Estimation of Axial Pile Bearing Capacity According to Shear Strength Parameters of Soil

At pesent,it is very popular to estimate pile bearing capacity by use of empirical formula andphysical indexes of soil provided in the design codes for civil construction in China.This paper attempts toapply mechanical indexes of soil and semi-empirical formulas,which are based on soil mechanical theoriesand were summarized and presented by Meyerhof in 1976,to calculate the axial pile bearing capacity.Lo-ading test results of 24 single piles in Tianjin area have been collected and compared with the proposed cal-ulation approach.     

Model Test of Sand Restraining Force on Pipeline

This paper describes the model tests for determining the axial friction and the lateral resistance of sand to pipeline by using fine sand and prototype pipeline, and the calculation method based on limit analysis theory is verified. The effect of cyclic loading is considered in the test.     

Geophysiology and Parahistology of the Interactions of Organisms with the Environment*

Abstract. Ecology and Global Ecology (GE) are terms by which the relations between the organism (or living matter as a whole) and the environment (or Earth as a whole) have been treated for almost a century. Geophysiology and Parahistology (PH) are terms slowly replacing older scientific thoughts jointly with an increasing number of modifications and alterations of the Darwinian Evolution (DE) concept. Somehow Geophysiology and Parahistology seem to describe evolution in a non-Darwinian domain. According to V.I. Vernadsky (1929,1930,1988) - the great Russian naturalist and biogeochemist - the biogeochemical processes on Earth are controlled by the force of living matter rather than by species associations developing in and with individual ecosystems as expressed by darwinian evolutionary terms. He also claimed that Goethe was incorrectly regarded as a predecessor of DE by some authors (including Darwin) and that “Natur” (nature) and “Lebendige Natur” (the totality of creatures) are two very different things for Goethe. Detailed analyses of microbial mat systems in the German Wadden Sea and in artificial hypersaline WInogradsky columns have shown that the totality of creatures and matter around them i.e., the “lebendige Natur”sensu Goethe or “living matter”sensu Vernadsky of such environments control to a considerable extent the structure, stability. and (geo-)morphology of sediments and thereby the geological structure of the living Earth. These structures do not follow the rules of sedimentation formulated by the laws of Stokes They represent growth structures (Aufwuchs), whose physics and dynamics are controlled by complex fractal systems. The factors controlling the ultimate shape and stabilisation potential of the eventually resulting rocks and fossils are comparable to tissue development in macroorganisms. Also, certain microbial associations in the sub-recent and in the fossil record may be compared to metazoan tissues. Chemical gradients in the sedimentary column, regulated by the interplay of living matter and sluggish (slow-reactive to non-reactive) compounds, combine to create a pattern of porosity and structure of the resulting deposits that clearly indicates microbial influences and especially those of extracellular polymeric substances on the morphology and texture. The combined effects of microbiota or living matter on the sedimentary record are described as parahistology of sediments in analogy of the histology of tissue on a geological scale. This conceptual living tissue made up of microbially generated rocks and ore deposits cycled through metabolic processes and forced into tissue-like structures by microbial biofilms and mats may extend down to the upper mantle of Earth and far up into the stratosphere when Earth is regarded as a living entity over geological periods. We may have to conceive Earth as a living specimen, which is breathing at a frequency of thousands of years instead of the normal physiological breathing rate of man or an insect. Macroorganisms in all terrestrial systems represent the transport and logistic media, which, however, utterly depend on myriads of intra-, inter-, and extracellular microbial symbiotic partners.     

Siltation Prediction for Navigation Channels and Harbour Basins on Muddy Beach

- This paper, after briefly reviewing the experimental research on sediment transport on muddy beach since the 1950s, improves and perfects the method for forecasting siltation in navigation channels and harbour basins which was first put forward in China by the authors. In consideration of silty sediment and sand, some factors in forecasting methods have been changed and modified. Consequently, the modified methods can be used either to compute siltation in navigation channels and harbour basins on muddy beach or to compute siltation and scouring in navigation channels and harbour basins on both silty beach and sandy beach. The verification of field data from eleven large, medium and small natural harbours shows a good agreement between the forecasting by the modified method and the natural conditions. Finally, the paper deals with the rational utilization of water area after the construction of the West Dyke in Lianyungang, the maintenance of water depth of the navigation channel at the entrance, siltation distribution, siltation in the navigation channel and harbour basin for ships of 100 thousand tonnnage. Results once again prove that the prospect of constructing Lianyungang Harbour into a deepwater harbour is bright.     

