An adaptive finite element model for wellbore breakout simulation

A finite element formulation is proposed and implemented for analysing the stability of excavated wells using the DiMaggio-Sandler constitutive elastoplastic model with a typical carbonate reservoir configuration. The quality of the finite element approximation is ensured by applying smooth curved elements adapted to the wellbore geometry, and h − p adaptive finite element meshes in the plastic zone. General purpose procedures are defined to transfer the elastoplastic deformation history to newly created integration points. A breakout damage criterion is proposed based on the second invariant of the deviatoric plastic deformation tensor. This damage criterion is used to apply a mesh movement algorithm to represent material collapse. The automatic successive application of the breakout damage criterion results in elliptical realistically looking geometries obtained in experiments reported in the literature.     

桐柏碰撞造山带及其邻区变形特征与构造格局

桐柏碰撞造山带及其邻区可以划分为九个大地构造单元,自北向南分别是:华北克拉通南缘岩石构造单元——宽坪岩群、具弧后盆地性质的二郎坪岩石构造单元、具岛弧性质的秦岭杂岩单元、龟山岩组和南湾岩组构成的俯冲前缘楔构造带、构造混杂岩带、桐柏北部高压岩片单元、桐柏核部杂岩单元、桐柏南部高压岩片单元以及随州构造变形带。根据详细的构造解析以及新的地质年代学资料,本文将中生代以来的构造变形划分为五幕,前两幕变形主要发育在构造混杂岩带以南的各个岩石构造单元中,之后的三幕变形则波及整个研究区。第一幕变形的时间约为255～238Ma,以发育区域上透入性的片理及北西西向的拉伸线理为主,并导致了高压岩片早期自西向东的挤出。第二幕变形的时间约为230～215Ma,以自北向南的逆冲推覆构造为主,使得高压岩片进一步垂向抬升。第三幕变形应早于下侏罗统,以近北西西向的宽缓褶皱为主要特征,该幕变形期间桐柏核部杂岩及其两侧高压岩片单元发生同步的抬升。第四幕变形大致发生在140～130Ma之间,主要表现为桐柏核部杂岩两侧走滑型韧性剪切带的活动,桐柏核部杂岩表现出向东的挤出。第五幕变形发生在120～80Ma,表现为北西向及北东向的脆性断裂活动,并切割以上所有构造形迹。桐柏高压岩片的抬升剥露受多幕变形控制,呈阶段性的抬升。     

Distribution of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc in marine sediments in Hong Kong waters

Partitioning of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn) in marine sediments collected from various sites in Hong Kong waters were determined using sequential extraction method. Sediments from Kellette Bank, located in Victoria Harbour, had higher metal concentrations especially Cu and Zn than most other sites. Slightly over 20% of total Cu and Cr existed as readily available forms in Peng Chau and Kellette Bank. At most sampling sites, over 15% of the Cu existed as the exchangeable form indicating that Cu could be readily released into the aqueous phase from sediments. A significantly higher percentage of Pb and Zn was associated with the three non-residual fractions. Hence, there is a greater environmental concern for remobilization of Pb and Zn compared with Cr. The high amount of residual Cd (>50%) and the relatively lower Cd content indicate that little environmental concern is warranted for the remobilization of Cd. Distribution of metals in sediments collected from different depth at Kellette Bank shows that metal concentrations decreased with profile depth. The levels of Pb and Zn associated with the two readily available fractions increased sharply in the surface sediment. These metals represented the pollutants, which were introduced into the area in the mid-eighties through early nineties as a result of rapid economic and industrial development in the territory. As significant portions of these metals were bound to the readily available phases in the surface sediments, metal remobilization could be a concern. An erratum to this article can be found at     

An integrated linear/non-linear flow model for the conduit-fissure-pore media in the karst triple void aquifer system

Most karstic aquifer media may be characterized as the triple-void media with highly-varied hydraulic properties, including matrix pore, fissure and conduit, in which liner flow may co-exist with non-linear flow. In this paper, an attempt is made to couple linear flow with non-linear flow in a single unified flow governing equations by introducing the concept of equivalent hydraulic conductivity (EHC) and deriving a general Darcys law for various flow. The expression of EHC in the karst conduit and fissure are also derived. The procedures of numerical implementation are demonstrated via an ideal model and a case study of karst aquifer system in the Beishan Ore Formation area, Guangxi Autonomous Region, China.     

Ree geochemistry characteristics of stratigraphic samples in the abalieke region,Western Kunlun北大核心

The Abalieke region locats in the central section of the western Kunlun polymetallic (Pb, Zn, Cu, etc) ore belt, an area with major potential for further base metal deposit discoveries. This paper reports REE data for 82 samples from 8 stratigraphic sections for Huoshilafu formation in the Abalieke region. To attempt to solve the origin of ore-forming materials using REE geochemistry. Although total REE contents are quite variable ( Σ REE = 7. 52 × 10-6-220. 70 × 10-6, ΣLREE = 5. 82 × 10-6-198. 46 × 10-6, ΣHREE = 1. 49 × 10-6- 32. 74 × 10-6 and Y = 4. 77 × 10-6-91. 30 × 10-6) , chondrite-normalized REE patterns of the majority of samples are uniformly LREE-enriched (averaging ΣLREE/ΣHREE = 6. 57), with remarkably fractionation of LREE and HREE [averaging (La/Yb)N = 8. 20], slightly negative Eu anomalies (averaging δEu = 0. 77) and insignificant Ce anomalies (averaging δCe = 0. 88). The results demonstrate that REE characteristics of stratigraphic samples from Abalieke region are similar to those of rock and ore samples from other representative deposits (Tiekelike, Tamu, Kalangu, Tuokuziate) in the western Kunlun polymetallic ore belt, which indicate a close genetic relationship between the ore-forming materials and the host strata for the majority of deposits in this belt.     

