Evaluating the dual‐boundary forcing concept in subsurface–land surface interactions of the hydrological cycle

Subsurface and land surface processes (e.g. groundwater flow, evapotranspiration) of the hydrological cycle are connected via complex feedback mechanisms, which are difficult to analyze and quantify. In this study, the dual‐boundary forcing concept that reveals space–time coherence between groundwater dynamics and land surface processes is evaluated. The underlying hypothesis is that a simplified representation of groundwater dynamics may alter the variability of land surface processes, which may eventually affect the prognostic capability of a numerical model. A coupled subsurface–land surface model ParFlow.CLM is applied over the Rur catchment, Germany, and the mass and energy fluxes of the coupled water and energy cycles are simulated over three consecutive years considering three different lower boundary conditions (dynamic, constant, and free‐drainage) based on groundwater dynamics to substantiate the aforementioned hypothesis. Continuous wavelet transform technique is applied to analyze scale‐dependent variability of the simulated mass and energy fluxes. The results show clear differences in temporal variability of latent heat flux simulated by the model configurations with different lower boundary conditions at monthly to multi‐month time scales (~32–91 days) especially under soil moisture limited conditions. The results also suggest that temporal variability of latent heat flux is affected at even smaller time scales (~1–3 days) if a simple gravity drainage lower boundary condition is considered in the coupled model. This study demonstrates the importance of a physically consistent representation of groundwater dynamics in a numerical model, which may be important to consider in local weather prediction models and water resources assessments, e.g. drought prediction. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Insights on the small tsunami from January 28, 2020, Caribbean Sea MW7.7 earthquake by numerical simulation and spectral analysis

A major left-lateral strike-slip Mw7.7 earthquake occurred in the vicinity of the Caribbean Sea on January 28, 2020. As a result, a small-scale tsunami was generated. The properties of the seismogenic source were described using observational data gathered for the earthquake and tsunami, as well as information on the regional tectonic setting. The tsunami was simulated with the COMCOT model and Okada’s dislocation model from finite fault solutions for M_W7.7 Caribbean Sea earthquakes published by the United States Geological Survey. The simulation results were compared to tide gauge records to validate whether the seafloor’s vertical displacement generated by the strike-slip fault caused a small-scale tsunami. We conducted a spectral analysis of the tsunami to better understand the characteristics of tsunami records. The tsunami simulation results showed that the co-seismic vertical displacement caused by a strike-slip M_W7.7 earthquake could have contributed to the small-scale tsunami, but the anomalously large high-frequency tsunami waves recorded by the George Town tide gauge 11 min after the earthquake were unrelated to the earthquake-generated tsunami. According to the spectrum analysis, the predominant period of noticeable high-frequency tsunami waves recorded by the George Town tide gauge occurred only two minutes after the earthquake. This indicates that the source of the small-scale tsunami was close to the George Town station and the possible tsunami source was 150 km away from George Town station. These facts suggest that a submarine landslide was caused by the strike-slip earthquake. The comprehensive analysis showed that the small-scale tsunami was not caused solely by co-seismic seafloor deformation from the strike-slip event but that an earthquake-triggered submarine landslide was the primary cause. Therefore, the combined impact of two sources led to the small-scale tsunami.

     

Rain induced attenuation studies for V-band satellite communication in tropical region

Satellite communications operating at 10 GHz and above in the tropics suffer severe signal degradation due to rain. Attenuation due to rain at 38 GHz had been measured for a period of 20 months in Malaysia. Analyses carried out include seasonal variations, diurnal effects and the annual cumulative distributions. Obtained results were compared with several established prediction models including the ITU-R. The rain fade characteristics were also investigated in determining the levels of signal loss and fading. In addition, the studies highlight several potential fade mitigation techniques that can be embarked. These fundamental aprehensions are very critical for future earth space communication link design and can be exploited as preliminary groundwork plan for the researchers as well as engineers.     

