Numerical modelling of the turbulent flow developing within and over a 3-d building array,part iii: a istributed drag force approach,its implementation and application

A modified k- model is used for the simulation of the mean wind speed and turbulence for a neutrally-stratified flow through and over a building array, where the array is treated as a porous medium with the drag on the unresolved buildings in the array represented by a distributed momentum sink. More specifically, this model is based on time averaging the spatially averaged Navier–Stokes equation, in which the effects of the obstacle-atmosphere interaction are included through the introduction of a distributed mean-momentum sink (representing drag on the unresolved buildings in the array). In addition, closure of the time-averaged, spatially averaged Navier–Stokes equation requires two additional prognostic equations, namely one for the time-averaged resolved-scale kinetic energy of turbulence,, and another for its dissipation rate, . The performance of the proposed model and some simplified versions derived from it is compared with the spatially averaged, time-mean velocity and various spatially averaged Reynolds stresses diagnosed from a high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the flow within and over an aligned array of sharp-edged cubes with a plan area density of 0.25. Four different methods for diagnosis of the drag coefficient C_Dfor the aligned cube array, required for the volumetric drag force representation of the cubes, are investigated here. We found that the model predictions for mean wind speed and turbulence in the building array were not sensitive to the differing treatments of the source and sink terms in the and equations (e.g., inclusion of only the `zeroth-order' approximation for the source/sink terms compared with inclusion of a higher-order approximation for the source/sink terms in the and equations), implying that the higher-order approximations of these source/sink terms did not offer any predictive advantage. A possible explanation for this is the utilization of the Boussinesq linear stress–strain constitutive relation within the k– modelling framework, whose implicit omission of any anisotropic eddy-viscosity effects renders it incapable of predicting any strong anisotropy of the turbulence field that might exist in the building array.     

Applying chaos to radar detection in an ocean environment: anexperimental study

Ship navigation through ice-infested waters is a problem of deep concern to the oil exploration industry of Northern countries. Conventional marine radars do not perform satisfactorily in detecting small targets such as small pieces of iceberg. This paper reports a new method for detection in an ocean environment. The approach is based on the recent observation that sea clutter, radar echoes from the sea surface, can be modeled as a nonlinear deterministic dynamical system which can be used as an alternative to the conventional stochastic process. Based on this model, detection in sea clutter is considered as dynamical system classification instead of statistical hypothesis testing. Two dynamical detection methods are proposed. The first one uses a dynamical invariant called the attractor dimension to distinguish a target from a pure clutter process. The second approach tries to detect the existence of a target by observing the “difference” of the motion of the target and the clutter process. To show the validity of the idea of dynamical detection in sea clutter, real sea clutter, and target data were used in this study     

A new photometric study of the binary U Pegasi

Over four hundred photoelectric observations of U Peg in B and V were secured with a 0.6M reflector at Beijing Observatory in 1978. Four times of minima were determined. A period study of the times of minima from 1896 to 1980 was performed. The system was found to have a secular period decrease, Δp/p of ?1.32 ¢ 10^?1 or ?4.16 × 10^?3 sec/yr, as well as a short term (17 years) sinusoidal oscillation with a semi-amplitude of 0.00323 day. It is suggested that oscillating term is caused by the light-time effect of an unseen third body. The third body may be a M6 main sequence star with a mass of 0.16 M_⊙. The longterm secular change in period may be associated with slow mass transfer.The analysis of the 1978 light curves together with the 1958 light curves of Binnendijk suggest that the system U Peg has an overcontact configuration of about 9%. It has the characteristics of a W-type W UMa system. The photometric mass ratio, $\text{m}{}_2\text{m}{}_1$, is between 3 and 2.5. If we correct the Struve et al. γ-velocity from 0 km/sec to about ?40 km/sec the estimated spectroscopic mass ratio would agree with the photoelectric value. Based on the above assumption the absolute dimensions of U Peg are of 0.6 and 1.8 M_⊙ and of 0.8 and 1.4 R_⊙, for components 1 and 2 respectively. The physical dimensions indicate that the components are main sequence stars.     

