Seismic risk ranking for large dams in South Africa

Earthquake motion is one of the extreme loads acting on large dams. Dam owners and regulators must therefore ensure that dams are safely operated and present minimal risk to the public in case of extreme loads such as floods and earthquakes. Owners of many dams or officials in charge of dam safety programs may consider comparative assessment of the seismic risk associated with their dams and establish priorities for detailed evaluation. South Africa has in excess of 100 large state-owned dams and the characteristics of these dams have been used to perform a basic seismic hazard assessment and rank the vulnerability of these dams from the lowest to highest. One of the most decisive factors that contributes to the risk of a dam is the wall type; with gravity and earthfill dams being the most vulnerable to earthquake motion. Another aspect that needs further investigation is the downstream hazard potential which, if known to a better degree of accuracy, can provide more reasonable estimates of the risk factors.     

Influence of Three Gorges Dam on streamflow and sediment load of the middle Yangtze River, China

Using updated hydrological datasets from three stations, including Cuntan, Yichang and Hankou, covering the period of January 1992–December 2008, the influence of Three Gorges Dam (TGD) on streamflow and sediment load of the Yangtze River was investigated. Results indicated that TGD did not seem to exert a significant influence on streamflow occurring at three stations and changes in streamflow can be mainly attributed to streamflows of tributaries. However, a sharp decrease in the sediment load after the impoundment of TGD was observed. Clear water after the impoundment caused erosion of riverbed and resulted in more sediment at the Hankou station than at the Yichang station. No distinct changes in the annual and monthly maximum sediment loads were observed before and after the impoundment. Therefore, annual and monthly maximum sediment load changes should be subjected mainly to river hydraulics. This study has practical relevance for understanding the influence of large hydraulic structures on the hydrological processes of large rivers.     

Landslide hazard and risk assessment mapping of mountainous terrains - a case study from Kumaun Himalaya, India

Landslides are studied systematically in order to evaluate the nature of hazard and the damages to the human life, land, roads, buildings and other properties. This can be expressed in terms of risk, which is a function of hazard probability and damage potential. A risk map will indicate the priorities for landslide hazard management. A new approach to risk assessment mapping using a risk assessment matrix (RAM) is presented.     

Concurrent Use of OSCAT and AltiKa to Characterize Antarctic Ice Surface Features

Radar altimetry provides an important geophysical parameter, backscatter coefficient (σ₀), which is useful in studying target surface characteristics. Ku-band (Oceansat-2 scatterometer- OSCAT) and Ka-band (SARAL-AltiKa altimeter) data are concurrently used to characterize polar surface features over the Antarctic region. Maximum-likelihood classification has been employed to classify combined data set (AltiKa and OSCAT) for discrimination among sea ice, open water, and ice sheet (interior and exterior). The sea ice region obtained using the current approach has been compared with sea ice boundary derived from passive microwave data.     

Adaptive optimal control of an autonomous underwater vehicle in the dive plane using dorsal fins

In this paper, adaptive control of low speed bio-robotic autonomous underwater vehicles (BAUVs) in the dive plane using dorsal fins is considered. It is assumed that the model parameters are completely unknown and only the depth of the vehicle is measured for feedback. Two dorsal fins are mounted in the horizontal plane on either side of the BAUV. The normal force produced by the fins, when cambered, is used for the maneuvering. The BAUV model considered here is non-minimum phase. An indirect adaptive control system is designed for the depth control using the dorsal fins. The control system consists of a gradient based identifier for online parameter estimation, an observer for state estimation, and an optimal controller. Simulation results are presented which show that the adaptive control system accomplishes precise depth control of the BAUV using dorsal fins in spite of large uncertainties in the system parameters.     

Seismic response of simple structures using spring-assisted sliding slabs with coulomb damping

Coulomb damping can be utilized effectively to reduce the dynamic response of structures subjected to seismic ground motions. To activate this damping, some parts of a vibrating structure are allowed to slide at rough interfaces. The dynamic response of structures provided with sliding interfaces at the base, between a floor slab and frame and in the cross bracings of a frame has been examined recently. In this paper, a simple slab sliding system provided with a spring to introduce a recovery mechanism and to reduce the sliding displacement requirement for low frequency structures has been examined. The equations of motion for this system are developed. An approach is presented to solve these coupled equations for earthquake induced ground motions. Structures with varying frequency and friction characterisics are considered and the numerical results are presented in response spectrum form. It is observed that, in low frequency structures, provision of a rather weak spring can reduce the sliding displacement requirements without significantly increasing the forces in the supporting frame and the acceleration input to supported secondary systems.     

Possible Evidence of Long-Term Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere

We have obtained the temporal correlation function, Q(t), from time sequences of Caii K filtergrams and Dopplergrams from Antarctica, Taiwan Oscillation Network (TON) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Q(t) gives the time evolution of the pattern under examination, supergranulation in this case. It has been found that Q(t) shows oscillatory signals of both 5-min and long-term periods. The 5-min oscillations are suppressed by averaging the images over 10 min. An exponential decay curve which represents the lifetime trend of supergranules, is fitted to Q(t) and subtracted out. The Q(t) residuals thus obtained contain the oscillatory component and are then subjected to a periodogram analysis. Significant periodicities in the range of 1.4–10 hours have been noted. The causes of these oscillations are not fully known at present, but the instrumental and atmospheric factors can be ruled out, pointing to solar origin. Various possibilities are discussed. Some of the observed periodicities may be considered as probable candidates for long-term oscillations in the Sun, such as the elusive gravity modes.     

Cylindrically symmetric inhomogeneous universe with electromagnetic field in string cosmology

Cylindrically symmetric inhomogeneous string cosmological model in presence of electromagnetic field is investigated. We have assumed that F ₂₃ is the only non-vanishing component of F _ij . To get the deterministic solution, it has been assumed that the expansion (θ) in the model is proportional to the eigen value σ ¹ ₁ of the shear tensor σ ⁱ _j . The physical and geometric aspects of the model are also discussed.