Quantitative failure metric for gravity dams

Quantitative failure monitoring is a critical tool for safety assessment of concrete dams. This includes damage occurrence, intensity, location, number, size, and propagation pattern. Such an assessment is essential for a quantifiable prioritization of repair and will thus reduce overall cost and improve safety. This paper will address this timely topic through the nonlinear transient analysis of a dam and failure will be ascertained through a multi‐scale damage index. A damage‐plastic model for mass concrete is used, Drucker‐Prager elasto‐plastic one for the foundation, and infinite elements are used for far‐field boundaries. Water‐dam interaction is accounted for through fluid finite elements. It is determined that the proposed damage indices can indeed provide a quantitative metric for the degree of failure in gravity dams in terms of the input dynamic motion. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aftershock seismic assessment taking into account postmainshock residual drifts

This paper introduces and evaluates a methodology for the aftershock seismic assessment of buildings taking explicitly into account residual drift demands after the mainshock (i.e., postmainshock residual interstory drifts, RIDR_o). The methodology is applied to a testbed four‐story steel moment‐resisting building designed with modern seismic design provisions when subjected to a set of near‐fault mainshock–aftershock seismic sequences that induce five levels of RIDR_o. Once the postmainshock residual drift is induced to the building model, a postmainshock incremental dynamic analysis is performed under each aftershock to obtain its collapse capacity and its capacity associated to demolition (i.e., the capacity to reach or exceed a 2% residual drift). The effect of additional sources of stiffness and strength (i.e., interior gravity frames and slab contribution) and the polarity of the aftershocks are examined in this study. Results of this investigation show that the collapse potential under aftershocks strongly depends on the modeling approach (i.e., the aftershock collapse potential is modified when additional sources of lateral stiffness and strength are included in the analytical model). Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the aftershock capacity associated to demolition (i.e., the aftershock collapse capacity associated to a residual interstory drift that leads to an imminent demolition) is lower than that of the aftershock collapse capacity, which mean that this parameter should be a better measure of the building residual capacity against aftershocks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Copula‐based joint probability function for PGA and CAV: a case study from Taiwan

This study aims to develop a joint probability function of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) for the strong ground motion data from Taiwan. First, a total of 40,385 earthquake time histories are collected from the Taiwan Strong Motion Instrumentation Program. Then, the copula approach is introduced and applied to model the joint probability distribution of PGA and CAV. Finally, the correlation results using the PGA‐CAV empirical data and the normalized residuals are compared. The results indicate that there exists a strong positive correlation between PGA and CAV. For both the PGA and CAV empirical data and the normalized residuals, the multivariate lognormal distribution composed of two lognormal marginal distributions and the Gaussian copula provides adequate characterization of the PGA‐CAV joint distribution observed in Taiwan. This finding demonstrates the validity of the conventional two‐step approach for developing empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) of multiple ground motion parameters from the copula viewpoint. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

JYZ11A钻孔记录的居延泽演化历史

我国内陆干旱区在末次冰期(含深海氧同位素第3阶段)是否存在古大湖近年来持续存在争论。居延泽是黑河的尾闾湖之一, 位于我国典型干旱区, 是开展这项研究的理想区域。依据居延泽盆地最低处的JYZ11A钻孔(全孔长61.13m, 本文侧重上部27m岩芯), 使用石英光释光测年获得3个可靠释光年龄并据此建立年代框架。全孔10cm间距测量沉积物粒度, 钻孔上部16.7m以2cm间距测量低频磁化率, 本文侧重分析JYZ11A钻孔上部10m的指标记录。综合岩性地层、沉积物粒度分布特征和粒度、磁化率指标记录, 并与前人已有研究进行对比, 本研究发现末次冰期时居延泽盆地主要堆积棕色冲洪积物和风沙沉积物, 早全新世为风沙沉积, 中全新世出现浅灰色湖相沉积与风沙交替沉积, 而稳定湖泊只在约3ka时才逐渐形成, 可能存在多次湖面波动并留下古湖岸堤。因此, 居延泽盆地在末次冰期包括深海氧同位素第3阶段晚期并不存在稳定大湖。居延泽早全新世干涸、中晚全新世湖泊较稳定发育的全新世成湖模式与季风区湖泊演化模式明显不同, 而与许多中亚干旱区的湖泊、风成沉积等古环境记录相似, 它们可能共同指示了一种有别于中国季风区的全新世区域湿度演化模式。     

Offshore Aggregates Resources on the Northern Continental Shelf of the East China Sea

A large‐scale survey for offshore aggregates is carried out on the northern shelf of the East China Sea. Results show that most of them are directly exposed in the Yangtze Shoal and the linear sand ridges system at water depths 25–55 m and 60–120 m, respectively. The components of these deposits belong to fine aggregates in terms of the fineness modulus. The potential resources are as high as 147.8 × 10¹² kg for the Yangtze Shoal yet only 36.68 × 10¹² kg for the sand ridges area, respectively. A preliminary feasibility analysis suggests that the Yangtze Shoal is suitable for dredging under the present conditions of technology and economy.