Dynamic Analysis of a Single-Column Platform (II)

This paper describes the study of a single-column structure used as well-head platform. In order to check the reliability of computation theory and programme, model tests have been carried out. The paper introduces the conclusion of tests and the dynamic properties of single-column platform are obtained.     

Wave-Current Forces on Slender Circular Cylinders

- A series model tests of wave forces by both regular and irregular waves combined with currents on single piles and bipiles in tandem and parallel arrays have been carried out. Based on Morison Equation, linear wave theory and linear wave spectrum theory as well, the characteristics of inline, lift and resultant forces on cylinders have been analyzed respectively. The drag, inertia and lift coefficients CD, CM and CL f皉 single piles related to KC number and the grouping effect coefficients of inline, lift and resultant forces on bipiles in tandem and parallel arrays related to KC number are given in this paper.     

Overtopping Discharge of Wind-Waves on Simple Slope Dikes

An empirical formula for estimating the overtopping discharge of wind-waves on a smooth-impermeable-simple slope dyke is derived through model tests in this paper, it can be adopted by related design departments in the determination of the crest elevation of the dyke.     

Geomorphic evolution of the Tongue of the Ocean and the Providence Channels,Bahamas

During their early history the Tongue of the Ocean and the Providence Channels were broad, relatively shallow basins flanked by growing carbonate banks. As the Blake-Bahama platform subsided, sedimentation kept pace with subsidence on the banks, but not in these flat-bottomed troughs, thus increasing the relief. At the outer end of the troughs the Blake-Bahama escarpment, bounding the platform on the east, dropped steeply to the abyssal plain. Sediment gravity flows coursing down this escarpment began to erode a valley headward into the flat-bottom ancestral Northeast Providence Channel. As the relief between the banks and the troughs increased, the flows increased in vigor, and some of them were able to move down the troughs and into the headwardly eroding central valley. The rate of headward erosion thus increased, with the result that still more flows found their way into the valley. The head of this valley is now off central Andros Island, about 225 km from its point of origin, and headward erosion is continuing.Study of bathymetric charts, observations made during sixteen dives in the Tongue of the Ocean using the submersible DSRV “Alvin”, and analogies with subaerial geomorphic processes and their products contributed to the development of this model. The model is consistent with available stratigraphic information.It is emphasized that the morphology of the Tongue of the Ocean and the Providence Channels cannot be explained as the result of a single unidirectional process, such as upbuilding alone or erosion alone. Both have occurred and both are still occurring. Upbuilding predominated early in the history of the Bahamas; it is responsible for the high walls. Erosion began later and has been accelerating through time. It is responsible for the central valley.     

Influence of Approach Channel on Wave Propagation with Varying Incident Angles

- The variation of the amplitude of waves with varying incident angles when waves propagate through a typical approach channel is discussed by a numerical calculation method, the result of which shows that the influence of the channel on wave propagation is obvious. When the wave propagation direction is in coincidence with the channel axis, the wave amplitude ratio will decrease with the increase of propagation distance. When the incident angle is 15 - 30 , there appears an area of larger wave amplitude ratio on the side slope facing the waves, but at the another side, the wave amplitude ratio is generally small, indicating that the channel has a shielding effect. When waves propagate across the channel perpendicularly, the wave amplitude ratio can be calculated with the shallow water coefficient.     

Refraction-Diffraction Mathematical Model for Waves With Lateral Energy Transmission Mechanism and Its Verification

To solve problems concerning wave elements and wave propagation, an effective way is the wave energy balance equation, which is widely applied in oceanography and ocean dynamics for its simple computation. The present papaer advances wave energy balance equations considering lateral energy transmission and energy loss as the governing equation for the study of wave refraction-diffraction. For the mathematical model, numerical simulation is made by means of difference method, and the result is verified with two examples.