Estimation of peak relative velocity and peak absolute acceleration of linear SDOF systems

In the seismic analysis and design of structures, the true velocity and absolute acceleration are usually approximated by their corresponding pseudo-values. This approach is simple and works well for structures with small damping (say, less than 15%). When the damping of a structure is enhanced for the purpose of response reduction, it may result in large analysis and design errors. Based on theory of random vibration and the established mechanism of seismic response spectra analysis, a method is developed (1) to predict the relative velocity spectra with any damping ratio level directly from the 5% standard pseudo-acceleration spectrum; and (2) to estimate the peak absolute acceleration. The accuracy of both is validated by using two selected ensembles of ground motion records.     

The influence of water retention curve hysteresis on the stability of unsaturated soil slopes

Hysteresis is a common feature exhibited in hydraulic properties of an unsaturated soil. The movement of wetting front and the hysteresis effect are important factors which impact the shear strength of the unsaturated soil and the mechanics of shallow landslides. These failures are mainly triggered by the deepening of the wetting front accompanied by a decrease in matric suction induced by infiltration. This research establishes a method for determining a stability analysis of unsaturated infinite soil slopes, integrating the influence of infiltration and the water retention curve hysteresis. Furthermore, the present stability analysis method including the infiltration model and the advanced Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion calculates the variations of the safety factor (FS) in accordance with different slope angle, depth and hydrological processes. The experimentally measured data on the effect of hysteresis are also carried out for comparison. Numerical analyses, employing both wetting and drying hydraulic behaviour of unsaturated soil, are performed to study the difference in soil‐water content as observed in the experiments. The simulating approximations also fully responded to the experimental data of sand box. The results suggest that the hysteresis behaviour affect the distribution of soil‐water content within the slope indeed. The hysteresis made the FS values a remarkable recovery during the period of non‐rainfall in a rainfall event. The appropriate hydraulic properties of soil (i.e. wetting or drying) should be used in accordance with the processes that unsaturated soil actually experience. This method will enable us to acquire more accurate matric suction head and the unsaturated soil‐shear strength as it changes with the hysteretic flow, in order to calculate into the stability analysis of shallow landslides. An advanced understanding of the process mechanism afforded by this method is critical to realizing a reliable and appropriate design for slope stabilization. It also offers some immediate reference information to the disaster reduction department of the government. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

U-Pb zircon ages for the Luzhenguan Complex in northern part of the eastern Dabie orogen

The Dabie Mountain is the collisional orogenic belt between the North China Block and the Yangtze Block. As the eastern segment of the central-China orogenic belt, its tectonic framework is corresponding to the Qinling orogenic belt as a whole[1]. The NHB in northern part of Dabie Orogen is regarded as the joint belt between the Yangtze Block and the North China Block, and roughly corresponds to the north Qinling belt of the Qinling orogenic belt, which separated the Tongbai-Dabie hig…     

Skarn-type tungsten mineralization associated with the Caledonian (Silurian) Niutangjie granite,northern Guangxi,China

The Niutangjie tungsten deposit is a bedded skarn-type scheelite deposit and is located at the junction between Ziyuan and Xingan counties in the north of Guangxi,China.The deposit is genetically related to a fine-grained two-mica granite within the orefield.Zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of the granite yielded a Silurian(Caledonian)age of 421.8±2.4 Ma,which is contemporaneous with the adjacent Yuechengling batholith.Mineralization within the skarn is associated with a quartz,garnet,and diopside gangue,and scheelite is present in a number of different mineral assemblages,such as quartz-scheelite and quartz-sulfide-scheelite;these assemblages correspond to oxide and sulfide stages of mineralization.Sm-Nd isotope analysis of scheelite yielded an isochron age of 421±24 Ma.Although the uncertainty on this date is high,this age suggests that the scheelite mineralization formed during the Late Caledonian,at a similar time to the emplacement of the Niutangjie granite.Zircons within the granite have?Hf(t)values and Hf two-stage model ages of?6.5 to?11.6,and 1.79 to 2.11 Ga,respectively.These data suggest that the magma that formed the granite was derived from Mesoproterozoic crustal materials.Scheelite?Nd(t)values range from?13.06 to?13.26,also indicative of derivation from ancient crustal materials.Recent research has identified Caledonian magmatism in the western Nanling Range,indicating that this magmatism may be the source of contemporaneous tungsten mineralization.     

