A computational platform to assess liquefaction-induced loss at critical infrastructures scale

In the framework of the multi-disciplinary LIQUEFACT project, funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program, the LIQUEFACT Reference Guide software has been developed, incorporating both data and methodologies collected and elaborated in the project’s various work packages. Specifically, this refers to liquefaction hazard maps, methodologies and results of liquefaction vulnerability analysis for both building typologies and critical infrastructures, liquefaction mitigation measures as well as cost-benefit considerations. The software is targeting a wider range of user groups with different levels of technical background as well as requirements (urban planners, facility managers, structural and geotechnical engineers, or risk modelers). In doing so, the LIQUEFACT software shall allow the user assessing the liquefaction-related risk as well as assisting them in liquefaction mitigation planning. Dependent on the user’s requirements, the LIQUEFACT software can be used to separately conduct the liquefaction hazard analysis, the risk analysis, and the mitigation analysis. At the stage of liquefaction hazard, the users can geo-locate their assets (buildings or infrastructures) against the pre-defined macrozonation and microzonation maps in the software and identify those assets/sites that are potentially susceptible to an earthquake-induced liquefaction damage hazard. For potentially susceptible sites the user is able to commission a detailed ground investigation (e.g. CPT, SPT or V_S30 profile) and this data can be used by the software to customise the level of susceptibility to specific site conditions. The users can either use inbuilt earthquake scenarios or enter their own earthquake scenario data. In the Risk Analysis, the user can estimate the level of impact of the potential liquefaction threat on the asset and evaluate the performance. For the Mitigation Analysis, the user can develop a customized mitigation framework based on the outcome of the risk and cost-benefit analysis.

     

Improving the resilience of existing built assets to earthquake induced liquefaction disaster events

Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - LIQUEFACT was a EU H2020 funded project to investigate earthquake induced liquefaction potential across Europe and develop a series of tools to understand...     

Effects of seismic input,fine crust and existing structure on liquefaction from centrifuge model tests

The results of dynamic centrifuge tests carried out to study the effects of seismic input, fine crust and existing structure on liquefaction triggering and manifestations are presented. The basic concept of the experimentation was to analyse the seismic behaviour of level ground, saturated, 14 m deep sandy deposits, homogeneous or stratified, subjected to increasing seismic excitations up to liquefaction, with or without a one degree of freedom structure on shallow foundations. The study was performed in the framework of the European project Horizon2020 “LIQUEFACT”.

     

A field trial to test the efficiency of induced partial saturation and horizontal drains to mitigate the susceptibility of soils to liquefaction

Within the European project LIQUEFACT some activities have been devoted to the experimental verification of the effectiveness of two techniques in the mitigation of soil liquefaction susceptibility: induced partial saturation (IPS) and horizontal drains. After a preliminary check of their efficiency via centrifuge tests, the two techniques have been studied by means of some large scale shaking tests carried out in a field trial located in the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy). A preliminary extensive in situ and laboratory investigation was necessary to identify the shallow liquefiable soil layer in which the mitigation techniques and the monitoring instrumentations (pore pressure transducers and geophones) had to be installed. Both techniques required the installation of horizontal well screens via a directional controlled drilling technique: the pipes were used as drainage systems (linear HDL and rhomboidal configurations HDR) or for the air injection in the area treated with IPS technique. The in situ experimental evidences showed that both techniques are able to avoid liquefaction triggering, that on the contrary was attained during the tests in the untreated testing area. The processing of in situ data highlighted that the efficiency of the two techniques is strictly related to chosen arrangement of the horizontal drains and the induced degree of saturation.

     

GPS在山区滑坡变形监测中的应用

山区滑坡的稳定性一直是倍受关注的一个重要安全问题。本文讨论了滑坡位移传统监测方法的缺陷和新型的基于GPS的自动监测技术所具有的独特优势,介绍了适用于山区公路滑坡位移监测的高精度的GPS技术。实践表明,采用GPS技术进行山区滑坡的稳定性监测,具有可操作性更强、精度更高、不受气候条件约束以及高度自动化等优点,能够为预测边坡可能出现失稳破坏的部位和变形破坏时间提供更可靠的监测资料,因而GPS监测技术值得在山区滑坡的变形监测领域中推广使用。     

Nonlinearity in the response of soils in the 1995 Kobe earthquake in vertical components of records

Strong motion records provided by seismic vertical arrays allow estimation of stress–strain relations in soils at depths from the surface to the location of the deepest device. As an example, time-dependent nonlinear soil behavior was estimated in vertical components of records obtained in the epicentral area of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Degradation of the rigidity of soils in the strong motion was observed. The constructed nonlinear models of the soil behavior were used for estimating the nonlinear parts in the ground response by the nonlinear system identification technique. Nonlinear parts in the ground response were found to be as high as 50% at 2 km from the fault and 10% at 6–15 km from the fault plane. Odd types of nonlinearity, such as cubic, the fifth, seventh, etc. order, were found to be typical for soils, whereas, nonlinearities of even types are usually weak, but increase in liquefied soils.     

