A few observations of and remarks on V1500 Cygni

The development of the post-nova light curve of V1500 Cyg inUBV andHβ, for 15 nights in September and October 1975 are presented. We confirm previous reports that superimposed on the steady decline of the light curve are small amplitude cyclic variations. The times of maxima and minima are determined. These together with other published values yield the following ephemerides from JD 2 442 661 to JD 2 442 674: $$\begin{gathered} {\text{From}} 17 {\text{points:}} {\text{JD}}_{ \odot \min } = 2 442 661.4881 + 0_{^. }^{\text{d}} 140 91{\text{n}} \hfill \\ \pm 0.0027 \pm 0.000 05 \hfill \\ {\text{From}} 15 {\text{points:}} {\text{JD}}_{ \odot \max } = 2 442 661.5480 + 0_{^. }^{\text{d}} 140 89{\text{n}} \hfill \\ \pm 0.0046 \pm 0.0001 \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ with standard errors of the fits of ±0 _. ^d 0052 for the minima and ±0 _. ^d 0091 for the maxima. Assuming V1500 Cyg is similar to novae in M31, we foundr=750 pc and a pre-nova absolute photographic magnitude greater than 9.68.     

Self‐centering steel connections with steel bars and a discontinuous composite slab

Six cyclic tests were conducted on three full‐scale subassemblies to investigate the behavior of interior beam‐to‐column post‐tensioned (PT) connections. Strands were placed along each side of the steel beam web, passing through the steel column to provide precompression between the beams and a column. Top and bottom energy‐dissipating (ED) bars, passing through the column and welded to the beam, were used to increase the moment capacity and ED capacity of the connection. One of the subassemblies also had a composite concrete slab with discontinuity at the column centerline to eliminate restraint from the metal deck, reinforcement, and welded wire mesh. The objectives of this paper were to investigate the following: the durability of the connection by loading each specimen twice, the ED capacity of the ED bar, and the effects that the type of ED bar and type of composite slab have on the self‐centering behavior of the connection. The experimental results showed that: (1) the connection could sustain severe inelastic cyclic loading at least twice without strength degradation, (2) the ED capacity of the bar was much larger than that dissipated by a single AISC loading protocol, and (3) a specimen with a discontinuous composite slab, which opened freely at the centerline of the column, ensured the same self‐centering hysteretic behavior as the bare steel specimen. However, the decompression moment of the PT connection decreased significantly at each interstory drift, resulting in an early opening of a gap at the beam–column interface. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of the sediment budget in understanding debris flow susceptibility

This study proposes a sediment‐budget model to predict the temporal variation of debris volume stored in a debris‐flow prone watershed. The sediment‐budget is dominated by shallow landslides and debris outflow. The basin topography and the debris volume stored in the source area of the debris‐flow prone watershed help evaluating its debris‐flow susceptibility. The susceptibility model is applied to the Tungshih area of central western Taiwan. The importance of the debris volume in predicting debris‐flow susceptibility is reflected in the standardized coefficients of the proposed statistical discriminant model. The high prediction rate (0·874) for the occurrence of debris flows justifies the capability of the proposed susceptibility models to predict the occurrence of debris flows. This model is then used to evaluate the temporal evolution of the debris‐flow susceptibility index. The analysis results show that the numbers of watershed which are classified as a debris‐flow group correspond well to storage of sediment at different time periods. These numbers are 10 before the occurrence of Chi‐Chi earthquake, 13 after the occurrence of Chi‐Chi earthquake, 16 after the occurrence of landslides induced by Typhoon Mindulle (Typhoon M), and 14 after the occurrence of debris flows induced by Typhoon M. It indicates that the occurrence of 7·6 Chi‐Chi earthquake had significant impact on the debris flow occurrence during subsequent typhoons. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial and Temporal Changes of Groundwater Level Induced by Thrust Faulting

Changes of groundwater level, ranging from a fall of 11.10 m to a rise of 7.42 m, induced by thrust faulting during the 1999 M_w 7.6, Chi-Chi earthquake have been recorded in 276 monitoring wells in Taiwan. Most coseismic falls appeared near the seismogenic fault as well as other active faults, while coseismic rises prevailed away from the fault. Coseismic groundwater level rises and falls correlated fairly well with hypocentral distance in the vicinity of the thrust fault. We found a major difference of coseismic changes in wells of different depths at most multiple-well stations. The recovery process of coseismic groundwater level changes is associated with the confining condition of the aquifer. Cross-formational flow is likely to play an important role in groundwater level changes after the earthquake. In the hanging wall of the thrust fault, an abnormal decline of groundwater level was observed immediately before the earthquake. The underlying mechanism of the unique preseismic change warrants further investigation.     

UNCERTAINTY AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSES OF SEDIMENT TRANSPORT FORMULAS

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Investigation of the impacts of vegetation distribution and evaporative cooling on synthetic urban daytime climate using a coupled LES—LSM model

Local flow properties and regional weather or climate are strongly affected by land‐atmosphere interactions of momentum and scalars within the daytime convective boundary layer (CBL). In this study, we investigate the impact of green space scale on the daytime atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over a synthetic urban domain using a recently developed large‐eddy simulation‐land surface model (LES–LSM) framework. With the use of realistic soundings as initial conditions, a series of numerical experiments over synthetic urban surfaces with varied scale of vegetated area is performed. Simulated micrometeorological properties, surface fluxes, basic CBL characteristics, and cloud distribution are analysed. The results show reference‐level air potential temperature and specific humidity as well as surface fluxes over green space are significantly affected by the scale of green space in the urban domain. The surface organization due to vegetated area scale also has impacts on horizontally averaged scalar and momentum profiles; however, the magnitude in this study is smaller than the results of a previous study using a set of offline surface fluxes as the lower boundary condition for LES. In addition, even though this study only performs a daytime diurnal cycle, the impact of green space scale on cloud distribution in simulations is significant. The cases with more organized green space yield lower‐elevated cumulus cloud and larger‐cloud cover fraction, which impacts the energy budget at the top of boundary layer and, in turn, could lead to additional surface cooling with respect to longer‐term weather and climate. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of solute transport in a divergent flow tracer test with scale‐dependent dispersion

It has been known for many years that dispersivities increase with solute displacement distance in a subsurface. The increase of dispersivities with solute travel distance results from significant variation in hydraulic properties of porous media and was identified in the literature as scale‐dependent dispersion. In this study, Laplace‐transformed analytical solutions to advection‐dispersion equations in cylindrical coordinates are derived for interpreting a divergent flow tracer test with a constant dispersivity and with a linear scale‐dependent dispersivity. Breakthrough curves obtained using the scale‐dependent dispersivity model are compared to breakthrough curves obtained from the constant dispersivity model to illustrate the salient features of scale‐dependent dispersion in a divergent flow tracer test. The analytical results reveal that the breakthrough curves at the specific location for the constant dispersivity model can produce the same shape as those from the scale‐dependent dispersivity model. This correspondence in curve shape between these two models occurs when the local dispersivity at an observation well in the scale‐dependent dispersivity model is 1·3 times greater than the constant dispersivity in the constant dispersivity model. To confirm this finding, a set of previously reported data is interpreted using both the scale‐dependent dispersivity model and the constant dispersivity model to distinguish the differences in scale dependence of estimated dispersivity from these two models. The analytical result reveals that previously reported dispersivity/distance ratios from the constant dispersivity model should be revised by multiplying these values by a factor of 1·3 for the scale‐dependent dispersion model if the dispersion process is more accurately characterized by scale‐dependent dispersion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.