Prediction of blasting-induced fragmentation in Meydook copper mine using empirical,statistical, and mutual information models

One of the most important aims of blasting in open pit mines is to reach desirable size of fragmentation. Prediction of fragmentation has great importance in an attempt to prevent economic drawbacks. In this study, blasting data from Meydook mine were used to study the effect of different parameters on fragmentation; 30 blast cycles performed in Meydook mine were selected to predict fragmentation where six more blast cycles are used to validate the results of developed models. In this research, mutual information (MI) method was employed to predict fragmentation. Ten parameters were considered as primary ones in the model. For the sake of comparison, Kuz-Ram empirical model and statistical modeling were also used. Coefficient of determination (R ²), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) were then used to compare the models. Results show that MI model with values of R ², RMSE, and MAE equals 0.81, 10.71, and 9.02, respectively, is found to have more accuracy with better performance comparing to Kuz-Ram and statistical models.     

Ellipsoidal Stokes Boundary-Value Problem with Ellipsoidal Corrections in the Boundary Condition

We would like to solve the Stokes boundary-value problem taking into consideration the ellipsoidal corrections in the boundary condition in ellipsoidal coordinates The original problem, i.e., the ellipsoidal Stokes boundary-value problem has been solved by Martinec and Grafarend (1997) We use the same philosophy expressed by Martinec (1998) to solve the spherical Stokes boundary-value problem with ellipsoidal corrections in the boundary condition We wish to show the magnitude of the integration kernel describing the effect of the ellipsoidal corrections in the boundary condition in a cap around the computational point.     

Geoid Determination Through Ellipsoidal Stokes Boundary-Value Problem by Splitting Its Solution to the Low-Degree and the High-Degree Parts

The ellipsoidal Stokes boundary-value problem is used to compute the geoidal heights. The low degree part of the geoidal heights can be represented more accurately by Global Geopotential Models (GGM). So the disturbing potential is splitted into a low-degree reference potential and a higher-degree potential. To compute the low-degree part, the global geopotential model is used, and for the high-degree part, the solution of the ellipsoidal Stokes boundary-value problem in the form of the surface integral is used. We present an effective method to remove the singularity of the high-degree of the spherical and ellipsoidal Stokes functions around the computational point. Finally, the numerical results of solving the ellipsoidal Stokes boundary-value problem and the difference between the high-degree part of the solution of the ellipsoidal Stokes boundary-value problem and that of the spherical Stokes boundary-value problem is presented.     

Health risk assessments due to nitrate levels in drinking water in villages of Azadshahr,northeastern Iran

Groundwater is the main water source used for drinking and cooking purposes globally. Nitrate level in most groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid areas has increased in the past several decades as a result of human activities and natural processes. This may exert a great impact on human health. To learn the contamination circumstances of groundwater nitrate in villages of Azadshahr, Iran and assess its probable risk to the health of adults, children and infants, fifty-eight groundwater samples were collected from wells and springs in 2018. Nitrate concentrations had a wide spatial variability in wells and springs of the studied villages, with values going from 1 up to 51 mg/L. Exceedances of the EPA standard value were limited to two village springs (villages Nili and Narab, with nitrate level of 51 and 46 mg/L, respectively). The hazard quotients (HQ) values for 41% of children and infants were above the safety level (i.e., HQ?>?1), suggesting that groundwater nitrate would have significant health effects on these age groups. Therefore, appropriate control measures and sanitation improvement programs should be put in place to protect the health of the residents in the contaminated villages.     

Comparison of conventional and Monte Carlo simulation-based probabilistic seismic hazard analyses for Shiraz city,southern Iran

Estimation of ground-motion amplitudes of different hazard levels is of paramount importance in planning of urban development of any metropolis. Such estimation can be computed through a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). This paper concentrates on the PSHA of an area located in Shiraz city, southern Iran. The area includes whole of Shiraz city (i.e., one of the largest and most populous cities of Iran) and its outskirts. Conventional and Monte Carlo simulation-based approaches are utilized to perform the PSHA of the studied area. Two areal seismic source models are delineated, and thence seismicity parameters of all zones associated with their corresponding uncertainties are computed. Uncertainties in ground-motion prediction are accounted for via three ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) within the logic tree framework. These GMPEs are applied to estimate bedrock ground shaking (V_s30?=?760 m/s) for several return periods (i.e., 75, 475, 975, and 2475 years). In general, the results of the two abovementioned PSHA approaches show relatively similar results. However, the Monte Carlo simulation-based approach overpredicts bedrock spectral accelerations at periods of 0.4–2.5 s compared to the conventional PSHA approach for return periods of 475, 975, and 2475 years.     

