Reservoir characteristics and main controlling factors of oil sand in Houba area,northwestern Sichuan Basin,China

Houba oil sand in frontier Longmenshan Mountain is one of the most typically important unconventional resources. The basic reservoir characteristics of oil sand and the main factors affecting reservoir quality were examined in this article based on porosity, permeability, and mercury porosimetry measurements; thin section analyses; SEM observation; and X-ray diffraction analysis. This study shows that the oil-bearing sandstone reservoir is mainly medium?coarse-grained sublitharenite and litharenite. The main pore type is intergranular pores, including residual primary intergranular pores, dissolved intergranular pores, and dissolved intragranular pores; fractures are common in this study area. The quality of sandstone reservoir is of high porosity and high permeability with a high oil saturation of 89.84 %. It is indicated that the main controlling factors of the reservoir in the study area include deposition, diagenesis, and tectonism. Deposition laid a foundation to porosity evolution, and channel sand is the most favorable depositional facies for the reservoir. Diagenetic alterations are the keys to reservoir evolution; dissolution and chlorite coatings cementation play an effective role in the generation and preservation of pores. Compaction, carbonate cementation, and quartz overgrowth cause many damages to the reservoir porosity. Fractures caused by structural breakages can improve the reservoir permeability and they also can provide fluid migration pathways to the late corrosion, which formed a lot of corroded fissures as reservoir and percolation spaces.     

The Dynamic Evaluation of Rock Slope Stability Considering the Effects of Microseismic Damage

A state-of-the-art microseismic monitoring system has been implemented at the left bank slope of the Jinping first stage hydropower station since June 2009. The main objectives are to ensure slope safety under continuous excavation at the left slope, and, very recently, the safety of the concrete arch dam. The safety of the excavated slope is investigated through the development of fast and accurate real-time event location techniques aimed at assessing the evolution and migration of the seismic activity, as well as through the development of prediction capabilities for rock slope instability. Myriads of seismic events at the slope have been recorded by the microseismic monitoring system. Regions of damaged rock mass have been identified and delineated on the basis of the tempo-spatial distribution analysis of microseismic activity during the periods of excavation and consolidation grouting. However, how to effectively utilize the abundant microseismic data in order to quantify the stability of the slope remains a challenge. In this paper, a rock mass damage evolutional model based on microseismic data is proposed, combined with a 3D finite element method (FEM) model for feedback analysis of the left bank slope stability. The model elements with microseismic damage are interrogated and the deteriorated mechanical parameters determined accordingly. The relationship between microseismic activities induced by rock mass damage during slope instability, strength degradation, and dynamic instability of the slope are explored, and the slope stability is quantitatively evaluated. The results indicate that a constitutive relation considering microseismic damage is concordant with the simulation results and the influence of rock mass damage can be allowed for its feedback analysis of 3D slope stability. In addition, the safety coefficient of the rock slope considering microseismic damage is reduced by a value of 0.11, in comparison to the virgin rock slope model. Our results demonstrate that microseismic activity induced by construction disturbance only slightly affects the stability of the slope. The proposed feedback analysis technique provides a novel method for dynamically assessing rock slope stability and can be used to assess the slope stability of other similar rock slopes.     

Rainfall-triggering response patterns of post-seismic debris flows in the Wenchuan earthquake area

Several giant debris flows occurred in southwestern China after the Wenchuan earthquake, causing serious casualties and economic losses. Debris flows were frequently triggered after the earthquake. A relatively accurate prediction of these post-seismic debris flows can help to reduce the consequent damages. Existing debris flow prediction is almost based on the study of the relationship between post-earthquake debris flows and rainfall. The relationship between the occurrence of post-seismic debris flows and characteristic rainfall patterns was studied in this paper. Fourteen rainfall events related to debris flows that occurred in four watersheds in the Wenchuan earthquake area were collected. By analyzing the rainfall data, characteristics of rainfall events that triggered debris flows after the earthquake were obtained. Both the critical maximum rainfall intensity and average rainfall intensity increased with the time. To describe the critical conditions for debris flow initiation, intensity–duration curves were constructed, which shows how the threshold for triggering debris flows increased each year. The time that the critical rainfall intensities of debris flow occurrences return to the value prior to the earthquake could not be estimated due to the absent rainfall data before the earthquake. Rainfall-triggering response patterns could be distinguished for rainfall-induced debris flows. The critical rainfall patterns related to debris flows could be divided on the basis of antecedent rainfall duration and intensity into three categories: (1) a rapid triggering response pattern, (2) an intermediate triggering response pattern, and (3) a slow triggering response pattern. The triggering response patterns are closely related to the initiation mechanisms of post-earthquake debris flows. The main difference in initiation mechanisms and difference in triggering patterns by rainfall is regulated by the infiltration process and determined by a number of parameters, such as hydro-mechanical soil characteristics, the thickness of the soil, and the slope gradient. In case of a rapid triggering response rainfall pattern, the hydraulic conductivity and initial moisture content are the main impact factors. Runoff erosion and rapid loading of solid material is the dominant process. In case of a rainfall pattern with a slow triggering response, the thickness and strength of the soil, high hydraulic conductivity, and rainfall intensity are the impact factors. Probably slope failure is the most dominant process initiating debris flows. In case of an intermediate triggering response pattern, both debris flow initiation mechanisms (runoff erosion and slope failure) can play a role.     

