Wave transmission by overtopping due to random waves

Experimental studies of wave transmission by overtopping for a smooth impermeable breakwater with 1:1.5 slope under both regular and random waves were conducted. A resulting relationship between the transmission coefficient (determined by wave height and wave period) and a breakwater height above mean water level normalized with the height of wave run-up measured directly by capacity wave meter is reported. Meanwhile, their discrepancies in both regular and random waves are also discussed in this study. The authors find also that the transmitted significant wave period by overtopping of random waves may be much longer than those of the incoming wave. This characteristic is especially prominent and probably creates the oscillation phenomenon in the wave basin at the back of breakwater when the breakwater height (above mean water level) to water depth ratio is greater than 0.23 and the incoming wave period is longer than 8 sec.     

Spectral analysis using orthonormal functions with a case study on the sea surface topography

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Spherical harmonics are orthonormalized using the Gram-Schmidt process in a function space. The problem of linear dependence of spherical harmonics over the oceans is studied using the Gram matrices and consequently three sets of orthonormal (ON) functions have been constructed. For the process an efficient formula for computing inner products of spherical harmonics has been developed. Important spectral properties of the ON functions are addressed. The ON functions may be used for representing the sea surface topography (SST) in the analysis of satellite altimeter data. The geoid error can be transformed to a representation by the ON functions and hence the comparison of powers of the geoid error and the SST signal only over the oceans is possible, leading to a better way of determining the cut-off frequency of the SST in the simultaneous solution using satellite altimeter data. As a case study, the modified Levitus SST is expanded into the ON functions. The results show that 99.90 per cent of that signal's energy is contained within degree 24 of the orthonormal functions. Such expansions also render better spectral behaviour of oceanic signals as compared to that from spherical harmonic expansions. The study shows that these generalized Fourier functions are suitable for spectral analyses of oceanic signals and they can be applied to future altimetric mission where the geoid and the SST are to be recovered.     

Influence of wavelength on the parameterization of drag coefficient and surface roughness

Surface waves are the roughness element of the ocean surface, the air-sea interaction processes are influenced by the wave conditions. The dynamic influence of surface waves decays exponentially with distance from the air-water interface. The relevant length scale characterizing the decay rate is the wavelength. The parameterization of drag coefficient and surface roughness can be significantly improved by using wavelength as the reference length scale of atmospheric measurements. The wavelength scaling of drag coefficient and dynamic roughness also receives support from theoretical studies of wind and wave coupling.     

A simple LMS‐based approach to the structural health monitoring benchmark problem

A structure's health or level of damage can be monitored by identifying changes in structural or modal parameters. However, the fundamental modal frequencies can sometimes be less sensitive to (localized) damage in large civil structures, although there are developing algorithms that seek to reduce this difficulty. This research directly identifies changes in structural stiffness due to modeling error or damage using a structural health monitoring method based on adaptive least mean square (LMS) filtering theory. The focus is on computational simplicity to enable real‐time implementation. Several adaptive LMS filtering based approaches are used to analyze the data from the IASC–ASCE Structural Health Monitoring Task Group Benchmark problem. Results are compared with those from the task group and other published results. The proposed methods are shown to be very effective, accurately identifying damage to within 1%, with convergence times of 0.4–13.0 s for the twelve different 4 and 12 degree of freedom benchmark problems. The resulting modal parameters match to within 1% those from the benchmark problem definition. Finally, the methods developed require 1.4–14.0 Mcycles of computation and therefore could easily be implemented in real time. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empirical formula for fundamental vibration periods of reinforced concrete buildings in Taiwan

More than 30 buildings around Taiwan have been selected to monitor the floor responses under seismic excitation. The structural array monitoring system in each building controls at most 27 channels of accelerometers distributed in several floors. Those buildings were triggered by many events during the past five years of operation. In each building, the records at the basement can be considered as the ground excitation, and the others at the upper floors are the structural responses. The frequency transfer functions of those buildings can be identified by ARX models, and then the fundamental vibration periods are estimated. The identified fundamental vibration periods using different events are compared in order to ensure the reliability of system identification. An empirical formula in predicting the fundamental vibration period is presented through the regression analysis to the identified fundamental vibration periods of 21 reinforced concrete (RC) moment‐resisting frame (MRF) buildings. It is found that the height of a building plays an important role in predicting the fundamental vibration period, compared with the length, width, and time after completion of the building. It is also found that the RC MRF buildings in Taiwan tend to be stiffer than those in the U.S. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An AEM study of garnet clinopyroxenite from the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure terrane: formation mechanisms of oriented ilmenite,spinel, magnetite,amphibole and garnet inclusions in clinopyroxene

