Reliability assessment of granular filters in embankment dams

Empirical criteria have been used successfully to design filters of most embankment large dam projects throughout the world. However, these empirical rules are only applicable to a particular range of soils tested in laboratory and do not take into account the variability of the base material and filter particle sizes. In addition, it is widely accepted that the safety of fill dams is mainly dependent on the reliability of their filter performance. The work herein presented consists in a new general method for assessing the probability of fulfilling any empirical filter design criteria accounting for base and filter heterogeneity by means of first‐order reliability methods (FORM), so that reliability indexes and probabilities of fulfilling any particular criteria are obtained. This method will allow engineers to estimate the safety of existing filters in terms of probability of fulfilling their design criteria and might also be used as a decision tool on sampling needs and material size tolerances during construction. In addition, sensitivity analysis makes possible to analyse how reliabilities are influenced by different sources of input data. Finally, in case of a portfolio risk assessment, this method will allow engineers to compare the safety of several existing dams in order to prioritize safety investments and it is expected to be a very useful tool to evaluate probabilities of failure due to internal erosion. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implications of low-pass filtering on power spectra and autocorrelation functions of turbulent velocity signals

Filtering either through the electronics of an instrument or through digital procedure is performed routinely on geophysical data. When velocity fluctuations are measured in turbulent flows using electromagnetic current meters (ECMs), a builtin lowpass Butterworth filter of order n usually attenuates fluctuations at high frequencies. However, the effects of this filter may not be acknowledged in turbulence studies, thus impeding comparisons between data collected with different ECMs. This paper explores the implications of the filters on the characteristics of velocity signals, mainly on variance, power spectra, and correlation analyses. Variance losses resulting from filtering can be important but will vary with the order n of the Butterworth filter, decreasing as n increases. Knowing the filter response, it is possible to reconstruct the original signal spectrum to evaluate the effect of filtering on variance and to allow comparisons between data collected with different instruments. The autocorrelation function also is affected by filtering which increases the value of the coefficients in the first lags, resulting in an overestimation of the integral length scale of coherent structures. These important effects add to those related to size and shape differences in ECM sensors and must be taken into account in comparative studies.     

珠江三角洲网河区水位变化趋势研究

根据珠江三角洲网河区29个验潮站的实测验潮记录,应用傅氏变换与最平滤波器串联的方法来消除月均序列的周期波动对确定水位变化趋势的影响,由低通序列一元线性回归分析确定各站水位的变化趋势;结果表明,周期波动对确定海平面变化趋势的影响是显著的.应用经验正交函数(EOF)对网河区的水位变化场进行分解,由相互独立的时间函数和空间特征函数表征网河区区域的水位变化特征;应用时间特征函数计算区域水位的平均变化率为0.02mm/a.根据验潮站的水位变化趋势,探讨网河区水位变化与河床冲淤的关系.     

Parameter sensitivity of three Kalman filter schemes for assimilation of water levels in shelf sea models

In applications of data assimilation algorithms, a number of poorly known assimilation parameters usually need to be specified. Hence, the documented success of data assimilation methodologies must rely on a moderate sensitivity to these parameters. This contribution presents a parameter sensitivity study of three well known Kalman filter approaches for the assimilation of water levels in a three dimensional hydrodynamic modelling system. The filters considered are the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF), the reduced rank square root Kalman filter (RRSQRT) and the steady Kalman filter. A sensitivity analysis of key parameters in the schemes is undertaken for a setup in an idealised bay. The sensitivity of the resulting root mean square error (RMSE) is shown to be low to moderate. Hence the schemes are robust within an acceptable range and their application even with misspecified parameters is to be encouraged in this perspective. However, the predicted uncertainty of the assimilation results are sensitive to the parameters and hence must be applied with care. The sensitivity study further demonstrates the effectiveness of the steady Kalman filter in the given system as well as the great impact of assimilating even very few measurements.     

