Performance‐based design using structural optimization

A new methodology for seismic design is proposed based on structural optimization with performance‐based constraints. Performance‐based criteria are introduced for the seismic design of new buildings. These criteria are derived from the National Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings (Reference [19], Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), ‘NHERP Guidelines for seismic rehabilitation of buildings’, Report Nos 273 and 274, Washington, DC, 1997) for retrofitting existing structures. The proposed design methodology takes into account the non‐linear behaviour of the structure. The goal is to incorporate in the design the actual performance levels of the structure, i.e. how much reserve capacity the structure has in an earthquake of a given magnitude. The optimal design of the structure minimizes the structural cost subjected to performance constraints on plastic rotations of beams and columns, as well as behavioural constraints for reinforced concrete frames. Uncertainties in the structural period and in the earthquake excitation are taken into account using convex models. The optimization routine incorporates a non‐linear analysis program and the procedure is automated. The proposed methodology leads to a structural design for which the levels of reliability (performance levels) are assumed to be quantifiable. Furthermore, the entire behaviour of the structure well into the non‐linear range is investigated in the design process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strain properties of shelf grounds in the area of the Yurii Korchagin Field,North Caspian Sea

Marine disperse grounds from the shelf of the North Caspian Sea were studied using various test methods. The strain modulus and the coefficient of transverse strain were specified by triaxial compression and compression tests. Empirical correlations were found for the strain modulus as a result of both tests for different types of grounds.     

Accretion tectonics and crustal structure in Alaska

The entire width of the North American Cordillera in Alaska is made up of “suspect terranes”. Pre-Late Cretaceous paleogeography is poorly constrained and the ultimate origins of the many fragments which make up the state are unclear. The Prince William and Chugach terranes accreted since Late Cretaceous time and represent the collapse of much of the northeast Pacific Ocean swept into what today is southern Alaska. Greater Wrangellia, a composite terrane now dispersed into fragments scattered from Idaho to southern Alaska, apparently accreted into Alaska in Late Cretaceous time crushing an enormous deep-marine flysch basin on its inboard side. Most of interior eastern Alaska is the Yukon Tanana terrane, a very large entirely fault-bounded metamorphic-plutonic assemblage covering thousands of square kilometers in Canada as well as Alaska. The original stratigraphy and relationship to North America of the Yukon-Tanana terrane are both obscure. A collapsed Mesozoic flysch basin, similar to the one inboard of Wrangellia, lies along the northern margin. Much of Arctic Alaska was apparently a vast expanse of upper Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic deep marine sediments and mafic volcanic and plutonic rocks now scattered widely as large telescoped sheets and Klippen thrust over the Ruby geanticline and the Brooks Range, and probably underlying the Yukon-Koyukuk basin and the Yukon flats. The Brooks Range itself is a stack of north vergent nappes, the telescoping of which began in Early Cretaceous time. Despite compelling evidence for thousands of kilometers of relative displacement between the accreted terranes, and large amounts of telescoping, translation, and rotation since accretion, the resulting new continental crust added to North America in Alaska carries few obvious signatures that allow application of currently popular simple plate tectonic models. Intraplate telescoping and strike-slip translations, delamination at mid-crustal levels, and large-scale lithospheric wedging were important processes in northern Cordilleran tectonic evolution.     

A New Approach for Scientific Data Dissemination in Developing Countries: A Case of Indonesia

This short paper is a progress report on our experiences in Indonesia of collecting, integrating and disseminating both global and local scientific data across the country through the web. Our recent efforts are concentrated on improving local public access to global scientific data, and encouraging local scientific data to be more accessible for global communities. We have maintained a well-connected infrastructure and web-based information management systems to realize these objectives. This paper is especially focused on introducing the ARSIP system for mirroring global data and sharing local scientific data, and the newly developed Indonesian Scientific Index for integrating local scientific data through an automated intelligent indexing system.     

Fracturing and fluid‐flow during post‐rift subsidence in carbonates of the Jandaíra Formation,Potiguar Basin,NE Brazil

Pervasive fracture networks are common in many reservoir‐scale carbonate bodies even in the absence of large deformation and exert a major impact on their mechanical and flow behaviour. The Upper Cretaceous Jandaíra Formation is a few hundred meters thick succession of shallow water carbonates deposited during the early post‐rift stage of the Potiguar rift (NE Brazil). The Jandaíra Formation in the present onshore domain experienced <1.5 km thermal subsidence and, following Tertiary exhumation, forms outcrops over an area of >1000 km². The carbonates have a gentle, <5?, dip to the NE and are affected by few regional, low displacement faults or folds. Despite their simple tectonic history, carbonates display ubiquitous open fractures, sub‐vertical veins, and sub‐vertical as well as sub‐horizontal stylolites. Combining structural analysis, drone imaging, isotope studies and mathematical modelling, we reconstruct the fracturing history of the Jandaíra Formation during and following subsidence and analyse the impact fractures had on coeval fluid flow. We find that Jandaíra carbonates, fully cemented after early diagenesis, experienced negligible deformation during the first few hundreds of meters of subsidence but were pervasively fractured when they reached depths >400–500 m. Deformation was accommodated by a dense network of sub‐vertical mode I and hybrid fractures associated with sub‐vertical stylolites developed in a stress field characterised by a sub‐horizontal σ₁ and sub‐vertical σ₂. The development of a network of hybrid fractures, rarely reported in the literature, activated the circulation of waters charged in the mountainous region, flowing along the porous Açu sandstone underlying the Jandaíra carbonates and rising to the surface through the fractured carbonates. With persisting subsidence, carbonates reached depths of 800–900 m entering a depth interval characterised by a sub‐vertical σ₁. At this stage, sub‐horizontal stylolites developed liberating calcite which sealed the sub‐vertical open fractures transforming them in veins and preventing further flow. During Tertiary exhumation, several of the pre‐existing veins and stylolites opened and became longer, and new fractures were created typically with the same directions of the older features. The simplicity of our model suggests that most rocks in passive margin settings might have followed a similar evolution and thus display similar structures.     

