A procedure for evaluating seismic energy demand of framed structures

Energy serves as an alternative index to response quantities like force or displacement to include the duration‐related seismic damage effect. A procedure to evaluate the absorbed energy in a multistorey frame from energy spectra was developed. For low‐ to medium‐rise frames, it required a static pushover analysis of the structure to determine the modal yield force and ductility factor of an equivalent single‐degree‐of‐freedom system for the first two modes. The energy spectra were then used to determine the energy contribution of each mode. A procedure was also developed to distribute the energy along the frame height based on energy shapes. This study showed that the second‐mode response in some cases needs to be considered to reflect the energy (or damage) concentration in the upper floors. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fundamental procedure and calculation formula for evaluating gravel liquefaction

Field investigations following the 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake identified 118 liquefaction sites, most of which are underlain by gravelly sediment in the Chengdu Plain and adjacent Mianyang area, in the Sichuan Province. Gravel sediment in the Sichuan province is widely distributed; hence it is necessary to develop a method for prediction and evaluation of gravel liquefaction behavior. Based on liquefaction investigation data and in-situ testing, and with reference to existing procedures for sandy soil liquefaction evaluation, a fundamental procedure for gravel liquefaction evaluation using dynamic penetration tests (DPT) is proposed along with a corresponding model and calculation formula. The procedure contains two stages, i.e., pre-determination and re-determination. Pre-determination excludes impossible liquefiable or non-liquefiable soils, and re-determination explores a DPT-based critical N120 blows calculation model. Pre-determination includes three criteria, i.e., geological age, gravel contents, gravel sediment depths and water tables. The re-determination model consists of five parameters, i.e., DPT reference values, gravel contents, gravel sediment depths, water tables and seismic intensities. A normalization method is used for DPT reference values and an optimization method is used for the gravel sediment depth coefficient and water table coefficient. The gravel liquefaction evaluation method proposed herein is simple and takes most influencing factors on gravel sediment liquefaction into account.     

A fundamental procedure and calculation formula for evaluating gravel liquefaction

Field investigations following the 2008 Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake identified 118 liquefaction sites, most of which are underlain by gravelly sediment in the Chengdu Plain and adjacent Mianyang area, in the Sichuan Province. Gravel sediment in the Sichuan province is widely distributed; hence it is necessary to develop a method for prediction and evaluation of gravel liquefaction behavior. Based on liquefaction investigation data and in-situ testing, and with reference to existing procedures for sandy soil l...     

The SERGISAI procedure for seismic risk assessment

The European project SERGISAI developed a computational tool where amethodology for seismic risk assessment at different geographical scales hasbeen implemented. Experts of various disciplines, including seismologists,engineers, planners, geologists, and computer scientists, co-operated in anactual multidisciplinary process to develop this tool. Standard proceduralcodes, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and Artificial Intelligence(AI) techniques compose the whole system, that will enable the end userto carry out a complete seismic risk assessment at three geographical scales:regional, sub-regional and local. At present, single codes or models thathave been incorporated are not new in general, but the modularity of theprototype, based on a user-friendly front-end, offers potential users thepossibility of updating or replacing any code or model if desired. Theproposed procedure is a first attempt to integrate tools, codes and methodsfor assessing expected earthquake damage, and it was mainly designedto become a useful support for civil defence and land use planning agencies.Risk factors have been treated in the most suitable way for each one, interms of level of detail, kind of parameters and units of measure.Identifying various geographical scales is not a mere question of dimension;since entities to be studied correspond to areas defined by administrativeand geographical borders. The procedure was applied in the following areas:Toscana in Italy, for the regional scale, the Garfagnana area in Toscana, forthe sub-regional scale, and a part of Barcelona city, Spain, for the localscale.     