Evaluation of aluminum speciation in surface waters in China and its environmental risk assessment

As the ongoing global research on acid precipitation is developing in depth, more and more attention has been paid to the ecological effects of aluminum (Al) due to its toxicity to plants and animals, which is caused by acid precipitation. As a very serious problem of terrestrial and aquatic environmental acidification occurs in China, especially in southwestern China, a systematic investigation of Al speciation in these regions is very important. In this paper, the Al speciation results of surface waters in China are reported and its ecological impacts is evaluated. More than 100 water samples were collected from about twenty provinces of China. Driscoll's Al speciation scheme combined with the modified MINQEL computer model is used for speciation of Al. This study shows that the ecological impacts of acidification are quite different between China and Western countries, because of different geographical environments and geological settings. In Western countries, acidification is mainly caused by NO₂^-. Due to low concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, the buffer capacities of soil and water are weak. Therefore, natural waters can be acidified to pH<5 very easily, resulting in a considerable mobilization of Al and worsening of the ecological environment. In China, acid precipitation is mainly in the form of sulfuric acid. In northwestern China, concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ are high in soil and surface waters. This leads to much higher capacity and a high resistance ability to acidification. The pH values of waters in this region are high (around 7) and no serious Al toxicity is found at present. However, in northeastern and southeastern China, the soil is rich in Al (unsaturated aluminosilicates in northeastern China, saturated aluminosilicates in north and central China, aluminum-rich soil in southeastern and southwestern China). The concentrations of K⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ in soil and waters are lower than those of northwestern China. Therefore the buffer capacity is limited. Numerous surface waters have already been acidified and pH values declined to 5. The impacts of Al toxicity on ecological systems in these regions are very serious, especially in Jiangxi, Hubei Provinces and Chongqing Municipality.     

The thermodynamic influence of subgrid orography in a global climate model

Assessments of the impacts of climate change typically require information at scales of 10 km or less. Such a resolution in global climate simulations is unlikely for at least two decades. We have developed an alternative to explicit resolution that provides a framework for meeting the needs of climate change impact assessment much sooner. We have applied to a global climate model a physically based subgrid-scale treatment of the influence of orography on temperature, clouds, precipitation, and land surface hydrology. The treatment represents subgrid variations in surface elevation in terms of fractional area distributions of discrete elevation classes. For each class it calculates the height rise/descent of air parcels traveling through the grid cell, and applies the influence of the rise/descent to the temperature and humidity profiles of the elevation class. Cloud, radiative, and surface processes are calculated separately for each elevation class using the same physical parametrizations used by the model without the subgrid orography parametrization. The simulated climate fields for each elevation class can then be distributed in post-processing according to the spatial distribution of surface elevation within each grid cell. Parallel 10-year simulations with and without the subgrid treatment have been performed. The simulated temperature, precipitation and snow water are mapped to 2.5-minute (~5 km) resolution and compared with gridded analyses of station measurements. The simulation with the subgrid scheme produces a much more realistic distribution of snow water and significantly more realistic distributions of temperature and precipitation than the simulation without the subgrid scheme. Moreover, the 250-km grid cell means of most other fields are virtually unchanged by the subgrid scheme. This suggests that the tuning of the climate model without the subgrid scheme is also applicable to the model with the scheme.     

An Abrupt Change in Tropospheric Temperature Gradient and Moisture Transport Over East Asia in the Late 1990s

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have shown that the recent summer climate (precipitation in particular) over East Asia is varying significantly. Here we extend the study to April, May, and June (AMJ) or the seasonal transition period associated with the onset of the summer monsoon. It is found that the average 1000–400?hPa AMJ tropospheric temperature (TT) experienced a sudden change at the end of the twentieth century. The change has a dipolar modal structure, with one pole over countries in Central Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.) and the other over the Tibetan Plateau. The difference in the TT between the centres of the two poles (?TT), which characterizes the zonal gradient of the TT over Asia, has seen a significant reduction since 1999. The causal relations of ?TT with the local circulation, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), surface shortwave flux (SSWF), precipitation, etc. have been investigated using a newly developed rigorous causality analysis, which unambiguously reveals a one-way causality from ?TT to each of OLR, SSWF, and precipitation.     

Comparison of the Langrangian Footprint

We compare flux and concentration footprint estimates of athree-dimensional Lagrangian stochastic dispersion modelapplying backward trajectories with the results of ananalytical footprint model by Kormann and Meixner.The comparison is performed for varying stability regimesof the surface layer as well as for different measurementheights. In general, excellent correspondence is found.     

Climate change impact assessment on flow regime by incorporating spatial correlation and scenario uncertainty

Flooding risk is increasing in many parts of the world and may worsen under climate change conditions. The accuracy of predicting flooding risk relies on reasonable projection of meteorological data (especially rainfall) at the local scale. The current statistical downscaling approaches face the difficulty of projecting multi-site climate information for future conditions while conserving spatial information. This study presents a combined Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) stochastic weather generator and multi-site rainfall simulator RainSim (CLWRS) approach to investigate flow regimes under future conditions in the Kootenay Watershed, Canada. To understand the uncertainty effect stemming from different scenarios, the climate output is fed into a hydrologic model. The results showed different variation trends of annual peak flows (in 2080–2099) based on different climate change scenarios and demonstrated that the hydrological impact would be driven by the interaction between snowmelt and peak flows. The proposed CLWRS approach is useful where there is a need for projection of potential climate change scenarios.