Sensitivity of soil parameters in unsaturated zone modelling and the relation between effective,laboratory and in situ estimates

Simulation of soil moisture content requires effective soil hydraulic parameters that are valid at the modelling scale. This study investigates how these parameters can be estimated by inverse modelling using soil moisture measurements at 25 locations at three different depths (at the surface, at 30 and 60 cm depth) on an 80 by 20 m hillslope. The study presents two global sensitivity analyses to investigate the sensitivity in simulated soil moisture content of the different hydraulic parameters used in a one‐dimensional unsaturated zone model based on Richards' equation. For estimation of the effective parameters the shuffled complex evolution algorithm is applied. These estimated parameters are compared to their measured laboratory and in situ equivalents. Soil hydraulic functions were estimated in the laboratory on 100 cm³ undisturbed soil cores collected at 115 locations situated in two horizons in three profile pits along the hillslope. Furthermore, in situ field saturated hydraulic conductivity was estimated at 120 locations using single‐ring pressure infiltrometer measurements. The sensitivity analysis of 13 soil physical parameters (saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s), saturated moisture content (θ_s), residual moisture content (θ_r), inverse of the air‐entry value (α), van Genuchten shape parameter (n), Averjanov shape parameter (N) for both horizons, and depth (d) from surface to B horizon) in a two‐layer single column model showed that the parameter N is the least sensitive parameter. K_s of both horizons, θ_s of the A horizon and d were found to be the most sensitive parameters. Distributions over all locations of the effective parameters and the distributions of the estimated soil physical parameters from the undisturbed soil samples and the single‐ring pressure infiltrometer estimates were found significantly different at a 5% level for all parameters except for α of the A horizon and K_s and θ_s of the B horizon. Different reasons are discussed to explain these large differences. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A search for a problem free cosmology

We explore features of a nonminimally coupled theory of scalar fields with an effective potential that supports non topological soliton solutions. It is suggested that a problem free cosmology results.     

人为因素导致的地面沉降

天然气、石油、地下水、地热热水和卤水等流体运移出地下储存地层时,地层耗尽了流体而产生压缩变形,这些变形传递到地表表面就形成了人为的地面沉降。在本文中:(1)列举了世界上主要的地面沉降区域;(2)论述了引发地面沉降的力学机制,这些可以量测的地面沉降发生在地下含水层体系、天然气气田和石油油田之上;(3)描述了目前可以用于地面沉降测量和岩石变形原位测试的技术手段;(4)简要介绍了几个地面沉降预测的数值模型;(5)说明了用于控制地面沉降发展和减轻相关环境影响的几种防治措施。     

Dynamic Behaviour of a Caisson Quaywall Under Strong Earthquake

—Effective stress analysis is performed to evaluate the residual displacement of a caissonquaywall during 1994 Hokkaido-Toho-Oki Earthquake and 1993 Kushiro-Oki Earthquake.Theconstitutive model used in this study is a multiple shear mechanism type defined in strain space and cantake into account the effect of rotation of principal stress axis.The earthquake accelerations recorded atthe outcropping rock during the earthquake are used as input bedrock motion.The results of finite ele-ment analysis are in good agreement with the observed behaviour of the quaywall.The analysis also indi-cates that liquefaction and high excess pore water pressure have a significant effect on the deformation ofthe caisson.Soil improvement is speculated as the most reliable measures against liquefaction.The influ-ence of soil improvement and the reasonable improved area are discussed in the paper.     

Toward an improved global network for determination of tropospheric ozone climatology and trends

An examination of typical tropospheric ozone variability on daily, monthly, annual and interannual timescales and instrumental precision indicates that the current ozonesonde network is insufficient to detect a trend in tropospheric ozone of 1% per year at the 2 level even at stations with records a decade in length. From a trend prediction analysis we conclude that in order to detect a 1% per year trend in a decade or less it will be necessary to decrease the time between observations from its present value of 3–7 days to 1 day or less. The spatial distribution of the current ozonesonde stations is also inadequate for determining the global climatology of ozone. We present a quantitative theory taking into account photochemistry, surface deposition, and wind climatology to define the effectively sampled region for an observing station which, used in conjunction with the instrumental precision and the above prediction analysis, forms the basis for defining a suitable global network for determining regional and global ozone climatology and trends. At least a doubling of the present number of stations is necessary, and the oceans, most of Asia, Africa, and South America are areas where more stations are most needed. Differential absorption lidar ozone instruments have the potential for far more frequent measurements of ozone vertical profiles and hence potentially more accurate climatology and trend determinations than feasible with ozonesondes but may produce a (fair weather) biased data set above the cloud base. A strategy for cloudy regions in which either each station utilizes both lidars and sondes or each station is in fact a doublet comprised of a near-sea-level lidar and a proximal-mountain-top lidar could serve to minimize this bias.     

