Unsupported advance length in tunnels constructed using New Austrian Tunnelling Method and ground surface settlement

Tunnels constructed using New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) are always based on certain round (unsupported) advance lengths, after which, the temporary lining is placed. The settlement of the ground surface resulting from such construction is of high significance in design and practice. The existing data in this respect, however, is scarce. It is the aim of this paper to propose a semi‐analytical procedure based on three‐dimensional finite element analyses to predict the maximum surface settlement of the ground in NATM tunnels under different combinations of tunnel diameter, overburden depth, round length and soil and lining properties. The comparison of the results with three case histories of real tunnels reveals reasonable accuracy of the present solution. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of the performance of power law and probability distributions in the frequency analysis of flood in Dez Basin,Iran

Determination of the return period of design flood depends on the nature of the project and the consequences of the flood and is based on economic criteria, human casualties, and hydrological factors. Underestimation of flood might result in casualties and economic damages, while the overestimation leads to capital waste. Therefore, in this research, the flood frequency analysis of Dez Basin, Iran was conducted within the period of 1956–2012 using power law approach together with ordinary distributions, including normal, log normal, Pearson type III, exponential, gamma, generalized extreme value, Nakagami, Rayleigh, logistic, generalized logistic, generalized Pareto, and Weibull distributions. The power law comes from the fractal nature of earth science phenomena such as precipitation and runoff. Accordingly, in this research the partial duration flood series of five hydrometric stations in Dez Basin were extracted using power law with the intervals of 7, 14, 30, and 60 days and then compared with the annual maxima. The results indicated that the annual maxima were not suitable for frequency analysis of the flood in Dez Basin, and the 30-day partial duration series obtained from the power law has a better correspondence with the flow and properties of the Dez Basin. The independence and stationarity of the 30-day partial duration series were examined by Wald–Wolfowitz test, confirming the independence of the considered series. Next, the power distribution and the typical statistical distributions were fitted onto the data of the flood in Dez Basin, with the performance of each distribution being investigated using normalized root-mean-square error and Nash–Sutcliffe criteria. The results revealed that in the SDZ and TPB stations, power distribution had a better performance than other considered distributions. Moreover, in the SDS, TPS, and TZ stations the power distribution stood in the second rank in terms of the best distribution. As the performance of power distribution in the estimation of the flood in Dez Basin has been very satisfactory and calculation of its parameters and its application is easier than ordinary probability distributions, thus it can be suggested as the superior distribution for flood frequency analysis in Dez Basin.     

Investigating the relationship between wind erosion and value of animal habitats in desert areas

Animal species in desert habitats are taken into consideration because of their uniqueness and inherent value. However the added pressures from climate and human have made living conditions difficult and acute for them. Wind erosion is one of the common phenomena in desert areas; this phenomenon can affect biotic value of those areas. Climatic constraints along with human development in such areas result in enhancing the effect of wind erosion, and as a result, affect the value of animal habitats. Therefore, by estimating the rate of wind erosion in such areas, the capability of environment for providing appropriate conditions for animal species’ subsistence can also be estimated. The objective of this research is to find the relation between the rate of wind erosion and value of animal habitat in Sarakhs as a representative of Razavi Khorasan Province. This research has been carried out in four steps: a) Approximate identification of each animal habitat in the area. b) Estimating the wind erosion based on IRIFR model. c) Estimating the approximate value of each of the animal habitats in the area. d) Determining the correlation between the value of each animal habitat with the average rate of wind erosion in that habitat. Investigating the relation between the average rate of wind erosion and the value of animal habitats which indicates that there is a significant correlation between them, that is to say, effective factors in increasing the rate of wind erosion have affected the quality of animal habitats, and proportional to their intensity, decreased the value of habitat.     

The daily travel of villagers to the city in a case study of Northern Iran

Rural urban migration can often result in decreased agricultural output in countries with scarce land resources. It also can hasten the socio-economic problems associated with the overcrowded cities of the developing world. As only 10% of Iran is arable it is particularly vulnerable to threats to food security and self-sufficiency. This paper examines the daily flow of villagers to a major city near the vital staple crop producing rural district of Lakan, where out-migration is already occurring. Although most discussions of daily travel to cities is typically relegated to commuting, this paper aims to analyze travel for the purpose of access to a variety of facilities and services that villages in the rural district of Lakan lack including secondary schools, post offices, banks, and even telephones and newspaper stands. The paper emphasizes that daily journeys make permanent moves to the city more likely because of the major inconvenience that results from the scarcity of basic facilities within Lakan villages. Travel to a distant city for staple foods at grocery stores or for access to secondary schools, for example, could intensify future out-migration because the heavy inconvenience of constant travel might eventually outweigh the benefits of maintaining residency in villages. The paper utilizes information about daily travel to Rasht to recommend various government construction projects and initiatives to improve the quality of life for villagers and avert future rural–urban migration and the reduction in staple crop production that might result.     