Flow based oversampling technique for multiscale finite element methods

Oversampling techniques are often used in porous media simulations to achieve high accuracy in multiscale simulations. These methods reduce the effect of artificial boundary conditions that are imposed in computing local quantities, such as upscaled permeabilities or basis functions. In the problems without scale separation and strong non-local effects, the oversampling region is taken to be the entire domain. The basis functions are computed using single-phase flow solutions which are further used in dynamic two-phase simulations. The standard oversampling approaches employ generic global boundary conditions which are not associated with actual flow boundary conditions. In this paper, we propose a flow based oversampling method where the actual two-phase flow boundary conditions are used in constructing oversampling auxiliary functions. Our numerical results show that the flow based oversampling approach is several times more accurate than the standard oversampling method. We provide partial theoretical explanation for these numerical observations.     

The Relation Between Humidity and Liquid Water Content in Fog: An Experimental Approach

Microphysical measurements of orographic fog were performed above a montane cloud forest in northeastern Taiwan (Chilan mountain site). The measured parameters include droplet size distribution (DSD), absolute humidity (AH), relative humidity (RH), air temperature, wind speed and direction, visibility, and solar short wave radiation. The scope of this work was to study the short term variations of DSD, temperature, and RH, with a temporal resolution of 3?Hz. The results show that orographic fog is randomly composed of various air volumes that are intrinsically rather homogeneous, but exhibit clear differences between each other with respect to their size, RH, LWC, and DSD. Three general types of air volumes have been identified via the recorded DSD. A statistical analysis of the characteristics of these volumes yielded large variabilities in persistence, RH, and LWC. Further, the data revealed an inverse relation between RH and LWC. In principle, this finding can be explained by the condensational growth theory for droplets containing soluble or insoluble material. Droplets with greater diameters can exist at lower ambient RH than smaller ones. However, condensational growth alone is not capable to explain the large observed differences in DSD and RH because the respective growth speeds are too slow to explain the observed phenomena. Other mechanisms play key roles as well. Possible processes leading to the large observed differences in RH and DSD include turbulence induced collision and coalescence, and heterogeneous mixing. More analyses including fog droplet chemistry and dynamic microphysical modeling are required to further study these processes. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental field observation of the anti-correlation between RH and LWC in fog.     

Major human Hepatitis A virus genotype in Hong Kong marine waters and detection by real-time PCR

Marine waters from seven sites around Hong Kong with varying levels of sewage pollution were analyzed for Hepatitis A virus (HAV) by PCR cloning and DNA sequencing of the highly variable VP1/2A junction of the HAV genome. Phylogenetic analysis of 10 PCR clones from each of the HAV-positive marine sites indicated that human HAV genotype IB is the most widely distributed type in Hong Kong waters. A sensitive and quantitative TaqMan-based PCR method targeting the 5′-noncoding region (5′-NCR) of HAV was used to quantify HAV particles in marine water samples along with the total Escherichiacoli counts being enumerated on TBX medium for comparison. Our results showed that no correlation of any significance between HAV and E. coli counts was observed which underscores the inadequacy in using E. coli as a sanitary standard to predict the levels of HAV in marine waters.     

利用CWQL检测JOPENS5.2系统仪器参数正确性

以锡林浩特地震台为例,利用CWQL软件调取JOPENS5.2系统台站实时数据与对应台站参数,计算台基噪声水平,检测该系统仪器参数正确性。分析认为,CWQL软件可用于日常地震观测系统数据质量检测,实现实时自动运用概率密度函数方法处理地震观测数据,得到各地震台站各分向PSD概率密度函数分布及RMS值,从而判断JOPESN5.2系统仪器参数正确性。     

RN-FD型固体氡气源的稳定性及应用分析

对测氡仪器进行精确校准是氡测量工作中的重要环节,固体氡气源的稳定性、可靠性在校准中则显得至关重要。本文通过分析RN-FD型固体氡气源对闪烁室K值的稳定性实验结果,认为:RN-FD型固体氡气源标称的浓度值与实际浓度值不一致,标称浓度值只是理论浓度值而不是实际浓度值,需重新刻度才能使用;RN-FD型固体氡气源抽气循环时间不同则浓度不同,但抽气循环时间固定,观测结果比较稳定;对于没有α检查源的台站,RN-FD型固体氡气源可用于氡观测仪器坪区检查。