Earthquake early warning for Portugal: part 1 - Where does it matter?

Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - In the last five centuries, Portugal was affected by several earthquakes of strong magnitude (M > 7) that caused widespread destruction and a...     

Water Curtain System Pre-design for Crude Oil Storage URCs: A Numerical Modeling and Genetic Programming Approach

In this paper the main criteria of the water curtain system for unlined rock caverns (URCs) is described. By the application of numerical modeling and genetic programming (GP), a method for water curtain system pre-design for Iranian crude oil storage URCs (common dimension worldwide) is presented. A comprehensive set of numerical simulations is performed using the finite element based commercial software (COMSOL 5.1) where the results are used as database for genetic programming. Describing equations of water inflow to the filled and empty caverns and water production rate of water curtain boreholes are generated using GP. By equating the proposed equations to each other, water curtain system can be pre-designed. Relative error of the generated GP equations shows their ability and accuracy. Applying a standard regression coefficient method, sensitivity analysis of parameters related to water curtain performance and water inflow to the caverns is performed as well. The results help the design of the water curtain system for crude oil storage caverns worldwide.     

Optimum placement and characteristics of velocity-dependent dampers under seismic excitation

In this study,through novel drift-based equations of motion in the frequency domain,optimum placement and characteristics of linear velocity-dependent dampers are investigated.In this study,the sum of the square of the absolute values of transfer matrix elements for interstory drifts is considered as the optimization index.Optimum placement and characteristics of dampers are simultaneously obtained by minimizing the optimization index through an incremental procedure.In each step of the procedure,a predefined value is considered as the damper characteristic.The optimum story for this increment is selected such that it leads to a minimum value for the optimization index.The procedure is repeated for the next increments until the optimization index meets its target value,which is obtained according to the desired damping ratio for the overall structure.In other words,the desired overall damping ratio is the input to the proposed procedure,and the optimal placement and characteristics of the dampers are its output.It is observed that the optimal placement of a velocitydependent damper depends on the damping coefficient of the added damper,frequency of the excitation,and distribution of the mass,stiffness,and inherent damping of the main structure.     

Propagation of seismic waves through liquefied soils

To predict the earthquake response of saturated porous media it is essential to correctly simulate the generation, redistribution, and dissipation of excess pore water pressure during and after earthquake shaking. To this end, a reliable numerical tool requires a dynamic, fully coupled formulation for solid–fluid interaction and a versatile constitutive model. Presented in this paper is a 3D finite element framework that has been developed and utilized for this purpose. The framework employs fully coupled dynamic field equations with a u–p–U formulation for simulation of pore fluid and solid skeleton interaction and a SANISAND constitutive model for response of solid skeleton. After a detailed verification and validation of the formulation and implementation of the developed numerical tool, it is employed in the seismic response of saturated porous media. The study includes examination of the mechanism of propagation of the earthquake-induced shear waves and liquefaction phenomenon in uniform and layered profiles of saturated sand deposits.     

Scour countermeasures for cylindrical piers using riprap and combination of collar and riprap

Various methods are proposed to control scouring around bridge piers. In the present study application of riprap alone and combinations of riprap and collar were examined experimentally for scour control around cylindrical bridge piers. Tests were conducted with seven riprap sizes and with two different sizes of collars. Empirical equations were developed for stable riprap diameter for two cases of piers with and without collar protection. Extent of riprap layer is also presented for these two cases. The results showed that in the range of b/dR≤7.5 (where b is pier diameter and dR is riprap size) using a collar reduced the stable riprap size. It was also concluded that using collar reduced the riprap layer extension in front and sides of the pier.     

Seismic isolation effect of lined circular tunnels with damping treatments

The Havriliak-Negami model for dynamic viscoelastic material behavior and Biot＇s theory of poroelasticity are employed to develop an exact solution for three-dimensional scattering effect of harmonic plane P-SV waves from a circular cavity lined with a multilayered fluid-filled shell of infinite length containing viscoelastic damping materials and embedded within a fluid-saturated permeable surrounding soil medium. The analytical results are illustrated with numerical examples where the effects of liner/coating structural arrangement, viscoelastic material properties, liner-soil interface bonding condition, seismic excitation frequency, and angle of incidence on the induced dynamic stress concentrations are evaluated and discussed to obtain representative values of the parameters that characterize the system. It is demonstrated that incorporating viscoelastic damping materials with a low shear modulus in the constrained layer configuration is an efficient means of enhancing the overall seismic isolation performance, especially for near-normally incident seismic shear waves where the amplitudes of induced dynamic stresses may be reduced by up to one-third of those without isolation in a relatively wide frequency range. Some additional cases are considered and good agreements with solutions available in the literature are obtained.     