Methods of the Theory of Water Flow in Porous Media in Problems Arising in Bog Watering

The analysis of hydrogeological problems arising in bog watering by methods enabling the depth to groundwater table to be controlled was used to develop a method for estimating the efficiency of such control when data for directly solving groundwater flow problems are lacking. The effect of nonmonotone dependence of the rate of groundwater level rise on the hydraulic conductivity of peat underlain by high-permeability sand rocks is described. This effect is shown to be significant in assessing the potentialities of the operational control of groundwater level in bog massifs with this type of geological structure.     

2009年秋季武汉大东湖北湖水系水生植物调查

武汉大东湖北湖水系包括北湖、严西湖、严东湖、竹子湖、清潭湖.2009年秋季对北湖水系湖区水生植物调查结果表明,水生植物分布面积达3.89km2,占整个水域面积的14.8%,总现存量(鲜重)为17834.28t;现有水生植物49种,隶属于20科36属,苦草(Vallisneria spiralis)、穗花狐尾藻(Myri...     

2019年中国大陆地震灾害损失述评

本文列出了2019年中国5.0级（含）以上地震目录,对中国大陆地震灾害情况和主要特点进行总结。结合有关省（自治区、直辖市）地震局的地震灾害评估报告和相关资料,分析主要震例的经济损失结果和灾害特点,并结合1998年以来中国大陆自然灾害与地震灾害统计数据,分析对比地震灾害致灾情况占全部自然灾害的比例变化特征。     

Characteristic of microalgae development in the Sea of Okhotsk in winter and modeling of their annual dynamics in Aniva Bay

The possibility of forming of higher diatomic biomasses in winter in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk water and Aniva Bay is considered. Data of field observations, satellite information, and a mathematical model describing the transformations of compounds of biogenic elements (C, Si, N, and P) are used for this purpose. Field observations confirmed that active microalgae reproduction takes place in the ice of the Sea of Okhotsk. Determinations of their species composition were carried out. The active development of diatoms in winter was confirmed by the analysis of satellite observations during the examination of chlorophyll “a” dynamics on the sea surface. Mathematical modeling yielded quantitative data to characterize the development of diatoms in winter and within the year and interrelated variations in nutrient concentrations and the biomass of planktonic community in Aniva Bay. This is the first analysis of this type for the Sea of Okhotsk.     

Concentrations of trace elements in muscle of sturgeons in the Caspian Sea

Concentrations of 21 trace elements were determined in muscle of beluga (Huso huso), Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus), Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), ship sturgeon (Acipenser nudiventris) and stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) collected from coastal regions of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, surrounding the Caspian Sea during 2000-2001. Concentrations of Mn, Co, Cu, Mo, Sn, Hg, Pb and Bi in the muscle were apparently different among the five species of sturgeons. Especially, beluga showed the highest concentrations of Hg, Pb and Mn in all the five species. In addition, more than half of the individuals of beluga exceeded the guideline level (0.3 microg/g wet wt.) of Hg for food in UK. However, V, Cr, Zn, Ga, Rb, Sr and Ba concentrations were similar among five sturgeons. Growth-dependent increase in Hg in beluga, Cu in Persian sturgeon, and Zn in Russian sturgeon were observed, whereas V, Mn, Co, Cu, Ga, Sr, Mo, Sn, Hg and Bi concentrations in Persian sturgeon, Pb in ship sturgeon, and Cr, Mn, and Rb in stellate sturgeon were negatively correlated with body length. All species of sturgeon in Azerbaijan showed the highest concentration of Sr and the lowest concentration of Rb, while the five sturgeons from Iran showed opposite trends. Concentration of V, which is present in oil, in sturgeons in the Caspian Sea was considerably lower than that of fish from Kuwait, but was comparable to that of Cambodia and the Gulf and Gulf of Oman. To our knowledge, this study provides the first extensive data on multielemental accumulation in sturgeons of the Caspian Sea.     

