Analysis and Design of an Underground Portal in Lateritic Soils

This paper presents a case study of the analysis and design of slopes for the portal of an underground crude oil storage cavern site. The site selected for the slope study is characterized by residual soils and granitic rock formations, located in the southwestern part of India. It is observed that in tropical residual soils, most hillslope failures are caused by rainfall and thus it is important to consider hydrological conditions when attempting to analyze the stability of slopes in such material. Combinations of shallow slopes with lower overburden and high steep hillslope with large overburden were considered in the present study along with varying combinations of lateritic soils and weathered rock formations. The paper discusses the various investigations carried out to define the geotechnical properties of lateritic soil and weathered rock, followed by numerical modelling and remedial measures adopted to ensure the stability of slopes during design and construction phase. Since analysis and design procedures for such residual soils are not well established, comprehensive geological and geotechnical investigations were carried out prior to numerical model development for carrying out finite element studies in order to ascertain long term stability of slopes under differing ground conditions. The results of the stability analysis indicated that slope under existing condition were potentially unstable under rainy conditions and specific supporting measures were planned to ensure stability. Several alternatives were examined for improving the stability of slope taking into consideration existing facilities, space available for mobilization of equipments and environmental conditions in reference to specific project requirements. The convergence pattern obtained from geotechnical monitoring using optical targets along the slopes did not showed any alarming movement for over a year.     

A review of the synthetic unit hydrograph: from the empirical UH to advanced geomorphological methods

Abstract

This review paper critically examines one of the most popular flood hydrograph modelling techniques for ungauged basins, the synthetic unit hydrograph (SUH), and its recent developments and advances. For this purpose, the SUH models were first grouped into four main classes, as follows: (a) traditional or empirical models; (b) conceptual models; (c) probabilistic models; and (d) geomorphological models. It was found that the geomorphological class is the most useful and interesting, since it is able to employ topographic information, so limiting the role of the calibration parameters. This review is expected to be helpful to hydrologists, water managers and decision-makers searching for models to study the flood hydrograph, modelling techniques and related processes in ungauged basins. It was completed as the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) Decade (2003–2012) on predictions in ungauged basins (PUB), drew to a close.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor S. Grimaldi

Citation Singh, P.K., Mishra, S.K., and Jain, M.K., 2013. A review of the Synthetic Unit Hydrograph: from the empirical UH to advanced geomorphological methods. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (2), 239–261.     

An artificial neural network based approach for urban growth zonation in Dehradun city,India

For regulating urban growth, it is imperative to produce urban growth zonation maps, in which future urbanizable areas along with their urban growth potential are delineated. As, these maps provide a rational and scientific basis for taking future decisions regarding the growth of the city. The conventional approach for generating urban growth zonation maps is subjective in nature. To reduce this subjectivity, an artificial neural network (ANN) approach has been proposed for generating urban growth zonation maps. The database required for ANN-based urban growth zonation has been compiled from remote sensing data and other existing maps. GIS is used for handling of this spatial data. A comparison of the ANN- and conventional approach-derived zonation maps was also done. The study demonstrated the potential of ANN for urban growth zonation of an area, which may provide a valuable input to the urban planning authorities for regulating urban growth     

Glacier changes using satellite data and effect of climate in Tirungkhad basin located in western Himalaya

Glaciers are widely recognized as key indicators of climate change, and melt water obtained from them is an important source of fresh water and for hydropower generation. Regular monitoring of a large number of Himalayan glaciers is important for improving our knowledge of glacier response to climate change. In the present study, Survey of India topographical maps (1966) and Landsat datasets as ETM+ (2000, 2006) and TM (2011) have been used to study glacier fluctuations in Tirungkhad basin. A deglaciation of 26.1% (29.1?km²) in terms of area from 1966 to 2011 was observed. Lower altitude small glaciers (area?<?1?km²) lost more ice (34%), while glaciers with an area <10?km² lost less (20%). The percentage of change in glacier length was 26% (31.9?km) from 1966 to 2011. The south-facing glaciers showed high percentages of loss. From 2000 to 2011, debris cover has increased by 1.34%. The analysis of the trend in meteorological data collected from Kalpa and Purbani stations was carried out by Mann Kendall non-parametric method. During the last two decades, the mean annual temperature (T_max and T_min) has increased significantly, accompanied with a fall in snow water equivalent (SWE) and rainfall. The increasing trend in temperature and decreasing trend in SWE were significant at 95% confidence level. This observation shows that the warming of the climate is probably one of the major reasons for the glacier change in the basin.     

A circular statistical method for extracting rotation measures

We propose a new method for the extraction of rotation measures from spectral polarization data. The method is based on maximum likelihood analysis and takes into account the circular nature of the polarization data. The method is unbiased and statistically more efficient than the standard χ ² procedure. We also find that the method is computationally much more convenient than the standard χ ² procedure if the number of data points is very large. We find that for most sources the method gives results very close to the standard χ ² minimization procedure. We give results for all the cases for which the method gives significantly different results from χ ² minimization. We also make a λ ³ fit to the data in order to extract non-Faraday rotation behaviour for those sources for which a large number of data points are available.     

Energetics and Dynamics of an Impulsive Flare on March 10, 2001

We present Hα observations from ARIES (Nainital) of a compact and impulsive solar flare that occurred on March 10, 2001 and which was associated with a CME. We have also analyzed HXT, SXT/Yohkoh observations as well as radio observations from the Nobeyama Radio Observatory to derive the energetics and dynamics of this impulsive flare. We coalign the Hα, SXR, HXR, MW, and magnetogram images within the instrumental spatial-resolution limit. We detect a single HXR source in this flare, which is found spatially associated with one of the Hα bright kernels. The unusual feature of HXR and Hα sources, observed for the first time, is the rotation during the impulsive phase in a clockwise direction. We propose that the rotation may be due to asymmetric progress of the magnetic reconnection site or may be due to the change of the peak point of the electric field. In MW emission we found two sources. The main source is at the main flare site and another is in the southwest direction. It appears that the remote source is formed by the impact of accelerated energetic electrons from the main flare site. From the spatial correlation of multiwavelength images of the different sources, we conclude that this flare has a three-legged structure.     

How Good are the Predictions for Oscillation Frequencies

We have used available intermediate degree p-mode frequencies for solar cycle 23 to check the validity of previously derived empirical relations for frequency shifts (Jain et al., 2000). We find that the calculated and observed frequency shifts during the rising phase of cycle 23 are in good agreement. The observed frequency shift from minimum to maximum of this cycle as calculated from MDI frequency data sets is 251±7 nHz and from GONG data is 238±11 nHz. These values are in close agreement with the empirically predicted value of 271±22 nHz.     

Effect of variation of normal force on seismic performance of resilient sliding isolation systems in highway bridges

In this study, a series of shaking table tests are carried out on scaled models of two seismically isolated highway bridges to investigate the effect of rocking motion and vertical acceleration on seismic performance of resilient sliding isolators. In addition, performance of RSI is compared with system having solely natural rubber bearings. Test results show that variation of normal force on sliders due to rocking effect and vertical acceleration makes no significant difference in response of RSI systems. In addition, analytical response of prototype isolated bridge and the model used in experiments is obtained analytically by using non‐linear model for isolation systems. It is observed that for seismically isolated bridges, dynamic response of full‐scale complex structures can be predicted with acceptable accuracy by experiments using a simple model of the structure. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.