外差激光雷达测量水体布里渊散射可行性研究

该文分析外差激光雷达测量水体布里渊散射的可行性。借助测量水体布里渊散射的频移 ,可得到水体声速或温度。文中利用两条 12 7I2 吸收线锁定激光输出频率 ,产生稳定的频差约为7.5 GHz发射激光和激光本振。通过对 12 7I2 吸收线稳定度、激光频率稳定度、系统信噪比和反演精度的分析和计算机模拟 ,得出水体深度 2 5 m以内水体布里渊散射频移的测量误差可以控制在2 .5 MHz以内 ,达到水中声速 0 .6 m/ s或温度 0 .1℃的测量精度。     

基于小波变换的全色和多光谱遥感图像融合

基于多分辨率小波变换,针对高分辨率全色图像和多光谱图像的融合,提出了一种基于方向可调滤波器的区域能量测量的小波变换融合算法.将此方法与HIS和传统小波的融合方法比较,结果表明,该方法在保留多光谱图像光谱信息的同时,能够更好地保留高分辨率图像的空间信息,融合效果有较大改善.     

System identification of instrumented bridge systems

Several recorded motions for seven bridge systems in California during recent earthquakes were analysed using parametric and non‐parametric system identification (SI) methods. The bridges were selected considering the availability of an adequate array of accelerometers and accounting for different structural systems, materials, geometry and soil types. The results of the application of SI methods included identification of modal frequencies and damping ratios. Excellent fits of the recorded motion in the time domain were obtained using parametric methods. The multi‐input/single‐output SI method was a suitable approach considering the instrumentation layout for these bridges. Use of the constructed linear filters for prediction purposes was also demonstrated for three bridge systems. Reasonable prediction results were obtained considering the various limitations of the procedure. Finally, the study was concluded by identifying the change of the modal frequencies and damping of a particular bridge system in time using recursive filters. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Classification of glacial lakes using integrated approach of DFPS technique and gradient analysis using Sentinel 2A data

It is important to identify and locate glacial lakes for assessing any potential hazard. This study presents a combination of semi-automatic method Double-Window Flexible Pace Search (DFPS) and edge detection technique to identify glacial lakes using Sentinel 2A satellite data. Initially, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) has been used to identify water and non-water areas, while DFPS and Edge detection technique has been used to identify an optimum threshold value to distinguish between water and shadow areas. The optimal threshold from DFPS process is 0.21, while threshold value of gradient magnitude using edge detection process is 0.318. The number of glacial lakes identified using the above algorithm is in close agreement with previously published results on glacial lakes in Gangotri glacier using different techniques. Thus, a combination of DFPS and edge detection process has successfully segregated glacial lakes from other features present in Gangotri glacier.     

基于启发式图搜索的遥感影像道路半自动提取

启发式图搜索法用于线状目标识别的原理是：用图结构表示边缘点和边缘段，根据启发函数计算顶点权值，在图的路径上建立相应的代价函数，通过在图中搜索对应的最小代价的通道以找到最优路径。图搜索法是一种全局最优方法，它在受噪声影响较大时效果仍然较好。文中使用了启发式图搜索法（A*算法）实现了道路的半自动跟踪。它的基本思路是：首先利用自适应平滑滤波算子进行道路信息增强，然后对传统的道路数学模型进行了进一步的扩展，突出了对道路几何特性和辐射特性的描述，并依此构建图搜索的代价函数，实现了基于启发式图搜索法A*算法的道路半自动跟踪。经实验证明，该方法进行遥感影像的道路半自动提取效果较好。     

Application of the Linear Prediction filters in equatorial electrojet studies

Wiener filters are derived from the horizontal field data of two adjacent equatorial electrojet stations, Adis Ababa and Trivandrum from several sequences of quiet days. The time invariant property of the filter is established and the filter is applied to conditions marked by afternoon counter electrojet events. The prediction efficiency is shown to be consistently high. Possible uses of this technique in studies related to generating mechanisms of counter electrojet events and the day-to-day variability in electrojet currents are indicated. Inter-relationships and day-to-day variability of different components of the fields at the two stations are highlighted.