Modelling of deformation response and chemo‐mechanical coupling in chalk

A constitutive relation is derived for describing the mechanical response of chalk. The approach is based on a phenomenological framework which employs chemo‐plasticity. The properties of the material are assumed to be affected by the physico‐chemical processes that occur through the interaction between the skeleton and the pore fluid. The underlying mechanism is discussed by invoking a micromechanical analysis. The performance of the framework is illustrated by examining the evolution of mechanical characteristics in the presence of different pore fluids. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Middle-ear stiffness of the bottlenose dolphin tursiops truncatus

Previous research on the cetacean auditory system has consisted mostly of behavioral studies on a limited number of species. Little quantitative physiologic data exists on cetacean hearing. The frequency range of hearing varies greatly across different mammalian species. Differences among species correlate with differences in the middle-ear transfer function. Middle-ear transfer functions depend on the mechanical stiffness of the middle ear and the cochlear input impedance. The purpose of this study was to measure the middle-ear stiffness for the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), a species specialized for underwater high-frequency hearing and echolocation. Middle-ear stiffness was measured with a force probe that applied a known displacement to the stapes and measured the restoring force. The average middle-ear stiffness in ten dolphin ears was 1.37 N//spl mu/m, which is considerably higher than that reported for most terrestrial mammals. The relationship between middle-ear stiffness and low-frequency hearing cutoff in Tursiops was shown to be comparable to that of terrestrial mammals.     

A multi‐level parallelized substructuring‐frontal solution for coupled thermo/hydro/mechanical problems in unsaturated soil

This paper proposes a multi‐level parallelized substructuring–frontal combined algorithm for the analysis of the problem of thermo/hydraulic/mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soil. Temperature, displacement, pore water pressure and pore air pressure are treated as the primary variables in a non‐linear analysis. Details are given firstly of the substructuring–frontal combined approach. The incorporation of the algorithm in a multi‐level parallel strategy is then discussed. The parallel processing can thus be carried out at different substructural levels. The method thus developed impacts, in a positive way, on both computer storage requirement and execution time. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Descriptors of impulsive signal levels commonly used in underwateracoustics

Impulsive acoustic waveforms are characterized by a different set of derived quantities than are continuous waveforms. This note presents commonly accepted definitions, units, and symbols used to describe the magnitude of impulsive underwater signals     

Multistep matched-field inversion for broad-band data from ASIAEX2001

This paper discusses the results of geoacoustic inversion carried out using explosive charge data from the Asian Seas International Acoustic Experiment (ASIAEX) East China Sea (ECS) Experiment. A multifrequency incoherent matched-field inversion processor and a genetic algorithm (GA) are used for the inversion. A multistep matched field inversion approach is presented, which makes use of the varying sensitivities of wave fields at various frequencies to reduce the inversion problem into a sequence of smaller inversions with fewer unknowns to estimate at each stage. Different parameters are estimated using data at different frequencies according to their sensitivities. Inversion results for different areas in the ECS region are summarized and compared with core data.