Tri-frequency spectrum method and results for resolving the parameters of Earth’s liquid core free nutation

The parameters of Earth free core nutation (FCN) are two relatively significant geophysical parameters. Sasao et al. (1980) and Wahr and Bergen (1986) provided the theoretical estimation values of FCN parameters. Gwinn, Herring and Shapiro (1987) first obtained the observational values of FCN parameters by very long base Interference (VLBI) at Cambridge University. In the same year, Neuberg and Zürn in former West Germany and Hinderer in France began to retrieve FCN parameters by the observation of gravity tides and introduced the stacking method. The other scholars who researched into the same geophysical problems by applying the data of gravity tides basically followed the stacking method. The results they reached were similar to the observational result of FCN parameters given by Neuberg et al. in 1987. But the observational results of FCN parameters gained from gravity tides were not identical with those from VLBI, mainly because of the large difference of quality of FCN. So there was not an affirmative observational result of FCN parameters since then. In this paper, The authors firstly introduce the tri-frequency spectrum method with clearly geometrical and geophysical meaning for the resolution of FCN parameters, and the observational results of FCN parameters obtained from tide data at three superconducting gravity stations were accordant with those from VLBI, which will be relatively important to arriving at a certain observational result of FCN parameters.     

Numerical characteristics of peer‐to‐peer (P2P) internet online hybrid test system and its application to seismic simulation of SRC structure

The peer‐to‐peer (P2P) Internet online hybrid test system has been developed for the seismic simulation of a structure. In this study, the stability and accuracy of the system are investigated analytically by studying the spectral radius of the recursive matrix of the test scheme featuring a two‐round quasi‐Newton test scheme. The applicability of the system is further examined by exploring the seismic responses of a complex structure, a steel‐encased reinforced concrete (SRC) structure with a steel tower on the top. The structure is divided into two numerical substructures and one tested part for hybrid test. The numerical substructures are simulated by sophisticated finite element method (FEM) models with material nonlinearities to capture local plastifications. Two types of FEM programs, namely OpenSEES and ABAQUS, which are suitable for the SRC part and the steel tower, respectively, are employed. The results demonstrate that the P2P system is able to simulate complex structures with significant nonlinearities. As compared with the previous study in which two elastic numerical substructures were considered, increase in the number of iterations in this study is not significant, because the associated nonlinearities are limited due to the small time interval adopted in the test. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.