Tsunami-like solitary waves impinging and overtopping an impermeable seawall: Experiment and RANS modeling

This study investigates tsunami-like solitary waves impinging and overtopping an impermeable trapezoidal seawall on a 1:20 sloping beach. New laboratory experiments are performed for describing three typical cases: a turbulent bore rushes inland and subsequently impacts and overtops the seawall (Type 1); a wave directly collapses on the seawall and then generates overtopping flow (Type 2); and, a wave straightforwardly overtops the seawall crown and collapses behind the seawall (Type 3). A two-dimensional volume of fluid (VOF) type model called the COBRAS (COrnell BReaking And Structure) model, which is based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the k–ε turbulence closure solver, is validated by experimental data and then applied to investigate wave dynamics for which laboratory data are unavailable. Additionally, a set of numerical experiments is conducted to examine the dynamic wave acting force due to waves impacting the seawall. Effects of wave nonlinearity and freeboard are elucidated. Special attention is given to a distinct vortex evolutionary behavior behind the seawall, in which the dynamic properties of entrapped air-bubbles are briefly addressed experimentally and numerically.     

Effect of peak ground acceleration to velocity ratio on ductility demand of inelastic systems

A statistical analysis is performed to investigate the significance of peak ground acceleration to velocity ratio (a/v) on the displacement ductility demand of simple bilinear hysteretic systems. Three groups of earthquake records representative of low, normal and high<a/v ranges are used as input ground motions. The design yield strength of the inelastic systems is specified from the base shear formula in the 1980 National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 1980) and that in NBCC 1985 respectively. The former case represents the common practice of specifying seismic design base shear based on a peak site acceleration, while in the latter case the base shear is specified based on peak ground velocity and a/v ratio. Mean displacement ductility demands are obtained for the three groups of ground motions; and the corresponding dispersion characteristics are examined. The results show that the ground motion<a/v range has a significant effect on the displacement ductility demand, and it should be accounted for in design strength specification.     

Bowen ratio/energy balance technique for estimating crop net CO2 assimilation,and comparison with a canopy chamber

Summary This paper describes a Bowen ratio/energy balance (BREB) system which, in conjunction with an infra-red gas analyzer (IRGA), is referred to as BREB+ and is used to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) and net CO₂ flux (NCF) over crop canopies. The system is composed of a net radiometer, soil heat flux plates, two psychrometers based on platinum resistance thermometers (PRT), bridge circuits to measure resistances, an IRGA, air pumps and switching valves, and a data logger. The psychrometers are triple shielded and aspirated, and with aspiration also between the two inner shields. High resistance (1 000 ohm) PRT's are used for dry and wet bulbs to minimize errors due to wiring and connector resistances. A high (55 K ohm) fixed resistance serves as one arm of the resistance bridge to ensure linearity in output signals. To minimize gaps in data, to allow measurements at short (e.g., 5 min) intervals, and to simplify operation, the psychrometers were fixed at their upper and lower position over the crop and not alternated. Instead, the PRT's, connected to the bridge circuit and the data logger, were carefully calibrated together. Field tests using a common air source showed appartent effects of the local environment around each psychrometer on the temperatures measured. ET rates estimated with the BREB system were compared to those measured with large lysimeters. Daily totals agreed within 5%. There was a tendency, however, for the lysimeter measurements to lag behind the BREB measurements. Daily patterns ofNCF estimated with the BREB+ system are consistent with expectations from theories and data in the literature. Side-by-side comparisons with a stirred Mylar canopy chamber showed similarNCF patterns. On the other hand, discrepancies between the results of the two methods were quite marked in the morning or afternoon on certain dates. Part of the discrepancies may be attributed to inaccuracies in the psychrometric temperature measurements. Other possible causes include the highly artificial air turbulence in the canopy chamber and possible associated stomatal response. More work is necessary to identify conclusively the causes. In spite of these uncertainties, the BREB+ technique appears well suited for the automated and simultaneous tracking of photosynthetic performance and water economy of crops in their virtually undisturbed natural environment.To whom reprint requests should be sent.With 7 Figures     

Effective eccentricity for inelastic seismic response of buildings

The concept of effective eccentricity is generalized for inelastic systems to provide guidelines for estimating the maximum dynamic edge displacement and resisting element deformation of a single mass monosymmetrical system subjected to unidirectional ground excitations. Inelastic responses of three structural models having the same overall elastic responses are compared and the model which generally results in larger edge displacement is chosen as the structural model to be used to evaluate the effect of asymmetry. The inelastic effective eccentricity is calculated for different values of the system parameters, based on an ensemble of six ground motion records as input. It is concluded that, except for stiff structures having low yield strength, the elastic effective eccentricity curves developed previously by Dempsey and Tso can provide a reasonable or relatively conservative estimate for inelastic effective eccentricity, and these curves can be used to estimate the edge displacement and element deformation of inelastic eccentric systems.     

