Warning and evacuation in response to sediment-related disasters

On July 19, 2006, several sediment-related disasters (debris flows and landslides) occurred in Okaya and Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. In Okaya, neither the municipal government nor the residents had expected such a disaster, and they were unprepared. No evacuation of the population took place prior to the disaster, and two debris flows killed eight people. Another debris flow struck a retirement home. Fortunately, the first-floor residents could be evacuated to the second floor. In contrast, the nearby town of Suwa was evacuated voluntarily before the debris flow struck, and no fatalities occurred. This paper describes the situation at the time of the disaster, the evacuations in Okaya and in Suwa, and their consequences from the point of view of disaster-prevention personnel and retirement-home staff. Factors that should be considered in formulating warning and evacuation systems in response to sediment-related disasters are discussed.     

Lava tube shatter rings and their correlation with lava flux increases at Kīlauea Volcano,Hawai‘i

Shatter rings are circular to elliptical volcanic features, typically tens of meters in diameter, which form over active lava tubes. They are typified by an upraised rim of blocky rubble and a central depression. Prior to this study, shatter rings had not been observed forming, and, thus, were interpreted in many ways. This paper describes the process of formation for shatter rings observed at Kīlauea Volcano during November 2005–July 2006. During this period, tilt data, time-lapse images, and field observations showed that episodic tilt changes at the nearby Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone, the shallow magmatic source reservoir, were directly related to fluctuations in the level of lava in the active lava tube, with periods of deflation at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō correlating with increases in the level of the lava stream surface. Increases in lava level are interpreted as increases in lava flux, and were coincident with lava breakouts from shatter rings constructed over the lava tube. The repetitive behavior of the lava flux changes, inferred from the nearly continuous tilt oscillations, suggests that shatter rings form from the repeated rise and fall of a portion of a lava tube roof. The locations of shatter rings along the active lava tube suggest that they form where there is an abrupt decrease in flow velocity through the tube, e.g., large increase in tube width, abrupt decrease in tube slope, and (or) sudden change in tube direction. To conserve volume, this necessitates an abrupt increase in lava stream depth and causes over-pressurization of the tube. More than a hundred shatter rings have been identified on volcanoes on Hawai‘i and Maui, and dozens have been reported from basaltic lava fields in Iceland, Australia, Italy, Samoa, and the mainland United States. A quick study of other basaltic lava fields worldwide, using freely available satellite imagery, suggests that they might be even more common than previously thought. If so, this confirms that episodic fluctuation in lava effusion rate is a relatively common process at basaltic volcanoes, and that the presence of shatter rings in prehistoric lava flow fields can be used as evidence that such fluctuations have occurred.     

Investigation of dynamic response of masonry minaret structures

Almost all historical minarets in Turkey were constructed using cut stone, masonry blocks or combination of these two materials. The structural and geometrical properties of each masonry minaret, or slender tower structure, depend on many factors including the structural knowledge and applications at the time of construction, experience of the architect or engineer, seismicity of the region, and availability of construction materials in that area. Recent earthquakes in Turkey have shown that most masonry minarets in high seismic regions are vulnerable to structural damage and collapse. In this study, in order to investigate the dynamic behavior of historical unreinforced masonry minarets, three representative minarets with 20, 25, and 30 m height were modeled and analyzed using two ground motions recorded during the 1999 Kocaeli and Duzce, Turkey earthquakes. The modal analyses of the models have shown that the structural periods and the overall structural response are influenced by the minaret height and spectral characteristics of the input motion. The dynamic displacement and axial stress time histories are computed at the critical points on the minarets. During recent earthquakes, most minaret failures occurred above the base of the structure. Consistent with the observed response, the largest stresses were calculated at the same location.     

A new model for analyzing nonlinear torsion behavior of concrete filled steel tube columns with rectangular section

An experimental study on concrete filled steel tube columns with rectangular section subjected to compressionflexure-torsion combined action has been carried out. The failure modes and load-deformation hysteretic relations were obtained. Based on the principles of classical material mechanics, the relations between the torsion curvature of the section and the shear strain of the fiber on the section were established. Then the strain distribution on the rectangular section of concrete filled steel tube columns subjected to torsion was analyzed. The three-dimensional refined finite element model was also built, in order to make the precision verification. The matrix forms of the relation between the torsion curvature of the section and the shear strain of the fiber on the section were derived, and introduced into the fiber beam model considering nonlinear torsion effect on the section. The comparison between test results and calculation results showed that the fiber beam model considering nonlinear torsion effect had high modeling efficiency and solution precision for predicting the torsion behavior of concrete filled steel tube columns with rectangular sections, and was suitable for analyzing the dynamic response of various structures subjected to the combined cyclic load caused by the earthquake load.     

PML solution of longitudinal wave propagation in heterogeneous media

This paper describes the development of a model for unbounded heterogeneous domains with radiation damping produced by an unphysical wave absorbing layer. The Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) approach is used along with a displacement-based finite element. The heterogeneous model is validated using the closed-form solution of a benchmark problem: a free rod with two-part modulus subjected to a specified time history. Both elastically supported and unsupported semi-infinite rods with different degrees of inhomogeneity and loading are considered. Numerical results illustrate the effects of inhomogeneity on the response and are compared with those for equivalent homogeneous domains. The effects of characteristic features of the inhomogeneous problem, presence of local maxima and cut-off frequency are determined. A degenerate case of a homogeneous semi-infinite rod on elastic foundations is produced by tending the magnitude of the foundation stiffness to zero. The response of the latter is compared with that of a free rod. The importance of proper selection of the PML parameters to highly accurate and efficient results is demonstrated by example problems.