On multicomponent gas diffusion and coupling concepts for porous media and free flow: a benchmark study

Computational Geosciences - Multicomponent gas transport in porous media and at the interface between porous media and free flow occurs in a wide range of technical and environmental systems....     

Hindcasting community-level building damage for the 2011 Joplin EF5 tornado

Resiliency of communities prone to natural hazards can be enhanced through the use of risk-informed decision-making tools. These tools can provide community decision makers key information, thereby providing them the ability to consider an array of mitigation and/or recovery strategies. The Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, headquartered at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, developed an Interdependent Networked Community Resilience (IN-CORE) computational environment. The purpose of developing this computational environment is to build a decision-support system, for professional risk planners and emergency responders, but even more focused on allowing researchers to explore community resilience science. The eventual goal was being to integrate a broad range of scientific, engineering and observational data to produce a detailed assessment of the potential impact of natural and man-made hazards for risk mitigation, planning and recovery purposes. The developing computational environment will be capable of simulating the effects from different natural hazards on the physical and socioeconomic sectors of a community, accounting for interdependencies between the sectors. However, in order to validate this computational tool, hindcasting of a real event was deemed necessary. Therefore, in this study, the community of Joplin, Missouri in the USA, which was hit by an EF-5 tornado on May 22, 2011, is modeled in the IN-CORE v1.0 computational environment. An explanation of the algorithm used within IN-CORE is also provided. This tornado was the costliest and deadliest single tornado in the USA in the last half century. Using IN-CORE, by uploading a detailed topological dataset of the community and the estimated tornado path combined with recently developed physics-based tornado fragilities, the damage caused by the tornado to all buildings in the city of Joplin was estimated. The results were compared with the damage reported from field studies following the event. This damage assessment was done using three hypothetical idealized tornado scenarios, and results show very good correlation with observed damage which will provide useful information to decision makers for community resilience planning.     

Self-expanded piles: A new approach to unconventional piles development

Abstract

In onshore and offshore fields of ocean engineering, piles are used as foundation systems for various structures. Piles are classified into different types depending on their materials, geometries, and particularly, installation methods, which have advantages or limitations. Companies and engineers have developed a new group of piles, because of necessity to improve their performance in terms of increasing the bearing capacity, reducing impacts of traditional installation procedures, implementing by low- torque power equipment, and utilizing them in widely different ground conditions, including in a marine environment. In the present study, three different models of a new pile with an expander body are introduced to increase the shaft and pile-toe diameters and its self-expansion in the embedment depth under the titles of the Bubble pile (BP), Self-Expanded pile (SEP) and Wing pile (WP). The main subject of this research is to achieve increased bearing capacity, reduced installation effects, and decreased required installation torque. The frustum-confining vessel of Amirkabir University of Technology (FCV-AUT) was employed for this purpose. Up to 14 axial compressive and tensile load tests were carried out on different model piles on sand collected from Anzali shore located on the northern coast of Caspian Sea in Iran, with relative densities of 45% to 50% within FCV-AUT. Comparing the performance of introduced pile with traditional pile corresponding to the same characteristics, the results indicated a significant increase in the axial bearing capacity and reduced disturbance effect of the pile. Also, a lower installation torque of the SE pile was required compared to the helical pile. The test results also demonstrated that the new pile could resist considerable compressive and uplift loads, and could be a possible alternative to traditional piles in the onshore sector.     

Rotation–translation mechanisms for upper-bound solution of bearing capacity problems

To obtain rigorous upper-bound solutions for the bearing capacity of strip footings subjected to combined loadings, a new collapse mechanism consisting of three rigid blocks undergoing impending rotational or translational movements is proposed. The proposed mechanism improves the efficiency of the previously-developed rigid block mechanisms to account for eccentric loading condition in restricted bearing capacity problems. The comparisons show a good agreement between the results obtained using the present method and those of the known solutions. The effectiveness of the proposed mechanism was examined through investigating the bearing capacity of eccentrically loaded strip footings over thin layer foundation soils.     

Design of Initial Shotcrete Lining for a Mine Shaft Using Two-Dimensional Finite Element Models Considering Excavation Advance Rate

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - Shotcrete is widely used as a temporary support element in the construction of underground mine excavations, tunnels, and shafts. It is sprayed on the...     

Evaluation of the rockburst potential in longwall coal mining using passive seismic velocity tomography and image subtraction technique

Rockburst is a typical dynamic disaster in underground coal mines which its occurrences relate to the mechanical quality of coal seam and surrounding rock mass and also the condition of stress distribution. The main aim of this paper is to study the potential of rockburst in a longwall coal mine by using of passive seismic velocity tomography and image subtraction technique. For this purpose, first by mounting an array of receivers on the surface above the active panel, the mining-induced seismic data as a passive source for several continuous days were recorded. Then, the three-dimensional tomograms using simultaneous iteration reconstruction technique (SIRT) for each day are created and by employing the velocity filtering, the overstressed zones are detected. In addition, the two-dimensional seismic velocity tomograms in coal seam level by slicing the three-dimensional tomograms are obtained. Then the state of stress changes in successive days by applying the image subtraction technique on these two-dimensional tomograms is considered. The results show that the compilation of filtered three-dimensional tomograms and subtracted images is an appropriate approach for detecting the overstressed zones around the panel and subsequent evaluation of rockburst potential. The research conclusion proves that the applied approach in this study in combination with field observations of rock mass status can effectively identify the rockburst-prone areas during the mining operation and help to improve the safety condition.     

Algal Cultivation for Treating Wastewater in African Developing Countries: A Review

The tremendous increase in human population and rapid decline in freshwater resources have necessitated the development of innovative and sustainable wastewater treatment methods. Africa as a developing continent is currently backing on sustainable solutions to tackle impending water resource crisis brought forward by wastewater‐induced environmental pollution and climate change. Microalgae‐based wastewater treatment systems represent an emerging technology that is capable of meeting the new demand for improved wastewater treatment and climate change mitigation strategies in an environmentally friendly manner. This review critically looks at the opportunities of Africa in harnessing and exploiting the potential of microalgae for the treatment of various wastewaters based on their capacity to recycle nutrients and for concurrent production of valuable biomass and several useful metabolites. Wastewaters, if improperly/completely untreated and discharged, simultaneously pollute freshwater sources and present significant health and environmental risks. Nutrients in wastewater can be utilized and recovered in the form of marketable biomass and products when integrated with the cultivation of microalgae. Several valuable bioproducts can be generated from wastewater‐grown microalgal biomass including biofuels, biofertilizers, animal feed, and various bioactive compounds. This biorefinery approach would most certainly improve wastewater treatment process economics, enhancing the technical feasibility of algae‐based wastewater remediation in African countries.