Rail transport and urban development: Regeneration opportunity for Whitechapel as a result of the realization of crossrail and overground orbirail

The Report examines the regeneration opportunity of Whitechapel, London in relation to the nodal upgrade resulting from the future rail infrastructure of Crossrail and Overground Orbirail. The Report is divided into two distinctive parts. In the first part I develop the theoretical framework based on the networked city theory and the polycentric mega- city region. I demonstrate both the importance of a rail network within the mega-city region and its direct impact on the urban development. The nature of train station areas as both nodes and places in the city, is discussed generally and then within the specific context of London. In the second part, the theoretical framework is applied to the case study of Whitechapel, identifying future opportunities for urban regeneration. The issues of transport infrastructure, urban development and community politics within the mega-city region are addressed through the study of Whitechapel. This particular case study is explored not only as an important future node and in terms of its subsequent urban development, but also as a place in the London mega-city region that is already undergoing an important urban transformation. "A new phenomenon is emerging in the most highly urbanized parts of the world: the polycentric mega-city region (MCR). It arises through a process of very extended decentralization from big central cities adjacent smaller ones, old and new. ... These places exist both as separate entities and as parts of a wider functional urban region (FUR) connected by dense flows of people and information carried along motorways, high-speed rail lines and telecommunications cables. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the emerging urban form at the start of the 21st century"

An experimental study on the relation between surface texture and tactile friction

The main obstacle to calculate the ‘feel’ of a product from its surface properties is the ill-defined surface topography that is encountered after the most surface finishing processes. In this work this obstacle was avoided by producing well-defined surface topographies by laser texturing. The friction of textures having surface features with varying radii and spacings was investigated by measuring friction against the fingerpad. Within the range of conditions tested the coefficient of friction decreased with increasing normal load. The relation between the surface texture parameters and the coefficient of friction is influenced by the scale-dependent elastic behaviour of the skin top layer