Simulation of the seismic performance of the Bolu Viaduct subjected to near‐fault ground motions

The seismic performance of the Bolu Viaduct in the Duzce, Turkey, earthquake of November 1999 was studied via a non‐linear, time‐history analysis of a multi‐degree of freedom model. The viaduct had a seismic isolation system consisting of yielding‐steel energy dissipation units and sliding pot bearings. The Duzce earthquake caused a surface rupture across the viaduct, which resulted in excessive superstructure movement and widespread failure of the seismic isolation system. The effect of the rupture was modeled by a static, differential ground displacement in the fault‐parallel direction across the rupture. The ground motions used in the analysis contain common near‐fault features including a directivity pulse in the fault‐normal direction and a fling step in the fault‐parallel direction. The analysis used a finite element package capable of modeling the mechanical behavior of the seismic isolation system and focused on the structural response of a 10‐span module of the viaduct. This analysis showed that the displacement of the superstructure relative to the piers exceeded the capacity of the bearings at an early stage of the earthquake, causing damage to the bearings as well as to the energy dissipation units. The analysis also indicated that shear keys, both longitudinal and transverse, played a critical role in preventing collapse of the deck spans. Published in 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of the effects of uncertainty on the predictions of landslide occurrences using the Shannon entropy theory and Dempster–Shafer theory

Natural Hazards - One of the requirements for planning and decision-making to develop the infrastructures is to prepare the landslide occurrence hazard map. For this purpose, in this article, the...     

The Application of GIS in Education Administration: Protecting Students from Hazardous Roads

Though enrolment by proximity is an official educational policy in Iran, the lack of clearly defined school attendance areas has resulted in an informal open enrolment system where parents may choose public schools outside their residential areas. Two major consequences of parental choice are longer commutes to schools and increased use of motor vehicle transport. To delineate school attendance areas for public female junior high schools in the city of Rasht in Northern Iran, this research used the multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagram (MWVD) technique to construct school attendance areas. The approach was shown to be useful in developing countries like Iran where accident fatalities are not only disproportionately high but the public school system lacks sufficient educational diversity to offset the societal costs of opting out of neighbourhood schools. A GIS-based specialist package was used for constructing the proposed school attendance areas. Given the MWVD utility in demarcating spaces so that all journeys within them are closest to a chosen point, the research concluded that proposed school attendance areas can result in shorter and more convenient commutes on foot for students. This can eliminate the need to travel by vehicle for the overwhelming majority of students and thus make their journeys more convenient and safer.     

Estimation of improved resolution soil moisture in vegetated areas using passive AMSR-E data

Microwave remote sensing provides a unique capability for soil parameter retrievals. Therefore, various soil parameters estimation models have been developed using brightness temperature (BT) measured by passive microwave sensors. Due to the low resolution of satellite microwave radiometer data, the main goal of this study is to develop a downscaling approach to improve the spatial resolution of soil moisture estimates with the use of higher resolution visible/infrared sensor data. Accordingly, after the soil parameters have been obtained using Simultaneous Land Parameters Retrieval Model algorithm, the downscaling method has been applied to the soil moisture estimations that have been validated against in situ soil moisture data. Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS BT data in Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 region in the south and north of Oklahoma have been used to this end. Results illustrated that the soil moisture variability is effectively captured at 5 km spatial scales without a significant degradation of the accuracy.     

Study of Dominant Factors Affecting Cerchar Abrasivity Index

The Cerchar abrasion index is commonly used to represent rock abrasion for estimation of bit life and wear in various mining and tunneling applications. Although the test is simple and fast, there are some discrepancies in the test results related to the equipment used, condition of the rock surface, operator skills, and procedures used in conducting and measuring the wear surface. This paper focuses on the background of the test and examines the influence of various parameters on Cerchar testing including pin hardness, surface condition of specimens, petrographical and geomechanical properties, test speed, applied load, and method of measuring wear surface. Results of Cerchar tests on a set of rock specimens performed at different laboratories are presented to examine repeatability of the tests. In addition, the preliminary results of testing with a new device as a potential alternative testing system for rock abrasivity measurement are discussed.     

