Assessing Submerged Vegetation Roughness in Streambed under Clear Water Condition Using Physical Modeling

Water Resources - Roughness coefficient, also called Manning’s coefficient, is one of the most important hydraulic parameters in the rivers. This coefficient, in addition to the flow...     

Stability Analysis and the Stabilisation of Flexural Toppling Failure

Flexural toppling is a mode of failure that may occur in a wide range of layered rock strata in both rock slopes and large underground excavations. Whenever rock mass is composed of a set of parallel discontinuities dipping steeply against the excavated face plane, the rock mass will have the potential of flexural toppling failure as well. In such cases, the rock mass behaves like inclined superimposed cantilever beams that bend under their own weight while transferring the load to the underlying strata. If the bending stress exceeds the rock column’s tensile strength, flexural toppling failure will be initiated. Since the rock columns are “statically indeterminate,” thus, their factors of safety may not be determined solely by equations of equilibrium. The paper describes an analytical model with a sequence of inclined superimposed cantilever rock columns with a potential of flexural topping failure. The model is based on the principle of compatibility equations and leads to a new method by which the magnitudes and points of application of intercolumn forces are determined. On the basis of the proposed model, a safety factor for each rock column can be computed independently. Hence, every rock column will have a unique factor of safety. The least factor of safety that exists in any rock column is selected as the rock mass representative safety factor based on which simple equations are proposed for a conservative rock mass stability analysis and design. As a result, some new relations are established in order to design the length, cross-sectional area and pattern of fully grouted rock bolts for the stabilisation of such rock mass. Finally, the newly proposed equations are compared with the results of existing experimental flexural toppling failure models (base friction and centrifuge tests) for further verification.     

Zircon dating,Sr and Nd isotopes,and element geochemistry of the Khalifan pluton,NW Iran: Evidence for Variscan magmatism in a supposedly Cimmerian superterrane

The Khalifan pluton of the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone is composed of A-type peraluminous leucogranites with Nd model ages around 1.2 Ga. It intrudes an unfossiliferous sedimentary sequence previously considered as Cretaceous by analogy with neighboring areas. However, zircon U–Pb SHRIMP and Pb–Pb sequential evaporation dating have revealed that Khalifan granites are Carboniferous, with a precise age of 315 ± 2 Ma. This is the first reliable Variscan age obtained so far in this area, but there are geological indicators that other small plutonic bodies might also be Variscan. The existence of Carboniferous granite rocks in the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone casts doubts on whether it was a part of the Cimmerian superterrane detached from east Gondwanide terranes because these characteristically lack Variscan magmatism. The age, chemical features and Nd isotopes of Khalifan granites are similar to those of the southernmost Urals and Tien Shan, so that we tentatively suggest that this area bears a Middle Asian instead of Cimmerian linkage.     

Petrogenesis of granitic unit of Naqadeh complex, Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone, NW Iran

The granitic unit is a component of the Naqadeh plutonic complex, NW of Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone (NW Iran). This unit is composed of high-K calc-alkaline, slightly peraluminous (ASI?=?1.12–1.17) evolved monzogranites. These monzogranites have 41.85?±?0.81 Ma (zircon U–Pb sensitive, high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) age) with two inherited zircon ages of 98.5?±?1.7 and 586.6?±?13.1 Ma, respectively. The only enclave type consists of quartz-amphibolite enclaves indicating residual parental rocks. Chemical and isotopic (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_40Ma?=?0.708638; εNd_40Ma?=??4.26) characteristics of monzogranites suggest that they could be derived by partial melting of crustal mafic rocks followed by some assimilation of metasedimentary rocks. With regards to inherited zircon age and quartz-amphibolite composition of Naqadeh granite, the old mafic rocks of this complex (Naqadeh dioritic rocks with ~100 Ma) can be considered as parental rocks, and their partial melting under high water content, and assimilation of produced melt by metasedimentary rocks, would lead to the generation of a Naqadeh granitic unit.     

Effect of confining pressure on dynamic soil properties using improved transfer function estimators

Three new estimators of the transfer function (H2, H3, and H4) in addition to the conventional estimator (H1) were utilized to determine damping and shear modulus of soils under random excitation conditions. The results of this study indicate that as confining pressure increases, the difference between damping values obtained by the various estimators decreases, whereas the shear moduli are not influenced by the variation in confining pressure.     