Seismic energy demands on reinforced concrete moment-resisting frames

This paper examines the seismic energy demands on reinforced concrete ductile moment-resisting frames. Three frames having 4, 10 and 18 storeys, representing low, medium and tall frames, were designed to the current Canadian seismic provisions and structural design requirements. Three groups of earthquake records having different frequency contents were selected as input ground motions. The input, hysteretic and damping energies were evaluated for these three frames and correlation was established with other response parameters. The use of equivalent single-degree-of-freedom systems to estimate the energy demands on these frames was examined in order to simplify the computational effort. It is shown that the energy demand concept together with the equivalent single-degree-of-freedom system is a viable design approach for low-rise frames. Additional research to allow for the higher modal effect is required before the same concept can be extended to medium and tall frames.     

Response spectrum techniques for asymmetric buildings

A scheme is proposed to calculate the effect of torsion on each lateral load resisting element of asymmetrical buildings in the context of the response spectrum technique. The scheme consists of: (i) Obtain the modal shear and torque on the building by the response spectrum technique, (ii) Compute the total modal shear forces on each frame by resolving the modal shear and torque on the building according to principles of structural mechanics. The shears on each frame due to the lateral load effect and torsional effect are combined algebraically, (iii) Obtain the total shear force on each frame by combining the total modal shears on that frame in a root sum square manner. Since the proper phase relationship between the lateral load effect and torsional effect is accounted for on a modal basis, it is believed that the proposed scheme provides a more realistic load estimate on the frames than the conventional approach. An example of a simplified mono-symmetrical frame structure is chosen to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed scheme, using dynamic time-history analysis as a standard for comparison.     

余辉等离子体中的谐振现象及其在空间研究中的可能应用

用谐振探针在余辉式等离子体中进行测量,观察到了谐振效应。与某些作者的结论不同的是:可证明这一谐振发生在等离子体频率ω_p处而没有强的阻尼。如果用这一方法进行等离子体浓度测量也不受探针污染的影响。进而指出这一技术在空间等离子体研究方面可能的应用。     

Development of MSP430-based ultra-low power expandable underwater acoustic recorder

Reducing overall power consumption is core issue in low power, high sampling rate, large storage data loggers necessary for long-term underwater acoustics research and other applications. A low-power microprocessor MSP430 offers a solution for the development of long-term deployment remote systems. In this paper, we present a multi-MSP430, master-slave architecture to resolve the power limitation issue. The proposed design is scalable in nature. For every additional slave unit installed in the array, the data sampling and streaming rate can be increased proportionally. We demonstrate the advantages of this concept using a multi-channel underwater acoustic recorder with a 100 kHz sampling rate. The performance of the system is demonstrated by a field acoustic experiment in which the reflection coefficient of the seafloor is measured. The proposed architecture will be applicable to many underwater long-term deployment systems. With its flexibility in configuration and synchronization of multi-channel sampling, it also provides a simple architecture for the construction of hydrophone arrays.     

A trophic model for the Danshuei River Estuary, a hypoxic estuary in northern Taiwan

The estuary of the Danshuei River, a hypoxic subtropical estuary, receives a high rate of untreated sewage effluent. The Ecopath with Ecosim software system was used to construct a mass-balanced trophic model for the estuary, and network analysis was used to characterize the structure and matter flow in the food web. The estuary model was comprised of 16 compartments, and the trophic levels varied from 1.0 for primary producers and detritus to 3.0 for carnivorous and piscivorous fishes. The large organic nutrient loading from the upper reaches has resulted in detritivory being more important than herbivory in the food web. The food-chain length of the estuary was relatively short when compared with other tropical/subtropical coastal systems. The shortness of food-chain length in the estuary could be attributed to the low biomass of the top predators. Consequently, the trophic efficiencies declined sharply for higher trophic levels due to low fractions of flows to the top predators and then high fractions to detritus. The low biomass of the top predators in the estuary was likely subject to over-exploitation and/or hypoxic water. Summation of individual rate measurements for primary production and respiration yielded an estimate of −1791 g WW m⁻² year⁻¹, or −95 g C m⁻² year⁻¹, suggesting a heterotrophic ecosystem, which implies that more organic matter was consumed than was produced in the estuary.     

Bathymetry enhancement by altimetry-derived gravity anomalies in the East Sea (Sea of Japan)

The gravity-geologic method (GGM) was used to enhance the bathymetry of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) with satellite altimetry-derived free-air gravity anomalies and shipborne depth measurements. By comparison with the bathymetry model of Smith and Sandwell’s (SAS) approach (1994), GGM was found to have an advantage with short wavelength (≤12 km) components, while SAS better predicts longer wavelength (≥25 km) components, despite its dependency on density contrast. To mitigate this limitation, a tuning density contrast of 10.25 g/cm³ between seawater and the seafloor was primarily estimated by the downward continuation method and then validated by the check points method with GGM. Similarly, SAS is limited by the “A” value in low-pass part of the Wiener filter, which defines the effective range of the wavelength components on bathymetry. As a final result, we present an enhanced GGM bathymetry model by integrating all available data.