Seismic isolation for low‐to‐medium‐rise buildings using granulated rubber–soil mixtures: numerical study

This paper presents the preliminary research works on a potential seismic isolation method that makes use of scrap rubber tires for the protection of low‐to‐medium‐rise buildings. The method involves mixing shredded rubber tire particles with soil materials and placing the mixtures around building foundations, which provides a function similar to that of a cushion. Meanwhile, the stockpiling of scrap tires is a significant threat to our environment, and the engineering community has been looking for long‐term viable solutions to the recycling and reuse of rubber. A finite element program has been developed for modeling the time‐domain dynamic responses of soil–foundation–structure system, by which the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method have been evaluated. In general, the structural responses, in terms of acceleration and inter‐story drift, can be reduced by 40–60%. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Post-collisional mafic magmatism: Record of lithospheric mantle evolution in continental orogenic belt

Science China Earth Sciences - In order to better understand the role of post-collisional mafic magmatism at convergent plate boundaries in revealing the earth’s evolution, this paper has...     

Evolution of internal solitary waves on the slope-shelf topography in the northern South China Sea

Ocean Dynamics - Based on a non-hydrostatic two-dimensional and high-resolution model, evolution of internal solitary waves (ISWs) on the typical slope-shelf topography in the northern South China...     

川滇地块南部主要断裂现今形变特征及危险性分析

本文利用川滇地块南部30余年的跨断层观测资料,计算了跨断层场地的三维活动量,分析了区域内断裂的现今形变特征以及川滇地块南部的运动方式,认为部分断裂现今表现出异常活动的现象,川滇地块南部整体表现出以水平顺时针旋转为主的运动学特征,并对该区域中短期地震危险性做出了初步推测。     

基于移动平台的测震应急流动台现场监控系统的设计与实现

流动测震观测是在大地震发生以后开展的一项重要的地震应急响应工作,能够获得震区高质量的地震数据,而野外环境的复杂性对测震应急流动台的架设提出了较高的要求。本文通过对地震应急流动现场工作进行需求分析,设计并实现了一种基于IOS系统的测震应急流动台现场监控系统,能够让现场工作队员快速获取流动台数据和状态信息,有利于流动台的快速架设,提高了应急流动观测现场工作的效能。     

Processes of initial collision and suturing between India and Asia

The initial collision between Indian and Asian continents marked the starting point for transformation of land-sea thermal contrast, uplift of the Tibet-Himalaya orogen, and climate change in Asia. In this paper, we review the published literatures from the past 30 years in order to draw consensus on the processes of initial collision and suturing that took place between the Indian and Asian plates. Following a comparison of the different methods that have been used to constrain the initial timing of collision, we propose that the tectono-sedimentary response in the peripheral foreland basin provides the most sensitive index of this event, and that paleomagnetism presents independent evidence as an alternative, reliable, and quantitative research method. In contrast to previous studies that have suggested collision between India and Asia started in Pakistan between ca. 55 Ma and 50 Ma and progressively closed eastwards, more recent researches have indicated that this major event first occurred in the center of the Yarlung Tsangpo suture zone (YTSZ) between ca. 65 Ma and 63 Ma and then spreading both eastwards and westwards. While continental collision is a complicated process, including the processes of deformation, sedimentation, metamorphism, and magmatism, different researchers have tended to define the nature of this event based on their own understanding, an intuitive bias that has meant that its initial timing has remained controversial for decades. Here, we recommend the use of reconstructions of each geological event within the orogenic evolution sequence as this will allow interpretation of collision timing on the basis of multidisciplinary methods.     

Identification and assessment of water safety risk for groundwater recharge with reclaimed water in China

Groundwater recharge using reclaimed water has developed rapidly around the world to relieve the groundwater resource shortage and declining of the water table. Traditional water treatment systems are inefficient to remove all the types of contaminants, so it is urgent to identify the priority chemical substances (CSs) that deserve our first concern. In this study, we developed a method (EER method) to identify priority CSs in groundwater recharge by surface spreading and direct aquifer injection. Three stages were processed which were exposure assessment, effect assessment and ranking for identification of priority CSs. Fourteen cities in China were selected for data collected and 90 pollutants in reclaimed water samples were analyzed as the target pollutants for a case study. According to three stages, the 90 CSs studied were divided into five groups (primary control CSs and high, moderate and low and no risk control CSs). In the primary control CSs and high, moderate and low and no risk control CSs group there were 14, 18, 21, 21 and 16 CSs, respectively when groundwater recharged by surface spreading, while there were 15, 18, 21, 21 and 15 CSs when recharged by direct injection. This method provided an indicator of prioritizing the risk of 90 compounds in the reclaimed water for groundwater recharge.     

Cyclic behavior and failure mechanism of self‐centering energy dissipation braces with pre‐pressed combination disc springs

A new type of bracing system composed of friction energy dissipation devices for energy dissipation, pre‐pressed combination disc springs for self‐centering and tube members as guiding elements is developed and experimentally studied in this paper. The mechanics of this system are explained, the equations governing its hysteretic responses are outlined and large‐scale validation tests of two braces with different types of disc springs are conducted under the condition of low cyclic reversed loading. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed bracing system exhibits a stable and repeatable flag‐shaped hysteretic response with an excellent self‐centering capability and effective energy dissipation throughout the loading protocol. Furthermore, the maximum bearing force and stiffness are predicted well by the equations governing its mechanical behavior. Fatigue and destructive test results demonstrate that the proposed bracing system can maintain stable energy dissipation and self‐centering capabilities under large deformation cyclic loading even when the tube members exceed the elastic limit and that a larger bearing capacity is achieved by the system that has disc springs without a bearing surface. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Frequency analysis of nonstationary annual maximum flood series using the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions

The most popular practice for analysing nonstationarity of flood series is to use a fixed single‐type probability distribution incorporated with the time‐varying moments. However, the type of probability distribution could be both complex because of distinct flood populations and time‐varying under changing environments. To allow the investigation of this complex nature, the time‐varying two‐component mixture distributions (TTMD) method is proposed in this study by considering the time variations of not only the moments of its component distributions but also the weighting coefficients. Having identified the existence of mixed flood populations based on circular statistics, the proposed TTMD was applied to model the annual maximum flood series of two stations in the Weihe River basin, with the model parameters calibrated by the meta‐heuristic maximum likelihood method. The performance of TTMD was evaluated by different diagnostic plots and indexes and compared with stationary single‐type distributions, stationary mixture distributions and time‐varying single‐type distributions. The results highlighted the advantages of TTMD with physically‐based covariates for both stations. Besides, the optimal TTMD models were considered to be capable of settling the issue of nonstationarity and capturing the mixed flood populations satisfactorily. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

横观各向同性场地中埋置衬砌隧道对qP波的散射

采用间接边界元法(IBEM)结合"分区契合"技术,研究qP波入射下横观各向同性(TI)场地中衬砌隧道的动力响应问题。方法充分利用半空间和全空间动力格林函数在分别构造含孔半无限空间域和闭合域内散射波场方面的优势,将含有衬砌隧道的层状弹性半空间分解为含孔半无限空间域和一个环形衬砌闭合域来分别进行波场构造,有效地降低了求解时间和存储量。文中验证方法的正确性,并以均匀TI半空间和基岩上单一TI土层为例,计算分析弹性半空间场地中隧道衬砌内表面动应力放大问题。结果表明qP波入射下,TI介质与各向同性介质场地中埋置衬砌隧道的动力响应差异显著,TI介质参数的变化导致场地动力特性的改变,进而改变场地与衬砌隧道的动力相互作用机制,显著影响着衬砌内表面动应力的大小及其空间分布。