A program for evaluating dual-equilibrium desorption effects on remediation

Desorption is one of the most critical processes affecting the effectiveness of soil and ground water remediation. None of the currently adopted desorption models can accurately quantify desorption of low-hydrophobicity organic chemicals, and thus could potentially mislead remediation design and decision-making. A recently developed dual-equilibrium desorption (DED) model was found to be much more accurate in quantifying desorption. A screening-level transport model, DED-Transport, was developed to simulate the DED effect on behaviors of organic contaminant plumes during remediation. DED-Transport requires only simple parameters, but is applicable to many remediation scenarios. DED-Transport can be used as a decision-support tool in site remediation to more precisely predict the time required for cleanup.     

More rain,less soil: long‐term changes in rainfall intensity with climate change

This commentary discusses the role of long‐term climate change in driving increases in soil erosion. Assuming that land use and management remain effectively constant, we discuss changes in the ability of rainfall to cause erosion (erosivity), using long daily rainfall data sets from southeast England. An upward trend in mean rainfall per rain day is detected at the century‐plus timescale. Implications for soil erosion and sediment delivery are discussed and evidence from other regions reviewed. We conclude that rates of soil erosion may well increase in a warmer, wetter world. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic analysis of a tall metal wind turbine support tower with realistic geometric imperfections

The global growth in wind energy suggests that wind farms will increasingly be deployed in seismically active regions, with large arrays of similarly designed structures potentially at risk of simultaneous failure under a major earthquake. Wind turbine support towers are often constructed as thin‐walled metal shell structures, well known for their imperfection sensitivity, and are susceptible to sudden buckling failure under compressive axial loading. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the seismic response of a 1.5‐MW wind turbine steel support tower modelled as a near‐cylindrical shell structure with realistic axisymmetric weld depression imperfections. A selection of 20 representative earthquake ground motion records, 10 ‘near‐fault’ and 10 ‘far‐field’, was applied and the aggregate seismic response explored using lateral drifts and total plastic energy dissipation during the earthquake as structural demand parameters. The tower was found to exhibit high stiffness, although global collapse may occur soon after the elastic limit is exceeded through the development of a highly unstable plastic hinge under seismic excitations. Realistic imperfections were found to have a significant effect on the intensities of ground accelerations at which damage initiates and on the failure location, but only a small effect on the vibration properties and the response prior to damage. Including vertical accelerations similarly had a limited effect on the elastic response, but potentially shifts the location of the plastic hinge to a more slender and, therefore, weaker part of the tower. The aggregate response was found to be significantly more damaging under near‐fault earthquakes with pulse‐like effects and large vertical accelerations than far‐field earthquakes without these aspects. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The duration of acute health problems in people involved with the cleanup operation of the Hebei Spirit oil spill

The authors investigated the duration of health problems of people involved with cleanup efforts for the Hebei Spirit oil spill, which occurred in December 2007 in Taean County, South Korea. The study identified risk factors correlated with the continuation of symptoms. Approximately one year after the accident, 442 people who had participated in the cleanup operation were examined. Data regarding demographic information, risk factors, and the continuation and duration of any symptoms were obtained. Eye symptoms (9.7 months), headaches (8.4 months), skin symptoms (8.3 months), and neurovestibular symptoms (6.9 months) had a relatively longer duration than did back pain (1.8 months) or respiratory symptoms (2.1 months). In particular, the remission of headaches had a negative correlation with female gender (HR 0.57, 0.34-0.95, 95% CI), and remission of eye symptoms had a negative correlation with the total hours of daily participation in the cleanup operation (HR 0.24, 0.06-0.95, 95% CI).     

Seismic spectra on soil with uncertain properties

Expected spectral ordinates and their standard deviations are computed for ground motions produced by SH waves at the surface of a homogeneous soil formation resting on a half-space of rock. Wave transmission is idealized as linear and one-dimensional. Uncertainties about soil properties are taken into account using various approximations: a Taylor series expansion of the Fourier spectrum magnification factors with different numbers of terms and different intervals for numerical differentiation; discretization of the joint probability density function of the soil properties so as to match its moments up to those of third order including the crossed moments; a discretization that matches up to some fifth-order moments; and a fine numerical integration for the marginal density function of the modulus of rigidity, discretizing the rest of the density function. The latter approach gives sufficiently accurate results for practical purposes. Effects of even moderate uncertainty about soil properties on the statistics of spectral ordinates are found to be decisive.     

