Seismic design of yielding structures on flexible foundations

This paper introduces a simple method to consider the effects of inertial soil–structure interaction (SSI) on the seismic demands of a yielding single‐degree‐of‐freedom structure. This involves idealizing the yielding soil–structure system as an effective substitute oscillator having a modified period, damping ratio, and ductility. A parametric study is conducted to obtain the ratio between the displacement ductility demand of a flexible‐base system and that of the corresponding fixed‐base system. It is shown that while additional foundation damping can reduce the overall response, the effects of SSI may also increase the ductility demand of some structures, mostly being ductile and having large structural aspect ratio, up to 15%. Finally, a design procedure is provided for incorporation of the SSI effects on structural response. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geodetic evidence on segmentation of Cascadia subduction zone based on episodic tremors and slips using multivariate harmonic analysis of GPS time series

Episodic tremor and slip (ETS) events with different recurrence intervals have been observed in abundance all along the Cascadia subduction zone margin. Analysis of seismic records as well as Global Positioning System (GPS) time series of the Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array (PANGA) has suggested three distinct coherent zones for the occurrence of these events. In this paper multivariate harmonic estimation has been deployed for further analysis of the segmentation in this area. Raw time series of 43 permanent GPS stations have been used for this purpose. The GPS stations have been geographically divided into three distinct groups including those in the northern, middle and southern parts of the study area. After the reduction of time series for the linear trend as well as annual and semiannual effects, the data series of each group has been analyzed using the multivariate harmonic estimation technique. Subsequently, different combinations of GPS stations including the stations located in the southern, northern and middle zones have been analyzed. Furthermore, the northern and middle, southern and middle as well as the northern and southern zone pair combinations have also been analyzed. The statistical measure devised for identifying the significant frequencies suggests common periods that are consistent with the recurrence intervals of the ETS events already reported for each of the above three geographic zones. Moreover, the method can provide geodetic evidence, in addition to geophysical ones, on the segmentation of ETSs, provided that the adopted time series are of a sufficient length. The geodetic evidence obtained in this research is consistent with the recurrence intervals as well as the boundaries obtained by the analysis of seismic records. Contrary to univariate harmonic estimation, multivariate approach using spatio-temporal correlation of the GPS time series is capable to detect those ETSs whose impacts on the time series are weak.     

Risk Assessment of Vegetation Degradation Using Geographic Information System: A Case Study of Qareh Aghaj Basin,Iran

The entire land of Southern Iran faces problems arising out of various types of land degradation of which vegetation degradation forms one of the major types. The Qareh Aghaj basin (1 265 000 ha), which covers the upper reaches of Mond River, has been chosen for a test risk assessment of this type. The different kinds of data for indicators of vegetation degradation were gathered from the records and published reports of the governmental offices of Iran. A new model has been developed for assessing the risk of vegetation degradation. Taking into consideration nine indicators of vegetation degradation the model identifies areas with “Potential Risk” (risky zones) and areas of “Actual Risk” as well as projects the probability of the worse degradation in future. The preparation of risk maps based on the GIS analysis of these indicators will be helpful for prioritizing the areas to initiate remedial measures. By fixing the thresholds of severity classes of the nine indicators a hazard map for each indicator was first prepared in GIS. The risk classes were defined on the basis of risk scores arrived at by assigning the appropriate attributes to the indicators and the risk map was prepared by overlaying nine hazard maps in the GIS. Areas under actual risk have been found to be widespread (78%) in the basin and when the risk map classified into subclasses of potential risk with different probability levels the model projects a statistical picture of the risk of vegetation degradation.     