Improved treatments for evaluating horizontal magnetic components through the 3-D FDM in E-polarization induction problems

Introduction The algorithm of the finite difference method (FDM) for solving the 3-D induction problem used by CHEN (1985) is based on the concept suggested by Brewitt-Taylor and Weaver (1976), which assumes the conductivity to be a smoothly-varying function of position. After the comparisons between many model calculations carried out by the author and other methods showed that the vertical components estimated by our method are acceptable in general cases. However, the reliability of the…     

Analysing regional industrialisation in Jiangsu province using geographically weighted regression

 Industry is the most important sector in the Chinese economy. To identify the spatial interaction between the level of regional industrialisation and various factors, this paper takes Jiangsu province of China as a case study. To unravel the existence of spatial nonstationarity, geographically weighted regression (GWR) is employed in this article. Conventional regression analysis can only produce `average' and `global' parameter estimates rather than `local' parameter estimates which vary over space in some spatial systems. Geographically weighted regression (GWR), on the other hand, is a relatively simple, but useful new technique for the analysis of spatial nonstationarity. Using the GWR technique to study regional industrialisation in Jiangsu province, it is found that there is a significant difference between the ordinary linear regression (OLR) and GWR models. The relationships between the level of regional industrialisation and various factors show considerable spatial variability. Received: 4 April 2001 / Accepted: 17 November 2001     

Statistical characteristics of concentration fluctuations in dispersing plumes in the atmospheric surface layer

Measurements have been made of concentration fluctuations in a dispersing plume from an elevated point source in the atmospheric surface layer using a recently developed fast-response photoionization detector. This detector, which has a frequency response (–6 dB point) of about 100 Hz, is shown to be capable of resolving the fluctuation variance contributed by the energetic subrange and most of the inertial-convective subrange, with a reduction in the fluctuation variance due to instrument smoothing of the finest scales present in the plume of at most 4%.Concentration time series have been analyzed to obtain the statistical characteristics of both the amplitude and temporal structure of the dispersing plume. We present alongwind and crosswind concentration fluctuation profiles of statistics of amplitude structure such as total and conditional fluctuation intensity, skewness and kurtosis, and of temporal structure such as intermittency factor, burst frequency, and mean burst persistence time. Comparisons of empirical concentration probability distributions with a number of model distributions show that our near-neutral data are best represented by the lognormal distribution at shorter ranges, where both plume meandering and fine-scale in-plume mixing are equally important (turbulent-convective regime), and by the gamma distribution at longer ranges, where internal structure or spottiness is becoming dominant (turbulent-diffusive regime). The gamma distribution provides the best model of the concentration pdf over all downwind fetches for data measured under stable stratification. A physical model is developed to explain the mechanism-induced probabilistic schemes in the alongwind development of a dispersing plume, that lead to the observed probability distributions of concentration. Probability distributions of concentration burst length and burst return period have been extracted and are shown to be modelled well with a powerlaw distribution. Power spectra of concentration fluctuations are presented. These spectra exhibit a significant inertial-convective subrange, with the frequency at the spectral peak decreasing with increasing downwind fetch. The Kolmogorov constant for the inertial-convective subrange has been determined from the measured spectra to be 0.17±0.03.     

Simplified mechanical subgrade model for dynamic response analysis of shallow foundations

Baranov proposed an approach for the treatment of the subgrade in the dynamic response analysis of a rigid foundation which is partially embedded. The approach is based on a Winkler approximation together with wave equation solutions developed for simplified conditions. The paper extends and modifies Baranov's approach so as to be applicable to surface foundation problems, by introducing an internal coupling mechanism. Closed form expressions are presented for the steady state harmonic responses of a massless rigid footing and an elastic beam on the surface of the presented subgrade model. These expressions can accommodate the inhomogeneity of the subgrade in a straightforward manner. The model is found to perform well in reproducing the continuous subgrade medium behaviour. The dynamic responses of structures are often highly dependent on the subgrade modelling and therefore great caution is needed in modelling the subgrade.     