Flood occurrence hazard forecasting based on geographical information system

The application of Geographical Information system (GIS) in modeling flood and its prediction in catchments offers considerable potential. Several examples illustrate simple GIS techniques to produce flood hazard indices or its zonation using hydrologic-type models. Existing flood models can also be loosely coupled to a GIS, such as the HMS (Hydrological Modeling System) model. Forethermore, models can be fully integrated into a GIS by embedded coupling, such as the SCS (Soil Conservation Service) model. Installation of flood forecasting systems in watersheds with incomplete hydrometric data may reduce the flood-induced damages. In this study Geographical Information system used to up to date the watershed data and estimation of SCS model parameters which is sensible to considered the real time flood forecasting in Kasilian catchment of Mazandaran province. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of the linkage between GIS with a comprehensive hydrologic model, especially HMS. The use of GIS could produce a suitable agreement between observed results (extracted rainfall and runoff data of 1992, 1995 and 1996 from the related stations) with the calculated results of the hydrological model. The obtained results from rainfall-runoff process simulations of the model in this research showed that submergibility of the main watershed, Kasillian, does not depend on the outlet discharge rate of each one of its watershed independently. But it is related to how those two outlet hydrographs from main river watershed are combined. The model is capable of showing the flood characteristics temporally and spatially in each cross section of the channel network.     

Failure Process after Peak Strength of Artificial Joints by Fractal Dimension

Because lack of information when the joints exhibit strain softening behavior, the transition from peak to residual values is assumed to decrease either linearly or exponentially. Also, displacement of slide side after peak is much larger than the peak displacement and the stress approaches the residual state, thus studying failure process after peak strength is very important. In this research, three types of artificial joints with tooth-shaped asperity under repeated direct-shear were tested. Continuously movement of slide side after peak strength was monitored during shearing test. Reduction of shear parameters was examined according to two failure criteria (Barton and Patton). JRC value (Joint Roughness Coefficient) for a given profile was estimated by fractal dimension. One of the results of this study is that Barton’s criterion predicts a good estimation of residual strength and the second result is when the amount of fractal dimension of a joint surface increases, the JRC amount also increases, and with having value of h (height average) and l (base average) of a tooth-shaped asperity can determine the JRC of joint surface. M. Askari is a M.Sc Student of Engineering Faculty, Mining Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran.     

Floor response spectra for base-isolated multi-storey structures

A study of floor response spectra for a base-isolated multi-storey structure under sinusoidal and seismic ground excitations is carried out. Several base isolation systems including the laminated rubber bearing, the pure-friction, the resilient-friction, the Électricité de France and the sliding resilient-friction systems are considered. A sinusoidal ground acceleration and several earthquake accelerograms (including those of El Centro 1940, Pacoima Dam 1971 and Mexico City 1985) are used to evaluate the floor response spectra. The characteristics of the spectra generated by different base isolation systems are studied, and the results are compared with those for the fixed-base structure. It is shown that the structural contents can be protected against earthquakes by the use of properly designed base isolation systems. In particular, the laminated rubber bearing system appears to be remarkably effective in protecting the secondary systems under a variety of conditions.     

Improved Minimum Miscibility Pressure Prediction for Gas Injection Process in Petroleum Reservoir

Determination of gas–oil minimum miscibility conditions is one of the important design parameters to improve the displacement efficiency of the hydrocarbon reservoir during enhanced oil recovery with gas injection. In this work, a support vector regression (SVR) model is developed using experimental data to estimate the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) for various reservoir fluids and injection gases. Experimental MMP data taken from the reliable literature were used as input. Each data point input includes methane and intermediate components mole percent, plus fraction properties and reservoir temperature related to reservoir fluid and CO₂, H₂S, N₂ and intermediate mole fractions, and intermediate properties of the injected gas. Experimental MMP is regarded as the model output. The database contains 135 datasets, from which 125 datasets were used for model development, and the rest were used for model evaluation. Genetic algorithm was implemented to optimize the SVR model parameters. The proposed data-driven model was verified by statistical validation data. The model results illustrate a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.999. In addition, the SVR results demonstrate the proposed model to be a fast tool and a robust approach to map input space to output features. The SVR model was compared to popular data-driven MMP estimation models as well. This comparison presents an acceptable accuracy relative to this estimation model. Finally, the presented model was evaluated against a comprehensive theoretical model of slim tube compositional simulation on a trusted literature dataset.     

Unified bounding surface model for monotonic and cyclic behaviour of clay and sand

Acta Geotechnica - This paper presents a constitutive model enabled to simulate monotonic and cyclic behaviour of clay and sand in a unified framework. The bounding surface concept has been...