Transient analysis of wave propagation in non‐homogeneous elastic unbounded domains by using the scaled boundary finite‐element method

The scaled boundary finite‐element method has been developed for the dynamic analysis of unbounded domains. In this method only the boundary is discretized resulting in a reduction of the spatial dimension by one. Like the finite‐element method no fundamental solution is required. This paper extends the scaled boundary finite‐element method to simulate the transient response of non‐homogeneous unbounded domains with the elasticity modulus and mass density varying as power functions of spatial coordinates. To reduce the number of degrees of freedom and the computational cost, the technique of reduced set of base functions is applied. The scaled boundary finite‐element equation for an unbounded domain is reformulated in generalized coordinates. The resulting acceleration unit‐impulse response matrix is obtained and assembled with the equation of motion of standard finite elements. Numerical examples of non‐homogeneous isotropic and transversely isotropic unbounded domains demonstrate the accuracy of the scaled boundary finite‐element method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Air pollution forecasting from sky images with shallow and deep classifiers

Air pollution is one of the most important problems in the new era. Detecting the level of air pollution from an image taken by a camera can be informative for the people who are not aware of exact air pollution level be declared daily by some organizations like municipalities. In this paper, we propose a method to predict the level of the air pollution of a location by taking an image by a camera of a smart phone then processing it. We collected an image dataset from city of Tehran. Afterward, we proposed two methods for estimation of level of air pollution. In the first method, the images are preprocessed and then Gabor transform is used to extract features from the images. At the end, two shallow classification methods are employed to model and predict the level of air pollution. In the second proposed method, a Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) is designed to receive a sky image as an input and result a level of air pollution. Some experiments have been done to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that the proposed 9 method has an acceptable accuracy in detection of the air pollution level. Our deep classifier achieved accuracy about 59.38% which is 10 about 6% higher than traditional combination of feature extraction and classification methods.     

Limiting equilibrium method for slope/drilled shaft system

The use of drilled shafts to stabilize an unstable slope has been a widely accepted practice. There are two basic design and analysis issues involved: one is to determine the global factor of safety of the drilled shafts stabilized slope and the other one is to determine the design earth thrust on the drilled shafts for structural design of the shafts. In this paper, a limiting equilibrium method of slices based solution for calculating global factor of safety (FS) of a slope with the presence of a row of drilled shafts is developed. The arching mechanisms due to the presence of the drilled shafts on slope were taken into account by a load transfer factor. The method for calculating the net force applied to the drilled shaft from the soil mass was also developed. The interrelationships among the drilled shaft location on the slope, the load transfer factor, and the global FS of the slope/shaft system were derived utilizing the developed numerical closed‐form solution. An illustrative example is presented to elucidate the use of the solution in optimizing the location of the drilled shafts on slope to achieve the desired global factor of safety of the slope/shaft system. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Automatic detection of residential buildings using LIDAR data and multispectral imagery

This paper presents an automatic building detection technique using LIDAR data and multispectral imagery. Two masks are obtained from the LIDAR data: a ‘primary building mask’ and a ‘secondary building mask’. The primary building mask indicates the void areas where the laser does not reach below a certain height threshold. The secondary building mask indicates the filled areas, from where the laser reflects, above the same threshold. Line segments are extracted from around the void areas in the primary building mask. Line segments around trees are removed using the normalized difference vegetation index derived from the orthorectified multispectral images. The initial building positions are obtained based on the remaining line segments. The complete buildings are detected from their initial positions using the two masks and multispectral images in the YIQ colour system. It is experimentally shown that the proposed technique can successfully detect urban residential buildings, when assessed in terms of 15 indices including completeness, correctness and quality.     

Macrobenthic community structure in the northern Saudi waters of the Gulf, 14 years after the 1991 oil spill

The 1991 Gulf oil spill heavily impacted the coastal areas of the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf and recent studies have indicated that even 15 years after the incident, macrobenthos had not completely recovered in the sheltered bays in the affected region such as, Manifa Bay. This study investigates the community conditions of macrobenthos in the open waters in one of the impacted areas, Al-Khafji waters, about 14 years after the spill. Diversity measures and community structure analyses indicate a healthy status of polychaete communities. The BOPA index reveals that oil sensitive amphipods were recolonized in the study area. This confirms that the benthic communities of the oil spill impacted area had taken only <14 years to recover in the open waters of the impacted areas. The study also reveals the existence of three distinct polychaete communities along the depth and sediment gradients.     

Geostatistical Algorithm Selection for Mineral Resources Assessment and its Impact on Open-pit Production Planning Considering Metal Grade Boundary Effect

Mine planning is influenced by many sources of uncertainty. Significant sources of geological uncertainty in mine planning include uncertainty in layout of geological domains and uncertainty in metal grades. These two sources of uncertainty cannot be modeled separately because the distribution of the grade is controlled usually by geological domains. Two approaches exist for combining these two sources of uncertainty: the joint simulation approach and the cascade approach. In this paper, these two approaches were compared using a real case study. To this end, uncertainty in iron grade (quantitative variable) and ore zones (qualitative variable) was modeled using both approaches. There were some considerable differences in the results obtained by each approach, which confirm the importance of choosing the most appropriate approach with consideration of the dominate features of a deposit.

     

Drained cavity expansions in soils of finite radial extent subjected to two boundary conditions

The problem of drained cavity expansion in soils of finite radial extent is investigated. Cylindrical and spherical cavities expanded from zero radius subjected to either constant stress or zero displacement at the finite boundary are considered. The generalised analytical solution procedure presented enables more advanced constitutive models to be implemented than have been possible in previous studies. Results generated for Sydney quartz sand highlight substantial differences between cavity limit pressures for the two boundary conditions and for boundaries of finite and infinite radial extent. This is of significance in accounting for boundary effects when interpreting cone penetration tests conducted in calibration chambers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear dynamic tests of a reinforced concrete frame building at different damage levels

This paper discusses the dynamic tests of a two-story infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame building using an eccentric-mass shaker. The building, located in El Centro, CA, was substantially damaged prior to the tests due to the seismic activity in the area. During the testing sequence, five infill walls were removed to introduce additional damage states and to investigate the changes in the dynamic properties and the nonlinear response of the building to the induced excitations. The accelerations and displacements of the structure under the forced and ambient vibrations were recorded through an array of sensors, while lidar scans were obtained to document the damage. The test data provide insight into the nonlinear response of an actual building and the change of its resonant frequencies and operational shapes due to varying damage levels and changes of the excitation amplitude, frequency, and orientation.