Shakedown in layered pavements under moving surface loads

Elastic–plastic deformations in pavements consisting of layers of different frictional materials are investigated. The upper bound, kinematic shakedown theorem is used to obtain estimates of the critical shakedown loads. Fully general three-dimensional deformations are considered. The influence of the loading distribution, interactions between loads, and the effect of varying the thickness, stiffness and strength of the layers are explored. Consequences of this investigation for particular existing designs of flexible pavements are investigated. In particular, it is found that the strength of the subgrade has no effect on the magnitude of the critical shakedown load.     

WIMPs and solar evolution code

The Saclay solar evolution code is used to check the effect of WIMPs on solar evolution. In this paper we study the effects of various types of Cosmion-matter interactions, give constraints on the crosssections compatible with the measured neutrino rate of 2 SNU on chlorine, and relate these constraints to ongoing dark matter detection experiments.Unité associée au CNRS UA 280, F-75251 Paris Cedex 05, France.On leave from LPC, Collège de France.     

Auroral zone effects on hydrogen geocorona structure and variability

The instantaneous structure of planetary exospheres is determined by the time history of energy dissipation, chemical, and transport processes operative during a prior time interval set by intrinsic atmospheric time scales. The complex combination of diurnal and magnetospheric activity modulations imposed on the Earth's upper atmosphere no doubt produce an equally complex response, especially in hydrogen, which escapes continuously at exospheric temperatures. Vidal-Madjar and Thomas (1978) have discussed some of the persistent large scale structure which is evident in satellite ultraviolet observations of hydrogen, noting in particular a depletion at high latitudes which is further discussed by Thomas and Vidal-Madjar (1978). The latter authors discussed various causes of the H density depletion, including local neutral temperature enhancements and enhanced escape rates due to polar wind H⁺ plasma flow or high latitude ion heating followed by charge exchange. We have reexamined the enhancement of neutral escape by plasma effects including the recently observed phenomenon of low altitude transverse ion acceleration. We find that, while significant fluxes of neutral H should be produced by this phenomenon in the auroral zone, this process is probably insufficient to account for the observed polar depletion. Instead, the recent exospheric temperature measurements from the Dynamics Explorer-2 spacecraft suggest that neutral heating in and near the high latitude cusp may be the major contributor to depleted atomic hydrogen densities at high latitudes.     

Preliminary organic petrography of Palaeozoic rocks from the Grand Banks,Newfoundland

Samples of lower Palaeozoic bedrock from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were examined using reflected light microscopy and Rock-Eval pyrolysis. These samples contained organic material which included bitumen (structureless organic material), acritarchs, chitinozoa, scolecodonts and graptolites. The reflectance of the organic material increased from acritarchs towards graptolites with bitumen showing a wide range of reflectance. Multiple phases of oil migration through one sample were inferred by examination of the bitumens: the lowest reflecting being more recent than the highest reflecting bitumen. Combined reflectance and Rock-Eval analysis indicate that these samples are mature to overmature. The two oldest samples (Arenig-Llanvirn, Ordovician) are assessed as mature and as having potential for generation of liquid hydrocarbons, but must be considered as mainly gas prone.     

Simulation of double cold cores of the 35°N section in the Yellow Sea with a wave-tide-circulation coupled model

Based on the MASNUM wave-tide-circulation coupled numerical model, the temperature structure along 35°N in the Yellow Sea was simulated and compared with the observations. One of the notable features of the temperature structure along 35°N section is the double cold cores phenomena during spring and summer. The double cold cores refer to the two cold water centers located near 122°E and 125°E from the depth of 30m to bottom. The formation, maintenance and disappearance of the double cold cores are discussed. At least two reasons make the temperature in the center (near 123°E) of the section higher than that near the west and east shores in winter. One reason is that the water there is deeper than the west and east sides so its heat content is higher. The other is invasion of the warm water brought by the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) during winter. This temperature pattern of the lower layer (from 30m to bottom) is maintained through spring and summer when the upper layer (0 to 30m) is heated and strong thermocline is formed. Large zonal span of the 35°N section (about 600 km) makes the cold cores have more opportunity to survive. The double cold cores phenomena disappears in early autumn when the west cold core vanishes first with the dropping of the thermocline position. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. G1999043809) and the National Science Foundation of China (No. 49736190).     

