Maximum response of asymmetric structures subject to A multicomponent earthquake

A simple and general technique to obtain a six-component earthquake input motion of a rigid foundation using three-linear-components earthquake record is presented. Using the multicomponent input, the maximum structural response to an arbitrarily oriented earthquake is derived. The method is applied to determine the response spectrum for a two-d.o.f. laterally and torsionally coupled linear system. The effects of foundation geometry, structural properties and apparent wave velocity on the structural response are investigated. It is found that increasing the foundation size reduces the peak values of the input motion; this reduction is more pronounced for a square foundation than for a circular one.     

Species Composition and Some Ecological Notes on Diatom Communities of a Lotic Environment in Tarhunãh,Libya Artenzusammensetzung und einige ökologische Notizen über Diatomeengesellschaften eines lotischen Biotops in Tarhunãh/Libyen

Libya occupies a large part of the Sahara Desert, and is a predominantly arid country with extremely scarce freshwaters. Despite aridity, a distinct higher rainfall zone exists along its mediterranean coastal belt. A lotic environment (perennial stream) in Ain-Scersciara, Tarhunãh in northwest Libya was studied for the species composition of diatom communities and their ecological characteristics. The waters are generally alkaline (pH = 7.5) and of hard-water (conductivity = 2008 μS/cm) type. The epiphytic diatom growth on benthic filamentous algae was high (32 taxa) with Amphora veneta as a very common taxon. Gomphonema parvulum var. micropus was an important taxon found in scrapings from the leaves of macrophytes and stony substratum. Nitzschia and Navicula showed high species richness (9 taxa in each) followed by Gomphonema (6 taxa). The ecological attributes of the majority of taxa show an oligohalobe status and alkaliphilous indicator.     

SAMPLING AND MINIMUM PHASE FROM BOTH A CONTINUOUS AND DISCRETE POINT OF VIEW*

Examples show that the sampling operation–i.e., the change from the continuous time domain to the discrete time domain–does not necessarily preserve the minimum-phase property. Further examples can be constructed to show that the resampling operation on the discrete time domain does not necessarily preserve the minimum-phase property. Finally it can be shown that the minimum-phase property can be either created or destroyed by sampling or resampling.     

MIGRATION IN THE PRESENCE OF NOISE*

It is shown that the so-called Kirchhoff-summation operator is of a very wide-band nature and even contains an evanescent part. As a consequence, discretization may cause serious aliasing errors, particularly for small extrapolation steps. It is proposed to use in all practical cases band-limited versions of the summation operator, the spatial cut-off frequency being determined by the spatial Fourier spectrum of the coherent noise.     

Correspondence analysis applied to volcanic aerosols

A statistical analysis of volcanic aerosol based on 1,083 variables including concentration, grain-size and site variabilities establishes correlations between sites and among chemical elements.Variation curves of element concentration show parallel behaviour. High coefficients of correlation between anions and cations confirm associations between elements.     

Diffraction of plane sh waves in a half-space

Scattering of antiplane shear waves (SH) in two dimensions by surface and near-surface defects in a homogeneous, isotropic elastic semi-infinite medium has been studied. Attention has been focused here in the range of medium to long wavelengths. A combined finite element and analytical technique has been used to study the problems of scattering by semi-circular and triangular canyons. The results for the former case are compared with the known exact solution and those for the latter case are compared with some available approximate solutions. Finally a problem of multiple scattering by a triangular canyon and a nearby circular tunnel is studied. Numerical results are presented showing the effects of multiple scattering and different angles of incidence. These results are of interest in earthquake engineering.     

An experimental assessment of the added mass of some plates vibrating in water

A reservoir of water is contained by a concrete valley block, a ferrocement wall and a steel plate. Both wall and plate contain an array of pressure transducer sockets (Figures 1 and 2). Using the M.A.M.A.¹ equipment pure modes of vibration are excited. Frequency and mode shape are measured with the reservoir empty. When the reservoir is full hydrodynamic pressure is also measured. These hydrodynamic pressures are compared with Chopra's² two-dimensional, series solution, which includes compressibility of water, and with two- and three-dimensional finite element solutions of Laplace's equation, which do not include compressibility. Chopra's solution is unsatisfactory for modes which contain a vertical node line. The best agreement between experimental and theoretical hydrodynamic pressure is obtained when the latter is obtained from three-dimensional solutions of Laplace's equations, indicating that compressibility does not play a significant rǒle. This conclusion is supported by agreement between experimental frequencies (reservoir full) and those calculated using added mass obtained from the Laplace solution. Similar conclusions were reached from tests on a floating steel plate, suspended in the surface of the reservoir by a soft spring. Here, dynamic pressure measurements were not made, reliance being placed on agreement between calculated and measured frequencies and mode shapes.     

Subsurface electric fields of a grounded cable of finite length for both frequency and time domain

Summary The subsurface electric fields of a current-carrying cable are examined for both steady-state and transient situations. Closed form expressions are obtained for two of the electric field components, and a numerical integration is used to obtain the third component. Waveforms for a stepfunction current excitation are displayed. The results have possible application to pulsed downlink communication in mine rescue operations.