Accurate local upscaling with variable compact multipoint transmissibility calculations

We propose a new single-phase local upscaling method that uses spatially varying multipoint transmissibility calculations. The method is demonstrated on two-dimensional Cartesian and adaptive Cartesian grids. For each cell face in the coarse upscaled grid, we create a local fine grid region surrounding the face on which we solve two generic local flow problems. The multipoint stencils used to calculate the fluxes across coarse grid cell faces involve the six neighboring pressure values. They are required to honor the two generic flow problems. The remaining degrees of freedom are used to maximize compactness and to ensure that the flux approximation is as close as possible to being two-point. The resulting multipoint flux approximations are spatially varying (a subset of the six neighbors is adaptively chosen) and reduce to two-point expressions in cases without full-tensor anisotropy. Numerical tests show that the method significantly improves upscaling accuracy as compared to commonly used local methods and also compares favorably with a local–global upscaling method.     

Mais comment s'écoule donc un glacier ? Aperçu historique

Ice and snow have often helped physicists understand the world. On the contrary it has taken them a very long time to understand the flow of the glaciers. Naturalists only began to take an interest in glaciers at the beginning of the 19th century during the last phase of glacier advances. When the glacier flow from the upslope direction became obvious, it was then necessary to understand how it flowed. It was only in 1840, the year of the Antarctica ice sheet discovery by Dumont d'Urville, that two books laid the basis for the future field of glaciology: one by Agassiz on the ice age and glaciers, the other one by canon Rendu on glacier theory. During the 19th century, ice flow theories, adopted by most of the leading scientists, were based on melting/refreezing processes. Even though the word ‘fluid’ was first used in 1773 to describe ice, more the 130 years would have to go by before the laws of fluid mechanics were applied to ice. Even now, the parameter of Glen's law, which is used by glaciologists to model ice deformation, can take a very wide range of values, so that no unique ice flow law has yet been defined. To cite this article: F. Rémy, L. Testut, C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

Flow and form in rehabilitation of large-river ecosystems: An example from the Lower Missouri River

On large, intensively engineered rivers like the Lower Missouri, the template of the physical habitat is determined by the nearly independent interaction of channel form and flow regime. We evaluated the interaction between flow and form by modeling four combinations of modern and historical channel form and modern and historical flow regimes. The analysis used shallow, slow water (shallow-water habitat, SWH, defined as depths between 0 and 1.5 m, and current velocities between 0 and 0.75 m/s) as an indicator of habitat that has been lost on many intensively engineered rivers and one that is thought to be especially important in rearing of young fishes. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic models for modern and historical channels of the Lower Missouri River at Hermann, Missouri, indicate substantial differences between the two channels in total availability and spatial characteristics of SWH. In the modern channel, SWH is maximized at extremely low flows and in overbank flows, whereas the historical channel had substantially more SWH at all discharges and SWH increased with increasing discharge. The historical channel form produced 3–7 times the SWH area of the modern channel regardless of flow regime. The effect of flow regime is evident in increased within-year SWH variability with the natural flow regime, including significant seasonal peaks of SWH associated with spring flooding. Comparison with other reaches along the Lower Missouri River indicates that a) channel form is the dominant control of the availability of habitat even in reaches where the hydrograph is more intensively altered, and b) rehabilitation projects that move toward the historical condition can be successful in increasing topographic diversity and thereby decreasing sensitivity of the availability of habitat to flow regime. The relative efficacy of managing flow and form in creating SWH is useful information toward achieving socially acceptable rehabilitation of the ecosystem in large river systems.     

Isotope variations in a Sierra Nevada snowpack and their relation to meltwater

Isotopic variations in melting snow are poorly understood. We made weekly measurements at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, California, of snow temperature, density, water equivalent and liquid water volume to examine how physical changes within the snowpack govern meltwater δ¹⁸O. Snowpack samples were extracted at 0.1 m intervals from ground level to the top of the snowpack profile between December 1991 and April 1992. Approximately 800 mm of precipitation fell during the study period with δ¹⁸O values between −21.35 and −4.25‰. Corresponding snowpack δ¹⁸O ranged from −22.25 to −6.25‰. The coefficient of variation of δ¹⁸O in snowpack levels decreased from −0.37 to −0.07 from winter to spring, indicating isotopic snowpack homogenization. Meltwater δ¹⁸O ranged from −15.30 to −8.05‰, with variations of up to 2.95‰ observed within a single snowmelt episode, highlighting the need for frequent sampling. Early snowmelt originated in the lower snowpack with higher δ¹⁸O through ground heat flux and rainfall. After the snowpack became isothermal, infiltrating snowmelt displaced the higher δ¹⁸O liquid in the lower snowpack through a piston flow process. Fractionation analysis using a two-component mixing model on the isothermal snowpack indicated that δ¹⁸O in the initial and final half of major snowmelt was 1.30‰ lower and 1.45‰ higher, respectively, than the value from simple mixing. Mean snowpack δ¹⁸O on individual profiling days showed a steady increase from −15.15 to −12.05‰ due to removal of lower δ¹⁸O snowmelt and addition of higher δ¹⁸O rainfall. Results suggest that direct sampling of snowmelt and snow cores should be undertaken to quantify tracer input compositions adequately. The snowmelt sequence also suggests that regimes of early lower δ¹⁸O and later higher δ¹⁸O melt may be modeled and used in catchment tracing studies.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Genesis and distribution of mineral waters as a consequence of recent lithospheric dynamics: the Rhenish Massif,Central Europe