The height,spectrum and mechanism of type-B red aurora and its bearing on the excitation of O(1S) in aurora

The height of the lower red border of type-B aurora has been determined by triangulation using TV cameras at two ground stations. A mean height of 91.4 ± 1.1 km was determined from a set of 12 measurements made under ideal conditions. A TV spectrograph was used simultaneously to seek possible spectral changes between 6400 and 6900 Å which would be indicative of changes in the vibrational distribution in the N₂ First Positive bands. No significant difference was found in this distribution between the spectra from 93 and 122 km. The height distribution of contributions to the OI 5577 Å emission relative to the N⁺₂ First Negative emission was modelled from 80 to 160 km. Contributions from electron impact on atomic O, O⁺₂ dissociative recombination and N₂(A)O energy transfer were included. Account was taken of recent laboratory data on O(¹S) quenching. It was concluded that these processes could explain the excitation of O(¹S) in normal aurora and the height distribution of OI 5577 Å in type-B red aurora. It was confirmed that the lifetime ofO(¹S) in type-B red auroral rapid time variations is about 0.5 s and it was found from the model that the observed time variation can be reproduced by the mechanisms considered, provided the concentration of NO in the auroral atmosphere is about 1 × 10⁹ at 95 km. Before reasonable certainty can be attained in the correctness of the interpretation it will however be necessary to have reliable simultaneous observations of neutral atmospheric composition particularly for O and NO as well as unchallengeable measurements of the yields of O(¹S) for the processes considered and for several other processes which have been suggested recently.     

A dated cave sediment record of Pleistocene transgressions on Berry Head,Southwest England

Berry Head, a limestone headland in Torbay, southwest England, exhibits a series of subaerial marine erosion platforms and raised beaches spanning an altitude range of 97 m. Solution caves on the headland show preferred horizontal development at elevations that are correlated with the marine erosion platforms, and developed in a marine/freshwater mixing zone whose position was controlled by high sea-level still-stands. Corbridge Cave in Berry Head Quarry lies below the raised beaches in Torbay, and contains evidence of three marine transgressions in the form of fine-grained marine ponding deposits with a marine microfauna. Uranium-series dating of intercalated speleothems indicates that a transgression during oxygen isotope stage 5e reached an elevation of 5.8 m OD, while an earlier transgression (probably during stage 7) reached at least 7.2 m OD. These findings are used to constrain possible interpretations of the aminostratigraphy of raised beaches in Southwest Britain, and a correlation of the Unnamed Stage of Bowen, Sykes, Reeves, Miller, Andrews, Brew and Hare with oxygen isotope stage 5e is proposed.     

Cokriging nonstationary data

Universal cokriging is used to obtain predictions when dealing with multivariate random functions. An important type of nonstationarity is defined in terms of multivariate random functions with increments which are stationary of orderk. The covariance between increments of different variables is modeled by means of the pseudo-cross-covariance function. Criteria are formulated to which the parameters of pseudo-cross-covariance functions must comply so as to ensure positive-definiteness. Cokriging equations and the induced cokriging equations are given. The study is illustrated by an example from soil science.     

H II regions and radio visibility of quasar nuclei

The core (injector) and the jet (relativistic plasma outflow) of AGN objects are surrounded by an ionized medium, an H II region observed in emission lines. The synchrotron radiation from the core and the jet is observed through a thin screen that cocoons the structure under consideration. The screen transparency depends on wavelength and distance from the injector. We consider the objects 3C 345 and 1803+784 whose core emission at decimeter wavelengths is absorption by more than 25 dB. The visible bright compact component is the bright nearby portion of the jet that extends outside the dense part of the screen. We explore the possibility of measuring the screen transparency from absorption in Hα recombination lines with different quantum numbers at centimeter wavelengths.     

Dynamical History of the Earth–Moon System

Differential equations describing the tidal evolution of the earth's rotation and of the lunar orbital motion are presented in a simple close form. The equations differ in form for orbits fixed to the terrestrial equator and for orbits with the nodes precessing along the ecliptic due to solar perturbations. Analytical considerations show that if the contemporary lunar orbit were equatorial the evolution would develop from an unstable geosynchronous orbit of the period about 4.42 h (in the past) to a stable geosynchronous orbit of the period about 44.8 days (in the future). It is also demonstrated that at the contemporary epoch the orbital plane of the fictitious equatorial moon would be unstable in the Liapunov's sense, being asymptotically stable at early stages of the evolution. Evolution of the currently near-ecliptical lunar orbit and of the terrestrial rotation is traced backward in time by numerical integration of the evolutional equations. It is confirmed that about 1.8 billion years ago a critical phase of the evolution took place when the equatorial inclination of the moon reached small values and the moon was in a near vicinity of the earth. Before the critical epoch t _cr two types of the evolution are possible, which at present cannot be unambiguously distinguished with the help of the purely dynamical considerations. In the scenario that seems to be the most realistic from the physical point of view, the evolution also has started from a geosynchronous equatorial lunar orbit of the period 4.19 h. At t < t _cr the lunar orbit has been fixed to the precessing terrestrial equator by strong perturbations from the earth's flattening and by tidal effects; at the critical epoch the solar perturbations begin to dominate and transfer the moon to its contemporary near-ecliptical orbit which evolves now to the stable geosynchronous state. Probably this scenario is in favour of the Darwin's hypothesis about originating the moon by its separation from the earth. Too much short time scale of the evolution in this model might be enlarged if the dissipative Q factor had somewhat larger values in the past than in the present epoch. Values of the length of day and the length of month, estimated from paleontological data, are confronted with the results of the developed model.