints and a prede...

In this dissertation, we have developed computer vision methods for measurement of rail gauge, and reliable identification and localization of structural defects in railroad tracks. The rail gauge is the distance between the innermost sides of the two parallel steel rails. We have developed two methods for evaluation of rail gauge. These methods were designed for different hardware setups: the ...

Human-wildlife conflict is a leading cause of adult mortality for large carnivores worldwide. Train collision is the primary cause of mortality for threatened grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff National Park. We investigated the use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for identifying bears that use the railway in Banff. Rail-associated bears had higher δ(15)N and δ(34)S values than bears sa...

The Dripping Handrail Model (DHR) is a discrete dynamical system used to model a binary star system in which matter accretes off of one star onto the other. With this model, we study the behavior of the matter as it collects in a ring around the star, called an accretion disc, builds up, and eventually drips onto the surface of the star. Considering the accretion disc as both a one dimensional ...