Optical microscopy, secondary electron microscopy and analytical electron microscopy were used to characterize crystallographic orientation relationships between oriented mineral inclusions and clinopyroxene (Cpx) host from the Hujialing garnet clinopyroxenite within the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane, eastern China. One garnet clinopyroxenite sample (2HJ-2C) and one megacrystic garnet-bearing garnet clinopyroxenite (RZ-11D) were studied. Porphyroblastic clinopyroxene from sample 2HJ-2C contains oriented inclusions of ilmenite (Ilm), spinel (Spl), magnetite and garnet, whereas clinopyroxene inclusions within megacrystic garnet from sample RZ-11D contain oriented inclusions of ilmenite and amphibole. Specific crystallographic relationships were observed between ilmenite/spinel plates and host clinopyroxene in sample 2HJ-2C and between ilmenite plates and host clinopyroxene in sample RZ-11D, i.e. [1[`1]00 1\bar{1}00 ]<sub>Ilm</sub>//[0[`1]0 0\bar{1}0 ]_Cpx (0001)_Ilm//(100)_Cpx; and [110]_Spl//[0[`1]0 0\bar{1}0 ]<sub>Cpx</sub> ([`1]11 \bar{1}11 )_Spl//(100)_Cpx. These inclusions are suggested to be primary precipitates via solid-state exsolutions. Most of the needle-like magnetite/spinel inclusions generally occur at the rims or along fractures of clinopyroxene within sample 2HJ-2C. Despite the epitaxial relation with host clinopyroxene, these magnetite/spinel needles would have resulted from fluid/melt infiltrations. Non-epitaxial garnet lamellae in clinopyroxene of sample 2HJ-2C were formed via fluid infiltration-deposition primarily along (010) and subordinately along (100) partings. Epitaxial amphibole plates (with a thickness <1 μm) and lamellae (with a thickness = 1–10 μm) in host clinopyroxene of sample RZ-11D were probably results of hydration processes, although amphibole plates could otherwise be interpreted as exsolution products. Temporal relations between mineral inclusions in each sample can be established, and a semi-quantitative P–T path for this garnet clinopyroxenite body was derived accordingly. The present results show that the Hujialing garnet clinopyroxenite may not have subducted to mantle depths as deep as 250 km during UHP metamorphism as suggested by previous studies. This study demonstrates that the crystallographic and temporal/spatial relationships between aligned inclusions and host minerals are essential to a correct genetic interpretation of metamorphic rocks.     

Mitigation of asphaltics deposition during CO2 flood by enhancing CO2 solvency with chemical modifiers

CO₂ injected in the reservoir of McElroy Field, TX, for a CO₂ flood was in the supercritical state. Supercritical CO₂ fluid is capable of extracting light and intermediate hydrocarbons from rocks but is unable to extract heavy hydrocarbons and asphaltics. Therefore, plugging of asphaltics in reservoir rocks and a consequent reduction in injectivity and recovery may result when CO₂ only is used in enhanced oil recovery. By adding common solvents as chemical modifiers, the flooding fluid shows marked improvement in solvency for heavy components of crudes due to its increased density and polarity. Numerous supercritical CO₂ fluid extractions of dolomite rock from the Grayburg Formation containing known amount of spiked McElroy crude oil have been carried out to evaluate extraction efficiencies of CO₂ and CO₂ with chemical modifiers at various temperatures and pressures. All experiments show that extraction efficiency increases with increasing CO₂ pressure but decreases with increasing temperature. Addition of chemical modifiers to CO₂ also shows improved extraction efficiency and reduced asphaltic deposits. Under the pressure and temperature similar to McElroy reservoir conditions; chemically modified CO₂ yielded almost 3 times as much oil extracts as those in extractions with CO₂ only. It also reduced the asphaltics content in extracted rocks to nearly one half; indicating its potential for mitigating asphaltics plugging of formation rocks     

Assessment of groundwater chemistry in a coastal region (Kunsan, Korea) having complex contaminant sources: a stoichiometric approach

Groundwater chemistry in a coastal region (Kunsan, Korea) having complex contaminant sources was investigated. Water analysis data for 197 groundwater samples collected from the uniformly distributed sixty-six wells were used. Chemical analysis results indicate that groundwaters show wide concentration ranges in major inorganic ions, reflecting complex hydrochemical processes. Due to the complexity of groundwater chemistry, the samples were classified into four groups based on Cl and NO₃ concentrations and the processes controlling water chemistry were evaluated based on the reaction stoichiometry. The results explained the importance of mineral weathering, anthropogenic activities (nitrification and oxidation of organic matters), and Cl-salt inputs (seawater, deicer, NaCl, etc.) on groundwater chemistry. It was revealed that mineral dissolution is the major process controlling the water chemistry of the low Cl and NO₃ group (Group 1). Groundwaters high in NO₃ (Groups 2 and 4) are acidic in nature, and their chemistry is largely influenced by nitrification, oxidation of organic matters and mineral dissolution. In the case of chloride rich waters (Group 3), groundwater chemistry is highly influenced by mineral weathering and seawater intrusion associated with cation-exchange reactions.