Holocene-historical volcanism and active faults as natural risk factors for Armenia and adjacent countries

Examples of Holocene-historical volcanism in the territory of Armenia and adjacent areas of Eastern Anatolia and Western Iran are discussed. Holocene-historical activity is proved for the volcanoes of Tskhouk–Karckar, Porak, Vaiyots-Sar, Smbatassar and Ararat. Based on the analysis of remote sensing data, field work, and historical and archeological information, it is demonstrated that there was a considerable number of cases of volcanic activity in Armenia and adjacent regions of Turkey, Syria and Iran during the historical period. The Holocene volcanic centers are situated within pull-apart basin structures and controlled by active faults. Situated in an area prone to many types of natural hazards, Armenia and adjacent countries face high natural risk. The evidence presented shows that volcanic hazard also contributes to the natural risk for these countries.     

A spatial disaggregation procedure for precipitation

Abstract

A disaggregation procedure is presented to render forecast values of precipitation from an atmospheric model with spatial resolution of 11 × 11 km suitable as input for a distributed hydrological model with spatial resolution of 1.1 × 1.1 km. Statistical and morphological properties of the input field, such as spatial mean, variance, correlation structure and intermittency, are respected in the disaggregated field. The adopted approach is a combination of interpolation and simulation. The four nodal points of the atmospheric model grid cell are used both for determining the parameters of the exponential distribution for simulating precipitation values, and in a simple interpolation procedure to determine the spatial location of the precipitation values. A shifted distribution with two parameters is used in the case of full coverage of the grid cell, and a one-parameter distribution with a theoretically derived intermittency parameter is used if intermittency is present. The results are promising with respect to the statistical and morphological properties of the disaggregated field.     

A mechanical model for deformation and earthquakes on strike-slip faults

A two-dimensional model for stress accumulation and earthquake instability associated with strike-slip faults is considered. The model consists of an elastic lithosphere overlying a viscous asthenosphere, and a fault of finite width with an upper brittle zone having an elastoplastic response and a lower ductile zone having an elastoviscoplastic response. For the brittle, or seismic, zone the behavior of the fault material is assumed to be governed by a relation which involves strain hardening followed by a softening regime, with strength increasing with depth. For the fault material in the ductile, or aseismic, section, the viscous effect is included through use of a nonlinear creep law, and the strength is assumed to decrease with depth. Hence, because of the lesser strength and the viscous effect, continuous flow occurs at great depths, causing stress accumulation at the upper portion of the fault and leading to failure at the bottom of the brittle zone. The failure is initially due to localized strain softening but, with further flow, the material above the softened zone reaches its maximum strength and begins to soften. This process accelerates and may result in an unstable upward rupture propagation.Relations are developed for the history of deformation within the lithosphere, specifically for the velocity of particles within the fault and at the ground surface. The boundary-element method is used for a quantitative study, and numerical results are obtained and compared with the recorded surface deformation of the San Andreas fault. The effects of geometry and material properties on instability, on the history of the surface deformation, and on the earthquake recurrence time are studied. The results are presented in terms of variations of ground-surface shear strain and shear strain rate, and velocity of points within the fault at various times during the earthquake cycle.It is found that the location of rupture initiation, the possibility of a sudden rupture as opposed to stable creep, and also the ground deformation pattern and its history, all critically depend on the mechanical response of the material within the fault zone, especially that of the brittle section. Shorter earthquake recurrence times are obtained for shallower brittle zones and for a stiffer lithosphere. Lower viscosities of the aseismic zone and the absence of asthenospheric coupling tend to suppress instability and promote stable creep. The model results thus suggest that the overall viscosity of the ductile creeping zone must exceed a minimum value for a sudden upward propagating rupture to take place within the seismic section.     

