Enhancing the mechanical properties of marine clay using cement solidification

Abstract

The use of soft clay and dredged marine clays as the construction material is challenging. This is because the high water content, high compressibility and low permeability of the clay causing the instability of ground and structure. This detrimental effect of soft clay can be improved by the cement solidification process, which is relatively cheap and efficient. This paper mainly focuses on the study of improvement on the mechanical behavior of cement mixed marine clay. The soil is reconstituted by using ordinary Portland cement of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by its mass. The study reveals that cementation of clay significantly improves the peak and residual strength of soil. Similarly, the primary yield stress of the soil is also improved from 16 to 275?kPa as cement content increases from 5% to 20%, respectively. By using statistical tools, the relationships between various parameters are established, which are very important to define the mechanical behavior of the clay. This study reveals that the yield surface of the solidified marine clay is not a smooth elliptical surface. Rather it is composed of two linear surfaces followed by a log-linear surface which can be modeled by using simple parameters obtained from triaxial tests.     

Estimates of source parameters of <Emphasis Type=Italic>M</Emphasis>4.9 Kharsali earthquake using waveform modelling

This paper presents the computation of time series of the 22 July 2007 M 4.9 Kharsali earthquake. It occurred close to the Main Central Thrust (MCT) where seismic gap exists. The main shock and 17 aftershocks were located by closely spaced eleven seismograph stations in a network that involved VSAT based real-time seismic monitoring. The largest aftershock of M 3.5 and other aftershocks occurred within a small volume of 4 × 4 km horizontal extent and between depths of 10 and 14 km. The values of seismic moment (M _∘) determined using P-wave spectra and Brune’s model based on f ² spectral shape ranges from 10¹⁸ to 10²³ dyne-cm. The initial aftershocks occurred at greater depth compared to the later aftershocks. The time series of ground motion have been computed for recording sites using geometric ray theory and Green’s function approach. The method for computing time series consists in integrating the far-field contributions of Green’s function for a number of distributed point source. The generated waveforms have been compared with the observed ones. It has been inferred that the Kharsali earthquake occurred due to a northerly dipping low angle thrust fault at a depth of 14 km taking strike N279°E, dip 14° and rake 117°. There are two regions on the fault surface which have larger slip amplitudes (asperities) and the rupture which has been considered as circular in nature initiated from the asperity at a greater depth shifting gradually upwards. The two asperities cover only 10% of the total area of the causative fault plane. However, detailed seismic imaging of these two asperities can be corroborated with structural heterogeneities associated with causative fault to understand how seismogenesis is influenced by strong or weak structural barriers in the region.     

Habitat range of two alpine medicinal plants in a trans-Himalayan dry valley, Central Nepal

Understanding of the habitat range of threatened Himalayan medicinal plants which are declining in their abundance due to high anthropogenic disturbances is essential for developing conservation strategies and agrotechnologies for cultivation. In this communication, we have discussed the habitat range of two alpine medicinal plants, Aconitum naviculare （Bruehl） Stapf and Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora （Pennel） Hong in a trans-Himalayan dry valley of central Nepal, Manang district. They are the most prioritized medicinal plants of the study area in terms of ethnomedicinal uses. A. naviculare occurs on warm and dry south facing slopes between 4090-4650 m asl along with sclerophyllous and thorny alpine scrubs, while N. scrophulariiflora is exclusively found on cool and moist north facing slope between 4000 and 4400 m asl where adequate water is available from snow melt to create a suitable habitat for this wetland dependent species. The soil in rooting zone of the two plants differs significantly in organic carbon （OC）, organic matter （OM）, total nitrogen （N） and carbon to nitrogen （C/N） ratio. Due to cool and moist condition of N. scrophulariiflora habitat, accumulation of soil OC is higher, but soil N content is lower probably due to slow release from litter, higher leaching loss and greater retention in perennial live biomass of the plant. The C/N ratio of soil is more suitable in A. navuculare habitat than that of N scrophulariiflora for N supply. Warm and sunny site with N rich soil can be suitable for cultivation ofA. naviculare, while moist and cool site with organic soil for N. scrophulariiflora. The populations of both the plants are fragmented and small. Due to collection by human and trampling damage by livestock, the population of A. naviculare was found absent in open areas in five of the six sampling sites and it was confined only within the bushes of alpine scrubs. For N. serophulariiflora, high probability of complete receding of small glaeiers may be a new threat in future to its habitat. The information about habitat conditions, together with the information from other areas, ean be useful to identify potential habitats and plan for cultivation or domestication of the two medieinal plants.     

Recent trends in pre-monsoon daily temperature extremes over India

Extreme climate and weather events are increasingly being recognized as key aspects of climate change. Pre-monsoon season (March–May) is the hottest part of the year over almost the entire South Asian region, in which hot weather extremes including heat waves are recurring natural hazards having serious societal impacts, particularly on human health. In the present paper, recent trends in extreme temperature events for the pre-monsoon season have been studied using daily data on maximum and minimum temperatures over a well-distributed network of 121 stations for the period 1970–2005. For this purpose, time series of extreme temperature events have been constructed for India as a whole and seven homogeneous regions, viz., Western Himalaya (WH), Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), North Central (NC), East coast (EC), West coast (WC) and Interior Peninsula (IP).     

