Reduction of local scour around bridge pier groups using collars

In this paper reduction of scour around group of two and three piers using circular collar has been carried out for the case of clear-water flow over uniform sediment. The efficiency of collars, with different sizes and spaces between piers is studied through experiments in group of two and three piers. The result reveals that collar has more influence in reduction of scour depth in rear piers than the first pier. Also, when the spacing between the piers increases the area without protection between the piers is washed away resulting deeper scour holes at the rear piers.     

Cretaceous subduction-related volcanism in the northern Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone, Iran

Cretaceous volcanic rocks (SCV) are widely developed in the northern part of the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone, northwest Iran. Based on the mineralogy, texture and geochemical composition these rocks are divided in two main groups, the first and main one situated in the central part of the study area and the second one in the northeast. The former is dominantly basalts, andesitic basalts, and andesites and the latter comprises andesite, trachy-andesite to acidic variants, with porphyritic to microlithic porphyry and vitrophyric textures. Beside the differences between these two groups, the chemical compositions all of these rocks show a calc-alkaline affinity and enrichment in LIL elements (Rb, Ba, Th, U, and Pb) and depletion in Nb, Ti, and Zr, as evident in spider diagrams normalized to primitive mantle. The rocks are particularly enriched in Rb and depleted in Nb and Ti, as well as displaying high Rb/Sr and Rb/Ba ratios and low ratios of incompatible elements such as Nb/U (<10; range, 0.6–9), Th/U (<2), and Ba/Rb (<20). The significant U enrichment relative to neighbouring Nb and Th in the mantle-normalized variation diagram is mainly a result of source enrichment by slab-derived fluids. Significantly lower Nb/U ratios are observed in arc volcanics. These low values are generally ascribed to the strong capacity of LILE and the inability to transfer significant amounts of HFSE via slab-derived hydrous fluid. The results of geochemical modelling suggest a mantle lithospheric source that was metasomatized by fluids derived from a Neo-Tethyan subducted slab during the Middle to Late Cretaceous in the northern part Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone.     

Euler-Euler two-phase flow simulation of tunnel erosion beneath marine pipelines

In this study an Euler-Euler two-phase model was developed to investigate the tunnel erosion beneath a submarine pipeline exposed to unidirectional flow. Both of the fluid and sediment phases were described via the Navier-Stokes equations, i.e. the model was implemented using time-averaged continuity and momentum equations for the fluid and sediment phases and a modified k−ε turbulence closure for the fluid phase. The fluid and sediment phases were coupled by considering the drag and lift interaction forces. The model was employed to simulate the tunnel erosion around the pipeline laid on an erodible bed. Comparison between the numerical result and experimental measurement confirms that the numerical model successfully predicts the bed profile and velocity field during the tunnel erosion. It is evident that the sediments are transported as the sheet-flow mode in the tunnel erosion stage. Also the transport rate under the pipe increases rapidly at the early stage and then reduces gradually at the end of the tunnel erosion beneath pipelines.     

Flood susceptibility mapping using frequency ratio and weights-of-evidence models in the Golastan Province,Iran

Flood is one of the most devastating natural disasters with socio-economic and environmental consequences. Thus, comprehensive flood management is essential to reduce the flood effects on human lives and livelihoods. The main goal of this study was to investigate the application of the frequency ratio (FR) and weights-of-evidence (WofE) models for flood susceptibility mapping in the Golestan Province, Iran. At first, a flood inventory map was prepared using Iranian Water Resources Department and extensive field surveys. In total, 144 flood locations were identified in the study area. Of these, 101 (70%) floods were randomly selected as training data and the remaining 43 (30%) cases were used for the validation purposes. In the next step, flood conditioning factors such as lithology, land-use, distance from rivers, soil texture, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI) and altitude were prepared from the spatial database. Subsequently, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn for produced flood susceptibility maps and the area under the curves (AUCs) was computed. The final results indicated that the FR (AUC = 76.47%) and WofE (AUC = 74.74%) models have almost similar and reasonable results. Therefore, these flood susceptibility maps can be useful for researchers and planner in flood mitigation strategies.     

Monthly reservoir inflow forecasting using a new hybrid SARIMA genetic programming approach

Forecasting reservoir inflow is one of the most important components of water resources and hydroelectric systems operation management. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models have been frequently used for predicting river flow. SARIMA models are linear and do not consider the random component of statistical data. To overcome this shortcoming, monthly inflow is predicted in this study based on a combination of seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) and gene expression programming (GEP) models, which is a new hybrid method (SARIMA–GEP). To this end, a four-step process is employed. First, the monthly inflow datasets are pre-processed. Second, the datasets are modelled linearly with SARIMA and in the third stage, the non-linearity of residual series caused by linear modelling is evaluated. After confirming the non-linearity, the residuals are modelled in the fourth step using a gene expression programming (GEP) method. The proposed hybrid model is employed to predict the monthly inflow to the Jamishan Dam in west Iran. Thirty years’ worth of site measurements of monthly reservoir dam inflow with extreme seasonal variations are used. The results of this hybrid model (SARIMA–GEP) are compared with SARIMA, GEP, artificial neural network (ANN) and SARIMA–ANN models. The results indicate that the SARIMA–GEP model (R ²=78.8, VAF =78.8, RMSE =0.89, MAPE =43.4, CRM =0.053) outperforms SARIMA and GEP and SARIMA–ANN (R ²=68.3, VAF =66.4, RMSE =1.12, MAPE =56.6, CRM =0.032) displays better performance than the SARIMA and ANN models. A comparison of the two hybrid models indicates the superiority of SARIMA–GEP over the SARIMA–ANN model.     