Prediction of global stability in room and pillar coal mines

Global stability is a necessary prerequisite for safe retreat mining and one of the crucial and complex problems in room and pillar mining, so its prediction plays an important role in the safety of retreat mining and the reduction of pillar failure risk. In this study, we have tried to develop predictive models for anticipating global stability. For this purpose, two of the most popular techniques, logistic regression analysis and fuzzy logic, were taken into account and a predictive model was constructed based on each. For training and testing of these models, a database including 80 retreat mining case histories from 18 room and pillar coal mines, located in West Virginia State, USA, was used. The models predict global stability based on the major contributing parameters of pillar stability. It was found that both models can be used to predict the global stability, but the comparison of two models, in terms of statistical performance indices, shows that the fuzzy logic model provides better results than the logistic regression. These models can be applied to identify the susceptibility of pillar failure in panels of coal mines, and this may help to reduce the casualties resulting from pillar instability. Finally, the sensitivity analysis was performed on database to determine the most important parameters on global stability. The results revealed that the pillar width is the most important parameter, whereas the depth of cover is the least important one.     

江西省一次短历时暖区暴雨中尺度结构及发生维持机制分析

利用地面和高空、卫星TBB、多普勒雷达和GFS(0.5°×0.5°)逐6 h再分析等资料,对2011年6月10日江西省西北部一次短历时暖区暴雨中尺度结构及发生维持机制进行分析。结果表明:1)此次过程是在有利的高、低空系统配置下发生在梅雨锋南侧的暖区暴雨,边界层急流和低空急流提供了充足的水汽条件,增强低层热力不稳定;高空分流区使大气动力不稳定发展,高低空急流的耦合作用为MCS维持提供了必备的不稳定机制;中低层热力不稳定,中高层对称不稳定,形成此次对流性强降水。2)地面中尺度辐合线、非锋性斜压带、能量锋的抬升作用为MCS生成和发展提够了启动机制。3)低层强盛的水汽输送、层结不稳定和地面持续而强的中尺度抬升使得多个雷暴单体在江西省西北部连续传播,形成"列车效应",降水强而集中。4)在水汽和不稳定条件具备的情况下,暖区对流性强降水发生在强低层辐合与强高层辐散相重迭的区域。     

一次罕见黄渤海大风天气成因分析

利用气象常规资料、风廓线资料和NCEP/NCAR 1°×1°再分析资料,对2015年10月1日黄渤海罕见大风天气成因进行分析。结果表明:较强冷空气与快速发展的入海气旋相互作用形成强气压梯度是导致此次海上强风的主要原因。对流层中低层强冷平流区与地面变压风大值区有较好的对应关系。上下相接的整层冷平流有利于地面形成强气压梯度和变压梯度。气压梯度在大风形成的初期起主导作用,变压梯度有利于强风的维持。本次过程出现明显动量下传现象,大风形成初期,500~1000m出现低空动量下传并影响地面风场,高空槽过境后,2000m以上的高空动量能够影响地面风场。风廓线观测到低层强风并伴有强的下沉运动,可以作为海上大风临近预警的指标之一。     

Application of the honey-bees mating programming (HBMP) algorithm to sediment concentration modelling

Abstract

The honey-bees mating programming (HBMP) algorithm is introduced as a novel tool for predicting suspended sediment concentration for the Mad River catchment near Arcata, USA. The paper also applies gene expression programming (GEP) as a comparison and shows that these two approaches can the produce transparent, nonlinear relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Some modifications have been made to the HBMP algorithm to improve its capability and efficiency. The results achieved from this method and GEP are compared with two different sediment rating curves based on regression techniques. The findings show that the results from both the HBMP and GEP methods are promising and outperform the results obtained from the sediment rating curves.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor L. See