Proportionate flow shop with controllable processing times

This paper considers a special class of flow-shop problems, known as the proportionate flow shop. In such a shop, each job flows through the machines in the same order and has equal processing times on the machines. The processing times of different jobs may be different. It is assumed that all operations of a job may be compressed by the same amount which will incur an additional cost. The objective is to minimize the makespan of the schedule together with a compression cost function which is non-decreasing with respect to the amount of compression. For a bicriterion problem of minimizing the makespan and a linear cost function, an O(n log n) algorithm is developed to construct the Pareto optimal set. For a single criterion problem, an O(n2) algorithm is developed to minimize the sum of the makespan and compression cost. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Simulation of ship evacuation and passenger circulation

This paper describes work carried out in the FIRE EXIT research project. FIRE EXIT aims to develop an Evacuation Simulator, capable of addressing issues of mustering, ship motions, fire and abandonment. In achieving these aims, FIRE EXIT took as its starting point the state-of-the-art in ship evacuation simulation (the maritimeEXODUS software), fire simulation (the SMARTFIRE software) and large-scale experimental facilities (the SHEBA facility). It then significantly enhanced these capabilities. A number of new technologies have been developed in achieving these objectives. The innovations include directly linking CFD fire simulation with evacuation and abandonment software and automatic data transfer from concept design software allowing rapid generation of ship simulation models. Software usability was augmented by a module for interpretation of evacuation software output. Enhancements to a ship evacuation testing rig have resulted in a unique facility, capable of providing passenger movement data for realistic evacuation scenarios and large scale tests have provided meaningful data for the evacuation simulation.

Letter from Wilfred T. Grenfell Esq., M.R.C.S.

An account of of the 1892(?) voyage from Yarmouth to St John's, Newfoundland, Canada.