Pure aluminium shear panels as dissipative devices in moment‐resisting steel frames

The use of energy dissipation systems for the seismic control of steel structures represents a valid alternative to conventional seismic design methods. The seismic devices currently employed are mostly based on the metallic yielding technology due to the large feasibility and efficiency they can provide. Within this context, in the current paper an innovative solution based on the adoption of low‐yield‐strength pure aluminium shear panels (SPs) for seismic protection of steel moment‐resisting frames is proposed and investigated. In order to prove the effectiveness of the system, a wide numerical study based on both static and dynamic non‐linear analyses has been carried out, considering a number of different frame‐to‐shear panel combinations, aiming at assessing the effect of the main influential parameters on the seismic response of the structure. The obtained results show that the contribution provided by aluminium SPs is rather significant, allowing a remarkable improvement of the seismic performance of the structure in terms of stiffness, strength and ductility, with the possibility to strongly limit the damage occurring in the members of moment‐resisting frames. In particular, it is clearly emphasized that the stiffening effect provided by SPs allows a more rational design procedure to be adopted, since the serviceability limit state check does not lead to unavoidable and uneconomical increase of the size of main structural members. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The hard solar X-ray burst of 18 September 1963

A hard solar X-ray burst was observed by J-P. Legrand on 18 September 1963, 13:56 UT, at balloon altitude. It lasted a few minutes; a steep increase was followed by an exponential decay. During its declining phase a weak radio burst was observed on 3 and 10 cm, not on longer wavelengths.Maximum radio intensity occurred two minutes after that of the X-ray burst. The X-ray and radio bursts ended almost simultaneously. Optically a small shortlived (some minutes) flare point occurred simultaneously with the X-ray burst in a magnetically interesting part of the active region of September 1963. The X-burst photons seem to have had an energy of about 0.5 MeV. The burst was therefore of a fairly rare type, since very few other bursts with similar photon energies have been detected up to now.It is suggested that a mass of gas, magnetically confined to a volume of about 5·10²⁵ cm³ in the low corona, containing about 3·10³⁵ electrons was accelerated to energies of about 0.5 MeV. The gas gradually expanded, partly also to higher levels. The gyro-synchrotron radiation, emitted by the plasma became observable after about two minutes. At the lower radio frequencies the radiation was absorbed by overlying undisturbed coronal matter. Quantitative computations justify this model. A detailed summary of the events, and some numerical data are given in the concluding Section 8 and in Table V.     

The Scots Bay formation, Nova Scotia, Canada, a Jurassic carbonate lake with Silica-rich hydrothermal springs

During Early Jurassic time, the Scots Bay Formation accumulated in an aerobic lake on the floor of the subtropical Fundy rift valley. A diverse biota flourished in the lake as evidenced by algal stromatolites, oncolites, charophytes, ostracods, gastropods, conchostracans, fish bones, calcispheres and logs. Carbonate wackestone and packstone were deposited in the littoral zone and lime mudstone accumulated offshore on a proximal slope. Silica-rich hydrothermal springs and seeps around and on the floor of the lake precipitated siliceous tufa and silicified adjacent carbonate strata. The tufa is characterized by the progressive sequence: (1) open-framework, porous substrate of goethite spheres, (2) encrusting chalcedony spherulites where goethite inclusions decrease in size and number outwards towards the surfaces of the spherulites, (3) a fringe of quartz on the chalcedony spherulites and (4) coarsening inwards mosaics of quartz that filled the remaining voids. Carbonate diagenesis included conversion of low-Mg calcite ooze to micrite and microspar-pseudospar, and local dissolution and reprecipitation of calcite cement. At times the lake shrank in size, concentrating silica in increasingly alkaline lake water which then silicified some of the carbonate strata and logs. The latest cements were calcite, zeolites and celadonite.     

华北地层大区寒武纪早期地层统一划分与对比问题

基于华北地层大区数百条寒武纪早期地层剖面与安徽淮南地区基准层序(2组2亚组15段1个亚段)和带序(6个三叶虫带)的确切对比,编制了新的沉积分区图;依据有无猴家山组和馒头组下亚组是否完整,划分出5个沉积区;讨论了各区与基准层序-带序的对比;明确了各地方性岩石地层单位(五山组、李官组、碱厂组、辛集组、朱砂洞组、苏峪口组、五道淌组、昌平组、府君山组、老庄户组、水洞组、黑沟组等)的层位归属(具体至段),确认与寒武纪早期地层有关的3个沉积间断(皖北上升、豫陕上升和燕辽上升),归属于重新厘定的蓟县运动的3个期次.     

