A critical review of methods for pile design in seismically liquefiable soils

Collapse and/or severe damage to pile-supported structures are still observed in liquefiable soils after most major earthquakes. Poor performance of pile foundations remains a great concern to the earthquake engineering community. This review paper compares and contrasts the two plausible theories on pile failure in liquefiable soils. The well established theory of pile failure is based on a flexural mechanism; where the lateral loads on the pile (due to inertia and/or lateral spreading) induce bending failure. This theory is well researched in the recent past and assumes that piles are laterally loaded beams. A more recent theory based on buckling instability treats the piles as laterally unsupported slender columns in liquefiable soils and investigates the buckling instability (bifurcation). The objective of this paper is to investigate the implications to practical pile foundation design that flow from both these theories. Provisions for design made by major international codes of practice for pile design including the Japanese Highway Code (JRA) will be considered. The necessity for such codes to consider alternative forms of failure mechanisms such as the buckling instability of piles in liquefied ground will be discussed. S. Bhattacharya–Previously Departmental Lecturer in Engineering Science, University of Oxford, UK and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. S. P. G. Madabhushi–Fellow of Girton College, Cambridge.     

The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager on AstroSat

The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) is a high energy, wide-field imaging instrument on AstroSat. CZTI’s namesake Cadmium Zinc Telluride detectors cover an energy range from 20 keV to \(>200\) keV, with 11% energy resolution at 60 keV. The coded aperture mask attains an angular resolution of 17\(^\prime \) over a 4.6\(^\circ \) \(\times \) 4.6\(^\circ \)  (FWHM) field-of-view. CZTI functions as an open detector above 100 keV, continuously sensitive to GRBs and other transients in about 30% of the sky. The pixellated detectors are sensitive to polarization above \(\sim \)100 keV, with exciting possibilities for polarization studies of transients and bright persistent sources. In this paper, we provide details of the complete CZTI instrument, detectors, coded aperture mask, mechanical and electronic configuration, as well as data and products.     

Scanning sky monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat

Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat is an Xray sky monitor in the soft X-ray band designed with a large field of view to detect and locate transient X-ray sources and alert the astronomical community about interesting phenomena in the X-ray sky. SSM comprises position sensitive proportional counters with 1D coded mask for imaging. There are three detector units mounted on a platform capable of rotation which helps covering about 50% of the sky in one full rotation. This paper discusses the elaborate details of the instrument and few immediate results from the instrument after launch.     

Study of high energy phenomena from near space using low-cost meteorological balloons

Indian Centre for Space Physics has taken a novel strategy to study low energy cosmic rays and astrophysical X-ray sources which involve very light weight payloads up to about five kilograms on board a single or multiple balloons which are used for meteorological purposes. The mission duration could be anywhere from 3-12 hours. Our strategy provides extreme flexibility in mission preparation and its operation using a very economical budget. There are several limitations but our innovative approach has been able to extract significant amount of scientific data out of these missions. So far, over one hundred missions have been completed by us to near space and a wealth of data has been collected. The payloads are recovered and are used again. Scientific data is stored on board computer and the atmospheric data or payload location is sent to ground in real time. Since each mission is different, we present here the general strategy for a typical payload and provide some results we obtained in some of these missions.     

Spatial variability and mechanisms underlying El Niño-induced droughts in Mexico

The El Niño Southern Oscillation plays a key role in modulating interannual rainfall variability in Mexico. While El Niño events are linked to drought in Mexico, uncertainty exists about the spatial pattern and causal mechanisms behind El Niño-induced drought. We use lead/lag correlation analysis of rainfall station data to identify the spatial pattern of drought associated with the summer before, and the spring following, the peak of warm SST anomalies in the eastern equatorial Pacific. We also use atmospheric fields from the North American Regional Reanalysis to calculate the anomalous moisture budget and diagnose the mechanisms associated with El Niño-induced drought in Mexico. We find that reduced rainfall occurs in Mexico in both the summer before and the spring after a peak El Niño event, especially in regions of climatologically strong convection. The teleconnection in the developing phase of El Niño is primarily driven by changes in subsidence resulting from anomalous convection in the equatorial Pacific. The causes of drought during the decaying phase of El Niño events are varied: in some years, descent anomalies dominate other moisture budget terms, while in other years, drying of the boundary layer on the Mexican plateau is important. We suggest that the latter may result from the interaction of weakened southeasterly winds in the Intra-Americas Sea with high topography along the Atlantic coast of Mexico. Weakened winds are likely driven by a reduced sea level pressure gradient between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Changes in easterly wave activity may contribute to drought in the developing phase of El Niño, but may be less important in the decaying phase of El Niño.     

