A comprehensive method for the elastic calculation of the two-point wheel-rail contact

This work shows the method developed to solve the wheel-rail contact problem via a look-up table with a three-dimensional elastic model. This method enables introduction of the two contact point effect on vehicle movement using three-dimensional analysis of surfaces including the influence of the angle of attack. This work presents several dynamic simulations and studies the impact that the introduction of the two contact points on three dimensions has on wear indexes and derailment risk against traditional bidimensional analysis. Furthermore, it studies advantages and disadvantages of using a look-up table against an on-line resolution of the problem.

Modelling rail corrugation with specific track parameters focusing on ballasted track and slab track

The objective of this paper is to compare 3 types of track (high performance ballasted track, STEDEF and AFTRAV) from the corrugation growth point of view. This work has considered different vehicle speeds and track radii, and the results have taken into account the four wheels of a bogie. These tracks have been studied using Finite Elements with Nastran-Patran and RACING, a tool developed in Matlab by the authors which estimates the corrugation growth tendency. The tracks are studied using the Finite Strip Method and the Periodic Structure Theory. Lateral and vertical receptances for track and vehicle have been obtained, as well as the corrugation growth functions. In the paper the tracks are ranked according to corrugation development.

Respuesta a la sequía de Pinus radiata D. Don y su implicación en los procesos de tolerancia

160 p. (Bibliogr. 141-160)

Torlojutze sekuentzien optimizazioa elementu finituen bidez Offshore aplikazioetan.

[EU]Gradu Amaierako Lan honetan offshore presiopeko hodien (gasa nahiz petrolioa garraiatzen duten hodien) brida bidezko loturetako torlojutze sekuentziak aztertuko dira. Aplikazio hauek suposatzen duten inbertsio ekonomikoa dela eta, ihesak ekiditeko asmoz, ezinbestekoa da brida hauek elkarri lotzeko dituzten torlojuen kargak uniformeki bananduta egotea torloju guztietan, interakzio elastikoak eta pibotamendu mugimenduak helburu hori zailtzen badute ere. Gaur egun torlojutze sekuentziak ASME-k araututa baldin baditu ere, ez dira batere erosoak, torloju guztiak ordena zehatz batean estutu behar direlako, eta estutze hauek ez direlako egoerarik erosoenetan egiten, denbora asko galduz. Horregatik, sinpletasuna lortzeko eta denbora eta dirua aurrezteko, torlojutze sekuentzia horiek optimizatzea izango da helburu nagusia. Aipaturiko lana aurrera eramateko, bi brida modeloren torlojutze analisiak egin beharko dira, berauek parametro batzuen menpe jarrita, estutze sekuentzietan duten eragina ikusi ahal izateko.

Community Turnover of Wood-Inhabiting Fungi across Hierarchical Spatial Scales

For efficient use of conservation resources it is important to determine how species diversity changes across spatial scales. In many poorly known species groups little is known about at which spatial scales the conservation efforts should be focused. Here we examined how the community turnover of wood-inhabiting fungi is realised at three hierarchical levels, and how much of community variation is explained by variation in resource composition and spatial proximity. The hierarchical study design consisted of management type (fixed factor), forest site (random factor, nested within management type) and study plots (randomly placed plots within each study site). To examine how species richness varied across the three hierarchical scales, randomized species accumulation curves and additive partitioning of species richness were applied. To analyse variation in wood-inhabiting species and dead wood composition at each scale, linear and Permanova modelling approaches were used. Wood-inhabiting fungal communities were dominated by rare and infrequent species. The similarity of fungal communities was higher within sites and within management categories than among sites or between the two management categories, and it decreased with increasing distance among the sampling plots and with decreasing similarity of dead wood resources. However, only a small part of community variation could be explained by these factors. The species present in managed forests were in a large extent a subset of those species present in natural forests. Our results suggest that in particular the protection of rare species requires a large total area. As managed forests have only little additional value complementing the diversity of natural forests, the conservation of natural forests is the key to ecologically effective conservation. As the dissimilarity of fungal communities increases with distance, the conserved natural forest sites should be broadly distributed in space, yet the individual conserved areas should be large enough to ensure local persistence.