Influence of vibration grinding and calcination on the physico-chemical properties of Egyptian kaolinite

Summary The effects of vibratory grinding and calcination on the structure and reactivity of Kalabsha kaolinite were studied by means of XRD, IR, DTA and surface area determination. Leaching experiments on ground and calcined samples were carried out using 20% HCl for aluminum extraction. At the early stages of grinding, partial destruction of stacked kaolinite layers occurred. These changes were associated with an increase in surface area due to formation of fine grains with numerous boundaries. Further grinding, as well as calcination, led to deterioration of the kaolinite structure. A significant increase of surface area was observed, starting from 18 m²/g for the original sample to a maximum of 42 m²/g after 120 minutes of grinding and 30 m²/g after calcination at 300°C. The extraction of aluminum after 30 minutes leaching time was about 97% for kaolinite ground for 240 minutes, and about 93% for kaolinite calcined at 550°C.

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Der Einfluß von Aufmahlen und Kalzinierung auf die physiko-chemischen Eigenschaften von ägyptischem Kaolinit

Zusammenfassung Die Effekte von Vibrations-Mahlung und Kalzinierung auf die Struktur und die Reaktivität von Kalolinit aus Kalabsha wurden mit XRD, IR, DTA und Methoden zur Bestimmung der Oberfläche untersucht. Auslaugungsexperimente zur Extraktion des Aluminiums erfolgten an gemahlenen und kalzinierten Proben unter Verwendung 20% er Salzsäure. In den Frühstadien des Mahlprozesses tritt eine teilweise Zerstörung der Kaolinitschichtstruktur auf. Diese Änderungen gehen mit einer Zunahme der Oberfläche, infolge der Neubildung von Körnern mit zahlreichen Korngrenzen, einher. Weiteres Aufmahlen und Kalzinieren führt zu zusätzlicher Zerstörung der Kaolinitstruktur. Eine signifikante Zunahme der Oberfläche von 18 m²/g für das Ausgangsmaterial auf 42m²/g nach 120 min Aufmahlen, bzw. auf 30 m²/ g nach Kalzinierung bei 300°C ist zu beobachten. Die Extraktion von Aluminium nach 30 minütiger Auslaugung liegt bei 97% für gemahlenen Kaolinit (240 min) und bei 93% für bei 550°C kalzinierten Kaolinit.

     

Raingauge network optimization in a tropical urban area by coupling cross-validation with the geostatistical technique

An adequate and reliable raingauge network is essential for observing rainfall data in hydrology and water resource applications. A raingauge network developed for a catchment area is commonly extended periodically to increase data accuracy. Due to financial constraints, the network is reviewed for the optimal number of stations. A new optimization approach is developed in this study by coupling a cross-validation technique with a geostatistical method for raingauge network optimization to prioritize raingauge stations. The spatial interpolation error of the spatial rainfall distribution, measured as the root mean square error (E_rms) optimization criterion is applied to a raingauge network in a tropical urban area. The results indicate that this method can successfully optimize the number of rainfall stations in an existing raingauge network, as the stations are prioritized based on their importance in the network.     

Multi scenario seismic hazard assessment for Egypt

Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa within a sensitive seismotectonic location. Earthquakes are concentrated along the active tectonic boundaries of African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The study area is characterized by northward increasing sediment thickness leading to more damage to structures in the north due to multiple reflections of seismic waves. Unfortunately, man-made constructions in Egypt were not designed to resist earthquake ground motions. So, it is important to evaluate the seismic hazard to reduce social and economic losses and preserve lives. The probabilistic seismic hazard assessment is used to evaluate the hazard using alternative seismotectonic models within a logic tree framework. Alternate seismotectonic models, magnitude-frequency relations, and various indigenous attenuation relationships were amended within a logic tree formulation to compute and develop the regional exposure on a set of hazard maps. Hazard contour maps are constructed for peak ground acceleration as well as 0.1-, 0.2-, 0.5-, 1-, and 2-s spectral periods for 100 and 475 years return periods for ground motion on rock. The results illustrate that Egypt is characterized by very low to high seismic activity grading from the west to the eastern part of the country. The uniform hazard spectra are estimated at some important cities distributed allover Egypt. The deaggregation of seismic hazard is estimated at some cities to identify the scenario events that contribute to a selected seismic hazard level. The results of this study can be used in seismic microzonation, risk mitigation, and earthquake engineering purposes.     