Analysis of EMD algorithm for identification and extraction of an acoustic signal in underwater channel against wind driven ambient noise

Sonar generated acoustic signals transmitted in underwater channel for distant communications are affected by numerous factors like ambient noise, making them nonlinear and non-stationary in nature. In recent years, the application of Empirical Mode Decomposition （EMD） technique to analyze nonlinear and non-stationary signals has gained much attention. It is an empirical approach to decompose a signal into a set of oscillatory modes known as intrinsic mode functions （IMFs）. In general, Hilbert transform is used in EMD for the identification of oscillatory signals. In this paper anew EMD algorithm is proposed using FFT to identify and extract the acoustic signals available in the underwater channel that are corrupted due to various ambient noises over a range of 100 Hz to 10 kHz in a shallow water region.Data for analysis are collected at a depth of 5 m and 10 m offshore Chennai at the Bay of Bengal. The algorithm is validated for different sets of known and unknown reference signals. It is observed that the proposed EMD algorithmidentifies and extracts the reference signals against various ambient noises. Significant SNR improvement is alsoachieved for underwater acoustic signals.     

波致液化粉质土有效应力变化的试验数据分析

海床不稳定性的现象很多都是海底液化引起的。根据之前的研究,粉土在液化之后有效应力会依然存在,关于波浪作用下海床液化之后有效应力变化的研究很少。采用波浪水槽实验,在未液化和液化2种情况下,分别施加不同波高的波浪,对底床各层位土体孔隙水压力进行采集,并对比研究。实验结果表明,液化后有效应力的相对值相对于液化前有很明显的减小,并且在深度上表现出显著的差异性,这种差异性随着波高的增大而减小。当相同深度处同一种波高作用一定时间时,有效应力会出现极大值,然后有效应力会减小。     

一种改进的小波阈值去噪方法

利用D.L.Donoho和I.M.Johnstone提出的小波阈值去噪方法,构造了一个新的阈值函数。与传统的硬、软阈值函数相比,该阈值函数克服了硬阈值函数不连续的缺点,且同软阈值函数一样具有连续性,便于进行各种数学处理;同时还克服了软阈值函数中估计小波系数与分解小波系数之间存在着恒定偏差的缺陷,它具有硬、软阈值函数不可比拟的灵活性。仿真结果表明,新的阈值函数的去噪效果有效抑制了在信号奇异点附近产生的Pseudo-Gibbs现象,无论是在视觉效果上,还是在信噪比增益上均优于传统的硬、软阈值方法。     

A laboratory study on capillary sealing efficiency of Iranian shale and anhydrite caprocks

Caprock has the most important role in the long term safety of formation gas storage. The caprocks trap fluid accumulated beneath, contribute to lateral migration of this fluid and impede its upward migration. The rapid upward passage of invasive plumes due to buoyancy pressure is prevented by capillary pressure within these seal rocks. In the present study, two main seal rocks, from the Zagros basin in the southwest of Iran, a shale core sample of Asmari formation and an anhydrite core sample of Gachsaran formation, were provided. Absolute permeabilities of shale and anhydrite cores, considering the Klinkenberg effect, were measured as 6.09 × 10⁻¹⁸ and 0.89 × 10⁻¹⁸ m², respectively. Capillary sealing efficiency of the cores was investigated using gas breakthrough experiments. To do so, two distinct techniques including step by step and residual capillary pressure approaches were performed, using carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane gases at temperatures of 70 and 90 °C, under confining pressures in the range 24.13–37.92 MPa. In the first technique, it was found that capillary breakthrough pressure of the cores varies in the range from 2.76 to 34.34 MPa. Moreover, the measurements indicated that after capillary breakthrough, gas effective permeabilities lie in range 1.85 × 10⁻²¹ – 1.66 × 10⁻¹⁹ m². In the second technique, the minimum capillary displacement pressure of shale varied from 0.66 to 1.45 MPa with the maximum effective permeability around 7.76 × 10⁻²¹ – 6.69 × 10⁻²⁰ m². The results indicate that anhydrite caprock of the Gachsaran formation provides proper capillary sealing efficacy, suitable for long term storage of the injected CO₂ plumes, due to its higher capillary breakthrough pressure and lower gas effective permeability.     

Evaluation of Effective Depth of PVD Improvement in Soft Clay Deposit: A Field Case Study

This article presents a case history of determination of effective depth of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) under embankment loading on a very soft clay deposit in central China, near Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. The height of the embankment was 5.3 m and construction time was about one year. The PVDs were installed to a depth of 8.5 m at a spacing of 1.5 m in a triangular pattern. Field observations and the finite element method (FEM) were employed to analyze the performance of the soft deposit during embankment construction. The influential depth of the embankment loading was evaluated based on settlement, excess pore pressure, and stress increase in subsoil, both from the observed data and FEM analysis. The effective PVD depth was determined in the following ways: (1) the depth of 5% subsoil settlement of surface settlement; (2) vertical stress increase in subsoil of 25% in-situ stress; and (3) consolidation time/PVD depth relation by FEM. Based on the analysis, the effective depth of PVDs was determined to be between 10 and 12.8 m for this field case.