4D tomographic reconstruction of the tropospheric wet refractivity using the concept of virtual reference station,case study: northwest of Iran

Iran enjoys a variety of climatological conditions. Moreover, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are not assimilated with the meteorological data in Iran, the country suffering from poor spatial and temporal resolution of radiosonde measurements. These facts make modeling of troposphere impossible using the measurements and NWP. On the other hand, the global positioning system (GPS) has been emerged as a valuable tool for modeling and remote sensing of Earth’s atmosphere. This research is the first attempt to address the tropospheric wet refractivity modeling by GPS measurements in Iran. Changes of topography in the study area are taken into account. As a leading work, virtual reference stations (VRS) are used to fix the rank deficiency of the problem. The model space resolution matrix is used to achieve the optimum spatial resolution of the tomographic model and the optimum number of VRS stations. The accuracy of the developed model (KNTU1) is investigated by deploying radiosonde measurements.     

Application of soft computing in predicting rock fragmentation to reduce environmental blasting side effects

In the blasting operation, risk of facing with undesirable environmental phenomena such as ground vibration, air blast, and flyrock is very high. Blasting pattern should properly be designed to achieve better fragmentation to guarantee the successfulness of the process. A good fragmentation means that the explosive energy has been applied in a right direction. However, many studies indicate that only 20–30 % of the available energy is actually utilized for rock fragmentation. Involvement of various effective parameters has made the problem complicated, advocating application of new approaches such as artificial intelligence-based techniques. In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) method is used to predict rock fragmentation in the blasting operation of the Sungun copper mine, Iran. The predictive model is developed using eight and three input and output parameters, respectively. Trying various types of the networks, it was found that a trained model with back-propagation algorithm having architecture 8-15-8-3 is the optimum network. Also, performance comparison of the ANN modeling with that of the statistical method was confirmed robustness of the neural networks to predict rock fragmentation in the blasting operation. Finally, sensitivity analysis showed that the most influential parameters on fragmentation are powder factor, burden, and bench height.     

Constraints on a geodetic time transfer network in Iran

Iran is a developing country, and nowadays, a demand to establish a time transfer system can be sensed more than anytime. On the other hand, global positioning system (GPS) is one of the most efficient and accurate systems in precise time estimation and dissemination domain. This study aims to investigate the different accuracy limiting effects of a time transfer system in a geodetic point of view. For this purpose, a simulation study is performed in which pseudo-range and carrier phase observations are simulated for some GPS stations in Iran. The baselines for time transfer have been chosen in a way that the maximum effect of each bias source can be analyzed. Therefore, the results of this study can be used in order to design the absolute and relative locations of the GPS stations equipped with external atomic frequencies in Iran considering a specific application. As a result, the most prominent bias source is the site-specific troposphere parameters which produce a variation of more than 1 ns in the time transfer results. Other bias sources including bias in the coordinate components and orbital information have a considerable impact only for time keeping purposes. Additionally, the influence of noise of the carrier phase and pseudo-range observations is analyzed. Variations of clock estimations between consecutive epochs up to 70 ps and day boundary discontinuities up to 0.6 ns, respectively, are the results of measurement errors. On the other hand, a time transfer between H-masers located at US Naval Observatory and National Resources Canada has been conducted to pursue a standard and efficient algorithm to deal with the problem of day boundary jumps. The method of overlapping batches with 12 h coverage of each of the involved days is applied to overcome this problem. The results of this method show a considerable decrease in the magnitude of the day boundary jumps.     

Water consumption of a six-year-old river red gum plantation in the Southern Zagros Mountains, Iran

Water is the most important limiting factor in the development of arid environments; therefore, optimization of water use is a necessity in desert reclamation projects. Evapotranspiration of a 6-year-old river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh.) plantation, located in a sedimentation basin of an artificial recharge of the Gareh Bygone Plain groundwater system in Iran’s southern Zagros Mountains, was studied during a 7-month period. A neutron moisture probe was used to monitor soil water changes in the root zone. Soil water depletion following rapid drainage for blocks receiving relatively high, medium and low volumes of floodwater were 809.6, 312.4, and 203.1 mm, respectively, for a 150-day period. Soil water potential during most of the study period was below -1.5 MPa. This study proves that river red gum in not a suitable species for desertification control where water conservation is of vital importance. Flood irrigation of trees on 8 Aug. 1991 provided the opportunity to throw doubt upon the claim of summer dormancy of river red gum.