Seismic performance evaluation of non‐structural components: drywall partitions

As the first part of non‐structural component test series, interior drywall partitions are selected for an experimental program. This test series will cover non‐structural components that are significant in the economic losses in buildings subjected to seismic loading, namely interior drywall partitions, exterior cladding and window glasses, and ceilings. Four full‐scale drywall partitions with light‐gage steel stud framing were tested to observe damage in cyclic loading conditions. Effects of a door and an intersecting wall on the behaviour of drywall partition are studied. Damage was concentrated to perimeter regions where gypsum boards made contacts with ceiling, floor, or columns. Dynamic loading did not amplify the damage on a drywall partition over the damage observed from the quasi‐static test. Damage–repair cost relationships show that the repair cost reaches almost the initial cost under 2% radian interstorey drift. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Laboratory measurements of guided‐wave propagation within a fluid‐saturated fracture

A fluid‐saturated flat channel between solids, such as a fracture, is known to support guided waves—sometimes called Krauklis waves. At low frequencies, Krauklis waves can have very low velocity and large attenuation and are very dispersive. Because they propagate primarily within the fluid channel formed by a fracture, Krauklis waves can potentially be used for geological fracture characterization in the field. Using an analogue fracture consisting of a pair of flat slender plates with a mediating fluid layer—a trilayer model—we conducted laboratory measurements of the velocity and attenuation of Krauklis waves. Unlike previous experiments using ultrasonic waves, these experiments used frequencies well below 1 kHz, resulting in extremely low velocity and large attenuation of the waves. The mechanical compliance of the fracture was varied by modifying the stiffness of the fluid seal of the physical fracture model, and proppant (fracture‐filling high‐permeability sand) was also introduced into the fracture to examine its impact on wave propagation. A theoretical frequency equation for the trilayer model was derived using the poroelastic linear‐slip interface model, and its solutions were compared to the experimental results.     

Long-range transport of Asian emissions to the West Pacific tropical tropopause layer

Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry - Rapid transport by deep convection is an important mechanism for delivering surface emissions of reactive halocarbons and other trace species to the tropical...     

Damping identification of a full‐scale passively controlled five‐story steel building structure

A series of large‐scale dynamic tests was conducted on a passively controlled five‐story steel building on the E‐Defense shaking table facility in Japan to accumulate knowledge of realistic seismic behavior of passively controlled structures. The specimen was tested by repeatedly inserting and replacing each of four damper types, that is, the buckling restrained braces, viscous dampers, oil dampers, and viscoelastic dampers. Finally, the bare steel moment frame was tested after removing all dampers. A variety of excitations was applied to the specimen, including white noise, various levels of seismic motion, and shaker excitation. System identification was implemented to extract dynamic properties of the specimen from the recorded floor acceleration data. Damping characteristics of the specimen were identified. In addition, simplified estimations of the supplemental damping ratios provided by added dampers were presented to provide insight into understanding the damping characteristics of the specimen. It is shown that damping ratios for the specimen equipped with velocity‐dependent dampers decreased obviously with the increasing order of modes, exhibiting frequency dependency. Damping ratios for the specimen equipped with oil and viscoelastic dampers remained constant regardless of vibration amplitudes, whereas those for the specimen equipped with viscous dampers increased obviously with an increase in vibration amplitudes because of the viscosity nonlinearity of the dampers. In very small‐amplitude vibrations, viscous and oil dampers provided much lower supplemental damping than the standard, whereas viscoelastic dampers could be very efficient. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

兰州市孔家崖断裂活动特征

主要根据调查资料及电测深、钻探资料论述了孔家崖断裂的展布以及第四纪以来不同地质时期活动特征．早更新世以来该断裂的平均倾滑速率为０．１７～０．２１ｍｍ／ａ,全新世以来平均倾滑速率为０．２ｍｍ／ａ．根据该断裂的展布及活动特征对某场区的工程建设提出了一些建议．     

Estimation of the apertures of water-saturated fractures by nuclear magnetic resonance well logging