Rapid decrease of soil erosion rates with soil formation and vegetation development in periglacial areas

High mountainous areas are geomorphologically active environments which are strongly shaped by redistribution of sediments and soils. With the projected climate warming in the twenty-first century and the continued retreat of glaciers, the area of newly exposed, highly erodible sediments and soils will increase. This presents a need to better understand and quantify erosion processes in young mountainous soils, as an increase in erodibility could threaten human infrastructure (i.e. hydroelectric power, tourist installations and settlements). While soil development is increasingly well understood and quantified, a coupling to soil erosion rates is still missing. The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess how soil erosion rates change with surface age. We investigated two moraine chronosequences in the Swiss Alps: one in the siliceous periglacial area of Steingletscher (Sustenpass), with soils ranging from 30 a to 10 ka, and the other in the calcareous periglacial area of Griessgletscher (Klausenpass) with surfaces ranging from age of 110 a to 13.5 ka. We quantified the erosion rates using the ^239+240Pu fallout radionuclides and compared them to physical and chemical soil properties and the vegetation coverage. We found no significant differences between the two parent materials. At both chronosequences, the erosion rates were highest in the young soils (on average 5−10 t ha^-1 a^-1 soil loss). Erosion rates decreased markedly after 3−5 ka of soil development (on average 1−2.5 t ha^-1 a^-1 soil loss) to reach a more or less stable situation after 10−14 ka (on average 0.3–2 t ha^-1 a^-1). Climate change not only causes glacier retreat, but also increased sediment dynamics. Depending on the relief and vegetational development, it takes up to at least 10 ka to reach soil stability. The establishment of a closed vegetation cover with dense root networks seems to be the controlling factor in the reduction of soil erodibility. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simultaneous estimation of surface soil moisture and soil properties with a dual ensemble Kalman smoother

In this paper, a new state-parameter estimation approach is presented based on the dual ensemble Kalman smoother(DEn KS) and simple biosphere model(Si B2) to sequentially estimate both the soil properties and soil moisture profile by assimilating surface soil moisture observations. The Arou observation station, located in the upper reaches of the Heihe River in northwestern China, was selected to test the proposed method. Three numeric experiments were designed and performed to analyze the influence of uncertainties in model parameters, atmospheric forcing, and the model's physical mechanics on soil moisture estimates. Several assimilation schemes based on the ensemble Kalman filter(En KF), ensemble Kalman smoother(En KS), and dual En KF(DEn KF) were also compared in this study. The results demonstrate that soil moisture and soil properties can be simultaneously estimated by state-parameter estimation methods, which can provide more accurate estimation of soil moisture than traditional filter methods such as En KF and En KS. The estimation accuracy of the model parameters decreased with increasing error sources. DEn KS outperformed DEn KF in estimating soil moisture in most cases, especially where few observations were available. This study demonstrates that the DEn KS approach is a useful and practical way to improve soil moisture estimation.     

Earthquake ground motion simulation with frequency-dependent soil properties

A one-dimensional earthquake ground motion simulation with frequency-dependent dynamic soil parameters, which include shear wave velocity and quality factor, is performed within the frequency band between 10⁻² and 30 Hz. For the simulation, the general frequency-dependent dynamic soil properties are obtained by using a new non-resonance technique on various soils. Comparisons between transfer functions involving frequency-dependent and -independent dynamic soil parameters indicate that soil amplification throughout the considered frequency range is sensitive to the values of the dynamic soil parameters, in particular to the quality factor. Simplification of frequency-dependent dynamic soil parameters into constants, which prevail as a convenient practice, incurs large amplitude distortion. This study therefore demonstrates that the dynamic properties of soils play an important role in the near surface earthquake ground motion analyses and need to be used in the same way as how they were measured.     

A New Technique to Synthesize Seismography with More Flexibility: the Legendre Spectral Element Method with Overlapped Elements

The classic spectral element method (SEM) is important for seismographical simulation. However, waves subjected to irregular interfaces or surfaces are difficult to simulate accurately using SEM with quadrangular/hexahedral elements. In this paper we propose a new technique to solve this problem. The technique reconstructs some new elements near the surface/interface to substitute for any element crossing the interface, thus making the boundary of some new elements an accurate fit to the interface/surface. Numerical comparisons with the classic SEM show that the technique has improved flexibility when dealing with interface problems without losing accuracy and efficiency. The technique also enables us to vary the size and shape of an element smoothly as the velocity in a medium varies so that this removes the inaccuracy resulting from the high local variation of the grid in the classic SEM. Therefore, the technique widens the application of the classic SEM in seismographic simulation.     

