U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
Public Roads This magazine is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information. |
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Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-12-002 Date: January/February 2012 |
Publication Number:
FHWA-HRT-12-002
Issue No: Vol. 75 No. 4 Date: January/February 2012 |
Below are brief descriptions of communications products recently developed by the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Research, Development, and Technology. All of the reports are or will soon be available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). In some cases, limited copies of the communications products are available from FHWA’s Research and Technology (R&T) Product Distribution Center (PDC).
When ordering from NTIS, include the NTIS publication number (PB number) and the publication title. You also may visit the NTIS Web site at www.ntis.gov to order publications online. Call NTIS for current prices. For customers outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the cost is usually double the listed price. Address requests to:
National Technical Information Service
5301 Shawnee Road
Alexandria, VA 22312
Telephone: 703–605–6000
Toll-free number: 800–553–NTIS (6847)
Web site: www.ntis.gov
Email: customerservice@ntis.gov
Requests for items available from the R&T Product Distribution Center should be addressed to:
R&T Product Distribution Center
Szanca Solutions/FHWA PDC
13710 Dunnings Highway
Claysburg, PA 16625
Telephone: 814–239–1160
Fax: 814–239–2156
Email: report.center@dot.gov
For more information on R&T communications products available from FHWA, visit FHWA's Web site at www.fhwa.dot.gov/research, the FHWA Research Library at www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/library, (or email fhwalibrary@dot.gov), or the National Transportation Library at ntl.bts.gov (or email library@dot.gov).
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-11-034
In 2010, the first project awarded under the FHWA
Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program concluded. In March and April 2010,
two EAR Program workshops involving almost 100 researchers and stakeholders
from different fields and sectors reviewed the work of a selection of these
projects. Workshop participants assessed which projects had the potential to
lead to transformational improvements to planning, building, renewing, and
operating safe, congestion-free, and environmentally sound transportation
systems.
This brochure provides an overview of the 10 projects that were the focus of these workshops. The projects fall into five topic areas: human behavior and travel choices for safety, nanoscale research, human behavior and travel choices for planning, integrated highway system concepts, and technology for assessing performance.
The brochure also highlights a workshop discussion on a California PATH Program project aiming to improve traffic flow and a Colorado School of Mines project that advances intelligent compaction technology. Further, the document includes information about the research life cycle, communication activities, and efforts to advance the research.
The brochure is available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch/pubs/11034/index.cfm. Printed copies are available from the PDC.
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-11-036
Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation (ABMS), an approach
to modeling systems that consist of autonomous and interacting agents, can be
used to gain in-depth understanding of traveler and driver behavior. In May
2010 at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA, a panel of
agent-based modeling experts presented tools, methods, and concepts related to
ABMS at a 1-day workshop convened by FHWA's EAR Program. Following the
presentations, speakers and representatives from academia, research
organizations, and industry discussed applications to transportation, knowledge
gaps, and barriers to implementation.
This summary report covers seven presentations from the workshop and three group discussions. The titles of the presentations are as follows: Agent-Based Simulation and Modeling: Identification of Breakthrough Research for Highway Transportation; Computer Simulation for Transportation Studies -- A Brief History; Overview and Development of Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation; Agent-Based Modeling with Repast Simphony Including a Consumer Products Modeling Example; Using Pattern-Oriented Modeling in Developing the Agent-Based Model of Hawaii's Longline Fishery; Predicting Pandemic Disease Spread in Urban Environments with Agent-Based Simulation; and Agent-Based Modeling of Transportation Systems. Discussion topics include key technical gaps to overcome, challenges of incorporating ABMS in transportation, and potential applications of ABMS in transportation.
The document is available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch/pubs/11036/11036.pdf. Printed copies are available from the PDC.
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-11-061
Structural stainless steel ASTM A1010 (UNS S41003)
provides corrosion protection for highway bridges subjected to high levels of
wetness and high chloride exposures, making painting unnecessary and greatly
reducing the need for maintenance. However, the initial cost of stainless steel
is more than twice the cost of carbon or weathering steel. This TechBrief
discusses research to identify steels with lower potential costs that could be
candidates for bridge construction, while still providing low corrosion rates.
To study corrosion, researchers conducted laboratory and field testing on several steels on an existing bridge with a high corrosion rate. The steel samples were subjected to weathering for 1 year. The researchers also conducted a life-cycle cost analysis to examine the benefits of using maintenance-free, corrosion-resistant steel in place of regularly repainting conventional steel. They conducted deterministic and probabilistic life-cycle cost analyses for a bridge intended to have a 125-year service life.
The researchers found that the combination of strength and impact toughness required for steel bridge members could not be achieved with lower chromium steels. Experimental steels were more corrosion resistant than conventional steels but still required maintenance, such as repainting at certain intervals, for those service environments with high salt exposure.
The document is available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/bridge/11061/11061.pdf. Printed copies are available from the PDC.