Modelling mechanical behaviour of limestone under reservoir conditions

High porosity and low permeability limestone has presented pore collapse. As fluid is withdrawn from these reservoirs, the effective stresses acting on the rock increase. If the strength of the rock is overcome, pore collapse may occur, leading to irreversible compaction of porous media with permeability and porosity reduction. It impacts on fluid withdrawal. Most of reservoirs have been discovered in weak formations, which are susceptible to this phenomenon. This work presents a study on the mechanical behaviour of a porous limestone from a reservoir located in Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. An experimental program was undergone in order to define its elastic plastic behaviour. The tests reproduced the loading path conditions expected in a reservoir under production. Parameters of the cap model were fitted to these tests and numerical simulations were run. The numerical simulations presented a good agreement with the experimental tests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cosmological study of the star formation history in the solar neighbourhood

We use a cosmological galactic evolutionary approach to model the Milky Way. A detailed treatment of the mass aggregation and dynamical history of the growing dark halo is included, together with a self-consistent physical treatment for the star formation processes within the growing galactic disc. This allows us to calculate the temporal evolution of star and gas surface densities at all galactic radii, in particular, the star formation history (SFH) at the solar radius. A large range of cosmological mass aggregation histories (MAHs) is capable of producing a galaxy with the present-day properties of the Milky Way. The resulting SFHs for the solar neighbourhood bracket the available observational data for this feature, the most probable MAH yielding the optimal comparison with these observations. We also find that the rotation curve for our Galaxy implies the presence of a constant density core in its dark-matter halo.     

Stress–dilatancy based modelling of granular materials and extensions to soils with crushable grains

Stress–dilatancy relations have played a crucial role in the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of soils and in the development of realistic constitutive models for their response. Recent investigations on the mechanical behaviour of materials with crushable grains have called into question the validity of classical relations such as those used in critical state soil mechanics. In this paper, a method to construct thermodynamically consistent (isotropic, three‐invariant) elasto‐plastic models based on a given stress–dilatancy relation is discussed. Extensions to cover the case of granular materials with crushable grains are also presented, based on the interpretation of some classical model parameters (e.g. the stress ratio at critical state) as internal variables that evolve according to suitable hardening laws. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Symmetries and Rank Deficiency in the Orbit Determination Around Another Planet

We study the possible degeneracies for the normal matrix of the observations from the Earth of the motion of a satellite around a planet, and give the possible solutions to the loss of precision in the orbit determination caused by the rank deficiency. Finally we discuss the methods available to control the instability in the orbit determination resulting from the degeneracy.     

A visco‐plastic constitutive model for granular soils modified according to non‐local and gradient approaches

An already available non‐associated elastic–viscoplastic constitutive model with anisotropic strain hardening is modified in order to describe both the constitutive parameter dependency on relative density and the spatio‐temporal evolution of strain localization. To achieve this latter goal, two distinct but similar approaches are introduced: one inspired by the gradient theory and one by the non‐local theory. A one‐dimensional case concerning a simple shear test for a non‐homogeneous infinitely long dense sand specimen is numerically discussed and a finite difference scheme is employed for this purpose. The results obtained by following the two different approaches are critically analysed and compared. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical studies of asteroids XXX: the asteroid 153 Hilda

The asteroid 153 Hilda was studied by photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric observations during the apparition in 1992. The rotation period was determined to 5.11 hours with a lightcurve amplitude of 0.05 magnitudes. From our spectrum we find 153 Hilda to be of taxonomic type P. The polarization value of -0.23 at a phase angle of 3.2 degrees seems normal for a P-type asteroid. Long term integrations of the orbit shows that it is stable over time intervals of several million years.Partly based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile     

Correlation of Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Lower Rhine Basin (North-West Germany) and the Valle Ricca pits (Central Italy)

Biostratigraphic and palaeomagnetic research has been carried out on selected profiles in North-Western Germany and Central Italy in order to correlate Plio-Pleistocene sections.Around the Réunion subchronozone, vegetation in the Valle Ricca was dominated by a mountain forest type pointing to cool climatic conditions. In the Lower Rhine Basin vegetation had a slightly warmer character, but was also dominated strongly by a mountain type of forest vegetation, characteristic of cooler summers and higher precipitation than at present.Two warmer periods have been determined in the Central Italian profiles; the youngest around the Olduvai reversal, should correspond to the youngest Tiglian beds of the Lower Rhine Basin.Deposits older than the Réunion subzone have not been found in the Valle Ricca. In the Lower Rhine Basin, on the other hand, the Gauss-Matuyama boundary is located between the uppermost Pliocene, the Reuverian C and the Praetiglian.     

Current confinement in solar coronal loops

In this paper solar coronal loops are regarded as regions of localized current flows. The main purpose is to investigate the consequences of current confinement rather than to produce a model. The physical and observational basis for this assumption are presented as well as the connection with previous studies on loop structure. A proper choice of the current profile allows us to treat quantitatively the equilibrium structure of the loops and their MHD and resistive stability properties. Regions of absolute stability against ideal kink modes are found. Explicit growth rates for the tearing-mode instability are computed. The possible relevance of other resistive effects is also discussed and the crucial importance of the small-scale geometry of the magnetic field outlined.