Model experiments showing simultaneous development of folds and transcurrent faults

Simultaneous development of noncylindrical folds and transcurrent fractures has been studied using model techniques. A plasticine model was compressed in one direction and an initial formation of folds was followed by the initiation of conjugate sets of transcurrent fractures. It was recorded that with progressive deformation the length of each fracture and the displacement along it increase steadily and the rate of displacement varies at different stages of deformation. Individual fold geometries vary along their hinge lines and these geometrical variations appear to be due to interference of folds with the transcurrent fractures. These interference effects also change the amount of rotation of fractures. Fold structures are different on either side of the fault plane. A natural example from the Bude area, England, shows similar geometrical features.The method of determining fault displacement by comparing the positions of fold hinge lines on either side of a fault is discussed in the light of the above results.     

Development of machine vision-based ore classification model using support vector machine (SVM) algorithm

The product of the mining industry (ore) is considered to be the raw material for the metal industry. The destination policy of the raw materials of iron mine is highly dependent on the class of iron ores. Thus, regular monitoring of iron ore class is the urgent need at the mine for accurately assigning the destination policy of raw materials. In most of the iron ore mines, decisions on ore class are made based on either visual inspection by the geologist or laboratory analyses of the ores. This process of ore class estimation is time consuming and also challenging for continuous monitoring. Thus, the present study attempts to develop an online vision-based technology for classification of iron ores. A laboratory-scale transportation system is designed using conveyor belt for online image acquisition. A multiclass support vector machine (SVM) model was developed to classify the iron ores. A total of 2200 images were captured for developing the ore classification model. A set of 18 features (9-histogram-based colour features in red, green and blue (RGB) colour space and 9-texture features based on intensity (I) component of hue, saturation and intensity (HSI) colour space) were extracted from each image. The performance of the SVM model was evaluated using four confusion matrix parameters (sensitivity, accuracy, misclassification and specificity). The SVM model performance was also compared with the other methods like K-nearest neighbour, classification discriminant, Naïve Bayes, classification tree and probabilistic neural network. It was observed that the SVM classification model performs better than the other classification methods.     

Ground electrical and electromagnetic studies in Koyna-Warna region,India

The geochemistry of the mafic xenoliths from Baspa valley of Himachal Pradesh, India has been investigated to characterize their protoliths on the basis of immobile elements, especially trace elements including REE. The mafic xenoliths occur within the Kinnaur Kailash granite (KKG) and their geochemistry show that they have tholeiitic nature with basaltic composition. Compositionally, they range from ‘depleted’ to ‘enriched’ MORB as observed on the binary diagrams of Ti vs V and Zr vs Ti and on ternary diagrams of Zr-Ti-Y and Th-Zr-N. Likewise, they match with various enriched or ‘transitional’ MORB types as evident from their Zr vs Nb binary plot. Their enriched character when compared with N-MORB, E-MORB and OIB rocks on chondrite and primordial mantle normalized plots reveals that it is intermediate to that of E-MORB and OIB. The geochemistry of the rocks suggest that the enriched components are probably derived by melting of a mantle source with E-MORB or OIB rather than due to the crustal contamination. The study carried out emphasize that the mafic xenoliths have developed in rift environment, and that they are not volcanic rocks of island arc related to subduction tectonics. It is visualized that the mafic xenoliths were formed as cumulate rocks from the tholeiitic magmas that were rising to lower crust levels in a rift environment, which at a later stage got entrapped as restitic material in the host Kinnaur Kailash granite formed in a collision environment, and propose a change of regime from rift related to collision environment prior to Palaeozoic period.     

Growth and decay of sonic waves in thermally radiative magnetogasdynamics

The propagation of weak discontinuities headed by a wavefront and their formation into shock waves are investigated in a thermally-radiative ideal plasma. It is found that all compressive waves grow without bound only if the magnitude of initial discontinuity associated with the wave exceeds a critical value. In particular, the grow and decay of weak discontinuities in plane, cylindrical, and spherical geometries have been discussed and the shock formation distance and time in all these cases have been derived in presence of magnetic field and radiation, separately.     

Micromixing modelling of concentration fluctuations in inhomogeneous turbulence in the convective boundary layer

The micromixing technique, widely used in engineering calculations of mixing and chemical reaction, is extended to atmospheric boundary-layer flows. In particular, a model based on the interaction-by-exchange-with-the-conditional-mean (IECM) micromixing approach is formulated to calculate concentration fluctuation statistics for a line source and a point source in inhomogeneous and non-Gaussian turbulence in the convective boundary layer. The mixing time scale is parameterised as a linear function of time with the intercept value determined by the source size at small times. Good agreement with laboratory data for the intensity of concentration fluctuations is obtained with a value of 0.9 for the coefficient of the linear term in the time-scale parameterisation for a line source, and a value of 0.6 for a point source. Calculation of higher-order moments of the concentration field for a line source shows that non-Gaussian effects persist into the vertically well-mixed region. The cumulative distribution function predicted by the model for a point source agrees reasonably well with laboratory data, especially in the far field. In the limit of zero mixing time scale, the model reduces to a meandering plume model, thus enabling the concentration variance to be partitioned into meandering and relative components. The meandering component is shown to be more persistent for a point source than for a line source.     

Supernovae and the Ap phenomenon

We put forward evidence that relates the phenomenon of the chemically peculiar stars of the upper main sequence to Supernovae explosions in young clusters. In the Upper Scorpius region we find that a supernova shell has interacted with dense clouds and that the peculiar stars lie close to or along the edges of interaction. We argue that the stars at or near the cloud faces are capable of acquiring this enriched material which is sufficiently slowed down. The magnetic accretion process of Havnes and Conti provides the mechanism of acquisition. This process with the associated magnetic braking accounts for the build-up in abundance anomalies and the slowing down of rotation with age.     

Laboratory investigation of pullout behavior of hollow and solid shaft helical nail in frictional soil

Acta Geotechnica - Helical soil nails are passive elements installed in the soil which attains its bond strength through skin friction and bearing from helices. The present study examines the...     

Sensitivity Analysis of Coal Rib Stability for Internal Mine Dump in Opencast Mine by Finite Element Modelling

The present paper discusses the impact of the geometrical parameters of the coal rib and the mine dump on the stability of the coal rib. The geometrical parameters such as the slope angle, the height of dragline dump, the height of main dump, the gradient of seam and the thickness of coal rib have been considered as input to the numerical model for the stability analysis of the coal rib. Sensitivity analysis has been performed based on the results of the analysis in term of factor of safety of the coal rib. The input parameters have been classified in terms of significance (i.e. very high significance, high significance medium significance and low significance). The factor of safety is more influenced by highly significant parameters. The height and the slope angle of dragline dump and the thickness of the coal rib are highly significant parameters for the stability of the coal rib. The gradient of the seam is a medium significant parameter whereas, height of main dump and the number of dragline cut dump are low significant parameters for stability of coal rib.     

Coherence Inherent in an Incoherent Synchrotron Radio Source

We show that a partial coherence due to antenna mechanism can be inherently present in any compact synchrotron source, which resolves many long-standing problems in the spectra and variability of compact extragalactic radio sources.