Trends in monthly precipitation over the northwest of Iran (NWI)

Increasing global temperatures during the last century have had their own effects on other climatic conditions, particularly on precipitation characteristics. This study was meant to investigate the spatial and temporal monthly trends of precipitation using the least square error (LSE) approach for the northwest of Iran (NWI). To this end, a database was obtained from 250 measuring stations uniformly scattered all over NWI from 1961 to 2010. The spatial average of annual precipitation in NWI during the period of study was approximately 220.9–726.7 mm. The annual precipitation decreased from southwest to northeast, while the large amount of precipitation was concentrated in the south-west and in the mountainous areas. All over NWI, the maximum and minimum precipitation records occurred from March to May and July to September, respectively. The coefficient of variation (CV) is greater than 44 % in all of NWI and may reach over 76 % in many places. The greatest range of CV, for instance, occurred during July. The spatial variability of precipitation was consistent with a tempo-spatial pattern of precipitation trends. There was a considerable difference between the amounts of change during the months, and the negative trends were mainly attributed to areas concentrated in eastern and southern parts of NWI far from the western mountain ranges. Moreover, limited areas with positive precipitation trends can be found in very small and isolated regions. This is observable particularly in the eastern half of NWI, which is mostly located far from Westerlies. On the other hand, seasonal precipitation trends indicated a slight decrease during winter and spring and a slight increase during summer and autumn. Consequently, there were major changes in average precipitation that occurred negatively in the area under study during the observation period. This finding is in agreement with those findings by recent studies which revealed a decreasing trend of around 2 mm/year over NWI during 1966–2005.

     

Biostratigraphy,Microfacies, Sedimentary Environments and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Late Devonian–Carboniferous Deposits at the Anarak Section,Central Iran

The Late Devonian–early Carboniferous deposits of the Anarak section in northeastern Isfahan, Central Iran, evaluated based on conodont biostratigraphy, sedimentary environment and sequence stratigraphy. According to the field observations, five lithological units were identified. Investigating the conodont fauna of the Late Devonian–Carboniferous(Mississippian–Pennsylvanian) deposits of Bahram, Shishtu, and Qaleh(Sardar 1) formations in Anarak section led to the identification of 67 species of ...     

Lithospheric structure of the Tornquist Zone resolved by nonlinear P and S teleseismic tomography along the TOR array

The main aim of the TOR project is to study the lithospheric–asthenospheric boundary structure under the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, across northern Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden. Relative arrival-time residuals of teleseismic P and S phases from 51 earthquakes, recorded by 150 seismic stations along the TOR array, were used to delineate the transition zone in the studied area. The effects of crustal structures were investigated by correcting the teleseismic residuals for travel-time variations in the crust based on a 3D crustal model derived from other data. The inversion was carried out for S phases. The results were then compared with the corresponding P-wave models. As expected, the derived models show that the relatively old and cold Baltic Shield has higher velocity at depth than the younger lithosphere farther South. The models show two sharp and distinct increases in depth to velocities which are low compared to our reference model, as we move from South to North. The location and sharpness of these boundaries suggests that the features resolved are, at least partially, compositional in origin, presumably related to mantle depletion. A sharp and steep subcrustal boundary is found roughly coincident with the southern edge of Sweden. This is below where the edge of the Baltic Shield is usually placed, based on surface geological evidence (the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone). Another less significant transition is recognised more or less beneath the Elbe-lineament. Relatively high d(V_p / V_s) ratios under the central part of the profile (Denmark) indicate relatively low S-velocity in an area where a gravity high supports the hypothesis of extensive mafic intrusions.     

Validation and calibration of solar radiation equations for estimating daily reference evapotranspiration at cool semi-arid and arid locations

ABSTRACT

In this work, the applicability of 12 solar radiation (R_S) estimation models and their impacts on daily reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) estimates using the Penman‐Monteith FAO-56 (PMF-56) method were tested under cool arid and semi-arid conditions in Iran. The results indicated that the average increase in accuracy of the ET_o estimates by the calibrated R_S models, quantified by the decrease in RMSE, was 2.8% and 6.4% for semi-arid and arid climates, respectively. Mean daily deviations in the estimated ET_o by the calibrated R_S equations in semi-arid climates varied from ?0.283?mm/d^-1 for the Glover‐McCulloch model to 0.080?mm/d for the El-Sebaii model, with an average of ?0.109?mm/d^-1, and in arid climates, they ranged from ?0.522?mm/d^-1 for the Samani model to 0.668?mm/d for the El-Sebaii model, with an average of 0.125?mm/d^-1.

Editor D. Koutsyiannis; Associate editor Not assigned     

Hybrid-Empirical Ground Motion Estimations for Georgia

Ground motion prediction equations are essential for several purposes ranging from seismic design and analysis to probabilistic seismic hazard assessment. In seismically active regions without sufficiently strong ground motion data to build empirical models, hybrid models become vital. Georgia does not have sufficiently strong ground motion data to build empirical models. In this study, we have applied the host-totarget method in two regions in Georgia with different source mechanisms. According to the tectonic regime of the target areas, two different regions are chosen as host regions. One of them is in Turkey with the dominant strike-slip source mechanism, while the other is in Iran with the prevalence of reverse-mechanism events. We performed stochastic finite-fault simulations in both host and target areas and employed the hybrid-empirical method as introduced in Campbell (2003). An initial set of hybrid empirical ground motion estimates is obtained for PGA and SA at selected periods for Georgia.