利用支持向量分类(SVC)估算断层深度和特征选择(英文)

地下断层深度的估算是重力解释难题之一,我们试利用支持向量分类(SVC)法进行计算。使用正演和非线性反演技术,通过相关误错使检测地下断层深度成为可能。但必要有一个深度初始猜测值,而且这猜测值通常不是由重力资料得。本文我们介绍以SVC作为利用重力数据估算断层深度的一种手段。在这项研究中,我们假设一种地下断层深度可归为一种类型,SVC作为一个分类算法。为了有效地利用此SVC算法,我们基于一个正确的特征选择算法去选择正确的深度特征。本次研究中我们建立了一套基于不同深度地下断层的合成重力剖面训练集,用以训练用于计算实际的地下断层深度的SVC代码。然后用其它合成重力剖面训练集测试我们训练的SVC代码,同时也用实际资料验证了我们的训练SVC代码。     

Experimental analysis for the dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows

Debris flow is one of the major secondary mountain hazards following the earthquake. This study explores the dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows based on the strength reduction of soils through static and dynamic triaxial tests. A series of static and dynamic triaxial tests were conducted on samples in the lab. The samples were prepared according to different grain size distribution, degree of saturation and earthquake magnitudes. The relations of dynamic shear strength, degree of saturation, and number of cycles are summarized through analyzing experimental results. The findings show that the gravelly soil with a wide and continuous gradation has a critical degree of saturation of approximately 87%, above which debris flows will be triggered by rainfall, while the debris flow will be triggered at a critical degree of saturation of about 73% under the effect of rainfall and earthquake(M>6.5). Debris flow initiation is developed in the humidification process, and the earthquake provides energy for triggering debris flows. Debris flows are more likely to be triggered at the relatively low saturation under dynamic loading than under static loading. The resistance of debris flow triggering relies more on internal frication angle than soil cohesion under the effect of rainfall and earthquake. The conclusions provide an experimental analysis method for dynamic initiation mechanism of debris flows.     

Fuzzy Logic System for Road Identification Using Ikonos Images

Research into both extraction of man-made objects and automatic change detection from aerial and satellite images has made significant progress in recent years. This paper presents an approach, based on a fuzzy logic system, for the identification of suburban roads in Ikonos images. The linguistic variables are the mean and standard deviation (SD) of different objects with Gaussian membership function. After the roads have been identified provisionally and their skeleton extracted, the skeleton can be vectorised and then used as direct input to a GIS for further analysis. The method was tested on an Ikonos "Geo" image covering Bilesavar in north-western Iran. For the suburban area of Bilesavar, the results showed that grey scale values ranged from 20 to 190 for non-roads and 226 to 228 for roads, the optimum width of the Gaussian kernel function was 3 and the SD was 0.4. It was also found that about 91% of main roads with a width of 6 to 12 pixels could be extracted from high resolution satellite imagery by the algorithm. The computer program for this study has been developed in visual C++ based on Windows 98     

A late Pleistocene long pollen record from Lake Urmia, NW Iran

A palynological study based on two 100-m long cores from Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran provides a vegetation record spanning 200 ka, the longest pollen record for the continental interior of the Near East. During both penultimate and last glaciations, a steppe of Artemisia and Poaceae dominated the upland vegetation with a high proportion of Chenopodiaceae in both upland and lowland saline ecosystems. While Juniperus and deciduous Quercus trees were extremely rare and restricted to some refugia, Hippophaë rhamnoides constituted an important phanerophyte, particularly during the late last glacial period. A pronounced expansion in Ephedra shrub-steppe occurred at the end of the penultimate late-glacial period but was followed by extreme aridity that favoured an Artemisia steppe. Very high lake levels, registered by both pollen and sedimentary markers, occurred during the middle of the last glaciation and late part of the penultimate glaciation. The late-glacial to early Holocene transition is represented by a succession of Hippophaë, Ephedra, Betula, Pistacia and finally Juniperus and Quercus. The last interglacial period (Eemian), slightly warmer and moister than the Holocene, was followed by two interstadial phases similar in pattern to those recorded in the marine isotope record and southern European pollen sequences.