The Simulation of Ground Motions Using Envelope Summations

—?The technique of Midorikawa (1993) has been modified to obtain a resultant envelope function at the observation point by placing the rupture causing an earthquake in a layered earth model. The method and its dependency on various modelling parameters are studied in detail. The complete study shows that the generated resultant envelope follows important strong motion characteristics such as directivity and attenuation effects. The simulated resultant envelope is further used for generating synthetic accelerograms by multiplying filtered white noise with the envelope of accelerogram at a particular observation point. Filters through which white noise passes include the effects of geometrical spreading, anelastic attenuation and near-site attenuation at high frequencies.¶Uttarkashi earthquake is among few Indian earthquakes for which strong motion data are available at thirteen different stations. Using the technique presented in this work, envelope function as well as complete acceleration time history during Uttarkashi earthquake has been simulated at these observation points. Comparison of peak acceleration, duration and acceleration response spectra confirms the utility and efficacy of the approach.     

Malaria and related environmental issues in India: a case study of Aligarh city

Malaria is one of the most widespread diseases in the world. Endemic malaria no longer occurs in many temperate zones as a result of social and economic improvement. At present malaria is the Third World's most dreaded killer. It kills over 1 million people and causes 300–500 million episodes of illness. In India, malaria-reported deaths have shown an upward trend. In 1955, a drive to eradicate malaria was launched in India. But after initial success it failed and malaria made a comeback. Malarial mosquitoes generally prefer unpolluted natural breeding sites but now they have adapted to the changed urban environment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the occurrence of malaria and related environmental issues in a small town of India. Aligarh city, lying in the shadow of the country's capital New Delhi, was selected as a case study. Data were collected mainly from household surveys with the help of questionnaire interviews. About 2,185 households belonging to different income groups were sampled. The differences in the occurrence of malaria in the different income households (in 87% low, 69% lower-middle, 65% middle, 14% upper-middle, and 5% upper) suggest that most of these differences are related to the environmental conditions existing inside and outside their homes, such as poor drainage system, poor sullage disposal, open blocked drains, waterlogging and indoor water storage in open containers. Commitment both by the Government and local residents is needed to improve the environmental conditions and eradicate malaria.     

Estimation of surface latent heat fluxes from IRS-P4/MSMR satellite data

The brightness temperatures of the Microwave sensor MSMR (Multichannel Scanning Microwave Radiometer) launched in May 1999 onboard Indian Oceansat-1 IRS-P4 are used to develop a direct retrieval method for latent heat flux by multivariate regression technique. The MSMR measures the microwave radiances at 8 channels at frequencies of 6.6, 10.7, 18 and 21 GHz at both vertical and horizontal polarizations. It is found that the surface LHF (Latent Heat Flux) is sensitive to all the channels. The coefficients were derived using the National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data of three months: July, September, November of 1999. The NCEP daily analyzed latent heat fluxes and brightness temperatures observed by MSMR were used to derive the coefficients. Validity of the derived coefficients was checked within situ observations over the Indian Ocean and with NCEP analyzed LHF for global points. The LHF derived directly from the MSMR brightness temperature (Tb) yielded an accuracy of 35 watt/m². LHF was also computed by applying bulk formula using the geophysical parameters extracted from MSMR. In this case the errors were higher apparently due to the errors involved in derivation of the geophysical parameters.     

Some features of the arid area variations over India: 1871–1984

Spatial variability of the annual rainfall over drier regions of India is studied by examining the variations in the arid areas. A long period (1871–1984) arid area series has been prepared for the entire country, including the two broad subregions of North India and Peninsular India, using annual rainfall data from 306 well distributed stations. Following an objectively determined criterion based on rainfall amount alone, the yearly area under arid conditions is obtained by totalling areas which received annual rainfall totals less than 560 mm. The interannual variability of the arid area series is large and its distribution is highly right-skewed, demonstrating large spatial variations in the annual rainfall over India. Statistical tests do not suggest any significant long-term trend in the arid area series, but persistently low values of the arid area after 1941 are noteworthy. Implications for the study of risk analysis and assessment of drought and desertification processes are discussed.     

Cuttability assessment of hard coal seams

Summary A number of field and laboratory tests have been carried out on more than 15 coal seams of compressive strengths ranging from 19 MPa to 44 MPa to evolve methods which would help in the selection of suitable coaling machines for hard coal seams. The effect of physico-mechanical properties on cuttability were studied in the laboratory for all these coal seams to identify the relevant parameters affecting the specific energy of coal cuttability. These data were subjected to regression analysis to find the best fit for estimation of laboratory specific energy of coal samples on the basis of simple laboratory and field tests for the strength parameters. Field studies were also conducted over a large number of active mechanized coal faces to study in situ cuttability along with the geo-mining conditions of the site. The field and the laboratory data so generated were correlated and an attempt is made to establish a relationship for estimating the field specific energy for a particular capacity of coaling machines by considering the geo-mining domain of the field in totality.     

Generalized thermoelastic longitudinal waves in unbounded medium

Summary In this paper the generalized thermoelastic longitudinal waves and the temperature field set up due to coupling of the displacement and the temperature fields, with heat wave travelling with certain finite velocity, in an unbounded medium are studied. The thermoelastic displacement potential and the temperature field at any point are obtained in terms of the surface integrals involving the potential, the temperature and their normal derivatives.Notation x _i the cartesian coordinate system,i=1,2,3 - n (u _i) the displacement vector - (/x _i) the del operator - _t /t the derivative with respect to time - T _o the temperature corresponding to the natural stat of zero stress and strain - T Absolute temperature - c _e the specific heat - , Lamé's constants - ₀ the density - coefficient of linear thermal expansion - K thermal conductivity coefficient - _kk u - ₀ the relaxation time     

Resistivity profiles over quartz reefs of Dhanbad

Summary A number of resistivity profiles over quartz reefs have been taken using Wenner and Schlumberger configurations around Dhanbad in order tofind the potential of these for water accumulation. These reefs give rise to both resistivity highs and lows as compared to the background. The results are discussed in the light of known theories. Some suitable sites for water accumulation have been delineated.     

Least square criterion for isostasy

Summary Least square criterion has been introduced to specify the order of isostatic compensation of mountains. The hydrostatic stability of the mountains is of basic significance in plate tectonics. However different concepts of isostasy differ in the evaluation of its order. An elegant and rapid technique is developed which extends the symmetric matrix method of root estimation byNegi andGarde [1]³) to provide a stability test through the mathematical expectation of the root increment. Application is illustrated for Rocky Mountains, United States.     

Mechanical response of a piezoelectric composite transducer subjected to a thermal field

Summary The present paper studies the mechanical response of a piezoelectric composite transducer—with an elastic compliance partly constant and partly variable with time—acted upon by suitable thermal field besides the electrical voltage. The Laplace transform has been applied to solve the problem.