Fluidization of buried mass-wasting deposits in lake sediments and its relevance for paleoseismology: Results from a reflection seismic study of lakes Villarrica and Calafquén (South-Central Chile)

A dense grid of very-high resolution seismic profiles on Lake Villarrica provides a quasi-3D view on intercalated lenses of low-amplitude reflections, which are connected by acoustic wipe-out patches and fractures to an underlying voluminous mass-wasting deposit. The lenses are interpreted as being created by earthquake-triggered liquefaction in this buried mass-wasting deposit and subsequent sediment fluidization and extrusion at the paleo-lake bottom. These sediment volcanoes are mapped in detail. They have a rather uniform circular geometry and show a linear relationship between apparent width and maximum thickness on a seismic section. The largest sediment volcanoes are up to 80 m wide and 1.9 m thick. Their slope angles designate a syn- to post-depositional sagging of most sediment volcanoes. Sediment volcano detection and mapping from nearby Lake Calafquén further strengthen the revealed geometrical relationships. Locally, some of the sediment/fluid escape structures extend to a higher position in the stratigraphy, which points to a polyphase escape process associated with multiple multi-century spaced strong earthquakes. Thickness and morphology of the source layer seem to exert a dominant control in the production of sediment/fluid extrusions. This study shows that reflection seismic profiling allowed recognizing 4 different seismic events in the studied stratigraphic interval, which are evidenced by mass-wasting deposits and/or fluidization features.     

断裂构造的遥感研究方法综述

断裂构造是一种基本的构造型式。断裂构造遥感研究是高新探测技术与地球科学的有机结合 ,是断裂构造常规研究方法的有益补充和向纵深拓展的必然趋势。该文从总体思路、具体内容、操作方法等各个不同角度系统地论述了断裂构造遥感研究的现状和发展趋势 ,并在断裂构造信息提取、光谱特征分析、空间结构分析 (包括分形分析 )等方面提出了一些观点。     

塔里木盆地北部坳陷震旦纪-奥陶纪大陆裂谷性质及其演化

塔里木盆地北部坳陷是在前震旦纪结晶基底之上发育起来的大陆裂谷盆地,始于早震旦世,结束于晚奥陶世.裂谷的轴部自西向东由阿瓦提凹陷、满加尔凹陷、英吉苏凹陷(包括库鲁克塔格南区)组成,向东延伸到罗布泊以东地区.裂谷轴部与地幔隆起带和高磁异常带相对应.裂谷东部主要以半深海-深海相的浊积岩、放射虫硅质岩和笔石页岩为特征,裂谷西部和翼部则以浅水盆地相和台地相的碳酸盐为特征.裂谷早期的火山岩主要分布于中东部的切谷内,具有双峰式火山岩的特征,玄武岩属低硅高钛富碱型.据区域动力学背景、沉积特征、沉降速率,将裂谷演化划分为幼年期,成年期和衰亡期3个阶段.     

叠前正演模拟与偏移的网络并行计算

在叠前深度偏移和非零炮检距声波方程正演计算过程中包含了大量的可并行计算的成分。作者在本文中提出叠前正演模拟与偏移的网络并行计算算法，并基于TCP／IP协议，将该算法设计成网络并行处理程序，极大地提高了计算效率。实际运算结果证明，本文提出的并行算法和技术路线是切实可行的。     

Embedding reach-scale fluvial dynamics within the CAESAR cellular automaton landscape evolution model

We introduce a new computational model designed to simulate and investigate reach-scale alluvial dynamics within a landscape evolution model. The model is based on the cellular automaton concept, whereby the continued iteration of a series of local process ‘rules’ governs the behaviour of the entire system. The model is a modified version of the CAESAR landscape evolution model, which applies a suite of physically based rules to simulate the entrainment, transport and deposition of sediments. The CAESAR model has been altered to improve the representation of hydraulic and geomorphic processes in an alluvial environment. In-channel and overbank flow, sediment entrainment and deposition, suspended load and bed load transport, lateral erosion and bank failure have all been represented as local cellular automaton rules. Although these rules are relatively simple and straightforward, their combined and repeatedly iterated effect is such that complex, non-linear geomorphological response can be simulated within the model. Examples of such larger-scale, emergent responses include channel incision and aggradation, terrace formation, channel migration and river meandering, formation of meander cutoffs, and transitions between braided and single-thread channel patterns. In the current study, the model is illustrated on a reach of the River Teifi, near Lampeter, Wales, UK.