An Anisotropic Model for Granular Material Based on Experiments

Soil is a heterogeneous material and most natural soil deposits show a definite stratification. The mechanical behaviour of such material is generally different in different directions, especially in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the stratification. A series of isotropic compression tests were carried out to study the behavior of granular material produced under controlled stratification in the laboratory. These tests were conducted both on cylindrical and square prismatic tri-axial specimens. It was observed that for hydrostatic loading, the strain response was different in different directions, especially in directions parallel and perpendicular to the direction of soil deposition. A definite trend of anisotropy was observed in the deformation pattern. The observed anisotropy is modeled in this paper by treating soil-dilatancy as a variable quantity. The equation of the plastic potential surface of the model which obeys a non-associated flow rule, is assumed to be dependent on three main variables confining pressure (\(\sigma_{3}\)), void ratio (e) and the angle of bedding plane orientation (δ) during deposition. The angle of bedding plane orientation (δ) was measured with respect to the direction of the major principal stress. The model has a cap yield surface in the isotropic stress direction, which is supplemented by a shear hardening Mohr–Coulomb surface in the deviator direction. This paper focuses on predicting the anisotropic strain response of stratified soil deposits subjected to isotropic compression. The proposed anisotropic model incorporates within an existing strain-hardening sand model, a modified cap yield surface and a modified plastic potential function related to the cap surface, to account for the anistropic response observed in isotropic compression tests. The two dimensional stress–strain model was extended to three dimensional Cartesian space. The strain anisotropy observed in the isotropic compression tests was predicted by the three dimensional anisotropic model proposed for granular materials.     

Velocity and Structural Modeling of Mesozoic Chiltan Limestone and Goru Formation for Hydrocarbon Evaluation in the Bitrisim Area, Lower Indus Basin, Pakistan

The present study focuses on building a workflow for structural interpretation and velocity modeling and implementing to Jurassic-Cretaceous succession (Chiltan Limestone and Massive sand of the Lower Goru Formation). 2D-Migrated seismic sections of the area are used as data set and in order to confirm the presence of hydrocarbons in the study area, P and S-wave seismic velocities are estimated from single-component seismic data. Some specific issues in the use of seismic data for modeling and hydrocarbon evaluation need to deal with including distinguishing the reservoir and cap rocks, and the effects of faults, folds and presence of hydrocarbons on these rocks. This study has carried out the structural interpretation and modeling of the seismic data for the identification of traps. The results demonstrate existence of appropriate structural traps in the form of horst and grabens in the area. 2D and 3D velocity modeling of the horizons indicates the presence of high velocity zones in the eastern half of the study while relatively low velocity zones are encountered in the western half of the area. Two wells were drilled in the study area (i.e. Fateh-01 and Ichhri-01) and both are dry. Immature hydrocarbons migration is considered as a failure reason for Fateh-01 and Ichhri-01 well.     

Application of the redundant-lifting scheme for ground-roll attenuation in near-surface characterization using full-waveform inversion on P-wave seismic data

Seismic modelling of the shallow subsurface (within the first few metres) is often challenging when the data are dominated by ground-roll and devoid of reflection. We showed that, even when transmission is the only available phase for analysis, fine-scale and interpretable P-wave velocity (V_P) and attenuation (Q_P⁻¹) models can still be prepared using full-waveform inversion, with data being preconditioned for ground-roll. To prove this idea, we suppressed the ground-roll in two different ways before full-waveform inversion modelling: first, through a bottom mute; second, through a novel wavelet transform-based method known as the redundant-lifting scheme. The applicability of full-waveform inversion is tested through imaging two buried targets. These include a pair of utility water pipes with known diameters of 0.8 m and burial depths of 1.5 m, respectively. The second target is the poorly documented backfill, which was the former location of the pipe(s). The data for full-waveform inversion are acquired along a 2D profile using a static array of 24, 40 Hz vertical component geophones and a buried point source. The results show that (a) the redundant-lifting scheme better suppresses the ground roll, which in turn provides better images of the targets in full-waveform inversion; and (b) the V_P and Q_P⁻¹ models from full-waveform inversion of redundant-lifting scheme data could detect the two targets adequately.     

Seasonal Shift in Community Structure of Periphytic Ciliates in Estuarine Waters in the Northern Bay of Bengal,Bangladesh

To investigate the seasonal heterogeneity of the periphytic ciliate communities, a 1-year baseline survey was conducted in the Karnaphuli River estuary, northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. A total of 54 ciliate species were recorded, including seven common and 14 dominant species. Maximum species number was in autumn whereas maximum abundance was in winter; the minimum for both occurred in summer. Multivariate analyses, i.e., canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP) and principal co-ordinates analysis (PCoA), revealed a clear seasonal heterogeneity of community structure and environmental variables. Multivariate correlation analysis (RELATE) demonstrated that the community structure of the periphytic ciliate communities was significantly correlated with environmental variables, and best matching analysis (BIOENV) indicated that heterogeneity of community patterns was mainly driven by water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved solids and nutrients. Species richness and diversity peaked in autumn whereas species evenness peaked in summer. These results suggest that environmental conditions shape periphytic ciliate community structure, which is a potentially useful bio-indicator of estuarine water quality.     

Correction to: Perceived and actual risks of drought: household and expert views from the lower Teesta River Basin of northern Bangladesh

Natural Hazards - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04825-3     

重庆老龙洞地下河流域水体有机氯农药污染及来源初步研究

为查明重庆老龙洞地下河流域有机氯农药的污染情况及其特征和来源,通过气相色谱-微池电子捕获检测器(GC-μECD)检测水体OCPs含量。结果表明研究区水样中受到了有机氯农药不同程度的污染。α-HCH是研究区水体HCHs主要成分,HCHs的残留主要来自于大气长距离传输。DDTs的主要成分各采样点不尽相同。DDTs的输入为历史上工业DDTs的使用且在水体中其主要以好氧转化为主。与国内外河流相比较,老龙洞地下河流域水体有机氯农药含量处于较高水平。     

Stochastic control of a micro-dam irrigation scheme for dry season farming

Micro-dams are expected to be feasible options for water resources development in semi-arid regions such as the Guinea savanna agro-ecological zone of West Africa. An optimal water management strategy in a micro-dam irrigation scheme supplying water from an existing reservoir to a potential command area is discussed in this paper based on the framework of stochastic control. Water intake facilities are assumed to consist of photovoltaic pumping system units and hoses. The knowledge of current states of the storage volume of the reservoir and the soil moisture in the command area is fed-back to the intake flow rate. A system of two stochastic differential equations is proposed as a model for the dynamics of the micro-dam irrigation scheme, so that temporally backward solution of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation determines an optimal control, which represents the optimal water management strategy. A computational procedure using the finite element method is successfully implemented to provide comprehensive information on the optimal control. The results indicate that the water initially stored in the reservoir can support full irrigation for about 80 days under the optimal water management strategy, which is predominantly based on the demand-side principle. However, the volatility of the soil moisture in the command area must be reasonably small.