Micromorphology and quality attributes of the loess derived soils affected by land use change: A case study in Ghapan watershed, Northern Iran

In order to study the effects of different land vegetative covers on soil quality attributes, a loess hill slope was selected in eastern Golestan Province, Ghapan watershed, Iran. Four profiles in four land uses, including Quercus natural forest; Pinus artificial forest; Cupressus artificial forest and a cultivated land, were studied. Results showed that MWD was significantly different in the studied land uses, and it varied between 1.6 mm in Quercus natural forest and o.31 mm in cultivated land use. The lowest CEC, microbial respiration rate and organic carbon were 28.4 cmol·kg^1, 177 μgCO2·g^-1·day^-1 and 1.32 % found in cultivated land use, respectively. The organic matter was considerably higher content in the forest areas than that of cultivated land use. The studies on soil profile development revealed that the natural forest soils were highly developed. The soils of the Quercus natural forest were classified as Calcic Haploxeralfs with a well developed argillie horizon unlike the cultivated soils which showed the minimum development and classified as Typic Xerorthents. The soils of the artificial forests had both mollic epipedons and were classified as Typic Calcixerolls with moderate profile development. Micromorphological studies revealed that argillic horizons had speckled and partly crystallitic b-fabric in the natural forest indicating the high landscape stability. In contrast, the crystallitic b-fabric of other land uses shows the absence of enough leaching of carbonate and the subsequent migration of clay particles indicating the unstable conditions and high soil erosion. Intense erosion of the surface horizons of cultivated land use has resulted in the outcropping of the subsurface carbonate rich horizons preventing soil development.     

Discrimination of sand dunes and loess deposits using grain-size analysis in northeastern Iran

Identification and characterization of aeolian deposits in arid environments provide information on mechanisms of loess and sand accumulation. The objectives of this study were to (i) identify the distribution of aeolian deposits, (ii) discriminate loess and sand deposits using granulometric data, and (iii) describe the aeolian deposition in Sarakhs area, northeastern Iran. Particle size distributions of 26 surface samples were determined using a laser grain-size analyzer. Fine sand, very fine sand, and very coarse silt were dominant fractions in studied sediments, and the sum of these fractions ranged from 46.9% in loess deposits to 93.8% in sand dunes. The mean grain size (M _z ) of sand dunes ranged from 3.31 to 3.54 ?, which gradually changed to 4.09 to 5.50 ? in loess deposits. Sorting, skewness, and kurtosis ranged from 0.84 to 1.94 ?, 0.18 to 0.49, and 0.76 to 2.38, respectively. Aeolian deposits in the area resulted in the incorporation of Hariroud River system and Kopeh Dagh Mountains for aeolian particle production and accumulation. Alluvial comminution in Hariroud River is suggested the main mechanism of sand and silt production and flood plain environment the main reservoir of these particles. The mountains of Kopeh Dagh act as a barrier and play a key role for sand and loess accumulation.     

The effects of the polytropic coefficient on plasma sheath in two cases isothermal and adiabatic ion thermal flow

Recently it has been shown that for finite and small values of the electron Debye length, the ion polytropic coefficient is approached to some constant value in the plasma sheath region by decreasing the plasma density. In this paper, using a plasma multi fluid model, the effect of ion polytropic coefficient γ _i on the plasma sheath structure have been examined. The numerical calculations of the basic equation of the model show that the polytropic coefficient strongly affects on the plasma sheath characteristics. The results show that by transition from an isothermal flow (γ _i =1) to an adiabatic flow (γ _i =3), the net current to the wall and the electric potential distribution increase and the sheath width decreases in a thermal plasma sheath.     

Geological and soil engineering properties of shallow landslides occurring in the Kutupalong Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazar,Bangladesh

Landslides - The Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN), historically known as ‘Rohingya’ who fled the 2017 ethnic atrocities and genocide in the Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar,...     

