Scheduling under uncertainty: Attaining flexibility, robustness and stability

The research presented in this thesis is part of the Rolling Stock Life Cycle Logistics applied research and development program, conducted by NedTrain. As a company, NedTrain belongs to Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; the principal railway company in the Netherlands) and provides maintenance services for the NS train-fleet. The aim of this program...

Molecular responses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to near-zero growth rates

Robust scheduling in an uncertain environment

This thesis presents research on scheduling in an uncertain environment, which forms a part of the rolling stock life cycle logistics applied research and development program funded by Dutch railway industry companies. The focus therefore lies on scheduling of maintenance operations on rolling stock in the railway industry. The first chapter...

On Robustness of Power Grids

Current and future trends in environmental, economical, and human-caused factors (such as power demand growth, over-ageing of assets in power grids, and extreme weather conditions) challenge power grid robustness in the near future, necessitating research to better analyse and understand the notion of robustness in power grids, and ultimately to...

Topology of molecular networks

Stability, Accuracy, and Robustness of the Time Domain Integral Equation Method for Radar Scattering Analysis

The aim of this thesis is to design a computational method that can be used in modern stealth technology. In particular, the computational method should be capable to simulate scattering of ultra-wideband radar signals for military aircraft constructed with ferromagnetic radar absorbent materials. A full-wave boundary element method has been...

Measuring Robustness of Complex Networks

Specially over the last ten years, societies depend more strongly than ever on networked and communication systems. This dependency has grown to the point to which our well-being depends on these networked critical infrastructures. Bettering our understanding of such complex networks and their robustness is on the bleeding edge of graph theory,...

Vehicle Routing under Uncertainty

In this thesis, the main focus is on the study of a real-world transportation problem with uncertainties, and on the comparison of a centralized and a distributed solution approach in the context of this problem. We formalize the real-world problem, and provide a general framework to extend it with different sources of uncertainty. We apply...

Designing Robust Road Networks: A general design method applied to the Netherlands

The Dutch road network is, like many other road networks in the world, congested in the morning and evening peaks. The locations of congestion are quite often the same; this makes it relatively easy to take the delay of this regular congestion into account when planning a trip. However, as a result of disturbances, also unexpectedly large delays...

Adaptive image interrogation for PIV: Application to compressible flows and interfaces

As an experimental tool, Particle Image Velocimetry has quickly superseded traditional point-wise measurements. The inherent image processing has become standardized though the performances are strongly dependent on user experience. Moreover, the arduously selected image interrogation parameters are applied uniformly throughout the image...

Robustness of networks

Our society depends more strongly than ever on large networks such as transportation networks, the Internet and power grids. Engineers are confronted with fundamental questions such as “how to evaluate the robustness of networks for a given service?”, “how to design a robust network?”, because networks always affect the functioning of a service....

Robustness Analysis of Road Networks: A Framework with Combined DTA Models

Network robustness is the ability of a road network functioning properly facing unpredictable and exceptional incidents. A systematical framework with combined dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) models is designed for the analysis of road network robustness. With this framework, network performance considering travelers' (route) choice behavior...

Re-entry flight clearance

The objective of the research was to identify and evaluate promising mathematical techniques for re-entry flight clearance. To fulfil this objective, two mathematical methods were investigated and developed: μ analysis for linear models and interval analysis for both linear and non-linear models. The stability of re-entry vehicles in the...