Numerical analysis of effect of baffle configuration on impact force exerted from rock avalanches

In mountainous areas, channelized rock avalanches swarm downslope leading to large impact forces on building structures in residential areas. Arrays of rock avalanche baffles are usually installed in front of rigid barriers to attenuate the flow energy of rock avalanches. However, previous studies have not sufficiently addressed the mechanisms of interaction between the rock avalanches and baffles. In addition, empirical design approaches such as debris flow (Tang et al., Quat Int 250:63–73, 2012), rockfall (Spang and Rautenstrauch, 1237–1243, 1988), snow avalanches (Favier et al., 14:3–15, 2012), and rock avalanches (Manzella and Labiouse, Landslides 10:23–36, 2013), which are applied in natural geo-disasters mitigation cannot met construction requirements. This study presents details of numerical modeling using the discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the effect of the configuration of baffles (number and spacing of baffle columns and rows) on the impact force that rock avalanches exert on baffles. The numerical modeling is firstly conducted to provide insights into the flow interaction between rock avalanches and an array of baffles. Then, a modeling analysis is made to investigate the change pattern of the impact force with respect to baffle configurations. The results demonstrate that three crucial influencing factors (baffle row numbers, baffle column spacing, and baffle row spacing) have close relationship with energy dissipation of baffles. Interestingly, it is found that capacity of energy dissipation of baffles increases with increasing baffle row numbers and baffle row spacing, while it decreases with increasing baffle column spacing. The results obtained from this study are useful for facilitating design of baffles against rock avalanches.     

Cyclic degradation and non-coaxiality of soft clay subjected to pure rotation of principal stress directions

Foundation soils are often under non-proportional cyclic loadings. The deformation behaviour and the mechanism of non-coaxiality under continuous pure principal stress rotation for clays are not clearly investigated up to now. In order to study the effect of pure principal stress rotation, a series of cyclic undrained tests on Shanghai soft clay subjected to cyclic rotation of principal stress directions keeping the deviatoric stress constant under the pure rotation condition were conducted using hollow cylinder apparatus. Based on this, the evolutions of excess pore pressure and strains during cyclic loading were investigated, together with the effects of the intermediate principal stress parameter and the deviatoric stress level on stress–strain stiffness and non-coaxiality. The result can provide an experimental basis for constitutive modelling of clays describing the behaviour under non-proportional loadings.     

Soil column infiltration tests on biomediated capillary barrier systems for mitigating rainfall-induced landslides

Rainfall-induced landslide is a common geohazard in tropical and humid regions. Capillary barrier system (CBS) is a popular and widely studied mitigating measure for rainfall-induced landslides. However, several previous studies have shown that the performance of the conventional CBS under intense rainfalls has not been particularly convincing. This paper aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a newly proposed system, known as “biomediated capillary barrier system” (B-CBS) in minimizing water infiltration into soil. A one-dimensional soil column was used to investigate the infiltration characteristics of the proposed system. The results showed that the B-CBS of biomediated residual soil overlying original residual soil (Test IV) could effectively control the infiltration into soil by taking advantage of the less-permeable biomediated soil cover. The B-CBS of biomediated residual soil overlying gravelly sand (Test V) and the three-layered B-CBS of fine sand overlying gravelly sand and biomediated residual soil (Test VI) showed the best performance in terms of minimizing the water infiltration. A suction of about 5 kPa still remained in the soil column after 60 min of infiltration from the ponded water on the soil surface.     

Synthesis and characterisation of a multifunctional oil-based drilling fluid additive

An oil-based drilling fluid additive H-DEA (or humic acid-cocamide diethanolamine) was synthesised using humic acid and cocamide diethanolamine as raw materials. The rheological behaviors of H-DEA showed that the synthesised product has the good properties in both decreasing the filtrate loss and improving rheology property of oil-based drilling fluids compared with other commercially available additives. Under the optimal additive amount of 3%, both API filtrate loss and yield point changed remarkably from 5.40 to 0.41 mL and 9.0 to 25.6 Pa, respectively. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that H-DEA has good thermal stability in a wide temperature range up to 170 °C. Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and rheological analysis revealed that the possible mechanism of the multifunctional effects may be attributed to the existing of high density of strong polar groups, hydrogen bonds, electrostatic forces, and intermolecular association on H-DEA molecular structure. The results of the study showed that the synthesised H-DEA can be potentially used as a multifunctional oil-based drilling fluid additive in oil-drilling excavation.     

Mechanical behavior and micro-structure of cement kiln dust-stabilized expensive soil

In this study, the effects of cement kiln dust (CKD) on the swelling properties, strength properties, and microstructures of CKD-stabilized expansive soil were investigated. Samples were prepared and stabilized with different CKD content ratios, ranging from 0 to 18% by dry mass. The results obtained show that the maximum swelling pressures decrease exponentially with increases in CKD content. Both the cohesion and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) increase at ratios below 10% CKD and then decrease slightly, above that ratio. CKD can also improve the strength of saturated, expansive soil. There is no visible change of UCS for soil without CKD when cured, while the UCS of a sample with 10% CKD content after curing for 90 days is higher than that after curing for only 1 day. This indicates that CKD can improve the long-term strength of expansive soil. Finally, microstructure analysis reveals that the addition of CKD reduces the montmorillonite content of expansive soil and decreases its swelling properties. The addition of CKD also changes the pore volume distribution, both the size and amount of macro-pores and micro-pores decrease with increase in CKD content. For saturated samples, the size of macro-pores is obviously reduced, while that of micro-pores is slightly increased for both treated and untreated soils. Hydration and saturation processes make the soil structure become dispersive which results in a lower strength, and adding CKD can restrain this process. The suggested optimal CKD content is between 10 and 14% and with a curing time of more than 27 days.     