Aqueous oxidation-reduction kinetics associated with coupled electron-cation transfer from iron-containing silicates at 25°C

Mechanisms and kinetics of aqueous $\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+2}}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+3}}$ oxidation-reduction and dissolved O₂ interaction in the presence of augite, biotite and hornblende were studied in oxic and anoxic solutions at pH 1–9 at 25°C. Oxidation of surface iron on the minerals coincided with both surface release of Fe⁺² and by reduction of Fe⁺³ in solution. Reaction with iron silicates consumed dissolved oxygen at a rate that increased with decreasing pH. Both Fe⁺³ and O₂ consumption were shown to be controlled by coupled electron-cation transfer reactions of the form;

$\text{[}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+2}}\text{,}\text{1}\text{zM}{}^{\mathrm{+z}}\text{]}{}_{\mathrm{silicate}}\text{+}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+3}}\text{→ [}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+3}}\text{]}{}_{\mathrm{silicate}}\text{+}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+2}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{zM}{}^{\mathrm{+z}}$

and

$\text{[}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+2}}\text{,}\text{1}\text{zM}{}^{\mathrm{+z}}\text{]}{}_{\mathrm{silicate}}\text{+}\text{H}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{4}\text{O}{}_2\text{→ [}\text{Fe}{}^{\mathrm{+3}}\text{]}{}_{\mathrm{silicate}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{zM}{}^{\mathrm{+z}}\text{+}\text{1}\text{2}\text{H}{}_2\text{O}$

where M is a cation of charge +z. The spontaneous reduction of aqueous Fe⁺³in the presence of precipitated Fe(OH)₃bracketed the surface oxidation standard half cell between +0.33 and +0.52 volts. Concurrent hydrolysis reactions involving cation release from the iron silicates were suppressed by the above reactions. Calculated oxidation depths in the minerals varied between 12 and 80Å and were apparently controlled by rates of solid-state cation diffusion.     

Changes to the groundwater system, from 1888 to present, in a highly-urbanized coastal area in Hong Kong, China

Historical groundwater levels in a coastal region of Hong Kong Island (China) were reviewed and compared with data collected recently to reveal changes to the groundwater regime over the last century. The coastal springs and seeps have disappeared and the lower boundary of the seepage zone has moved uphill. Groundwater was found to be flowing upward along the boundary of natural slopes and urbanized areas. Artesian flows were commonly noted in the deep piezometers in the lower urbanized areas. Moreover, an overall rise in water levels in a 10-year period was observed in the urbanized areas, except in areas with good drainage. Extensive urbanization since the 1950s has included large-scale land reclamation, deep foundations of high-rise buildings, an underground transport system, water mains and horizontal drains in slopes; the effect has been a slow but gradual increase in the water level of the hillslope groundwater system. Further urbanization activities such as the westward extension of the underground transport system and new major drainage systems in the slopes, should be assessed for possible further changes to the groundwater system. The results presented here may serve as reference for other highly-urbanized coastal areas in the world.     

The impacts of economic structure on China’s carbon dioxide emissions: an analysis with reference to other East Asian economies

A change in economic structure influences the total energy consumption as well as CO₂ emissions of a country, given the inherent difference in levels of energy intensity and energy fuel mix of different economic sectors. Its significance has been recognized in recent literature on China’s emission mitigation which could arguably raise China’s mitigation potential and thus the possibility of keeping the 2-degree trajectory on track. This article utilizes the past trend of economic structural change of five East Asian developed economies to project the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of China in the coming decades. A special delineation of the economic sector is made, putting private consumption together with the three typical economic production sectors, to resolve the mismatch between the statistical data of energy consumption and economic production, in that residential energy consumption is typically merged into the tertiary sector, although it does not directly correspond to gross domestic product (GDP) output. Results suggest that the level of CO₂ emissions would be lower if China followed a development pathway emphasizing the development of the tertiary sector and continuously shrinking her secondary sector, making it possible for China to contribute more to global carbon mitigation. The impact from the rise of private consumption would be relatively insignificant compared to deindustrialization. In addition to continuous improvement in technology, economic structural change, which reduces carbon emission intensity, would be essential for China to be able to achieve the carbon emission level pledged in the Paris Agreement.

Key policy insights

• For China, significant economic structural reform, particularly deindustrialization, is necessary to achieve the goal of ‘peak emission by 2030’.

• Any additional contribution from China to the global effort to maintain a 2-degree trajectory would be limited – from a ‘fair-contribution’ perspective based on share of population or GDP – because the implied mitigation targets would be almost impossible to achieve.

• If developing countries follow the pathway of developed economies, particularly in developing energy-intensive industries, energy consumption and CO₂ emissions would significantly increase, reducing the possibility of keeping global temperature rise within the 2-degree Celsius benchmark.