Impact of Reservoir Permeability,Permeability Anisotropy and Designed Injection Rate on CO2 Gas Behavior in the Shallow Saline Aquifer at the CaMI Field Research Station,Brooks, Alberta

Natural Resources Research - Carbon capture and storage is part of Canada’s climate change action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Containment and Monitoring Institute Field...     

Tensionless–frictionless interaction of flexible annular foundation with a transversely isotropic multi‐layered half‐space

A transversely isotropic multi‐layered half‐space, with axis of material symmetry perpendicular to the free surface, supports a flexible either annular or solid circle foundation. The contact area of the foundation and the half‐space is considered to be both frictionless and tensionless. The foundation is assumed to be affected by a vertical static axisymmetric load. Detailed analysis of the interaction of these two systems with different thickness of layers is the target of this paper. With the use of ring load Green's functions for both the foundation and the continuum half‐space, an integral equation accompanied with some inequalities is introduced to model the complex BVP. With the incorporation of ring‐shape FEM, we are capable of capturing both regular and singular solution smoothly. The validity of the combination of the analytical and numerical method is proved with comparing the results of this paper with a number of benchmark cases of both linear and nonlinear interaction of circular and annular foundation with half‐space. Some new illustrations are presented to portray the aspect of the anisotropy and layering of the half‐space. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unified numerical study of shallow foundation on structured soft clay under unconsolidated and consolidated-undrained loadings

Abstract

Based on a new elasto-plastic constitutive model, this paper presents a soil–water coupled numerical prediction of the bearing capacity for shallow foundation constructed on Ballina soft clay for unconsolidated undrained (UU) and consolidated undrained (CU) conditions. This elasto-plastic constitutive Shanghai model has an advantage of describing the mechanical behaviour of over-consolidated and structured soil under different loading and drainage conditions, by using one set of material parameter. In this paper, the Shanghai model used for both UU and CU conditions has the same initial parameters obtained from laboratory test results. The loading conditions and consolidation stages vary based on construction details. The predicted bearing pressure-settlement responses for UU and CU, approves the field observation. The phenomenon of gaining the bearing capacity due to consolidation is captured and explained by the use of soil–water coupled numerical analysis with a new elasto-plastic model. The stress strain behaviour, stress paths and the decay of the structure of elements at different depths presented in this study, reveal the mechanism for the difference between UU and CU conditions to understand the foundation behaviour. Effect of the initial degree of soil structure on the bearing capacity is also addressed. Overall, this approach provides the integrated solution for the shallow foundation design problems under short and long-term loadings.     

The role of tourism in rural development: Evidence from Iran

GeoJournal - Tourism can play an important role in diversifying the rural economy and its expanding in rural areas contributes to the sustainability of the population and the economy of these areas...     

A multi-proxy reconstruction of spatial and temporal variations in Asian summer temperatures over the last millennium

To investigate climate variability in Asia during the last millennium, the spatial and temporal evolution of summer (June–July–August; JJA) temperature in eastern and south-central Asia is reconstructed using multi-proxy records and the regularized expectation maximization (RegEM) algorithm with truncated total least squares (TTLS), under a point-by-point regression (PPR) framework. The temperature index reconstructions show that the late 20th century was the warmest period in Asia over the past millennium. The temperature field reconstructions illustrate that temperatures in central, eastern, and southern China during the 11th and 13th centuries, and in western Asia during the 12th century, were significantly higher than those in other regions, and comparable to levels in the 20th century. Except for the most recent warming, all identified warm events showed distinct regional expressions and none were uniform over the entire reconstruction area. The main finding of the study is that spatial temperature patterns have, on centennial time-scales, varied greatly over the last millennium. Moreover, seven climate model simulations, from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), over the same region of Asia, are all consistent with the temperature index reconstruction at the 99 % confidence level. Only spatial temperature patterns extracted as the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) from the GISS-E2-R and MPI-ESM-P model simulations are significant and consistent with the temperature field reconstruction over the past millennium in Asia at the 90 % confidence level. This indicates that both the reconstruction and the simulations depict the temporal climate variability well over the past millennium. However, the spatial simulation or reconstruction capability of climate variability over the past millennium could be still limited. For reconstruction, some grid points do not pass validation tests and reveal the need for more proxies with high temporal resolution, accurate dating, and sensitive temperature signals, especially in central Asia and before AD 1400.     

A practical co-simulation approach for multiscale analysis of geotechnical systems

The particulate nature of granular soils can be accurately simulated at a microscale level. However, due to the huge spatial extent of geotechnical systems, a model fully constructed at such a scale is almost impossible with current computing technologies. Hence, continuum-based approaches are considered as the practical scale for modeling the majority of problems. Combining both scales enables benefiting from the advantages of both techniques while trying to overcome their drawbacks. Although a significant number of publications have addressed coupling both scales, only a few provide information regarding implementing the proposed procedures. In this study, an efficient co-simulation framework for conducting multiscale analysis is introduced. The framework is based on integrating existing continuum and micromechanical modeling software packages and therefore benefitting from already existing codes. A computational simulation of a rigid pile in contact with granular soil demonstrating the capabilities of such technique is presented. The near-field zone surrounding the pile is modeled using DEM whereas FEM is utilized to model far-field zones that are not affected by the presence of the pile. Results of conducted simulations resemble those obtained from experimental results. The proposed approach appears to be a very effective and promising tool to model boundary value problems of geotechnical systems.     

Estimation of aquifer hydraulic parameters from surface geophysical measurements: a case study of the Upper Cretaceous aquifer, central Sinai, Egypt

The integration of geophysical data with direct hydrogeological measurements can provide a minimally invasive approach to characterize the subsurface at a variety of resolutions and over many spatial scales. The field of hydrogeophysics has attracted much attention during the last two decades. In this domain, the geophysical data inverted to geophysical models are interpreted in terms of the hydrogeology to serve as a basis for the definition of hydraulic models in the areas of interest. The hydraulic conductivity (K) value measured in a reference borehole has been combined with the electrical conductivity obtained from nearby geo-electromagnetic sounding data in the Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) aquifer, central Sinai, Egypt. The resulting relation was interpreted with Dar Zarrouk parameters to infer the transmissivity variations at other vertical electrical sounding locations, where K values are unknown. Coincident transient electromagnetic data have been adopted to increase accuracy while interpreting the aquifer geoelectrical properties. The results indicate that the transmissivity values in the aquifer of interest vary from 2,446 to 9,694 m²/day, and K varies from 12.9 to 57.0 m/day throughout the studied area.