Smoothed response spectra including soil-structure interaction effects

Elastic response spectra that take into account the effects of soil-structure interaction on soft soils are developed. The response spectra are calculated utilizing a 3 DOF system including deformations of the superstructure and foundation. The equations of motion of the system are solved using direct integration under normalized earthquake records. Statistical processing of the results is implemented resulting in response spectra for "short and dense buildings with low interaction", "short and dense buildings with high interaction", "tall and light buildings with low interaction" and "tall and light buildings with high interaction". The resulting response spectra are smoothed and discussed.     

Blind prediction of in-plane and out-of-plane responses for a thin singly reinforced concrete flanged wall specimen

This paper describes the blind prediction carried out to simulate the response of a thin reinforced concrete wall tested under uni-directional (in-plane) quasi-static reverse cyclic loading. The specimen was a singly reinforced T-shaped wall panel with a shear-span ratio of 3.7. The response of the test specimen was simulated prior to the release of test results using a finite element model which had already been verified for its capabilities in capturing different failure patterns of rectangular walls, particularly out-of-plane instability. The numerical model predicted a flexural dominated response for the specimen accompanied by considerable out-of-plane deformations. The blind prediction report, submitted in advance to the principal investigator of the experimental campaign, included lateral load-top displacement response of the specimen, maximum out-of-plane deformation corresponding to each drift level, evolution of out-of-plane displacements throughout in-plane loading, response of the longitudinal reinforcement at the section exhibiting the maximum out-of-plane deformation, and von Mises as well as reinforcement stress distribution at some key points of the wall response. Furthermore, a parametric study was carried out addressing the effects of shear-span ratio, reinforcement eccentricity and axial load ratio on the wall response. Results of the numerical simulation that had been included in the blind prediction report have been compared with the experimental measurements indicating that the evolution of the out-of-plane deformation was well captured by the model.     

Identification of Pitch Dynamics of An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Using Sensor Fusion

This paper presents a method for identification of the hydrodynamic coefficients of the dive plane of an autonomous underwater vehicle. The proposed identification method uses the governing equations of motion to estimate the coefficients of the linear damping, added mass and inertia, cross flow drag and control. Parts of data required by the proposed identification method are not measured by the onboard instruments. Hence, an optimal fusion algorithm is devised which estimates the required data accurately with a high sampling rate. To excite the dive plane dynamics and obtain the required measurements, diving maneuvers should be performed. Hence, a reliable controller with satisfactory performance and stability is needed. A cascaded controller is designed based on the coefficients obtained using a semi-empirical method and its robustness to the uncertainties is verified by the μ-analysis method. The performance and accuracy of the identification and fusion algorithms are investigated through 6-DOF numerical simulations of a realistic autonomous underwater vehicle.     

Preserving spatial linear correlations between neighboring stations in simulating daily precipitation using extended Markov models

Most stochastic weather generators have their focus on precipitation because it is the most important variable affecting environmental processes. One of the methods to reproduce the precipitation occurrence time series is to use a Markov process. But, in addition to the simulation of short-term autocorrelations in one station, it is sometimes important to preserve the spatial linear correlations (SLC) between neighboring stations as well. In this research, an extension of one-site Markov models was proposed to preserve the SLC between neighboring stations. Qazvin station was utilized as the reference station and Takestan (TK), Magsal, Nirougah, and Taleghan stations were used as the target stations. The performances of different models were assessed in relation to the simulation of dry and wet spells and short-term dependencies in precipitation time series. The results revealed that in TK station, a Markov model with a first-order spatial model could be selected as the best model, while in the other stations, a model with the order of two or three could be selected. The selected (i.e., best) models were assessed in relation to preserving the SLC between neighboring stations. The results depicted that these models were very capable in preserving the SLC between the reference station and any of the target stations. But, their performances were weaker when the SLC between the other stations were compared. In order to resolve this issue, spatially correlated random numbers were utilized instead of independent random numbers while generating synthetic time series using the Markov models. Although this method slightly reduced the model performances in relation to dry and wet spells and short-term dependencies, the improvements related to the simulation of the SLC between the other stations were substantial.