On the spatial structure of currents across the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal

The Chesapeake and Delaware (C&;D) Canal is a man-made waterway connecting two of the largest estuaries on the east coast of the United States: Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. A set of current meter data collected during April–May 1975 along two cross-sections of the C&;D Canal was used to examine the spatial distributions of the currents at tidal and subtidal time scales. The different responses of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays to tidal and wind forcing produce significant differences in sea level fluctuations between the two ends of the canal. These alongcanal surface slopes produce significant barotropic current fluctuations at both tidal (semidiurnal and diurnal) and subtidal (2-d to 3-d) time scales. Under the influence of bottom friction, the barotropic currents near the surface are stronger than those at depth, but these currents do not exhibit significant lateral variations across the canal. On the other hand, the long-term flow in the canal exhibits strong lateral variability with eastward flow off the south shore of the canal and westward flow off the north shore of the canal. The lateral structure of the long-term flow may carry significant implications for the long-term exchange of material between the two bays.     

Progress and new directions in high temperature calorimetry revisited

 High temperature reaction calorimetry has seen considerable advances over the past twenty years. New and more sensitive calorimeters, improved sample handling techniques, and better control of the final dissolved state has made solution calorimetry and drop solution calorimetry, using molten lead borate and other solvents, very versatile and reliable techniques. This paper summarizes these advances and presents examples of specific applications to problems of transition metal oxide chemistry, high pressure geophysics, melt and glass energetics, and metastable materials relevant to the earth sciences. Received June 3, 1996 / Revised, accepted Spetember 23, 1996     

Transition enthalpies and entropies of high pressure zinc metasilicates and zinc metagermanates

The enthalpies of transition at T= 298 K between zinc metasilicate assemblages, measured by molten oxide solution calorimetry, are:

The hail sensor intercomparison experiment

Abstract

The results of a calibration and intercomparison of hailpads performed at the Workshop is presented, and recommendations are made on future calibration work and on international cooperation for obtaining comparable measurements of hailfall characteristics.     

Research Note: Experimental measurements of Q‐contrast reflections

While seismic reflection amplitudes are generally determined by real acoustical impedance contrasts, there has been recent interest in reflections due to contrasts in seismic‐Q. Herein we compare theoretical and modelled seismic reflection amplitudes for two different cases of material contrasts. In case A, we examine reflections from material interfaces that have a large contrast in real‐valued impedance () with virtually no contrast in seismic‐Q. In case B, we examine reflections from material interfaces that have virtually no contrast in but that have very large seismic‐Q contrasts. The complex‐valued reflection coefficient formula predicts non‐zero seismic reflection amplitudes for both cases. We choose physical materials that typify the physics of both case A and case B. Physical modelling experiments show significantly large reflections for both cases – with the reflections in the two cases being phase shifted with respect to each other, as predicted theoretically. While these modelling experiments show the existence of reflections that are predicted by theory, there are still intriguing questions regarding the size of the Q‐contrast reflections, the existence of large Q‐contrast reflections in reservoir rocks and the possible application of Q‐reflection analysis to viscosity estimation in heavy oilfields.     

Effect of size, tissue parts and location on six biochemical markers in the green-lipped mussel, Perna viridis

The effect of size and tissue parts as well as site locations on a suite of six anti-oxidative biochemical markers, viz. the enzyme degrading neural transmitters acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the Phase II transforming enzyme glutathione-S-transferase (GST), the anti-oxidative enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), the lipid metabolite malondialdehyde (MDA) and the ratio of CAT/MDA, in the bivalve mollusc, Perna viridis, was studied. Field mussels were collected from the piers of University of Science and Technology (UST), Pak Sha Wan or Hebe Haven (PS) and Sai Kung (SK) in Port Shelter, Hong Kong. Statistically, ANOVA showed that the activity of all six biochemical markers were generally tissue dependent, size independent and location dependent. Tukey multi comparison test indicated that the biochemical activities fell into two groups, with SK the highest activity group in most cases. The significance of these findings in relation to long-term coastal water biomonitoring is discussed.     

The inversion of anelastic coefficient,source parameters and site respond using genetic algorithm

It gradually becomes a common work using large seismic wave data to obtain source parameters, such as seismic moment, break radius, stress drop, with completingof digital seismic network in China (Hough, et al, 1999; Bindi, et al, 2001). These parameters are useful on earthquake prediction and seismic hazard analysis.Although the computation methods of source parameters are simple in principle and the many research works have been done, it is not easy to obtain the parameters accurately. There are two factors affecting the stability of computation results. The first one is the effect of spread path and site respond on signal. According to the research results, there are different geometrical spreading coefficients on different epicenter distance. The better method is to introduce trilinear geometrical spreading model (Atkinson, Mereu, 1992; Atkinson, Boore, 1995; WONG, et al, 2002). In addition, traditional site respond is estimated by comparing with rock station, such as linear inversion method (Andrews, 1982), but the comparative estimation will introduce some errors when selecting different stations. Some recent research results show that site respond is not flat for rock station (Moya, et al, 2000; ZHANG,. et al, 2001; JIN, et al, 2000; Dutta, et al, 2001). The second factor is to obtain low-frequency level and corner frequency fromdisplacement spectrum. Because the source spectrum model is nonlinear function,these values are obtained by eye. The subjectivity is strong. The small change of corner frequency will affect significantly the result of stress drop.     

Predictive instantaneous optimal control of inelastic structures during earthquakes

A new inelastic structural control algorithm is proposed by incorporating the force analogy method (FAM) with the predictive instantaneous optimal control (PIOC) algorithm. While PIOC is very effective in compensating for the time delay for elastic structures, the FAM is highly efficient in performing the inelastic analysis. Unlike conventional inelastic analysis methods of changing stiffness, the FAM analyzes structures by varying the structural displacement field, and therefore the state transition matrix needs to be computed only once. This greatly simplifies the computation and makes inelastic analysis readily applicable to the PIOC algorithm. The proposed algorithm compensates for the time delay that happens in practical control systems by predicting the inelastic structural response over a period that equals the magnitude of the time delay. A one‐story frame with both strain‐hardening and strain‐softening inelastic characteristics is analyzed using this algorithm. Results show that the proposed control algorithm is feasibile for any inelastic structures. While the control efficiency deteriorates with the increase in magnitude of the time delay, the PIOC maintains acceptable performance within a wide range of time delay magnitudes. Finally, a computer model of a six‐story moment‐resisting steel frame is analyzed to show that PIOC has good control results for real inelastic structures. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microstructural Inhomogeneity and Mechanical Anisotropy Associated with Bedding in Rothbach Sandstone

This study present the result of conventional triaxial tests conducted on samples of Rothbach sandstone cored parallel, oblique (at 45 degrees) and perpendicular to the bedding at effective pressures ranging from 5 to 250 MPa. Mechanical and microstructural data were used to determine the role of the bedding on mechanical strength and failure mode. We find that samples cored at 45 degrees to the bedding yield at intermediate level of differential stress between the ones for parallel and perpendicular samples at all effective pressures. Strain localization at high confining pressure (i.e., in the compactive domain) is observed in samples perpendicular and oblique to the bedding but not in samples cored parallel to the bedding. However, porosity reduction is comparable whether compactive shear bands, compaction bands or homogeneous cataclastic flow develop. Microstructural data suggest that (1) mechanical anisotropy is controlled by a preferred intergranular contact alignment parallel to the bedding and that (2) localization of compaction is controlled by bedding laminations and grain scale heterogeneity, which both prevent the development of well localized compaction features.