Fracture aperture is an important transport property in subsurface hydrology because it influences well productivity and the volume of the water resource. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) well logging measures the hydrogen‐bearing fluid molecules in porous or fractured strata, and the NMR signal intensity increases with the amount of fluid in the sensed region of the NMR sonde. Fluid confined in a large fracture of >>0.2 mm in aperture has T2 (i.e. spin‐spin relaxation time) values as long as those of the bulk fluid. The bulk‐fluid porosity (i.e. porosity calculated using this long T2 component in a T2 histogram data) increases linearly with aperture. Therefore, NMR logging enables quantitative estimation of fracture apertures of >>0.2 mm using the bulk‐fluid porosity data if the calibration of the NMR sonde is performed adequately. We applied NMR logging to a borehole in a Holocene andesite lava at Sumikawa, Japan, to estimate the aperture of open fractures within the lava. A test well of 100 m depth and 20 cm diameter, filled with bentonite drilling mud, was scanned with an NMR sonde to obtain a profile of the porosity and the T2 histogram of the andesite. The bulk‐fluid porosity was calculated from the T2 histogram data, as the porosity at which the T2 value is larger than or equal to a threshold T2 of bulk bentonite mud. The bulk‐fluid porosity of a specific inclined fracture responsible for the total loss of circulation at 61.2 m depth during drilling was calculated assuming a threshold or T2 cut‐off of 33 ms, and again for a cut‐off of 100 ms. Calibration of the NMR sensor in a laboratory and measurement of the fracture dip angle by electrical microimaging logging enabled us to estimate the fracture aperture as 1.7 cm, assuming a T2 cut‐off of 33 ms, or 1.6 cm for a T2 cut‐off of 100 ms. The method of aperture determination described in this study is independent of fluid species and lithology, and is applicable to various hydrogen‐bearing borehole fluids (clean water, mud and oil) and geological settings.     

Development of new sensor systems for continuous bedload monitoring using a submerged load‐cell system (SLS)

It is important to evaluate bedload discharge and temporal changes of the bed surface, and bed deformation can be estimated during floods if the bedload discharge is properly evaluated in an arbitrary cross‐section. With the exception of grain size and its distribution within the bedload, bedload discharge has been measured using both direct and indirect methods. Bedload slot is a direct method but cannot be used to measure bedload during a flood because of volume limitations. Indirect methods require correlation between the signals and sediment volume measured using another method. In the present study, a small, automatically recording bedload sensor with an iron plate and a pair of load cells is developed in order to evaluate not only large particles but also sand particles as bedload. Bedload mass is calculated by integrating with respect to both the velocity of sediment particles and the averaged particle weight as measured by a pair of load cells, and, as an example, the velocity is estimated by the cross‐correlation function of weights measured by load cells. The applicability of the proposed sensor is discussed based on the results of flume tests in the laboratory (2014) and the observation flume of the Hodaka Sedimentation Observatory of Kyoto University in Japan (2015). The system was installed in the observation flume in November of 2012, and flume data were obtained using natural sediment particles. In particular, it was difficult to estimate the velocity of averaged bedload particles, and it was better to apply a cross‐correlation function in the laboratory tests. However, it appears that the previous estimation can estimate these velocities in the observation flume using a connecting tube and submerged load‐cell systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Noble gases in angrites Northwest Africa 1296, 2999/4931, 4590, and 4801: Evolution history inferred from noble gas signatures

Noble gases in the five angrites Northwest Africa (NWA) 1296, 2999, 4590, 4801, and 4931 were analyzed with total melting and stepwise heating methods. The noble gases consist of in situ components: spallogenic, radiogenic, nucleogenic, and fission. Cosmic-ray exposure ages of the angrites (including literature data) spread uniformly from <0.2 to 56 Ma, and coarse-grained angrites have longer exposure ages than fine-grained angrites. It is implied that the parent bodies from which the two subgroups of angrites were ejected are different and have distinct orbital elements. The ²⁴⁴Pu-¹³⁶Xe relative ages of the angrites obtained by using ²⁴⁴Pu/¹⁵⁰Nd ratios are as old as that of Angra dos Reis, reflecting their early formation. On the other hand, another method to obtain ²⁴⁴Pu-¹³⁶Xe relative ages, using fission ¹³⁶Xe, spallogenic ¹²⁶Xe, and Ba/REE ratios, yields systematically older ²⁴⁴Pu-¹³⁶Xe ages than those obtained by using ²⁴⁴Pu/¹⁵⁰Nd ratios, which is explained by apparently high Ba/REE ratios caused by Ba contamination during terrestrial weathering. The ²⁴⁴Pu/²³⁸U ratio at 4.56 Ga of angrites is estimated as 0.0061 ± 0.0028, which is consistent with those for chondrules, chondrites, achondrites, and a terrestrial zircon. It is suggested that initial ²⁴⁴Pu/²³⁸U ratio has been spatially homogeneous at least in the inner part of the early solar system.