Seismic response estimation method for earthquake‐damaged RC buildings

This study proposes a procedure for identifying spectral response curves for earthquake‐damaged areas in developing countries without seismic records. An earthquake‐damaged reinforced concrete building located in Padang, Indonesia was selected to illustrate the identification of the maximum seismic response during the 2009 West Sumatra earthquake. This paper summarizes the damage incurred by the building; the majority of the damage was observed in the third story in the span direction. The damage was quantitatively evaluated using the damage index R according to the Japanese guidelines for post‐earthquake damage evaluation. The damage index was also applied to the proposed spectral response identification method. The seismic performance of the building was evaluated by a nonlinear static analysis. The analytical results reproduced a drift concentration in the third story. The R‐index decreased with an increase in the story drift, which provided an estimation of the maximum response of the building during the earthquake. The estimation was verified via an earthquake response analysis of the building using ground acceleration data, which were simulated based on acceleration records of engineering bedrock that considered site amplification. The maximum response estimated by the R‐index was consistent with the maximum response obtained from the earthquake response analysis. Therefore, the proposed method enables the construction of spectral response curves by integrating the identification results for the maximum responses in a number of earthquake‐damaged buildings despite a lack of seismic records. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Crude oil bioremediation field experiment in the Sea of Japan

Experimental bioremediation of crude oil was conducted for approximately 3 months in the intertidal zone of the Sea of Japan, Hyogo Prefecture. Artificial mixtures of weathered Arabian light crude oil and sand taken from the experimental site were wrapped in polyester net envelopes. The envelopes were placed in drum-shaped acrylic vessels with perforated sides to facilitate seawater exchange. The vessels were laid in the intertidal area. Slow release nitrogen and phosphorus synthetic fertilizer granules were added to the oil-sand mixtures in three different amounts. Some oil-sand mixtures were unfertilized controls. The oil-sand mixtures were periodically sampled and changes in the composition of the residual oils were monitored. Oil samples were subjected to gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry for analysis of some representative semi-volatile aliphatic and aromatic compounds. All values for each analyte were normalized against that of hopane to evaluate the extent of oil biodegradation. Significant increases in the concentrations of both nitrogen and phosphorus were found in the fertilized sections in accordance with the amounts of added fertilizers. Although significant natural attenuation of oil was observed in the unfertilized sections, fertilization stimulated the degradation rate of the oil in the early stage of the experimental term. The extent of the oil biodegradation increased as the amount of added fertilizer increased. However, the final degradation efficiencies for each oil component in the fertilized sections were not significantly different from those in the unfertilized sections, and the degradation of each oil component had almost ceased after 6 weeks. We conclude that excessive amounts of macronutrients are required to accelerate oil biodegradation and that fertilization is only effective in the early stages.     

Numerical investigation on the orbital evolution of 1:2 resonant asteroids between Jupiter and Saturn

According to some investigations (Lecar and Franklin, 1973; Franklin et al., 1989; Soper et al., 1990) asteroids cannot remain for along time between Jupiter and Saturn. But as it is well known there is a near 5:2 commensurability between Jupiter and Saturn. So there might be a possibility that asteroids between Jupiter and Saturn could be trapped in a resonant relation.In order to investigate this possibility, the changes of orbital elements of an asteroid whose initial value of semi-major axis corresponds to that of a 1:2 resonant orbit were investigated by means of a double precision Cowell method. The integration routine was kindly supplied by Dr Yoshikawa.We considered first a planar restricted problem of three bodies, Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid, then a four body problem, Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid-Saturn. When integrating the equations of motion, short periodic terms were not eliminated and in the second test the interactions between Jupiter and Saturn were retained. Whether a close approach occured or not was not investigated. In every case a _j = 5.20, a _s = 9.54 and a = 8.26 were adopted as initial values of the semi-major axis of Jupiter, Saturn and Asteroid respectively.     

A STATISTICAL STUDY OF THE RESONANCE LINE OF Ca XIX OBSERVED WITH it YOHKOH BRAGG CRYSTAL SPECTROMETER

Using the observational data of a Bragg crystal spectrometer on Yohkoh for the period from October 1991 to the end of 1995, we have made a statistical study of flares which consist of a single loop or are dominated by a single loop in SXT images. A total of 158 flares are sampled. With a temporal resolution of three seconds, we conclude that although the blue asymmetry is very common during the impulsive phase, the number of events with total blue shift is rather small, and only a very small number have a large total blue shift, contrasting with the predictions of some hydrodynamic models. It is also found that the blue shift for most flares appears at the early impulsive phase and is temporally correlated with the broadening of the line. These results demonstrate the necessity for checking whether chromospheric evaporation always occurs in solar flares.     