A neural network approach for the real-time detection of faults

Fault detection is an essential part of the operation of any chemical plant. Early detection of faults is important in chemical industry since a lot of damage and loss can result before a fault present in the system is detected. Even though fault detection algorithms are designed and implemented for quickly detecting incidents, most these algorithms do not have an optimal property in terms of detection delay with respect to false alarm rate. Based on the optimization property of cumulative sum (CUSUM), a real-time system for detecting changes in dynamic systems is designed in this paper. This work is motivated by combining two fault detection (FD) strategies; a simplified procedure of the incident detection problem is formulated by using both the artificial neural networks (ANN) and the CUSUM statistical test (Page–Hinkley test). The design of a model-based residual generator is intended to reveal any drift from the normal behavior of the process. In order to obtain a reliable model for the normal process dynamics, the neural black-box modeling by means of a nonlinear auto-regressive with eXogenous input (NARX) model has been chosen in this study. This paper also shows the choice and the performance of the neural network in the training and test phases. After describing the system architecture and the proposed methodology of the fault detection, we present a realistic application in order to show the technique’s potential. The purpose is to develop and test the fault detection method on a real incident data, to detect the change presence, and pinpoint the moment it occurred. The experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the FD method.     

A review of advances in urban flood risk analysis over China

Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment - China’s urban environments are particularly vulnerable to flooding due to climate change and rapid urbanization. Study of the urban...     

A method for evaluating horizontal well pumping tests

Predicting the future performance of horizontal wells under varying pumping conditions requires estimates of basic aquifer parameters, notably transmissivity and storativity. For vertical wells, there are well-established methods for estimating these parameters, typically based on either the recovery from induced head changes in a well or from the head response in observation wells to pumping in a test well. Comparable aquifer parameter estimation methods for horizontal wells have not been presented in the ground water literature. Formation parameter estimation methods based on measurements of pressure in horizontal wells have been presented in the petroleum industry literature, but these methods have limited applicability for ground water evaluation and are based on pressure measurements in only the horizontal well borehole, rather than in observation wells. This paper presents a simple and versatile method by which pumping test procedures developed for vertical wells can be applied to horizontal well pumping tests. The method presented here uses the principle of superposition to represent the horizontal well as a series of partially penetrating vertical wells. This concept is used to estimate a distance from an observation well at which a vertical well that has the same total pumping rate as the horizontal well will produce the same drawdown as the horizontal well. This equivalent distance may then be associated with an observation well for use in pumping test algorithms and type curves developed for vertical wells. The method is shown to produce good results for confined aquifers and unconfined aquifers in the absence of delayed yield response. For unconfined aquifers, the presence of delayed yield response increases the method error.     

A procedure for the calibration of gravimeters

Summary Taking into account some recent results showing that the observations carried out with Worden gravimeters are influenced by temperature, a method of calibration has been followed which aims to neutralize both the effect of drift and to affort complete symmetry to every value observed.

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Résumé En tenant compte de récents resultats qui montrent comme les lectures faites avec les gravimètres Worden soient influencées par la température, on a suivi pour l'étalonnage de ces gravimètres une méthode qui a le but outre que de neutralizer l'effet de la derive, d'assurer la complète symétrie aux valeurs observées.

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Riassunto Tenendo conto dei risultati di alcune recenti ricerche che mostrano come le letture fatte ai gravimetri Worden siano influenzate dalla temperatura, si è seguito un metodo di taratura che ha il duplice scopo di neutralizzare l'effetto della deriva e di trattare con la massima simmetria ogni singolo valore osservato.

     

A design procedure for tied braced frames

The paper deals with the analysis of the seismic behaviour and design of tied braced frames (TBFs). The behavioural properties of TBFs are described and a comparison drawn with standard eccentrically braced frames. A design procedure is then proposed that aims to achieve optimal collapse seismic behaviour, i.e. a global collapse mechanism characterized by uniform plastic rotations of links. The procedure is based on the displacement‐based approach so as to achieve direct and efficient control of the peak ground acceleration of collapse. Applications are carried out on systems with different numbers of storeys and lengths of links to obtain confirmation of the accuracy of the design hypotheses and methodologies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

A note on strength-reduction factors for design of structures near earthquake faults

Strength-reduction factors are analyzed for simplified near-fault, fault-normal and fault-parallel strong-motion displacements. It is shown that the common design rules for selection of the strength-reduction factors are conservative and properly describe the reduction amplitudes near faults of strong earthquakes, for fault-normal pulses. However, for fault-parallel displacements, the same reduction factors are not conservative and should be changed. It is recommended that for design close to active faults, the strength-reduction factors for all components of motion should be constant for all periods and equal to (2μ−1)^1/2, where μ is ductility.     