Carbonate formation mechanism in paleosol sediments of the Bohai Sea coastal zone,China

The Bohai Sea coastal zone of China consists of the Pacific Ocean to the east and Eurasia to the west; hence, this region is influenced by both the ocean and continental landmasses. The carbonate formation mechanism of eolian sediment within this area is poorly understood. The loess-paleosol sediments of the Miaodao stratigraphical section (MDS) contain a record of carbonate changes in this region during the last interglacial period. New insights into regional carbonate formation mechanisms since the last interglacial period were obtained by analyzing the ages of various sedimentary facies in combination with proxy paleoclimatic indices (including average grain size, standard deviation, CaCO₃ content, and clay minerals), as well as via foraminiferal analysis. The results led to three principal findings: (1) The carbonate content change in the MDS was neither controlled by grain size nor affected by minerals. The carbonate change controlled by precipitate leaching in the Loess Plateau region cannot explain the eolian sediments within the Bohai Sea coastal zone. (2) Various subsections contain obvious carbonate content changes caused by foraminiferal deposits atop the eolian sediments, which were deposited by storm surges during a high sea-level period. This increased the carbonate content in the eolian sediments and restricted the carbonate content in the Bohai Sea coastal zone. (3) Newly detected foraminifera of the last interglacial period on the eolian sediment of the MDS were the main source of carbonate content, providing a new understanding of the carbonate formation mechanism in eolian sediments different from that of the Loess Plateau.     

A GIS-based method of risk assessment on no. 11 coal-floor water inrush from Ordovician limestone in Hancheng mining area,China

The no. 11 coal seam in the deep area of Hancheng mining area is mining in recent years, which is threatened by the water inrush from the Ordovician limestone aquifer. Coal-floor water inrush is governed by the water abundance of coal-floor aquifer, the water-resisting performance of coal-floor aquitard, and the pathway connecting the water source and the working face. To make an accuracy risk assessment of water inrush from the no. 11 coal seam floor, a GIS-based vulnerability index method (VIM) is adopted for its superior comprehensive consideration of more controlling factors, powerful spatial analysis, and intuitively display functions. This study firstly established an index system including the water pressure of the coal-floor aquifer, the unit water inflow, the thickness, the core recovery percentage, the thickness ratio of brittle rocks to ductile rocks, the thickness of effective aquitard, and the accumulated length of faults and folds, of which the former six indexes governed the water abundance of the coal-floor aquifer which was combined with the last two factors to determine the risk of coal-floor water inrush. Secondly, the thematic map of each controlling factor is established by GIS using the geological prospecting data, and the weight of each factor is determined by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) after consulting the expert review panel. At last, a vulnerability index is obtained and used to assess the risk of coal-floor water inrush of the no. 11 coal seam. The risk of water inrush of the no. 11 coal seam of the study area was ranked to three zones: the southeastern shallow area in red color is the dangerous zone, the wide northwestern area in green color is the safe zone, and the transition area in yellow color is the moderate-risk zone. Compared with the actual water-inrush incidents, the risk assessment result was verified to achieve an accuracy of 82.35%, which is proved to be a dependable reference for the prevention and controlling of coal-floor water inrush of the no. 11 coal seam in Hancheng mining area.     

渝东北城口地区Y1井页岩有机地球化学特征及勘探前景

基于钻井资料,以总有机碳(TOC)、干酪根显微组分、等效镜质体反射率(Ro)及碳同位素等测试数据系统分析了渝东北城口地区Y1井五峰组—龙马溪组页岩的有机地球化学特征,利用页岩流体包裹体的显微特征、均一温度及激光拉曼数据深入分析了Y1井页岩气成藏特征。结果表明:Y1井上奥陶统五峰组—下志留统龙马溪组炭质页岩发育,TOC含量2%的富含有机质页岩厚度达83 m,干酪根类型以Ⅰ型干酪根为主,处于湿气生烃阶段。页岩裂缝脉体中大量烃包裹体和富含甲烷气体的含烃盐水包裹体证实城口地区五峰组—龙马溪组页岩发生了充足页岩气供给,具有高均一温度、高盐度的伴生盐水包裹体表明城口地区页岩气成藏时期的保存条件良好。这些Y1井页岩有机地球化学特征研究成果揭示了城口地区下古生界具备良好的页岩气勘探前景。     

Club convergence and spatial distribution dynamics of carbon intensity in China’s construction industry

Climate change caused by carbon emissions continuously threatens sustainable development. Due to China’s immense territory, there are remarkable regional differences in carbon emissions. The construction industry, which has strong internal industrial differences, further leads to carbon emission disparity in China. Policymakers should consider spatial effects and attempt to eliminate carbon emission inequality to promote the sustainable development of the construction industry and realize emission reduction targets. Based on the classic Markov chain and spatial Markov chain, this paper investigates the club convergence and spatial distribution dynamics of China’s carbon intensity in the construction industry from 2005 to 2014. The results show that the provincial carbon intensity in the construction industry is characterized by “convergence clubs” during the research period, and very low-level and very high-level convergence clubs have strong stability. Moreover, the carbon intensity class transitions of provinces tend to be consistent with that of their neighbors. Furthermore, the transition of carbon intensity types is highly influenced by their regional backgrounds. The provinces with high carbon emissions have a negative influence on their neighbors, whereas the provinces with low carbon emissions have a positive influence. These analyses provide a spatial interpretation to the “club convergence” of carbon intensity.     

Prediction of open stope hangingwall stability using random forests

Natural Hazards - The prediction of open stope hangingwall (HW) stability is a crucial task for underground mines. In this paper, a relatively novel technique, the random forest (RF) algorithm, is...