Analytical study on accelerating falling of non-spherical particle in viscous fluid

Unsteady motion of a vertically falling non-spherical particle has attracted considerable attention due to its frequent applications in nature and industry.A series of semi-analytical methods have been used to raise the results＇ accuracy as well as widening the region of convergence.The current study pursued a new analytical solution for the unsteady motion of a rigid non-spherical particle in a quiescent Newtonian fluid,based on the Optimal Homotopy Analysis Method.With a view towards obtaining the highest level of accuracy and ensuring the convergence of the analytical results,the averaged residual errors were obtained and minimized.In addition to flexibility,it was also proven that the proposed method can lead to completely reliable and precisely accurate results.Based on the series solution,the effects of physical parameters on the terminal settling velocity（i.e.the greatest velocity that a falling body may reach）and the acceleration time（i.e.the time that a particle reaches the settling velocity） are investigated.     

Assessment of hydro power potential of Swat,Kohistan Himalayas: A solution for energy shortfall in region

Pakistan is facing acute power dearth these days due to which people are suffering from privation and their economic condition is deflating. Expensive imported fossil fuel for thermal power generation is pressing them hard and exacerbating the situation. The total power produced in the country by all means is less by 4000 MW than the requirement of Pakistan. So this is the prime time to think about exploring aboriginal and renewable power resources. This article converses about hydro power resources of Swat, North Pakistan, one of the most promising areas in hydro power production. The area drained by the Swat River and its tributary net work is a part of Kohistan Himalayas and has a potential of more than 1000 MW that can contribute 25% to the total energy shortfall in the country and the same is 150% more than the shortfall experienced in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that hosts Swat Valley. Due to great relief difference acquired within a small stretch, the perennial Swat River and its tributaries become pertinent for power production as high head projects and also gain importance in irrigation as well.     

A Genetic Algorithm for Stochastic Inversion in Contaminant Subsurface Hydrology

Identifying the spatial distribution of hydrological properties of aquifers is a key problem in subsurface hydrology. The aquifer structure plays an important role in contaminant transport. Identifying the properties (primarily the hydraulic conductivity) is essentially an inversion problem that is ill-posed, non-unique and computationally intensive by definition. In this work, the non-uniqueness of the inverse problem is tackled via a novel Genetic Algorithm approach combined with a geostatistical method (Sequential Indicator Simulations) for construction of realizations of properties spatial distributions, which are modeled as random. The Genetic Algorithm cross-over operator is based on a novel concept of pilot-planes: daughter realizations adopt pilot-planes from one of their parents. In addition, each aquifer realization is conditioned on the geological hard data and is constructed by sampling the facies distribution, evaluated by indicator variograms. The approach is illustrated in two test cases: a synthetic two-dimensional (2D) case and an actual three-dimensional (3D) case. The results have shown the ability of the proposed approach to generate a set of realizations, where each individual exhibits minor deviations from the measurements. Further, a comparison between the proposed approach and direct (Monte Carlo) approach shows that the Genetic Algorithm was able to generate an ensemble of solutions with a better fitting of the measurements than the direct approach by a significantly reduced computational effort.     

Towards realistic minimum-cost optimization of viscous fluid dampers for seismic retrofitting

This paper presents an effective approach for achieving minimum cost designs for seismic retrofitting using viscous fluid dampers. A new and realistic retrofitting cost function is formulated and minimized subject to constraints on inter-story drifts at the peripheries of frame structures. The components of the new cost function are related to both the topology and to the sizes of the dampers. This constitutes an important step forward towards a realistic definition of the optimal retrofitting problem. The optimization problem is first posed and solved as a mixed-integer problem. To improve the efficiency of the solution scheme, the problem is then re-formulated and solved by nonlinear programming using only continuous variables. Material interpolation techniques, that have been successfully applied in topology optimization and in multi-material optimization, play a key role in achieving practical final design solutions with a reasonable computational effort. Promising results attained for 3-D irregular frames are presented and compared with those achieved using genetic algorithms.