Numerical analysis of passive pile groups in offshore soft deposits

The performance of pile foundations in offshore soft deposits is frequently dominated by passive loading from approach embankments for reclaimed land in Korea. This is mainly because of a Korean offshore soil profile, involving an over 30 m normally consolidated soil, with a strength that varies linearly with depth. This paper presents the results of an investigation on short- and long-term passive loading on the piles using two dimensional elastoplastic-consolidation coupled FEM analyses with large strain mode. This numerical scheme is essentially based on an updated Lagrangian formulation, which is favorably validated in cases of both centrifuge tests and field measurements. Although a parametric study is limited by some of the application, it is shown that passive pile loading is primarily affected by soil profile, pile head boundary condition, magnitude of embankment load, and average degree of consolidation. Simultaneously, time-dependent effect of shear transfer at the pile head is explicitly identified and a useful starting point in design is recommended for passive pile loading in construction (short-term) and consolidation (long-term) phases.     

Effects of several salt marsh plants on mouse spleen and thymus cell proliferation using mtt assay

In the present study, we have tested the effects of 21 salt marsh plants on cell proliferation of mouse immune cells (spleen and thymus) using MTT assay in culture. The methanolic extracts of six salt marsh plants (Rosa rugosa, Ixeris tamagawaensis, Artemisia capillaris, Tetragonia tetragonoides, Erigeron annus, and Glehnia littoralis) showed very powerful suppressive effects of mouse immune cell death and significant activities of cell proliferationin vitro. Especially, the methanolic extract ofRosa rugosa was found to have fifteen times compared to the control treatment, demonstrating that Rosa rugosa may have a potent stimulation effect on immune cell proliferation. These results suggest that several salt marsh plants includingRosa rugosa could be useful for further study as an immunomodulating agent.     

Four-dimensional reflectivity data comparison between two ground-based radars: methodology and statistical analysis

Abstract

A methodology is proposed to compare radar reflectivity data obtained from two partially overlapping ground-based radars in order to explain relative differences in radar-rainfall products and establish sound merging procedures for multi-radar observing networks. To identify radar calibration differences, radar reflectivity is compared for well-matched radar sampling volumes viewing common meteorological targets. Temporal separation and three-dimensional matching of two different sampling volumes were considered based on the original polar coordinates of radar observation. Since the proposed method assumes radar beam propagation under standard atmospheric conditions, anomalous propagation cases were eliminated from the analysis. The reflectivity comparison results show systematic differences over time, but the variability of these differences is surprisingly large due to the sensitive nature of the radar reflectivity measurement.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis/Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor R.J. Moore

Citation Seo, B.-C., Krajewski, W.F., and Smith, J.A., 2013. Four-dimensional reflectivity data comparison between two ground-based radars: methodology and statistical analysis. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (7), 1312–1326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.839872     

Numerical analysis on ship maneuvering coupled with ship motion in waves

This paper considers a numerical analysis of ship maneuvering performance in the presence of incident waves and resultant ship motion responses. To this end, a time-domain ship motion program is developed to solve the wave–body interaction problem with the ship slip speed and rotation, and it is coupled with a modular-type 4-DOF maneuvering problem. In this coupled problem, the second-order mean drift force, which can play an important role in the ship maneuvering trajectory, is estimated by using a direct pressure integration method. The developed method is validated by observing the second-order mean drift force, and planar trajectories in maneuvering tests with and without the presence of incident waves. The comparisons are made for two ship models, Series 60 with block coefficient 0.7 and the S-175 containership, with existing experimental data. The maneuvering tests observed in this study include a zig-zag test in calm water, and turning tests in calm water and in regular waves. The present results show a fair agreement of overall tendency in maneuvering trajectories.     

Validating infrared-based rainfall retrieval algorithms with 1-minute spatially dense raingage measurements over Korean peninsula

Summary ?This study compares and contrasts six infrared-based satellite rain estimation techniques and their validation during a 2-month period from June 20–August 20, 1998 over the Korean peninsula. Two probability matching techniques (PMM1, PMM2), a look-up table technique (LUT), a convective-stratiform technique (CST), the Negri-Adler-Wetzel technique (NAWT), and the Arkin technique (ARKT) are applied to hourly infrared GMS imagery. Retrieved rainrates are compared against one-minute reporting raingage observations from the dense Automated Weather Station (AWS) network of Korea. The high spatial resolution and fine temporal resolution of the AWS measurements provide a unique and effective means to validate rain estimates derived from instantaneous space measurements, which is a main scientific focus of this study. Validation results indicate that all techniques exhibit better performance for more evenly spread rain events while exhibiting lesser performance for weak and sporadic rains for which validation sampling becomes more of a problem. Validation statistics show that climatologically-local techniques such as the PMM and LUT algorithms perform better than techniques developed in climatologically different regimes, indicating the well-known dependence of rain physics on the immediate environment. Nevertheless, the validation results suggest how the rain determination parameters including attributed rain and threshold brightness temperature could be optimized locally before application. As others have found, the most difficult problem with satellite infrared techniques is in the detection and quantification of heavy rainfall events arising from uncertainties in discriminating non-precipitating anvil clouds from convective clouds. However, for the set of algorithms under examination here, given the sharp resolution of the validation measurements, it is evident that the CST algorithm exhibits superior performance in differentiating between non-precipitating anvil and heavy rain. Received January 4, 2002; revised March 11, 2002     

