Ardeshir Faghri - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ardeshir Faghri

Recent advancements in microcomputer application development and storage capability have allowed ... more Recent advancements in microcomputer application development and storage capability have allowed for the development of increasingly robust Geographic Information Systems (GIS). As the Port of Wilmington seeks to continue and expand its services to customers, the affordability and utility of GIS becomes more apparent. This paper represents a project conducted by the University of Delaware to provide a working demonstrative GIS package, utilizing actual Port data, in order to illustrate the operations of a GIS and provide guidance in the possible future development of a more permanent functioning GIS platform for the Port. The authors begin with an overview of the Port of Wilmington, Delaware. A summarized history of the port is presented, along with a discussion of management and ownership. The benefits of a digital means of storage for Port records over the Port's current methods are discussed. An overview of GIS is then given.

Design consistency is an important design feature in the field of highway design. The driver will... more Design consistency is an important design feature in the field of highway design. The driver will anticipate the alignment of a highway based on the highway section he/she has already traveled, and unfamiliar elements that are introduced could cause serious safety problems. Much research has been performed and many different mathematical and empirical models have been formulated to predict and evaluate roadway design consistency. In this paper, a knowledge-based expert system is combined with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to evaluate horizontal alignment design consistency on U.S. highways. The GIS was chosen for this project because of its vast information storage manipulation capabilities, and the expert system for its ability to store human expertise on a subject and suggest solutions to a problem. By evaluating the changes in the degree of curvature for each consecutive element of the roadway, the program is able to successfully evaluate the consistency of horizontal alignment. The program shows a high success rate when tested on hypothetical roadways with known consistency ratings, and is successfully applied to the state of Delaware as well.

Current procedure for design speed selection and application has been a concern for many design e... more Current procedure for design speed selection and application has been a concern for many design engineers, researchers, etc. for a long period of time. There are two major concerns that must be considered when selecting the design speed: first, the fact that the design speed is being exceeded by the majority of drivers, and secondly, there is a distinct difference between the driver's behavior and the road's speed selection. Current approaches neglect the importance that design speed has on current users, society, environment, and neighborhood. Due to the limitations of the current design speed selection approach based on American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials guidelines, Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) design engineers desire alternatives to ensure a better design speed selection process. The scope of this paper is to provide DelDOT design engineers with research that includes the best available information on design speed selection. The research is compiled from the following sources: other state DOTs, other agencies, foreign countries, and current articles on the topic. The ultimate goal of this research is to create an advanced guide for the context sensitive design-speed selection in Delaware. The design speed issue is not purely engineering in nature. It is affected by the local public and deals also with economical and environmental aspects.

Transportation Research Record, 1996

Seaports have traditionally promoted regional and international trade by generating commercial an... more Seaports have traditionally promoted regional and international trade by generating commercial and industrial activities, which directly assist the economic progress of the country. Much research has been performed and many different mathematical and empirical models have been formulated to predict and evaluate containerized port operations. In this thesis, a simulation model is developed to analyze the operation of a multipurpose regional seaport in Wilmington, Delaware. The model is used to identify the possible bottlenecks and optimize the operation of the port. The ProModel simulation software was chosen for the development of the model in the project because of its extensive graphic user interface, vast capacity of adapting different probability distributions, and the efficient transfer of model logic to the program. The simulation model generates different "what if" scenarios based on the change of different input variables (like number of cranes, number of ships and the number of cargoes in a trip, and change of intermodal shift from trucks to trains), which shows port performance under different conditions. The "what if" scenario then tries to find the significant elements of the multipurpose terminal operation which, if changed, could most reduce the turnaround time of the vessels. The results of the simulation model are used to choose the optimal change in the significant elements (ship turnaround time, waiting time for bulk cargoes, containers, and trucks) of the terminal's operation.

A system using artificial neural networks to identify types of pavement marks and to rank their r... more A system using artificial neural networks to identify types of pavement marks and to rank their recognizabilities is proposed.The system stores different types of traffic marks; associates the original traffic mark to the distorted input mark; and finally, gives an index indicating the recognizability of the input traffic mark. Along with the developments of the system, the capabilities of neural networks in storing and generalizing common sense knowledge is also discussed.

Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology, 2021

Farm vehicles (FVs) are not primarily designed for road transportation purposes, but often need t... more Farm vehicles (FVs) are not primarily designed for road transportation purposes, but often need to share the roads with other motorists. The interference of these large, slow-moving vehicles with the regular traffic can lead to hazardous situations and cause severe crashes. Farm Vehicle Crashes (FVCs) are rare compared to the total number of road crashes, and hence, have been neglected by many. This has been reflected in various aspects including data collection, education, legislation, and prevention. The number of FVCs in the U.S. has been steady over the last decade. This paper conducts a literature review to put forth a better understanding of this safety issue from a transportation standpoint. The main goal of this study is to identify the characteristics of FVCs, the unique contributing factors in FVCs, and possible strategies to mitigate the issues involved. It appears that despite their lower frequency, the rate of severe injuries and fatalities in FVCs is significantly higher than the average for all crashes. The percentage of fatal crashes in FVCs can be nearly five times higher than average for all road crashes. Further, it is estimated that FVs are overrepresented in road crashes considering their low exposure on the roads. The crash contributing factors including time- dependent variables, weather and road surface conditions, location, road classification, manner of collision, and driver’s characteristics are discussed based on the result of multiple studies in different states of the U.S. Several unique characteristics of FVCs distinct them from non-farm vehicle crashes which can result from the characteristics of FVs, rural roads, and the nature of farming tasks. Improvements in lighting and marking, equipping farm vehicles with Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) and seatbelts, educating the public and farmers, and roadway improvements are recommended as potential safety improvement strategies for mitigating the frequency and severity of FVCs.

Transportation Research Record, 2009

Transportation Research Record, 1995

A new approach for conducting trip generation analysis based on the concepts of artificial neural... more A new approach for conducting trip generation analysis based on the concepts of artificial neural networks is presented in this paper. First, a brief introduction to the concepts of artificial neural networks is given. Subsequently, two neural network paradigms, ADALINE and Backpropagation, were built and were applied to a real-world database of 150 different sites in the Washington-Baltimore region. A conventional multiple linear regression analysis was also applied to the same database. Prediction results obtained by the regression analysis and the two neural networks, respectively, are compared. The performances of the two neural network paradigms are discussed. Finally, this paper concludes that as an alternative to the regression analysis approach, the neural networks are suitable for trip generation prediction problems.

Transportation Planning and Technology, Aug 1, 1999

Accurate short-term prediction of travel time is central to many ITS systems, especially for ATIS... more Accurate short-term prediction of travel time is central to many ITS systems, especially for ATIS and ATMS. In this study, we propose an innovative methodology for such prediction. Although the model can be theoretically used to predict traffic conditions using any of the three primary detector-based traffic parameters, the study was limited to the use of speed only as a single predictor. This was justified by the inherently direct derivation of travel time from speed data. The proposed method is a hybrid one that combines the use of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and a multilayer feedforward neural network with backpropagation. The EMD is the key part of the Hilbert-Huang Transform, which is a newly developed method at NASA for the analysis of non-stationary, nonlinear time series. The EMD is a straightforward to implement and computationally efficient method that is used to decompose any time series into a small number of its basic components, called the Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). The rationale for using the EMD is that because of the highly nonlinear and non-stationary nature of link speed series, by decomposing the time series into its basic components, more accurate forecasts would be obtained. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method by applying it to real-life loop detector data obtained from I-66 in Fairfax, Virginia. The method was used to predict link speeds for one through five periods ahead using 5-minute intervals across the eastbound direction of this corridor. To ensure proper testing, the data was compiled from different days with a wide range of traffic conditions, ranging from free-flow states to heavy congestion states. The prediction performance of the proposed method was found to be superior to previous forecasting techniques: conventional ANN, real profile, and historical profile. Rigorous testing of the distribution of prediction errors revealed that the model produced unbiased predictions of speeds. The superiority of the proposed model was also verified during peak periods, midday, and night. In general, the method was accurate, computationally efficient, easy to implement in a field environment, and applicable to forecasting other traffic parameters. However, the proposed model requires additional effort on the part of the modeler. It also should be noted that the technique requires larger memory size for input feature expansion resulting from the EMD compared with a conventional ANN. Moreover, more testing of the effectiveness of the method under non-recurring congestion is recommended.

Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Jul 1, 2016

AbstractA growing consensus in the literature on how to improve the quality of learning suggests ... more AbstractA growing consensus in the literature on how to improve the quality of learning suggests that adaptions to problem-based learning (PBL) methods could firstly improve learning experiences, problem solving, skill acquisition and a reasonable level of skill transfer from a student perspective, and secondly develop better professional competence and preparation in these needed highway capacity analysis skills. This paper describes the educational basis of problem-oriented and project-based learning (POPBL) approaches that have been developed as an integral part of a four-year undergraduate engineering degree program at the University of Delaware and incorporated into the transportation curriculum, using real world cases to teach students how to think like expert practitioners. A seven-phase POPBL conceptual framework and the experiences of employing POPBL are presented to demonstrate how it operates in transportation engineering education.