CBCT在牙中牙诊断和治疗中的临床应用

目的：探讨CBCT在牙中牙诊断及治疗中的临床应用价值。方法：对3例经x线根尖片或曲面体层摄片发现的牙中牙病例进行CBCT扫描。利用CBCT三维重建影像,观察牙中牙的根管腔形态、内陷牙的数目和内陷牙髓腔的形状以及治疗后牙中牙内腔隙的封闭情况,并且与x线根尖片、曲面体层摄片比较。结果：CBCT能清晰显示牙中牙的根管腔形态、内陷牙的数目和内陷牙髓腔的形状以及治疗后牙中牙内腔隙的封闭情况等。结论：CBCT扫描能够全面地提供牙中牙治疗前后的影像信息,有利于牙中牙的诊断和治疗。     

Mechanism of formation of deep basins in continental crust in fold belts

Formation of deep basins in continental crust is usually explained by stretching. Intense stretching produces typical deformations in sedimentary cover. These deformations are observed in rift valleys. Deformations produced by stretching can in principle be revealed in presentsedimentary basins. There are also simple ways to reveal such deformations in fold belts, where the remmants of numerous deep basins in the continental crust were found. The sedimentary cover structure was analyzed in the Urals, Appalachians, Scandinavian Caledonides, North-American Cordilleras and in the Alpine, Verkhoyansk and Franklinian fold belts, but no deformations that are typical for significant stretching of continental lithosphere have been found there in most of the deep basins in the continental crust. These basins were commonly formed in cool cratonic areas by very rapid subsidence of the duration of a few million years. Such subsidence cannot be explained by thermal relaxation. Thrust loading as a cause of subsidence can also be excluded in most cases. The authors suggest a gabbro to eclogite transformation with the destruction of the basaltic layer as a possible cause of rapid subsidence. This occurs under upwelling of wet asthenosphere of not too high temperature to the base of the crust. Crustal attenuation from destruction of the basaltic layer permits an intense subsequent crustal shortening. This may explain why continental crust was intensely compressed only in those regions, where rapid subsidence of large magnitude took place.     

Analysis of nonstationarity in low flow in the Loess Plateau of China

An approach for nonstationary low‐flow frequency analysis is developed and demonstrated on a dataset from the rivers on the Loess Plateau of China. Nonstationary low‐flow frequency analysis has drawn significant attention in recent years by establishing relationships between low‐flow series and explanatory variables series, but few studies have tested whether the time‐varying moments of low flow can be fully described by the time‐varying moments of the explanatory variables. In this research, the low‐flow distributions are analytically derived from the 2 basic explanatory variables—the recession duration and the recession coefficient—with the assumption that the recession duration and recession coefficient variables follow exponential and gamma distributions, respectively; the derived low‐flow distributions are applied to test whether the time‐varying moments of explanatory variables can explain the nonstationarities found in the low‐flow variable. The effects of ecosystem construction measures, that is, check dam, terrace, forest, and grassland, on the recession duration and recession coefficient are further discussed. Daily flow series from 11 hydrological stations from the Loess Plateau are used and processed with a moving average technique. Low‐flow data are extracted following the pit under threshold approach. Six of the 11 low‐flow series show significant nonstationarities at the 5% significance level, and the trend curves of the moments of low flow are in close agreement with the curves estimated from the derived distribution with time‐dependent moments of the recession duration and time‐constant moments of the recession coefficient. It is indicated that the nonstationarity in the low‐flow distribution results from the nonstationarity in the recession duration in all 6 cases, and the increase in the recession duration is resulted from large‐scale ecosystem constructions rather than climate change. The large‐scale ecosystem constructions are found to have more influence on the decrease in streamflow than on the increase in watershed storage, thus resulting in the reduction of low flow. A high return period for the initial fixed design value decreases dramatically with an increasing recession duration.     

三种变换在强震记录分析方面的研究

在简要地介绍比较了傅立叶变换、小波变换、希尔伯特-黄变换理论的基础上,针对集集地震大量强震记录进行各种变换分析比较,以探求希尔伯特-黄变换在强震记录分析中应用的前景.通过对集集地震60条不同震中距和场地的强震纪录,分别作傅立叶频谱、希尔伯特-黄边际谱和能量密度谱分析,列表归纳对比显示希尔伯特-黄变换在强震记录处理中基本表现出和其他变换相同的趋势,并有其新特点,能体现出强地震动的瞬时特性,是对现有强震数据处理方法重要的补充.     

