测量聚合物在高应变率下力学性质的实验系统

本文介绍了一种用于测量材料在高应变率下单轴应力─应变性能的实验测量系统：落重与高速摄影实验系统。该系统在现有的落重装置的基础上,增加了高速摄影和应力过程的同时测量,使得在一次实验中可同时取到应力应变数据。从而避免了这类实验中常用的变形过程中体积不变的假设。通过高速实验提供的实验照片,我们还可以观察到聚合物在高应变率下从变形到断裂的发展过程。     

Book reviews

War, Culture and the Media: Representations of the Military in 20th Century Britain. Edited by Ian Stewart and Susan L. Carruthers, Trowbridge: Flicks Books, (1996), ISBN 0-948911-86-7 (pbk), £14.95.

The Future of Europe. By Peter Coffey, Aldershot: Edward Elgar, (1995), ISBN 1-85278-586-1 (hardback), £39.95, ISBN 1-85278-587-X (pbk), £12.95.

Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security. Edited by Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Steven E. Miller, London: the MIT Press, (1996), ISBN O-262-62097-9 (pbk), £13.50;.

New Studies in Post-Cold War Security. Edited by K.R. Dark, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company, (1996), ISBN 1-85521-728-7 (hardback), £42.50.

Enlarging NATO - The Russian Factor. By Richard L. Kugler with Marianna V. Kozintseva, Santa Monica, CA: National Defense Research Institute and Rand Corporation, (1996), ISBN 0-8330-2357-8, $20.00.     

Optimal dispatching strategies for vehicles having exponentially distributed trip times

A transportation system has N vehicles with no capacity constraint which take passengers from a depot to various destinations and return to the depot. The trip times are considered to be independent and identically distributed random variables. The dispatch strategy at the depot is to dispatch immediately, or to hold any returning vehicles with the objective of minimizing the average wait per passenger at the depot, if passengers arrive at a uniform rate. Optimal control strategies and resulting waits are determined in the special case of exponentially distributed trip time for various N up to N = 15. For N ? 1, the nature of the solution is always to keep a reservoir of vehicles in the depot, and to decrease (increase) the time headway between dispatches as the size of the reservoir gets larger (smaller). For sufficiently large N, one can approximate the number of vehicles in the reservoir by a continuum and obtain analytic experession for the optimal dispatch rate as a function of the number of vehicles in the reservoir. For the optimal strategy, it is shown that the average number of vehicles in the depot is of order N^1/3. These limit properties are expected to be quite insensitive to the actual trip time distribution, but the convergence of the exact properties to the continuum approximation as N → ∞ is very slow.     

A note on the “value” of bounds on EVPI in stochastic programming

The existing literature concentrates on determining sharp upper bounds for EVPI in stochastic programming problems. This seems to be a problem without an application. Lower bounds, which we view as having an important application, are only the incidental subject of study and in the few instances that are available are obtained at an extremely high cost. In order to suggest a rethinking of the course of this research, we analyze the need for bounds on EVPI in the context of its significance in decision problems.     

An easy solution for a special class of fixed charge problems

The fixed charge problem is a mixed integer mathematical programming problem which has proved difficult to solve in the past. In this paper we look at a special case of that problem and show that this case can be solved by formulating it as a set-covering problem. We then use a branch-and-bound integer programming code to solve test fixed charge problems using the setcovering formulation. Even without a special purpose set-covering algorithm, the results from this solution procedure are dramatically better than those obtained using other solution procedures.     

The bounded interval generalized assignment model

The bounded interval generalized assignment model is a “many-for-one” assignment model. Each task must be assigned to exactly one agent; however, each agent can be assigned multiple tasks as long as the agent resource consumed by performing the assigned tasks falls within a specified interval. The bounded interval generalized assignment model is formulated, and an algorithm for its solution is developed. Algorithms for the bounded interval versions of the semiassignment model and sources-to-uses transportation model are also discussed.     

Optimal admission pricing and service rate control of an M[x]/M/s queue with reneging

In this article we consider the optimal control of an M^[X]/M/s queue, s ≧ 1. In addition to Poisson bulk arrivals we incorporate a reneging function. Subject to control are an admission price p and the service rate μ. Thus, through p, balking response is induced. When i customers are present a cost h(i,μ,p) per unit time is incurred, discounted continuously. Formulated as a continuous time Markov decision process, conditions are given under which the optimal admission price and optimal service rate are each nondecreasing functions of i. In Section 4 we indicate how the infinite state space may be truncated to a finite state space for computational purposes.     

An analysis of single item inventory systems with returns

Inventory systems with returns are systems in which there are units returned in a repairable state, as well as demands for units in a serviceable state, where the return and demand processes are independent. We begin by examining the control of a single item at a single location in which the stationary return rate is less than the stationary demand rate. This necessitates an occasional procurement of units from an outside source. We present a cost model of this system, which we assume is managed under a continuous review procurement policy, and develop a solution method for finding the policy parameter values. The key to the analysis is the use of a normally distributed random variable to approximate the steady-state distribution of net inventory. Next, we study a single item, two echelon system in which a warehouse (the upper echelon) supports N(N ? 1) retailers (the lower echelon). In this case, customers return units in a repairable state as well as demand units in a serviceable state at the retailer level only. We assume the constant system return rate is less than the constant system demand rate so that a procurement is required at certain times from an outside supplier. We develop a cost model of this two echelon system assuming that each location follows a continuous review procurement policy. We also present an algorithm for finding the policy parameter values at each location that is based on the method used to solve the single location problem.