Temperature structure of active regions deduced from the helium-like sulphur lines

Solar active-region temperatures have been determined from the full-Sun spectra of helium-like sulphur (Sxv) observed by the Bragg Crystal Spectrometer on board theYohkoh satellite. The average temperature deduced from Sxv is demonstrated to vary with the solar activity level: A temperature of 2.5 × 10⁶ K is derived from the spectra taken during low solar activity, similar to the general corona, while 4 × 10⁶ K is obtained during a higher activity phase. For the latter, the high-temperature tail of the differential emission measure of active regions is found most likely due to the superposition of numerous flare-like events (micro/nano-flares).     

Observations of the Dust Cloud in Comet Hale-Bopp on 9–11 May 1997

During our monitoring observations of comet Hale-Bopp, we found several sporadic ejections of dust from the nucleus. The most prominent ejection was observed on May 6–9, 1997, in the post-perihelion phase of the apparition. In this paper, we report preliminary analysis of this event, in which the total mass of the dust cloud is estimated to be 1.6 × 10¹¹ g. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Uniformity of Longitudinal Distribution of Coronal Mass Ejections

It was found that the heliographic longitudinal distribution of the occurrence of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) was not uniform around the solar minimum of cycle 21. This is confirmed by using the ² test for goodness of fit. Sunspot groups and flares show similar non-uniform distributions during the same period. This suggests that there was a longitudinal range where both large-scale and small-scale solar magnetic activities were very low around the solar minimum of cycle 21. The longitudinal range with low activity was more than 150 degrees and continued for approximately four rotations. As solar activity increased, CMEs occurred almost uniformly in heliographic longitude.     

Altitudinal Distribution Of 20 Persistent Meteor Trains: Estimates Derived From Metro Campaign Archives

Observations of persistent meteor trains are limited because of the extreme rarity of the phenomenon. The altitudinal distribution of persistent trains has previously been investigated via limited instances of simultaneous observation from multiple sites, however, a statistical study of persistent trains has yet to be realized. The meteor train observation (METRO) campaign was established in Japan in 1998 to obtain images of persistent trains. From 1998 to 2002, the METRO campaign, involving Japanese amateur collaborators, captured more than 400 image sequences of persistent trains, resulting in 53 simultaneous multi-site observations. Several Japanese observers were involved in imaging persistent trains prior to the METRO campaign, producing 6 simultaneous observations over the period 1988–1997. In this paper, simultaneous multi-site observations of high spatial and temporal resolution are used to determine, via triangulation, the altitudinal distribution of persistent trains for 20 events. The altitudinal range of 2 Orionid trains was slightly higher than that of 18 Leonid trains. The Leonid train data reveal no clear dependence of upper and lower altitude on the brightness of the associated fireball. The upper altitude of the 18 observed Leonid trains were almost invariant with respect to local time (LT) of observation, however, a possible dependence of lower altitude on LT of observation was also found, indicating a near-constant penetrating path-length in the upper atmosphere for each train. The average upper altitude of persistent Leonid trains was 99.8 km, while the average central altitude was 93.0 km. These trends are probably determined by atmospheric conditions such as the abundance of O and O₃.     

Plasma dynamics at the very initial phases of flares

Plasma motions at the initial phases of flares observed in the high resolution soft X-ray spectrometers are summarized. Blue-shifted components of highly ionized metal ions suggest a senario of chromospheric evaporation. A large line width before and during hard X-ray bursts results from a superposition of multiple directed plasma motions or a turbulent motion directly connected to the magnetic reconnection. A further study with an increased sensitivity of the detector should be necessary in the next solar activity maximum.     

Polarization measurements using the Bragg crystal spectrometers on Hinotori

The two Bragg crystal spectrometers on board Hinotori provide a new technique for measuring linear polarization of the soft X-ray line emission from solar flares. The results of the measurements of large (X class) flares are given in this paper, and the polarization degree averaged over the soft X-ray maximum phases is estimated to be less than 4%.