A Fully Coupled Chemo-Poroelastic Analysis of Pore Pressure and Stress Distribution around a Wellbore in Water Active Rocks

Water active rocks consist of minerals that hold water in their crystalline structure and in pore spaces. Free water from drilling fluid can be attracted by the formation depending on the potential differences between pore space and drilling fluid. The fluid movement into the formation or out of the formation can lead to a change in effective stress, thus causing wellbore failures. In all previous studies it is found that the solute transport from or to the formation is primarily controlled by diffusion process and the effect of advection on solute transfer is negligible for a range of very low permeable shale formations (>10⁻⁵ mD). In this study a range of permeable shale formations (10⁻⁵ to 10⁻³ mD) commonly encountered in drilling oil and gas wells are considered to investigate the solute transfer between drilling fluid and formation due to advection. For this purpose a finite element model of fully coupled chemo-hydro-mechanical processes was developed. Results of this study revealed that the solute transfer between the drilling fluid and the shale formation is controlled primarily by permeability of the shale formations. For the range of shale formations studied here, there exists a threshold permeability below which the solute transfer is dominated by diffusion process and above which by fluid in motion (fluid flow). Results from the numerical experiments have shown that when the permeability of shales is greater than this threshold permeability, the chemical potential gradient between the pore fluid and drilling fluid reaches equilibrium faster than that when the permeability of shales is below this threshold value. Also it has been found that when advection is taken into account, effective radial and tangential stresses decrease around the wellbore, particularly near the wellbore wall where the solute concentration has reached near equilibrium.     

Equivalent granular state parameter and undrained behaviour of sand�Cfines mixtures

State parameter defined using void ratio, e, and the steady-state line has been shown to be effective in predicting the undrained behaviour of sand. However, steady-state line for sand with fines is dependent on fines content. To overcome this problem, the concept of equivalent granular void ratio, e*, has been well investigated. However, the conversion from e to e* has been essentially a back-analysis process. A methodology for converting e to e* without the need of a back-analysis process was first presented. The concept of equivalent granular state parameter, ψ*, defined in terms of e*, and equivalent granular steady-state line was then developed. An extensive experimental study was conducted to investigate whether ψ* can capture the effects of fines content, and thus can be used to correlate undrained behaviour of sand–fines mixtures without the need of separately considering the effects of fines content. This study suggested that the effective stress path and deviatoric stress–strain responses in undrained shearing can be correlated with the ψ* value at the start of undrained shearing irrespective of fines content.     

Waves in general relativistic two-fluid plasma around a Schwarzschild black hole

Waves propagating in the relativistic electron-positron or ions plasma are investigated in a frame of two-fluid equations using the 3+1 formalism of general relativity developed by Thorne, Price and Macdonald (TPM). The plasma is assumed to be freefalling in the radial direction toward the event horizon due to the strong gravitational field of a Schwarzschild black hole. The local dispersion relations for transverse and longitudinal waves have been derived, in analogy with the special relativistic formulation as explained in an earlier paper, to take account of relativistic effects due to the event horizon using WKB approximation.     

Chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide by sulfate radical-based oxidation: kinetics and mechanism of degradation

A study was undertaken in order to understand the kinetics and mechanism of the chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, an insect repellent, by sulfate radical. In this experiment, sulfate radical was generated using peroxymonosulfate with iron(II) and cobalt(II) as activator. The second-order rate constant for the reaction of the sulfate radical with N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide was found to be (1.9 ± 0.1) × 10⁹ M^?1 s^?1 at pH 7 and a temperature of 25 °C. Experiments for the chemical oxidation of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide in river water and secondary wastewater revealed that the percentage of the removal of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide was slightly influenced by the water matrices. However, the selected oxidation systems are not effective for the removal of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide in seawater. Transformation by-products of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide generated using peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) sulfate, peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) chloride, peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) sulfate and peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) chloride systems were identified. The results indicated that there are slight differences in the distributions of the transformation by-products detected depending on the activator. The common transformation by-products detected in all selected oxidation systems are N,N-diethylbenzamide, N-ethyl-m-toluamide, N,N-dimethyl-m-toluamide, N-ethyl-N-acetyl-m-toluamide, 2-(diethylamino)-1-m-tolylethanone, monohydroxylated N-ethyl-m-toluamide, and dihydroxylated N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide. Monohydroxylated N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide were detected only when the peroxymonosulfate/iron(II) system was applied. For the peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) systems, additional isomers of monohydroxylated N-ethyl-m-toluamide were detected. Peroxymonosulfate/cobalt(II) also transformed 2-(diethylamino)-1-m-tolylethanone into N-ethyl-N-(2-oxo-2-m-tolylethyl)acetamide and monohydroxylated 2-(ethyl(vinyl)amino)-1-m-tolylethanone as transformation by-products.