Liquefied soil pressures on vertical walls with adjacent embankments

Horizontal earth pressures on rigid vertical walls in liquefied soils have extensively been studied by many researchers for the level ground surface condition. In this paper, a series of centrifuge tests was conducted to investigate the effects of embankments resting on ground surfaces on the pressure on the rigid vertical walls. In the tests, earth pressures on the rigid walls were successfully measured with built-in earth pressure cells with small accelerometers attached on them. The earth pressure cells are capable of measuring both normal and shear stresses simultaneously with a good accuracy. It appears that dynamic component of the earth pressure of liquefied sand is in proportion to the acceleration of the rigid wall irrespective of amplitude and frequency of the input motion, and increases with increasing average embankment load. On the other hand, the residual component of the earth pressure is found to be well estimated from FEM assuming the liquefied soil as an incompressible elastic body. A practical formula of the earth pressures is established for the purpose of practical use.Another series of centrifuge tests was carried out on models with solidification or densification zones below embankment toes as a remedial countermeasure against liquefaction-induced embankment failure. It was found that the proposed formulae holds valid independently of the movement of walls as long as the liquefied soil behaves as a heavy fluid, and the countermeasure does not soften significantly.     

存在一种震前超低频密度-应力波的更多证据

笔者曾指出存在一种震前由孕震区发出的地下构造中的超低频密度-应力波,而且这种波的性质与国外学者提出的"热力学弹性回跳"理论符合得很好,并列举了天文时纬残差、地下深部物质视电阻率和震前地壳突变性形变3个方面的观测证据来证明这种波的存在.我们进一步发现,我国地震工作者在对地震的长期观测和监视工作中,实际上已经获得了支持存在这种震前超低频密度-应力波的很多实测结果.大量实测数据既是这种波存在的证据,又是研究这种波的性质的第一手资料.本文将与震前超低频密度-应力波的特征符合得较好的实测资料择要列出,并与该波的特征相比较.分析表明,这些测量所反映的很可能就是这种震前超低频密度-应力波,因此也就反映了这种波的波源-震前缓慢而剧烈的地下介质扰动.     

Modelling soil erosion with a downscaled landscape evolution model

The measurement and prediction of soil erosion is important for understanding both natural and disturbed landscape systems. In particular numerical models of soil erosion are important tools for managing landscapes as well as understanding how they have evolved over time. Over the last 40 years a variety of methods have been used to determine rates of soil loss from a landscape and these can be loosely categorized into empirical and physically based models. Alternatively, physically based landscape evolution models (LEMs) have been developed that provide information on soil erosion rates at much longer decadal or centennial scales, over large spatial scales and examine how they may respond to environmental and climatic changes. Both soil erosion LEMs are interested in similar outcomes (landscape development and sediment delivery) yet have quite different methodologies and parameterizations. This paper applies a LEM (the CAESAR model) for the first time at time and space scales where soil erosion models have largely been used. It tests the ability of the LEM to predict soil erosion on a 30 m experimental plot on a trial rehabilitated landform in the Northern Territory, Australia. It then continues to discuss the synergies and differences between soil erosion and LEMs. The results demonstrate that once calibrated for the site hydrology, predicted suspended sediment and bedload yields from CAESAR show a close correspondence in both volume and timing of field measured data. The model also predicts, at decadal scales, sediment loads close to that of field measured data. Findings indicate that the small‐scale drainage network that forms within these erosion plots is an important control on the timing and magnitude of sediment delivery. Therefore, it is important to use models that can alter the DEM to reflect changing topography and drainage network as well as having a greater emphasis on channel processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Commonwealth of Australia     

Modelling increased soil cohesion due to roots with EUROSEM

As organic root exudates cause soil particles to adhere firmly to root surfaces, roots significantly increase soil strength and therefore also increase the resistance of the topsoil to erosion by concentrated flow. This paper aims at contributing to a better prediction of the root effects on soil erosion rates in the EUROSEM model, as the input values accounting for roots, presented in the user manual, do not account for differences in root density or root architecture. Recent research indicates that small changes in root density or differences in root architecture considerably influence soil erosion rates during concentrated flow. The approach for incorporating the root effects into this model is based on a comparison of measured soil detachment rates for bare and for root‐permeated topsoil samples with predicted erosion rates under the same flow conditions using the erosion equation of EUROSEM. Through backwards calculation, transport capacity efficiencies and corresponding soil cohesion values can be assessed for bare and root‐permeated topsoils respectively. The results are promising and present soil cohesion values that are in accordance with reported values in the literature for the same soil type (silt loam). The results show that grass roots provide a larger increase in soil cohesion as compared with tap‐rooted species and that the increase in soil cohesion is not significantly different under wet and dry soil conditions, either for fibrous root systems or for tap root systems. Power and exponential relationships are established between measured root density values and the corresponding calculated soil cohesion values, reflecting the effects of roots on the resistance of the topsoil to concentrated flow incision. These relationships enable one to incorporate the root effect into the soil erosion model EUROSEM, through adapting the soil cohesion input value. A scenario analysis shows that the contribution of roots to soil cohesion is very important for preventing soil loss and reducing runoff volume. The increase in soil shear strength due to the binding effect of roots on soil particles is two orders of magnitude lower as compared with soil reinforcement achieved when roots mobilize their tensile strength during soil shearing and root breakage. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