Market risk in carbon market: an empirical analysis of the EUA and sCER

The paper uses a capital asset pricing model to analyze the market risk in the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) and clean development mechanisms (CDM) and Zipf analysis technology to analyze the carbon price volatility in different expectations of returns in the two markets. The results show that the systematic risk of the EU ETS market is around 0.07 %, but the CDM market is clearly divided into two stages; the systematic risk of the futures contracts in the first stage (DEC09–DEC12) is less than the EU ETS market, but the systematic risk of the futures contracts that enter the market is greater than the EU ETS market and has a higher market sensitivity, although on the unsystematic risk. The CDM market is always greater than the EU ETS market. Abnormal returns in the two carbon markets are both lower than 0.02 %, but CDM is higher. The probability of price down is greater than that of price up. The carbon price is affected by market mechanisms and external factors (economic crisis and environmental policies) in the low expectations of returns. However, in the high expectations of returns, compared with the CDM market, the carbon price change in the EU ETS market is less stable and has higher risks.

     

Study on low‐strain integrity testing of pipe‐pile using the elastodynamic finite integration technique

This study focuses on the three‐dimensional (3‐D) characteristics of wave propagation in pipe‐pile using elastodynamic finite integration technique. First, a real 3‐D pile‐soil model in cylindrical coordinate system is presented. Then, the governing equations are established. With the boundary and initial conditions, the numerical solution is obtained. The accuracy and feasibility of the self‐written code are further verified via comparing with the measured data. Velocity histories at different angles of pile top and pile tip are illustrated, and the snapshots reflecting the 3‐D characteristics of wave propagation are given. It shows that the interferences of Rayleigh waves can confuse the result interpretation for pile integrity testing. The increase of hammer contact time can effectively mitigate the interferences, and the interferences of Rayleigh waves are weakest at an angle of 90° from where hammer hits. Besides, surrounding soil can partly mitigate the wave interferences. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

河西地区重力动态变化的二维离散小波多尺度分解

采用二维离散小波的多尺度分解技术，对1994～1995年和2002～2003年的河西地区重力动态变化进行分解，提取该地区不同层次的重力动态变化异常，结果反映了不同深度在一定尺度意义上的介质密度的动态变化分布。     

全球纬向平均的海气耦合一维模式分析

本文从能量平衡角度,考虑海气相互作用和纬向间的差异,设计了一个纬向平均的海气耦合一维模式,进行了模式平衡态求解、敏感性试验以及随机分析。并对模式部分计算结果进行了与实测资料的比较,验证了模式的合理性和可信性。     

A neural network atmospheric model for hybrid coupled modelling

 The possibility of using a nonlinear empirical atmospheric model for hybrid coupled atmosphere-ocean modelling has been examined by using a neural network (NN) model for predicting the contemporaneous wind stress field from the upper ocean state. Upper ocean heat content (HC) from a 6-layer ocean model was a better predictor of the wind stress than the (observed or modelled) sea surface temperature (SST). Our results showed that the NN model generally had slightly better skills in predicting the contemporaneous wind stress than the linear regression (LR) model in the off-equatorial tropical Pacific and in the eastern equatorial Pacific. When the wind stresses from the NN and LR models were used to drive the ocean model, slightly better SST skills were found in the off-equatorial tropical Pacific and in the eastern equatorial Pacific when the NN winds were used instead of the LR winds. Better skills for the model HC were found in the western and central equatorial Pacific when the NN winds were used instead of the LR winds. Why NN failed to show more significant improvement over LR in the equatorial Pacific for the wind stress and SST is probably because the relationship between the surface ocean and the atmosphere in the equatorial Pacific over the seasonal time scale is almost linear. Received: 2 March 1999 / Accepted: 13 July 2000     

Fine-scale volume heterogeneity measurements in sand

As part of the effort to characterize the acoustic environment during the high frequency sediment acoustics experiment (SAX99), fine-scale variability of sediment density was measured by an in situ technique and by core analysis. The in situ measurement was accomplished by a newly developed instrument that measures sediment conductivity. The conductivity measurements were conducted on a three-dimensional (3-D) grid, hence providing a set of data suited for assessing sediment spatial variability. A 3-D sediment porosity matrix is obtained from the conductivity data through an empirical relationship (Archie's Law). From the porosity matrix, sediment bulk density is estimated from known average grain density. A number of cores were taken at the SAX99 site, and density variations were measured using laboratory techniques. The power spectra were estimated from both techniques and were found to be appropriately fit by a power-law. The exponents of the horizontal one-dimensional (1-D) power-law spectra have a depth-dependence and range from 1.72 to 2.41. The vertical 1-D spectra have the same form, but with an exponent of 2.2. It was found that most of the density variability is within the top 5 mm of the sediment, which suggests that sediment volume variability will not have major impact on acoustic scattering when the sound frequency is below 100 kHz. At higher frequencies, however, sediment volume variability is likely to play an important role in sound scattering.