Debris flow susceptibility zonation using statistical models in parts of Northwest Indian Himalayas—implementation,validation, and comparative evaluation

Natural Hazards - Debris flows are natural disasters with devastating consequences and frequent recurrence in changing climatic regime of the Indian Himalayas. Therefore, it is necessary to...     

High rate anaerobic treatment of Sago wastewater using HUASB with PUF as carrier

Sago industry is one of the major small-scale sectors in India and over 800 units are located in the southern State of Tamilnadu. Processing of sago generates enormous quantities of high strength wastewater requiring systematic treatment prior to disposal. The present study is an attempt to treat the sago wastewater using Hybrid Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (HUASB) reactor, which offers the advantages of both fixed film and up flow anaerobic sludge blanket treatment. HUASB reactor with a volume of 5.6 L was operated at Organic Loading Rates varying from 10.7 to 24.7 kg COD/m³.day. After 130 days of startup, the reactor produced appreciable decrease in COD of wastewater and removed solids efficiently. The COD removal varied from 91–87%. While the removal of Total Solids was in the range of 61–57%, that of volatile solids varied from 70–67%. The ideal OLR for the reactor was 23.5 kg COD/m³.day. The findings of the study open up newer possibilities of design low cost and compact onsite treatment systems with very short retention periods.     

Solution of Lane-Emden type equations using Bernstein operational matrix of differentiation

The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient numerical method for solving Lane-Emden type equations arising in astrophysics using Bernstein polynomials. First Bernstein operational matrix of differentiation is derived using Bernstein polynomials and then applied to solve the linear and nonlinear differential equations of Lane-Emden type. Some illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed algorithm.     

Impact of different sea surface roughness on surface gravity waves using a coupled atmosphere–wave model: a case of Hurricane Isaac (2012)

Ocean Dynamics - The complicated pattern of the chaotic ocean surface depends strongly on the interaction between wind and waves. An accurate representation of momentum and energy exchange at...     

Modeling of local ionospheric time varying characteristics based on singular value decomposition over low-latitude GPS stations

Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) model is implemented to recognize the Total Electron Content (TEC) time series of daily, temporal as well as seasonal characteristics throughout the 24th solar cycle period of the year 2015 in the study. The Vertical (vTEC) analysis has been carried out with Global Positioning System (GPS) data sets collected from five stations from India namely GNT, Guntur (16.44^° N, 80.62^° E), and IISC, Bangalore (12.97^° N, 77.59^° E), LCK2, Lucknow (26.76^° N, 80.88^° E), one station from Thailand namely AITB, Bangkok (14.07^° N, 100.61^° E), and one station from South Andaman Island namely PBR, Port Blair (11.43^° N, 92.43^° E), located in low latitude region. The first five singular value modes constitute about 98% of the total variance, which are linearly transformed from the observed TEC data sets. So it is viable to decrease the number of modeling parameters. The Fourier Series Analysis (FSA) is carried out to characterize the solar-cycle, annual and semi-annual dependences through modulating the first three singular values by the solar (F10.7) and geomagnetic (Ap) indices. The positive correlation coefficient (0.75) of daily averaged GPS–TEC with daily averaged F10.7 strongly supports the temporal variations of the ionospheric features depends on the solar activity. Further, the significance and reliability of the SVD model is evaluated by comparing it with GPS–TEC data and the standard global model (Standard Plasma-Spherical Ionospheric Model, SPIM and International Reference Ionosphere, IRI 2016).     

Seismic performance of an unreinforced masonry building: An experimental investigation

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation carried out to investigate the seismic performance of a two storey brick masonry house with one room in each floor. A half‐scale building constructed using single wythe clay brick masonry laid in cement sand mortar and a conventional timber floor and timber roof clad with clay tiles was tested under earthquake ground motions on a shaking table, first in the longitudinal direction and then in the transverse direction. In each direction, the building was subjected to different ground motions with gradually increasing intensity. Dynamic properties of the system were assessed through white‐noise tests after each ground motion. The building suffered increasing levels of damage as the excitations became more severe. The damage ranged from cracking to global/local rocking of different piers and partial out‐of‐plane failure of the walls. Nevertheless, the building did not collapse under base excitations with peak ground acceleration up to 0.8g. General behaviour of the tested building model during the tests is discussed, and fragility curves are developed for unreinforced masonry buildings based on the experimental results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geochemistry of Early Cretaceous Alkaline Ultramafic-Mafic Complex from Jasra, Karbi Anglong, Shillong Plateau, Northeastern India

An early Cretaceous alkaline ultramafic-mafic complex is emplaced within the Proterozoic rocks of Shillong plateau at Jasra, Karbi Anglong district of Assam. It is associated to the fracture system of Barapani-Tyrsad shear zone, Kopali faults, and Um Ngot lineaments and mainly comprises pyroxenite, gabbro and nepheline syenite. Few small mafic dykes, emplaced within pyroxenitic and granitic plutons, are also reported. No such dyke is reported to cut gabbros or nepheline syenites. Nepheline syenites occur either in the form of small dykes in pyroxenites or as differentiated bodies in the gabbros. Mineralogical and chemical composition of pyroxenite and gabbro clearly indicate their affinity to the alkaline magmatism. Syenitic samples show miaskitic character (agpaitic index <1), also indicates affinity with alkaline-carbonatite magmatism. Calcite is encountered in a number of pyroxenite samples. From the presented petrological and geochemical data it is difficult to establish any significant genetic relationship through simple differentiation process between these rocks. These data probably suggest that these rocks are derived from a primary carbonatite magma, generated by the low-degree melting of a metasomatized mantle peridotite. CO₂ released by this process also progressively metasomatizes the lherzolite to an alkaline wehrlite and melts derived from alkaline wehrlite (ultrabasic alkaline silicate magma) may be responsible for crystallization of Jasra alkaline ultramafic-mafic rocks.