Response of thunderstorm and lightning activity to solar modulation of atmospheric electrification

Summary The influence of thunderstorms on the atmospheric radio noise field strength (ARNFS) over Kalyani (West Bengal) at 27 kHz has been analyzed over a two-year period. The results show that the median noise level decreases during the winter and reaches a maximum during the monsoon months. A comparison of the seasonal occurrence of thunderstorm-days with ARNFS indicates that both of them have similar trend over time. However, the trend is more pronounced during daytime, indicating relationship between solar activity, thunderstorms and ARNFS. In this paper, we have attempted to investigate how tropical thunderstorm and lightning activity might be responsible for the solar modulation of atmospheric electrification. The influence of ionizing radiation on the electrical global circuit of the atmosphere is also critically analyzed.With 7 Figures     

Shear Zone-hosted Migmatites (Eastern India): the Role of Dynamic Melting in the Generation of REE-depleted Felsic Melts, and Implications for Disequilibrium Melting

In the Ranmal migmatite complex, non-anatectic foliated graniteprotoliths can be traced to polyphase migmatites. Structural–microtexturalrelations and thermobarometry indicate that syn-deformationalsegregation–crystallization of in situ stromatic and diatexiteleucosomes occurred at 800°C and 8 kbar. The protolith,the neosome, and the mesosome comprise quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase,hornblende, biotite, sphene, apatite, zircon, and ilmenite,but the modal mineralogy differs widely. The protolith compositionis straddled by element abundances in the leucosome and themesosome. The leucosomes are characterized by lower CaO, FeO+MgO,mg-number, TiO₂ , P₂O₅ , Rb, Zr and total rare earth elements(REE), and higher SiO₂ , K₂O, Ba and Sr than the protolith andthe mesosome, whereas Na₂O and Al₂O₃ abundances are similar.The protolith and the mesosome have negative Eu anomalies, butprotolith-normalized abundances of REE-depleted leucosomes showpositive Eu anomalies. The congruent melting reaction for leucosomeproduction is inferred to be 0·325 quartz+0·288K-feldspar+0·32 plagioclase+0·05 biotite+0·014hornblende+0·001 apatite+0·001 zircon+0·002sphene=melt. Based on the reaction, large ion lithophile element,REE and Zr abundances in model melts computed using dynamicmelting approached the measured element abundances in leucosomesfor >0·5 mass fraction of unsegregated melts withinthe mesosome. Disequilibrium-accommodated dynamic melting andequilibrium crystallization of melts led to uniform plagioclasecomposition in migmatites and REE depletion in leucosome. KEY WORDS: migmatite; REE; trace element; partial melting; P–T conditions     

The evolution of the magnetic fields of neutron stars

Observational evidence, and theoretical models of the magnetic field evolution of neutron stars is discussed. Observational data indicates that the magnetic field of a neutron star decays significantly only if it has been a member of a close interacting binary. Theoretically, the magnetic field evolution has been related to the processing of a neutron star in a binary system through the spin evolution of the neutron star, and also through the accretion of matter on the neutron star surface. I describe two specific models, one in which magnetic flux is expelled from the superconducting core during spin-down, via a copuling between Abrikosov fluxoids and Onsager-Feynman vortices; and another in which the compression and heating of the stellar crust by the accreted mass drastically reduces the ohmic decay time scale of a magnetic field configuration confined entirely to the crust. General remarks about the behaviour of the crustal field under ohmic diffusion are also made.