软件ABAQUS在饱和土体动力响应分析中的应用

研究表明:地震作用下土体的动力特性及变形特性与超静孔隙水压力的发展变化密切相关,因此,在土体动力分析过程中考虑孔隙水压的影响是非常必要的。本文通过对基本方程的推导,借助于大型有限元软件ABAQUS,进行了饱和土体在动力作用下孔隙水压变化的数值模拟。计算结果表明,ABAQUS完全适用于此类问题的数值模拟,并且稳定性和收敛性较好。     

Internal gravity waves in atmospheres with realistic dissipation and temperature part I. Mathematical development and propagation of waves into the thermosphere

Abstract

In this, the first part of a three part study, we develop a model for the theoretical analysis of 3‐dimensional internal gravity waves in atmospheres with arbitrary distributions of basic temperature, molecular weight, viscosity and conductivity (both eddy and molecular), Newtonian cooling, anisotropic hydromagnetic (ion) drag, and thermal excitation. Attention is given to the physical bases for our models, and a detailed outline is given of the numerical method used to solve the resulting system of equations.

As an application of the above development, we study the ability of five particular gravity waves (chosen for their observed importance in the neighborhood of 90–100 km—four of the waves are simulated tidal modes) to propagate from 90 km into the thermosphere. We choose to define the thermosphere as that portion of the atmosphere above the turbopause (ca. 110 km). Among the most significant results to emerge are the following: (i) the effects of molecular viscosity and conductivity appear to be more significant than the effects of hydromagnetic drag, and (ii) while most waves considered are significantly attenuated somewhere between 90 Ian and the thermosphere, the main semidiurnal tidal mode is not. In fact, semidiurnal temperature oscillations of only a few degrees amplitude at 90 km can give rise to oscillations of over a hundred degrees amplitude in the exosphere.     

Stochastic seismic response of multi-layered soil with random layer heights

This paper deals with the effect of layer height randomness on the seismic response of a layered soil. These parameters are assumed to be lognormal random variables. The analysis is carried out via Monte Carlo simulations coupled with the stiffness matrix method. A parametric study is conducted to derive the stochastic behavior of the peak ground acceleration and its response spectrum,the transfer function and the amplification factors. The input soil characteristics correspond to a site in Mexico City and the input seismic accelerations correspond to the Loma Prieta earthquake. It is found that the layer height heterogeneity causes a widening of the frequency content and a slight increase in the fundamental frequency of the soil profile,indicating that the resonance phenomenon is a concern for a large number of structures. Variation of the layer height randomness acts as a variation of the incident angle,i.e.,a decrease of the amplitude and a shift of the resonant frequencies.     

Effect of macropores on soil freezing and thawing with infiltration

An understanding of heat transport and water flow in unsaturated soils experiencing freezing and thawing is important when considering hydrological and thermal processes in cold regions. Macropores, such as cracks, roots, and animal holes, provide efficient conduits for enhanced infiltration, resulting in a unique distribution of water content. However, the effects of macropores on soil freezing and thawing with infiltration have not been well studied. A one‐directional soil‐column freezing and thawing experiment was conducted using unsaturated sandy and silt loams with different sizes and numbers of macropores. During freezing, macropores were found to retard the formation of the frozen layer, depending on their size and number. During thawing, water flowed through macropores in the frozen layer and reached the underlying unfrozen soil. However, infiltrated water sometimes refroze in a macropore. The ice started to form at near inner wall of the macropore, grew to the centre, and blocked flow through the macropore. The blockage ice in the macropore could not melt until the frozen layer disappeared. Improving a soil freezing model to consider these macropore effects is required. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Erosion control for mudstone soil with ventilation and watertight resin

To accelerate the re-vegetation of exposed landslide areas, hydroseeding for soil and water conservation has been widely applied as one of the economically feasible ways. However, effect durations of different hydroseeding materials are different, the formulation density has a certain effect on plant growth and the addictives may exude. This paper presents laboratory experiments of soil erosion, exuding water quality and soil hardness by using a rainfall simulator with different conditions of slope, rainfall intensity and medication density. The results showed that soil erosion decreased significantly, suggesting a good erosion-resisting effect by the ventilation and watertight resin. No significant variation of the exuded water was observed during testing, which indicates that after gelling, the ventilation and watertight resin are unlikely to release chemical substances. It was found that high resin density will result in poor workability as well as high costs; adverse will cause the mudstone to fracture due to raindrops since cracks are common to soil surface. The weatherability after spraying and its effect on plant vegetation still need further investigation.