The Mechanical Coupling of Fluid-Filled Granular Material Under Shear

The coupled mechanics of fluid-filled granular media controls the physics of many Earth systems, for example saturated soils, fault gouge, and landslide shear zones. It is well established that when the pore fluid pressure rises, the shear resistance of fluid-filled granular systems decreases, and, as a result, catastrophic events such as soil liquefaction, earthquakes, and accelerating landslides may be triggered. Alternatively, when the pore pressure drops, the shear resistance of these geosystems increases. Despite the great importance of the coupled mechanics of grain–fluid systems, the basic physics that controls this coupling is far from understood. Fundamental questions that must be addressed include: what are the processes that control pore fluid pressurization and depressurization in response to deformation of the granular skeleton? and how do variations of pore pressure affect the mechanical strength of the grains skeleton? To answer these questions, a formulation for the pore fluid pressure and flow has been developed from mass and momentum conservation, and is coupled with a granular dynamics algorithm that solves the grain dynamics, to form a fully coupled model. The pore fluid formulation reveals that the evolution of pore pressure obeys viscoelastic rheology in response to pore space variations. Under undrained conditions elastic-like behavior dominates and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and overall volumetric strain. Viscous-like behavior dominates under well-drained conditions and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and volumetric strain rate. Numerical simulations reveal the possibility of liquefaction under drained and initially over-compacted conditions, which were often believed to be resistant to liquefaction. Under such conditions liquefaction occurs during short compactive phases that punctuate the overall dilative trend. In addition, the previously recognized generation of elevated pore pressure under undrained compactive conditions is observed. Simulations also show that during liquefaction events stress chains are detached, the external load becomes completely supported by the pressurized pore fluid, and shear resistance vanishes.     

中国北方典型沙尘天气特征研究

 根据API、风速、风向及相关气象数据初步研究了中国北方两次典型沙尘天气的天气特征。两次沙尘天气过程中极大风速大于7.2 m·s-1的气象站占88%。2005年4月27日极大风速超过17.2 m·s-1的气象站有31个,出现频率最高的风向为西西北,28日达到81个,风向为北风,极大风速高值区由内蒙古中东部向东北方向迅速扩大。2007年3月30日极大风速超过17.2 m·s-1的气象站有57个,31日达到68个,风向均为西西北,极大风速高值区分布较为稳定。受沙尘暴影响的地区API显著升高。2005年4月28日呼和浩特、大同、北京3个城市的API分别为418、500、500。2007年3月31日呼和浩特、赤峰、大同3个城市的API分别为500、500、423。对PM10与气象因子的相关性进行分析得出,沙尘暴期间,大气中可吸入颗粒物的浓度与风速存在显著的正相关关系,风速越高的地区,可吸入颗粒物的浓度越大。     

Dunes on Titan observed by Cassini Radar

Thousands of longitudinal dunes have recently been discovered by the Titan Radar Mapper on the surface of Titan. These are found mainly within ±30° of the equator in optically-, near-infrared-, and radar-dark regions, indicating a strong proportion of organics, and cover well over 5% of Titan's surface. Their longitudinal duneform, interactions with topography, and correlation with other aeolian forms indicate a single, dominant wind direction aligned with the dune axis plus lesser, off-axis or seasonally alternating winds. Global compilations of dune orientations reveal the mean wind direction is dominantly eastwards, with regional and local variations where winds are diverted around topographically high features, such as mountain blocks or broad landforms. Global winds may carry sediments from high latitude regions to equatorial regions, where relatively drier conditions prevail, and the particles are reworked into dunes, perhaps on timescales of thousands to tens of thousands of years. On Titan, adequate sediment supply, sufficient wind, and the absence of sediment carriage and trapping by fluids are the dominant factors in the presence of dunes.     

Environmental perception,decision processes,and population movement: a review of geographical studies

The author reviews a selection of studies on the behavioral aspects of migration, with emphasis on the process leading up to the decision to migrate. The focus of this review is not on the short-term factors leading to the actual migration decision but on the background factors that lead to the contemplation of migration. The perception by potential migrants of the environment in which they are living as opposed to that of the place to which they might move is considered. (summary in ENG, GER)