A case study of temperature fluctuations within and above a wheat field before and after sunset

Temperature fluctuations in the stable air layer before and after sunset were measured at 4 heights within and above a wheat field. Large positive temperature fluctuations were frequently observed within the plant canopy. The standard deviations, skewness factors and flatness factors of temperature fluctuations within the canopy showed peculiar time variations, having remarkable positive skewness factors. The occurrence of large positive temperature fluctuations was probably related to the difference of temperature gradients below and above the observation height, i.e., these fluctuations frequently occurred when the temperature gradient above the observation height was greater than that below the observation height. Furthermore, the vertical mixing associated with the penetration of downdrafts from the air layer above the canopy was requisite for the occurrence of the phenomenon.     

Future change of extreme temperature climate indices over East Asia with uncertainties estimation in the CMIP5

How well the climate models simulate extreme temperature over East Asia and how the extreme indices would change under anthropogenic global warming are investigated. The indices studied include hot days (HD), tropical nights (TN), growing degree days (GDD), and cooling degree days (CDD) in summer and heating degree days (HDD) and frost days (FD) in winter. The representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP 4.5) experiments for the period of 2075–2099 are compared with historical simulations for the period of 1979–2005 from 15 coupled models that are participated in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). To optimally estimate future change and its uncertainty, groups of best models are selected based on Taylor diagrams, relative entropy, and probability density function (PDF) methods previously suggested. Overall, the best models’ multi-model ensemble based on Taylor diagrams has the lowest errors in reproducing temperature extremes in the present climate among three methods. Selected best models in three methods tend to project considerably different changes in the extreme indices from each other, indicating that the selection of reliable models are of critical importance to reduce uncertainties. Three groups of best models show significant increase of summerbased indices but decrease of the winter-based indices. Over East Asia, the most significant increase is seen in the HD (336 ± 23.4% of current climate) and the most significant decrease is appeared in the HDD (82 ± 4.2%). It is suggested that the larger future change in the HD is found over in the Southeastern China region, probably due to a higher local maximum temperature in the present climate. All of the indices show the largest uncertainty over Southeastern China, particularly in the TN (~3.9 times as large as uncertainty over East Asia) and in the HD (~2.4). It is further noted that the TN reveals the largest uncertainty over three East Asian countries (~1.7 and 1.4 over Korea and Japan, respectively). These future changes in extreme temperature events have an important implication for energy-saving applications and human molarity in the future.     

Regional coupled ocean–atmosphere downscaling in the Southeast Pacific: impacts on upwelling, mesoscale air–sea fluxes, and ocean eddies

Ocean–atmosphere coupling in the Humboldt Current System (HCS) of the Southeast Pacific is studied using the Scripps Coupled Ocean–atmosphere Regional (SCOAR) model, which is used to downscale the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis-2 (RA2) product for the period 2000–2007 at 20-km resolution. An interactive 2-D spatial smoother within the sea-surface temperature (SST)–flux coupler is invoked in a separate run to isolate the impact of the mesoscale (～50–200 km, in the oceanic sense) SST field felt by the atmosphere in the fully coupled run. For the HCS, SCOAR produces seasonal wind stress and wind stress curl patterns that agree better with QuikSCAT winds than those from RA2. The SCOAR downscaled wind stress distribution has substantially different impacts on the magnitude and structure of wind-driven upwelling processes along the coast compared to RA2. Along coastal locations such as Arica and Taltal, SCOAR and RA2 produce seasonally opposite signs in the total wind-driven upwelling transport. At San Juan, SCOAR shows that upwelling is mainly due to coastal Ekman upwelling transport, while in RA2 upwelling is mostly attributed to Ekman pumping. Fully coupled SCOAR shows significant SST–wind stress coupling during fall and winter, while smoothed SCOAR shows insignificant coupling throughout, indicating the important role of ocean mesoscale eddies on air–sea coupling in HCS. Coupling between SST, wind speed, and latent heat flux is incoherent in large-scale coupling and full coupling mode. In contrast, coupling between these three variables is clearly identified for oceanic mesoscales, which suggests that mesoscale SST affects latent heat directly through the bulk formulation, as well as indirectly through stability changes on the overlying atmosphere, which affects surface wind speeds. The SST–wind stress and SST–heat-flux couplings, however, fail to produce a strong change in the ocean eddy statistics. No rectified effects of ocean–atmosphere coupling were identified for either the atmospheric or oceanic mean conditions, suggesting that mesoscale coupling is too weak in this region to strongly alter the basic climate state.     

Wave-like wind fluctuations observed in the stable surface layer over a plant canopy

Observations of wind velocity and temperature fluctuations were made in the nocturnal surface inversion layer over a paddy field. A remarkable wave-like motion of about 8 min period was seen in horizontal wind speed and standard deviation of vertical wind velocity. In addition, fluctuations of horizontal wind speed and anticlockwise rotation of wind direction with a period of about 30 min were found by power spectral analysis. The phenomena persisted for more than 2 hours. Similar phenomena were also observed at a coastal site at a distance of about 10 km from the paddy field.