The Policy Dynamics of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
Since 1977, oil produced in northern Alaska has posed a major environmental threat across large areas of Alaska while simultaneously playing a dominant role in the economy of Alaska. This enduring dilemma was created by the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System to transport oil produced on the North Slope of Alaska, a region containing the largest oil field ever developed in North America. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System transports oil through an 800-mile pipeline and ocean-going oil tankers. This complex technological system poses an enduring risk of environmentally damaging oil spills in Alaska. This study applies the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change to examine the processes and enduring consequences of the national policy reforms that allowed the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
Anisotropic Nature of Radially Strained Metal Tubes
Metal pipes are sometimes swaged by a metal cone to enlarge them, which increases the strain in the material. The amount of strain is important because it affects the burst and collapse strength. Burst strength is the amount of internal pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure, while collapse strength is the amount of external pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure. If the burst or collapse strengths are exceeded, the pipe may fracture, causing critical failure. Such an event could cost the owners and their customers millions of dollars in clean up, repair, and lost time, in addition to the potential environmental damage. Therefore, a reliable way of estimating the burst and collapse strength of strained pipe is desired and valuable. The sponsor currently rates strained pipes using the properties of raw steel, because those properties are easily measured (for example, yield strength). In the past, the engineers assumed that the metal would be work-hardened when swaged, so that yield strength would increase. However, swaging introduces anisotropic strain, which may decrease the yield strength. This study measured the yield strength of strained material in the transverse and axial direction and compared them to raw material, to determine the amount of anisotropy. This information will be used to more accurately determine burst and collapse ratings for strained pipes. More accurate ratings mean safer products, which will minimize risk for the sponsor’s customers. Since the strained metal has a higher yield strength than the raw material, using the raw yield strength to calculate burst and collapse ratings is a conservative method. The metal has even higher yield strength after strain aging, which indicates that the stresses are relieved. Even with the 12% anisotropy in the strained and 9% anisotropy in the strain aged specimens, the raw yield strengths are lower and therefore more conservative. I recommend that the sponsor continue using the raw yield strength to calculate these ratings. I set out to characterize the anisotropic nature of swaged metal. As expected, the tensile tests showed a difference between the axial and transverse tensile strength. The correlation was 12% difference in yield strength in the axial and transverse directions for strained material and 9% in strained and aged material. This means that the strength of the metal in the hoop (transverse) direction is approximately 10% stronger than in the axial direction, because the metal was work hardened during the swaging process. Therefore, the metal is more likely to fail in axial tension than in burst or collapse. I presented the findings from the microstructure examination, standard tensile tests, and SEM data. All of this data supported the findings of the mini-tensile tests. This information will help engineers set burst and collapse ratings and allow material scientists to predict the anisotropic characteristics of swaged steel tubes.
A new stochastic factor model: General explicit solutions
We present a new stochastic factor model. In doing so, we provide general, explicit solutions to the portfolio optimization problem.