Dynamic responses of two buildings connected by viscoelastic dampers under bidirectional earthquake excitations

In this study,dynamic responses of two buildings connected by viscoelastic dampers under bidirectional excitations are extensively investigated.The two buildings are a 10-story building and a 16-story building,with the shorter building on the left.Viscoelastic dampers are installed at all fl oors of the shorter building.Equations of motion are formulated using a fractional derivative model to represent the viscoelastic dampers.Three cases are considered with mass eccentricities at 0,10% and-10% with respect to the dimensions of the buildings.The responses of the buildings are numerically predicted at different damper properties.The simulation results indicated that the maximum horizontal responses of the buildings without eccentricities are signifi cantly mitigated.However,torsional effects are adversely increased.For asymmetric buildings,the effectiveness of the connecting dampers is affected by building eccentricities.As a result,mass eccentricities must be taken into account in damper selection.When compared with vibrations induced by unidirectional excitations,bidirectional excitations can increase the responses of coupled asymmetric buildings.In addition,installing dampers only at the top fl oor of the shorter building may cause a sudden change in lateral stiffness of the taller building.Consequently,the story shear envelopes of the taller building are changed.     

Analysis of MDI High-Degree Mode Frequencies and their Rotational Splittings

We present a detailed analysis of solar acoustic mode frequencies and their rotational splittings for modes with degree up to 900. They were obtained by applying spherical harmonic decomposition to full-disk solar images observed by the Michelson Doppler Imager onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft. Global helioseismology analysis of high-degree modes is complicated by the fact that the individual modes cannot be isolated, which has limited so far the use of high-degree data for structure inversion of the near-surface layers (r>0.97R _⊙). In this work, we took great care to recover the actual mode characteristics using a physically motivated model which included a complete leakage matrix. We included in our analysis the following instrumental characteristics: the correct instantaneous image scale, the radial and non-radial image distortions, the effective position angle of the solar rotation axis, and a correction to the Carrington elements. We also present variations of the mode frequencies caused by the solar activity cycle. We have analyzed seven observational periods from 1999 to 2005 and correlated their frequency shift with four different solar indices. The frequency shift scaled by the relative mode inertia is a function of frequency alone and follows a simple power law, where the exponent obtained for the p modes is twice the value obtained for the f modes. The different solar indices present the same result.     

Determining basic characteristics of stars from evolutionary computations

A technique for determining a star’s radius from its atmospheric characteristics (effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) is realized based on modernmodel computations of the stellar internal structure and evolution. The atmospheric characteristics can also be used to find the mass and luminosity of the star. The star’s rate of evolution and the initial mass function are taken into account when determining the stellar characteristics, increasing the correctness of the results. Computations of stellar evolution of with and without the stellar rotation taken into account make it possible to remove ambiguity due to missing data on the star’s rotational velocity. The results are checked and uncertainties estimated using stars occupying two heavily populated regions in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram that have been well studied using various methods: the main sequence and red giant branch. Good agreement with the observations is achieved; there are almost no systematic deviations of the derived point estimates of the fundamental characteristics. The metallicities of the individual components of eclipsing variable stars are estimated using observational data on for such stars displaying lines of both components in their spectra. These metallicities were determined as a function of the stellar masses in a way that eliminates systematic deviations in the derived fundamental characteristics.     

Geographical factors of the abundance of flora in Russian cities

Doklady Earth Sciences - An analysis of data on the species abundance of flora in 89 cities (urban flora) of the Russian Federation facilitated determination of its main factors. It has been...     

Diagnostic modelling of within-water processes in reservoirs

The objectives of diagnostic calculations using mathematical models of reservoirs are formulated. The structure of a box hydrological model GMV-MGU is described, and the results of calculation of daily water balance, internal heat exchange structure, and heat balance of individual areas in the Mozhaisk and Rybinsk reservoirs are given. First results of calculation of variations in mean daily phytoplankton biomass in the near-dam pool of a weakly eutrophic water body in period of spring (diatoms) and summer (blue-green) blooming are presented.     

Estimation of the ozone decrease possibility in the lower part of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis> region under the action of a powerful radiowave

The possibility of the influence of a powerful radiowave on the ozone concentration in the lower part of the ionospheric D region is discussed on the basis of experiments at the Sura heating facility in March 2009, the results of which were published relatively recently by a group of authors. The results, which were obtained with the use of exact equations of the mesospheric ozone photochemistry, substantially disagree with some conclusions derived by the authors but do not completely deny their hypothesis on the possible influence on the ozone of internal gravity waves formed at heights of the ionospheric E region.     

The Effect of Aggregation of Impurity Nitrogen on Diamond X-Ray Luminescence

Two samplings of 65 diamond crystals divided by the intensity of a slow X-ray luminescence component are studied from the Arkhangel’skaya and Karpinskogo-1 pipes. IR and EPR spectroscopies revealed a relationship between the nitrogen A and P2 centers of the diamonds and the presence of a slow X-ray luminescence component. Its absence in most diamonds with high content of P1 (C) centers is explained by the low number of A and P2 centers.     

Delineation of Rajmahal basaltic flows,inter-trappeans and associated coal layers using Audio-magneto-telluric method

The extensive volcanic activity of Rajmahal occurred during early Cretaceous (~117 Ma). Potentially perspective Gondawana sediments containing coal seam is partially covered by these basalts. Basalts as well as coal are already known to be of immense economic importance over Rajmahal traps. The present study mainly deals with delineation of basaltic lava flows and associated coal layers using the Audio-magneto-telluric (AMT) study in the south central region of Rajmahal traps near Suri, West Bengal, India. Initially, the field situations have been simulated using forward model with top alluvium cover followed by basaltic lava flows, a wedge shaped inter-trappean sedimentary formation with second basaltic lava flows and basement at the bottom. The model was constrained using available litholog. The model study reveals the presence of moderately resistive basalts, relatively conductive inter-trappeans and the basement, except the top alluvium layer and thin inter-trappeans. Subsequently, threeAMT sounding have been carried out over Cholaguria, Hatgacha and Pachami, Suri, West Bengal. The field AMT study reveals three basaltic lava flows with varying thickness from ~40m to ~350m and composite thickness of ~620m to ~640m, which match well with the published borehole litholog. The inter-trappeans have been identified at 500m to 620m, 310m to 400m and 500m to 640m depths over Cholaguria, Hatgacha and Pachami, respectively. It is interesting to mention that the identified inter-trappeans are inferred to be coal/shaly-coal which are matching very well with the published borehole lithologs.     

Simulation of an in situ iron removal test

This article outlines the main mechanisms for in-situ removal of iron from groundwater. The dependence of ferrous iron kinetic oxidation by dissolved oxygen on the temperature and pH in bicarbonate near neutral groundwater was investigated. The dependence of oxygen consumption efficiency on the iron sorption coefficient, pH, and temperature of groundwater was obtained as a result of modeling of the one well in-situ iron removal test in the Amurskiy water intake facilities.