Building damage scenarios based on exploitation of Housner intensity derived from finite faults ground motion simulations

In this paper earthquake damage scenarios for residential buildings (about 4200 units) in Potenza (Southern Italy) have been estimated adopting a novel probabilistic approach that involves complex source models, site effects, building vulnerability assessment and damage estimation through Damage Probability Matrices. Several causative faults of single seismic events, with magnitude up to 7, are known to be close to the town. A seismic hazard approach based on finite faults ground motion simulation techniques has been used to identify the sources producing the maximum expected ground motion at Potenza and to generate a set of ground motion time histories to be adopted for building damage scenarios. Additionally, site effects, evaluated in a previous work through amplification factors of Housner intensity, have been combined with the bedrock values provided by hazard assessment. Furthermore, a new relationship between Housner and EMS-98 macroseismic intensity has been developed. This relationship has been used to convert the probability mass functions of Housner intensity obtained from synthetic seismograms amplified by the site effects coefficients into probability mass function of EMS-98 intensity. Finally, the Damage Probability Matrices have been applied to estimate the damage levels of the residential buildings located in the urban area of Potenza. The proposed methodology returns the full probabilistic distribution of expected damage, thus avoiding average damage index or uncertainties expressed in term of dispersion indexes.     

The model of double bounds of stochastic stress in seismic risk analysis of faults

In this paper, the major idea is: when seismic stress accumulates to a certain extent, a stick slip earthquake will occur on the fault plane. The seismic stress before and after the stick slip earthquake occurrence are both stochastic variables. According to this idea, the model of double bounds of stochastic stress is proposed, and also it is used to analyse the seismic risk of Xian Shui River Fault Zone in the coming 30 years, the result is similar to what the Seismological Bureau of Sichuan Province has predicted. The Chinese version of this paper appeared in the Chinese edition ofActa Seismologica Sinica,15, 477–483, 1993.     

On the faults of western Hexi Corridor and its nearby regions, northwestern China:Thrust faults and strike-slip faults of Late Cenozoic

Introduction Hexi Corridor, a corridor extended over 1 000 km and with a strike of WNW-ESE, is locatedbetween Alxa uplift and northern Qilianshan Caledonian folding belt of northern Qinghai-Xizang(Tibet) Plateau (Figure 1). In the paper, we will discuss the regions between Altun fault and Yu-mushan of the western Hexi Corridor, where the climate is arid, which results in sparse vegetation,but abundant oil and gas resource, and being one of the most important petroleum industry base…     

城市防震减灾能力的定义及评估方法

城市防震减灾能力本身是一个涉及因素众多的复杂体系,对它的评估也是涉及到地震科学、社会科学和经济科学的交叉学科问题。本文首先提出了城市防震减灾能力的概念,把人员伤亡、经济损失和震后恢复时间3方面作为衡量城市防震减灾能力的准则;围绕这三个准则,从影响城市防震减灾能力的众多复杂因素中归纳出6大因素,并用一些简单、可测量的指标来代表这6大因素,建立起城市防震减灾能力指标体系;然后再分别建立这些指标体系中的各种因素或其子因素与评价三准则中的人员伤亡、经济损失和恢复时间的联系;最后,用灰色关联分析方法将3个评价准则综合成一个防震减灾能力指数。从而为城市防震减灾能力评估提供了一个较系统、完整的理论体系框架。城市防震减灾能力评价体系的建立能够对城市的防震减灾能力进行定量的评价,从而指导城市进行防震减灾努力的决策。