Rainfall variability and indices of extreme rainfall-analysis and perception study for two stations over Central Himalaya,India

The analysis of rainfall pattern and indices of extreme rainfall events is performed for two meteorological stations located in the Central Himalayan Region which is highly vulnerable to rain-induced hazards. The records of these rain-induced disasters suggest that such events are generally observed in later part of monsoon season, when soil is saturated after monsoon rains. An attempt is made here to test trends of 19 different extreme rainfall indices that have been widely used in the literature, using daily rainfall data for two urban centres (Nainital and Almora) over the period 1992–2005. We have used statistical tools such as Sen’s method and Mann–Kendall test for detection of trend in annual rainfall, monsoon rainfall, number of rainy days and 1-day extreme rainfall. Principal component analysis gives the correlation between different extreme rainfall indices. Time series of principal components are representing the trends of extreme indices, their variation and interrelation between different indices. The perception study conducted in the same sites indicates that extreme rainfall events and change in rainfall amount and timing are well perceived by the local people.     

MHD free-convection and mass transfer flow of an elasto-viscous fluid

The effects of magnetic field and mass transfer on the flow of an elasto-viscous fluid past an infinite vertical plate, when the plate is moving with uniform velocityU, are discussed. The magnetic lines of force are assumed to be fixed relative to the plate. The Laplace transform method is used to obtain the expression for velocity. The effect of various parameters, occurring into the problem, is discussed with the help of tables.     

A model‐based data‐driven dictionary learning for seismic data representation

Planar waves events recorded in a seismic array can be represented as lines in the Fourier domain. However, in the real world, seismic events usually have curvature or amplitude variability, which means that their Fourier transforms are no longer strictly linear but rather occupy conic regions of the Fourier domain that are narrow at low frequencies but broaden at high frequencies where the effect of curvature becomes more pronounced. One can consider these regions as localised “signal cones”. In this work, we consider a space–time variable signal cone to model the seismic data. The variability of the signal cone is obtained through scaling, slanting, and translation of the kernel for cone‐limited (C‐limited) functions (functions whose Fourier transform lives within a cone) or C‐Gaussian function (a multivariate function whose Fourier transform decays exponentially with respect to slowness and frequency), which constitutes our dictionary. We find a discrete number of scaling, slanting, and translation parameters from a continuum by optimally matching the data. This is a non‐linear optimisation problem, which we address by a fixed‐point method that utilises a variable projection method with ?₁ constraints on the linear parameters and bound constraints on the non‐linear parameters. We observe that slow decay and oscillatory behaviour of the kernel for C‐limited functions constitute bottlenecks for the optimisation problem, which we partially overcome by the C‐Gaussian function. We demonstrate our method through an interpolation example. We present the interpolation result using the estimated parameters obtained from the proposed method and compare it with those obtained using sparsity‐promoting curvelet decomposition, matching pursuit Fourier interpolation, and sparsity‐promoting plane‐wave decomposition methods.     

Luminescence chronology of incision and channel pattern changes in the River Ganga, India

The River Ganga in the central Gangetic plain shows the incision of 20 m of Late Quaternary sediments that form a vast upland terrace (T₂). The incised Ganga River Valley shows two terraces, namely the river valley (terrace-T₁) and the present-day flood plain (terrace-T₀). Terrace-T₁ shows the presence of meander scars, oxbow lakes, scroll plains, which suggests that a meandering river system prevailed in the past. The present-day river channel flows on terrace-T₀ and is braided, sensu stricto. It is thus inferred that the River Ganga experienced at least two phases of tectonic adjustments: (1) incision and (2) channel metamorphosis from meandering to braided.Optical dating of samples from three different terraces has bracketed the phase of incision to be <6 and 4 ka. Different ages of the top of terrace-T₂ show that this surface experienced differential erosion due to tectonic upwarping in the region, which also caused the river incision. River metamorphosis occurred some time during 4 and 0.5 ka.     

Effect of spatial resolution on regionalization of hydrological model parameters

Lack of availability of historical data series is one of the major hindrances in hydrological modelling. Regionalization of hydrological model parameters is one of the solutions to obtain the parameters for ungauged basins. Recently, lots of methodologies have been developed. They can be categorized as model calibration then fitting regression between model parameters and catchments characteristics, using some kind of transfer function. The aim of this study was to compare different regionalization methods as well as to look how the spatial resolution affects regionalization. In this study, a modified Lipschitz and monotony condition was used for regionalization. To identify the effect of the model resolution, the parameters of a distributed and semi‐distributed version of the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model were regionalized. The study was conducted at the upper Neckar catchment of southwest Germany. It has been found that the combination of Lipschitz and monotony condition has performed reasonably. It has been seen that the distributed model structure has outperformed the semi‐distributed model structure. It shows under present data conditions that higher model resolution can describe processes of ungauged basins reasonably. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of Indian summer monsoon simulation by Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3)

Seasonal prediction of Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) has been attempted for the current year 2011 using Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) developed at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). First, 30?years of model climatology starting from 1981 to 2010 has been generated to capture the variability of ISM over the Indian region using 30 seasonal simulations. The simulated model climatology has been validated with different sets of observed climatology, and it was observed that the simulated climatological rainfall is affected by model bias. Subsequently, a bias correction procedure using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43 rainfall has been proposed. The bias-corrected rainfall climatology shows both spatial and temporal variability of ISM satisfactorily. Further, four sets of 10-member ensemble simulations of ISM 2009 and 2010 have been performed in hindcast mode using observed sea surface temperature (SST) and persistence of April SST anomaly, and it has been found that the bias-corrected model rainfall captures the seasonal variability of ISM reasonably well with some discrepancies in these two contrasting monsoon years. With this positive background, the seasonal prediction of ISM 2011 has been carried out in forecast mode with the assumption of persistence of May SST anomaly from June through September 2011. The model assessment shows an 11% deficiency in All-India Rainfall (AIR) of ISM 2011. In particular, the monthly accumulated rains are predicted to be 101% (17.6?cm), 86% (24.3?cm), 83% (21.0?cm) and 95% (15.5?cm) of normal AIR for the months of June, July, August and September, respectively.