Evidence of the formation of landslide-dammed lakes in the Zagros Mountains range,Iran

Alternation of high and low resistance sedimentary beds,active tectonics,large rivers,and slope erosion in valleys consequently resulted in landslide in dammed lakes within the Zagros range.This study presents the results in the analysis of geological and topographic data,satellite imageries,morphotectonics and hydrodynamics of drainage networks about the landslide dammed lakes.There are four landslides in central Zagros(Zagros FoldThrust Belt,ZFTB)which have formed five dammed lakes named,Seymareh,Jaidar,Shur,Shimbar,and Godar.According to the results,damming landslides occurred in the active-tectonic regions on the slopes of anticlines and in valleys with undercutting effects of rivers on their slopes consisting of alternations of loose and resistant beds.The studied landslide dams in narrow valleys are formed as a result of blocking river by sliding debris slopes and rock slides.This study also indicates the formation of Jaidar and Godar in one stage and the presence of Lake Terrace sequence in Seymareh,Shur and Shimbar lakes.The observed sequences of terrace formation in these lakes are caused by four Seymareh Landslides followed by the three-stage excavation of Shur andShimbar lakes.     

Active and online prediction of BOD5 in river systems using reduced-order support vector machine

Due to the limitations of hardware sensors for online measurement of the water quality parameters such as 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), the recent research efforts have focused on the software sensors for the rapid prediction of such parameters. The main objective in this research is to develop a reduced-order support vector machine (ROSVM) model based on the proper orthogonal decomposition to solve the time-consuming problem of the BOD₅ measurements. The performance of the newly developed methodology is tested on the Sefidrood River Basin, Iran. Subsequently, the predicted values of BOD₅, resulted from the selected developed ROSVM model, are compared with the results of support vector machine (SVM) model. According to the obtained results, selected ROSVM model seems to be more accurate, showing Person correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) equal to 0.97 and 6.94, respectively. Further, the investigations based on developed discrepancy ratio (DDR) statistic for selection of the optimum model between the best accurate ROSVM and SVM models are carried out. Results of DDR statistic indicated superior performance of the selected ROSVM model comparing to the SVM technique for online prediction of BOD₅ in the Sefidrood River.     

Practical finite analytic methods for simulation of advection-dominated solute transport

Abstract

The practical finite-analytic (PFA) method was applied to the solution of the one-dimensional advection–dispersion equation (ADE) for solute transport in porous media under advection-dominated (high Peclet number, Pe) conditions. Several PFA spatial-temporal computational molecules were developed for Cauchy and pulse loading boundary conditions. The PFA solutions were compared with solutions from the upwind method and quadratic upwind differencing (QUICK) scheme. For all boundary conditions the trapezoidal explicit PFA (EPFA) computational molecule gave the most accurate results at very high Pe number as long as the Courant number (Cr) was close to one. Stability analysis shows that the PFA molecules are always stable for high Pe number.     

Association of trace metals with various sedimentary phases in dam reservoirs

In the present study sediment and water samples collected from Kowsar Dam reservoir in Kohkiluye and Boyerahmad Province, southwest of Iran, are subjected to bulk digestion and chemical partitioning. The concentrations of nickel, lead, zinc, copper, cobalt, cadmium, manganese and iron in water and bed sediment were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The concentrations of metals bounded to five sedimentary phases were estimated. On this basis, the proportions of natural and anthropogenic elements were calculated.The anthropogenic portion of elements are as follows: zinc (96 %)> cobalt (88 %)> iron (78 %)> magnesium (78 %)> nickel (78 %)> copper (66 %)> lead (63 %)> cadmium (59 %). The results show sediment contamination by nickel, cadmium and lead, according to the world aquatic sediments and mean earth crust values. Manganese and copper have strong association with organic matter and are of high portion of sulfide bounded ions. Finally, The degree of sediment contamination was evaluated using enrichment factor, geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and pollution index (IPoll). The sediments were identified to be of high cadmium and lead pollution index. The pattern of pollution intensity according to enrichment factor is as follows; manganese (1.25) < copper (1.63) < zinc (1.93) < cobalt (2.35) < nickel (3.83) < lead (12.63) < cadmium (78.32). Cluster analysis was performed in order to assess heavy metal interactions between water and sediment. Accordingly, nickel, cadmium and copper are earth originated. Zinc, copper and manganese are dominated by pH. All the elemental concentrations in water and sediment are correlated except for sedimental copper.