ADP在太湖沉积物再悬浮分析中的应用

分析太湖的悬浮物浓度时,使用传统的过滤与称重的方法,难以在短时间内取得大量的数据,并且进行大范围调查时困难较多,特别是在计算悬浮物浓度随时间的变化率时,根据导数的定义其时间间隔应足够小,此时上述方法显然难以得出较为准确的结果．本文从声学后散射原理出发,通过对声学多普勒三维流速仪(ADP)所接收的回声强度在传播距离上的校正,得出了当悬浮物粒径组成较为稳定时,该强度能反映水体中悬浮物浓度(SSC)的结论,并基于2002年在太湖乌龟山的一次为期一周的湖流观测结果,分析了经校正后的回声强度与太湖中悬浮物浓度间的指数相关关系,通过实测资料对上述关系进行了验证,结果表明该经验公式适用于太湖,其回声强度的变化能反映水体中SSC的变化规律,为大范围调查水体中悬浮物浓度提供了更加快速而有效的方法．     

Complexity of rupture in large strike-slip earthquakes in Turkey

Complexity of rupture propagation has an important bearing on the state of stress along the earthquake fault plane and on the prediction of strong ground motion in the near-field. By studying far-field body waveforms recorded by WWSSN long-period seismograms it has been possible to investigate the degree of complexity of several Turkish earthquakes. The results, which are obtained by matching synthetic P waveforms to observed data indicate that the July 22, 1967 Mudurnu Valley earthquake (M_s = 7.1) is a complex event which can be explained by the superposition of elementary sources with variable amplitudes and source time sequence history. In this regard, it is very similar to the February 4, 1976 Guatemala earthquake (M_s = 7.5). A comparison of these two events indicates that their source-time series ranges from 5 to ca. 20 s and, regardless of the total moment of the earthquake, the moment of the individual events is bounded at around 5 × 10²⁶ dyn cm. The November 24, 1976 E. Turkey earthquake (M_s = 7.3), on the other hand, has a complexity which cannot be explained by such a simple model; in this respect, it may be more similar to the Tangshan, China, earthquake and as such, may involve significant thrust, normal or other complications to its faulting mechanism than the strike-slip mechanism of the P-wave first-motion data. The source time history for the 1967 Mudurnu Valley event is used to illustrate its significance in modeling strong ground motion in the near field. The complex source-time series of the 1967 event predicts greater amplitudes (2.5 larger) in strong ground motion than a uniform model scaled to the same size for a station 20 km from the fault. Such complexity is clearly important in understanding what strong ground motion to expect in the near-field of these and other continental strike-slip faults such as the San Andreas.     

Investigations of Microtremors in the Akita plain in Japan

Summary Microtremor observations at 59 stations in the Akita plain in Japan were carried out during November 23 through November 28, 1969 using magnetic tape recorder. The period distribution curves from these measurements showed that only very few locations (7 out of 58) indicated good ground conditions in the low land along the coast of the Japan sea from Akita to Oga. Most of the locations fell under the category of C type distribution curve (predominant periods in the range 0.35–0.40) suggesting underground alluvium of very soft nature over wide area.     

Retardation of organic contaminants in natural fractures in chalk

Transport of a conservative compound and two sorbing compounds through fractured chalk was studied using flow-through columns consisting of chalk cores with a single subvertical fracture. Two types of chalk matrix were compared, an oxidized white chalk with low organic carbon content (0.2%), and a gray chalk with a higher organic carbon content (1.3%). Initial rapid breakthrough followed by a delayed approach to a relative concentration of unity for the conservative compound (2,6–difluorobenzoic acid [DFBA]) was clear evidence for diffusion into the porous chalk matrix. Matrix diffusion of DFBA was apparently much greater in the gray chalk columns than in the white chalk columns. Breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the sorbing compounds (2,4,6–tri-bromophenol [TBP] and ametryn [AME]) were retarded in all cases as compared to the conservative compound. Sorption retardation was far greater in the gray chalk as compared with the white chalk, in good agreement with results from batch sorption experiments. BTCs for the conservative compound were relatively nonhysteretic for both white and gray chalk columns. In contrast, BTCs for the sorbing compounds were hysteretic in all cases, demonstrating that sorption was not at equilibrium before desorp-tion began. These experiments suggest that on a field scale, transport of contaminants through fractures in chalk and other fractured porous media will be attenuated by diffusion and sorption into the matrix.     

Evaluation of Methane Sources in Groundwater in Northeastern Pennsylvania

Testing of 1701 water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania shows that methane is ubiquitous in groundwater, with higher concentrations observed in valleys vs. upland areas and in association with calcium‐sodium‐bicarbonate, sodium‐bicarbonate, and sodium‐chloride rich waters—indicating that, on a regional scale, methane concentrations are best correlated to topographic and hydrogeologic features, rather than shale‐gas extraction. In addition, our assessment of isotopic and molecular analyses of hydrocarbon gases in the Dimock Township suggest that gases present in local water wells are most consistent with Middle and Upper Devonian gases sampled in the annular spaces of local gas wells, as opposed to Marcellus Production gas. Combined, these findings suggest that the methane concentrations in Susquehanna County water wells can be explained without the migration of Marcellus shale gas through fractures, an observation that has important implications for understanding the nature of risks associated with shale‐gas extraction.