Stochastic modelling of seasonal and yearly rainfalls with low-frequency variability

Stochastic rainfall models are important for many hydrological applications due to their appealing ability to simulate synthetic series that resemble the statistical characteristics of the observed series for a location of interest. However, an important limitation of stochastic rainfall models is their inability to preserve the low-frequency variability of rainfall. Accordingly, this study presents a simple yet efficient stochastic rainfall model for a tropical area that attempts to incorporate seasonal and inter-annual variabilities in simulations. The performance of the proposed stochastic rainfall model, the tropical climate rainfall generator (TCRG), was compared with a stochastic multivariable weather generator (MV-WG) in various aspects. Both models were applied on 17 rainfall stations at the Kelantan River Basin, Malaysia, with tropical climate. The validations were carried out on seasonal (monsoon and inter-monsoon) and annual basis. The third-order Markov chain of the TCRG was found to perform better in simulating the rainfall occurrence and preserving the low-frequency variability of the wet spells. The log-normal distribution of the TCRG was consistently better in modelling the rainfall amounts. Both models tend to underestimate the skewness and kurtosis coefficient of the rainfall. The spectral correction approach adopted in the TCRG successfully preserved the seasonal and inter-annual variabilities of rainfall amounts, whereas the MV-WG tends to underestimate the variability bias of rainfall amounts. Overall, the TCRG performed reasonably well in the Kelantan River Basin, as it can represent the key statistics of rainfall occurrence and amounts successfully, as well as the low-frequency variability.     

Harmonic by harmonic removal technique for improving vibroseis data quality

In this paper, an improved method is presented to reduce vibrator harmonic distortion, one harmonic at a time and the method is illustrated with both simulated and field data. This method improves on the previous method that treated all the harmonics at once. The significant contribution in this procedure is a considerable reduction for the harmonics without any alteration for the weakest signals possibly present in positive and negative times. The core of the proposed technique depends on an accurate simulation for all the harmonics one by one existing in the positive and negative times of the data after cross‐correlation with the fundamental sweep and then subtracting the simulated harmonics from the original data using an optimization procedure. The steps and mathematical equations of the procedure are explained in detail in the body of the article in the section titled ‘harmonic by harmonic attenuation procedure’. Accordingly, a well‐developed procedure for enhancing the vibroseis data quality in both down‐ and up‐sweep data is illustrated. The procedure was tested on both synthetic and field data sets.     

Prediction of long-term settlement on soft clay using shear wave velocity and damping characteristics

This paper presents a method of calculating long-term settlement of a loaded pad on soft clay at Klang, Selangor, Malaysia where the soil model is treated as an anelastic material of viscoelastic property. Initially, an elastic shear modulus (G) value from shear wave velocity profiles of the seismic tests from spectral analysis of surface wave (SASW) and continuous surface wave (CSW) tests was obtained. A value of damping (D) at an equivalent elastic strain is then calculated from the hysteresis of the plate load tests corrected to equivalent strain using the Damping–Strain formula. The calculated elastic settlement and its equivalent damping are then used to calculate the long-term settlement by applying the generalised viscoelastic formula. Comparisons to traditional methods of settlement predictions were made and the viscoelastic formula has shown better agreement to the observed settlement. Further modification of the settlement formula is introduced to improve the settlement accuracy to 10%.     

Establishment of Avicennia marina mangroves on accreting coastline at Sungai Haji Dorani, Selangor, Malaysia

Avicennia marina saplings were established within a restoration area at Sg. Hj. Dorani, Malaysia between May and August 2010. Sapling establishment was achieved following the construction of segmented and hard breakwater as mitigating measure against coastal erosion. Geostructures known as brush faschines were installed within the restoration area as secondary sediment and seed traps. There was a steady increase in the sand content of the soil from 5% in November 2008 to 18% in May 2010. The dominant soil content was silt but it fluctuated and declined slightly over the same period, between 80% in November 2008 and 72% in May 2010. The accreting shoreline behind the breakwater had stabilised within 18 months. Subsequently, the first batch of A. marina wild seedlings or wildings was established on the mud surface in September 2009. Only about 10% of these wildings survived and showed high survival rate (90%) over the next eight months. Wildings that were naturally established near mother trees showed good growth performance. No wilding was established after the fruiting season in August 2010 as all seeds that were dispersed into the restoration area were washed away by September 2010. Tall, A. marina wild saplings (1 m) planted within the restoration area showed higher survival rate (80%) compared to planted saplings of Rhizophora apiculata (30%). Final planting of a thousand 1 m tall A. marina wild saplings was carried out from June 2010, in clumps of 20 and in 1 m × 1 m spacing. By the end of September 2010 clusters of regenerating A. marina mangroves about 1.5 m tall were successfully established on the accreting coastline.     

Relativistic and the first sectorial harmonics corrections in the critical inclination

The problem of the critical inclination is treated in the Hamiltonian framework taking into consideration post-Newtonian corrections as well as the main correction term of sectorial harmonics for an earth-like planet. The Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of Delaunay canonical variables. A canonical transformation is applied to eliminate short period terms. A modified critical inclination is obtained due to relativistic and the first sectorial harmonics corrections.     

Opposite polarity dusty plasma expansion in Earth’s mesosphere

The self-similar expansion method is applied on the fluid system of equations which describes a plasma system consisting of opposite polarity dust grains, positive ions and electrons. The resultant system of equations is solved numerically to study the properties of the plasma expansion of this system. It is found that the presence of the second species of the dust has a great effect on the properties of the expansion of the other species.