Rainfall-induced slope instabilities are ubiquitous in nature, but simulation of this type of hazards with centrifuge modelling still poses difficulties. In this paper, we introduce a rainfall device for initiating slope failure in a medium-sized centrifuge. This rainfall system is simple, robust and affordable. An array of perforated hoses is placed close above the model slope surface to generate the raindrops. The rainfall intensity depends on the centrifuge acceleration and the flow rate of the water supply, which is controlled by the size and number of the tiny pinholes in the hose walls. The rainfall intensities that are tested range from 2.5–30 mm/h, covering the intensity range of moderate, heavy and torrential rainfall events. Our model test with rainfall-induced slope failure shows that this system is capable of generating relatively uniform rainfall of wide intensities and leads to various patterns of slope failure.
By using the observational snow data of more than 700 weather stations,the interannual temporal and spatial characteristics of seasonal snow cover in China were analyzed.The results show that northern Xinjiang,northeastern China-Inner Mongolia,and the southwestern and southern portions of Tibetan Plateau are three regions in China with high seasonal snow cover and also an interannual anomaly of snow cover.According to the trend of both the snow depth and snow cover days,there are three changing patterns for the seasonal snow cover:The first type is that both snow depth and snow cover days simultaneously increase or decrease;this includes northern Xinjiang,middle and eastern Inner Mongolia,and so on.The second is that snow depth increases but snow cover days decrease;this type mainly locates in the eastern parts of the northeastern plain of China and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.The last type is that snow depth decreases but snow cover days increase at the same time such as that in middle parts of Tibetan Plateau.Snow cover in China appears to have been having a slow increasing trend during the last 40 years.On the decadal scale,snow depth and snow cover days slightly increased in the 1960s and then decreased in the 1970s;they again turn to increasing in the 1980s and persist into 1990s. 相似文献