Three major, interdependent processes control the genesis and distribution of mineral and thermal waters in the Rhenish Massif, Central Europe: (a) Magmatic processes in the upper mantle provide most of the CO₂ to produce bicarbonate waters in shallow aquifers. (b) Extension of the brittle upper crust enables the ascent of sodium chloride waters. (c) Uplift and erosion shape the massif's relief, which determines the extent of flow systems and the distribution of thermal springs. The chemistry of mineral waters further depends on the aquifers' mineral composition. A comprehensive set of hydrological, chemical, tectonic and geophysical data on the Rhenish Massif has been compiled. It was used to classify the mineral waters and to map the spatial distribution of water properties. The composition of cuttings from several representative wells producing different water types shows that the hydrothermal alteration of the aquifer rocks consists mainly of kaolinization of chlorite and dissolution of feldspar. Numerical transport simulations favour two modes of groundwater flow: topography-driven flow and the pressure-driven ascent of basement brines along active faults. Thermal convection is less important.     

Observations of particle movement in a monitoring well using the colloidal borescope

The colloidal borescope consists of a set of lenses and miniature video cameras capable of observing natural particles in monitoring wells. Based on field observations of these particles, it appears possible to measure in situ groundwater velocity in a well bore. Field observations have shown that directional measurements using the colloidal borescope are generally in good agreement with expected flow directions. However, the magnitude of flow velocity is higher compared with values based on conventional test methods. High relative flow velocities, even after correction factors have been applied to compensate for well bore effects, are believed to be due to preferential flow zones in the surrounding aquifer. Low flow zones exhibit swirling multidirectional flow that does not allow for a linear velocity measurement. Consequently, groundwater flow velocities measured by the colloidal borescope in heterogeneous aquifers will be biased toward the maximum velocity values present in the aquifer. A series of laboratory experiments was conducted to assess the reliability of the instrument. Based on this work, a seepage velocity correction factor ( ) of 1–4 was found for quantifying groundwater seepage velocity in the adjacent aquifer from observations in a well bore. Laboratory measurements also indicate that preferential flow in the surrounding aquifer dominates flow in the well. Results of this work suggest the possibility of quantifying higher-flow velocities associated with preferential flow zones in the subsurface.     

一种新的流动注射在线共沉淀技术的研究及应用

建立了应用流动注射在线共沉淀分离富集火焰原子吸收法测定天然水样中痕量铬的价态分析方法。利用铬（Ⅲ）在碱性条件下与氢氧化镧形成共沉淀而与共存离子分离并得到富集，沉淀不需过滤，直接用稀盐酸从编织反应器（ＫＲ）中溶解并洗脱下来，用原子吸收测定。本体系的浓集倍率２２，检出限（３σ）０．８μｇ／Ｌ，相对标准偏差（ｎ＝１１）２．７２％，用水标样考察，分析结果与推荐值相符。该方法成功地用于天然水中铬的快速测定。     

川陕丁家林金矿区探矿权的评估

为准确、客观估价丁家林金矿区探矿权价值，根据矿区地质报告中提交的储量级别、矿体控制程度和工程质量，确定了基础和可采储量、生产规模、矿山服务年限、贴现率、有关实物工作量等6项参数。综合运用贴现现金流量和重置成本法对探矿权进行评估，对达到详查程度的基础储量采用贴现现金流量法，控制程度低的资源量采用重置成本法，二者之和综合反映探矿权的价值。此方法适用于地质工作程度不均衡矿区的探矿权评估，贴现现金流量法要充分考虑储量的可信度和获利临界品位．重置成本法关键是准确确定有关的实物工作量。     

Seepage driving effect on deformations of San Fernando dams

In the process of flow deformation of an earth dam, the seepage force inside the dam plays a role as a driving force. The seepage force acts just like the gravitational force in terms of pushing soils away from their original locations after liquefaction is triggered. This paper draws attention to this seepage driving effect by presenting a set of fully coupled finite element analyses on the well-known San Fernando dams, with the objective of evaluating the impact of this seepage effect. The results indicate that while this effect is always there, its practical significance depends on a number of factors. In the case of the upper San Fernando dam, which experienced a significant, but restricted, downstream movement during the 1971 earthquake, the seepage driving effect was indeed significant. On the contrary, for the lower dam, which failed and slid into the upstream reservoir during the same earthquake, this seepage effect was relatively less pronounced. The detailed results of the analyses reveal the likely mechanisms of failure and deformation of the two dams and the likely cause behind the difference between their responses during the earthquake.